Free Winterfrost by Michelle Houts

to tell Pernilla she’d said enough.
    “It’s best to leave this to Gammel, dear.”
    Bettina had about a million questions, but something about Pernilla’s voice and eyes, both assuring and kind, made Bettina feel at ease. She nodded. She would go home and wait. Gammel would sort everything out. The nisse seemed so sure of it. Then another thought occurred to her.
    “How . . . how will I . . . ?” Bettina stammered, gesturing toward the door.
    “You can leave the same way you arrived,” Hagen answered with a smile.
    “You should return to your normal size just as soon as you cross the threshold,” Pernilla added, anticipating Bettina’s next question.
    They said their good-byes quickly. Hagen shook Bettina’s hand and wished her luck. Pernilla hugged Bettina tight, and it felt for an instant like her own mother was holding her. She fought back a tear as she peered into the cradles where Tika and Erik had both given up and fallen asleep. When would Pia be home, sleeping safely in her own bed?
    Sure enough, as soon as Bettina’s hand pressed down on the door latch, she was pulled through the opening, standing once again in the snowy forest beside the big oak tree.
    But much to her surprise, she wasn’t back to her normal size.
    And she wasn’t alone.

“Hello, Bettina.”
    It was Gammel who stood beside her in the heavily winterfrosted forest, a brown leather satchel in his left hand, and much to Bettina’s dismay, there was no sign of baby Pia with him.
    “Good morning, Gammel,” she answered, hoping her disappointment wasn’t too apparent. Fleetingly, she wondered if nisse call it morning when they are about to go to sleep.
    “I trust you had a good night’s sleep.”
    Bettina nodded.
    “And Hagen has filled you in on the plan as it stands at this time?”
    Again she nodded. “He said I should go home and wait. It seems no one is having any luck finding my sister.”
    “Oh, to the contrary, my dear,” the old nisse replied, his round eyes twinkling. “A nisse without luck would be a terrible thing.”
    “Do you know something more?” Bettina asked breathlessly.
    “I’ve learned that she’s not terribly far. But I’m waiting to know more before we make our next move.”
    “How long do you think that will take?” Bettina asked.
    “Patience, my dear. I know humans are accustomed to making everything happen at lightning speed, but you are now in our world, and here we take life at a little slower pace.”
    Gammel was right, she knew, but that didn’t make all the waiting any easier to accept. And why was she still small? Pernilla had said she’d return to her old self once she’d crossed the threshold. Bettina was about to ask Gammel when he issued an invitation — one that surely would require her to remain nisse size.
    “It’s almost time for the nisse world to sleep. First, I must make my rounds. Will you join me?”
    Bettina considered her options. Though she had not the faintest idea what Gammel meant by “rounds,” she wondered if by accompanying Gammel, she’d visit more of the forest, perhaps places she wouldn’t know to go to on her own. She could keep her eyes open for any signs of Pia. At this point, anything seemed better than Hagen’s suggestion that she head home and wait, alone and helpless. Bettina agreed to accompany Gammel.
    “Follow me,” he said, his small legs setting off in a purposeful stride.
    After walking only a short distance, Gammel stopped. Before them was a hole in the ground that would have seemed too small to notice under normal circumstances. But in her current state of tininess, Bettina thought it looked like a crater.
    “Jump!” Gammel cried just as he leaped into the hole.
    Was he crazy, this old nisse man? Crazy or not, he had disappeared down the hole. Bettina had no intention of following him blindly into the darkness below. That was, until two gigantic squirrels rounded the trunk of a nearby tree, one chasing the other in a downward spiral