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The chill of the night settled on a lively congregation within the heart of the forest. The trees, stripped bare of their autumn leaves, bathed in the glow of a wondrous bonfire. Large shadows of moving figures waved their arms to and fro, all in time with the gramophone. Kindling and sticks crackled, a silent murmur, flowing under the surrounding chatter and the piping swing music.
In the centre swirled Snorkmaiden, her light green fur standing out in the orange of the fire. From her neck spun a necklace of lavender pearls, each one catching the lights in its immaculate surface. Her heart fluttered with every stumbling step, and her short legs tried to catch up with her shimmying and shaking. She threw her arms in the air and giggled in pure gaiety, turning to show how perfectly the fire hit every angle.
The song soon ended, and a slower doo-wop song started to play on the record. While couples shuffled back and forth, paws gently cradling each other, Snorkmaiden stopped and puffed. “I feel parched,” she complained, making a beeline to the punch bowl, recently topped up with mulled wine. After ladling a sufficient quantity into her sculpted glass cup, she took a seat on a nearby hay bale.
“All that dancing looks very fun!” Alicia’s voice broke through the din as she took a seat next to Snorkmaiden on the bale. She held her own cup, filled with the mulled wine that she had been nursing until the drink had cooled in the glass.
“Very! You need a merry jig to keep warm,” Snorkmaiden said, holding up the cup in her paw. “But a glass of mulled wine also comes in hand when the jigs aren’t so merry.” She pressed her lips to the edge and took a long sip.
The heat hit her mouth straight away. The syrupy and flavourful concoction ran over her tongue in a deluge, sliding down her throat with grace. The tang of oranges gave an edge of citrus to the drink, and the cinnamon added an extra layer of warmth, awakening her tired nerves. Swimming in the glow of the heat were sweet cloves and star anise, both of which stood out in the bitter red wine.
Snorkmaiden wiped the residue of wine away from her mouth with her large forearm. “Whoever made this beautiful mulled wine really outdid themselves this time!”
“I think it was Mymble,” Alicia replied.
“I had a feeling!” Snorkmaiden laughed, shuffling closer to Alicia - but not too close.
Alicia, darling granddaughter of the Witch, Alicia. It was Moomintroll who invited her to the party tonight, but confidentially, Snorkmaiden was the happiest to have her here. Nothing compared to the fond stares the two of them would share while picking mushrooms and herbs for stews, the overlap of hands when they read books on her bed, and the triumph in Alicia’s eyes when she would walk on the sloshing surface of the sea.
But there was one night Snorkmaiden held close to her heart, where the moon spread its milky glare across the sky and the fireflies kissed every blade of grass. That night, Alicia promised Snorkmaiden that as soon as she was able to fly a broom laden with extra weight, the first thing she would do was let Snorkmaiden cling to her as they rode over the furthest stretches of Moominvalley.
The blast of trumpets crinkled through the cracks of the record into the gramophone, and the dancers swayed from side to side, each step marking the ground with their weight. Alicia smoothed a hair behind her ear, watching as the fire cast its glows on the backs of the dancing couples. One look at Alicia’s countenance and Snorkmaiden’s mind raced with thoughts. A slow dance, tender paws cradling her love, dipping her in the moonlight to see the stars above the canopy - no time for those thoughts. Time for more mulled wine.
After gulping down a mouthful that stained the fur around her mouth, Snorkmaiden wiped her mouth and let out a startled laugh. “Oh, dear! I must get up and replenish my cup from the bowl,” she exclaimed, jumping from the bale as if she found the needle in the haystack with her behind. In a flutter, she darted from Alicia. As she did, her fur warmed its hue in the pinks and oranges around the fire. Curse her snork fur - she could never be as coquettish as she hoped to be.
Time passed, and more cups of mulled wine made their way down past Snorkmaiden’s jittery tongue. Alicia said nothing, just enjoying her companion whose fur blushed with the skin of white peaches. Over time, the energy of the party showed its first signs of petering out. A few hemulens and creeps had peeled away from the party, and the sky rumbled with dark clouds far above the trees.
