The Accidental Troll

by Dakota Cassidy

  Nova tugged at the edge of Murphy’s coat, making her look down at her sister, more trollish than ever in the early morning light.

  “Everybody always loves you, Murph. It’s me they don’t really like, and who could blame them?” she asked in her squeaky voice. “They pretend to because I have a lot of money, but when we go to an event or a convention, everyone always asks about you first, and there’s a reason for that. It’s because you’re a good person and you’re fun to be around. So stop worrying, Umanski, and get your shit together, okay?”

  Murphy leaned down and gave her sister a hug, brushing her straw-like hair away from her nose. “Thanks, Dina…I mean, Nova.”

  Bellamy gasped, pushing up the sleeves of her chic but oversized red sweatshirt. “Your real name is Dina? Why didn’t you tell me? I love! I think it’s adorbs!”

  As they chatted with one another, Sten gave Murphy one last look, his eyes sincere. “I promise to be there every step of the way.” He held out his hand. “You ready?”

  “As I’ll ever be.”

  “Then let’s do this,” he replied with a reassuring smile.

  She took his hand, and as he opened the gate, he stepped through, pulling her along with him.

  And when she entered this magical, mystical world he inhabited—Murphy inhaled sharply at what greeted her.

  It was like something out of a damn fairy tale.

  Sten took a deep breath, consuming the scent, the sound, the feel of home, and he wanted Murphy to love it as much as he did.

  He couldn’t quite explain this fascination he’d developed for her in such a short period of time. Yes. She was pretty, and smart, and funny, all the things everyone likes in another person…but she was more.

  She was tired. Tired of taking care of her sister in the same way he was tired of taking care of Bellamy.

  But it was a different type of tired. He had stress relievers. Hobbies he enjoyed, and he also had family he could count on, even if they poo-pooed some of his concerns about Bellamy.

  At least he had someone to share those concerns with.

  Murphy had Murphy. She had no family, and he saw how that had taken a toll on her—from the way she fretted over Nova, to the way she’d isolated herself from anything but the occasional escape because her sister needed her more than Murphy thought she deserved time to devote to her own self-care.

  He wanted to show her there was more, and the desire to learn more about her had lit a fire under him to find this asshole who’d sold his sister a janky curse so they could get on with life.

  Namely, so he could ask her out. Take a walk with her. Have some dinner, maybe catch a movie and enjoy a glass of wine. Teach her about life as a troll, help her integrate her human life with her new one.

  It was the first time in a long time that he’d been interested in someone since he and Anitra had broken up. He’d loved Anitra, but she hadn’t loved him more than she loved her freedom.

  He’d wanted to settle down; she’d wanted to bounce between Troll Hill and the human world, living her best life, as she’d put it. She wasn’t ready to have children and a home. She wanted to travel and stay out late. And he’d respected her honesty, but those weren’t the things he wanted.

  He’d watched Darnell with Charlie yesterday, and it reminded him, that’s what he wanted. A family, children.

  His decision to end his relationship with Anitra was wise.

  They’d parted on good terms, and there was no bitter aftertaste in his mouth when he thought of her. They simply wanted different things and they’d parted as friends.

  Yet, he also hadn’t been quite as enthralled with Anitra in the way he was with Murphy. Anitra wasn’t as warm or as genuine. Maybe it was simply that the things that mattered to Sten mattered to Murphy, and that clouded his perspective. But Murphy presented those desires loud and clear and he liked what he heard.

  Either way, he and Anitra had broken up a year ago, and he’d been slowly rolling along ever since, not necessarily adrift, but not on a mission, either. He’d just been living his life and adjusting to his new position as king.

  Since he’d become king, he’d struggled to take control of an out-of-control kingdom, but he was making strides with the help of his advisors.

  Now, with this mess, he felt helpless once more—as helpless as he had the day he’d taken over the throne. He’d outlawed this particular type of magic—in fact, his father had, as well.

  Of course, Sten had cracked down on it far harder than his wayward, fun-loving father had. Magnus had let a lot slip under the radar because he was busy chasing women and enjoying a good port.

