Two black shapes paced back and forth in a dark cave. The darkness of the moving shapes blended
into the darkness of the damp cave. But you knew something was there because you could hear deep breathing and
see blinking yellow eyes.
"So, we let her go. What is your plan, Sire?" Bon growled at the larger shape who sat
down.
"Yes, yes....my plan. Ahhhh, Bon, I will finally get the revenge that I deserve." The
Sire snarled into the darkness. "Finally, bon! FINALLY! Wolf will die for what he's done to me!"
"Errrr, pardon me Sire, but wasn't it Wolf's father who killed your son, Tad?" Bon
frowned with confusion.
"Yes, yes, Wolf's father. No difference!" Sire roared. "It's all the same! Wolf's
father is long gone but I will take my revenge on Wolf. A son for a son!"
"Yes Sire, yes." Bon nodded.
"Now, Bon, this is what I want you to do. I want you to get some of your men together and
follow them, but quietly. I want you to follow them as far as you can. That Virginia girl has explained to me that
they are searching for some missing people. We shall use them to find our own missing Tazzies. Perhaps we can kill
two cows with one chew." Sire explained.
"Uhh, you mean 'Kill two birds with one stone.' Sire."
"Shut up, I know what I mean. Now, do as I say!"
"But, Sire, all you want me to do is follow them? Then what?" Bon asked, getting quite
impatient with the old Sire.
"What? Wha-what?" Sire looked up absentmindedly. "Oh yes, follow them. I've already
let the Magic Bing Bug bite Virginia w/o her even feeling it. Wasn't that clever of me? Now all you have to do
is get close enough and ring one of those damn ringing things."
"A bell, Sire, a bell." Bon rolled his eyes and was soon losing his patience. "Sire,
I know the Bing Bug. If I'm right, now that Virginia is biten she will do whatever I say whenever I ring a bell."
"Yes, yes Bon, you were always quite the cunning one. Now, becareful though, if someone
were to clap then Virginia will not be under your control anymore. I want you to follow them as far as you can
and perhaps see if they can find our missing Tazzies. Once that's accomplished, or not, whatever comes first, I
want you to use Virginia to kill Wolf. Make Wolf suffer for it. Make him hurt with the pain of seeing his own wife
kill him. Then he will know how I felt when my son was killed." Sire roared with laughter and it echoed endlessly
through the dark cave.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Shhh, did you hear that?"
"What Melody? I didn't hear anything." Patrick whispered back to Melody at his side.
Wolf and Virginia had walked up ahead and left Patrick with Melody. The day was getting warmer and the sun beat
down on them frying the hair on their heads. They had left the forest some while ago so there were no trees to
give them cover.
"No, listen, Patrick." Melody stopped in her tracks. She swore on her mother's grave
that she had heard something. It sounded like a bunch of hooves walking on planks of wood. "There it goes
again. Do you hear it?"
Patrick strained his ears and began to hear the same thing. To him it sounded like someone was
hammering nails into wood. He looked towards Wolf and Virginia who had also stopped and seemed to be listening
to something. Wolf turned around and waved to them to catch up.
"Huff puff, I take it you both are hearing the same thing we are?" Wolf asked when
Patrick and Melody caught up to them. They were in a large clearing of high grass and they looked in all directions
and couldn't see anything.
"I think it's coming from over that rise there." Virginia pointed to a small hill just
a little bit to the East. The four of them slowly and quietly made their way over the small rise and quickly dropped
onto their stomachs to sneak a peek.
They saw an ugly troll hammering away at wooden planks. Just one troll though. Usually trolls
traveled in groups but there was only one. And he seemed like he was concentrating pretty hard at his task.
"He's on a leash!" Melody whispered. She pointed out the a thin leather collar with
a leash attached to it that the troll wore around his neck. But so far nothing was holding onto the leash to keep
the troll at bay.
The grass was pretty high and the troll stood above it hammering nails into the wooden planks.
They couldn't quite see what he was making though for the grass covered up most of the wooden project. Then they
saw the grass rustle next to the troll.
"I think something's approaching the troll." Virginia hissed out and pointed to the movement. "Oh
my gosh, I can't believe what I'm seeing here!"
Three little billy goats trotted out of the grass into a small clearing next to the troll. There
was a large one, a medium sized one and a small one. They began baahing at the troll and he rolled his eyes and
kept on hammering. The smaller billy goat skipped up to the troll and grabbed his leash in his mouth and pulled.