Little My must have left earlier - this surprised Snorkmaiden, for she knew Little My was never one to pass up a dance and a chance for mischief. Maybe she went to look for Snufkin, but ever since the beginning of the party, she knew that he would stay for ten minutes at most. For all she knew, and cared, he would be in his tent making time for himself. But her mymble friends could handle themselves. For tonight, she could focus on Alicia, someone she could talk to about the men in her life from her overbearing brother Snork to her good friend Moomintroll.
By the time the dancing faded into talking and crowding around the food table, the mulled wine had pooled in her skull and her brain was hopelessly trying to paddle within the dark crimson. Sinking into the groove she made for herself on the bale, her shoulders slumped until they lay by her sides. Whatever Alicia was talking about was falling like shooting stars from her mouth, resisting translation to even the most rudimentary languages. If Snorkmaiden’s mind was not so muddled, she could take those words for herself, listen to them until they make sense, and give Alicia the fawning respect she has deserved all this time. But alas, it was not to be.
For a moment, her vision blurred, the string of fairy lights trailing along whenever she turned her head and leaving imprints on her corneas. The fur on her body changed from its bashful markings to a fuzzy light blue on the edge of grey - the colour of the matter of her intoxicated mind, full of useless firing synapses that snapped and shattered. The grey blue rolled like fog over her skin, a confusing and enveloping storm. Snorkmaiden’s fur was the colour in the eyes of a dizzy spinning man, hopelessly failing to keep the contents of his stomach within him until they splash on the cobblestone in front of his feet.
The crinkles in the warbling music of the gramophone pierced through Snorkmaiden’s ears, drawing her attention to the record. The song had changed from the previous offering of slow jazz and doo-wop to a swinging number with a band more numerous than the creeps in the forest. As if bewitched by Alicia herself, Snorkmaiden stood from her seat and wandered out towards the centre of the clearing, her grey fur glowing baby blue in the light of the fire.
"Heyyyyy,” she slurred, the weight on her feet as uneven as a ship in stormy waters. “Why isn’t anyone dancing? Aren’t we here to have fun?” she called to the moomins, the mymbles, the hemulens and the fillyjonks around the table. Counting herself in, Snorkmaiden twirled with her arms outstretched, the fire shining fine blue within the hairs that coat her body.
Snorkmaiden’s unsteady feet covered the footprints left in the ground from before, stamping them into the fine earth with her hooves. Her laugh rang gaily in the ears of the surrounding guests. “This is fun!” she laughed, the pearls of her necklace clacking against each other as they jumped around her neck.
“Okay, I think you’ve had enough,” uttered Moominpappa, taking a step forward from the table. Poor Snorkmaiden was so close to the flames, and it would be a shame if her tail got singed.
“Enough of what? Dancing?” Snorkmaiden replied incredulously, completely misconstruing the words of her friend’s father. “Well I’m awfully sorry, but I’ve been bitten by the dancing bug, and I won’t stop until I’m dead!” she boasted, jumping and clicking her heels together. But one thing Snorkmaiden was lacking was concentration; the click of her heels came together messily.
One heel slid against the other, and by the time gravity pulled her to the ground, her foot stuck out too awkwardly to balance her. With a yelp, Snorkmaiden stumbled and tried to place her other foot on the ground. The loose dirt made her feet slip, and her body tumbled like a falling tree trunk. Snout first, she face-planted into the dirt, landing just near the gramophone which started to skip.
“Are you okay?” cried Alicia, hopping off the hay bale and running over to where Snorkmaiden was rubbing the bridge of her snout. The muddy blue of her fur melted to reveal shades of deep seasick green, a sudden bout of shame overcoming her.
“I’ll help you up.” The young witch offered her hands out to the embarrassed Snorkmaiden. She let Alicia take her paws, a baker handling old bread rolls that were green with mould. And yet, Alicia’s smile did not fade; it settled the stirring anger within Snorkmaiden’s heart and calmed her as she found her feet again.
“Thank you dearly,” Snorkmaiden responded, a patch of pink spreading on her cheeks among the off-colour green of her fur. Not enough to displace the shame, but sneaking under it until it finds the one place that will welcome its rosy bloom.
