Original fic: "Under the Mountain"
Aug. 25th, 2011 10:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
luzulaTitle: Under the Mountain
Rating: PG
Length: 3400 words
Summary: There was something under the mountain.
Notes: This is original fic, although I guess I could shoehorn it into the AO3 under fairy tales--it's kind of a post-apocalyptic fairy tale.
There's an end note about where the inspiration for the story comes from--I don't want to reveal it here, since it would be a spoiler. The names are mostly Finnish, if you want to know how to pronounce them. I'm grateful tokeerawa and sage for beta reading! sage wanted me to write more of this story, and I tried! But sadly, it seems like this is all there is of it in my head.
There was something under the mountain.
Lin didn't know how she knew that. It was something everybody knew, like you knew that there were trolls out in the forest, and like you knew to get your water from the river, not the lake. There were poisons in the lake.
Grandma told stories about the mountain sometimes. She was really old, almost fifty, and her legs were twisted so she could hardly walk. It fascinated Lin, because Lin was the fastest runner in the tribe, and she just couldn't imagine what it would be like to hobble around like that. But all the old people had something wrong with them, it was just the way it was. A lot of the younger people did, too, even those that didn't die when they were babies. Lin herself was missing a couple of fingers, but that didn't stop her running.
If she lived to be Grandma's age, she'd likely be just as twisted up, but that wasn't something that Lin thought about--she was young and strong now, and the next summer felt like ages away. And thirty or forty years' time was almost unimaginable.
"You listen now," Grandma said, raising her finger to tap Lin on the nose. "This is important. There's so much we've forgotten, and we're going to forget even more if you youngsters don't listen."
Lin tried to listen to what Grandma was saying, she really did. But then Juho said, "Tell the one about the dragon under the mountain!" and Meeli said, "Yes, tell us that one!"
Grandma sighed and muttered something about kids always wanting the same thing. Then she began, and Lin settled against Meeli with a happy sigh.
"There's a dragon under the mountain. Some people say it's always been there, but some say that those who came before us put it there."
"Why, Grandma?" Meeli asked.
"To guard something," Grandma said. "Shush now, and let me tell the story. The dragon lives in the caverns under the mountain; big, dark, empty caverns where the water drips and drips. There's no light from the sun there, and nothing can live but the dragon. It has teeth sharper than any knife, and its eyes glow red with fire."
Lin shivered happily. The sun was shining up here, and she was brave enough to hear about any number of dragons. "What does it eat?" she asked.
"Nothing. It doesn't need to eat. It only needs to guard. There are bones down there, from the few souls who have dared to go there. The dragon killed them, but it doesn't eat them. They dry out until their bones are the only thing left."
"But what is it guarding? Is it treasure?" Juho asked. There were stories about dragons guarding treasure, and brave heroes who defeated them.
"No, it's not treasure. Or if it is treasure, then it's the kind that brings bad luck to those who find it. It follows them like a shadow, invisible, and makes their lives miserable until they die. The thing under the mountain is evil. If the dragon wasn't there, the evil would escape."
"Can the dragon come out?" Meeli asked.
"No, it can't. It will stay under the mountain forever, keeping guard."
"Lin, there you are!" That was Ailu. He frowned ever so slightly when he saw them with Grandma. Ailu wasn't old, but he was old enough to act like listening to stories was just for little kids. "I hope you're teaching them something useful, now, not just filling their heads with old stories. Lin woke up with a nightmare about trolls the other night."
"I did not!" Lin said, putting her hands to her hips.
"Old stories can be useful," Grandma said, unmoved. She closed her eyes in the sun, sitting with her back against the log wall of one of the village winter houses, with her cane beside her.
"Junna wants you, Lin," Ailu said. "She wants to know what you did with that metal you found. And Meeli, she's looking for you, too."
"All right," Lin said, jumping up. Instinctively, Meeli's hand found hers and held it, and she murmured directions to Meeli when there were roots or stones on the path.
