The Snow Maiden

I should never have left, but I felt there was no choice. If any of them had seen me buzzing around alone, they’d know I hadn’t hung out with him. What would they have done? Of course, they would have encouraged the poor traveler, saying he should’ve tried harder.

Oh, who was I kidding? Leaving solved nothing. Of course I was going to be found. Everyone would’ve seen and taken him aside to ask how we were together. And they’d learn I’d fled… and that I’d been captured.

---

Being with the Nisse was no fun!

Okay, correction, they were entertaining when I was a tiny little thing. I fluttered up and gave them the tiniest kisses on their cheeks and lips. Then they’d chase after me with promises of pinches if I were caught.

Before I grew up, it was obviously a real blast. I had no worries as a kid.

I could zip there when no one was looking --

-- and ZAP right back here like nothing had been amiss.

As I grew out of my childhood, I could jump down from the highest branches. I was in such a hurry to move from one spot to the next that I was told a streak of silvery light tailed me. An incredible sight to behold, or so I was told. But that was if someone was looking. Many times, I bounced and glided away from everyone when their eyes weren’t on me.

I was a playful little thing. Always wanting to show everyone who I truly was.

Tag along with the boys on grand adventures through the Danske realm to the northern sea border. But never beyond… the boys would prevent me from those travels.
Tease the girls with my elfin good looks always being available to touch without a jealous chosen breaking us apart. But to never experience a relationship meant I wouldn’t know what I was missing.

Taunt the men with my assertive behavior on what I wanted to do with my life. But how it troubled them as they struggled to pass their experiences down to a spirited youth.

Torment the women by being clear I never wanted to settle down with a single soul. But even if I wanted to, there was no one for me that’d not be left with the impression I was their superior rather than us being equals.

Freedom was commonplace for the regular Nisse… but I wasn’t one of those brownies. They walked, traveled from place to place through the deeply trenched valleys, across the snow-capped mountains, along the rocky beaches, and sometimes into the Danske homes. But they loved the warmer waters down south.

So did I! Nisse could go where ever they pleased without the concerned voices upon their return.

Not me. I always heard them talk down to me, so I would be found going over their heads… literally.

As for me? Why were they so concerned? They were frightened I’d be found out by the hamlets of Aylfe. Those elves didn’t scare me, but that didn’t matter. The Nisse were scared of them and that burdened me. There were stories of what those southern folk could do to a person that chilled the Nisse closer to the bone than any blizzard would.

But why was I so special to the Nisse?

To the Nisse, I was a secret they must keep. A winged Nisse.

The Nisse had said I wasn’t born, but called into being. As the tale went, a surprise ice storm had hit their villages. The blizzard drove all those who couldn’t safely hide in their Danske homes or barns to flee into the forest. As the chilly squall died, they heard the squall of a babe and found me in the snow.

A winged baby boy who had come from the harsh winds.

I had no one to teach me to fly, but I learned on my own to jump farther than any ever could and safely land where I wished without fault. For that very reason, the Nisse gave me my name: Vinde.

As if to glorify my name, I had become friends with the originator of my spirit: the wind. And I discovered how to poof! No one knew what that was until I showed them.

What was poof? In time, all would call it evocation or magic. For the young age of discovery, we settled with the simple representations of what we saw and heard. And, poof, there it was!

But what was it to poof? For me, I could hold out my hand and wave a salutation up to the sky. With my gesture of greeting, a trailing gale of wind drafted up. And with such force! The explosive wind poofed upwards to create a whirling torrent, but to only last long enough to open and clear the clouds away for a bright sunny day. A sound would always follow when I did that: poof! Like the very spirits of air had the wind knocked out of them when I poofed.

That was how I also learned to move so quickly too. With the wind at my back, I could cut through the landscape and leave a cloud of dust as the only traces for the Nisse to track me down. As I freely laughed during my escapes, I literally glided over the earth to whichever destination my dainty little toes took me.

But that was a sad revelation, to know I was the only one of my kind. Maybe that was another excuse for why I fled so often? The Nisse made it clear that they and I were not the same. So what was I?

I was alone.

...At least, I was until He arrived. Word of his name had been carried on the wind: Lametta.

From the pine branches, my almond eyes had first unknowingly sighted his approach to our cold realm. A line of silver that I mistook for a trick of the light. So I thought nothing of it until my pointy ears piqued at his name. And I heard more...

