The Reindeer Girl (9 page)

“Lotta! Lotta, look!” Erika was screaming, and Lotta whirled round in a panic, wondering if the wolf had jumped at her cousin. But instead the wolves were retreating. Slowly, reluctantly, they were slinking back into the trees. Lotta could hear them growling and barking furiously.

She shook her head, not understanding why they were giving up – but then she realized that it wasn’t the wolves she could hear at all.

It was shouting, angry shouting, and the thudding of hooves. A sledge was racing through the trees towards them, drawn by two heavy reindeer and driven by her cousin Johan. Beside it ran Matti, gripping the antlers of another reindeer – one still with both her antlers, and a bleeding cut down her shoulder.

Chapter Ten

“How did you find us?” Lotta gasped, hugging Johan.

“Flower showed us the way.” He smiled down at them both. “She must have smelled these two that we’ve got pulling the sledge, she ran straight towards us. Matti tried to catch her, but she kept darting away.”

“Then we realized she wanted us to come after her,” Matti explained. “She kept stopping and looking back, to make sure we were following. Then we heard you shouting at the wolves, but they fled when they saw us coming.”

“Oh, Flower!” Lotta patted her lovingly. “And we thought you just ran off.”

Erika shuddered. “Please can we get away from here? That was the most
frightening thing that’s ever happened to me.”

“Yes, come on, let’s get back to the rest of the herd. It isn’t that far.” Johan packed the girls on to the big sledge, tucking furs around them. He put Karl on Lotta’s lap. “Everyone is going to be so glad to see you,” he added. “We’ve all been out searching for you – I don’t think Aunt Inge or Aunt Astri slept at all last night. You had them so worried.”

“Sorry…” Lotta whispered, wrapping her arms tightly round Karl.

Johan turned his reindeer around, and Matti walked beside the sledge, leading Flower. She kept looking over and sniffing at Karl, as if she was making sure he was still there.

It wasn’t long before the girls heard the
sounds of the other reindeer, the clonging of the bells and their grunting.

“We’ve got them!” Johan was calling, as they swept into the camp. “Aunt Inge! Aunt Astri! We found the girls!”

Lotta didn’t even have time to get off the sledge before her mamma had come running, and swept her up into her arms.

“Oh, Lotta, oh, Lotta, I didn’t think we’d ever see you again.” Mamma was crying, and Lotta felt awful.

“I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry,” she kept muttering into Mamma’s neck. “We shouldn’t have gone, but I hated leaving Flower behind. I thought Karl would die.”

“I know – we should have sent you and the older boys back together to find her,” Mamma said, holding Lotta out to look at her, as though to check she was all
in one piece. “You’re true reindeer girls, both of you. You were thinking of the reindeer before yourselves. But the danger! What if there had been a bear?” Then she caught sight of Flower, pressed close up against Lotta and Erika, with Karl snuggled in next to her. “She’s been hurt! Oh, Lotta! What happened?”

“There were wolves,” Lotta whispered, burying her face in her mamma’s coat again. “Flower led the boys to us just in time to scare them away. We saved her, but then she saved us twice, Mamma. She led us back over the river, and we’d never have been able to cross it without her. And then the wolves…”

“She’s amazing,” Erika agreed. “We wouldn’t have got back without her. And she protected her baby the whole time. She drew the wolves away from him.”

“You girls should have them,” Johan suggested. “Erika’s oldest, so she should have Flower, and Lotta should have Karl. You’re both old enough to have your own reindeer.”

Lotta let out a little gasp, turning to look up hopefully at her mamma. If they
were to be given their own reindeer, a tiny change would be made to the family earmark to show that the deer were theirs.

“Yes.” Her mamma nodded, glancing at Aunt Astri. “But only if you promise you will never, ever go off like that again.”

“I promise!” Lotta hugged her mamma tightly. “Thank you!”

“Wolves! Real wolves?” little Nils asked, his eyes glowing with excitement in the firelight. “I wish I’d been there.”

Lotta shuddered. “Yes, real wolves. And you wouldn’t have liked it, Nils. It was horrible. They were frightening!”