Still, a snork on unsteady feet she was, and her paws tensed around Alicia’s as she stumbled once more. Alicia stayed rigid, withstanding the tumbling steps of her tipsy companion. In the tender light of the fire, Alicia’s arm slid around the broad back of Snorkmaiden, a perfectly plump lady as well as a silly little snork. If she was more lucid, Snorkmaiden would swoon when she noticed her beautiful witchy friend supporting her. All those feelings went swimming in the wine, gradually showing on her fur in patches of pink.
“I’ll take her home, Moominpappa,” Alicia called, patting Snorkmaiden’s shoulder. The tap of her hand against Snorkmaiden’s strong bones ran along her skin until bumps raised below the fur. The thought of Alicia standing so close and supporting her weight would continue to occupy her wine-drenched mind while Alicia helped Snorkmaiden take one step at a time away from the party.
As the lights dimmed from view and the music faded into the night, Snorkmaiden leaned her shoulder into Alicia’s side. With just the two of them wandering alone in the woods, Alicia kept a hand out to navigate until the two of them reached the wide stretches of Moominvalley. They walked in silence, letting the stars guide them until they reached the house that belonged to Snork.
Entering the house, Snorkmaiden hoped to sneak to bed without worrying her brother. Lady Luck was all too cruel to her, however, for the first thing she saw was the Snork in the kitchen preparing a sandwich.
“Oh, you’re home!” Snork finished cutting the sandwich in two triangles and set the plate on the counter. “I see you brought Alicia along. Did something happen at the party?” He spoke with a pointed tone, not entirely cross, but still probing the two girls for an answer.
Shifting the weight of Snorkmaiden onto her shoulder, she held her close. Worrying Snork was not something that would endear her to her friend. Her eyes darted around the room, keeping Snork out of her vision as she pleaded with her brain for a solid explanation. “Snorkmaiden told me she was tired from the night before, so she ended up falling asleep at the party and wanted to come back home.” You fool, Alicia cursed to herself. None of that sentence is true!
Snork’s tail thumped against the ground and his fur changed to a colour that Alicia couldn’t see in the darkened house. This was a dangerous situation - being unable to read Snork’s emotions left Alicia with no hope to appease him to his satisfaction. Dear, oh dear, what should she do?
“Listen…” Against her shoulder, Snorkmaiden roused and pointed to her brother, her now scarlet fur standing on end. “I get that you want to look out for me, but I’m a grown snork. I can do what I want!” Her voice lost its drifting cadence, and the words formed into their own without blending and slurring into one another as they did before. “I just tripped and fell. That’s all. I didn’t get hurt, I didn’t get lost in the woods, I’m fine .” The last words scattered from Snorkmaiden’s mouth in shards of ice. Alicia looked from her incensed friend to the snork with the sandwich, worried about who would snap first.
The thumping of the tail slowed, and Snork let out a long and slow breath. “I’m sorry, dear sister. I don’t like it when you get hurt, but I like it even less when you feel like you or your friends have to lie to me to spare my feelings.” Turning back to the counter, he took the plate with the sandwich slices and looked out the window facing the kitchen. “Alicia, you can help her to bed. We can talk about this tomorrow.”
The tension dissipated between the three of them, slinking through the crack of the door. Alicia helped Snorkmaiden across the floor and up the stairs while the Snork helped himself to his sandwich.
By the time they reached Snorkmaiden’s room, the moonbeams shone with tender blues through the glass and onto her bed. Snorkmaiden took her first stride from Alicia’s arms across the distance to her bed. Like toddlers do, she outstretched her arms to keep her steps balanced.
Once her hoof tapped the edge of her bed, she flew forward, focusing all her weight on the middle of the mattress. As the duvet splashed around her, Snorkmaiden giggled and put a hand to her forehead. Alicia, having seen her beloved friend wander from her arms to the middle of her bed, must admit that she was amused by the situation. Her laugh joined her friend, cheeks blooming with roses as their laughs mingled, transforming into dulcet harmonies.
Snorkmaiden tried to sit up, having run out of breath from chortling so much. “Ah, how silly I can be,” she remarked, putting a hand to her beating heart. Now that Alicia had no reason to stay, Snorkmaiden could finally rest off her little escapades and feel refreshed at the call of the morning birds. But the thought of being alone for the night was far too much to bear.
