I saw it, now, in how I had treated little Martha. My small kindnesses to her came from what I had learned from the prince.
As I gazed down on him, remembering all that, my eyes began to sting.
I lurched back in shock.
Was I about to weep?
No, that was impossible!
“TROLLS DO NOT WEEP!” I shouted.
But the next instant, a sob burst from my chest…a sob pulled from a place so deep inside me that I had not known it existed. At the same time, warm droplets flooded my eyes and rolled onto my cheeks.
I was horrified, terrified, knowing that to weep is utterly untrollish. Yet I could do nothing to stop it. The tears poured down my cheeks to fall upon the prince’s face, upon his full lips, his high cheeks, and most of all on his eyelids, those eyelids so long closed in magical sleep.
Eyelids that now, impossible as it seemed, flickered open.
I backed away, expecting the prince to scream or cry out at the sight of my hideousness.
Instead, Gustav Fredrik smiled, lifted his hand to my cheek, and whispered, “There you are! I’ve been looking for you for such a long time.” He gazed around, then said, in total confusion, “But where am I? I was sure I was out searching for you. Was it all a dream?” He shook his head. “How long have I been dreaming? Where am I? How did I get here?”
“My mother ensorcelled you,” I said, feeling embarrassed. “You have been caught in a magical sleep.”
“For how long?” he asked, his voice more urgent now.
I took a deep breath, then said, “You’ve been hidden below Troll Mountain for a hundred and fifty years.”
“That can’t be!” He struggled to sit up but couldn’t, his body weak from long disuse. “My mother! My father! What has happened to them?”
“Long gone,” I said.
He uttered a deep moan. “I am starting to remember. Oh, our last words were harsh ones, and now they can never be taken back! Oh, Mother. Oh, Father!”
“Harsh in what way?” I asked.
“My parents and I had a terrible fight.”
“Over what?”
“Over you. After my argument with them, I stormed out of the castle to look for you, to apologize for how I had acted when you revealed the truth to me. There was a lot to be angry about, given your falseness. But there was also the fact of your brave truth, and what I suspected it must have cost you. I wanted to see if we could be friends.” He paused, put his hand on my cheek again, and said, “I have never forgotten that you had the courage to tell me the truth.”
From The Annals of Troll Mountain
By Aspen Markonnis
Using ravens and cats, word was sent throughout the mountain that the king had fled and the queen was calling a Haudglazzim in the Great Cavern.
It was the first such gathering in many years, for the king had stopped caring about the proper proceedings long ago.
As the scribe of Troll Mountain, I took my place in the niche reserved for me, from which I could observe and record all that happened. As I watched the cavern fill, I thought happily of the few moments I had been able to share with Nettie before events caught us up again.
However, I was also growing nervous. What was to be done now? Troll Mountain did need a king…or at least someone to be in charge of things. King Wergis had expected to live for many years to come, and in his misbegotten pride had trained no one to take his place.
I had read enough of the outside world to know what kind of chaos was likely to come upon us if we remained leaderless. But I also knew that we did not need another tyrant.
And then there was the problem of the prince. Nettie had woken him. But his parents, friends, family were all long gone. And Finland in the human world, his world, had no need for a prince in these modern times.
When the gathering of trolls and tonttus and ravens and cats was complete, and the cavern had been sung into a low but lasting light so that the Haudglazzim could commence, the queen stood upon the speaking stone and told everyone what had happened.
I have drawn that moment, because it was such an awesome sight.
The gathering roared in approval when they heard that the king was gone…and laughed uproariously at the story of the rosy fart that had sent him out of the mountain.
When they had settled, the queen said, “But now we need a new ruler.”
“No king! No king!” chanted the crowd, for all had grown bitter and restless under the tyranny of Wergis.
“I will think on this,” said the queen. “I will meet with my council of trolls and tonttus. Tomorrow night we will gather again to hear my suggestion. For now, go peaceful to your homes and know that the tyrant is gone and the threat to Troll Mountain is over. What will come tomorrow, we do not know. What we do know is that the long nightmare has ended.”
I heard some sighs, some murmurs, a few grumbles. Even so, the cavern slowly emptied.
Later that night the seven most important trolls and the five most important tonttus (myself among them) came to the queen’s chambers.
Already present were Princess Nettie, Prince Gustav Fredrik, Raimo Takala and his raven, and Raimo’s mostly human grandson, along with the cat and the brownie the boy had brought along on his journey.
The discussion about how to replace the king was hot and heavy. After much back-and-forth, I suggested, “If no king, what about a mayor?”
Then I had to explain what that was.
When I was done, almost everyone agreed it was a good idea.