They were sitting round the fire, wrapped up in reindeer furs, drinking hot soup that Aunt Astri had made.
It was strange, Lotta thought – Mamma and Aunt Astri and the others were half cross with her and Erika, and half proud of them for rescuing Flower and Karl.

Johan pushed through the doorway to the
lavvu
just then, and nodded. “Exactly. Very frightening. Don’t you ever think of doing anything like that, Nils. But Lotta, Erika, see what I’ve just found. I went out to check on Flower and Karl, and put some more ointment on that cut on her shoulder, and look.” He brought his hand round from behind his back and held something out.

“She shed her antlers!” Lotta said, nearly spilling the soup in her excitement. “Oh, I’m glad she still had them when she had to fight off the wolves.”

“Mmm-hmm, she was lucky,” Johan
agreed, sitting down by the fire, and pulling out his knife.

“What are you going to carve?” Erika asked, as he began to scrape away at the reindeer horn with the blade.

Johan smiled. “Flower. So we remember your journey with her.”

“We wouldn’t forget,” Erika said with a shiver. “Those wolves…”

Lotta wriggled closer to her cousin, and wrapped an arm round her. “It was a real adventure, wasn’t it? And we did save Flower and Karl.”

Erika smiled and hugged Lotta back. “Yes, we did…”

The two girls leaned against each other, and gazed into the firelight. Lotta watched the flames leap and twist, and she seemed to see the reindeer galloping through them. Now the wolves, twisting and turning in their terrifying dance. Then the flames died down a little, and there were only the trees, the branches swaying in the wind. And one reindeer, grazing quietly beneath them, a tiny calf close to her side.

“Goodnight, Flower,” Lotta whispered. “Goodbye, Karl…”

“What did you say, Lotta?”

Lotta blinked, looking up at Erika. But Erika had changed…

Oldeforeldre was smiling down at her. Lotta had blankets wrapped round her
instead of furs, and she was leaning against Oldeforeldre’s chair. The door to the rest of the house was open, and she could hear a quiet buzz of chatter. The party seemed to be winding down – most of the guests must have gone.

“Lotta?” Her mum looked round the door. “Oh, you’re here. You need to go upstairs to bed soon, it’s ever so late. Say goodnight to Oldeforeldre. I’ll be back in a bit.”

Lotta nodded, and looked round at Oldeforeldre. “Was I asleep for a long time? I had the strangest dream…” She smiled up at her great-grandmother. “You were in it… I think it was the best dream I’ve ever had.” She rubbed her hand across her eyes, trying to remember properly. Dreams slipped away, and she didn’t
ever want to forget this one. “We’d saved Flower and Karl, and Johan and Mamma and Aunt Astri said that we could have them for our own, me and you. Karl was going to be mine.”

Oldeforeldre’s face changed. Her eyes widened in shock, and she leaned down to Lotta. “What did you say? Flower? You saved Flower? And the baby? Karl?”

“Mmm. And there were wolves,” Lotta added sleepily. “Johan and Matti chased them away.”

“Lotta, I never told you this…” Oldeforeldre looked confused, but excited, too. “You couldn’t have known about Flower. I don’t think I’ve ever told anyone about her, not even your mormor. It was so sad. I wanted to forget, but I never have.”

Lotta looked up at her, her eyes full of tears. “Then – when that was all real – could you not save Flower?”

Oldeforeldre looked down at her hands, twisting them over and over. “Flower came back – she managed to find us all in the end. But by then, her calf… He was so little and he wouldn’t take any food, even though we tried so hard, my cousin Lotta and I. He died, Lotta.”

“He didn’t.” Lotta shook her head firmly. “We went and got Flower. We brought her back for him.”

Oldeforeldre laughed, but she was crying at the same time. “I almost believe you did,” she murmured. Then she got up carefully, balancing on her stick. “Stay there, Lotta. I have something for you.” She went over to a wooden box in the corner of the room and lifted the lid, searching around inside it.

Lotta leaned against the chair, wrapped in her blankets.

She looked up as Oldeforeldre came back, carrying something small, wrapped in a piece of blue cloth. Lotta was almost sure it was part of a
gakti
. She could see the embroidery.

“Here.” Oldeforeldre pressed it into
her hands. She was smiling, but Lotta could see the shining tracks of tears on her cheeks.