by P. S. Power
The man smiled and bowed to everyone.
“Hello! I’m Baron second Ferdinand Gala. Thank you all for coming to join us for our celebration! We weren’t expecting any important guests, but everyone is welcome…” The man seemed to run out of things to say, allowing an older woman that looked vaguely familiar to Tor to step forward.
She wasn’t pretty, a little broad faced and slightly hard lived, but her smile grew wide making her face seem alive. Light blue eyes glinting over her own red outfit that, other than the color, looked a lot like what the Baron second Gala wore, except that the vest was a tasteful brown, which worked well with the almost burgundy colored shirt under it.
She bowed towards Rolph and held it. It was a long enough action that everyone else followed suit after about ten seconds, eyes going wide.
“Prince Alphonse! So good to see you.” The woman announced this, Tor realized, as more of a warning to anyone in earshot about who was there than anything else. Clever of her, and something he should remember just in case a similar situation ever came up in the future.
The woman then bowed to Trice, who had stood when Rolph had. No one seemed upset, but it was probably a good idea to meet strangers on their feet, so Tor stood up as well when Sara did. He got ready to slap his shield on just in case, but tried not to look like a spas about it. So far these people had seemed polite enough.
“Baronetta Morgan?” The woman hazarded, her voice a little tentative.
“Ducherina Morgan, but please, call me Patricia.”
The woman went wide eyed and bowed again. It was well done on Trice’s part, since she’d have been in her rights to chew the woman out over getting her title wrong. That she’d treated the whole thing casually made her look good he knew. It would have to him at least, if he’d been the one making the mistake.
“Thank you… Patricia.”
Sara grinned and moved forward to give the woman a small hug.
“Aunt Betty! This is my aunt, well second aunt really. She leads Debri house in Galasia. So, that must be where we are.” Sara chuckled and stood back so that she could be introduced.
“This is Sara Debri, daughter of Heather Debri and the woman that personally arranged for Tor to make the miracle that saved the city!” Aunt Betty yelled this rather loudly, her voice sounding joyful enough to Tor. It was kind of true, in that Sara had passed the message to him herself and explained what was needed, plus he’d done it because she was his friend and asked. He nodded a little. Yeah, it was fair.
The crowd had grown a bit while the introductions were being made and a large cheer went up, almost making Tor trigger the shield for real. People surged forward to try and touch her, as if her good deeds would give them luck or maybe just trying to cop a feel if the look on some of the men’s faces could be interpreted by someone like him. After a half minute both he and Rolph started laughing and slapping at hands a little, forming an impromptu honor guard of sorts around their pretty blond friend.
Ferdinand smiled and stuck his hand out towards Tor, indicating that he got that the smaller man was probably some country guy. Tor took the hand easily and shook, leaning in from a distance as was appropriate.
“Don’t want to forget anyone. May I ask who you are sir?” The tone was polite and interested, kind even.
“Oh, me? Torrance Baker. I’m just the guy that helps with the luggage and whatever little projects come up.” He waved his hand towards the boxes behind them. It was literally the truth after all. He’d even nailed the plates to all the chests himself earlier.
The Baron second smiled and patted him on the back as the crowed started chanting Sara’s name.
Chapter four
In all it took nearly two hours to get Sara back from the crowd, and another three for everyone in the town to feel satisfied that they had done everything in their power to make sure she knew how grateful they all were to her. Singers came forth and sang several songs in which she featured prominently, which made her blush prettily and hide her face in her hands. The singers weren’t all that good, some hit more than a couple flat notes and the words made it clear that the writers hadn’t been professionals at all.
It was heartfelt and touching for all that. Tor felt tears coming to his eyes a few times when the songs spoke of how they were nearly dead, how people had laid in the street suffering and even those not made ill were dying of thirst as they struggled to care for those that simply wouldn’t make it. He hadn’t known how bad it had been. When a group of school kids acted the whole thing out, he had to hide his face from the crowd, so that no one would see how soft he really was.
Crying at a children’s play? After a few minutes he noticed that he wasn’t the only one. Ferdinand used a handkerchief to dry his own tears and caught Tor noticing the action, his own eyes tearing a bit at the time. He smiled a little, sadly, and went back to watching the play.
Then the scene changed to a dark cave, in the wilderness most likely, but you could only see the inside, a rough place that looked well constructed enough that you really kind of felt like it was a cave in truth, not just a painted backdrop. Someone had put some real effort in, making it three dimensional and everything.
A tall blond girl, who might have been twelve or so entered the cave, fighting her way through several trials to get there. A wall of force that had no source, which she cleverly tricked a giant with red hair into turning off for her was the first one. Tor smiled getting it. That was supposed to be Rolph? Well, he was big enough… The force field then was the door to their room? There was that magical device he had to use to let her in, so the play was kind of right in a stylistic way. Then she had to face down a pack of wild beasts, who she sang to sleep with her beautiful voice. The girl could actually sing, Tor noticed, even if the song itself was just a simple lullaby. Then she had to face freezing to death while she walked the endless track of cave, snow falling on her even inside. That, no cleverness would fix, so she had to simply persevere, going on simply because Galasia needed her too. A boy narrated this for them, so they didn’t get lost.
