From Encarta
The creation of the Mystical Realms
If you recall it was postulated, gentile reader that our collective unconscious is able to give form to a world where magical creatures actually exist. Every fantasy genre, such as that from Tolkien, or the Brothers Grimm feeds through into the collective psyche, so somewhere, even they come into being. Beings discounted as fictional become self aware, and are able to exist in their own realm. They manage to become independent of humans, so much so, that their magical powers given by fiction, fantasy and myths and archetypes, could allow them, if they so wished, to cross into our world and exist here with their magical powers.

However, you may recall that as fantasy beings form part of our culture and thereby our collective unconscious, so too does order. With all these mystical entities having to co-exist, there must be laws. To protect the world of mortals and the collective unconscious, which once gave form to these mystical realms, a special law had to be enforced, to prohibit the deliberate interference by these entities in the affairs of mortals.

But these laws broke down, when a vengeful major spirit of vice assassinated the tyrannical Lord Low Troll, who kept order. For her own nefarious purposes she triggered a civil war of orcs versus Trolls, with some troll clans supporting the Orcs. As the trolls were divided the victory for the orcs looked certain and also spelled doom for the other races, as the orcs were in the sway of a breed of nationalism that would not have seemed out of place amongst Serbians in the Balkan wars of the 1990’s

It was a perversity of fate that the only way the other races could live, would be for the cruel and hated trolls to be reunited and force the orcs to an uneasy truce, as those two power blocks were evenly matched. The trolls who had defected to the orcs had to be won back to bring peace to the world of the Mystical Realms. But who to lead them, there was the rub, for such was the hurt and division amongst the trolls, that no clan wanted another to have that honour, just yet.

So who to lead the Trolls from the ancient Troll citadel at Karam-Tag-Chou



So it fell to the last surviving relative of the last leader, The Lord Low Troll, to come up with a figurehead leader that could be accepted by all. The Prince Low Troll of the Troll clan of Manjura came up with a proposed new leader that was radical.



The new leader would be one that could be seen as not a natural supporter of the clan of Manjura. It would be one who had once clashed swords, as it were with that troll clan leader, and even more radical, the new Emperor of the Troll clans, would be

A Mortal Human

Episode I – Coronation Surprises





Isn’t it funny the way things can turn out? One minute you are dragged through an inter-dimensional gate by a big bunch of trolls and a few years later they come to your rescue, like they did last year when I ran in to a man possessed by the spirit of an ancient Egyptian god that took umbrage at being rebranded as a mere major spirit of vice.

I had assumed I had seen the last of the Prince Low troll


Especially as he had been engaged in a bloody civil war in that alternative universe known as the Mystical Realms.

It had also been quiet on that front since I had helped rescue from an out of control government agency the former Spirit of Fidelity. I say former, because with the help of two American FBI agents and a couple of leprechauns, who worked for the Irish government, we had managed to reunite her with her long lost sister, the Spirit of Fancying, and out of their own free will, they gave up their status of being minor spirits of virtue, and became normal mortal teenage twin sisters of the age of 15. Fidelity, as she became, went to live with her twin sister the former Spirit of Fancying who went by the name Caer, who had been adopted as a baby after she was rescued and left by the fairies at a Dublin police station, Caer’s adoptive parents then successfully applied to adopt Fidelity, where upon she became Fidelity O’Docherty.

but I digress

As I was saying, I did not expect to see the Price Low Troll, until he showed up in my apartment unannounced.

It was opening time, and I had just finished reading Caer’s blog about how she had been helping her twin sister recover from a traumatic upbringing that had been filled with physical abuse and pain. I had agreed to meet Angela my friend from the coffee shop, where she was the manageress at only 27, down the pub, to share the latest news from the former twin spirits of virtue. Angela had taken a special interest in Fidelity, because she had been an orphan too and had been raised by her aunt, whom she lived with until a few weeks ago, when her aunt had died of breast cancer.

I closed my laptop to be shocked to see the Prince Low Troll in front of me

I immediately thought of the twins, “You can not touch those two now” I told the Prince Low Troll, “They are mortals now”

The Prince Low Troll rolled his eyes up and then said in exasperation “We have no interest in them now”

Then he winked and added “Nice job, two less meddling Spirits off of the books, although for Spirits of virtue they were quite well behaved”

“Then why are you here” I asked

“I have come for you”

“Why, what have I done now”

“Graeme, my friend” The Prince Low Troll added, “You have been appointed our new leader in the Mystical Realms”

“ME????”

“Afraid so” confirmed the Prince Low Troll, “You were the only one I could think of”

“Why?”

“I will explain on the way to the way to the Troll citadel at Karam-Tag-Chou”

I suddenly remembered Angela at the pub, “I am sorry Prince Low Troll”, but I have arranged to meet with a friend down the pub” I tried to explain.

The Prince Low Troll was having none of it, “This is no time to be carousing with fellow mortals, this is serious”

“How Dare he” I thought, “Was this also interfering in the affairs of mortals, the hypocrite”

“Prince Low Troll, so is this visit to my friend, I promised her”

Suddenly the Prince Low Troll’s countenance changed and he started grinning “Her?” he asked, “Is this friend a female mortal human?”

I wondered what the troll was getting at so I just uttered “er yes?”

“Is she a close friend” The Prince Low Troll asked.

I was suddenly suspicious of him, what was he planning, so I walked around the table and told him straight out, “leave her alone, she’s my friend”

The Prince Low Troll cocked his head, “So you two are close then”

“I met her when your father’s goons kicked me out of the Mystical Realms.” I explained, “She was there when the dimension gate opened” I added.

“And you have been close friends ever since?”

“Yes” I replied, then suddenly I noticed he had added the word close.
The Prince Low Trolls eyes lit up and he clapped his hands “This is excellent, Framena will be relieved”

“Who?” I asked, the Prince Low Troll was not making sense.

“We must go now” The Prince Low Troll insisted.

“I told you” I objected, I was about to add about seeing Angela when the troll butted in
“We must go to this pub”

“Ok” I said, “But won’t you get noticed.

“Not really, I am a dab hand at this” the Prince Low Troll, and put on a parka jacket and put the hood up, “You humans get so wrapped up in your affairs that you seldom notice us” he added, then produced an amulet, “plus I have an amulet of distraction”

I packed up my laptop and the pair of us walked down the street to the pub where Angela was waiting. After her aunt’s death, the coffee shop chain had given her a month off on compassionate leave and outstanding leave.

As we walked down the street I asked why the trolls had elected me to be their leader, when a few years ago they beat me to a pulp on a trumped up charge by this particular trolls father’s orders. All I got from him was “all in good time”

We reached the pub and entered, it was half empty, being a Tuesday. Angela was at a table tucked away in the corner, sipping on a white wine and soda.

“Do you want anything?” I asked the troll
“Not for me thanks, we do not have the time”

Do not have the time? What was he up to

Instead of buying a drink straight away, I followed the troll to where Angela was sitting, and he sat at the table across from where she was sitting.

As I approached, she got up and gave me a peck on the cheek, “I was beginning to worry that you may not be coming”

“Sorry I’m late” I apologised, “something came up” I added pointing at the Prince Low Troll, then I sat down on the chair at the end of the table.

“Who is your friend?” Angela asked, a little concerned, after all this was supposed to have been a private drink to discuss what to do with her time off from the coffee shop.
The Prince Low Troll pulled his hood down, and Angela did a double take.
I thought it best to introduce them
“Angela” I said, pointing at the Prince Low Troll, “This is the Prince Low Troll, he sent the snatch squad to save us from that Egyptian god Set I mentioned”
“Oh” Angela replied, “Thank you” she added and offered her hand to the troll. The Prince Low Troll was obviously schooled in human etiquette and took her hand and gently kissed it. “My Pleasure”
“Prince Low Troll, this is Angela Roberts, my close friend, who helped me kind of look after the Spirit of Fidelity when you told me to take her to this world”
“Well I did what I could your highness” Angela replied, blushing slightly, “then added to what do we owe the pleasure of your company?”

This must have been what the Prince Low Troll was waiting for, he was itching to explain, why I was to be the leader of the Trolls. “Well Miss Roberts” he started, then stopped “Are you married?”

What kind of question was that? – What was he up to?

“No, you highness, looking after my aunt, I kind of got left on the shelf” Angela replied

This was true, while her friends went dating, the aunt that had brought her up, had been ill and so she had sacrificed going out on dates to care for her aunt. It was only now after her death, was she getting out. When we went to Ireland to be present at Fidelity’s adoption in to the O’Docherty family Angela had had to arrange with cover from social services, as she was by then her official carer.

“This is most excellent” The Troll beamed, “Framena will be so relieved”

“Prince Low Troll” I butted in, “Who is this Framena?”
The Prince Low Troll looked round at me, “Why she was the troll female that was to be your consort”
“My what?”
“She was so displeased as she had been seeing someone in the Troll guards, but was prepared to put duty first” The Prince Low Troll went on, “Now as you have a close female human companion she will do instead”

“A what?” Angela asked incredulously

Suddenly, the Prince Low Troll produced a dimension jump orb and activated. In seconds, we were all engulfed by a ball of light.
“Graeme, what’s going on” Angela asked in a stern voice
I could not answer, as I had not a clue.

After a minute of being in the ball of light it faded to reveal that we were still seated at the pub table, but now it was in what appeared to be some great stone hall, and it seemed quite cool compared to the pub we had been in moments before.



“Where are we?” Angela asked, somewhat alarmed
Before I could answer, the Prince Low Troll jumped in, “This is the Troll citadel at Karam-Tag-Chou in the Mystical Realms, the royal palace of the Emperor of Trolls, where you Graeme, shall be crowned emperor of the Trolls, along with your consort Angela,
“Why?” I asked
“Because Angela is your companion” replied the Prince Low Troll
“No why am I your new emperor, I am not a troll”
The Prince Low Troll suddenly became serious, “Graeme, this civil war had to end, we were in stalemate, with no side having victory in site. There were trolls along side the orcs fighting trolls alongside the other races. We managed to broker a deal with those clans fighting along side the trolls for them to cease supporting their orc allies. We promised that we would bring back the ancient office of the Emperor of the Trolls, who would with the trolls rule the Mystical Realms, and force the orcs to disarm and allow the other races to live in peace and paying us tribute”

“Paying you tribute I suppose” Angela interjected

The Prince Low Troll was unfazed by this interruption and continued, “Yes, paying us tribute, just like you in the realm of mortals pay taxes for protection. Anyhow, there is still a lot of distrust between the clans, and the alliance of the clans is fragile. No one could agree which head of which clan would be Emperor of the Trolls, because they believe, who ever it is, would show favouritism. As the last heir of the last Troll leader, I was honoured to nominate a leader”

“So you chose me” I asked

“Yes Graeme, you were seen as neutral. You had been on the receiving end of Troll police action, yet in battle you fought along side a troll”

“You” I interjected

“Yes, and I got them to grudgingly accept you”

“Thanks, I think”

“Your welcome” The Prince Low Troll answered.

“But why me?” Angela asked, “why do you need a consort”

The Prince Low Troll was puzzled that this question should be asked, “Because it is part of the ancient law of the trolls”

The Prince Low Troll then lowered his voice, “The Troll Chamberlain will be here shortly to guide you through your coronation and celebrations which all the troll clans have assembled here to see. Do not refer to me as the Prince Low Troll, for reasons of expediency, I am now to be called Clan chief of the Manjura”

With that the Prince Low Troll, Sorry Clan Chief of the Manjura, departed.

“Graeme what have you dropped me in now” Angela asked

Before I had chance to answer, another troll in read robes, carrying a staff entered the room.

“Oh good you are here at last” He said in a croaky voice, indicating he was quite old, “I am the Troll Chamberlain and your guide in the proceedings”

Angela and I stood up to meet him, Angela did a courtesy, just to be on the safe side. The Troll Chamberlain looked up at her and smiled.

Suddenly he struck the floor with his staff and the table and chairs vanished. “They should be returning back whence they came” Explained the Troll Chamberlain

Then the Troll Chamberlain produced two large sacks and asked us to remove all our clothing and place it in the sacks.

“Why?” I asked, “Do you have ceremonial robes for us to put on?”

“No” Replied the Troll Chamberlain, “As part of the ancient law, centuries old, a new leader and his consort must walk the complete length of the hall naked, to symbolise they have no baggage and no hidden agenda and nothing to hide. At the coronation ceremony, you will receive appropriate garments to put on. Please it is the law” he insisted

“You have got to be kidding” Angela shouted angrily.” No way am I getting dropped in it where because of you Graeme, someone ends up stripping naked, again”

“Again?” I asked Angela, what was she talking about, and for a moment I forgot my surroundings

“Yes it happened before and that was your fault as well” retorted Angela

“My fault? How”

“Remember when you first brought me Fidelity after you got back from London on the bus that first time”

I dimly remembered this from the previous year, which seemed like a lifetime ago, “Vaguely I ventured, I left her with you and spoke for a bit before going to the hostel”

Angela shook her head at me in disgust, “You came in, and explained that this fifteen year old child”

“I thought she was sixteen”

“Irrelevant, you bring in this fifteen year old child, and I happily offered to employ her, and then I gave her a key to a staff room locker. Then you told Fidelity, that it was put her dress in when she changed into her uniform that I would give her”

I could just remember this, and added to the story “Yes and you said the uniform was a t-shirt and a choice of skirt or trousers for women, but you only had the skirt in that branch at that time.”

“But you told her to go to the staff room so she could get ready, so we could talk about how to deal with the paper work.”

“Yes” I replied, racking my brain at this, just where Angela was going with this, “we were talking ten minutes”

“Actually half an hour” Angela replied, and then continued “And when you left, I went to the staff room to find Fidelity sitting stark naked on the chair after she had obeyed what you told her and put her clothes in the locker. She was in a terrible state, because that staff room was like an ice box because the heater was broken and although she tried to hide it from me, she was in tears because she was so cold”

I had never heard this before, and it just highlighted to me my lack of care again, when I was sort of responsible for The Spirit of Fidelity as she was then, but for all physical purposes, a young teenager. I could tell this still rankled Angela, as I understood how she could identify with Fidelity.

Angela went on with her rant, “I was so glad Kevin was late that day, I told her that he did not mean to get undressed right away and even if he did, she did not have to remove her underwear. And do you know what she said”

I shook my head and said “no”

“She said she did not have any, and she had to make do without”

This annoyed me for some reason, “Angela, when I rescue a female spirit of virtue from certain death, asking if they have a fresh clean bra and panties does not come to mind. I would hardly think it was an appropriate thing to ask” Then I added “I can not believe we are having this conversation”

“Typical man, don’t care about details, leave that to us” Angela retaliated with, “I could not let her put the uniform on such as it was with her in that state we would all have been embarrassed given some of the customers we get, so I told her to put her dress back on, got Jenny to bring her a hot chocolate to warm her up, and told her that the coffee shop chain also supplied proper underwear as part of the uniform and that I would ring another branch to bring them across, with a pair of trousers.”

“News to me?” I answered back, I did not think coffee shops provided such things” I still could not believe, that in Troll citadel at Karam-Tag-Chou in the Mystical Realms, the royal palace of the Emperor of Trolls we were talking about Fidelity’s first day at work and intermit details of what she was or not wearing

Angela, almost red in the face continued, boy was she mad, yikes! “WE DON’T I lied, I was able to judge what size Fidelity was and I gave my own money to Jenny to get five panties and three bras from Marks and Spencer’s, and got her to go to the other branch to collect the trousers, while I sat with Fidelity in my office, where it was warmer, with my coat around her. And when Jenny returned I allowed Fidelity to change in my office, while I guarded the door”

COUGH COUGH

It was the Troll Chamberlain, we had forgotten about him in our trip down memory lane.
“Please remove all your clothes now. I assure you they will be returned washed tomorrow”

Suddenly returning to the present, Angela shook her head “NO WAY, ABSOLOUTLY NO”

ZIP – The Troll Chamberlain banged his staff on the floor. Instantly, Angela and I were completely naked, and the two sacks were gone.

We were stunned for a moment as I gazed on Angela’s naked body, she looked beautiful and had a wonderful figure, and she gazed at my body, eying me up and down. As she looked up and then down my body, I thought for a moment she smiled. Then she came to herself, and so did I as we tried to cover ourselves with our hands.

THWACK, The Troll Chamberlain hit both of us with his staff. “You must go into the chamber with arms wide open, showing you have nothing to hide”

“Where did you get this law, PlayBoy Magazine or Nuts” Angela asked.

The Troll Chamberlain looked confused at the references to the lads mags

“Chamberlain” I asked the Troll Chamberlain, “I understand the symbolic reason I must display all for this coronation, but does it really matter about the consort”

The Troll Chamberlain shook his head, “It is the law, it always was”

“Chamberlain, I insist you return her clothes, and I will go naked for as long as you like and I will let them see everything” I tried, I removed my hands as a gesture I thought of good will

“No” He said firmly, “You must go into the chamber devoid of any clothes, both of you and hiding nothing”

Angela was resolute, “OK I will walk to the front naked, but I insist on covering what modesty with my hands, end of argument”

The Troll Chamberlain tapped his staff, suddenly, there was a metal collar around Angela’s neck, and her hands were held in restraints on two foot long bars from the neck.
“If you insist” The Troll Chamberlain said in a weary manner

“OK I give in” Angela replied, “Please take this collar off it hurts”

The Troll Chamberlain turned to me, “She is your consort, but she has shown herself to be too strong willed, do you want her collar to remain as her punishment for defiance of our sacred traditions”

I looked at Angela, she usually was a strong woman, with her own mind, something I quite liked about her, but now she was standing naked in a cruel manacle device. Apparently I had the power to release her. It seemed so tempting to let her be like that, just to exert that power.

“Hmmm” I started

Angela just glowered at me, and I then realised I did not want my friendship with her to suffer any more than it already had. I valued her too much.

“Release her” I instructed the Troll Chamberlain

Zap – the manacles disappeared.

Angela felt her neck, she was letting everything show now, but she was not happy.

I offered my hand to her, at least we could walk hand in hand I thought.

“NO” Shouted the Troll Chamberlain she must walk three steps behind in submission

“It’s ok Graeme” Angela said quietly, her head staring at the floor, “it’s no use arguing”

Angela giving up, had the Troll Chamberlain broken her spirit

I walked up to her and lifted her head, “Angela, you have a wonderful body, you have nothing to be ashamed at” I tried to reassure her, but it sounded corny even to me.

“Thank you” she whispered, “and so do you” and then she tried to smile weakly.

Suddenly the huge doors swung open, to an even larger chamber, full of hundreds of trolls. I felt a cool breeze come through the door, being a larger chamber it was obviously harder to heat. I stepped forward walking on the cold stone floor, with my arms out wide, I could not see what Angela was doing, probably seething at me for putting her through this humiliation. I was just glad that the Trolls did not have camera phones, just yet.

I expected some wolf whistles at either me or Angela, but the trolls kept a dignified reverend silence. It was indeed a solemn occasion, even if it had been designed by some pervert centuries long dead. I noted that there were different troll standards, this was a meeting of all of the troll houses, and this was how significant this ceremony was.

I could also hear the Troll Chamberlain walking behind us.

We walked for about the length of two football fields, the chamber was enormous and cold, and I was shivering a bit, and I assumed Angela was too. I just hoped the ceremonial clothes we would get would be warm.

