in which Nixie tells Rose about her real parents.
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Long ago, before Rose was born, a young man and woman came from Roseville and settled in the forest to live. These two, Lilja and Gabriel, were gifted musicians who could play all the old village tunes of Roseville. They had learned them from their parents, who had learned them from their parents, who had in their day learned them from their own parents. But when Roseville got a new mayor, the first thing he did was to ban the playing and singing of music. The only instrument allowed was the willow whistle, and only in emergencies. If a wolf was approaching Roseville, every villager was to have a whistle on hand and blow into it to warn the other villagers of the danger. Defying the ban on music was punishable by permanent exile from the village. Lilja and Gabriel, who had played music together since childhood, refused to obey the mayor, despite the punishment. Lilja’s parents cried and prayed that their daughter would forget about playing the
kantele. Gabriel’s parents raged at him and demanded that he give up the violin. The mayor commanded them to stop and warned them that playing music would lure wolves into the village, but the pleas, threats, and persuasions fell on deaf ears. The two young people refused to give up their music.
After they were exiled, Lilja and Gabriel set up house in the woods, quite close to Dim Valley. The weren’t afraid of Howler because they knew that humans and other forest dwellers had lived in perfect harmony for centuries, each keeping to their place. As the months had passed, Lilja and Gabriel befriended the nixies, beavers, squirrels, gnomes, and other creatures of the forest. In the evenings they would sit on the steps of their little cabin and play the kantele and the violin, and the animals of the forest would listen. Lilja and Gabriel knew that Howler and her cubs were listening, too, at the edges of Dim Valley, and although they couldn’t see her, they knew that the wolf and her family were no danger to them.
One night, Lilja and Gabriel were awakened by a dreadful howling. They jumped out of bed, Lilja moving more heavily because the child in her womb had also been awakened by the howls and was kicking with gusto. They opened the cabin door to see what was happening, and a dreadful sight lay before them. The hunters of Roseville had shot Howler’s two cubs and were lugging them back to Roseville on their shoulders. Gabriel stopped them and demanded to know why they had killed the cubs. Lilja told them that they’d been living for months in mutual understanding with the creatures of the forest. The hunters laughed at the naive young couple and said that if you don’t kill wolves, the wolves will kill you. For three days and three nights Howler cried for her cubs, and then she was silent for good. At least that’s what Lilja and Gabriel thought.
One warm August evening, Lilja and Gabriel were blessed with a little baby girl. The child had bright blue eyes and black hair. Lilja tied a pale pink bow in the child’s hair and she and Gabriel decided that they would name her Rose. To celebrate their great good fortune, the proud parents decided to have a naming party and invite all the crea-tures of the forest. The day of the party, creatures assembled from all the dens and nests of the woods – the nixies came with their fiddles, the gnomes brought a great big pine cone cake, the beavers had built a little cradle, and the bees brought along a new harvest of honey. Everyone rejoiced over the new baby girl and her parents joined in happily with the music the nixies played. Together with the nixies and gnomes, the proud parents played a song for Rose unlike any other that had ever been heard in that forest. Lilja’s clear voice murmured like a mountain stream. The swaddled child was passed from one to another and every forest dweller had a chance to hold the little baby and wonder at her, touch her soft cheek and smell the delicate scent of her neck.
Just when the celebration was at its peak, there was a chilling growl from the forest. Howler came charging into the assembled guests with rage flashing in her eyes. Before anyone had a chance to do anything, the wolf set upon Lilja and ripped her neck open. Gabriel tried to protect his wife by furiously striking the animal over the head with his violin, but it broke in two and the wolf was unfazed. She turned and fell upon him, striking the life out of him with one blow of her paw. The party guests ran away in terror. Howler paced around the cabin for a moment, growling. Her voice was hoarse and a heart-rending howl was squeezed from her throat. She sniffed at the kantele and the violin and trod on grandpa gnome’s drum and broke it. She sniffed at Lilja and Gabriel, and then she disappeared into Dim Valley like a shadow.
The sun had gone behind a cloud. Two bodies lay in front of the cabin, their white linen party clothes covered in blood. The forest was silent; the only sound was the soughing of the wind in the trees.
“But what happened to the child, I mean to me?” Rose interrupted.
“One of the gnome women rescued the child and ran away to hide her in her cave,” Nixie answered.
“But how did I end up in Roseville?” Rose demanded.
“The gnomes wrapped you up and put you in a basket and left you at a place in the forest where they knew the hunters would pass by,” Nixie said. “They watched as your foster father came to where you lay and picked you up and took you away with him.”
“So the gnomes saved me,” Rose said in amazement. “I’ve always thought that gnomes were evil – and a figment of the imagination.”
“Gnomes aren’t evil. They understood that they couldn’t raise a human child among their own, so they surrendered you to Roseville.”
Rose thought for a moment.
“What about the prophecy you were talking about?”
“According to the prophecy, I will meet a maiden in the forest who has the name of a flower, and that maiden is meant for me,” Nixie said, looking into her eyes as only one who has longed for something for many years can do.