Tor couldn’t get the last things. Freezing? In his room? Was that about the heat plate thing? The timing for that would be way off though. And why were there beasts? Their dorm didn’t even have a pet cat or dog like some of the sections did.
Finally she had to face the evil troll know as Tor. He was short, played by an old man that stood on his knees, so that the proportions were “right”. Their Tor had a lumpy mask which appeared to have currants or raisins stuck all over it haphazardly. Moles he realized after a second. The nose was huge. Big enough that Tor touched his own nose self-consciously. His nose didn’t look like that. It was slightly small if anything. In his whole life no one had ever bothered to make fun of his nose, not even Dorgal. His hair, his too pale skin, his being too skinny or little, all that, but his nose? Trice saw him do it and stiffened a bit, he noticed. He did it again and gave her a worried grin.
The troll Tor didn’t seem to care much for Galasia at all, saying several times that the city deserved its fate for being lazy and not doing the work they should have to fix the problem before it poisoned them all.
“They deserve to die. It’s no kindness to save them, for they shall only forget in time and let this happen again. Oh yes, oh yes. Humans always forget their lessons.” The troll shouted at the audience shaking a fist. The audience booed back and called out denials, saying they’d never forget.
The girl cried, and pleaded, and even offered her own hand in marriage to get the evil little being to cooperate, which he cruelly spurned. He spent several minutes berating the girl for daring to think she was good enough for a being of true magic like him and called her names that Tor thought were a bit strong for a children’s event, if not actual curse words. The troll even called her ugly and suggested she go away and die several times. Tor definitely didn’t remember that conversation with Sara at any point. Really it had been more of her handing him an envelope and explaining things and him setting to
work on a plan, then going almost directly into an emergency build.
Finally the evil Tor Troll relented, but he placed a geas on the devices he sent with her, so that they would run for only twenty years and not a second more.
“If in that time the fools of Galasia cannot fix their own problems in two decades, then they deserve to parish. Any fool could fix such a trifle in the time they have. Let them not come back to me a second time if they fail to even try! I’m much too busy for such nonsense. Much too busy. Now take these devices and be gone girl. I have work to do and no time to stand about nattering with the likes of you.”
Thanking the mean little being profusely for a while the girl then flew to Galasia to save city. She just held her left hand out in front of her and ran around the stage while a crew of others changed the scene. It was the wrong hand for the flying rigs back then of course, and Sara would have walked back to her room, not flown anyway, but that was pretty trivial all things considered. It was a cute way of doing it, giving you something to watch while the work was being done behind her. It even gave a hint that she was flying when they carried the new backdrop in. No one else died from the sickness and the water that had gone foul and stinking was restored, better than it was before even, made clean and pure so that it could be drunk safely without even boiling first.
Really, for a kids play it was pretty good. Better than anything the Two Bends School had ever put on. Tor clapped loudly when it was over and the kids all took their bows. For a laugh the old man that played Tor the troll came out for a bow too, only to have the girl take him away by the ear. It was cute, obviously planned out ahead of time; still the laugh it got was earned.
The girl was actually a decent actress, which Tor mentioned to the Ferdinand, who sat closest to him, being on the right of the bench they all sat on, Trice being on his left, holding his hand a little harder than normal.
“My daughter Meryl. They all worked very hard on this production, as you can tell no doubt. I can’t say that I agree with their presentation of Tor as a troll myself, the man saved us after all, and never even sent a bill for the work. But still, it’s not like he’ll ever see it right?”
Shrugging Trice turned to the man. “Well…”
Rolph moved in and gave the man a serious look, Sara just looked scared and embarrassed for some reason. Embarrassed he could get, after all the play had made her seem a little… godlike. Scared made no sense at all to him. Tor looked around and saw that she was staring at him. Worried that he’d go all Troll on them maybe? He smiled at her and winked.
“Well, they all did a great job. Do you have any plans for fixing the sewer breach yet?”
The large blond man smiled and spread his hands.
“We have to re-dig the sewer, holding the broken section in place while somehow leaving the whole thing working. It won’t be easy… if it’s even possible. It was a poor design to begin with. Short of making a whole new system though…”
Tor’s mind started spinning. If the earth was packed hard enough and the surface turned to glass or brick, would it hold water he wondered? Could he make a device for excavating? That should help a little at least. If he could come up with something. Wasn’t it like moving water? He’d done that before with dirt, if old dried feces counted as dirt at least, which really, it should. It had a lot of the same problems and wouldn’t work if they hit solid stone at all, but…
Standing the Prince moved to his side and shook him by the shoulder a bit.
“Tor, don’t fade on us now, we need to leave soon or we won’t get to the Capital by nightfall.”