At what looked like an alter, two troll guards stood with halbards
[img=100x300]http://images.onlinegalleries.com/gfx/24888.jpg[/img]

The Troll Chamberlain came around with a book, from which he started reading a prepared speech about the ancient order of the emperor and how we had shown that we had walked in, with nothing to hide. It seemed to go on for ages as we shivered naked in the cold. Then it was time for the oath swearing, and I swore on my life and honour as a troll well an honorary troll to deal fairly with all troll clans and keep the troll law. Standard stuff I thought.
I was then given a kilt to wrap around my lower half, ”Oh well a Scottish influence then” I thought

Then I was given a pair of sandals, and then a war green tunic, and finally a red robe. The phrase “Red and Green should never be seen” was obviously lost on the trolls. But I was now installed as the new Emperor of the Trolls

The Troll Chamberlain then boomed “Do you take this female to be your loyal consort”

“Yes” I replied

“Step forward consort and receive the garment of the consort” Boomed the Troll Chamberlain

Angela walked forward, shivering, her arms now around her chest, she was expecting to be clothed as I, but all she was given was a skirt and a pair of sandals.

“Chamberlain” I asked, “Does she not get a top to wear”

The chamberlain shook his head, “Certainly not, The consort always goes dressed like this, how else can the emperor tell if he likes what he can see and asses if she has the womanly assets to nurse his offspring”

I looked at Angela, standing there topless; arms folded to try and keep warm and preserve her modesty. For some reason I could not help saying to her, “come on Angela it’s not like you have not gone topless before, remember Majorca last spring”

Angela was not happy, “Only because someone, not a million miles from here did not notice that the bikini top was not included when they bought me a cut price swimming costume”

Oops – I remembered how embarrassed she was, when she came out of the changing room then, especially as we had to wait two hours before we could get access to our clothes due to some foul up at the hotel

Then Angela, started to look at me with pleading eyes, “Graeme it was a lot warmer in Majorca, I’m cold”

That was it, I could not stand this any longer, Angela was not a troll, and neither was I. I felt the robe, it seemed sufficient for me, so I told the Troll Chamberlain ,”I do not care if this starts a war, but I am not going to let my consort and friend, Angela suffer like this”

I removed my robe and laid it on the alter rail, and then removed my tunic, walked over to Angela and told her to put it on and hang the consequences. She took the tunic with one hand, while still trying to cover herself with one hand, then smiled and let her other hand hang down, “do you like what you see” she said softly.

“Like I said earlier, you have a beautiful body, Did you like what you saw?” I asked in return. She gave a brief smile, blushed and stood there shivering with the tunic in her hand. I grabbed the robe to put that back on and told her to put her tunic on.
Angela whispered a thank you and turned her back on the trolls and slipped on the tunic, even without any underwear, I could tell she was a lot happier that she was covered up at last, especially with something warm.

Suddenly there was a massive wall of sound as the trolls cheered. Angela and I were taken aback.

“What is going on?” I asked the Troll Chamberlain above the dying cheer.

“Well” the Troll Chamberlain started to explain, “When an emperor gives his ceremonial tunic to his consort, that means that he has decided that her womanly assets are for his eyes alone and that they are then married under Troll lore and she is his queen.” Then with a twinkle in his eye, “Congratulations on your wedding”

I was shocked, my attempt at gallantry had resulted in Angela and I getting hitched, I thought she would be mad at me for sure now.

The Troll Chamberlain then snapped his fingers and a new red tunic was brought to me, which I put on.

Angela had overheard, “So you I am now your WIFE!!!”

“Afraid so” I told her, “I’m sorry if that embarrasses you further. I did not realise, but I could not let you shiver there, and even if I knew, I would still do it”

Angela walked towards me and placed her fingers over my lips and a smile cracked over Angela’s face, “What you did was lovely, and being married to you I can live with”

I remembered her earlier answer to the Clan chief of the Manjura, about being left on the shelf, and put my arms around her. I felt her relax in my arms and she felt so soft, we rested our foreheads together then I whispered to my new wife, “I will try to be a good husband”
“You better” she replied “You have been the only offer I have ever had”

All these years we had known each other and perhaps there may have been a latent attraction between us, maybe this sudden accidental wedding was for the best, we weren’t getting any younger after all.

“It is time to go to the celebration dinner now” shouted the Troll Chamberlain and pounded his staff on the floor, then he turned to us and said, “Don’t worry we have arranged human food to be served to you”

The Troll Chamberlain lead the way towards a side door, and I noticed only the Troll officers coming through. The rest of the troops did not get to eat with us at the top table. I took Angela by the hand, and we walked to the banqueting hall hand in hand, like two teenagers in love.

It took about twenty minutes for everyone to be seated. Angela and I sat in the centre at the top table, to our right sat the Troll Chamberlain and to our surprise on our left sat the Prince Sorry Clan Chief of the Manjura

“I knew you were close friends” Winked the Clan Chief of the Manjura

“I don’t think we knew how close we were I told him”
Angela grabbed my arm, and smiled at the troll

CLAP CLAP CLAP

The Troll master of the banquet started the proceeding. “Bring in the wine” He ordered.

Then through another door, it looked like a line of troll children carrying various jugs, but no they were goblin servants, all just wearing kilt like skirts. Behind them was a hobgoblin carrying a whip.

Then I looked again, and in the line, looked like, a five year old human girl, looking cold and miserable.

I turned to the Clan Chief of the Manjura, “Is that a minor Spirit?”

My troll friend looked puzzled, “Not one I know of”, then he pulled from his pocket a small mirror and pointed it at what looked like a human child, and then gasped, “She is human”

Just then the girl, tripped and smashed the jug on the floor, spilling wine. Instantly she screamed as the whip lashed against her bare back. I could see blood had been drawn.

Suddenly I noticed that Angela was not beside me. I looked up and saw her running headlong at the hobgoblin. Instantly, he was floored. I forgot that Angela was a brown belt in karate.
“Don’t touch her, you b******d” she screamed.
Angela then returned and helped the child stand up. The girl was in absolute terror. Angela spoke softly to the child, but I could not hear what she was saying. Then I saw Angela remove her tunic and place it on the weeping child, and she picked the child up and brought her to our table. Suddenly preserving her modesty did not matter any more, comforting this little girl did.

The goblin servants, just stood there for a few minutes, then the lead one motioned to the others to continue serving. The hobgoblin just lay on the floor and started to get up. The Clan Troll Chief of the Manjura called over one of his officers, and the Hobgoblin, was arrested and dragged away. The Clan Troll Chief then passed me a small glass vial



I recognised it and handed it to Angela, “Get the girl to drink this” I told her, “It’s a healing potion”
Angela took the stopper off of the vial with her teeth and spat it out, then told the girl “Sweetheart this will make you better” and gave her the vial.
“Yes your majesty” The child replied took the vial and drank it down in one go.

Angela pulled up the back of the tunic on the girl, and we watched as the cut from the whip healed before our eyes, along with some earlier wheals from earlier whippings. Then she pulled the tunic down.

Another Troll appeared at our table, apparently at the behest of the Troll Chamberlain, and offered Angela a red tunic,.
“Thank you” she said and handed me the child, who I sat on my lap
Angela took the tunic and put it on, and then sat down and requested I hand over the child, which I did.
I then asked the child as softly as I could, “Princess, what is your name?”
“Sarah Smith Your Majesty” the child replied. Sarah was still quite nervous, she must have been drilled that we were very high up by the way she had called Angela and I, “Your Majesty”
“Where are you from?” I continued to ask, as her accent was definitely not British and sounded antipodeans
“New Zealand” she replied
“Does your mummy and daddy know you are here” Angela asked
“I don’t have a mummy and daddy any more your majesty” Sarah replied and then burst into tears, and then through the tears told us “Mummy went to heaven after I was born and a monster appeared and killed daddy on our plane, before he took me” Then the child’s weeping made her incoherent.

Angela, held her in her arms, trying to comfort her.

A troll captain returned while we were speaking to Sarah and spoke to the Clan Chief of the Manjura. Once he had gone, the troll relayed that the hobgoblin had confessed to buying the child as a slave from a troglodyte, and insisted that he did not know she was a mortal.
“Someone” uttered the Clan Chief of the Manjura, “has been illegally interfering with the world of mortals”.

Something was wrong, oh so very wrong, but what?

Then the Troll Chamberlain piped up and told us that this was unseemly and that we should send the “brat” back to the scullery so we could continue with proceedings.

I turned to the Clan Chief of the Manjura, as he had been a friend sort of, “As Emperor of the Trolls, can I make a proclamation, a decree or anything like that”

My troll friend nodded, “You pronounce it in your authority as emperor and it is law. It is a rarely used privilege as it can so easily be abused”

I knew what I wanted to do, first I called for an extra chair to be brought, so Sarah could be sat between Angela and myself, and I called for a small plate of food be brought to her, along with some goat’s milk.

Then I stood up and addressed the banqueting chamber. “Fellow Trolls” I started, “By my authority as emperor, I decree, that this child” I placed my hand on Sarah’s shoulder, she looked at me, still with awe. I then continued, “shall no longer be a slave, but she of this moment has become our daughter, and we are her new parents. She shall be treated accordingly. She is to be known as Princess Sarah, daughter of the Emperor and Queen of the Trolls”

I sat down, and suddenly there was a sound of the trolls banging their fists on the table, it seemed frightening, especially to Sarah.

The Troll Chamberlain turned to us and told us, that the Troll officers had just shown their approval.

Then suddenly, the trolls in unison, shouted “Long live Graeme Emperor of the Trolls, Long live Queen Angela, long live Princess Sarah”. Angela held her hands over Sarah’s ears to protect them, it was quite a sight to behold. Angela smiled broadly at me, and put an arm around Sarah, I then did the same. Suddenly I had a wife and daughter, and it felt good.

After the noise died down, Sarah turned to Angela and asked if we were her mummy and daddy now, Angela assured her, that was the case, and kissed Sarah on the top of her head.

Something still felt wrong though, why was Sarah’s original father murdered by an entity from the Mystical Realms, a heinous crime, and why was she abducted? I put that aside and told my new daughter, “You can call us mummy and daddy if you like, you don’t have to call us Your majesty”. I gave her a hug with one arm, just as Angela had done and kissed her on the head.

“I love you mummy and new daddy”

“We won’t let any one hurt you again, like that nasty hobgoblin” Angela told her, “We will look after you now” she added looking straight at me and smiling.

“Absolutely my princess” I added.

The rest of the meal passed off with no further incident to annoy the Troll Chamberlain’s insistence on protocol. Even Sarah, for a five year old ate all her meal up. She was a real gem, and it made me burn with anger at how she had been put through what she had been through.

As the night wore on, I noticed Sarah drifting off to sleep, so I used this as an excuse for my instant family to retire to the bed chamber we had been given. They had even arranged a cot for Sarah, where I laid Sarah down to sleep.

Angela and I went through to the main bedroom and looked at it.
“That was lovely what you did for Sarah” Angela told me as she sat down on the bed.
“I just had to do it” I replied, “it seemed the only thing to do”
I then wanted to go on about how I was uneasy I felt that Sarah had been abducted in the first place, and her original farther being murdered, but then Angela removed her top, kicked off her sandals, and then removed her skirt, and patted the bed.
“Come to bed, husband” she instructed me.

I pulled off my tunic.

“DADDY DADDY A MONSTER” Came a sudden scream from Sarah’s room.

Angela instinctively grabbed the blanket from the bed and started to cover herself with it as she ran to attend to Sarah.

I followed briefly, to see Sarah sitting up in bed, crying her eyes out. She had had a nightmare about what ever entity, possibly the troglodyte, had come onto their plane, killed her father, her last remaining parent and abducted her to be sold into slavery.

I let Angela sit with Sarah, comforting her, reassuring her that although her first mummy and daddy were no more, we were the new ones who loved her very much.

So much for our wedding night I thought, and went to the bedroom to get Angela’s clothes, but there on the bed, was an Equatorial Spitting Cobra



It had been disturbed by Angela taking the blanket from the bed, so someone or something and placed it in there.

Someone had just tried to kill us…

To be continued

Episode II – Finger of Suspicion

Life changes from time to time

One moment you are picking up odd assignments to pay the rent, like process serving, or trying to catch out those trying it on with insurance, the next you are proclaimed the Emperor of the Trolls in order to help bring and end to civil war in the Mystical Realms.

One moment the only friendly troll I knew went by the title of the Prince Low Troll, the next he is the Clan Chief of the Manjura

[img=200x150]http://eq2.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/NON-SOGA/NON_SOGA_Female_Troll.jpg[/img]


One moment your friend of a number of years, who is a manageress of a coffee shop in the north of England, .then she is your wife and queen.

And then one moment you are sitting down to a banquet in your honour, the next you have adopted a five year old girl from New Zealand, who had been abducted, possibly by a troglodyte who has murdered her father, her last remaining parent, and been whipped in front of you by a hobgoblin.

One moment you are getting use to being a new family, the next you are staring at an Equatorial Spitting Cobra



Placed in your bed to kill you

For a moment I was stunned, then I started to back away , Angela would just have to try and stay wrapped in the blanket while she sat with Sarah, comforting her after her nightmare.

“Angela” I said in a serious tone

“Yes”

“Keep Sarah in there, and stay there yourself”

“What is going on?”

“There is a snake on the bed” I replied, “It was underneath the blanket, “A kind of spitting cobra, I think they meant it for me”

“Graeme come and sit with Sarah” Angela ordered Ordered

I came into Sarah’s room, Angela had been sitting wrapped in the blanket with Sarah on her lap. As I came in, Sarah stood up and handed me a slightly sleepy Sarah into my arms. My new daughter had saved my life by waking up and screaming from her nightmare.

New daughter, that still made me feel good for some reason

“Daddy is here Princess” I told Sarah, and while holding her in one arm, I lifted up the blankets in her cot, there was no snake here, thank goodness, I just hoped Sarah had not cottoned on to what was going on. I did not want to scare her any more than she was already. I then placed the child in the cot, and pulled the blankets over her.
“Try to get back to sleep princess” I urged her
“Yes New Daddy” She replied and closed her eyes New Daddy, for some reason I wanted her to drop the word “new”, but that was selfish of me, I could not replace the daddy she had, that had been murdered, New Daddy would have to do, I would still love this child as if she had been my own

Then I noticed that Angela had wandered into the living room of our private apartment and had shed the blanket, and was looking for something.

“I’m sorry I left your clothes in the bedroom with the snake” I told her, assuming she was looking for something to wear.

“I’ve not got anything you have not seen already” she remarked and then found a candle snuffer on a long handle for use with the candles in the ceiling. She then went and picked up what looked like a basket of some description, with a lid.
“Go back and keep Sarah safe” Angela ordered, she was, beautiful, naked and up to something.

Angela saw me hesitate and then said in her usual serious tone, “Go”

“What are you doing” I asked

“Go and keep my daughter safe” My daughter! Even Angela had readily accepted Sarah as her own daughter, after all I had not had time to consult her when I issued my decree formally adopting her under troll law

I decided it was best to comply, and went into Sarah’s room and pulled the chair up to the cot and gazed at Sarah, she had gone back to sleep, the poor mite.

After ten minutes, I heard a shout of, “I have got it, it is safe to come in now”

I left Sarah sleeping, although for some strange reason I felt guilty for doing so and went back into our bedroom. Angela had got dressed again and pointed to the basket.
“I used the snuffer as it was the only long object we had to move the snake into the basket”
“Where did you learn that trick?” I asked incredulously
“Animal Planet on Discovery Channel” she replied, “Now put your tunic on and call the guards”

As Angela was in the driving seat as it were, I pulled my tunic on and opened the front door of our apartment, and informed one of the troll body guards on sentry duty that an assassination attempt had been made.

The Troll was shocked and put a horn to his lips and blew a loud sound.

Great, just when I had got Sarah off to sleep

In a matter of minutes a squad of troll guards came running, amongst them was Strang, the troll captain that had once lead the snatch squad that had captured Set. I explained all about the snake, and Strang listened intently. He was most impressed that a female human had known how to deal with the snake, and said she made a worthy queen and I was right to marry her. Strang then dispatched a troll somewhere, and asked to come inside, how could I refuse.

Angela met us just inside the front door, she had the basket at her feet with the snake in it.
“Is Sarah alright, that horn was loud” I asked
“I have not checked, Captain, this basket here has the snake that was sent to kill my husband”
My Husband – Angela was really great, going along with this husband and wife thing, I assumed she was teasing me with it, since I dropped her into being married to me

The troll captain peered at the basket, a faint hissing from inside it could be heard. Angela and I got clear as the troll captain lifted the lid and looked at the snake. Then in his perfect English, told us “This serpent is not native to the Mystical Realms. It is from the Realm of Mortals”

“What?” I asked.
“That’s our world” Angela added.
“Indeed, this is most disturbing” Said the troll captain shaking his head, and putting the lid back on the basket
“Sir “ Angela asked the troll captain, “can you get someone to return the snake to the wild in our realm” then she added, “Please don’t kill it, it is just an innocent creature placed by assassins”
“Strange” queried the troll, “but I will do the bidding of my Emperor and his queen.

Another troll came to the door, along with an elven magician. The troll took the basket away, whilst the elf muttered incantations and waved a glass rod. Just then a blue globe of light grew from the rod and then encompassed the whole apartment. Then the light was gone and the elf pocketed the glass rod. The elf nodded at the Troll captain and left with out saying any more words
“That was a dispel harm spell and a protection spell” explained the Troll captain, who then turned and walked out the door, then just before he left he told us that the Clan Chief of the Manjura would visit us in the morning and that an extra guard was being posted.

Angela and I closed the front door and went in to gaze at Sarah, still sleeping, she was a beautiful child and was definitely an apple in the eye of her first daddy

First daddy! – just like this shotgun wedding I had dropped Angela into, I seemed to be getting used to this idea of being a father as well. The way Angela squeezed my arm, she seemed more up for being the role of my wife than I expected, and was relishing being a mother, even if only an adoptive one as it were

We watched Sarah sleep for an age, arm in arm, before Angela took me by the hand to go to our own bed. We still had not got any night clothes, so Angela insisted that we sleep au natural. She got into the bed first, and after I got in, she sidled up to me and grabbed my hand. I squeezed her hand back. Then she let go of my hand and moved her hand slowly over my thigh to my groin area, and gave me a gentle but firm squeeze and let go, and returned to holding my hand under the blanket.

Was this really Angela, the manageress of the coffee shop!!!

“Happy Angela?” I asked her, taken by surprise at the level of intimacy she was showing towards me, not that I was unhappy about it.

Angela said nothing

I turned on my side to face Angela in the semi dark; a small amount of light came in from one of the three moons that hung above this world in an alternative universe. I could see Angela was silently crying.
“What’s the matter Angela” I asked, “I won’t do anything to you, you don’t want. I value your friendship too much for that. If you want you can have the bed to your self”
“I know” Angela sniffed, “me too, please don’t leave me here on my own. I want you so much, but I don’t want to loose you as a friend either, sorry if I embarrassed you just then by touching you there”

I looked at Angela, my acquaintance, my friend, and by Troll law my wife. I looked into her eyes, and then with my free hand, gently wiped a tear from her eye.
“OK, I’ll stay if that is what you want love” I told her Love!! Even I was succumbing to the situation , “As for being embarrassed, Angela, feel all you like”

Angela looked into my eyes and was silent for a moment then explained how she had sacrificed to look after her aunt and had seen all the baristas under her being picked up from work by various boyfriends and girl friends. The only one not attached had been her and Fidelity, the former spirit of virtue, now a normal mortal teenager living in Ireland after being adopted by the parents who had adopted her twin sister many years previous. Angela had resigned herself to never getting any man, the only single male contact was my friendship and she had always fantasised about getting married, getting pregnant, being a mother ever since she was a teenager, but she never expected it would ever come to pass. She felt, rightly or wrongly, she had missed the boat.