With wings on his back, he was like me, but older. He was weary, and happy. He’d heard the wind speak of me and flew to the ends of our world to greet and meet.

But the Nisse whispered and suggested a thought to Lametta: settle down. It was the same idea they always tried to weigh upon me, except the manner in which they offered it to him was as a reward for his long journey to see me.

They won him before I could utter a word of caution. The Nisse would now have two prized secrets hidden away from the Aylfe.

And if I were to suggest he should’ve refused, I’d be presenting an implied insult. To misconstrue my intention, the Nisse would trick and trip my words in a way to say he should leave. Such a suggestive way of phrasing my advice would’ve turned him from me and easily won him to their side all the more.

A sharp pain cut through me and I could do nothing to mend the hurt inside. I so desperately wanted to speak with him, but at the same time to steer clear and keep him from shackling me as the Nisse had done to him.

Unable to forgive the Nisse, I hid away in the tall branches where they would never be able to climb without risk. All that did was highlight how different I was from the Nisse.

Why was that the best result? Because the Nisse had a winged friend who was older and wiser than I was. And he too could poof!

Up the trees he flew to see me, and I flew from one branch to the other in flight of him. I did not want him to convince me to do as he had agreed with the Nisse.

A spectacle of trailing lights encircled the pines as he chased after me.

Fortunately for me, I was the younger and more spirited of us two. I managed to outlast him. We’d traveled from one tree to the next and after until the whole snowy forest had been left thoroughly touched by our company.

But I had won. I’d escaped, and traveled south to the warmer lands of the Aylfe. A place all Nisse knew and feared to approach. And no one of Aylfe would be aware of my existence.

...Or so I thought.

---

My affinity to the wind spirits brought the elves to discover me, but it wasn’t me that alerted them. Lametta hadn’t heard of the rumoured dangers of Aylfe, and so he’d passed through their warm realm, but not quick enough to go unnoticed. Had he gone with all due haste to see me, perhaps the Aylfe would’ve been none the wiser of our existence. The older of us two was simply not from here or there, but elsewhere and had no sense of our customs.

Either he should’ve flown through the hamlets without notice or respectfully greeted and met with the elves when he could. He’d done neither, and now those Aylfe were aware and alert to next time catch the little wind before he blew past them again.

With that incident in those elfin minds, they thought I was Lametta. The one to travel through not once, but now twice without announcing myself. I would’ve if I had gone near their hamlets! I had no intention to be near them, let alone visit, but if I had, I would. Alas, those crafty elves had prepared to catch what little wind they could. From any direction, nothing would breeze on by them any longer. And so I was not treated as a guest as Lametta had been by the Nisse. To the Aylfe, I was a trespasser who’d repeated the offence.

But how was I caught? I’d learned I wasn’t the only one in the world who could poof. In fact, there were more ways to use the spirits of nature other than with the wind. For example, if the Nisse had witnessed the wall of flames the Aylfe used to smoke me out of the trees, they would’ve called it fwoosh. Or when I was grounded by the wave of water, they would’ve named that sploosh.

Seeing the elves for the first time, I saw our resemblance and knew there had to be some connection between me and them. But they told me only a vague knowledge of what that might be. Their belief was we’d abandoned our realm when the world became dark and took to the bright skies. All the while we’d enjoyed the heavens, they’d remained upon the earth as the last guardians.

Any who would disrespect their presence in the land were no longer welcomed. With that in mind, I knew why the Nisse were afraid of the Aylfe. At a young age, the Nisse had an uncontrollable wanderlust and adventured wherever they wanted. That was until they’d wise up, bring back their spoils and knowledge, and settle down for their children to repeat the cycle.

The Aylfe did not appreciate their existence being ignored. We didn’t ignore them, the Nisse simply had no wish to find out what the elves had done to have earned their gossiped reputation. And it was my mistake to have revealed that to my captors.

They were very interested to hear what lies the Nisse had spread across the land. In that terrible moment, I realized my mistake and knew the Nisse would’ve paid a heavy price if I repeated the horrible tales to the Aylfe.

All I told them was that the stories were only meant to scare children. Nothing more, and I assured they’d grow up to know the truths from the fables. That if not, I would be glad to return and properly announce what good and honest sentinels the vigilant Aylfe truly were.

