by Trista Shaye
“I bet Matilda could intimidate them just fine,” Diana assumed, trying to relax in the soft light of the fire.
The day had turned sour again and it was raining outside. Regardless, they would leave that night with or without the rain accompanying them.
“Oh, the trolls aren’t afraid of her.” Andante chirped out a laugh.
“Why not?” Diana asked, disbelieving him.
“Because they’re tough, tougher than her if that were possible,” the giant moth replied. “They’re made of clay and rocks and hardened by the sun. They paint themselves odd colors from the mud they find at the bottom of the marshes that cover their realm – red, yellow, orange, some green.”
“How odd!” Diana exclaimed.
“Indeed.” He bobbed his head. “It’s now used as a scare tactic since they began their back and forth frenzy with the gnomes. Before it was used as simply a way to beautify and create art. Just be aware, not all trolls are brown and normal, some are odd colors and patterns and can appear rather frightening. It’s nothing to be afraid of though, it’s just warpaint.”
“Right.” Kendel gulped as the moth finished his description, looking a bit frightened already.
“I’m sure we’ll be fine,” Diana said, more to Kendel then to Andante. “Thank you for the warning.” She would have to remind the mage again not to get freaked out about it once they got there.
“My song will go with you, though I cannot go myself,” Andante said, still feeling badly that he couldn’t help them.
“Thank you, friend. I’m sure we’ll be back in no time. If the wizard is in the trolls’ realm, we’ll find him and we’ll convince him to make right his wrongs. Our worlds will be safe and free once more. We’ll find him,” Diana assured.
Farran and Matilda served afternoon tea and then went back to packing up the provisions. Kendel yawned and wanted to nap but knew his mind would be too busy worrying over their little evening escapade to get much rest.
“So, we find a troll to lead us to the wizard, grab the wizard and get him to be nice.” Kendel fidgeted, going over the plan yet again.
Diana dutifully nodded, but was getting annoyed that he kept repeating what they already knew.
“Yes, that’s the plan. It’s been the plan and it will be the plan until we complete it or something goes wrong. Then it will still be the plan after we work out whatever happens.”
The mage mumbled something but Diana only caught, “Hoping nothing happens.”
“What spells do you know that can help us, Kendel?” Diana inquired, trying to keep his mind off the quest.
“Well.” He screwed up his face into a thinking position and paused. “I suppose quite a few. There’s a lot of practical spells I can do.” He suddenly got rather nervous, “but it’s all to the wind and whim if I can’t recall any of them in the moment! When I get startled my mind goes blank. I won’t be much help if that should happen, and the likelihood of it happening is quite high. Let’s say, a thousand to none. None being the factor of me not being scared, and a thousand being the factor of me being frightened and having my mind go blank and all of us dying.” He covered his face with his hands and whined, “Oh! I don’t like adventures!”
“You’re a mage for goodness sake!” Diana declared, standing from her seat. She was frustrated. It wasn’t his realm in danger, it was hers and other innocent creatures, but he needed to buck up and straighten his mage robe and get ready to kick some wizard butt because that’s what they were going to do and they needed his help.
She hadn’t realized she said it all aloud until Kendel peeked at her from behind his fingers with concern. Then she froze, a caught look on her face.
“Whoops …” she whispered. “Hadn’t meant to say it like that.” She guessed everyone was high strung when it came down to it, and each of them was dealing with it in their own way. And for some reason she didn’t have sympathy for Kendel’s way of coping.
As she slowly sat, she realized she needed to give him a little extra empathy. This was all new to each of them and none of them had ever left their own realm in this manner befor; expect for Matilda, that is; she had pulled off many raids in the troll realm, forty-four to be exact, as she’d proudly told them earlier.
“I’m sorry.” she said to the mage, “But really, there’s nothing to be done about the situation. We have to go, we have to do this. And if you freak out, you freak out. It happens. We’ll figure out what to do when it does. Just don’t make it premature. Wait till we actually get there.”
“Diana, I’m freaking out!” Kendel waddled over to the fairy girl’s side in the rain and whispered his concerns to her.
“Not yet, Kendel,” she whispered back, whipping rainwater off her forehead, hair and cloak hood as she spun her head toward him, showering him in the face. “We’re not even to the border yet.”
“But I can see it!” He pointed and blinked through the downpour from the sky and the river that was washing over his face from his own cloak.
Diana nodded and motioned for him to keep walking, so that they wouldn’t get lost in the deluge. “Yes, that’s it. But we haven’t gotten there yet. We don’t want to give ourselves away, so keep quiet and don’t lose us,” she cautioned.
“Right,” he muttered to himself and blew the dripping water from his nose with a splutter. “Don’t lose you, don’t lose you. Right.”
The rain hadn’t stopped all that evening and as it neared the time of their departure they had simply accepted the fact that they would be sneaking through the night in the heavy rain; there just was no way around it. Farran and Matilda had let them each borrow one of their extra cloaks to help keep the rain off their clothes for a few moments longer – though they were thoroughly drenched by this time. The cloak was just the right size for Diana, but Kendel was a bit taller so it came to the middle of his calves. Matilda carried the side satchel with most of the food in it, and Diana carried the rest in her leaf backpack.