And now, after a false start with the attempt to kill us with the cobra, she was in bed with her friend, whom had accidentally married her, by showing her common decency and putting her first above a royal protocol in a strange dimension. She so wanted me, as there was no one else, especially as the three of us, including Sarah were the only humans in the Mystical Realms. The snake had made her realise even more, that life was short. She not only wanted me to hold her, she wanted me, to have her, to make love to her. She was married, albeit under Troll law and she wanted all the fantasy if I would allow it.

I had dropped her in it so many times and dumped on her so many times. She was intelligent, caring and as shown by how she dealt with the cobra, not me, resourceful; she was someone I could grow to love. No, I suddenly realised it, had grown to love, I had just denied it all this time. So who was I to deny her, my friend and now unexpectedly, my wife the physical love she longed for.

With my free hand, I reached over and grabbed her side to pull her on top of me, but we .both ended up on our sides facing each other.
“Please be gentle” Angela instructed me, “I hear it hurts the first time”
“I’ll try” I told her, “This is new for me as well”

Angela and I let out a small giggle; we were still almost like two teenagers in love. Then we let the silence of the night return as we gazed into each others eyes. Finally we kissed, and with both my arms I held her and in the time to our selves our unexpected and unplanned marriage, in front of the altar, at my coronation of Emperor of the trolls, was fully consummated. I just hoped that successfully pleased her. After that, we drifted off to sleep in each others arms.

It had been a long day

+ + + + + + + +
Suddenly it was morning

As I woke up, I could see the light from the sun coming through the high window of our bedroom. I was in bed alone. I looked out at my side of the bed, and true to his word, my human clothes had been returned by the Troll Chamberlain. I grabbed my underwear and trousers first, and as I was doing up my trousers, I looked over to Angela’s side of the bed and saw her, leaning against a small table. She had just dressed in the skirt she had been wearing when we met in the pub the previous day. She had not put on any top, or her bra. Her hands were on the table, and she made no effort to cover her modesty. She saw that I had awoke and made a weak smile at me, but something seemed wrong.

I had been such an idiot, I should be thinking of Angela, my wife, first not me

“Morning Angela” I told her, and then I noticed she had been crying. I ignored the rest of my clothes and walked over and held her in my arms, and kissed her on the forehead. “What’s the matter love?”
Angela was still sobbing when she spoke “You were so wonderful last night, but I got thinking when I woke up this morning, while you were still asleep, that you like to help people and be nice to them, maybe I was selfish and took advantage of you”
I looked her in the eye, “No you did not, I wanted you as well, and as we are now married, one of the fringe benefits is to please my wife in anyway I can”

What had come over her, she is never usually like this?

“So you still see me as your wife, even though you got bounced into it” Then she went on. “I should never have complained about the cold, I should have just accepted my place as your consort”
“Angela, Angela I absolutely see you as my wife and not my consort“ I reassured her, “maybe we should have done this ages ago in our world, and like I said yesterday, even if I knew that handing my tunic to you would mean getting married I still would have done it, I was not prepared to see you shiver or be humiliated any longer”
Then I looked in her eyes and asked “Why did you stop getting dressed?”

Angela looked past me up to the left, still crying, “I suddenly remembered that the Troll Chamberlain said that when you gave me your tunic yesterday, that it meant that my womanly assets”, she then pointed to them “are for your eyes alone. So as I was getting dressed, I suddenly I wondered if in Troll law I could only be dressed like this when we are alone together. I know it sounds daft and stupid, but I thought it could be interpreted that way, and I so wanted to make sure I do not upset any one again or break any troll law and I did not want to be punished like I was yesterday by the Troll Chamberlain.” she then rubbed her neck, where she had briefly been manacled by the Troll Chamberlain for trying to cover her modesty with her hands when we had to walk naked to the coronation ceremony, in accordance with troll law, then she added, “I will go like this when we are alone if you want me to” and then almost panicking said,” I will even go naked if you like”, and with that she put both hands on her skirt as if to pull it down.

I gently took hold of her hands and told her, that that would not be necessary, I then let go of her hands and she let them hang by her sides. She looked at me with damp forlorn eyes; the strain of being in this dimension seemed to be getting to her.

Why had Angela got such a ridiculous idea into her head, the female of our species was still a mystery to me. I picked up her bra and held it up to her so she could put it on,

“Angela, you should know me by now, you don’t need my permission to put this on or any clothes you want in my presence” I told her, “If need be I will make another decree to allow you to be fully dressed when you are a alone with me, if you want to be, I love and respect you too much not to do so”. She started to put on her bra, and she allowed me to fasten the clasp at the back. This was hardly the Angela I knew from the coffee shop who was no nonsense independent and strong woman I had known all these years, and now she was being totally submissive to me. I supposed that being in the Mystical Realms with it’s quirky laws was new to her and it was easy to misinterpret things, just as she had said Fidelity had done the first day I took her to work. Apparently part of Troll law was based on care and nurture of troll infants, well that was what the Clan Chief of the Manjura had told me at the banquet, and the rules about what the consort could and could not wear, kind of made sense in their troll logic. I seriously doubted that Angela’s interpretation of Troll law was correct, but even if it was, I could just issue an another edict that would cover Angela, if you pardon the expression.

From the back I put my arms around Angela’s abdomen, pulled her towards me and kissed her on the neck and told her that I loved her and to put her blouse on, wipe away her tears and check on Sarah while I finished getting dressed and used the privy.

After I got dressed, I went through in to the main sitting room and was greeted by “Morning Daddy” from Sarah
Sarah had also been given some human clothes, a pretty pink cotton t-shirt and a blue woollen jumper and a grey knee length skirt, white socks and plimsolls, I had no idea where they got them from, maybe one of those sprites from an old fairy story I half remembered had made them, but however they got them, they had done a brilliant job and Sarah looked every inch the princess she was. Sarah was seated at the dining table on a special raised chair, and Angela was sitting next to her, they were tucking into some kind of oatmeal breakfast.
I sat down at the table and looked at my adopted daughter, “You called me Daddy and not New Daddy”
Sarah put her spoon down, “Mummy said that would be ok, may I call you Daddy”
I was suddenly worried that I was going to upset Sarah, especially if she had been coaxed to say this by my wife Angela. “That’s absolutely ok Sarah. You are my little girl now and I like you calling me daddy, and mummy and daddy love you heaps”. I then placed my arm around her to give her a quick reassuring hug and kissed her on the head. As far as I was concerned, she was my daughter

Angela smiled at me, being a mother was another of her fantasies I had helped her realise, by adopting Sarah as our own child.
“I suggested she refer to her biological father as First Daddy” Angela explained.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

Someone wanted an audience, breakfast for me would have to wait, I had to attend to duties of state.

I opened the door

It was the Clan Chief of the Manjura



“Graeme, we have to talk” He said

Sarah looked up and at the troll and turned to Angela, “Is that the nice troll that gave me the medicine”
Angela told her it was, at this Sarah got down, walked up to the troll and did a courtesy. “Thank you your highness for the medicine to make me better when I was whipped for breaking the wine jug” she said, trying to be as polite as possible.

First Daddy had raised her well, I just hoped Angela and I could do just as well

The troll looked down at Sarah and then squatted down to speak to her face to face “We are so sorry that you were treated so badly by that hobgoblin. He had no business keeping you as a scullion slave, let alone whipping you when the jug he made you carry proved too heavy for you. Breaking that jug was not your fault your majesty. Even if you were not a royal princess as you are now, it was still wrong of him to whip you like that. You are a mortal human, you were abducted and your father killed, that is against our laws of non-interference with the affairs of mortals”
“Yes your highness” replied Sarah, and did another courtesy. I was not sure how much of what the troll said went over her head.
The troll thought for a moment, then added “I am a mere troll clan leader, it is I that should pay homage to you, your majesty, but I thank you for you courtesy and for calling me your highness, but you need not.” Then looking up at us added, “you are obviously a credit to your royal parents”
“Oh she is definitely” Angela told the troll as she came to take Sarah by the hand, “and we love her very much” she added.
Sarah was obviously so much in awe of the Clan chief of the Manjura, that Angela bent down and picked Sarah up and kissed her on the head and took her back to the table to finish their breakfast.

“Can we talk outside” the troll asked
I agreed and we walked into the court yard, where the troll bodyguards stood vigil and then we headed out of the main wall of the citadel complex and stood for a while looking at the mountains.



I had never before realised what a beautiful world this could be, and it was a crying shame it had been scarred by civil war. In the distance we could see the occasional fire breathing dragon as they went hunting some kind of deer creature.

Lovely though the vista was, there was business to conduct. “Ok, what is on your mind” I asked the troll
“The serpent as her highness Queen Angela has requested has been returned unharmed to it’s habitat on your Earth”
“Thank you, I will tell Angela that, she is kind of fond of animals”
“The problem is, that as Captain Strang told you last night, this serpent does not come from the Mystical Realms, like Princess Sarah it was brought here”
“So someone is using a dimension jump orb” I answered
“But that is the problem, only our clan, the Manjura, were the guardians of the dimension crossing devices. A few Major spirit s of virtue and vice had the odd one, but after you dispatched the Spirit of Lust, we acquired all of them”
“Maybe you missed one”
“That could be, but it looks to me, that someone wanted you dead, to break up the troll clans and put the finger of suspicion on our clan”
“Why would they do that?”
“If it is an orb we missed, someone in a clan that fought with the orcs might be unhappy at the troll reunification and wish us to side with orcs”
“And if it is one you did not”
“Then it could be someone still loyal to my father the Lord Low Troll, who holds a grudge against you
“But someone got in to the royal palace to plant it in our bed” I pointed out, “Angela could also have been killed”
“Your Majesty, the sacred job of guarding the royal residence falls to the Clan of Delthon, and their clan chief is mounting a very thorough investigation, he sees this assassination attempt as an affront to his personal honour” The Clan Chief of the Manjura responded

Then something the troll had said, did not make sense, if the protection was carried out by the Clan of Delethon, how come the previous night, Captain Strang had turned up, as I had remembered this troll from the previous year, when he had lead a Troll Snatch squad to arrest the Egyptian god Set, and had given us a healing potion for the then Spirit of Fidelity. Strang was therefore of the Manjura, so what was going on

“Captain Strang was only seconded to them as a favour by the clan leader.” Explained the troll
“What if someone has got someone on the inside of the Clan of Delethon?” I asked.
This question irked the Clan chief of the Manjura, and he rolled his eyes upwards, then spoke, “The clan of Delethon were fiercely loyal against the orcs in the war, I can not see anyone bribing one of them. The only other clan that was even more loyal was the Yataxal clan and their warriors fought the bravest battles, even longer than other troll clans. The clans that fought against the orcs, are the ones who wanted victory, they want this position of emperor to succeed. It would not make sense for them to sabotage it.”
“So Clan Leader of the Manjura” I started, “You need to check that nobody in the Manjura clan is still bitter that I escaped the wrath of the Lord Low Troll”
“Agreed, and I need something from Princess Sarah in return”
I stopped and faced the troll, “You are not going to touch My daughter”
The Clan leader of the Manjura raised his hand and drew backward, “I would never dream of harming the poor child, but we need to know what creature killed her father and abducted her”
“I thought you said the hobgoblin had confessed to buying her from a troglodyte slave trader”
“He did indeed, he was a stupid hobgoblin who did not even realise the child was a human, he said he thought it was a very clumsy female hobbit, He has now paid for that mistake, as for the troglodyte, he was most likely a middle-creature, and we still have not found him”
I suddenly grew concerned about Sarah, “I want Sarah to have a personal bodyguard, in case it comes for her”
“Graeme, that is not up to me, but I will pass your request to the Clan Leader of the Delethon, but if he is just a slave trader, once he has sold her on, he has no interest in her, he could just claim he thought she was a hobbit and try and get off with a fine”
“But why was she taken in the first place, why was her father murdered by an entity appearing on a plane” I pressed
“I have no idea Graeme, even if someone were trying to discredit our clan, it still makes no sense, and the hobgoblin insisted that as far as he knew, the troglodyte was just a slave trader”
“I still want that guard for Sarah, the entity that took her might want to eliminate her as a witness” I told the troll, and then added “Can I speak to the hobgoblin”
The Clan chief of the Manjura looked at the ground, “He was executed at day break”
“What???”
“It was not my idea, the death warrant came from Troll Chamberlain’s office last night, he would not give his reasons, but I suspect it was because he interrupted the protocol of the coronation”
“That’s a bit harsh”
“The Troll Chamberlain is like that, as Queen Angela found out I hear”.

A thought struck me, “What clan is the Troll Chamberlain from”

“The clan of Ghetto, but he is the last one, as that clan was wiped out forty cycles ago in a troll clan war. It was said that some of the troll women were absorbed into the other clans, like Manjura, Yataxal and Delethon“ explained the troll.

While we were on the subject of the Troll Chamberlain I mentioned to the Clan Chief of the Manjura about how Angela had thought the Troll Chamberlain had meant that in my presence alone, she had to go topless. The Troll hooted with laughter that someone could so misinterpret the Troll Chamberlain’s words, and then after he recovered from his laughter, he winked at me and told me “that is up to you my liege. In public females of the royal court such as Queen Angela and Princess Sarah and any married female trolls are entitled to cover themselves completely; but in private with those who are come of age you, like your wife, the husband can insist they disrobe for their pleasure, they can even insist their female goes naked in their presence alone if they like. Whatever you decide to do in the privacy of the royal chambers it is nothing to do with the Troll Chamberlain now, it is purely down to you”

I had thought that Angela had got worked up over nothing, and now this had been confirmed. Again it was one of those, “I can not believe we are discussing this” moments, but I had to keep reminding myself, that this was a totally alien culture and they did things differently here.

I told the Clan Chief of the Manjura, that because of my love and respect for my wife, I had allowed her to wear what ever clothes she wanted, whenever and where ever she wanted, and besides that with a five year old daughter now, making my wife go around in any form of undress was not appropriate.
The Clan chief of the Manjura winked at me again, saying “I knew you were close, you chose well with that female, I was most impressed how she struck that hobgoblin in unarmed combat, you are right to show her such respect, I salute you”
I then confided in the troll that perhaps Angela and I should have got together in our world, and that far from being distraught at finding herself married to me by accident as I had first expected she would be, she had found the idea appealing, and in retrospect, so did I.
The troll grinned and put his hands on both my shoulders. “You two make an excellent couple and seem to be quite good parents to the human child you have taken in to be your own”
“Thanks” I said
“Have you eaten this morning” The Clan Chief of the Manjura then asked.
“Not yet” I replied
The troll then took me to a small mess hall run by the Manjura, where I was able to dine with officers of the rest of the Manjura clan. The food was just about edible, and the company quite convivial. After we ate, the Clan Chief of the Manjura left to continue his investigations further.

I wandered back to the royal palace to talk to Angela, she was good with children, so maybe she could get Sarah to open up about the creature that originally killed her father and abducted her. The Clan Chief of the Manjura was right, Sarah’s presence in the Mystical Realms and the snakes presence could be linked to the same forces trying to undermine what the trolls were trying to achieve, restoring peace to the Mystical Realms after reaching stalemate in a civil war..

Once I got in, I had a shock, instead of my wife and daughter, stood a female troll. The troll was stripped to the waist, just like Angela had been when she was appointed my consort. All I could think of was to maintain eye contact, it was so embarrassing after all I am a married man now with a young daughter .
“Where is my family?” I asked her
“We are in here” came Angela’s voice from Sarah’s room, it was surprisingly faint.

I pushed passed the female troll and entered the room, but they were not there, then I noticed that Sarah’s cot had been moved, and in the place where it stood, were steps down to a concealed cellar. I walked down to the cellar and found Angela and Sarah quite safe sitting at a table, lit by a single lantern hanging from the ceiling over head. Angela had found a book of blank paper, some kind of writing instrument and was sitting with a protective hand on Sarah’s shoulder, whilst our adopted daughter was drawing something in the book. They looked so natural together, but for some reason Sarah looked pensive and upset, like something was on her mind.

“Angela” I started, “What is this place”
Angela looked around in the gloom, “it is something like a panic room in our world, over there” she said pointing at another door, “is an emergency escape tunnel, the maid who brought clothes for Sarah and our other clothes like those from Earth showed it me” Then Angela added, “I thought it a good place to keep Sarah occupied and try and home school her and keep her out of the way of any official visits upstairs”

Good old Angela, ever the practical one, she really was revelling in being a mother

Sarah just then noticed I had come down in to the cellar and suddenly panicked, dropped her writing instrument and grabbed the bottom of her jumper and t-shirt at the front and immediately pulled them up to just past her lower abdomen and then stopped and looked at me with pleading eyes asked, “Daddy, Do I really have to take these off and be like the troll lady upstairs, it’s cold down here, but the troll lady said it was the law”
Angela immediately, but gently grabbed hold of Sarah’s hands to stop her pulling her clothes up even further and, then moved Sarah’s hands away from her body so she lost grip of her clothes and then Angela released Sarah’s hands and pulled Sarah’s jumper and shirt back down again, and then for good measure, tucked them back into her skirt. Angela gave Sarah a firm hug and kissed her on the head and told her “No Sweetheart, no you don’t” Angela then added “Keep them on please, it’s cold down here”

I could tell that Angela was just as shocked as I was that Sarah had picked that up. What had that female troll told her I wondered? No way was anyone else I cared about going fall for believing that these stupid troll laws applied to them when they did not, just as Angela had believed they did earlier.

I looked at my daughter, who was looking very confused and very stressed out “Of course you can keep them on Princess, Mummy and Daddy wants you to keep warm and they look nice on you” I told my daughter pointing to her jumper.
Sarah looked at me and sniffed “Sorry Daddy, I did not want to take them off but first Daddy taught me that it was wrong to break the law, and the troll lady said it was the law, and I did not want to get in trouble for breaking the law because I did not want to be whipped again” At that Sarah broke down in uncontrolled sobbing, even though she had been healed physically from the injuries caused by the whip and other previous beating, by the troll healing potion, the psychological scars would remain.

As I looked at her, fighting back my own tears, I could still remember how she screamed in agony when the lash of the hobgoblin’s whip ripped into her flesh on her bare back, it would haunt me forever. Now my little princess was buying into the custom of what troll females could and could not wear, and she had got so wound up into thinking she might be doing something wrong, when she was not, that she had become scared stiff that someone would inflict the intense pain of the whip on her again. Sarah was absolutely terrified and it broke the hearts of both Angela and I that she had got into this state.

Angela picked Sarah up off the chair and placed her on her lap cuddling her, I could see tears in Angela’s eyes as well, she must have been remembering that scream as well. At least she had the satisfaction of decking that hobgoblin, when like a lemon I just sat there.

With anger in my voice at what the hobgoblin had done to my little girl the previous day, I told Sarah that while I was her daddy I would never ever allow her to be whipped again, because it was wrong and she was my little girl now and I loved her, and reassured her that she had done nothing wrong.
Angela reiterated that as her mummy she would never allow anyone to hurt her again either, and that she had sorted the nasty hobgoblin out for hurting her, as that was what mummies did for their little girls.

I sat down beside them and held my arm around Angela and my head leaning on hers, as she cuddled our little princess. We sat there for about ten minutes, while Sarah calmed down. Sarah insisted that she would be a good girl and we both reassured her that we knew she was a good girl and told her how much as her parents we both loved her with unconditional love.

