face.
"I've never seen anyone cry so much. I can sing a song for you," Rune says. She hums a warm-up note then sings:
"Helga pulled me out of the water
From the clutches of her father,
To Princess Helga I sing,
Thanks for saving me from the Bog King."
Helga does not smile, nor compliment Rune on her lovely voice; she doesn't even look up. “Why are you here,” she asks, “why would any creature come to this godforsaken bog?”
“Creature?” Rune wanted to say at least she was a living, breathing girl, but figured it would be cruel to point out the obvious. “A swan flew me to the bog on his back because he said I would transform into the beautiful princess I truly am here in Andersen Land, you see I ran away from home . . .”
Rune is about to explain about the mirror when Helga waves her arm in an arc across the bog and cries, “This should be my home, down in the blackest depths of the bog with my black hearted father. Perhaps my mother is still there, I met her only once that I can remember, after I had run away from the Vikings village. She embraced me saying I was the flower of her heart; she loved me enough to set me free of the bog as a baby. And what did I do with that chance? I don’t deserve to be there or in Egypt, but even a bog would be a home, rather than spending forever after as a bolt of light.” She stands suddenly and rushes to the bog lakeshore, raises her arms in swan dive position and leaps at the water. She bounces off the surface as if it were a trampoline and flies backward to the shore. She makes three attempts before falling to her knees and sobbing, “I am an orphan of God.”
Rune scurries to Helga’s side; she may be a ghost, or light, whatever, still she's Rune's only companion in this strange land. And she is thinking about Cozy Cave—her home in the clean green forest where her mother . . . fat tears form around her budging hazel eyes. A bright white spark zaps Helga’s head and she turns to Rune. “I must tell you my story. Perhaps this good deed will be the one to earn my way into Heaven.”
“Can I ask you something first?”
“I will answer any question you pose,” Helga replies, ‘but be quick, the sun will set soon.”
“Did you always know who your true parents were or did the Viking couple pretend to be your parents?”
* * *
Plowing through a field of heather, Beauty suddenly realizes that in her haste to lessen the distance between herself and Rune, she's running blindly. She stops and lifts the mirror to her face.
"Through the heather and through the fog,
Show me the way to the Great Bog."
The mirror reflects the field before her and an arrow appears pointing northeast. Again, Beauty addresses the mirror:
"Thank you kindly for your direction,
Now show me if Rune is in need of protection."
Beauty has used the mirror just in time to hear Helga say that she has three days and three nights to tell Rune her story. She listens, her heart breaking, as Rune sings a song to cheer the weepy Helga, and she watching Helga bounce off the lake surface, trying vainly to reach her own mother. Then Rune asks,
Have you always known who your true parents are
, and Beauty’s heart thumps, her adrenaline pumps and she’s off at a gallop knowing she can catch up with Rune before Helga’s story is done.
* * *
“I didn’t know who my true parents were until I was fourteen,” Helga says. “I don’t believe Illa and Worick ever knew. They were my Viking parents. Illa believed I was bewitched because she saw my transformation the first night I spent in her lodge. She never told Worick. After all my years in limbo, I know now that Worick loved me best because he appreciated the warrior girl I was and didn't want to change me. My foster mother, Illa, hid me at night before the transformation and locked the door."
"Did Worick ever see you as the frog?"
"He would have hacked me in half with his ax, and how I wished that
"I've never seen anyone cry so much. I can sing a song for you," Rune says. She hums a warm-up note then sings:
"Helga pulled me out of the water
From the clutches of her father,
To Princess Helga I sing,
Thanks for saving me from the Bog King."
Helga does not smile, nor compliment Rune on her lovely voice; she doesn't even look up. “Why are you here,” she asks, “why would any creature come to this godforsaken bog?”
“Creature?” Rune wanted to say at least she was a living, breathing girl, but figured it would be cruel to point out the obvious. “A swan flew me to the bog on his back because he said I would transform into the beautiful princess I truly am here in Andersen Land, you see I ran away from home . . .”
Rune is about to explain about the mirror when Helga waves her arm in an arc across the bog and cries, “This should be my home, down in the blackest depths of the bog with my black hearted father. Perhaps my mother is still there, I met her only once that I can remember, after I had run away from the Vikings village. She embraced me saying I was the flower of her heart; she loved me enough to set me free of the bog as a baby. And what did I do with that chance? I don’t deserve to be there or in Egypt, but even a bog would be a home, rather than spending forever after as a bolt of light.” She stands suddenly and rushes to the bog lakeshore, raises her arms in swan dive position and leaps at the water. She bounces off the surface as if it were a trampoline and flies backward to the shore. She makes three attempts before falling to her knees and sobbing, “I am an orphan of God.”
Rune scurries to Helga’s side; she may be a ghost, or light, whatever, still she's Rune's only companion in this strange land. And she is thinking about Cozy Cave—her home in the clean green forest where her mother . . . fat tears form around her budging hazel eyes. A bright white spark zaps Helga’s head and she turns to Rune. “I must tell you my story. Perhaps this good deed will be the one to earn my way into Heaven.”
“Can I ask you something first?”
“I will answer any question you pose,” Helga replies, ‘but be quick, the sun will set soon.”
“Did you always know who your true parents were or did the Viking couple pretend to be your parents?”
* * *
Plowing through a field of heather, Beauty suddenly realizes that in her haste to lessen the distance between herself and Rune, she's running blindly. She stops and lifts the mirror to her face.
"Through the heather and through the fog,
Show me the way to the Great Bog."
The mirror reflects the field before her and an arrow appears pointing northeast. Again, Beauty addresses the mirror:
"Thank you kindly for your direction,
Now show me if Rune is in need of protection."
Beauty has used the mirror just in time to hear Helga say that she has three days and three nights to tell Rune her story. She listens, her heart breaking, as Rune sings a song to cheer the weepy Helga, and she watching Helga bounce off the lake surface, trying vainly to reach her own mother. Then Rune asks,
Have you always known who your true parents are
, and Beauty’s heart thumps, her adrenaline pumps and she’s off at a gallop knowing she can catch up with Rune before Helga’s story is done.
* * *
“I didn’t know who my true parents were until I was fourteen,” Helga says. “I don’t believe Illa and Worick ever knew. They were my Viking parents. Illa believed I was bewitched because she saw my transformation the first night I spent in her lodge. She never told Worick. After all my years in limbo, I know now that Worick loved me best because he appreciated the warrior girl I was and didn't want to change me. My foster mother, Illa, hid me at night before the transformation and locked the door."
"Did Worick ever see you as the frog?"
"He would have hacked me in half with his ax, and how I wished that
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