Lin was good at finding old things, things that were left by those who came before. She had no idea how long ago that was, but most of the things were broken down and gone now. Grandma had told her that there used to be big broad paths covered with something black and hard. Lin could believe that, because she had dug down into the earth on that flat place by the river and found the black stuff, crumbly and strange-smelling. But it wasn't like it was useful for anything. Grandma had also told her people used to fly through the air, and Lin believed that about as much as she believed the story about the dragon. It wasn't like Grandma had seen it herself--even she wasn't that old.
But there were useful things to find, too, and Lin found them. Mostly you had to dig down to find good metal, or it would be rusted through. Last year she'd found a whole lot of it, and strutted around with colored feathers in her hair all through the trading fair (until Juho said she was stuck up and stole the feathers).
They walked the paths that criss-crossed through the village. Most people had moved out of the big common winter houses by now--it was dark inside, and there wasn't any point living that close together all the time if you didn't have to. Most people lived in tents or huts scattered around the village in the summer.
"Lin, there you are," Junna said when they got to her place. "What did you do with that metal?"
"I gave it to Lalli," Lin said. "He said he was making knives from it."
"Well, I needed it, too. He better give me one of those knives when he's done. And Meeli—did you finish preparing those skins?
"Yes, they're on my bed," Meeli said. Preparing skins was usually her task, because she could do it by touch. Meeli's fingers dug into Lin's hand, and Lin could tell that she was disappointed at having to leave the storytelling. Well, so was Lin. There was always something they had to be doing.
"There's stew in the pot if you want some," Junna said.
Lin brightened. She was always hungry.
Junna took a bowl of stew to Kylli, who was nursing her new-born baby. It seemed all right, but she didn't think the baby had a name yet. Even babies who didn't have anything obvious wrong with them could still die, for no reason that anyone could see. You couldn't be sure until it had survived a few summers. Junna had told her that Juho had almost died when he was a baby, because his lip was cleft and he couldn't suck. He'd always talked funny because of that, too, but everyone was used to it.
Lin herself had lived for thirteen summers, and didn't intend to die anytime soon.
***
"Did you ever go hunting for metal up on the mountain?" Juho asked. They were sitting by Eivi's fire, where Juho stayed most often—she was teaching Juho to make pots.
"No," Lin said.
"Why not?" Juho asked.
"Oh, you know why not. People don't go there," Lin said. Juho was always acting like he'd thought of some new thing that no one had ever thought of before.
"Yeah, but that's just why. I bet there's lots of stuff there, if nobody's been there to look," Juho insisted.
"Because it's dangerous, that's what," Meeli said. "It's like the dumps. People don't go walking around there, either."
"Like you've ever seen the dumps," Juho muttered.
"Maybe I can't see them, but at least I'm not stupid enough to go there. Unlike some people," Meeli replied.
"Anyway," Juho said. "I bet you're both too scared."
"I am not! I'm not scared of anything." Lin said, offended.
"No? Are you scared of dragons?"
"That's just an old story," Lin scoffed, although she wasn't sure it was.
"Being smart enough to stay away from dangerous things isn't the same thing as being scared," said Meeli.
"You're such a goody-goody," Juho said.
Meeli stuck her tongue out at him.
***
Lin got back from her errand about midday, and stopped by Junna's hut. Meeli sat outside, working at a piece of skin to soften it.
"Hi," Lin said, sitting down beside her.
"Where have you been?" Meeli said, sounding cross.
"Olga sent me over to Polviselvä to ask if they had some salt to trade. I just got back." Lin liked running and people often used her as a messenger.
"Oh. I had to listen to Ailu complain about Lalli all morning. They're having some stupid argument."
"Well, sorry I couldn't take you along," Lin said. "Come on, let's get away before they find something for us to do." She looked around. Ailu didn't seem to be here now. The hens clucked and picked at some scraps that someone had thrown out, and Junna and Kylli were talking over by the tent, not paying attention to them.
Meeli reached out and took hold of Lin's arm, and they both slipped away between the trees.
"Juho thinks we should go exploring by the mountain," Lin said.
"After being told that we shouldn't? Juho is a chicken-head," Meeli said.