  He didn’t begrudge his father’s choices. Sten had always known and accepted who he was. Mostly absentee, but occasionally around to throw a football and, as Sten grew older, a drink from time to time.

  But now, the troll his father was had made Sten’s life that much more complicated. And someone who allegedly looked just like him was wreaking havoc because his father hadn’t clamped down harder on bad magic long ago. And that brought up another wealth of problems.

  Like suspects.

  Even with feelers for the usual suspects he might consider worth investigating—trolls who were likely to possess bad magic—he was coming up dry. The only solid thing he might have was that the troll came from the north.

  He didn’t know a lot about the area in the north, other than it was riddled with crime and inhabited by a very small number of trolls who’d shunned their way of life here on the Hill.

  Maybe someone was angry with him for some unknown offense, so they were going around pretending to be him? He didn’t have the answers. He only knew, it was yet another ripple in an onslaught of troubles he’d barely been able to manage before this mess with Nova.

  But manage he would, and seeing the look on Murphy’s face now, as she gazed upon the beauty of his world, almost made up for all the hassle Bellamy had caused.

  She breathed in again as they walked farther into the mossy green village where his home was located. “It’s… Oh, Sten, it’s beautiful! I’ve never…”

  “Seen anything like it?” he finished for her with a wide smile, taking her hand again and ushering her into Troll Hill.

  Whether she realized it or not, Murphy gripped his hand tighter, and he didn’t hate the gesture. “Yes… I mean, no, you’re right. I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s surreal and amazing and…wonderful,” she breathed again, and then she smiled, making his chest tighten. “I almost don’t have the words.”

  “It is beautiful, Sten. After chatting with you, I know it’s been a tough transition to your new position, but my heavens, what a way to go,” Wanda said, folding her hands together, closing her eyes and breathing in the sweet air.

  Nina nodded. She’d taken off her sunglasses to reveal her eyes, now wide with what he suspected was wonder. “Even I gotta admit, it’s pretty fuckin’ solid, dude. It kinda reminds me of where Toni lives in Shamalot. Remember Dannan the Ogre, Marty? Fucking righteous guy the size of a freightliner.”

  Marty bobbed her head, a smile wreathing her face. “Sweetest guy ever. Big. Kinda scary, but a doll. I hope we see him again soon. The kids love him.”

  “Toni? Ogres? Shamalot?” Murphy asked, bewildered.

  “Another story for another fucking day, Troll. Like I said, I got tons of ’em,” Nina retorted, cracking her knuckles before stretching. “Either way, it’s damn sweet here. Way to land on your feet.”

  “Uh-huh,” Marty agreed with a soft sigh. “Maybe you’d let us bring the kids here sometime, Sten? They’d love it. It’s like Disney World times a million. I half expect a princess to pop out from the trees and sing to me.”

  He smiled, pleased they felt comfortable enough to want to spend time here. “You’re always welcome anytime. All of you. All you have to do is come to the garden gate. Now, how about we grab some refreshments at my place while I get an update from my advisor Jordy, and then we’ll head out?”

  As ever
yone agreed, they began to stroll their way to his cottage—a cottage he’d explained he’d decided to keep instead of taking the big house on the hill his father once occupied.

  Just as they were about to take the cobbled path to his front door, Jordy burst out of it, his blue hair pulled into a haphazard man-bun, an alarmed expression on his almost gaunt face.

  “Sire!” he yelled, his long, lanky legs running toward Sten, stopping short when he stood before them.

  Sten rasped a sigh even as he held out a hand to Jordy to shake in greeting. “How many times do I have to tell you to stop calling me that, Jordy? It’s just Sten. Not your highness, not King Peerson, not ruler on high—”

  “Ruler Extraordinaire,” Jordy corrected with flourish in his British accent, twisting up his lean face and shaking Sten’s hand as though it were improper for a mere commoner to touch royalty.

  Which was ridiculous. Magnus certainly hadn’t created those kinds of boundaries, but word had it, Jordy had been an advisor to several kings over the course of several hundred years, and that likely meant he’d been around during a time when different boundaries were set.