I then got up and returned to the trigger of the upset, what this female troll had obviously said to Sarah,
“Sarah”
“Yes Daddy”
“You can wear what ever you like. What that lady troll said applies to single lady trolls only and not to Mummy or you Sarah” I then added, “It is a stupid old troll law that Daddy is going to try and put an end to if he can” I then sat down at the table again and pulled a page from the book and with a biro I had brought with me to the Mystical Realms wrote an edict to allow single troll females to wear tops if they wished and then showed it to Angela and Sarah.
“Daddy is going to try and make this the new law” I told Sarah, “Now you stay here with mummy, and daddy will go and speak to the lady troll”
“Yes Daddy I will” Sarah replied nodding her head trying to wipe away her tears, then as Angela placed her back on her chair, Sarah turned to me and opened her arms out, so I knelt down so she could give me a weak hug and a kiss on my cheek. “I love you daddy” she told me
“Daddy loves you too Princess” I replied, gave her a quick hug back and kissed her on the forehead, then I walked back up the stairs to Sarah’s room and then into the living room. The female troll was still there, waiting patiently and looking ashamed.

The troll spoke first “I’m sorry your majesty for upsetting Princess Sarah”

She had obviously overheard us in the cellar

The troll continued, “But she asked why I did not wear a tunic like your wife did and I had to answer truthfully your majesty”
“And who are you?” I asked, still angry that my daughter had been reminded of the whipping she had received at the hands of the now dead hobgoblin and had been made to think she was doing something wrong when even by troll law, she wasn’t.
“I am Frameana your highness”. she replied nervously “Had you not brought Queen Angela along I would have been your consort” she continued

I remembered how the Clan Chief of the Manjura had told me about Frameana, and here she was.
“Why are you here” I asked
“I brought you more clothes from your world and I wanted to thank Queen Angela for taking my place”
“Because you are dating a troll guard” I ventured
“If that is how you put it, yes.”
I showed Frameana the piece of paper with my edict on, she looked at it and commented that it was very generous of the emperor, and something single female trolls longed for, but this had been steeped in long tradition and some single troll females might be attacked if they took advantage of the law to cover up by hard line traditionalists. Frameana suggested it would be better to submit it as a proposed law to be discussed in the Senate of the Trolls, that way the troll culture might get use to the idea, even if it took more than one generation to change troll attitudes to females. Troll society I learned was fiercely patriarchal. At least single troll females were allowed to wear cloaks when they had to go outside in the winter time which was something.

I agreed to go by what Frameana suggested, I would have to try and explain to Sarah and Angela later,

Then Framean suggested. “You can request that all female trolls attending the palace section are fully clothed”
“I can?”
“Yes your majesty”
“Well that is what I want; I do not want Sarah being upset again”
“Of course your majesty and I never wanted to upset the princess, please believe me I am so sorry that I did”
She then turned her back to me, “If will understand if you wish me disciplined, I deserve it” she said her voice beginning to crack with the emotion of guilt.

I realised that this female troll, standing in the living room, stripped to the waist, hunching her shoulders was waiting for some physical punishment of some kind to be doled out against her bare and exposed back.
I found this appalling, that females of any species could be so conditioned that they had to expect to be disciplined with physical violence. It seemed like something out of Earth’s history books on domestic violence. I wanted no part of such a culture.

I softened my voice, “Frameana, you can relax, I know you never meant any harm, I do not care what troll law says, I am not going to have anyone hit you in anyway shape or form. I will not allow servants here to be physically or mentally abused”

“Thank you your majesty, you are quite merciful” came her reply. Frameana then turned around, “there was something else you ought to know, and not even your friend the Clan Chief of the Manjura knows this, but that death warrant on the hobgoblin that whipped the princess, was not authorised by the Troll Chamberlain, in fact he was angry when he found out his office had sent it, but by then it was too late”

This was worrying; it was beginning to look like that someone had had the hobgoblin silenced. “Did you get this from your boyfriend in the troll guards?” I enquired
“No your majesty, I got it from another chamber maid”

I dismissed Frameana and reminded her that when she attended the palace, she was to wear a tunic of some kind, which she promised to bring along and put on when she went in. It was the best she could do, given the ingrained attitudes to females among the male trolls.

I collected the extra bags of clothes and placed ours in the main bedroom, and Sarah’s in her room. Once you got to know them, trolls were not so bad, there were people of a kind, just bigger and different looking.

There was another knock on the door, I gently opened it, and it was a young troll messenger with a tunic denoting membership of the Manjura clan. As soon as he saw me, he went down on one knee and bent his head to the ground, saying “Your majesty I bring grave news”
“Stand up troll and look at me” I ordered him, this being obsequious was beginning to grate, I was so not used to it.
The troll messenger stood up, and nervously looked me in the face, “My liege, they have found the troglodyte”
“And how is that grave news?”
“He has been disembowelled by some blade weapon we do not know of”

I looked at this messenger and realised the horror behind this news. All the leads to Sarah’s abduction and her father’s murder were being silenced, and the only witness remaining was Sarah, our adopted daughter, and possibly someone was out to kill her as well.

They had already got past the loyal guards of the Clan of Delethon once already, so how I was I going to protect this five year old girl from an unknown assassin?

To be dragged out further

Episode III – Troll Politics

Living in unfamiliar places they say can broaden one’s mind. New cultures, new people and new friends.

But sometimes it can suck, when you have no choice.

There are three of us mortals, myself, Angela my friend from a coffee shop and now my wife under the law of the trolls and Sarah a five year old orphan girl I have had to adopt, as my own daughter to protect her, all living in the unfamiliar surroundings of the Troll citadel at Karam-Tag-Chou in the Mystical Realms

This is a different dimension, how unfamiliar can it get?

Suddenly becoming a husband and father is unfamiliar from my previous life as a confirmed bachelor, but at least that does not suck. Angela and I should have got together long ago, and Sarah is a delightful girl I would be, sorry no Am proud to call my daughter.

Already I have seen how this non human culture treats females, and it is obvious that they have yet to discover feminism and gender equal rights, which is quite unfamiliar to the fairly liberal attitudes of England. Both Angela and Sarah briefly bought into this unfamiliar culture which thankfully as the Emperor of the Trolls I was able to save them from.

What I am unsure is can I save my new daughter from an assassin that has already dispatched her father and those involved with her abduction from the world of mortals and sold into slavery as a scullion slave at Angela’s and my coronation”

I looked at the troll messenger sent by the Clan Chief of the Manjura, formally the Prince Low Troll, who had told me of the death of the troglodyte that had sold Sarah as a slave to the hobgoblin scullery manager. Solving the mystery as to who had killed Sarah’s last surviving parent, her father was getting more difficult, as the hobgoblin had been summarily executed on orders from someone unknown in the Troll Chamberlain’s office.

“What is your name son?” I asked the troll
“Qadlal your majesty” replied the troll.
“Well Qadlal, please ask the Clan Chief of the Manjura I want to have a meeting with all of the clan chiefs.
“Yes your highness”
“And one other thing”
“Yes your highness”
“Does your clan chief have a wife or a consort?”

Qadlal blinked for a moment and then said, “no he does not your majesty, he is only ever in the company of male trolls. I have never known him to be close to any female troll”

I wondered for the moment if the Clan chief of the Manjura was gay, maybe that was one reason why I had heard that he had never got on with his father the Lord Low Troll

“Does he have any sisters?”
“Not that I am aware of your majesty”
“OK please go and take my message”
“Yes your highness” replied the troll messenger who then left running to where ever the Clan Chief of the Manjura resided in this complex.

I looked up at the sky, the weather was still fine and I kept wondering where the next attack would be. I wondered if I should tell Angela about this disturbing news and how. Should I tell Sarah, now my daughter as far as I was concerned?
No!
I did not want to scare Sarah as she had already been traumatised by this world and had even been terrified she would receive a whipping just for wearing her pink top and blue jumper in violation of some stupid law that made single female trolls, have to be stripped to the waist. I was glad my wife were able to reassure our adopted daughter that was not so

Angela had to know, I trusted Angela as she was a brown belt in karate, but was that enough? Even though Sarah and Angela by mutual choice were inseparable, Angela could not be there 24/7, Angela would need to have bathroom breaks for one, and what would happen at night when we went to sleep.

I spoke to one of the sentries on duty; they had just had a changing of the guard about my fears for my daughter’s safety. I needed a trustworthy female troll, fully clothed and armed to help look after the princess along side her mother. I also needed something to protect against magic attack.

The sentry told me there was nothing he could arrange until after his shift, but that no one would get past him.

Yeah right, aren’t these the same sentries that had allowed an assassin to plant a venomous snake from Earth in the royal bed?

It was now getting past the middle of the day, Sarah will be getting hungry now I thought, and it’s past lunch time. Come to think of it, she did look a little underweight as I did not know how long she had been a slave, and the hobgoblin was not around to ask.

Wait a moment, what about the fellow goblin scullery slaves, they might know something that might help protect Sarah, especially that lead goblin that took over when Angela decked the hobgoblin who had whipped Sarah, before I decreed that I had adopted her as mine and Angela’s daughter. My mind then went off at a tangent, when I got to thinking about the previous night when I adopted my little princess; it seemed the only way to protect her from what might have seemed a living nightmare, but part of me felt I was dumping on Angela again, just like minutes before when I inadvertently married her. It was quite a surprise to see that far from resenting me saddling her with a child as some women I knew would, she was absolutely thrilled to act as a mother and positively delighted in the child calling her mummy. As for Sarah, since she could never remember her biological mother, Angela was the only mother she had known and was so eager to please her new mummy, so it seemed. It was heart warming the way both took to each other so quickly. Perhaps being her rescuer from the hobgoblin helped.

“GET DOWN MY LIEGE”

Suddenly my thoughts were shattered as a troll sentry pushed me to the floor, while what looked like a smallish dragon passed just a few feet above me. It circled the court yard looking at us, then came to land, looking at us.

The troll who had nearly flattened me, allowed me to get up. "Sorry Your Majesty” he apologised, then the troll turned to the dragon like creature, “Gwildore how many times must I tell you, land before you come to the court yard”



“Gwildore?” I asked the troll sentry

“Yes my liege, it is a pseudo-dragon”
“A what?”
“A pseudo-dragon, he comes at this time looking for scraps”
“Oh” I replied, and here was I thinking he might be the equivalent of some kind of guard dog.

Scraps!! - Kitchen Scraps??, That reminded me, it was lunch time, so I entered our royal apartment, to find Angela in the main room carrying Sarah on her hip.

Sarah looked at me again with those pleading eyes, “Daddy, I’m hungry” she seemed on the brink of tears again.

“Graeme, I can not find any food in this place” Angela objected
“What about the breakfast that you had this morning?” I asked
“I found it delivered on the table this morning” Angela replied.

Again something seemed odd, perhaps they did not eat lunch in this dimension, this was probably the time when they would be at war, but even in our world lunch was a meal that was often skipped, I had done so on a number of occasions, and on the film Wall Street they said lunch was for wimps.

Then I remembered the pseudo dragon outside, visiting for scraps. “Angela did they provide us with any coats for Sarah”
Angela shook her head; obviously the trolls did not feel the cold as much as humans did. At least in the main room there was a fire place, although it was empty and I could not see any fuel. Maybe this was the height of their summer.

I did not like to take Sarah out into the open, especially with an assassin possibly out to kill her, so she would not talk. Most likely the one that had planted the snake in the royal bed, but there was no way we were going to stay in what seemed to have become an ice box of a palace with a hungry child.
Sarah was trying to be good, I could tell, but she was in some distress, we had to do something for the poor mite.

“Are there any other warm clothes amongst the lot that Frameana delivered?” I asked Angela.
Angel put Sarah down and went and looked at the cases. Sarah looked back at Angela disappearing into her room, then turned to look at me and held out her left hand, which then I held in my right hand and squatted down to be at her level
“How is my little princess” I asked Sarah
“I’m hungry and cold daddy” then said “Thank you for letting me keep this on” tugging at the top of her jumper with her other hand.
That troll female had really messed her up big time over what she could wear, and I did not want her to dwell on this nonsense so I brushed over this aside.
“Mummy and Daddy are going to see if we can find something to eat”

Angela came back not looking happy, “They seem to have provided duplicates of what most of what Sarah is wearing right now, and much the same for us”
“Any more jumpers?” I asked “Perhaps she could wear more than one.”
Angela shook her head.

This seemed to confirm my theory that trolls were more impervious to cold than humans were, then I remembered my Douglas Adams and his book The Hitch Hiker’s guide to the Galaxy, “Angela, any dry bath towels?”

Angela looked in the bathing room and came out with some large blue piece of cloth. I had used one that morning and as they were mad of some kind of wool compound, it looked like this would have to do. Angela and I had our coats from when we went to the pub back on Earth, so we were covered. Angela twigged what I was getting at and wrapped the towel around Sarah and picked her up.
“Angela if she gets too heavy for you, let me know and I will carry our little princess” I offered
“OK Graeme” Angela replied, and then we went out into the yard

“EEEEEEEEEE”

Sarah screamed in terror as soon as she saw the pseudo-dragon. How come I did not see that happening – Duh!

The sentry heard the noise and turned to Sarah who had become a quivering wreck in her mother’s arms well adoptive mother’s arms to be pedantic, but both of us saw Sarah as if she was our own flesh and blood
“Sorry your majesty” Spoke the troll sentry, “it’s only Gwildore, he’s harmless”
“It’s a pseudo-dragon” I told Sarah and Angela, “They only have a paralysing sting in the tail for defence”
“Except this one had his sting removed as baby” explained the sentry as the toll walked up to the creature and scratched it behind the ears. Suddenly this creature looked like a large puppy the way it interacted with the troll
“Do you want to stroke it your majesty” the troll asked.
Sarah shook her head violently; she was still terrified of it, probably because even for a miniature dragon it was still more massive than a five year old girl.
“Ok your majesty, but he really is harmless, he only comes here for scraps”

Scraps, that reminded me again, Sarah was hungry and it had been a few hours since she ate a meagre bowl of oatmeal

“Are these kitchen scraps?” I asked the sentry
“No your majesty, the scrap wood from the logs we cut for fuel”

Bother – I would have to be more direct

“We were trying to find something to eat” I told the sentry
The troll was confused, “Now?”
“Yes, my daughter needs to eat, she is hungry”
The troll was still confused, “Sorry, but we only eat first thing and two hours after sundown”
“And when is sundown?”
The toll looked at one of the two suns in the sky, “six hour hence”

Great! They did not eat until eight, I was not sure if Sarah could wait that long. “Sentry is there anyway we could get something to eat prior”
The sentry shook his head; this was obviously at the limits of his comprehension.

OK maybe we can try and get the royal apartment up to the warmth it was last night, “OK our royal apartment is cold, can we have fuel for the fire”
“Certainly your majesty”

Great now we are getting somewhere

“It will be done at sundown”

Doh!

Then I remembered the Manjura run mess hall and motioned Angela to follow me, and I left the sentry and his pet. No one followed us, we had no body guards and I felt very exposed, so where I could we walked close to a wall. Halfway there, Sarah asked if she could try and walk. Angela put her on the ground, and we slowed our pace as Sarah tried to walk along, clutching the towel around her to keep warm in a biting wind that had come up since the morning.

After about a hundred yards, Sarah tripped over the towel and fell forward onto the cobbled floor, and began screaming from the pain and shock of the fall. Angela immediately knelt down and cuddled Sarah, making sure she was wrapped warmly in the bath towel. Letting Sarah try and walk, was obviously a bad idea. Angela looked Sarah over, there would be some bruising but there were no cuts we could see

Still there were no body guards. I kept scanning for anyone who might have an arrow, a cross bow or any distance attack weapons. Then I saw a troll with a tunic bearing a clan marking I had not seen. He looked at us and came over to us. Angela stood up, leaving Sarah standing on the ground and got between her and the troll. The troll cocked his head and then held out both arms. “Let me help carry the child” he said in a gruff voice.

“We are going to the Manjura mess hall” I told him, “It is not far from here”
“I know it well, but we do not eat there”
“Which clan are you with”?
“Does it matter; I wish to help my Emperor and Queen”
“Not really” I replied, I then nodded at Angela who then stepped aside, but eyed the troll suspiciously, as he scooped our daughter into his arms, turned around and then headed to the mess hall.
Angela was able to keep up better than I, well she worked out more than me, and as far as she was concerned that child may just as well be her own flesh and blood.
As we walked to the mess hall, Angela mentioned to the troll the problem we had finding food in the middle of the day and how Sarah a human child really needed to have something to eat. For some reason this interested the troll

We arrived at the mess hall, but the door was barred. I tried to lift the bar, but even with my shoulder it was weighing a ton. The troll looked at me and handed Sarah back to Angela. Sarah grabbed hold of Angela’s neck
“I want the toilet mummy” she whimpered

The troll then grabbed the bar and effortlessly slid it open. He waved at us and Sarah in her soft but most polite New Zealand voice she could muster said “Thank you Mr Troll”.

We were in. I remembered earlier that there was a privy of sort and directed Angela to it. I just hoped it was not too disgusting, as I could only imagine the personal hygiene of trolls. I looked around the hall while Angela was otherwise occupied. I could see no food around, and the door to the kitchen was locked. No hope of gaining entry. The mess hall was slightly warmer and I noticed that the fire was almost burning out near one of the tables, so I went and poked it, to loosen the ash and with a broom I found, swept out the ash. There was a barrel placed next to the fire for ash, so I put it in there, and with both my hand picked up a large log and placed it on the fire, then I got another one and tried to build the fire up. I went for the third, but that was all there was. I had no idea how long it would last.

Angela came back in the hall with Sarah in tow. “Were you able to find it” I asked. I half expected a flood of complaints.
“I’ve seen worse” Angela replied in a brusque manner. Not a good sign
“Sorry” I apologised,

I showed the two women in my life now the fire, and they went and sat at the table in front at it on the hard wooden bench, I checked the door and slowly closed it, hoping no one would lock us in, and then I vanished to use the privy myself. It almost was like a picture I had seen of latrines in the Roman period


When I got back, as the bench was wide enough, Angela had taken the towel and folded it to be like a little mattress, , and Angela had used her blouse and top coat as blankets for Sarah, who rested her head on Angela’s thigh. Both were staring into the fire, such as it was; with Sarah in her make shift bed and Angela in her bra and skirt. I took my top coat off and placed it over my wife’s shoulders, and Sat down next to her
“I’m hungry daddy” Sarah whined.
“I’m sorry Princess; trolls don’t eat during the middle of the day” I tried to explain
“But I’m not a troll” Sarah responded
She was right, “I’m sorry, Princess, I let you down” and suddenly I was choking my words out. I had to get up walk to a stone wall and pound on it, and pound on it and keep pounding. Suddenly my thoughts went back to another minor I had been in charge of, the Spirit of Fidelity, then an embodiment of faithfulness, now a normal mortal teenager living in Ireland with her adoptive parents, twin sister Caer and adopted brother. I had let Fidelity down too. Before she went to Ireland, I had placed her in a hostel, and found her employment at Angela’s coffee shop. Fidelity had just about run out of clothes, and towards the end of her time with me only had her uniform, the T-Shirt of which she would wear inside out as she travelled to work, to put it the right way when she got there. Each night she would wash everything and hang it to dry it, whilst she covered herself with the only thin blanket she had at the hostel and skipping the evening meal, also she was afraid of someone there who turned out to be harmless, so she hid in her room. I had not noticed that my charge then was silently starving, only getting to eat at Angela’s coffee shop. When she moved in with the family her twin sister was raised in, they had taken her to a doctor who discovered she was about a stone and a half under weight. I had failed her too, just like my daughter. I just wanted to keep on pounding that stone wall.