Lin giggled--the chickens were always getting into places they shouldn't. Then she said, "Well, but maybe he's right. I don't know of anyone who's actually been up there. Maybe the dragon thing is just a story." She tugged on Meeli's hand. "Apple rock." This was a big rock that jutted out into the path, close by the apple trees.
"And maybe it's not," Meeli said, skirting around the rock.
"Maybe there's all kinds of useful stuff there that people don't know about, because they never went there," Lin went on.
"So did you already make up your mind to go?"
"Well, kind of. Juho and I said we might go up there tomorrow. Just a little way. Do you want to come along?" Meeli would slow them down, but it wasn't fair to leave her behind. The three of them were the only children the same age in the village, and they had always stuck together, even if they didn't always get along. There were a couple of other young people, but they were either too small to tag along with them, or older and practically grown up already.
Meeli was silent for a while, then she sighed. "All right."
Lin thought of the dragon, deep under the mountain. "Are you scared?"
"No," Meeli said. "Well, I don't know. But if you're going, I'll go too."
***
Next morning they met up with Juho, who had brought some dried meat and flatbread they could have for lunch, and the three of them set off.
The going was easy for a while, up through the forest, but then it got rougher, with great boulders covered with thick layers of wall-moss, and old spruce trees hung with curtains of old man's beard. Lin had to help Meeli scramble over the rocks. Juho would have helped her if Lin hadn't been there, of course, but Lin and Meeli stuck together. They always had.
"I bet there are trolls living up here," Juho said.
"Shut up," Lin said.
"Remember that story Grandma told us? About trolls looking like rocks in the daylight? I bet that big one over there is a troll. Look, there's the nose," Juho continued.
Lin ran over to the boulder and kicked at it. It hurt her toes, but she wasn't about to say so. "See? Not a troll."
"I bet it is. I bet it's going to come after you in the dark."
Meeli sighed. "Do you want to get to the mountain, or do you want to waste your time on rocks?"
They climbed on. The trees thinned out, and there was the whole valley spread out below them. Meeli squeezed Lin's hand, and Lin remembered to describe it for her. "It's all forest, except for the open place by the village and down by the river and the lake. I've never seen it from above like this. The forest is like--like a furry blanket on top of the ground, or something."
"And that over there must be the Polviselvä valley. Look, you can see the village there," Juho said.
"Is this as high as we can get?" Meeli asked.
Lin looked up at the forbidding craggy rocks and loose scree slope above them. "It's really steep the rest of the way. I don't think we can get up there."
"And is there any treasure? I mean, that's why we're up here, right?" Meeli asked.
"Let's see if we find anything," Juho said. Lin and Juho scrambled around a while, looking behind rocks and into fissures, while Meeli sat down to wait.
"Hey, look!" Juho called out, and Lin came to see what he'd found. He was out of sight behind an outcrop, and when Lin had climbed over it, she could see that this side of the mountain was less steep. It curved gently up from a ridge overgrown with birches, and winding up the mountainside were the broken remains of one of the black hard roads.
"That's old-time stuff," Lin said. "Come on, there might be something that we could bring home."
Lin fetched Meeli and they followed the curve of the mountain, and found that the road ended in a sheer wall with a large door set into it. There were some sort of markings above it.
"That door's made of metal! We could bring it back." Juho said.
"It's probably rusted and useless," Lin said. They went up to check. You could see that the door had been thick and sturdy once, but sure enough, when Lin kicked at it, the hinges collapsed and it fell in rusted bits.
"There's something behind it," Juho said.
Where the door had been, a passage opened into the darkness of the mountain. The air felt cold and raw, and Lin stared into it and shivered. "There's an opening into the mountain," she told Meeli. "The old-time road led to it."
"What's inside it?" Meeli asked.
"It's dark. I can't see," Lin said, trying to make out shapes in the shadows. There seemed to be nothing moving, at any rate, and no glowing dragon eyes.
"There's probably treasure in there!" Juho said. "So, are we going in?"