  Still, Jordy was a great guy. Smart, wise, but wound a little tight. He was into protocol and rules and formalities Sten couldn’t believe his devil-may-care father had ever enforced. But they made Jordy comfortable, so he tried to accommodate…but addressing him as Ruler Extraordinaire?

  Um, no.

  “Whatever. Just call me Sten, would you please, Jordy? It’d make me feel more comfortable. It’s been a while now, the time has come for us to drop the formalities.”

  He flapped his hands at Sten and dismissed his concerns as though they were trivial. “Forget that, Sten. We have far worse things to contemplate than your official title!”

  Sten looked at his advisor, someone he would trust almost with his life, and his pulse began to thump in his ears. If one of those unruly trolls had set that damn monument in the square on fire, they were going to be in for some jail time. He’d had enough of their shenanigans to last ten lifetimes.

  Not terribly concerned, Sten asked, “What’s going on now?”

  “It’s your mother, sire…er, Sten.”

  The hair on the back of his neck stood on end. “What about her?”

  “We’ve been trying to get in touch with you all morning to tell you.”

  “Tell me what?”

  “I’m afraid she’s gone missing.”

  Chapter 16

  “Missing?” Murphy squawked.

  Wouldn’t it just figure? They’d arrived in this magical place where she was certain rainbows made of ribbon candy and fields of lollipops prevailed, only to find Sten’s mother was missing—and it probably had to do with the mess Nova was in.

  Jordy motioned them into Sten’s white stone cottage with a thatched roof and arched windows with wood shutters. She wanted to take the time to admire this charming structure, but the urgency of Jordy’s strides kept her from really having the chance to take it all in.

  Still, on the way, she noted row after row of colorful flowers lined the pathway to his front door, and more of his whittling projects sat in the gardens surrounding the house. Ivy grew up along the sides and the sun shone down, making it look even whiter.

  There were more garden beds carved out like a lazy river around the structure, and unlike the dormant beds in his house back in Brooklyn, in Troll Hill, they were alive with color.

  In the distance, a crystal-blue waterfall, nestled into the face of some craggy rocks on a cliff, splashed, leaving behind a soothing sound to her ears.

  As she tried to take in the beauty of the sky so blue, it hurt to look up, and the puffy white clouds that resembled mounds of fluffy mashed potatoes, it almost felt like nothing bad could ever happen here.

  Yet, this spry young man with long limbs, a blue man-bun and crystal-clear skin looked panic-stricken.

  Sten popped open the door of his cottage and motioned the ladies to enter before he turned to Jordy and said, “Tell me,” his voice filled with concern.

  Jordy scrolled his texts on his phone and held it up. “Jannick texted me last eve and asked if I’d heard from your mother. I thought nothing of it. Certainly, we all know Birgit can be forgetful when she’s caught up shopping. She does so love the market. I responded back and told him I hadn’t heard from her, but this morning—quite early, I might add—he texted me once more, saying she hadn’t returned home.”

  Bellamy gasped so sharply, Nova grabbed her hand to soothe her. “That’s not like her, Sten, and you know it. She might be forgetful, but to be gone all night? Dad must be in heart failure by now!” she exclaimed as tears formed in her beautiful green eyes.

  Sten held up a hand and wrapped an arm around his sister to console her. “Let’s not panic before we know the details. Jordy? Ask my stepfather to come over and we’ll go from there, would you please?”

  Murphy sprang into action, gripping Sten’s forearm. “How can I help? What can I do to help find her?”

  “That goes for all of us, dude. Don’t hesitate,” Nina said, giving him a slap on the back. “We’re here and we’re ready.”

  Sten ran a hand over his forehead, and for the first time since this began, he looked tired. “There’s not much you can do, or that I can do, for that matter. I’ll put the word out and we’ll try and chase down her timeline. If we can’t locate her, we’ll go on the hunt to find her.”

  There was a knock on the door, and Jordy scurried off to answer. When he opened the door wider, revealing who was behind it, Marty actually twirled her hair, and her cheeks flushed as she muttered to Wanda, “Phew. What is it with these trolls? The hot just keeps on comin’.”