The gnomes had said farewell, deciding it was best to part ways at the cottage instead of having the extra company for a half hour – it would just be easier to remain hidden the longer they went on alone. Andante and Farran had wished them luck and waved goodbye from the cottage doorway for as long as they could.
The three companions had been on their own for about two hours now, in the damp and the chill and Diana found herself wishing she was back in the cozy house, snuggled up by the fire, drinking evening tea right now. But she wasn’t and they weren’t, and before them lay a task of daunting proportions.
They had traveled along the marked road for a long while, sloshing through the puddles, the mud plastering to their feet and leggings, trousers or robes. It was messy work.
They had left the path just a few minutes ago as they crested a hill. Now they moved through the tall grass and headed more in a northeasterly direction instead of due north. They had to fight through the grasses as well as the rain now to see one another, and it was making the going a little slower, but the mud was much less of a problem off the roadway.
As Kendel had said, they could now see the border; it had an eerie orange glow about it from all the gnomes and trolls who were on patrol with their lanterns and the many covered fires from several camps. It seemed daunting, even from this distance. Diana felt herself freaking out on the inside for a moment, though she tried to ignore it.
As they continued to push onward, and as Diana began to wonder if they would suddenly need to start swimming at any moment for the amount of water still falling, there was a dim sound that carried through the air towards them.
The music drifted through the rain drops and dodged the drips as they came cascading from the sky. It filtered through their sodden cloaks and came to their ears in the night. Matilda paused, which caused the two behind her to also stop for a moment to listen.
“What is it?” Diana whispered to their lead
er.
“Moth song,” Matilda replied, looking about, “They hide from the rain and rarely sing on nights like these.”
“But they’re singing now.” Kendel stated the obvious.
“Yes.” The gnome nodded her head. “Maybe the rain is almost over. They seem to have a sense for that sort of thing.”
“That would be nice.” Kendel snorted and shook his head, spraying droplets everywhere.
“Or not so nice,” Matilda countered. “It’s rough going, but good cover. Let’s keep walking.” She began to move again and motioned them onward.
“It’s quite beautiful,” Diana commented to the mage before she picked up her feet once more.
As she listened and as she let the music fill her, Diana began to think differently. Not that it wasn’t beautiful; it was! Andante was right, hearing a group of moths sing was astounding! But it was also, and most prominently, sad. There was a deep mournful cadence to the tune and a longing and maybe, somewhere, a deep hope for things to come. But it always turned back to the sadness and it always came round to her feeling quite small and wishing for her home and all her friends in one place.
She sniffled at the cold in her nose and ran the back of one hand under it. It would be a long night, and a long journey indeed.
“We’re here,” Matilda said sharply in a hiss as she pushed the fairy and mage down into the grass so as to hide from the trolls who were on guard in the area.
Diana took a sharp intake of breath; they’d made it to the border. Now for the difficult part: getting across without being seen and somehow finding a troll they could question without being discovered by everyone.
“Now what?” Kendel dared to ask, with a gulp and just below a whisper.
Matilda didn’t answer right away. She peered through the weeds and thistles that were allowed to grow along the borders’ edge, natural protection from invaders. She watched as the torchlight from a passing patrol slowly faded into the night as the troll moved further away.
“Ouch!” Diana squeaked, and rubbed at her hand. She’d pricked it on a thorn bush just now.
“Careful of those mean things,” Matilda cautioned. “You two wait here, I’ll see how many scouts we’re dealing with on this side of things and then I’ll pick our route in. Keep still, keep silent, and don’t get caught.” She gave Kendel a long look.
“What?” he asked, shrugging, “I can be quiet.”
She raised her brows, pursed her lips, and disappeared into the storm.
Kendel bit his lip, keeping himself from saying anything. He had wanted to comment on her speed, but decided against it.
The two friends waited there in the rain and weeds for a time, one almost drifting off and the other thinking over and again in her mind what she would ask a troll when they found one. It didn’t take much longer before the gnome woman returned and slid back into their hiding spot without a sound.
“We’ll head to the left a little further here,” she informed them, nodding with her head in the direction she meant. “And then we’ll sneak in. There’s an old abandoned guard post we can tunnel under and when we come up the other side, we should be all set.”
“Tunnel under?” Kendel asked, shaking the sleep from his eyes. “I’m not the greatest digger.”
“I’ll be doing the digging,” Matilda said and began to creep to their left. “It’s a gift we gnomes possess. Don’t you worry none, I’ve done this many a time before.”
It didn’t take long for them to get to the place Matilda wanted them to start their tunnel and it took even less time, to Kendel’s open-mouthed surprise, to dig the tunnel under the border and guard post and into the trolls’ realm.
They clambered through the passage on their hands and knees, the wet clay and dirt sticking to their even wetter cloaks, hands and feet. Diana thought they must have looked a sight but she remembered what Andante had said about the trolls being covered in dirt and thought maybe it would help them blend in. At least, that’s what she told herself to keep from being utterly disgusted by how nasty she felt.