"All right," Lin said before she could think better of it. Besides, there was no harm in exploring a little now that they'd finally found something interesting, was there? She stepped over the remains of the door and helped Meeli over it, too. Juho followed them in.
It was a large space, like a cave, but with straight walls, and Lin couldn't imagine how it could have been made. Maybe people were different back then, inhumanly strong like trolls. Some light came in through the door, enough that they could make out some piles of things lying on the ground.
Juho rummaged around in one of them. "Hey, maybe we can use some of this!"
Lin came over to have a look. Yeah, some of that looked salvageable. There were some tangles of copper strings, the kind that came with white stuff around it, but as usual, the white stuff was brittle and peeling off. She wondered what it had been for. Then her hands touched something that wasn't metal or wood or any old time stuff.
It was a bone.
She jerked her hand back instinctively, then tried to pretend like she hadn't. It wasn't like she was afraid of bones, usually--after all, there were bones in every animal you ate. But this was just like it had been in Grandma's story: she had said the dragon would kill you and then leave you to dry until only the bones were left.
"What?" Meeli asked. "What happened?"
"It's a bone. Just like in the story. Dry bones, just lying here," Lin said. She looked around nervously. The sun filtered in through the door and lighted up part of the cluttered stone room. No dragons anywhere.
"It doesn't have to be a human bone," Meeli said, feeling along the length of it. It crumbled a bit. "Maybe it's from an animal."
"Yeah," Juho said, without sounding convinced. Lin thought it could be someone's leg bone, but it was much longer than their legs. Maybe old-time people had been taller and stronger. Or maybe it was from a troll.
They almost didn't go any further then. But then Lin saw more stuff further in, and they had to see what it was (big, complicated bits of metal that they could probably use, if they could get it down). And of course, then Juho dared them to go to the end of the cave, to see how far it went.
"All right," said Lin, even though she felt uneasy about the whole thing. She went ahead, feeling her way now in the darkness.
"Is it dark? I can go first, if you like," Meeli said.
Lin switched places with her, and Meeli took Lin's three-fingered hand in a firm grip. Lin was suddenly grateful. Usually Meeli's hand was just there, as familiar as her own hand--she was used to being Meeli's eyes and helping her around. But now Lin was blind, too, and that hand in hers was more of a comfort than she had expected.
The floor was smooth under Lin's bare feet, but there could be things in the way, or maybe holes that fell deep into the mountain. Or there could be dragons. Lin shivered in the clammy cold of the cave. Juho was just behind her. Lin would bet that he didn't like it either, but she wouldn't say anything if he didn't.
Suddenly her eyes were dazzled as something flashed in front of her, bright as the sun. Lin froze, her heart pounding, and she could feel Meeli stop short behind her. Lin's feet wouldn't move. The light blinked out, leaving afterimages burning in her eyes, then came back. Behind her, she heard Juho running, then stumbling and falling.
"What?" Meeli said. "What is it?" Lin couldn't speak, just squeezed her hand hard. In the flashing light, Lin could see Meeli reaching out with her free hand, and Lin cried out, but it was too late to stop her. Meeli was going to touch it, the thing that was going to...she didn't know what it was going to do.
And Meeli's hand went right through it, like it was just made of light.
It blinked out again, then came back. Three dark rays on a yellow background, like a black sun.
"Tell me what's going on!" Meeli said.
"It's...I don't know what it is. A light that blinks. You put your hand right through it." But as she said it, there was a sizzling sound. Sparks flew the next time it blinked on, and it flickered and died.
Darkness.
"Are you coming? I'm not staying in here!" Juho shouted.
"Come on, let's go back," Lin said. Her legs felt shaky. That might not have been a dragon, but she wasn't about to stay to see what else was here. She held tight to Meeli's hand and they made their way toward the faint light.
Lin tried not to look over her shoulder to see if anything dragon-like was following them out.
***
End notes: The story was inspired by "Into Eternity", a Finnish documentary film about nuclear waste, which is why the names are Finnish, or pseudo-Finnish in some cases. Or actually it was inspired by a review of the movie--I haven't actually seen it, though it's on my to-watch list.