“Sarah” Angela said, “try and get some sleep”
“OK mummy” Sarah reply
“Graeme, come and sit down next to me” Came Angela’s voice, it was soft, not accusatory as I felt it ought to be for such a dead beat dad as I seemed to prove to be.
I looked round and Angela had put my top coat on properly, but had not zipped it up so as I sat down, I did that for her and then kissed her. Angela then put her arm around me, and we sat like that for a while, staring into the fire.

This was a farce, here we were, the royal family, the figurehead leader of the clans of trolls, one of the most feared creatures on the Mystical realms, and we were like refugees from our home, cold and starving.

After a time Angela could tell that Sarah was asleep, and had read my mind, “Thinking of Fidelity weren’t you”
I could only nod, I still felt unable to speak.
“She is safe now Graeme, I know she was suffering malnutrition toward the end of her time with us, but in my last letter from her she said she was almost up to her target weight, and Caer was almost force feeding her chocolates over Christmas”
“But I still let her down as well”
“Graeme, remember I was her manager, I should have spotted this as well, the way she tucked into what ever food she was allowed to have as a snack, the terrified way she asked to work on her days off and when I could not let her how she was almost in tears. If it had not been for my Aunt, no way would I have allowed her to stay at the hostel, I would have taken her home like a shot. You can’t hoard all the blame yourself you know. You also did a lot for her, remember when that agency last year captured her, it was you that went after her and helped rescue her. You accompanied her to Ireland where she met her sister, her new family, became fully human at last alongside her twin sister. She is alright now. Fidelity has a new life, remember how your friend Shamus, the leprechaun, managed to persuade the Irish adoption board to waive the usual six month wait so she could have the finalising adoption hearing on Christmas Eve so she could have new parents for Christmas, that she absolutely loves and who love her to pieces”

I knew that Fidelity’s life had been turned around and was now living an idyllic life, but that still did not alter what was happening now, with Sarah “But I can not feed my own daughter” I objected
“You tried Graeme, you tried. We will just have to wait for the evening, and if she is too tired, maybe we can keep something back. It is just one day, she won’t die”

I continued to sit there in silence, with my wife and child, looking at the fire. They deserved someone better than me.

Suddenly I was aware of another presence; it was the Clan Chief of the Manjura



“My Liege, I bumped into a troll from the Rachtal clan, he told me he had let you in here”
“It was very nice of him to do so” replied Angela
“Yes it was your majesty” replied the troll, “considering his clan fought against us and with the orcs”
“Maybe they want to turn over a new leaf” I suggested.
“Hardly, more like they want to curry favour with you, so they get better deals or more likely wanting to make you beholden to them”
“Could he not have just been trying to be nice and helping a fellow being” Objected Angela
The troll did not answer this one, he must have considered it naïve from the way he shook his head slightly.
“But you’re not here to discuss the troll that let us in to your mess hall are you” I challenged.
“Indeed not, I heard of your request to meet all the clan chiefs, what I did not hear was why”
“Someone tried to kill us, someone may be after my daughter, someone tried to set up your clan and someone killed my daughter’s biological father, making her an orphan and abducted her to this place where she was enslaved, whipped and beaten, so maybe it is time to get things in the open, see who really wants this fragile alliance to fail, to find out what they have against my daughter” I noticed I was getting quite emotional, so then I found myself adding “And I want you to open that kitchen so my daughter can eat something because she is starving” I was poking the troll quite hard by now. He just looked at me impassively, and then looked at my wife sitting down in my jacket, and my daughter sleeping in a makeshift bed to ease the pain of her hunger.

Angela piped up, “They said we don’t get to eat until well after her bedtime”
“I’m sorry Graeme, Sorry my Queen” I did tell the master of the royal household that humans ate in the middle of the day, but he would not listen as trolls never eat during the day, as that is when battles are fought”
“What about the kitchen of this mess hall, I thought this was Manjura, can we not have that opened to see what we can find”
Angela butted in, probably thinking I was taking things a bit too far after all it was their land we were guests in. “Graeme, at least it is warm here” (I could tell by her tone)

The Troll thought for a moment, “I could try and arrange with one of my men to have this place opened for you on the morrow all day, but that would have to be cleared with the master of the royal household, I heard what the troll from the Rachtal clan told me about you looking for food, perhaps he will listen if he hears that two clans from both sides of the war have seen how his intransigence lead to the humiliation of the royal family”
“But nothing today” I responded, “My daughter is just going to have to go hungry then”
“I’m sorry; this is the best that can be done with these palace officials”
“And what about that ice box of a palace”
The troll was getting flustered by this time, “I will try and sort that out as well so there is adequate heating through the day, it is just that in the past emperors never spent the daylight hours in there and they never had children there” The troll paused for a moment, then went back to the real reason he was here to see me. “As for your request to see all the clan chiefs, several of them left at day break, we have sent our runners out, but it may be tomorrow or the day after before we can assemble the convocation of the clans”
“So” I was really getting wound up here, “Me and my family have to hope this assassin takes a holiday then?”
“I do have an interim measure” he then handed me out a small crystal amulet on a silver chain
[img=100x100]http://rising-dragon.co.uk/catalog/images/white%20crystal%20pheonix%20amulet.jpg[/img]

“It is an amulet of protection” explained the Clan Chief of the Manjura, “It protects against spells and deflects distance attack weapons”

“If anything comes near Sarah, then they will have to go through me” Angela told the troll as she took the amulet and wrapped the chain around her hand. No sense in disturbing Sarah’s sleep if there was still no food for several hours.
“I do not doubt you could take them on, my warrior queen” The troll replied, he had great respect for Angela, as did I over how she had tackled a hobgoblin which was one and a half times Angela’s size.

I then had an idea, which I could float, “What if you sent Angela and Sarah back to Earth. I would stay behind, they would be safe then”

The troll shook his head, “Remember from what I said this morning, who ever killed the poor child’s father and whoever planted that snake has access to a dimension jump orb. The amulet would not work on your Earth, and we may not be able to protect them”

So, who ever this assassin was, he seemed to hold all the cards, but why did he want to restart the civil war which had ground to such a terrible stalemate, with victory far from either side, it still did not make sense. I just wished I could somehow let the assassin know that Sarah was too traumatised as far as I could work out to even identify the creature that had attacked her father on the plan and had abducted her. She was no threat to whoever the assassin was, she was just a frightened five year old girl who had lost both her parents. She was just five year old girl that Angela and I had opened our hearts up to and had taken in to be our own child.

There was nothing for it but to continue the investigation, then I remembered the goblin servants. I mentioned this to the troll and he said he could ask if they could be sent round to me or his men would interrogate them. I said I would do it.

Angela took this opportunity to raise the fact that Sarah had a lack of warm clothing and a cloak for venturing out. The Troll told us that the clothes we were given were modelled on what we had been wearing when we came to the Mystical Realms. Sarah’s had come from the clothes she had been wearing when she was abducted. They had been in the hobgoblin’s possession as he had confiscated them from Sarah when he bought her, and had forced her to wear only that small skirt in which we first saw her the previous night. The Troll said he would try and look into getting a troll cloak or perhaps a Hobbit cloak that would be the best he could do.

The Clan chief of the Manjura then departed, leaving Angela, Sarah and my self to sit in light of the fire, still hoping it might be warm by the time the trolls came for dinner. I did wander if we would be allowed to eat here in the Manjura mess hall, or if that would show favouritism to one clan on one side of a clearly fractured divide.

It was not more than ten minutes when another troll appeared at the door of the mess hall, I looked up and from the refinement on the troll and his size, it was a clan leader. He introduced himself a the Clan Chief of the Rachtal.



“I See that Manjura maggot has gone now” boomed the troll

I stood up to get between the troll and my family, “What do you want Oh chief of the Rachtal”

The troll looked behind him, clicked what passed off for fingers, and a female troll, who was fully clothed came in carrying a large plate with a cover over it. She placed it on the table in front of us, and removed the cover and left. On it was a jug of wine, a jug of milk, with vapour coming off to show that it was hot, several bread rolls, what looked like a cooked chicken and some berries. He had done his homework well, it was human food. Another troll brought in a big basket of cut logs for the fire and also left.

“A little sustenance for the weak humans chosen to be our leaders” boomed the troll, “and some extra fuel to keep their skinny puny bodies warm”

Rub it in don’t you!

“Thank you kind sir” Angela replied
The troll nodded at my wife and replied “It is a pleasure to show kindness to the royal family when due to neglect of Delthon and Manjura they are driven from their home by the cold and then starved.”

I was confused as to why this clan, a clan who had fought with the orcs had been so generous, “I did not think you would be so generous to us Clan leader, we were told you had been with the orcs”

“Only because I despised that Lord Low Troll, he was weak. You we lucky all those seasons ago, we would never have allowed a Griffin to dictate to us”
I remembered back to when I was first put on trial, it was a griffin judge that had declared that I could not be charged with conspiracy to interfere in the affairs of mortals as I was one, and it was therefore nonsense in law. The Lord Low Troll hated this decision, but he had bound himself to the rule of law at that time.

“And besides” continued the Rachtal Troll, “This will show we are willing to make this alliance work”
“I appreciate that oh clan leader, and I thank you for your kindness and look forward to working with you
“Oh if you so wish, we can send over a Hobbit poison taster” he said as a parting shot, laughing as he went.

I guessed that the food would be safe as this was this was obviously a political gift, designed to humiliate the clans that were supposed to be looking after me and my families welfare, to show where they had failed he had succeeded. So let him gloat, Manjura and Delethon, especially deserved it as the Clan Chief of the Rachtal was right, they had failed us.

Angela gently woke up our little princess and showed her the food, her eyes lit up and soon we were tucking in to what was by now more like tea time, while I put more logs on the fire. Again Sarah was a good girl, eating what was put before her; I supposed her time as a scullery slave had burned out the usual “finicky about food” problems usually associated with young children.

After we had eaten, the Lead Goblin servant came round, as directed by the Clan Chief of the Manjura, The moment Sarah saw him, she started to panic, frantically repeating “Sorry Mummy Sorry Daddy I will try and be good, please don’t send me back” then she started to cry exclaiming how sorry she was as if she had ever put a foot wrong and begging us not to send her back to the scullery where she was whipped and beaten.

Angela was clearly annoyed that Sarah had been upset again, she leant over Sarah as best she could, placed her hands on Sarah’s shoulders and looked her in the eye “Well I’m not sending you back anywhere” Angela told her firmly but gently, then looked at me and then back to Sarah “and neither is Daddy” then she picked Sarah up and put her on her lap and cuddled her
“You’re my little girl and I know you are a good girl, and mummy loves you” she kept repeating.

I had messed up again, I motioned for the goblin servant to stand still and then sat down beside my wife so I could speak to Sarah
“Sorry Princess, You’re our little girl now and I know you are a very good girl and I am not going to let them take you back there” I needed to emphasise the “our” not only for Sarah’s benefit but also to reassure Angela if I really needed to, that I was just as committed to looking after our daughter, Then I felt I needed to explain to Sarah just why the goblin had come round so I told her “Daddy needs to talk to this goblin about what happened to you before mummy rescued you and we adopted you”
“Yes Daddy” Sarah sniffed
Then a dark thought crossed my mind, “Sarah, did this goblin ever hurt you”
Sarah shook her head, eyes still streaming with tears, the poor mite. I put my arms around both Angela and Sarah, “I’m so sorry Sarah; I never meant to scare you, Mummy and Daddy love you so much and so love you being our daughter” I told my little princess
“Absolutely we do” Angela added, then kissing Sarah on the top of her head

The goblin servant just stood and watched, while we settle Sarah down, he seemed to understand.

After about five minutes, another goblin from the scullery came in with a hobbit’s cloak for Sarah and brought it to us, Angela lovingly put it on Sarah, it was a perfect fit and then continued to have Sarah sit on her lap, with Sarah resting her head on Angela’s chest. They just sat in silence, just being together, mother and child, they were natural together and Angela made a wonderful mother, I wished I made a better father, after scaring Sarah like I just had.

I moved to another table and requested the goblin lead servant come and talk to me, he came up and immediately said “Your Majesty, I never laid a claw on Princess Sarah, I tried to protect her, as best I could, but I could not get in the way of the whip in time, I am so sorry”
The goblin looked riven with guilt, “I knew she was not a hobbit, but who was I to talk back to our master, if you want to beat me, go ahead”
“Goblin I know you did not touch her and I will not beat or whip you. I do not use violence against my servants. I just wanted to know something about the circumstances of how Sarah came to be in the scullery, why she was taken and are there more human children being abducted for use as slaves.”
“Your Majesty, I am not aware of other human children being enslaved, as for Princess Sarah I was already in service when she arrived, she was pretty much in the clothes she was in when she arrived”
“How long ago was that?”
“A moon cycle ago maybe two” replied the goblin
“Did you ever see the troglodyte who made the sale”
“No Your Majesty, but my wife saw him”
“You and your wife are both Scullery servants”
“Yes Your Majesty”
“Did your wife say anything about it”
“Only that the troglodyte had said he had got her as a one off in a quick sale, something about the seller cutting losses which neither of us understood. We sussed that she was a human child, but there was no one who would listen to scullery servants, so we looked after her as best we could, secretly giving her extra blankets at night, because she was cold all the time, especially after the hobgoblin confiscated her clothes and made her dress like everyone else. It was not right but what could we do? We even gave her some of our rations as she was always hungry. When she was beaten, my wife tended her wounds as best she knew how”

I held out my right hand to the goblin, he nervously grasped mine, and I shook it. “I thank you for your kindness shown to my daughter, I will declare you free you and your wife and any children or relatives you have there”
“But then where would we go?”
“Where ever you want”
“Thank you your majesty but living as a scullery servant is all we know, and with the new troll in charge, it’s not so bad”
“You can still serve as free goblins” I ventured
“You are most generous your majesty”
“You may return to the scullery then” I told the goblin, and he bowed and then left.

I must do something about that bowing, it is so embarrassing and I do not want Sarah picking it up, but then as a good girl she curtseys

I sat down beside Angela again; Sarah was still weepy, most likely because she was tired Angela had put the amulet of protection on her, and had put her blouse back on. The suns outside were beginning to set.

“I want to take Sarah back and put her to bed now” Angela said firmly
“I’ll go with you, I am not letting the two people I love and care about out of my sight”
Angela gave me a brief smile.
I picked Sarah up, “Can Daddy carry you back” I asked my daughter
“Yes Daddy”, then her insecurity came back, “To the the house?” she asked her expression indicating that in her mind, “back” could also mean “back to the scullery”
“Yes Princess, back to the house with us” Then to try and reassure her further. “Daddy loves you and Mummy loves you and we want you with us and not at that nasty scullery”
Sarah smiled at me said “thank you Daddy” then in as much as she was able gave me a hug.

We walked into the evening air and headed back to our royal apartment.

There was another troll outside, a female troll with a sword strapped to her back, and a tunic to indicate she was from the Manjura clan. “My Lord has asked me to escort the queen and princess Sarah home” It was the female bodyguard I requested.
“I’m going with them”
“Understood your Majesty, will you be dining with our clan or at the royal palace”
“I will be dining with my family.

We then walked home, part of the way Angela insisted in carrying Sarah, she was not going to let her walk, as it would wake her up and Sarah was tired.

We reached the apartment, which had started to heat up as a fire was set up in the hearth.

Angela got Sarah washed and ready for bed, they had left us some warm night clothes for us and Sarah, but even then Angela insisted Sarah wear her jumper in bed. The Female troll was called Germal and was very gentle with Sarah, and kept watch while Angela used the privy and washed. After she came out I spoke to her about what the goblin servant had said, making sure we were out of Sarah’s earshot. Angela thought for a moment then remembered something she had read in a free newspaper.
“Graeme, just over a month and half ago there was a news report from South America in the free newspaper, that a chartered flight carrying building contractors crashed with no survivors. It said one was an architect flying back home to New Zealand with his five year old daughter. They never found her body so assumed it was obliterated in the crash, they were finding body parts only” Like me Angela had a good memory for obscure news stories

Then Angela realised, “My G-d, Graeme, it’s her, Sarah is the five year old girl they declared killed in the plane crash”

Angela was visibly shocked and stunned by this realisation that our Sarah was the subject of a news account that would fill only one paragraph in a broadsheet newspaper in today’s celebrity obsessed culture. As Angela stood there I took her in my arms and hugged her, and she put her arms around me in reciprocation. This news seemed so horrendous, and hit Angela hard, because incredible as it seemed, in the short space of just one day she had formed as tight a bond with Sarah as Sarah had done so with Angela. Something to do with both being orphans I surmised. It was no understatement to say that Angela really felt for our new daughter, who had now turned out to be the sole survivor of an atrocity that to the rest of our world was just considered a tragic air crash. Whoever or whatever abducted Sarah was also guilty of the mass murder of twelve people.

As we stood standing there in each other’s arms, the both of us reaffirmed to each other, that this child, an innocent victim, possibly of the same conspiracy to undermine the Troll’s attempt at ending the civil war, would be ours, and we would do what ever it took to protect her and love this child as our own.

I then apologised to Angela over the fright Sarah had when she saw the Goblin visit us at the Manjura mess hall, as I should really have warned Sarah so she did not think he had come to take her back to the scullery where she had been enslaved. Angela told me she forgave me and to forget it and that we needed to remember that Sarah was a traumatised child and it would take time before she fully regained her self confidence if ever, and we needed to love her and reassure her as much as possible how we both felt about our little princess.

After a short while we let go of our mutual embrace and Angela went in to Sarah’s room to sit with her while Sarah went to bed, and so she would feel safe to go to sleep. I thought that they really needed time together alone so I sat in the main room looking at the fire

While I was sitting there, the Clan Chief of the Manjura, dropped by, and he was not a happy troll.
“I see the Clan Chief of the Rachtal was out, as you say on Earth earning brownie points” he opened with
“Yes you could say that and that he did”
“Could you not see what he was up to?”
“Um, let me see, humiliating your clan and that of the Delethon by showing that they could do a better job of caring for our needs than the clans who were supposed to be doing that job?”
“YES, YES” insisted the troll uncharacteristically not realising the trap he had fallen into, “You do not realise how fragile this alliance is, and how such mischief could destabilise it”

I was seething; all this troll just seemed to care about was clan politics, just like in his earlier job all he only cared that two minor spirits of virtue were off of his books rather than their welfare. “Look Clan Chief” I told him in an angry tone, “you told us to wait until tomorrow, when we had a hungry child now, that was suffering and we had to leave this apartment and find somewhere else where we could keep warm, and you are just worried about pathetic little political games between troll clans. Who are you angry at, us for eating a meal that was offered, the Rachtal for showing us decency and kindness or your lot for screwing up”

The Clan Chief of the Manjura for a moment was speechless at my sudden outburst. “In a sense you are right, if we had got our act together, if Delethon had listened then Rachtal would never have had the opportunity. We will not let them do this again” he said through gritted teeth

“So you are going to feed us when we want and keep this place from becoming an ice box during the day”
“Yes that is our job and that of the Delethon, not the Rachtal’s”
“Anything else?”
“We are waiting for the Clan Chief of the Yataxal and the Clan chief of the Clavial to return, both were on opposite sides during the war”
“So Clavial fought along side the orcs”
“Yes”
“If they are anything like the Rachtal, I look forward to meeting them”

Then I remembered how when this clan chief was the Prince Low Troll, we had fought together against the Spirit of Lust, and how I was now seeing him squirm, it suddenly did not feel right, I was allowing myself to get sucked in to troll politics, I had to be careful, especially as I still had no ideas which clan might be employing an assassin to kill us.
“Sorry Clan Chief, that was not fair of me” I told him
“Apology accepted Your Majesty, we did as you say screw up and the Rachtal took advantage, I’m sure if the roles were reversed, we would have done likewise” And then he grinned.