The other two billy goats baahed to encourage the smaller one.
"It's the Three Billy Goats Gruff and the troll from underneath the bridge." Virginia
exclaimed outloud. Her companions quickly shushed her but it was too late. The billy goats had heard and they were
trotting up the rise to them with the smaller one pulling the troll behind them. Wolf quickly stood up and was
followed by Virginia, Melody and Patrick. He leaned over to Virginia and whispered in her ear.
"Huff puff. They're pretty scrawny. Don't think they would be too tasty. What do you think?"
Virginia nudged Wolf to be quiet. The goats and the troll finally reached them at the top of the rising and they
stood staring at them with three pairs of big round eyes and one pair of squinty eyes that rolled up again at the
sight of them.
"Baaaaaah......for your information, we are the descendants of the first smallest billy
goat. This is our Slave Troll that we caught. Baaaahhhh......Who are you? What are you doing here? Are you spying
on us?" The Bigger Billy goat said in his most loudest voice.
The group of humans and of course, half-wolf, stared at the billy goats and the troll and they
couldn't help but snicker at the sight. They made a pretty funny picture. Three little billy goats with matted,
stringy hair and tiny horns had a huge, ugly troll on a leash.
"We asked you a question, baaaaah." Said the middle sized Billy goat.
"You might as well answer them. They're pretty persistent buggers." The troll growled
out.
"Baaaah...who said you could talk?" The Bigger Billy goat butted the troll in his knee.
The troll rolled his eyes and pretended that it hurt.
"We were not spying. We are searching for our missing friends when we heard the troll's
banging." Virginia calmly explained to the three agitated billy goats.
"Oh, baaaaah...why didn't you just say so then." The smallest billy goat baaahed. He
tugged at the leash again and trotted down to the grass below. His billy goat companions followed him. Virginia
gave Wolf a questioning look and Wolf just raised his hands and shrugged. They followed the goats down the hill.
Melody grabbed Patrick's hand and pulled him down the hill too.
"Baaaaaaah....we're building a bridge." The littlest billy goat announced to them.
Virginia looked all around and didn't see any water
"What are you building the bridge for? I don't see any water and the River is pretty south
of us from here." She asked the billy goats.
"For your information, baaaah......there IS water around." The medium sized billy goat
remarked as-a-matter-of-factly. "There is water right over that high ridge over there. You can't see it though.
It's a big lake right now."
"Huff, puff. There shouldn't be a lake there. I've lived in the 2nd Kingdom most of my life
and I don't remember there ever being a lake." Wolf leaned down and examined the small bridge that the troll
had been hammering at. "This is one funny looking bridge."
"Who asked you, half-breed! Baaahhh......" The biggest billy goat narrowed his eyes
and glared at Wolf with malice.
"He didn't mean anything by it. It's a good bridge, with just a few minor problems. Perhaps
I can help. I am pretty good with handywork." Patrick chimed in and squatted down to peer closely at the rackety
bridge.
"Good. Our Slave Troll here is a nimrod. Baaah...." The smallest billy goat said. The
troll just rolled his eyes again and ignored the comment.
"Where is the lake?" Wolf asked.
"Just over the ridge, I told you. It's the footprints of a giant that got flooded in. It's
right by the boarders heading into the 6th Kingdom. Baaahhhh.....in order to get around the flooded footprint,
you have to cross the boarder into the 6th Kingdom. We're too lazy to go around so we're building a bridge to cross
it."
"But won't it take longer to build the bridge?" Virginia asked.
The three billy goats peered at each other and shrugged their little billy goat shoulders. Their
slave troll started to laugh and was quickly silenced by a tug on his leash.
"Well, we suppose it would. Baaaaaah.....but we have time. Besides it's the troll that's
building it."
Virginia decided to give up on the subject. She wasn't going to get anywhere. Patrick announced
that he could help them build a more solid bridge with a few tricks up his sleeve. The three billy goats got excited
and started prancing around on their little hooves in the grass. "Pay attention, Slave Troll so you can build
one just like it." The smallest billy goat said. The troll grunted and rolled his eyes. He sat down on the
dirt ground and pretended he was paying attention while he picked at something stuck in his finger.