Rating: PG
Length: 3400 words
Summary: There was something under the mountain.
Notes: This is original fic, although I guess I could shoehorn it into the AO3 under fairy tales--it's kind of a post-apocalyptic fairy tale.
There's an end note about where the inspiration for the story comes from--I don't want to reveal it here, since it would be a spoiler. The names are mostly Finnish, if you want to know how to pronounce them. I'm grateful to
keerawa and sage for beta reading! sage wanted me to write more of this story, and I tried! But sadly, it seems like this is all there is of it in my head. There was something under the mountain.
Lin didn't know how she knew that. It was something everybody knew, like you knew that there were trolls out in the forest, and like you knew to get your water from the river, not the lake. There were poisons in the lake.
Grandma told stories about the mountain sometimes. She was really old, almost fifty, and her legs were twisted so she could hardly walk. It fascinated Lin, because Lin was the fastest runner in the tribe, and she just couldn't imagine what it would be like to hobble around like that. But all the old people had something wrong with them, it was just the way it was. A lot of the younger people did, too, even those that didn't die when they were babies. Lin herself was missing a couple of fingers, but that didn't stop her running.
If she lived to be Grandma's age, she'd likely be just as twisted up, but that wasn't something that Lin thought about--she was young and strong now, and the next summer felt like ages away. And thirty or forty years' time was almost unimaginable.
"You listen now," Grandma said, raising her finger to tap Lin on the nose. "This is important. There's so much we've forgotten, and we're going to forget even more if you youngsters don't listen."
Lin tried to listen to what Grandma was saying, she really did. But then Juho said, "Tell the one about the dragon under the mountain!" and Meeli said, "Yes, tell us that one!"
Grandma sighed and muttered something about kids always wanting the same thing. Then she began, and Lin settled against Meeli with a happy sigh.
"There's a dragon under the mountain. Some people say it's always been there, but some say that those who came before us put it there."
"Why, Grandma?" Meeli asked.
"To guard something," Grandma said. "Shush now, and let me tell the story. The dragon lives in the caverns under the mountain; big, dark, empty caverns where the water drips and drips. There's no light from the sun there, and nothing can live but the dragon. It has teeth sharper than any knife, and its eyes glow red with fire."
Lin shivered happily. The sun was shining up here, and she was brave enough to hear about any number of dragons. "What does it eat?" she asked.
"Nothing. It doesn't need to eat. It only needs to guard. There are bones down there, from the few souls who have dared to go there. The dragon killed them, but it doesn't eat them. They dry out until their bones are the only thing left."
"But what is it guarding? Is it treasure?" Juho asked. There were stories about dragons guarding treasure, and brave heroes who defeated them.
"No, it's not treasure. Or if it is treasure, then it's the kind that brings bad luck to those who find it. It follows them like a shadow, invisible, and makes their lives miserable until they die. The thing under the mountain is evil. If the dragon wasn't there, the evil would escape."
"Can the dragon come out?" Meeli asked.
"No, it can't. It will stay under the mountain forever, keeping guard."
"Lin, there you are!" That was Ailu. He frowned ever so slightly when he saw them with Grandma. Ailu wasn't old, but he was old enough to act like listening to stories was just for little kids. "I hope you're teaching them something useful, now, not just filling their heads with old stories. Lin woke up with a nightmare about trolls the other night."
"I did not!" Lin said, putting her hands to her hips.
"Old stories can be useful," Grandma said, unmoved. She closed her eyes in the sun, sitting with her back against the log wall of one of the village winter houses, with her cane beside her.
"Junna wants you, Lin," Ailu said. "She wants to know what you did with that metal you found. And Meeli, she's looking for you, too."
"All right," Lin said, jumping up. Instinctively, Meeli's hand found hers and held it, and she murmured directions to Meeli when there were roots or stones on the path.