Troll politics!

“One other thing” I asked the troll
“Yes my liege?”
“I want the goblin servants to granted the status of free goblins, I will not tolerate slavery in the scullery, especially after the way Sarah was treated there before we could save her”
“The master o the household will not like that”
“I’m not asking him to like it, but to do it” Then I added, “I do not think they will desert us, but the goblin servants showed the princess kindness and they must be seen to be rewarded, if you catch my drift”
The troll sucked his teeth, “I think I do my liege”

Then the troll departed into the night

That night I checked the bed for nasty surprises, but there were none, the protection spell was still working. Then we tried on the night gowns that had been supplied to us. Angela looked ravishing in hers.

Then in bed we just held each other’s hand for a while, and then we as we started embracing each other, we dispensed with our nightgowns altogether, so we could give ourselves to each other, with no hang ups. I loved my new wife Angela, and she loved me her new husband, and we did not want to deny our selves from each other. Afterwards we lay there for a while in each other’s arms and then, just in case Sarah needed us in the night, we put our night clothes back on and finally went to sleep, in each other’s arms.
+ + + +

I managed to wake up first this time, it was a delight to see my Angela still sleeping, and I gazed at her for a minute watching her breathe. I kissed her on the head and then I got dressed and placed our clothes from the day before in the basket for the laundry troll maid, whom I had been assured, would be fully dressed for Sarah’s sake.

Then I went into the main room, and noticed through the window a commotion. I opened the door after making sure Sarah was still sound asleep and still guarded by Germal and her amulet of protection. Out in the courtyard there was a large dead troll, surrounded by the troll sentries.

I went out of the door and walked up to the body

“Your Majesty, he just came up to us and fell down dead” said the sentry

I looked at the knife sticking in his back, I recognised the type. It was a Bowie Knife!

[img=100x100]http://www.harrisoncustomknives.com/collectorknives/9%20bowie%202.jpg[/img]

These knifes were not used by entities in the Mystical Realms, so for the moment I kept quiet about it’s origins

“Who was he” I asked

“It was the Clan Chief of the Yataxal, the most loyal of the troll clans”

The assassin had struck again, and it looked like he was using weapons from Earth.

There was only one clan that had access to our world, The Manjura.

To be continued

Episode IV – Ancient laws

”It’s all politics” Mac Taylor to Horatio Cain in the CSI Miami episode 'MIA/NYC - NonStop'

And so it is when troll clans get together, and the one reason I was summoned to the Mystical Realms, not as a criminal suspect as I was seven years ago, but as their Emperor of the Trolls, and leader, because they could not agree amongst them selves for an actual troll to lead them. It was also the reason that my long suffering friend from the coffee shop, Angela Roberts was dragged along, first as my consort and then after a bizarre ceremony as my queen and now mother to a five year old orphan girl I adopted here. A five year old girl that was orphaned when her father, her last surviving parent was murdered by some assassin that does not like the politics of the troll clans uniting to put an end to a vicious civil war in the Mystical Realms.

It was politics that lead one of those clans, on the wrong side as it were of that war to feeding me, my wife and adopted daughter to show up the clans that were supposed to be doing the job.

Now the politics are due to step up a gear when after I have summoned a convocation of the troll clans, the clan chief of the Yataxal, the clan that fought the fiercest on the right side of the law has been bound dead in our courtyard with bowie knife in his back

[img=200x200]http://www.harrisoncustomknives.com/collectorknives/9%20bowie%202.jpg[/img]

A knife that is not available here on the Mystical Realms as it comes from Earth. Guess which clan gets to go to Earth, The Manjura clan, whose very clan leader used to be the Prince Low Troll and the one who proposed me to be emperor


I closed the door to the royal apartment, I did not want Sarah seeing this, she had seen enough horror for a five year old in this strange world. It seemed odd seeing an actual dead troll, as when a Mystical Realms entity died in r world, they spontaneously combusted, but here the body remained. One of the trolls went to pull the knife out.

“Wait” I ordered and walked over to the body of the dead clan leader. I fished in my trouser pocket for a handkerchief and handed it to the troll and instructed him to hold the knife handle with it. I was dubious that trolls had prints, but it would not hurt to see, maybe later I could see what creature wielded the bowie knife. A stab in the back was an assassins trick, not that of a brave warrior in combat.

I had to assume that the convocation of troll clan leaders I had wanted to call might be delayed, assuming it went ahead at all, would the Yataxal now pull out and resume the civil war if they suspected on of the clans who had been fighting with the orcs. But still it came to the problem, the knife was from Earth, my world, were their rouge elements in the Manjura clan, still loyal to the memory of the Lord Low Troll. If it were an attack on me or my family as of two days previous, that would make sense with the simple motive of pure revenge for charges against me being dismissed seven years ago. The other explanation was a missing dimension jump orb not in the control of the Manjurea being used to set that clan up by using weapons from my world to which only they would have had access. And there was of course the possibility of orcs or their allies amongst the dark elves known as the drow, wanting to split the alliance up so they could regain their troll allies, but the war had reached stalemate, they still would not have much hope of victory.

The troll sentry removed the knife as I instructed and I carefully took it from him, holding the handkerchief around the handle. They were puzzled why I had requested this, but I was not going to give the game away just yet. I needed to speak to the Clan Chief of the Manjura first.

I ordered the trolls to remove the body and send for the Clan Chief of the Manjura then I took the knife inside and closed the front door. When I looked at the knife; it definitely was a bowie knife, or a bowie knife type blade. It was still covered in blood. I found some writing definitely from Earth, but it was not in English, I would have to somehow show it to Angela with out Sarah seeing it. I fond a high shelf well out of Sarah’s reach and placed the blade there.

There was a knock at the door, it was Frameana, fully clothed as requested and another female troll bodyguard, Merah, from the clan of Delethon, she was Germal’s relief at body guarding Sarah from the assassin that had dispatched all who had been responsible for Sarah’s orphaning abduction and enslavement. Framean had brought breakfast for us and another bag with clothes in, so I went in with the new troll bodyguard and knelt at the cot where Sarah was sleeping and gazed at her, still sleeping.

Frameana delivered the clothes to our room where Angela had just woken up, I went back into the main dining room

Angela walked in, dressed in a one piece white silk dress which ended in a skirt just above her knees, it must have been modelled on dresses from ancient Greece, as it had the right breast completely exposed, and perhaps because of this Angela had chose not to put her bra on. She gave a little twirl
“What do you think” she asked me, in a playful manner
“I think the trolls have some weird sense of humour or fashion sense, do you have something else to put on, I don’t want Sarah getting anymore strange ideas” I replied
“Sorry Graeme, but Frameana said I had to wear this dress today and this dress alone, she did not say why”
“Frameana does not tell you what to wear Angela” I countered irritated that a maid servant was giving bizarre orders to my friend, wife and queen.
“I know, but I was kind of curious and when I tried it on I thought that would have turned a few heads at some of the parties I used to be invited to”
“But you never went to them”
“No, I had my aunt to look after then”
Angela’s face fell as she remembered her aunt, the aunt who had brought her up when Angela’s own parents had died when she was a child and the aunt who had developed cancer when she was in her teens so roles had been reversed and she became the carer until her aunt had died.
“You do look beautiful in it Angela, but best to get changed into something else, remember how Sarah got confused and upset yesterday”
Angela nodded and went back into the bedroom

Frameana looked on with out commenting, after what I had said the previous day to her, this was kind of embarrassing, but then it had been on her instructions that Angela had put on this garment and this garment alone. I wondered where they had got the design from. Five minutes later Angela returned she said she had put some panties on, but on the top had just put a blouse over the strange dress she had been instructed to wear, probably still wary of troll customs, especially given what the Troll Chamberlain had done to her. Her get up, such as it was did look kind of odd and sort of worked, but I was going to be true to what I had told her about wearing what she liked. I just hoped Sarah did not notice.

I got Angela to wake Sarah and do the things mothers do when they get young children up in the morning. Needless to say there were tears from Sarah as she woke, but that was to be expected.

It took about fifteen minutes for Angela and Sarah to be ready to join me in the main room for breakfast, which this time was a bit more substantial, Manjura and Delethon were not going to be embarrassed again by having the royal family go hungry. They also brought in extra logs for the fire to keep it going during the day.

After breakfast I asked Merah to go and help Sarah get ready to go outside, as a way of getting Sarah out of the way so I could show Angela the inscription on the knife. She was just as concerned as I was that the Clan Chief of the Yataxal had been murdered with it. According to her it was some name of a manufacturer and the language was in Spanish, also the design on the handle reminded her of South American art, but she was not sure which country. The fact that the plane Sarah and her father had been on was flying out of South America, was also worrying, it looked like there was a definite link between Sarah’s arrival here and the latest assassination of a troll clan chief.

It was unsettling

I then remembered the previous day, she had got Sarah drawing in a book with blank pages, like some kind of ledger. Had Sarah drawn the monster that had attacked her on the plan. Angela told me she had not, she had drawn the kind of picture a five year old draws when they were drawing their house. Sarah had drawn what looked like a trailer home with stick figures to resemble her, first daddy and on a cloud, first mummy, who she had never known as she had died shortly after giving birth. Sarah never knew what of, but then you would not expect that of a five year old. Angela had told me it was so heartbreaking and that she had had to comfort Sarah again when after she had drawn it, she stared at the drawing and started to cry. Angela admitted that she cried too, and just kept telling her that she loved her and she was her mummy now.

“Could you try and get her to draw the monster” I asked, “it would help to track it down”
“What?? - NO WAY” Angela seemed angry at me for asking “I WILL NOT PUT HER THROUGH THAT, HASN’T SHE SUFFERED ENOUGH?”
“Sorry” I said and then turned round to see Sarah standing there in her hobbit cloak, and bare feet.
“Where are your socks and shoes” Angela asked her with uncharacteristic sternness, I was now hoping Sarah had not heard my request for her to draw the creature that had abducted her.
“The new lady troll said hobbits did not wear socks and shoes” Sarah replied, confused as to why her mummy had turned on her so when she had been again trying to do the right thing after obviously getting the wrong end of the stick from something that the troll bodyguard had said.
Angela’s understanding deserted her as she grabbed Sarah’s hand and started to drag her back to her room, “YOU MY LITTLE LADY ARE NOT A HOBBIT” she angrily told Sarah
“ANGELA STOP!” It was my turn to raise my voice, and then softly “It’s me your angry at, not Sarah”
Angela stopped in her tracks, let go of Sarah’s hand and stood there in the realisation she had allowed her anger to get the better of her, which was not often and it had been vented at a frightened and confused little girl, eager to please her new mummy
“Sorry mummy“, Sarah said, and burst into tears.
Angela got down on her knees so she could face Sarah, then gave her a cuddle, “Mummy is sorry, I did not mean to shout at you Sarah, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, mummy still loves you”
Angela looked at the ground as she hugged Sarah, I came, over, knelt down and gently lifted Angela’s head by the chin, she was silently crying.
“I’m sorry Angela” I told her, and put my arms around both of them, “I love you guys” I told them. We stayed like that for about 3 or four minutes in silence apart from the gentle sobs from both, Sarah and Angela. We were just being a family trying to get along and a family under a lot of stress.

Eventually I got up, and so did Angela and gently lead Sarah in to put her socks and shoes on, so Angela, Sarah and the body guard could have a brief walk in the palace gardens. Even with the bodyguard, I felt uneasy allowing either of them out of my site, but I had to attend to affairs of state.

But why was Angela told to wear that dress that was a bit too revealing to put it mildly

While Angela and Sarah were out, looking at the gardens near our royal palace stroke apartment, the Clan Chief of the Manjura arrived, breathless. He had been running, given that a fellow clan chief from the same side of the war as him had been murdered, I was not surprised.



I allowed him time to catch his breath, and then he asked me what was the problem.
“You are aware that the Clan Chief of the Yataxal has been assassinated”
“Yes your majesty, most likely by a hot head in an enemy clan, like the Rachtal, the Najav or the Clavial. They fought with the orcs during the war. The Yataxal killed many of their troops as they were the fiercest, but even the mighty Yataxal could not win the war decisively.”
“I do not think it was any of those troll clans” I told the troll
“How can you be so sure, they fought with the treacherous orcs”
I went and took the knife down, still wrapped in the handkerchief, “this is the murder weapon, do you recognise it”
The troll was puzzled, it was clear he had never seen this type of weapon before. “Is it some kind of orc blade, or a new weapon by their former troll allies”
“No”
“Where is it from, it is a fearsome weapon for close quarter fighting.
“It’s called a Bowie knife, it comes from Earth, and due to the inscription a country called Spain, but due to the handle design possibly from a continent called South America”

The troll looked at me suspiciously, “What are you implying”
“You tell me, which clan was in charge of the crossing between your world and mine”
“The Manjura clan”
“It looks like you did not get all the dimension jump orbs or someone in Manjura is involved”
“I tell you Graeme, we are being set up, I have questioned all those who guard them, all of them are loyal to me and the only ones loyal to the memory of my father are either dead or infirm well away in our clan homelands. All orbs we are entrusted with are accounted for”
“Except the one that was used to abduct my princess from our world, and possibly one other that was used to get the snake that was planted in our beds to kill us”
Then the troll thought for a moment, walked over to the stone fireplace and hit his head on the wall with a large thump. “How could I be so stupid” He muttered, “How could I forget Astley and Fagal”

I walked over to the troll and, best as I could put an arm around him. I could see he was in some distress over some realisation he had had. “Who are Astley and Fagal, are they assassins, do I need to put a watch out for them?”
The troll shook his head, “They are long dead, before I was born to my father’s third consort, before my father was even the Lord Low Troll, in fact even before he was born”
“Your father never married your mother?”
The troll shook his head, “As he had no wife, by troll law I had to be given the title of Prince Low Troll, and when he was slain, by troll law I was not permitted to be the new Lord Low Troll as my mother was not a wife”
“So how did you get to be clan leader?”
“My father had no other male children, as the first two consorts only produced females and were sent away in disgrace I never met my half sisters”
“So who were Astley and Fagal?”
“Many cycles ago, Astley was asked to investigate a disturbance in the magical field that sweeps over our Mystical Realms, which you humans call the collective unconscious” The troll explained, “Unlike now where it is almost depleted as humans have moved on, it was more of an issue. They thought a major spirit of vice, or virtue was up to something, these meddling spirits had once been worshiped by the mortals as gods and like Set not all of them heeded the summons to come to the Mystical Realms”
“So what was the disturbance?”
“They never found out, because Astley never came back”
“So they sent Fagal”
“Yes, he did come back, but dead, it looked like a small dart in his neck, but it must have carried a deadly poison”
“So what has this to do with a missing dimension jump orb?”
The troll looked at me in the eyes, his face in anguish, “According to the tales, Astley’s dimension jump orb was never recovered, and as it was inactive, the orb locators of that time could not find it”
“So this orb was lost on Earth?”
“Or somewhere else, possibly here, Fagal was never able to say if he ever found Astley and after two deaths the search was called off, the disturbance died down, so it must have been assumed that Astley had died a heroic death”

This was not good, it was possible that someone had got hold of an ancient dimension jump orb that had either been lost on Earth or in the Mystical Realms, but that was the how, what was the why, and why were they using Earth weapons when there were plenty of weapons here on the Mystical Realms. It made no sense.

I put the knife back on the shelf, then turned back to the troll
“What happens to the convocation now that the Clan Chief of the Yataxal is dead? I assumed it would be postponed whilst they held the funeral observed some period of mourning, appointed a new leader,”
“There will be the mourning and the pyre, but the succession is usually clear, should the leader fall in battle” Replied the Chaln Chief of the Manjura, “I know who my successor will be”
“So they have a leader for the clan already?”
“It is the Deputy of the Yataxal, he was one of the most ferocious in battle”

At that point Angela, Sarah, and Menah the troll bodyguard returned unexpectedly quickly with another troll from the Manjura clan. Sarah was crying for some reason, so I knelt down and asked her what the matter
“The big troll would not let us see the garden” Sarah sobbed, she must have set her heart on seeing it.
“We were asked to return to the apartment” Angela explained.

I looked at the Clan Chief of the Manjura for an explanation

“The convocation is about to start and she is needed to be by your side, it is the tradition of the trolls, that in convocation, the consort or wife must accompany ht emperor.”
“Ok, what about Sarah?” I asked
“She is not of age, so she must remain outside the convocation chamber posting vigil”
“Posting vigil?” Angela objected, “She is just a five year old girl”
“I am sorry my queen but it is the sacred custom of the convocation, all children of the Emperor and Queen must show loyalty to their parents by standing vigil outside the chamber guarding their sandals.

Great, I just wanted to talk to them and this is like some state opening of Parliament

The troll had not finished and it would get even worse “And one other thing, you must all change in to the convocation robes” Then he looked at Angela, “You must remove that shirt from your top, and any other unseen clothing you may have underneath the convocation dress.”
“What?” I objected “Are you the new Troll Chamberlain?”
“Please”, Insisted the troll, “I do not make the rules, these are the ancient rules and some of the clans are traditionalists”
“Like the Manjura” I countered

Angela, obviously remembering the Troll Chamberlain and how he imposed his will, just told me “Graeme, ok, really, I’ll go and get ready”, she then left and got me to hold Sarah’s hand, whilst she went to our bedroom to take off the blouse and her panties,
I waited there staring at the troll, Angela had already been publicly humiliated at my coronation ceremony, then thinking back to it, I remembered how we got married. Angela was to be made to go topless as my consort, so I took my tunic off and had given it to her, meaning she was for my eyes only. I picked the troll up on this point.

The troll shook his head and rolled his eyes, “A convocation is where we share, normally the queen is covered up, but in the convocation she is partially uncovered as part of the sharing”

Who makes up these ridiculous rules!!!

“What do I wear?”
“Just this” replied the troll at which Frameana, She still here? handed me just a kilt and sandals, “As you passed the sacred tunic in marriage, so you appear in convocations stripped to the waist, now get changed”
“I see this is why the Lord Low Troll never married then” I jibed at the troll
He was just wistful and replied, “He was a pretty vain troll as well as a tyrant”

“Can we at least wear our top coats to go down there, it’s about a twenty minute walk” I pleaded
“That would be against the custom, My Liege you must leave from the royal apartment only in the convocation clothes”

Then a sickening thought occurred to me, just so I could ask a bunch of troll clan chiefs some questions, Angela and I were being stripped again and in my view humiliated. Maybe trolls did not see things that way. They were a lot more a complex society than the impression of mindless thugs that one got from the fairer races in the Mystical Realms But what would they do to Sarah, a mere child, that I in declaring her to be my daughter had sworn to protect as best I could. I was afraid to ask, it was too awful to contemplate.

Angela came back in the room, the silken fabric clinging to her body, and almost see through in some parts, Angela was looking at the ground and folding her arms to cover her exposed right breast while she could. It was down to her to ask the question I did not feel I could ask, “Can Sarah keep the clothes on she is wearing now, please, it’s cold outside and she is only a little girl”

Sarah looked up at the Troll, and said nothing.
The troll clan chief looked down at Sarah then back up at us, “Because in theory a convocation can dismiss an emperor if the unanimously vote so, the loyal children standing vigil, must be dressed as if that has happened to save further humiliation. If the emperor is not removed, which will definitely not happen as I would not vote accordingly, after the convocation, they may return to the royal residence and resume the privilege of be attired as royalty again.

