One of the Huldu (standard:fairy tales, 2388 words)
Author: Otilia Tena	Added: Jul 09 2010	Views/Reads: 3057/1977	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
The story of Unna Ishildur who falls in love with Alfarr and becomes a hidden one.

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story

off. "Take me wherever you want! I don't care if you are with me". 
"Nuri Peperuga", he said and Unna startled at this, "why do you 
startle? We are together on this journey but you can't be mine. I only 
take you to our lord." They rode like this for a long time, the horse 
ran and its hooves didn't touch down. Then Unna's music box, which she 
had tied to her dress with a belt, fell and split in two pieces and the 
air was filled with an enchanted melody. The horse stopped. "Why do you 
cry, Nuri Peperuga?" asked the youth and lifted her chin. "We are done. 
Look around you!" "This is the place I dreamed so many times when I was 
little" Unna whispered and wiped her tears off. The soft melody still 
filled the air, making them silent. "Who are you? And where is this?" 

I used to attend his classes in the Alfaskolinn regularly. Sipping a
creamy latte next to him was the best way to end a day which had 
drained my teaching abilities in the morning and my attention as a 
student in the evening. "There is no threshold in between, dear Odile", 
he said. "But if there were one, Magnus, would there be even the 
slightest possibility for me to trespass?" "And remain trapped in a 
world where few gestures are permitted, with no right to choose or to 
try out?" I stretched my hand for the teaspoon and barely touched his 
fingers. The delicate feeling stirred up the fresh memory of Sverrir's 
touch two days before, at his family's farm. That soft and purple 
afternoon Sverrir introduced me as his English teacher to his parents. 
It seemed to me that he was slightly wrapped in the same purple aura 
and that he bore it throughout the whole day. And whenever he seized my 
hand, it felt like so many dormant grass tips, ready to spring from 
under my skin. "You might just be one of them", I told him. "One of 
whom?" Sverrir asked. "One of the Huldu". He smiled. We went on walking 
and at one moment he began to pick something. "What are you doing?" 
"I'm making a small bunch for you", he said. "What? Do you have flowers 
here? I didn't even notice them". "Probably because you were busy with 
noticing other things". He came close and put the frail flowers in my 
hands. "Will you sing with your band at the prom?" "If you promise to 
dance with me just one time". "I do, I promise", I said. A shadow 
passed on Sverrir's face all of a sudden and I thought I might try to 
cheer him up. "Guess what? I invited Magnus as well!" "You obviously 
like him a lot, don't you?" "He is our funny controversial friend after 
all, isn't he? We both attended his classes, Sverrir". "Has he ever 
held your hand?" "I won't answer to this! This is my first and last 
visit!" I held the cup with both hands but the latte had already got 
cold. "When must you go back?" Magnus asked. "Yes, I must", I murmured. 
"Yes, but I asked you when!" 

"My name is Alfarr", the young man answered. "When I was a child I used
to see a woman in my dreams. She was naked and covered with her long 
hair. And when she combed it I could see her skin, which smelled and 
shone like rose petals. Only I couldn't touch her. Each time I had this 
dream I would tell my mother: <You were the fairest lady of all to me. 
Who is she, mother?> And she would tell me: <She is your bride>. That 
woman is standing in front of me now. It is you, Nuri Peperuga!" Unna 
looked at him and felt the cold tears down her cheeks. "But... what 
about the lord of the village?"she asked. "Where is he? You said..." "I 
am the lord of the village, the one whom everybody fears and nobody 
dares to speak about. Except you! Now you are the only one who knows my 
name". "Yes", she whispered, "Alfarr". "Do you know what I am?" "Yes", 
she said, "I know". "Are you afraid of me?" "You should say yes, Unna 
Ishildur!" They both turned and saw the old story teller, Unna's 
grandfather. "Nobody knows about this place, except me!" "And no 
ordinary man knows how to arrive here", Alfarr said. "My grand daughter 
Unna has got a child to look after. He has been roaming the fields and 
the villages, asking about her." "Unna Ishildur", Alfarr said, "you 
tell me what is the right thing I should do. Wouldn't it be right if I 
punished you?" "Do as you please with me, my lord". "If sharing my fate 
is a curse, then you will share this with me: hidden from everyone's 
eyes". The old man looked at Unna and saw that she was changed. And 
when she looked back at him he felt that she was cold inside. Then 
Alfarr said: "Let the people see us just one time. I will wrap you in 
one hundred veils and they won't see your face until we are married". 
So they returned with the old story teller into the village and Alfarr 
let himself be seen for the first time by the people. He passed among 
them, holding the veiled Unna by his side and his beauty cut everyone's 
breath. The words "our lord", "the master of the village" were on 
everyone's lips. "Who is the lady? Is she our Unna?" they asked but 
couldn't see her face. He passed by the nomads' camp and Nuri Peperuga 
sprang right in front of him with both children, Unna's child and hers. 
"I am the woman who threatened you!" she said. "I am Nuri Peperuga!" 
Alfarr raised his arm to her but the children yelled and begged him to 
spare her. "My new mother, Unna, she was a bad mother and left me!" one 
of the children said. He wanted to run to her but all of a sudden a 
shiver of fear froze him on the spot, as he looked at her covered face. 
The priest of the village told the story teller to let Alfarr stay with 
Unna in their house until the following day, when they were to be 
married in church. "You must not allow them enter the church, they are 
two of the hidden!" the old man said. "We must put an end to this 
insane fear! They will marry in church!" So Unna and Alfarr remained 
that day with the grandfather. Nuri and the children couldn't see 
Alfarr because he had made himself invisible to them. They were afraid 
to pass behind Unna when she was turned with her back to them. The next 
day at dawn the couple woke up and began to get ready for the wedding. 
Unna wasn't in a good mood at all and couldn't find her slippers, so 
she began to curse and to swear at the old man. The story teller heard 
her and knocked at their door. "Is it me that your bride is swearing 
at?" Alfarr didn't answer, so he went straight to Unna and slapped her. 
She gave him an icy glance. "I spare you only because you were my 
grandfather. You won't see me again after this day", she said. The 
whole village gathered inside and outside the church to attend the 
wedding and there were even a lot more people from the neighbouring 
villages. When the ceremony was over and the newly married couple went 
out of the church, Alfarr lifted the veils from Unna's face and said: 
"This is Unna Ishildur, your fairy lady!" Everyone murmured as they 
passed by: "Our Unna is the village fairy, she is our fairy!" They were 
so young and fair that the people begged them to stay with them, though 
they were afraid at the same time. The story teller told the people 
that Alfarr and Unna had to leave because they didn't belong to this 
world. On their leave, Unna wanted to take away the nomad child but the 
old man saved him from her arms. 

Sverrir finished the rock ballad and his colleagues were in frenzy. He
came to me and said: "You promised one dance". He took my hand and 
brought it to his lips. "Sverrir, they are watching us!" I said. "I 
don't care about that! Do you?" "Of course I do. It is the right 
thing". "Will you come back one day? Answer me, will you come back?" "I 
am here now, aren't I?" I said. I leaned my head on Sverrir's chest and 
he passed his hand in my hair. "The flowers in your hair are withered", 
he remarked. "Why are you wearing them?" "They were fresh when you gave 
them to me", I answered. 


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