Lin was good at finding old things, things that were left by those who came before. She had no idea how long ago that was, but most of the things were broken down and gone now. Grandma had told her that there used to be big broad paths covered with something black and hard. Lin could believe that, because she had dug down into the earth on that flat place by the river and found the black stuff, crumbly and strange-smelling. But it wasn't like it was useful for anything. Grandma had also told her people used to fly through the air, and Lin believed that about as much as she believed the story about the dragon. It wasn't like Grandma had seen it herself--even she wasn't that old.
But there were useful things to find, too, and Lin found them. Mostly you had to dig down to find good metal, or it would be rusted through. Last year she'd found a whole lot of it, and strutted around with colored feathers in her hair all through the trading fair (until Juho said she was stuck up and stole the feathers).
They walked the paths that criss-crossed through the village. Most people had moved out of the big common winter houses by now--it was dark inside, and there wasn't any point living that close together all the time if you didn't have to. Most people lived in tents or huts scattered around the village in the summer.
"Lin, there you are," Junna said when they got to her place. "What did you do with that metal?"
"I gave it to Lalli," Lin said. "He said he was making knives from it."
"Well, I needed it, too. He better give me one of those knives when he's done. And Meeli—did you finish preparing those skins?
"Yes, they're on my bed," Meeli said. Preparing skins was usually her task, because she could do it by touch. Meeli's fingers dug into Lin's hand, and Lin could tell that she was disappointed at having to leave the storytelling. Well, so was Lin. There was always something they had to be doing.
"There's stew in the pot if you want some," Junna said.
Lin brightened. She was always hungry.
Junna took a bowl of stew to Kylli, who was nursing her new-born baby. It seemed all right, but she didn't think the baby had a name yet. Even babies who didn't have anything obvious wrong with them could still die, for no reason that anyone could see. You couldn't be sure until it had survived a few summers. Junna had told her that Juho had almost died when he was a baby, because his lip was cleft and he couldn't suck. He'd always talked funny because of that, too, but everyone was used to it.
Lin herself had lived for thirteen summers, and didn't intend to die anytime soon.
***
"Did you ever go hunting for metal up on the mountain?" Juho asked. They were sitting by Eivi's fire, where Juho stayed most often—she was teaching Juho to make pots.
"No," Lin said.
"Why not?" Juho asked.
"Oh, you know why not. People don't go there," Lin said. Juho was always acting like he'd thought of some new thing that no one had ever thought of before.
"Yeah, but that's just why. I bet there's lots of stuff there, if nobody's been there to look," Juho insisted.
"Because it's dangerous, that's what," Meeli said. "It's like the dumps. People don't go walking around there, either."
"Like you've ever seen the dumps," Juho muttered.
"Maybe I can't see them, but at least I'm not stupid enough to go there. Unlike some people," Meeli replied.
"Anyway," Juho said. "I bet you're both too scared."
"I am not! I'm not scared of anything." Lin said, offended.
"No? Are you scared of dragons?"
"That's just an old story," Lin scoffed, although she wasn't sure it was.
"Being smart enough to stay away from dangerous things isn't the same thing as being scared," said Meeli.
"You're such a goody-goody," Juho said.
Meeli stuck her tongue out at him.
***
Lin got back from her errand about midday, and stopped by Junna's hut. Meeli sat outside, working at a piece of skin to soften it.
"Hi," Lin said, sitting down beside her.
"Where have you been?" Meeli said, sounding cross.
"Olga sent me over to Polviselvä to ask if they had some salt to trade. I just got back." Lin liked running and people often used her as a messenger.
"Oh. I had to listen to Ailu complain about Lalli all morning. They're having some stupid argument."
"Well, sorry I couldn't take you along," Lin said. "Come on, let's get away before they find something for us to do." She looked around. Ailu didn't seem to be here now. The hens clucked and picked at some scraps that someone had thrown out, and Junna and Kylli were talking over by the tent, not paying attention to them.
Meeli reached out and took hold of Lin's arm, and they both slipped away between the trees.
"Juho thinks we should go exploring by the mountain," Lin said.
"After being told that we shouldn't? Juho is a chicken-head," Meeli said.