“NO!” Angela shouted, “You can strip Graeme and I naked, fine, but you are not touching our daughter”
“Do I have to get undressed after all Mummy” Sarah suddenly asked, we had almost forgot she was in the room.
“OK Clan Chief, this is getting too far, if need be I will call of the convocation and talk with each clan leader one on one.” I exploded, “Angela get dressed”
The troll just shook his head “You can not call off a convocation once it is assembled, sorry” At this Frameana handed Angela what they expected or princess to wear, just a pair of sandals, and a pleated silk skirt that was Sarah’s size, Angela threw them at the dining table in disgust.
“OK then” I tried, “I will issue a decree that my wife and child need not attend and can wear what the hell they like”
The Clan Chief of the Manjura just shook his head, “I’m sorry, remember when you asked about making decrees and I advised you not to make too many”
“Yes?”
“Well once a decree is uttered then it can not be revoked”

Great just like the ancient laws of the Medes and the Persians back on Earth”

I was wondering why he would think I would even dream of disowning Sarah as my own child, when I realised what he was actually getting act. “So the details of what is worn at a troll convocation was issued by an emperors decree?”
“Exactly, the decree goes back at least four hundred cycles”

“You know what they would call this on Earth, in England” Angela, now almost screaming at the Clan Chief of the Manjura.
“I know” replied the troll forcefully, “and I must say that you do not have to be big and ugly like us trolls to be monsters. The kind of things that some humans do to their own offspring or offspring of others sickens us as they never happen here”
“As far as you know” contested Angela, now going head to head with the
“It never happens, our societies in the Mystical Realms values it’s offspring a whole lot better than humans ever do”

Angela struck the troll round the face with her open hand. The troll looked shocked for a moment, then retreated.

“I’m sorry my queen, these are ancient laws, it is how we do things here. I understand you want to protect your daughter, but I “

“MUMMY I’ve changed into what Mr Troll says I have to wear”

Angela looked around, and to her horror, Sarah had picked up the skirt and sandals and was now dressed exactly as the troll law seemed to dictate, it was as if we were seeing her when she was a scullion slave, and it was stomach churning. Her first father had taught her that rules had to be obeyed, and the little mite had complied with what the Clan Chief of the Manjura’s instructions, so now she stood there, shivering in a cold draught, trying to be brave, but obviously on the verge of crying again.

All I could say was “Angela, Sarah, if I had known I would never have started this convocation”, then I went to the bedroom and got changed too. Whilst in the bedroom I found a stone wall, just to pound. I sat for a moment on the bed, and cried, what had I done and would Angela ever forgive me.

I arrived in the main room in just my kilt and sandals. Angela sat on a chair with Sarah on her lap, tightly wrapped in a blanket from Sarah’s cot and looking daggers at the trolls.

I sat down beside them. “I’m sorry, I’m a lousy husband and father”, then I broke down again.
I felt Angela’s soft arm on my bare back, as she held me, “I know you did not mean this to happen love” she whispered, “It is their rules and it looks like we’re snookered.”
Sarah remained quiet; all she wanted to do was be a good girl and please everyone, a trait that not always works.
“I know it’s not much, but got her to put underwear back on under the skirt, Merah said it would be ok” Angela whispered I know this was some kind of triumph over these stupid troll rules, but for me it seemed like “Way to much information there”
Then Angela added, “and one of the trolls will carry her in her blanket until we get to the chamber and then take it back here when we arrive”
I whispered back, “What about when we leave”
Angela on realising that the blanket would not be available to Sarah got flustered, then said she would just take her dress off and wrap her up in that and walk naked back to the apartment.
“Ready to leave?” Asked the Clan Chief of the Manjura

Angela handed our little princess to another Troll from the Delethon clan, and he carried her in his arms, wrapped in the blanket so at least on the journey down she would be warmer than Angela or I.

Angela used her left arm to preserve some modesty as we walked hand in hand. I felt the wind on my back as we walked down. To say we were cold was to put it mildly. I was just glad Sarah was wrapped in the blanket at least on the way down, but when we reached the chamber I realised it would be removed, and she would be standing there, half naked, shivering in a cold draughty outer chamber while Angela, partly exposed with the dress she was wearing, and I stripped to the waist were in a chamber of trolls, which was most likely heated.
.
On the way, we say another troll from the Rachtal Clan, one of the former pro-orc clans waiting for us to pass. The Clan Chief of the Manjura looked at him with disdain. Merah, drew her sword.

“Merah, why so hasty, can a fellow troll not accompany their majesties down to the convocation, see I am unarmed” The Rachtal troll said, with his arms in an open gesture.
The troll engaged Angela in conversation about what was to come, and Angela barely watching her language was bitter about the whole process, and especially about how Sarah was going to treated.

The Clan Chief of the Manjura cut in to tell us, that although for Sarah, it would be just like how things were for here when she was a slave, it would probably be only for a couple of hours or so and that Sarah would not suffer the whippings and beatings she had in the scullery. That was little more than cold comfort, our daughter was still being humiliated and put at risk of hyperthermia, just so I could speak to the troll clan chiefs

The Rachtal troll seemed quite thoughtful for a moment, then told us he had to attend his own clan chief and ran off ahead of us, and we thought no more about him, especially as Angela and I were frozen from walking to the convocation chamber in the cool mountain air that blew across the Troll citadel of Karam-Tag-Chou



We finally arrived at the stone building; it was near the city wall by the main gate. Apparently there were two entrances, one where the troll clan chiefs normally entered which was to the south of our position, guessing from the sun’s position in the sky, that was a bigger entrance straight to the hall. The north entrances was a swing gate, almost like the type of door pictured in Wild West saloons on cowboy films, and therefore partially open to the elements. The door area was ten feet high, but the door started about two feet from the floor and ended two feet from the top, that lead to a twenty by twenty antechamber with a big solid oak type door the entrance to the main debating chamber. There was a small bench to the left of the main door.

Sarah would have to wait here partially exposed to the elements, guarding our sandals, which we removed. We looked to see if there was some brazier so Sarah could have some heat, but there was none. Trolls on this world were more resilient to cold and assumed humans were the same from what I could tell.

Gently the troll carrying Sarah put her down so she was standing, and then unwrapped Sarah from the blanket, and folded it up. Nodded at us and left. Sarah began to cry
“Mummy I’m cold” she wailed
Angela knelt down and looked at her, Angela was crying too, partly out of rage at what they were doing to her little girl. It was as if the trolls cared more for their traditions than our physical needs, but what could we do.
“I know your cold Sarah, We’re all cold” Angela could just about get out.

I turned to the Clan Chief of the Manjura, “My girl could die out here dressed like this with no heat or become seriously ill”
The troll just shrugged his shoulders, “It is how things are done, the children of the emperor assume the dress of a deposed emperor and stand vigil while both parents are in the convocation.”

It just seemed like there was no reasoning with him and these ancient troll laws

“Can we not have a small fire so she can keep warm”
“All we can do is light one of the torches” the troll replied and instructed one of his troll attendants to light one of the small torches on either side of the interior door, pull it out of it’s holder and gave it to Merah to hold upright. The flaming part was about two feet above the line of the bench, so Angela lifted Sarah onto the bench. Sarah would be out of the way of the draught coming under the exterior door, and near the flame, but the heat was not that great.
Angela shook her head at this arrangement, “I am not going to let Sarah stand like this” then with out warning Angela pulled her own dress right off, revealing her naked body, so she could wrap it around Sarah.
“My Queen, I’m sorry you MUST put that back on” ordered the Clan Chief of the Manjura.
“I don’t care if everyone sees me naked, I want to look after my daughter you B******d” Angela was now crying tears of rage
“You don’t realise just how right you are Angela” I said under my breath”

Suddenly, Merah tapped Angela on the shoulder, Angela looked at her, then down at something, I could not see what, then she looked at Sarah, standing shivering, trying to keep warm by a flaming torch

“PUT YOUR DRESS ON NOW” The troll ordered, and to my surprise, Angela complied
“Mummy is sorry sweetheart, but Mummy and Daddy have to go and speak to the trolls now” she said to Sarah, giving our daughter one last hug, “Please be good for Merah, and please be brave”

I was violently shivering myself now in the cold air, I just hoped it would be warmer inside, otherwise I would be useless and this convocation would have been for nothing.

“Can we get on now?” The troll said.
Angela and I nodded and then held hands, we were going to walk hand in hand if we could, and to our surprise they let us as the giant door swung inwards.

We then walked in to the assembly room with what seemed like dozens of trolls sitting in a semi circle, like some auditorium, Angela with her free hand covered her right breast that was deliberately exposed by her convocation dress. The Clan Chief of the Manjura walked a head of us to sit and the head table, with the Clan Chief of the Delethon. We were to sit in between them. Manjura had this honour, because that troll had initially proposed me to be emperor of the trolls and the Delethon leader, because they were declared responsible for the upkeep and guarding of the royal complex of the Troll citadel of Karam-Tag-Chou.. One thing we noticed, was that it was a lot warmer in here, which made me feel even more sick at the though of what Sarah was being put through, just to satisfy the ego of a long dead troll emperor.

“What did Merah show you?” I asked Angela
“Not now, I will tell you later” replied Angela through gritted teeth.

We took our places at the table, and looked at the rows of Clan chiefs. There was a seat missing, must be the Yataxal, clan since their chief had been murdered that morning by an assassin using a bowie knife from Earth. But no, there was the Deputy of the Yataxal clan, filling in for his fallen chief.

“Who is missing?” I asked the Clan Chief of the Delethon

“The Clan Chief of the Rachtal, that treacherous one” The Delethon troll hissed, both the Manjura and the Delethon hated the Rachtal with a passion, but for the sake of finding peace they were observing a strained truce.

We were sitting there, waiting, Angela held her arms crossed to cover herself, even though she had initially thought the dress to be quite bohemian, at heart she really did not like showing herself off in front of strangers. My mind suddenly went back to that one holiday the previous year, we went on before the Mystical Realms crashed back into my life. The hotel had what seemed like a great idea. Always wondered what to do with your clothes wallet and keys when on the beach? Then using a special service, we just undress in a changing room, put all our stuff in a locked bag that would be kept secure, or taken back to the hotel. We had wanted it to be kept secure. I had got cut price swim wear, trunks for me and what I thought was a full bikini for Angela. I was wrong, but she had stripped off and they had collected the bag before she realised there were only the bottoms. The top apparently was extra as most women on the resort went topless. For some reason they took our stuff back to the hotel in error and the person in charge of the clothes dump went off for a long lunch while Angela had to wander around topless until the guy returned one and a half hour’s later and then we discovered our clothes were locked away until the evening shift were due. She had cramp in her arms from trying to cover herself while the guy got back from lunch. I wished I had kept my T-shirt, but Angela had insisted I get some sun on my body for once. The guy in charge of the drop off had to ask a nearer hotel for a bathrobe for her, something they kept for those unfortunates who would occasionally lock themselves out of their rooms whilst naked.

BANG

The north door where we had entered crashed open, and in walked the Clan Chief of the Rachtal, with a small entourage.



“What is the meaning of this tardiness” The Clan Chief of the Delethon demanded.

The Rachtal chief looked at our table and then spoke, in sneering terms “I am sorry my esteemed troll clan chief colleagues. I was delayed, but I was also wondering if there was any point to these proceedings, given my original suspicions that this weak human would be just a puppet to the so-called loyal Manjura maggot and his ally the Delethon dunce to do their bidding”

“You will hold your tongue Rachtal” the Clan Chief of the Manjura snapped back, then added “At least we were on the loyal side unlike some”

The Manjura chief seemed to have walked into a trap, as the Rachtal chief grinned and continued.

“Loyal indeed. How loyal is it to humiliate the emperor, his queen and the child he has decreed to be his daughter? How loyal was it to the emperor to starve them out of the palace? Now I find that the Manjura maggots are just as much puppets as I suspected the emperor would be”

The Clan Chief of the Manjura was getting angry at these insults, where as it seemed like water off of a duck’s back to the Delethon leader. “Take your seat Rachtal” the Manjura chief orded.

Rachtal was ignoring him, opting for theatrics, and all I could think of was poor Sarah shivering in the cold, I just wondered how long she would last before succumbing to hypothermia.

The Rachtal chief continued, “You, Manjura maggots, had your strings pulled by a Griffin, A Griffin” A reference to the Griffin judge that dismissed charges against me when I was first dragged here to face trial for conspiracy to interfere in the affairs of a mortal
“Now, my esteemed troll colleagues, the Manjura maggot has his strings pulled by the long dead Waxwal the vain, of the clan of Delethon or was it Manjura, no wonder Delethon and Manjura are so in league, no matter, The Manjura has allowed this long dead troll to force the royal family to humiliate themselves just to talk to us. See how his Queen is trying to cover her self”

Angela looked up at the Rachtal troll and put her arms down fearful that trying to hide her exposed right breast had caused this troll offence. “Sorry” she uttered, her voice cracking under the stress of what was happening to our Sarah, “I’m so sorry sir”

“Don’t apologise your majesty, you may cover yourself if that is your wish” the Clan Chief of the Rachtal told her in his softest voice.

Angela brought her arms back up to cover herself again, “Thank you sir” responded, tears now falling down her face.

“Sit down, that is enough It is the way of things” retorted the Clan Chief of the Delethon, now getting irritated at the antics of the Clan Chief of the Rachtal.

“The way of things, only according to a long dead troll who was vain and obsessed with ceremony” The Rachtal chief retorted, “Now as for my loyalty” The Rachtal chief continued, “I have shown that I am more loyal already, by feeding the royal family yesterday when they were starved and frozen out of their home by the incompetence of the Delethon dunces”

“That is all, sit down” chimed the Manjura chief. The other trolls just looked on, it was obvious there were some unresolved issues between Rachtal, Manjura and Delethon and they were arguing these petty issues out while my daughter was slowly freezing to death.

“I will in a moment, but I am being a bit harsh on the Delethon clan, for this very day, I found one with some honour and independent thought, so as not to be a mere puppet”. Then Angela gasped in shock, he produced a blue towel, it looked like one from our royal apartment
“No” groaned Angela, “No how could he do that to her”
“Angela what is it?” I asked,
Before Angela could answer the Rachtal Troll continued, “Humans are more susceptible to cold than us trolls, and the royal princess is a weak human child even more at risk from the cold, but the Manjura made her stand out in the cold with out protection. It fell to Merah, a lowly female bodyguard from Delethon clan to defy this nonsense and she took a towel from the palace to try and keep her charge warm and alive. Although this towel was inadequate at least she made the effort to show loyalty to the emperor”

This was horrendous, even this towel had been taken from her, Sarah was in trouble for certain now

“She will be punished for this lapse of protocol” the Clan Chief of the Delethon said angrily

The Clan Chief of the Rachtal leaned over the Delethon chief, “I would be proud to have her in the Rachtal if you do not want her, for her resourcefulness and loyalty to the Emperor” Then the Rachtal troll stood up and addressed the other trolls, “Before I take my place amongst you, I know we fought with the orcs, but I wish to show, my loyalty to the Emperor by saving the life of the royal princess from the ineptness of Manjura and Delethon

The Rachtal Chief nodded at one of his troll guards, who opened the inner door we had come through, and in came two trolls, escorting Merah, who was carrying our daughter. As I looked at the approaching figures I saw, to my relief, that Sarah, instead of just wearing the silk skirt and nothing else, as she had been told to by the Clan Chief of the Manjura, she was now also wearing what looked like a dark green and warm woollen smock that covered her down to her knees. Sarah was looking around at the chamber and was over awed, her eyes were also red as she had been crying her eyes out.

This was too much for Angela, who got out of her seat and ran round the table to hug Merah and our daughter. I could just about hear that she was repeating the words “Thank you” over and over again. Then she kissed Sarah on the head and left Merah holding her and came back to our table, then remembered what she was wearing and crossed her arms to cover herself. Angela’s eyes were also red after crying. Angela came and sat down again and I gave her a hug, “They saved her, I thought she was going to die but they saved her” Angela whispered then started sobbing as I held her in my arms.

The Clan Chief of the Rachtal allowed Angela to recompose her self, while the clan chiefs of the Manjura and the Delethon seethed at this lapse in their precious protocol and at being showed up, but the pair in my opinion deserved it. Then the Rachtal troll continued “I will now show my loyalty to the Emperor and his queen, with two gifts”

At this another Rachtal troll came up to the head table and gave us our own woollen green smocks

Angela and I looked up at the Clan Chief of the Rachtal,, who then told us to put them on and cover up our humiliation at the Manjura and the Delethon, which we duly did. They were nice and warm and a blessed relief from the cold.
Then he turned to the rest of the troll clans, and asked them “Does anyone apart from Manjura and Delethon seriously have objections to these weak humans receiving the compassion and loyalty of the Rachtal clan just to talk to us?”
The other trolls looked at each other, and muttering, but I could not make out what they were saying
“Any real objections” The Clan Chief of the Rachtal reiterated then added, “Must the emperor of the trolls be forced into humiliation and harm due to the whim of any particular clan, just to talk to us?”

This seemed to catch the other troll clans on the hop, as the way the Rachtal had put it made the things me and my family had to endure seem ridiculous. The troll clan chiefs then collectively shook their heads. The Rachtal clan chief, then for the “piece de la resistance” added, I believe that the queen and the princess should be allowed to retire from these proceedings back to somewhere warm, like the royal apartment, assuming Delethon has got it’s act together, if not I am sure we can spare some fuel for the fire. Then we can hear what the emperor has to say. Any real objections?”

Again no one objected, and Manjura and Delethon had been out manoeuvred and out voted.

Angela got up and collected Sarah from Merah, Merah came up to me and told me “I will see they get back ok and stay with them”

“My guards will make sure they get back safely Your Majesty” The Rachtal chief told me and somehow I believed him, he was positioning himself as loyal to me personally for some reason and investing a lot of political capital in safeguarding our family’s welfare, but who cares, this clan chief had shown us some humanity over ancient stupid laws

The Clan Chief of the Rachtal then told Merah, “If he decides to punish you our clan will protect you from that and welcome you in to our clan”

Merah nodded and with Angela and Sarah they left, along with a number of other trolls from the Clan of Rachtal.

Now we could get to the business in hand, and I was invited to speak and so I stood up It was time for me to plead for the life of Sarah my adopted daughter and I was not sure how this would go down

To be continued

Episode V – Interfering with whom

How does the old saying go? “Be careful what you wish for, for you may get it”

Well I had asked to see all the clan troll chiefs at once to bring out into the open the assassination attempt on myself and Angela, now under troll law, my wife and find out what entities unknown had against Sarah, the five year old girl, mysteriously orphaned and dragged back here by entities also unknown. They were supposed to return and have this meeting at the troll citadel of Karam Tag-Chou

What I did not realise was that asking this, under some arcane troll law, I would have to dress in just a kilt and sandals and nothing else, my wife in a strange dress that bared her right breast, sandals and nothing else, and Sarah would have to stand in the freezing cold outside the meeting chamber, standing vigil whilst only being allowed to wear sandals, a silk skirt and nothing else. For trolls this was not a problem, but for humans, especially human children this was positively lethal.

Luckily and ironically the leader of the Rachtal clan, one of the clans that fought on the “wrong” side in their recent civil war
[img=100x200]http://wow.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/album27/troll_001.gif[/img]

intervened on our behalf, most likely, to embarrass their clan rivals of the Manjura and the Delethon, gave our daughter, and us as well, something incredibly warm to wear, thus saving her from hypothermia, and has brow beaten the rest of the trolls in to seeing how ridiculous that ancient law was and has got them to allow Angela and Sarah to be escorted safely back to the royal apartment where the can get dressed and keep warm, courtesy of a promise of extra fuel for the fire.