Another mistake.

I would return, but if I were to pass on that message to the Nisse, then an example would have to be made for them to see the truth. To the Aylfe, I was not to go unpunished: they removed them…

Without warning, my wings were torn from me --

-- and with my scream came the squalling blizzard that birthed me into the world.

The once warm forests of the Aylfe had transformed into a frozen ruin. It would be said that a new age of ice had arrived. One that the elven fwoosh would never melt and the sploosh only aided the frigid temperatures.

As if it would be a sign of repenting for a sin, I was given my wings to be carried back in my return journey north. And I left to travel across a familiar landscape of snow white earth, chilling dark forests, and ice blue skies.

But it was all so new to me as I gradually returned home entirely on foot. I had time to appreciate the beasts that still had fun in the snow. Rather than hearing the passing wind as I will-o-wisped through the lands, I paused and listened to the sweet and bitter songs of the wind passing through the trees. And I marveled at the colors our sky had to show me when I settled down to watch.

I’d been changed. I was no longer Vinde. Someone else had left the Aylfe.

But the Nisse wouldn’t see it that way. I disobeyed them and paid heavily for my foolishness. I’d lost the one thing that my realm secretly treasured. And the elves expected me to tell a tale of their wicked justice. How could I return home with these burdens?

Into the open winds, my voiced carried across the blanketed land and echoed around the capped mountains. I offered anything to be permitted back home. To be where I was once given all the attention and love from everyone. I would settle down as they’d wished me to do.

And a voice answered. I was asked what I could offer. I was reminded of what I’d lost and that their would be no point in promising to settle down. I was already down for good.

What did I have to offer?

Myself. I offered myself if only to return and be welcomed home.

There was an all too familiar sound: poof!

The wind had blown me down.

The snow picked up and laid over me.

I was buried and told to remain. Only someone of my village would be permitted to dig me out.

And so I laid in my cold grave.

The winged Nisse called Vinde was dead to the world…

---

So much time would pass until I finally woke to the light of the sky. I reached up to feel the warmth for the first time in who knew how long. And I saw my skin had become white as the snow.

As I stared in fascination at the color of my hand, another hand took hold of mine and helped pull me out of my grave. What I initially saw was the aged white hairs of a man. Then the wings he held in his other hand.

The man told me he’d found these fluttering wings. One had alerted him by smacking him in the face, and he caught sight of the other as a marker in the snow. Then he said a peculiar thing to me, that had it not been for the season of Summer, he would’ve missed the maiden beneath the thin layer of snow.

I opened my mouth to speak the truth, not to be rude, but that he was mistaken. And a quick self-inspection quieted me before a word was said. I realized, as I was preserved in the snow, time had blown by and transformed into a fair-skinned maiden.

And as I became more aware of who I now was, I too was struck in the face, but by shock. He too had wings!

Lametta. He was Lametta!

The last time I’d seen him, he appeared past his prime. He was now near the borderline to be called old. Had that much time passed?

Despite the years, I wanted to tell him who I was… but was that wise? Time might have erased the memory of my misdeeds.

And also the good memories my home would’ve had of me. How could I ever be welcomed back? Had the wind lied to me?

Was I still being punished?

Lost in dreadful thought, I wept.

A warm arm was joined around me by another in a welcomed embrace by Lametta. I clung dearly to him, and as he comforted me, I told him everything. Who I was, why I had fled the Nisse, what the Aylfe had done, the deal I had made, how I had changed, and the fear that had grown in me.

He listened to me. He kept hold of me. He spoke of himself to me. He had settled down with the Nisse long ago and was considered one of them by now. And he welcomed me back.

But he did so under one condition: to never flee from him again. He wasn’t as young as he once was to be chasing spirited little pixies around trees anymore.

I promised to him I’d never leave his side ever again. And then, right between us, there was a poof! Lametta straightened up and looked down at me with a youthful sparkle twinkling in his eyes. A vigor I had not known he could muster anymore brought both of us shooting up into the sky.

I had not thought I’d ever see a sight like that again and cried out with joy. The happiness he brought me by flying again was too wonderful a gift. As he held me, I clasped my arms around him with a repeated promise I’d never leave his side.

With our pact made, we began our journey back north, together. And, as a couple, we were warmly welcomed back to our home.