“A-Alicia,” she started, her voice trembling as if she was asking for something thoroughly forbidden. “W-would you like to stay here for the night? I don’t… Just in case something happens in the night, you know? I don’t want Snork to worry about me.”
In the faint beams of the moon, the deep reds of her fur melted into a coy and inviting tangerine orange. A warm sunrise, the whips of flames, the moon in the night sky of a dry arid desert - this heat within Snorkmaiden could not be denied. Alicia had never seen this from Snorkmaiden before, even in her attempts to decode the hues of her mood. With the two of them alone, Alicia felt witness to a sparkling miracle, as if she was seeing the famed King’s Ruby for herself.
“I’d love to, if only there was some place for me to sleep,” Alicia pointed out. But the rich coffee ring of Snorkmaiden’s eyes within the orange begged her, speaking to her and no one else.
“You could share the bed with me! We can both fit if we squeeze close together.” Snorkmaiden’s paw picked up the cover of the duvet, lifting it up and revealing a triangle of the mattress. The space left by the lady laying on the bed was scant - a moomin or another snork would have their backs hanging over the edge of the bed, but for a small witch like Alicia, she could slot herself close and still have enough space to breathe.
“I suppose I shall!” Alicia responded, sitting on the edge of the bed to undo her boots which were coated in fine dirt from their walk. In the meantime, Snorkmaiden rolled to lift up the duvet so Alicia could get underneath. But with Alicia planted firmly on top of the duvet, Snorkmaiden could not lift the edge. In her attempt, she tugged it from under her, which led to the inebriated snork falling over the side with a yelp. In the middle of unlacing her right boot, Alicia hopped off the bed and looked over the side.
“Snorkmaiden! Are you alright?” Alicia cried, her right boot falling off her foot as she leapt over the side to help her friend stand up again.
“I am, dear me, I am,” she mumbled, the tangerine burning wilder within her fur. “I’ll be fine in the morning, I promise.”
Alicia, kneeling on the bed, kept a hold of Snorkmaiden’s paws, her worried eyes scanning for any bruises or bumps on her hair. Her auburn hair lightened in patches of star trails and moonbeams from the window. Her emerald eyes swallowed her pupils as if to say that yes, she is the apprentice of the Witch.
But how could witches ever be this beautiful?
Snorkmaiden’s tummy turned, and a roiling bubble rolled up her throat. She would have to speak now, before the beauty of the night fades.
“Alicia, I think you’re just so beautiful,” she started, her feet already losing the tempo of the music in her mind. Stumbling forward into Alicia’s hands, Snorkmaiden’s voice blended into an unrecognisable timbre. “You- mmph, you- Oh dear, for a witch, you’re stunning- but not just for a witch! For a moomin or a snork or a mymble or any possible thing you could be! And you’re, well, you’re one of the best friends I’ve ever had. You listen to me when I’m down, you love picking flowers with me, and I just want to pick all the flowers and press them in all the books and give them to you to show how beautiful you are. Because, because, because…” Snorkmaiden dropped her snout, hiding her eyes while the orange faded until her fur shone with a fine rose gold. “Because I love you, Alicia.”
Alicia formed a perfect ‘oh’, tumbling from her teeth to the ground and leaving an O under her nose. The crickets called in the night, the chirps filling the space between their words. Snorkmaiden’s paws pressed their pads to Alicia’s palms. The sunset of Snorkmaiden’s eyes faded as her uneven eyelids closed one after the other. As anxiety rattled her spinning mind, the snork pushed her elbows hard into her side, standing perfectly still.
“Gosh, Snorkmaiden, I…” Alicia trailed off as she pulled her hand out of the grip. She reached for the fringe of hair casting its shadows over Snorkmaiden’s face, leaving not a hair astray. Her fingers wandered down the rosy fur, a child running through the long grass until they reached the hill. When Alicia stroked her thumb along the underside of her snout, Snorkmaiden gulped. If Alicia was going to break her heart, why would she be so kind?
“I never thought I would ever know what love feels like. Grandma would never let me think of it. As a witch, I always thought it was something forbidden, or it got in the way of my studies. Witches are supposed to be mean and grouchy, you know. At least, that’s what she told me.”