Lin giggled--the chickens were always getting into places they shouldn't. Then she said, "Well, but maybe he's right. I don't know of anyone who's actually been up there. Maybe the dragon thing is just a story." She tugged on Meeli's hand. "Apple rock." This was a big rock that jutted out into the path, close by the apple trees.
"And maybe it's not," Meeli said, skirting around the rock.
"Maybe there's all kinds of useful stuff there that people don't know about, because they never went there," Lin went on.
"So did you already make up your mind to go?"
"Well, kind of. Juho and I said we might go up there tomorrow. Just a little way. Do you want to come along?" Meeli would slow them down, but it wasn't fair to leave her behind. The three of them were the only children the same age in the village, and they had always stuck together, even if they didn't always get along. There were a couple of other young people, but they were either too small to tag along with them, or older and practically grown up already.
Meeli was silent for a while, then she sighed. "All right."
Lin thought of the dragon, deep under the mountain. "Are you scared?"
"No," Meeli said. "Well, I don't know. But if you're going, I'll go too."
***
Next morning they met up with Juho, who had brought some dried meat and flatbread they could have for lunch, and the three of them set off.
The going was easy for a while, up through the forest, but then it got rougher, with great boulders covered with thick layers of wall-moss, and old spruce trees hung with curtains of old man's beard. Lin had to help Meeli scramble over the rocks. Juho would have helped her if Lin hadn't been there, of course, but Lin and Meeli stuck together. They always had.
"I bet there are trolls living up here," Juho said.
"Shut up," Lin said.
"Remember that story Grandma told us? About trolls looking like rocks in the daylight? I bet that big one over there is a troll. Look, there's the nose," Juho continued.
Lin ran over to the boulder and kicked at it. It hurt her toes, but she wasn't about to say so. "See? Not a troll."
"I bet it is. I bet it's going to come after you in the dark."
Meeli sighed. "Do you want to get to the mountain, or do you want to waste your time on rocks?"
They climbed on. The trees thinned out, and there was the whole valley spread out below them. Meeli squeezed Lin's hand, and Lin remembered to describe it for her. "It's all forest, except for the open place by the village and down by the river and the lake. I've never seen it from above like this. The forest is like--like a furry blanket on top of the ground, or something."
"And that over there must be the Polviselvä valley. Look, you can see the village there," Juho said.
"Is this as high as we can get?" Meeli asked.
Lin looked up at the forbidding craggy rocks and loose scree slope above them. "It's really steep the rest of the way. I don't think we can get up there."
"And is there any treasure? I mean, that's why we're up here, right?" Meeli asked.
"Let's see if we find anything," Juho said. Lin and Juho scrambled around a while, looking behind rocks and into fissures, while Meeli sat down to wait.
"Hey, look!" Juho called out, and Lin came to see what he'd found. He was out of sight behind an outcrop, and when Lin had climbed over it, she could see that this side of the mountain was less steep. It curved gently up from a ridge overgrown with birches, and winding up the mountainside were the broken remains of one of the black hard roads.
"That's old-time stuff," Lin said. "Come on, there might be something that we could bring home."
Lin fetched Meeli and they followed the curve of the mountain, and found that the road ended in a sheer wall with a large door set into it. There were some sort of markings above it.
"That door's made of metal! We could bring it back." Juho said.
"It's probably rusted and useless," Lin said. They went up to check. You could see that the door had been thick and sturdy once, but sure enough, when Lin kicked at it, the hinges collapsed and it fell in rusted bits.
"There's something behind it," Juho said.
Where the door had been, a passage opened into the darkness of the mountain. The air felt cold and raw, and Lin stared into it and shivered. "There's an opening into the mountain," she told Meeli. "The old-time road led to it."
"What's inside it?" Meeli asked.
"It's dark. I can't see," Lin said, trying to make out shapes in the shadows. There seemed to be nothing moving, at any rate, and no glowing dragon eyes.
"There's probably treasure in there!" Juho said. "So, are we going in?"
"All right," Lin said before she could think better of it. Besides, there was no harm in exploring a little now that they'd finally found something interesting, was there? She stepped over the remains of the door and helped Meeli over it, too. Juho followed them in.