“But who will do it?” asked the queen. “There is no one here who has any idea how to run things.”
“Actually, there is one among us who was born to rule,” I said.
“Being born to rule is an outmoded idea,” said Raimo.
Though I was slightly miffed by this, I took a few breaths, then said, “I agree. Let me repeat myself in a slightly different way. There is one among us who was raised to rule, and trained in the ways of leadership.”
“Who?” asked several tonttus all at once.
“Prince Gustav Fredrik, of course.”
Not surprisingly, this was greeted by cries of rage. “We will not be ruled by a human!” shouted voices from all over the cave.
“I am not talking about ruling. I am talking about leading!” I replied angrily.
That was no good, of course. I had lost the argument by getting angry. It was probably too hard to explain right then, anyway.
But the queen stepped forward and startled everyone by saying, “There is no reason that the prince must remain a human.”
This was met by stunned silence, except from the prince himself, who said, “What do you mean, Hekthema?”
“You have no place in the outside world, Gustav Fredrik. That is my fault, and I apologize. And you are needed here. Which is all to the good, since you need a place to be needed. All you need do now is agree to one thing.”
“And what is that?”
“How would you like to become a troll?”
The eruption of voices that followed was silenced by Hekthema roaring, “QUIET!”
Few there are who could have stilled that uproar, but she managed it.
When silence had returned, she said, “Am I not still the Witch Queen of Troll Mountain?”
After a moment of silence someone cried, “All hail the queen!”
Other voices joined in, until the cave rang with her praise.
She raised her arms.
“I will not remain queen for long if the prince agrees to my proposal.” Turning to him, she said, “What shall it be, Gustav Fredrik? Will you return to the human world, where you will be a man out of place and out of time? Or will you remain with us, become one of us, and help us in our hour of need? I know you have been treated badly by us. No. I take that back. You were treated badly by me. But everything is changing. We are changing. You are changing. Will you change yourself to join us?”
The prince looked at Nettie and smiled. Then he turned to her mothe
r and said, “Can you really make me a troll?”
Hekthema shook her head. “Not totally. But close enough for government work.”
He nodded and replied, “Then let’s do it.”
The queen’s face grew serious. “We need the agreement of one more person,” she said.
“And that would be?” asked the prince.
“My daughter.” The queen turned to Nettie. “Through my bad acts you once gained and lost this prince. Now he stands before you, ready to enter our world. Will you give up some of your trollishness to let him do so?”
Nettie did not hesitate. Looking at her mother, she said, “Tell me what I must do.”
Nettie, afterward (continued)
My old friend Aspen says I did not hesitate to agree to my mother’s proposal, and that is true.
But my thoughts were far from calm. What did this mean? What did it mean for me? What did it mean for the prince?
In front of all who were gathered, Mother said, “Daughter, in summoning Gustav Fredrik back from near death with your tears, you bonded with him in a very deep way. Now we must make that a bond of the body as well as the heart. Therefore, we must apply for Early Entrollment. However, we can do this only if you are completely ready for it.”
“What must I do?” I asked.
Mother’s face grew stern. “That is not the question, Nettie. The question is, are you truly willing? If you have doubts, this will not work. If you have qualms, it will not work. So I must ask: Are you ready to give yourself over to this?”
I looked at the prince.
I searched my heart.
Then I nodded and said, “I am ready.”
Mother turned to Gustav Fredrik and asked, “Are you ready to change?”
He bowed slightly and said, “I have already changed in more ways than I have yet begun to understand. But I am ready for more.”
“Then come with me,” said Mother.
Turning to the others in the cave, she proclaimed, “This will take time. Tomorrow we will gather once more to see if the Entrollment is successful.”
When all but our closest friends were gone, Mother turned to the prince and me and said, “This is going to hurt. But it is also everything you have wanted.”
(Unpublished manuscript in the collection of Raimo Takala)
From The Memoirs of Prince Gustav Fredrik
After what happened that night, I would say that I was the happiest of all men, save that I was no longer a man.
Nor was I a troll.
I do not think there is really a word for what I had become. A truman? A humoll?
I was simply something in between.
But that was how I had felt all my life, anyway…something in between.
Well, that is neither here nor there. Better to talk about what actually happened.
Hekthema led Nettie and me to a small, dark place.
“This will take time,” she said. “And it will not be without pain. But that is the price of transformation. I ask one last time, because this must be done without question or qualm, are you ready for this?”
I looked at Nettie. Despite her initial false front, she was the only person…only being, I suppose…who had ever been fully honest with me.
And all I had ever wanted was the truth.