They popped up and out of the ground just beyond the guard post and behind some tall marsh grasses.
Matilda climbed out first and then helped the other two next, pulling them up from the hole in the ground with a hand. She then stomped her foot in an odd pattern over top of where the tunnel was and the hole filled in and the ground sunk just a little.
“Covering our trail,” she answered the unspoken question in their eyes and led them deeper into the marsh’s undergrowth.
Diana kept close behind. They had made it in, now they had to find someone who could help them.
Kendel, however, was a little distracted. The grass was thinning and in places had been replaced with goop or slime of some kind. He was curious and bent over to take a closer look. He noticed something else among the reeds and nosed his way toward it.
“Hey guys,” he called over his shoulder. “I think you should take a look at this.”
No one answered him.
Kendel glanced up and could see no one in the pelting rain and empty darkness. His heart skipped a beat and he turned swiftly.
“Arrrr.” A large green and red face with yellow under its eyes, which appeared to be dripping and trailing down its cheeks, glared back at him and a low growl emanated from its outlined lips.
“Ahhhh!” Kendel shrieked, stepping backwards and throwing out his hands at the same time.
There was a bright flash and a small dusty explosion.
Kendel fell backwards over a clump of marsh grass and splashed into an oozy puddle on his rear, crying out in surprise yet again.
The rain began to slow, drip, and then altogether stopped.
Fourteen
“Kendel?” Diana called, as she and Matilda came rushing over to where they had heard the shouts and commotion.
Matilda was looking around wildly, watching for guards and troll patrols that would have heard the ruckus. For the moment they appeared to be fine, but she knew that wouldn’t last long. She turned quickly and hissed out the mage’s name along with Diana.
“Eh, here,” Kendel said weakly, picking his hands up out of the muck and shaking them off. It didn’t do much good. He was already soaked, so that wasn’t an issue, but now he had muck and mire trailing along behind him, as well. How fabulous.
“Oh dear,” Diana said when she saw him and quickly sprinted to his side and helped him stand in the brine. “Gross.” She screwed up her face and stepped back from him just as quickly as she’d come to help.
“Not my fault,” he muttered, looking like something that had been drowned. “This place just stinks.”
“What were you thinking?” Matilda chastised, grabbing them both by the wrists and pulling them away from the marsh pool. “You could have gotten us all captured with that wee shout of yours.”
“Oh no.” Kendel shook his head, his eyes wide. “It wasn’t all my fault, you know. I saw … I saw …”
“Saw what?” Diana asked as Matilda let them go and looked about to plan their escape route, but she didn’t look very far before she, too, was letting out a cry.
“Thistles and thorns, we’re seen!” the gnome yelled, her hands clenched up as she took a defensive stance.
Diana and Kendel stepped up behind either of her shoulders and looked in the same direction she was.
Before them stood a hulking silhouette and all about it, in the faint light from the border, a cloud of dust was slowly descending around it. As the dust settled, large white eyes peered out of a massive craggy face that looked rather dull in color. The eyes blinked, the mouth set in a frown and the lips puckering in a pout.
“What you do to me?” the creature asked, lifting its arms and letting them fall with defeat back to its stony sides. “I spend weeks perfecting look!”
“Kendel, you … you did a spell?”
Diana whispered, cutting her gaze over to the side.
“I did?” he asked, his eyes locked on the creature that was having quite a tiff.
“You cast all the color off him,” Matilda explained. “That there’s a troll, as natural as they come.”
“Oh,” Kendel said in understanding. “I did.”
“If did, then fix!” the troll cried, stomping towards them on all fours. His front two appendages were longer than the back two so that his back sloped gently downwards instead of being flat across like a normal four-legged creature, such as a bear.
“It’s only a wee one. But we still can’t run off now, he’s seen us and he’d tell the others. Root rot. We’ll have to see if we can’t get him to help us,” Matilda grunted to her two friends and then addressed the troll. “You shouldn’t be here, lad. This here’s the border and that means gnomes and such are likely to catch you off guard and take you prisoner.”
“I here by own choice and I not leaving till wizard fix what he do to me,” he harrumphed, highly annoyed.
“He’s probably only fifty or so, still just a young thing,” Matilda whispered to them again.
Diana was shocked, fifty was young? Even to a fairy who lived ages and ages, fifty wasn’t still considered a child.
“What’s your name?” the fairy girl asked, trying to get into his good graces – if trolls had good graces.
“Shaarg.” The troll grunted and eyed them curiously. “Gnomes all trolls know, but what you?” He pointed to Diana, “I know he wizard, but never seen girl with wings before. You dragon? Dragons have wings.”
“A dragon?” Diana laughed. “No, definitely not.”
“This is hardly the place for this,” Matilda said, concerned about being caught by more than a child. “Troll Shaarg, we shall do everything we can to have our wizard restore your color to you, if you’ll come with us to a less highly guarded area. We’re on a mission.”
“Mission? You gnome, you bring other two to do dirty work, too?” He snorted, but he was also curious as to what they were doing and what Diana even was.