It was a large space, like a cave, but with straight walls, and Lin couldn't imagine how it could have been made. Maybe people were different back then, inhumanly strong like trolls. Some light came in through the door, enough that they could make out some piles of things lying on the ground.
Juho rummaged around in one of them. "Hey, maybe we can use some of this!"
Lin came over to have a look. Yeah, some of that looked salvageable. There were some tangles of copper strings, the kind that came with white stuff around it, but as usual, the white stuff was brittle and peeling off. She wondered what it had been for. Then her hands touched something that wasn't metal or wood or any old time stuff.
It was a bone.
She jerked her hand back instinctively, then tried to pretend like she hadn't. It wasn't like she was afraid of bones, usually--after all, there were bones in every animal you ate. But this was just like it had been in Grandma's story: she had said the dragon would kill you and then leave you to dry until only the bones were left.
"What?" Meeli asked. "What happened?"
"It's a bone. Just like in the story. Dry bones, just lying here," Lin said. She looked around nervously. The sun filtered in through the door and lighted up part of the cluttered stone room. No dragons anywhere.
"It doesn't have to be a human bone," Meeli said, feeling along the length of it. It crumbled a bit. "Maybe it's from an animal."
"Yeah," Juho said, without sounding convinced. Lin thought it could be someone's leg bone, but it was much longer than their legs. Maybe old-time people had been taller and stronger. Or maybe it was from a troll.
They almost didn't go any further then. But then Lin saw more stuff further in, and they had to see what it was (big, complicated bits of metal that they could probably use, if they could get it down). And of course, then Juho dared them to go to the end of the cave, to see how far it went.
"All right," said Lin, even though she felt uneasy about the whole thing. She went ahead, feeling her way now in the darkness.
"Is it dark? I can go first, if you like," Meeli said.
Lin switched places with her, and Meeli took Lin's three-fingered hand in a firm grip. Lin was suddenly grateful. Usually Meeli's hand was just there, as familiar as her own hand--she was used to being Meeli's eyes and helping her around. But now Lin was blind, too, and that hand in hers was more of a comfort than she had expected.
The floor was smooth under Lin's bare feet, but there could be things in the way, or maybe holes that fell deep into the mountain. Or there could be dragons. Lin shivered in the clammy cold of the cave. Juho was just behind her. Lin would bet that he didn't like it either, but she wouldn't say anything if he didn't.
Suddenly her eyes were dazzled as something flashed in front of her, bright as the sun. Lin froze, her heart pounding, and she could feel Meeli stop short behind her. Lin's feet wouldn't move. The light blinked out, leaving afterimages burning in her eyes, then came back. Behind her, she heard Juho running, then stumbling and falling.
"What?" Meeli said. "What is it?" Lin couldn't speak, just squeezed her hand hard. In the flashing light, Lin could see Meeli reaching out with her free hand, and Lin cried out, but it was too late to stop her. Meeli was going to touch it, the thing that was going to...she didn't know what it was going to do.
And Meeli's hand went right through it, like it was just made of light.
It blinked out again, then came back. Three dark rays on a yellow background, like a black sun.
"Tell me what's going on!" Meeli said.
"It's...I don't know what it is. A light that blinks. You put your hand right through it." But as she said it, there was a sizzling sound. Sparks flew the next time it blinked on, and it flickered and died.
Darkness.
"Are you coming? I'm not staying in here!" Juho shouted.
"Come on, let's go back," Lin said. Her legs felt shaky. That might not have been a dragon, but she wasn't about to stay to see what else was here. She held tight to Meeli's hand and they made their way toward the faint light.
Lin tried not to look over her shoulder to see if anything dragon-like was following them out.
***
End notes: The story was inspired by "Into Eternity", a Finnish documentary film about nuclear waste, which is why the names are Finnish, or pseudo-Finnish in some cases. Or actually it was inspired by a review of the movie--I haven't actually seen it, though it's on my to-watch list.
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Date: 2011-08-26 03:50 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-08-26 06:46 am (UTC)