  And with good reason. The silver fox standing at the threshold, with abnormally gray and white hair for a troll, dressed in a flannel shirt and a pair of jeans, couldn’t be described as anything but magnificent.

  He was tall and trim, but his arms were muscled and his bearded face was chiseled. However, the lines around his eyes and the dull look to them told the entire story.

  “Jannick,” Sten called as Bellamy pushed past him and threw herself at the tall man, wrapping her arms around his trim waist.

  She buried her face in his shirt. “Dad! Are you okay? What happened?”

  Jannick rested his cheek on top of his daughter’s head, the silver fuzz of his bearded chin a stark contrast to Bellamy’s dark hair. “I don’t know, sweet pea. But we’ll find out. I promise.” Setting her from him, he held out his hand to his stepson. “Sten, am I ever glad to see you.”

  Sten shook it and pulled Jannick in for a shoulder bump. “Come in and tell me what happened. Jordy made coffee. Bet you could use it.”

  As Jannick stepped inside, and Marty and Wanda let out dreamy sighs Murphy was sure they would have hidden, had they realized they were doing it, he looked at everyone in Sten’s small house.

  “Who are all these people, Sten?”

  “It’s a long story, Jannick, but come sit in the kitchen and I’ll introduce you while I see what I can find.”

  As Jannick moved across the shiny wood floor, Murphy took a moment to absorb where she was. Looking around, she was surprised to find Sten’s little cottage so homey.

  And it was adorable, if one could call a man’s home that. He had patchwork quilts on the back of his rust-colored couch, a small stone fireplace with a rocking chair sitting beside it.

  There was the scent of freshly chopped wood in a basket in the air, now mingling with the coffee they were brewing, and a small buffet table with a wealth of pictures under the cross-hatched arched window.

  Murphy went to peek at the pictures and caught a glimpse of the big tree right outside, growing some beautiful opalescent kind of fruit with the most unusually shaped leaves Murphy had ever seen.

  And the grass? Holy cow, the grass was an emerald green carpet with nary a weed to be found, and it stretched out for what seemed like miles.

  A blue bolt of movement shot around th
e limbs of the tree, and she had to rub her eyes to be sure she wasn’t seeing things before she recognized it as a squirrel.

  It came to sit in the middle of a branch, caught up in staring at a bird feeder on a pole, clearly trying to figure out how to get to the seed.

  Hah! Even troll squirrels were little assholes, huh?

  The thought made Murphy chuckle softly. “I see you,” she whispered, tapping a nail on the glass. “And I have a feeling that bird feeder was put over there for a reason, pal.”

  “I can’t help myself. I love birdseed! It’s like my damn kryptonite, or maybe it’s more like potato chips. I can’t pilfer just one. I gotta have ’em all,” a chipmunk-ish voice said at rapid speed.

  Murphy’s eyes opened wide when she heard the voice, making her lean against the glass of the window to hold herself up. Her woodland troll power was obviously going to take some getting used to.

  The squirrel came to the edge of the limb closest to the window. “Why do you look so farkin’ surprised? Everybody knows birdseed is like crack to squirrels. It’s not news, lady.”

  “You’re talking to me,” she blurted out. Would she ever get used to that?

  “You’re judging me,” he shot back.

  For a moment she panicked the way she had when Gaston had spoken to her. But then she remembered she was a woodland troll, and as a woodland troll, she could communicate with small creatures. Sten did say that meant all creatures—at least the ones in Troll Hill.

  If she could talk to all creatures, maybe she could ask this one to get the word out and see if anyone had seen Sten’s mother?

  If this troll power was going to be something she had to get used to, she might as well make friends.

  Tapping on the glass, she caught the squirrel’s attention. “Hey, what’s your name? I’m Murphy, by the way. A new-ish troll. It’s nice to meet you.”

  Now he eyed her suspiciously, his tiny hands working an acorn he’d found on the tree. “I’m Leonard, and what the hell does new-ish mean?”