Right. They were traveling. Maybe he’d come up with something in the air. Or maybe that would be a recipe for sudden crashing. He’d have to be careful.
Ferdinand’s eyes went huge and then he stammered, sounding a bit breathless.
“You’re… Tor? As in…”
“Oh… yeah, obviously my nose isn’t really that big… I didn’t want to mention that, because, you know, the play and all. Plus everyone was so excited to see Sara. They really did a good job, make sure and congratulate them all for me? I’ll let you know if I come up with anything that can help with rebuilding a new sewer system for you.” He shook the man’s hand again, which was a little limp this time.
Hopefully it wasn’t anything he’d said; Tor didn’t want any more enemies than he already. People here already thought he was a troll after all. He kind of wondered how that had happened. Had his message at the end come across as that hostile? Tor had just meant that the problem should be fixed, not that they were responsible for it happening and all those deaths. That was kind of harsh and he’d have never said that, even if they were responsible like the play had accused him of saying. If they thought that’s what he meant, no wonder they kind of thought he was evil. They got the short and ugly part right at least. Not the nose though. If they did the play again they should probably change that. No moles either.
They flew straight through the rest of the way, and Tor thought he had the basic control and flow system down for the earth movers by the time they got to the King’s river and started to follow it. They’d gone at least two hundred miles further east than they should and overshot the Capital by a good ways, which was a pain, as it meant nearly another hours worth of flying. On the good side he finally got to see the Falcon’s river, or at least half of it. It was so clear that it really didn’t look like much from the air.
Well, as long as they remembered to turn it off once the rains started, they’d be fine. He’d have to make sure and pass a reminder along to someone at the palace. Connie maybe. He could do it when he gave her the thing he’d made for her. It wasn’t a present, not really, he told himself. Just something to pass the time. She probably wouldn’t even like it and, well, even if she did, being Queen, she got a lot of stuff every day.
It wasn’t like Tor was singling her out for any special reason, other than that she’d been nice to him. Right? He definitely didn’t have a puppy crush on her. Certainly not. She was his best friend’s mother for goodness sake! Who did that?
On top of that he had a perfectly lovely and nice fake fiancee. He just wanted to make sure she knew that he appreciated her kindness. That was all.
She probably wouldn’t even remember who he was. Richard either for that matter. They were both busy people. He was just…some cave troll. He chucked a little remembering the old man trying to pretend to be as short as he looked compared to Sara. They’d over done it a little bit. Sara was less than a foot taller than he was after all. Oh well, artistic license and all that.
The nose still bugged him though, making him touch his own self-consciously.
They weren’t met by guards this time as they flew in, but they did see a small red building next to four large white arrows on the ground that all pointed to an x. An official landing area? Rolph took them in carefully, descending slowly so that if it wasn’t the case, someone could come warn them off or something. Instead a thin young man that must have been about the same age of everyone else in their group came out with a clip board.
“Gentles!” He cried loudly enough to be heard from thirty feet away easily. “Welcome to the Capital. I’m Steward, and I’ll be your Two Bends representative for the day. If you have any packages that need to go out, the next pick up is tomorrow, though special delivery is always available for an extra fee. We can also signal for transportation from here if you have errands in the city. Please let us know if anything we can do for you will help make your stay here more pleasant.”
Two Bends? Tor smiled, getting it instantly. His family already had a building up just outside the Capital and a landing place for anyone flying in? That was clever of them. Or possibly of this fellow here, Steward. Tor moved in and shook his hand.
“Hi Steward, yes, some transport would be great. Um, we need to go to…” Tor froze for a bit, he’d been working so much he didn’t know what anyone’s plans were at all. Everyone else had places they could stay, except for him o
f course. He could always just stay in the corner of Rolph’s room or something if need be, or even sleep outside, if everything had been filled up. That things might be a little more cramped this time had been mentioned to him more than once. Really, no one knew if their own homes here would be full or not, as far as that went.
It was just possible that Trice’s parents would have lent the house out for instance, if they hadn’t flown down themselves. Debri could have high powered guests in too. Since no one was expecting Rolph home really, even his rooms might have been given over to some Count or something.
Stepping forward the Prince suggested they try the palace first.
“After all, if nothing else we can all sleep on the floor of the tool shed out back, I’m sure.” He added with a wink. It made sense to Tor, and he knew that Rolph would do it, even if no one in the palace would have let him most likely. They’d find something, even if a servant had to give up their own bed. Well, Tor at least didn’t need anything fancy. The floor was good enough for him. It would be like camping out, sort of.
It took a bit for the carriages to come, again three of them, like the last time they’d been to the Capital. This time the whole trip took a lot longer though. Nearly four hours of riding in the carriage to get to the palace grounds, sometimes not moving at all because of all the people in the streets already, putting up banners and hangings, sweeping and getting ready for the coming festivities it looked like. The events seemed to be quite a lot bigger here than at the school, and Tor had thought they made a big thing of it there.