Virginia found him pretty harmless compared to the trolls she had met over a year ago. This troll
wasn't as fierce and ugly looking. He seemed to be just down right bored out of his mind. Virginia gathered up
her courage and sat down next to the troll, making sure to leave about a foot of space between them.
"How come you're their slave troll?" She whispered so the billy goats couldn't hear her. They were busy
ordering Patrick around anyways. Melody was helping Patrick by handing him things he needed and Wolf just stared
at the pathetically skinny goats that were so unappetizing to him.
"What's it to you?" The troll grunted.
"I was just curious. You don't have to tell me."
"Well, I'll tell you if you get this damn splinter out of my finger." He shoved his
hand into her face showing her his tiny injury. Virginia recoiled from the large and dirty hand in front of her.
But she quickly got a hold of herself and studied the troll's hand. There was a tiny splinter imbedded under the
skin of his thumb. She pinched the skin and the troll winced and shut his eyes tight.
"Relax." She told him and wiggled his arm to relax him. She pinched at the skin again
and grasped the tiny splinter between her fingernails and pulled it out. "There, all done." The troll
looked down at his hand and gave a wide and missing teeth grin.
"Suckin' Elf, you got it out, Lady! Lots of thanks!" He pulled at his leash and grinned
again. "You wanted to know why I'm their slave, right? There's not much to tell. The troll king died and the
troll kingdom went crazy. I decided to venture out and do some exploring." He picked at something in his teeth
and continued. "Then I met these three billy goats. They're completely out of their noggin if you don't mind
me telling you so. They're obsessed with that whole tale of their great great great grand dad who killed the troll
under the bridge. I'm not really their slave though. They just think I am. I'm just playing along with the story
cuz I don't have much else to do." Virginia laughed at that and Wolf looked over at the sound.
"Huff, puff. What are you doing Virginia?" He squatted down to listen in.
"The slave troll here is telling me the story about how he met the billy goats." She
said.
"I do have a name, you know. But no one has called me by it for so long that I think I forgot
it." The troll mumbled underneath his breath.
"I can't help it, Virginia, but I think I'm going to give the goats some of our food. They are too skinny
and just looking at them is making my eyes water." Wolf announced. "Wolves don't normally offer food
but I'll be an exception."
Wolf rummaged through his knapsack and brought out some crusty bread and raw carrots. He handed
some bread to the troll too who narrowed his eyes at it and snatched it away. The three billy goats munched happily
on the carrots and baaaahed constantly.
"You humans are great! You have helped us out so much. Baaaah....I think we should give
you something in return." Announced the smallest billy goat when he was done munching.
"Let's give them the Slave Troll's shoes!" The biggest billy goat cried out.
"No, they're mine!" The troll yelled. He scrambled over to his bag and picked it up,
hugging it tightly to his chest. "Stay away from me! The shoes are mine!"
"Oh no, you don't have to give us anything. We were just being nice, you don't have to repay us. It's quite
all right. We don't want the troll's shoes." Virginia quickly tried to calm down the troll. Who would want
his dirty shoes anyway?
"You're gonna want HIS shoes! Baaaaah…." The biggest billy goat chimed in. "They're
magical shoes!"
Virginia and Wolf recoiled at the thought of magic shoes. Their past experience with enchanted
shoes had left them pretty wary of them. The idea of another pair was making them extremely uncomfortable. They
sure as heck didn't want to become obsessed with the shoes again like before.
"What kind of magic shoes are they?" Melody became interested and asked non-chalauntly.
She would love to get her hands are anything magical.
"The Shoes of Truth!" All three billy goats baahed at once. They started prancing around
again and one of them tried to grab the bag from the troll. The troll snatched his bag away and jumped onto a rock.
"No, you can't have them! No!" He called out with frustration. He could easily snap the necks of the
billy goats to kill them but he just couldn't do it. They had become the closest things he's ever had to friends.
"Seriously, we don't want his shoes." Virginia cried out again. "It's really alright."
"Huff, puff. Wait a minute, Virginia. I'm getting kind of curious about these Shoes of Truth."
Wolf whispered to her. "They might come in handy. If you know what I mean?"
Virginia gave Wolf a questioning look and finally realization dawned on her.
"How about if we compromise?" Virginia announced finally when the troll had calmed
himself down. The billy goats stopped their prancing and stared up at Virginia.
"What did you have in mind? Baaaah." The billy goats asked together.
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