Free Winterfrost by Michelle Houts Page A

toward the ground — and headed right toward Bettina. As much as she tried to remind herself that they were not gigantic at all, and likely had no interest in her whatsoever, she couldn’t stop her heart from pounding as they approached.
    When the squirrels were so close that she could see their teeth, Bettina closed her eyes, held her nose, and leaped into the hole. (She had no idea why she held her nose — it just felt like something one should do when jumping in feetfirst.)
    Down, down, down. Bettina landed with a
thud
at the bottom of a dark tunnel and immediately wondered if she’d made an enormous mistake. She couldn’t see a thing! But within seconds, her eyes began to adjust to the darkness, and she was able to make out shapes before her. One, with his round belly and pointed cap, was unmistakably Gammel, but the other? She leaned in closely and found herself nose to pointed nose with a mole.
    “Glad you joined us,” Gammel spoke. “I was just checking on my friend here.”
    He turned to the soft-looking black mole, whose right front foot was wrapped in white cloth.
    Gammel opened the leather satchel and dug around until he found a small tin.
    “How’s the digger?”
    Bettina heard nothing, but Gammel responded as if he’d heard the mole answer.
    “Ah, I see. Well, let’s keep it wrapped another day or two. I brought your dinner.”
    From the small tin, Gammel produced a fat earthworm.
    “I’ll be back tomorrow,” Gammel promised, and then, after a brief silence, added, “Thank you. I will certainly give your best to the family.”
    Back above ground, Gammel explained. “He cut it digging too near an old dump site. Probably on discarded glass or a tin can. He’s in the excavation business. Tunneling, you know. The moles are the first we call on when we start a new home underground.”
    Bettina could only nod, her voice snatched away by amazement and disbelief.
    Their next stops brought more opportunities to help the nisse’s forest friends. A trip to a mother rabbit’s warren meant another leap into underground darkness, but this one ended in a much softer landing of rabbit fur. Gammel left piles of winter greens for the nursing mother, who was afraid to leave her brood to search for nourishment for herself. “First-timer,” Gammel whispered to Bettina as they left. “She’ll relax in a month or so, when she has her next litter.”
    At the entrance to a hollow tree, Gammel asked for Bettina’s assistance emptying his bag of acorns, hazelnuts, and chestnuts. Bettina reached deep into the bag, passing each nut to Gammel, who stacked them neatly inside the tree until it could hold no more.
    “Silly squirrels,” he said, chuckling. “They hoard away nuts and such for the long winters only to forget where they’ve placed them. I like to help them out now and then.”
    Gammel closed his satchel and hoisted it back up onto one shoulder.
    “Now where?” Bettina asked, fascinated by the journey. She’d lived next to this forest her entire life, but what she’d learned about its inhabitants in the past hour was far more than she’d ever imagined.
    Gammel’s frosty gray beard and mustache parted in a long, silent yawn. Of course. With every passing minute, more daylight seeped through the treetops, reminding Bettina that it was the end of a long day for Gammel. He was ready to return home and retire to his alcove.
    “Home for both of us,” Gammel replied. “Me to mine, you to yours.”
    The thought of returning to her empty house without Pia made Bettina’s heart sink.
    “What will I do there?”
    “You will wait. You must trust me, Bettina Larsen. Do you trust me?”
    Bettina nodded. She wanted to tell him that at this point she trusted him — and Pernilla and Hagen and even Klakke — more than just about anyone. But the knot in her throat told her not to trust her voice. She was certain if she tried to talk, she’d burst into tears.
    Instead, she nodded. At least Gammel hadn’t