I thought about the world I would leave behind and felt a pang of loss. Yet I did not mourn for it. I had grown weary of its falseness. Besides, it was gone anyway, that world I had known. Had I tried to go back, I would have been entering a world as strange and unknown to me as the world of Troll Mountain.
“I am ready,” I said.
Then I looked at Nettie. She was huge and hideous, but also the most honest and loving being I had ever known.
And, in truth, not entirely hideous. Her eyes were deep and wide and filled with warmth. Anyone with an ounce of sense could see that they were those of someone with a loving spirit. That was my Nettie, the troll girl whose tears had snatched me from the jaws of death, and worse. (And who knew until then that there really was a fate worse than death?)
“I am ready,” she whispered. As she did, she looked directly into my eyes, searching for any quail or qualm.
I hope she did not see any.
“Then we begin,” said Hekthema.
She rolled two boulders across the floor until they were side by side, then bade Nettie and me to sit upon them, facing each other.
When we were in position, Hekthema bared our arms. Then she pulled from her waistband a knife of stone. With it she made certain cuts in the underside of our arms.
I tried not to cry out, but I fear I made sounds that were less than brave.
Next she positioned our bare and bleeding arms, placing my right forearm palm up, Nettie’s left forearm palm down against it. She did the reverse for our other arms…this time Nettie’s below, mine on top. Once she was satisfied, she used leather thongs to bind them together.
That accomplished, she murmured some strange words.
Then she left us in the darkness for what would be the longest night of my life.
Well, the longest night was the endless night I wandered in that Enchanted Sleep. But then I was aware of nothing, merely lost in dreams, some delightful, some filled with terror.
For this night I was fully alert, with all my nerves on edge.
Sometimes I screamed.
The body does not change without some pain.
Nettie whimpered but did not scream. I do not know, even now, if that was because she is stronger than I am (that would not surprise me) or only because it hurts more to get larger than it does to get smaller.
I slept sometimes, I think.
Other times, Nettie and I talked. In the dark, it didn’t matter what we looked like. In the dark, only truth mattered.
This was what my heart had longed for.
I had met so many princesses, so very many princesses who shimmered with beauty on the outside but spoke from places that I knew to be false.
Now my heart felt safe, and close, and at ease.
Loving and wanting are not the same thing.
Want is for taking.
Love is for giving.
And for forgiving.
I had never before felt love the way I felt it that long, painful, terrifying, and utterly beautiful night.
There were times when my body twisted in agony.
There were times when I felt swept away by bliss.
The night seemed endless…yet when Hekthema returned to free us from our bonds, it felt as if it had been far too brief.
Nettie, afterward (continued)
I never believed I could be happy.
I never believed I could find love.
Yet here I am, happy and in love with my slightly hideous prince.
We are the same height.
I am shorter than I was. He is taller.
My teeth are straighter, his are more scraggled.
My nose is smaller, his is larger, like a half a pickle.
We look like we belong together.
He is the mayor of Troll Mountain. Someday it is likely I will be mayoress. We will take turns, when my people are ready for female leadership.
I think it will be soon.
And, who knows, the day may come when someone else is elected and we will give over our responsibilities.
That will be all right, too.
I want to do my part and make things better here in the mountain.
But I don’t particularly want to be in charge of anything.
I simply want to be with the man I love.
Even if he is now half troll.
Like me.
Text messages between Raimo Takala and Cody Takala
Raimo
Thanks for the ride home, Grandson. My first time traveling in the family cauldron!
Cody
Glad to be of service, Gramps! I just wish I still had that time peg. Then I could come visit you again.
Raimo
Maybe we ca
n arrange a somewhat more normal visit next summer.
Cody
I’d love that! But, um…what if Dad wants to come along?
Raimo
Well, now that Hekthema owes us a favor, I suspect she could help me look my age—my human age—for a while, so as not to upset your dad too much.
Cody
Let’s plan on it!
Text messages between Alex Carhart and Cody Takala
Alex
I can’t believe you sent Angus back to me via FedEx Overnight!
Cody
He was eager to get home.
Alex
Well, he changed his mind somewhere along the way. He was fit to be tied when he came out of that box.
Cody
I can just imagine!
Alex
But once he calmed down he told me everything that happened. I am boggled!
Cody
I am exhausted. But really happy.
Alex
You should be. Both.
Cody
Thank goodness the time peg worked! But I’m really going to miss Nettie. And Dad is going to be upset that he’s lost one of his best workers.
Alex
He’ll get over it.
Cody
Prolly. Thank goodness he won’t know it was my fault.
Alex
We’re really lucky, Cody.
Cody
Lucky?
Alex
I mean, to have had these adventures.
Trolled Page 15
