Dread Companion 1

• I read this Andre Norton again on Dec 25, 2007, many years after my first reading. A young lady, Kilda, is in charge of tutoring two children, and the older one, Bartare, acts as a changeling, compelling her younger brother, Oomark, to follow her into a fairy-land to join with the Folk led by her dread companion, Melusa. Kilda, equipped with a back-pack holding food for a picnic, follows them through a 'gate' and finds her-self in a world of shapes, where Oomark sees trees, rocks, and berries.
  
• There is a 3 way struggle in this land, for there is fruit for the Folk, other fruit for the Dark, and flowers of the notus for the original inhabitants of the land who were displaced by the Folk. The flowers allow Kilda to reverse the change in shape, by cutting through the transformative properties of the Folk's fruit. Kilda meets Kasgro, a first on planet scout who had stumbled into the land 400 years earlier, and who had existed on fruit when his home food was stolen. He had not offered allegiance to either the Folk or the Dark, and had been changed to a satyr, even as Oomark is changing into a faun. Kilda's food, and the flowers slowly change them back, and even manage to change back Bartare, who is rejected by the Folk. They return 100 years later, to a planet distorted by the chaos of an alien invasion. Bartare and Oomark are content to stay, but Kilda joins Kasgro in his 500 year old scout ship to see what is left.
  
• The agonies of avoiding the Folk's fruit, the struggles with agents of the Dark who may be controlled by their names, and the abilities to travel long distances by ritual paths are all familiar themes which are used to keep the tension going. I was concerned for Kilda, who knew nothing of the land, until she stumbles on the flowers of the notus, (her power base, along with the food in the backpack) and enlists the aid of Kasgro. I was opposed to the selfish workings of Bartare, who dominated her younger brother by fear, and who finally rejects the promises of the Folk, even being unwilling to record what she had learned of them for posterity. I saw the odd shapes of the unfamiliar land, where things are colorful cylinders and triangles, and where the temptation to eat the luscious food of the Folk must be fought.
  
• My book was published by Ace in 1970.
  
• This is my first entry, for reader travel. Since I have retired and ordered my books for packing for Finland, I anticipate writing many thumbnail accounts of books, short stories, and National Geographic travel articles.