Alicia’s thumb squished into the snout, sinking into the plump snork’s tentative frown. “But by the time I’m old and grey and a bitter old witch, I will look back and lament how I didn’t take the plunge. And if there’s anyone I want to dive into the great unknown with, it’s you. You have such an open heart, and you wear it on your sleeve. You’re always taking me with you to have fun that I can’t have with anyone else. I don’t ever want to forget you, my sweet Snorkmaiden. You helped me learn what love feels like, and I want to share that love with you.”
The tender reflection of the moon in Snorkmaiden’s pupils broke as she squeezed the tears from the corners of her eyes. Her brain may not have been able to understand, but her heart received the message. When the heart works alone, it works harder, and so every emotion for Snorkmaiden was magnified to the point where the rose of her fur washed away until she was the colour of sea foam, nourishing the sands with joyous tears.
“Alicia, my love!” Snorkmaiden cried for the first time, her arms outstretched until they latched onto the witch, the one solid foundation that could stop her from falling. With all her heart, Alicia welcomed the Snorkmaiden home into her arms. The world outside sighed, the night time bugs fluttered, and the grass danced with the moon. All the shame from before melted into one unconditional display of love, open for anyone who let it in.
As they peeled away from an embrace so tender the heart could not help but get entangled, they stared into each other’s eyes, their faces unreadable. Their arms did not drop, still holding each other as if any second without paws to rounded shoulders and hands to fur-covered hips would be wasted.
Tears running from Snorkmaiden’s eyes left tiny stains on the sea foam, darkening the spot under its spread. Oh, how Alicia couldn’t stand to see her lover’s tears, even if the sweetest elixir could be harvested from its shape! Alicia’s hands cupped Snorkmaiden’s cheeks, the thumbs wiping the stains from the foam. The room fell to silence, as if one had stolen the breath of the other and lost their breath running with it in their clutch. The hair on the Snorkmaiden’s nose blew against Alicia’s nose. How close they were, and yet, oh so far.
The silence made its own language out of words unsaid, spoken only to those who would listen to it.
Alicia placed her lips to the Snorkmaiden’s snout, diving into the sea foam and letting it splash her face. Closing her eyes, she let the grass grow over her cheeks as she reached for Snorkmaiden’s back and held her close. Momentarily startled, Snorkmaiden closed her eyes, sharing in Alicia’s kiss to the tip of her snout as she moved closer to her precious loving friend.
They were two very creatures from different walks of life. One was a snork who grew up with her brother and always hoped that the one she loved would turn up at her door and whisk her away on the back of a white steed like the books she read. The other was a witch who was destined for powerful magic, forced to abstain from love for the benefit of ascending to the highest realms of witchhood.
But both of them were hungry for love, clawing and scrambling for what could fit their hearts. Snorkmaiden hoped that Moomintroll would be the knight riding the steed, but far too often was he a wilting damsel waiting for when his beloved would return from the south. Alicia put her studies first, forever and always, but when Snorkmaiden and her friends entered her life, she became the apple in her garden of Eden, tempting her from the path of righteousness.
In this way, they were one and the same. No one would understand each other more than they did. They had the same heart in two different bodies. Alicia was Snorkmaiden’s knight, using her broom in lieu of a steed. And all for the better - steeds don’t normally fly. Snorkmaiden’s temptation proved to be Alicia’s ruin, but Adam and Eve were always doomed to sin, and so was she. With lip to snout, they conjoined, sealing the pact to never leave. And why would they? They have everything they need within one another, and they will never part.
As Snorkmaiden rubbed her snout against Alicia’s lips, the kiss broke and they pulled away with open eyes. After sharing such a loving kiss, Alicia looked different from before, but better than before, glowing with love and joy. There was something about such a wonderful kiss that could transform the face of the one they looked at afterwards, as if the ethereal fuzz in the corner of the eyes upon opening their lids never faded. Alicia’s face was framed in a vignette, her features shimmering and pronounced.
Wobbling from her hands down her arms, Snorkmaiden smiled so large that it upturned her snout. From under the floorboards, she could hear the creak of the stairs; it was probably her brother Snork heading off to bed. Snorkmaiden’s eyelids fluttered as she sighed a heavy yawn.
“I suppose it is time to rest my eyes for tonight, as much as I want to keep looking at your wonderfully spellbinding face, Alicia my love,” Snorkmaiden slurred, the inebriation dancing with her exhaustion until nothing intelligent or coherent could be said.
“Oh, but Snorkmaiden,” Alicia replied, cradling the snout of her lover and threading her thumbs through the fine furs of her body. “You can always see me in your dreams.”
Her smile curved like a humble worm, navigating the fine grass. The reality around her faded, dreams spinning within her waking vision. If this was a dream, it would be a far too terrible thing to wake up! Pulling back the fine sheets, Snorkmaiden shuffled under the covers and lay her head, sea foam carried by the down of her pillow. Alicia settled on the other side of the mattress, facing her new lady friend. The material within the mattress shifted until it evened out under their shared weight, perfectly balancing the two lovers.
Snorkmaiden pulled the hefty cover up, enveloping her and Alicia up to the shoulders. The world could no longer see their hands, shrouded by the sheets and surreptitiously stroking. Where they would end is something only Snorkmaiden and Alicia can know. The window shone the moon on their faces, eyes over the fluttering lashes and the flaring nostrils as they breathed each other in and rested until their hearts beat louder than their voice.
Alicia moved in close, burying her face into Snorkmaiden’s shoulder. The larger snork took the witch close to her bosom, making herself a canopy. Small creature hiding into large bear of a lady, Alicia looked up to the ceiling to see how the knots in the wood smiled down on them, just for tonight.
With a twitch of her ear, Snorkmaiden roused from her half-asleep stupor, a concerning thought pressing on her mind. “You don’t think the Witch will be too cross with you tomorrow morning?” By the stars above, Snorkmaiden would endeavour to have Alicia by her side until eternity is snuffed out in a cruel display of arrogance, but the world is not too kind. They both had commitments that could peel them away from one another, and Alicia’s was far more pressing.
Alicia petted Snorkmaiden’s ruff, losing her hand to the growth. “I told her I was searching for some rare moon tadpoles, and that they only come to the lakes in Moominvalley at night. I can’t imagine how she’ll react when I come home to a half-made brew with no tadpoles to put in it.” Furrowing her eyebrows, she looked over her shoulder, as if her grandmother had found a spot of magic that could teleport her in the room. “Maybe I could fib and tell her the tadpoles were too hard to catch.”
Arms to Alicia’s sides, Snorkmaiden ran her paws up until they took her shoulders. At this, Alicia glanced back to Snorkmaiden, whose copper eyes turned strong in the moonlight’s glare. “You could do what I did to Snork! Just tell her the truth and don’t back down until she backs down. Honestly, your grandma and my brother are too alike. They always stick their long noses in our businesses and never listen to us unless we get mean.”
Alicia’s scalp prickled, like a creepy crawly had fallen from the ceiling and nestled in her hair. Backing the Witch into a corner was not a technique she was unfamiliar with - she used it many a time to beg her to see the Moomins - but this felt even larger. This was a direct violation of the principles her grandmother held, and something that could have made Alicia even less of a witch. Could she really stand tall with this?
But Snorkmaiden could sense her hesitation. She eclipsed her hand with her soft and large paw, digits wrapping around the palm. It was then when Alicia remembered - this was love. This was companionship, this was infatuation, this was togetherness. If the Witch would not stand for her scoundrel of a heart finding its soulmate, the stars above would be enough, glistening in the sky as the two of them declared their love in the swirling and blooming expanse of the valley.
“Okay, my sweetheart,” Alicia fawned, her other hand reaching for Snorkmaiden’s shoulder. “You are my once in a lifetime. If I can’t have you and be a witch, I would gladly give it up! It would hurt far too much to rob a heart that I cannot love forever.”
With a squeal, Snorkmaiden pressed snout to lips again, the waves washing more sea foam over her fur. Alicia pressed her body close to the plump curve of Snorkmaiden’s stomach, a shape too perfect for this world. In this kiss, they told their secrets, they shared their futures, they hoped for a future that would welcome them. A life without love was scarcely a life lived, and the two girls knew this more than any other universal truth. This bed would see them again and again, but they did not need to know this. All they needed to know was that they would love each other tonight, and they would love each other again and again.
And by the stars, no force within the valley could change that.