All I have to do is address them to try and convince entities unknown not to kill us and that Sarah is not a threat to anyone


As I stood in the auditorium I looked at all the clan chiefs and the deputy of the Yataxal clan, (their clan chief was found murdered this morning by someone wielding a weapon exclusive to Earth, a Bowie knife)

“My fellow troll chiefs I started” I just hoped this was the way to address them, then I realised I needed to acknowledge the kindness shown by the Clan Chief of the Rachtal, “First of all I wish to thank the Clan Chief of the Rachtal for his kindness, generosity and for saving the life of Princess Sarah who had been put at risk of dying from the cold because we were made to adhere to archaic protocols not suited to our spiecies”
I did not name the Clan Chief of the Manjura or his Delethon counterpart, but they knew I was referring to them and I really felt like rubbing their troll noses in it for what they did to Sarah

The Clan Chief of the Rachtal, smiled and nodded discreetly

“Now to the reason we are here. I have requested an audience to firstly inform you that two nights ago there was an assassination attempt on me and my wife”

Shocks and gasps from the trolls

“I believe this was to somehow break up the truce amongst the troll clans. If anyone has a problem with me being emperor, please tell me now, there is no need to go to such lengths as assassination”
Angry denials – promises to find and execute the assassins and those hiring them

“Does anyone have an issue with me, a human, being Emperor of the Trolls?”

Silence and a shaking of heads

I’m sorry if anyone feels insulted and I realise that this could be the actions of orcs, fearful of the their troll allies turning against them and wishing to break the union of the trolls, but just in case there are those amongst some of the trolls opposed to this union, I felt I have to ask”

Lot’s of it must be those treacherous orcs from the “loyal troll clans” and orcs would never use assassination from those trolls who fought alongside the orcs. The Clan Chief of the Rachtal kept his own council.

I waited for the noise to die down then I moved on to my other concern, the safety of Sarah, “Also, as you may remember at my coronation banquet, there was a human child, a little girl of only five, brought illegally to this world by an entity unknown after it killed her last remaining parent leaving her an orphan. This child was sold to a troglodyte who was sold to the hobgoblin who enslaved her and whipped her because as a five year old human child, she was not able to perform her tasks”

Shouts of shame on the hobgoblin, shame on the troglodyte and string them up

Once again I waited for the hubbub to die down before continuing.” That human child is called Sarah, and as you recall I adopted her as me and my wife’s daughter. I consider her as if she were my own flesh and blood and as you saw today, my wife even more so. Sarah is most precious to us like your own offspring are precious to you”

Then a troll chief from the Najavl clan objected “How can you be so attached to a child until two days ago you had never met. She is not even your own flesh and blood?”

That was cold and callous even for a troll – I had to respond “If my wife had given birth to a child two days ago, should I love that child less because I have only known it two days? Just because she did not grow in my wife’s womb does that mean I can not love and care for this child as if she had? I repeat my wife and I love Sarah as if she were our own flesh and blood, and we count her as such, Does anyone have any problems with this and is it anyone’s business save for my wife and I”

There was silence as one by one heads shook, with the Clan Chief of the Ractal being first and the Clan Chief of the Najav last, he too had been isolated and shown up

I continued “The Troglodyte was been murdered, and someone unknown forged a death warrant on the hobgoblin so he was executed before he could answer anymore questions, from that it seems that those connected with Sarah’s orphaning, abduction and enslavement are being silenced”

Silence from the trolls

“Just in case those involved are her, I have to ask, and I am not accusing anyone, especially not the Clan Chief of the Rachtal who proven already to be a saviour to Princess Sarah” I thought I would use Sarah’s name to make it personal, “if any one here knows anything of this matter, if they are worried that Sarah might identify them, then I assure you she can not. Experiences like the one Princess Sarah had, cause human children blot them from their minds”, She is afraid to recall how she was dragged here and even if she could, she can not identify the creature who abducted her, she does not know what it was”

Then I clasped my hands together to make the impassioned I had so wanted to do on Sarah’s behalf “Please I beg of you if you are here, call off the assassin who is after my daughter, I promise you she is not a threat, she is just an innocent child of five who is frightened, who lost everything she had”

At that point my voice cracked, and for a moment I could not speak, then I was just able to muster, “I am pleading for the life of my daughter, please don’t kill her” Then I had to sit down and hide my face in my hands

There was silence

Then a number of clan chiefs all denied knowledge of a plot and the Rachtal chief spoke up “We have seen what an honourable human this emperor is, in trying to protect those he regards as kin. Najav you should be ashamed that you doubted the love of the emperor and his wife for their new daughter, it is real, for I saw it yesterday when I came across them huddled together hungry and cold in a mess hall supposedly run by the Manjura maggots. As the emperor has said you have seen how I have already saved the child’s life, and we pledge to help keep her safe. Anyone wishing the emperor or his family harm will have to go through the might of the Rachtal.”

“And the Might of the Manjura” insisted the Clan Chief of the Manjura, not wishing to be out manoeuvred again. Suddenly all of the troll clans said the same thing, except the deputy of the Yataxal, who seemed to be lost in thought, then after an awkward silence, he mumbled something similar. This seemed odd, since they were considered the most fearsome warriors on the “loyal” side during the hostilities, could he be grieving over the death of his leader?

I recovered, “I must thank the Clan Chief of the Rachtal once again for his kindness and I accept that he and his clan are loyal and innocent of blame, but if anyone wants here wants me to step down, there is no need to kill us, just tell us and we will go back to Earth. We humans do not stay where we are not wanted”

Cries “of course we want you, we need you” and such the like

I let the cries die down again then spoke to the assembled trolls “I thank you for the vote of support and I will do my best to serve you equitably these were the matters I asked you to return to Karan Tag-Chou” I then sat down.

“Well done my liege” The Clan Chief of the Manjura whispered into my ear, “That was a brave move laying yourself on the line like that, maybe the orc loving scum will be flushed out for the treacherous trolls that they are”

I chose not to answer, so far the so called loyal trolls had let me and my family down. As I sat there the Clan Chief of the Delethon asked me if that was it, and I stood up again “I would like to make a decree, that if an emperor wishes to call a Consultation of the Troll clans, then they should assemble where ever the emperor wishes them to assemble, and that no dress code shall be imposed on the emperor or his family, who need not be in attendance. Let the rules for convocations remain on the statutes of the trolls, but let it fall into disuse in favour of the Consultation of the Trolls”

“I second that” shouted the Clan Chief of the Ractal
“So do I” Said the Clan Chief of the Manjura to avoid being outdone
The Clan Chief of the Delethon remained silent.
“That’s it” I told the Delethon troll and sat down, at which he dismissed the troll clan chiefs who left, leaving the Rachtal, Delethon and Manjura chiefs in the chamber. The Manjura and the Delethon clan chiefs wanted to have their own discussion, so I went and sat by the Rachtal clan chief and offered him my right hand. He smiled and we shook hands, “I owe you a life debt for my daughter oh Clan Chief of the Rachtal” I told him, I discovered I was still emotional about what Manjura and Delethon had insisted was done to Sarah.
“I know I told you that the Rachtal would never have been dictated to by a griffin, but when I heard that the Lord Low Troll was humiliated and was almost removed from office, I laughed like I had never laughed before. Anyone who could make him loose face as your release did was worthy of a few favours”
“So was that why you fought with the orcs, to oppose the Lord Low Troll?”
The Rachtal troll nodded, “We only fought the other trolls, as for the slaughter of the other races and driving them away, we had no stomach for that and to our shame we let the orcs go down that route”
“So you want to atone for that then?”
“Indeed”

I smiled at the Rachtal troll, he seemed like a good troll to me, and seemed to have proved it by what he had done for my family over the past two days, “If we were on Earth, I would love to have taken you down the pub for a pint”
“Well your highness we do have our own appointed mess hall with plenty of ale”
“Thank you oh clan chief, but I want to get back home to be with Angela and Sarah”
“I understand Your Majesty, family is important I would have it no other way, but a small tankard of ale would not do harm, after all they are protected by my clan and that fine Merah, it is on our way, and if you like I will walk back with you”
“Yes if it is just one small tankard” I said, I did not want to refuse his hospitality as he had done so much for me, and for our safety here I needed all the friends I could get, “I would like that”, I also thought it would annoy Delethon and Manjura as I was still angry at them.

The mess hall of the Rachtal was another meagre affair like the Manjura hall, even in the citadel, space was at a premium. As the Troll chief walked in, there was a mighty cheer. This clan chief liked to be seen eating with the troops and mucking in with the rest of them. This made me like him even more.

The clan chief ordered what looked like a huge tankard for him self, and luckily a half sized one for me. The ale was something like cask conditioned ale we got on Earth and on first sip found that it was quite strong. I complimented him on the ale and told him if they could take it to Earth and sell it, they would make a fortune. The Troll Clan Chief found this highly amusing.

Luckily this clan did not hold to the troll tradition of only two meals a day and so I was able to grab a bread roll to eat, I was not going to drink this brew on an empty stomach. I then wondered what Angela would say when I came in reeking of alcohol. There was nothing for it but to get through it, while I talked with other trolls from the Rachtal clan, they had never come across an emperor of the people before and they were thrilled. When I remembered the Manjura mess hall the previous morning, they had been stiff and formal, even though the fare was palatable, but this place was more like a northern working man’s club.

Suddenly I realised we had lost track of the time, so I tried to stagger to my feet, but the effects of even that tankard of ale suddenly hit me. The Clan Chief of the Rachtal gave a heart laugh and then handed me a small round grey disc, “It removes the effects of the ale so a warrior can be fit for battle, an old gnomish remedy”
I put the tablet in my mouth, where it suddenly melted and then I felt the effects of the ale leave my body, and it was as if I had drank only water.

I told the Clan chief, if they could sell this on Earth they would make a fortune too and we both laughed

We then started to make our way back to the royal apartment, taking it easy as we walked up. As we walked we talked about all sorts of things ranging from the look on the faces of the Clan Chiefs of the Delethon and the Manjura when the Clan Chief of the Rachtal had accused them before the other troll chiefs of putting my daughter in harms way.

We were a third of the way to the royal apartment when a troll guard came up to us; he was from the clan of Manjura.
“At last I have found you, must come quickly your Majesty” he panted, “There has been an attempt on the life of the princess”

Suddenly I felt sick, had I just prompted the assassin to strike at her, how did they get passed the Rachtal and the Delethon? The Chief Clan of the Rachtal ordered one of his lieutenants to run and get troll healing potion and bring it to the royal apartment and then the troll chief and I picked up our pace, and we ran as fast as I could. I supposed the Rachtal troll could have got there faster, as I was not used to maintaining this pace. I really needed to get into better shape

How had this happened?

Eventually we made it back to the front door of the royal apartment and burst in, although I was on the point of collapse.

Angela was sitting at the table in the main room, still wearing the green top the Rachtal chief had given her.
“WHAT HAPPENED TO SARAH” I shouted, gasping for breath
“Graeme, she’s ok, she’s safe” Angela replied, then asked “where have you been”

Before I could speak, the Clan Chief of the Rachtal spoke“I am sorry your highness I delayed your husband on important business, but when we heard we came straight away at the double.
“Heard what?” Angela replied looking slightly confused

“We were told that an attempt had been made on her Highness Princess Sarah’s life” The Clan Chief of the Rachtal explained.

Angela rolled her eyes, “Of course I know what you’re talking about now, one of the trolls must have found you at last”, then she pointed what appeared to be a small brown rocks on a plate on the table. “When we got in, this was left on the edge of the table”

“What is it?” The Rachtal clan chief asked

“It’s crack cocaine” Angela stated
“WHAT???” I asked, “What is that doing here, in the Mystical Realms”
“I don’t know Graeme, Sarah just saw it from the door when the troll carried her in and as soon as he put her down on the floor she immediately thought they were sweeties and climbed on a chair to get at it, I suppose because it looked like cinder toffee which her first father used to buy for her”
“How much did she take?” I asked
“She didn’t get a chance to take any, I could tell what it was by sight because the coffee shop chain I work for sent me on a drugs awareness course two months ago, so I had to rush over and grab her and take it from her hand. I think I was a bit rough because I was panicking and she started crying and kept apologising like she seems to do a lot, the poor mite. I had to cuddle her and tell her I was not angry with her, she had not done anything wrong, I still loved her” Then Angela pointedly told the Rachtal Troll, “which I do” then continued, “Then I told her that is was not sweeties but something nasty and I just wanted to protect my little girl and I put the drugs up on the high shelf” Angela suddenly choked, she was on the edge of tears. “Graeme I love that little girl like she was my own child, in fact I consider my own child now and I thought I was going to loose her again, especially after we had to make her freeze like that” Now Angela broke down fully, and I sat down beside her and let her cry on my shoulder.

The Rachtal Clan chief waited for a moment, while we hugged each other, then said “I still do not understand what is this substance that was put out for the princess”
“It is what we on Earth call an illegal drug or a narcotic, that some people take as a form of recreation, but it is addictive and is harmful” I explained
“And highly illegal on Earth, because it can kill you” Angela added, still visibly upset
“Basically Clan Chief, not a good idea for a child to get hold of”
“If it is so bad, then why take it?” the troll asked
“Some people believe it gives them some kind of pleasant experience we call a high, with cocaine, others take it because it keeps them going” I continued to explain.
“We do not have such substances here” replied the troll, and then asked, “so the assassin left it here to lure the Princess to her death by poison, a coward’s means of dispatch”

I could tell that the Clan Chief of the Rachtal was angry as well.

“I don’t know why it was left on the table sir” Angela replied, “I told Merah it could have poisoned her and Merah went and spoke to a troll outside”
“So she must have sent the guard that eventually found us” I ventured
“I suppose so Graeme”

The Rachtal lieutenant arrived with the healing potion, which he placed on the table.
“Thank you Saldor”, his clan chief told him, luckily the princess is unharmed by the cowardly poisoner, the queen is knowledgeable of certain poisons and stepped in to prevent the princess from consuming it”
The lieutenant nodded, “That is good news sire”
“Now go and summon the Clan Chief of the Delethon and Manjura”
“They are on their way already sire”

I was not happy, these Delethon guards were useless, they had allowed someone get in and plant a snake in our bed, and now they had tried to kill my daughter with an overdose of Crack Cocaine, which could only come from Earth. It still looked like either a Manjura connection as they were the guardians of the devices to transfer between their world and ours or someone had got hold of a dimension jump orb that had been lost in antiquity. I picked up the plate and went out side to talk to the sentry, to show him the murder weapon as it were that someone had tried to kill Sarah with, his response left me speechless. The troll looked at it and replied “Oh that, we found it in the pocket of the slain Clan Chief of the Yataxal, and as you wanted to keep the blade weapon, we thought you would like to look at it so we left it in the dish for you on the table for when you returned from the convocation.”

I had to walk back in, as I did not want to do or say anything I might regret to that stupid Delethon sentry. To say I was livid was to put it mildly
I placed the dish on the high shelf along side the bowie knife, then turned back to Angela and the Rachtal clan chief
“On our world oh clan chief, we have a saying, never attribute to malice what can be accounted for by shear mindless stupidity”
“And?” Quizzed the troll
“The sentries found the crack cocaine on the body of the Clan Chief of the Yataxal and put it on the table for us. There was no assassination attempt just a stupid Delethon sentry. I want him removed” Boy was I mad and I did not care who knew it
“Typical Delethon dunces” commented the Clan Chief of the Rachtal “imbeciles”
“Graeme, Clan chief” Angela spoke up, “You have to remember that they would not have known what it is, this is from our world not this one”
I tried to calm down, but I was still angry at Delethon incompetence putting Sarah’s life at risk, but Angela had a point, how were they to know what this compound was and how lethal it was.

Then my mind went back to Sarah, “Angela where is Sarah now”

“As she was still upset about having to stand in the cold dressed the way she was, and kept saying how cold she had been, I got her eat the broth that was provided, which I told her would help warm her up so she ate that, while Merah and I ran a hot bath for her in front of the fire and bathed her. I then put her into her night clothes and got her to put on the green garment the Rachtal Troll chief gave her as well, because after today I am determined that Sarah is going to be wrapped up warm where ever she is” Angela’s voice was betraying her anger at what had happened to Sarah earlier , “I then put her to bed, where I told her she would be nice and warm. I think she is a sleep. Merah is sitting with her now”

“Angela, do you want me to talk to her about drugs” I asked
“No Graeme, I already told her that some things that look like sweets or juice may make her sick, so always ask mummy or daddy if it is safe, and that we would never give her anything that would harm her” Angela replied, “I don’t want to scare her any more than that mite is already”, then Angela broke down again.
“Ok love” I told her and put my arm around my wife and hugged her, then kissed her on the head, “I’ll just go and check in on Merah”

I went in to Sarah’s room, and there was Sarah tucked snugly in bed, dead to the world. I stood for a moment watching her breathing, I did not care what the Najav clan chief had said, Sarah was my daughter even though I had only known her for just over two days since we rescued her from slavery in the scullery. I looked up at Merah, sitting watching Sarah sleep.
“Merah” I said
“Yes your majesty”
“I never got to thank you for what you tried to do for Sarah this morning”
“I am her bodyguard, your majesty and when she changed all by herself into the skirt I saw her shivering in but mere draught, I realised, your majesty she might not make the vigil. I did not tell anyone, but I was about to give her my tunic as well when the Clan of Rachtal arrived” Merah explained.
“Well Merah if there is anyway I can recommend you for a commendation or some honour I will”
“Thank you your Majesty, the Princess has been one of my most easiest of charges as she only wishes to please those older than herself”
“Her first father must have brought her up to be that way”.

While we were talking, Sarah started to stir and flicked open her eyes
“Is it morning Daddy” she asked weakly, then started to sit up in her cot and rubbed her eyes.
“Not yet princess, it is still today, did you have a nice sleep”
“Yes Daddy”
I pulled up a chair next to her cot so I could put a fatherly arm around my daughter, just to keep giving her the reassurance she needed and show her she was loved.
“How are you feeling princess, are you still cold?”
Sarah shook her head, and then stared down at the bottom of her cot, I could tell by her look she was upset at something, just like the day before when she had convinced herself that just by wearing her shirt and jumper and not going as Frameana was then stripped to the waist she had been breaking the law and in danger of receiving the kind of whippings that were inflicted upon her when she was a scullery slave.
“I tried to be brave Daddy and do what Mr Troll told me I had to” Sarah started, she was guilt ridden and starting to cry again, “Sorry Daddy, the troll lady wrapped the towel around me, I was cold Daddy”
I looked up at Merah, her expression was neutral
“She was meant to do that Sarah, she was trying to protect you from the cold, you did nothing wrong”
“Then the big trolls came round and a big troll to the towel away and told me to put this on” Sarah sobbed tugging at the green smock she was wearing. “I was frightened of him Daddy, he was Big and I was frightened. I’m sorry I wasn’t brave Daddy” Then Sarah broke into uncontrollable sobs.
I picked Sarah up and placed her on my lap lightly rested my forehead against hers and held her tightly to try and reassure her things were ok
Merah spoke up, “It was the Clan Chief of the Rachtal who gave her the garment, he did try and be gentle, but the Princess was so scared she just did what he told her. I did not oppose him because I saw that the towel was inadequate and the garment was what she needed to survive”
“Merah” I told the female troll bodyguard, “You did the right thing”, and then I turned my attention to my sobbing and guilt ridden daughter on my lap.
“Remember first Daddy told you to always obey the law”
“Yes Daddy, I tried to obey what Mr Troll said was the law, but the big troll made me put this on, he was Big and I was frightened”
“Sarah, Sarah, princess sometimes people or trolls change laws, so you don’t have to do certain things anymore, or they change laws so you have to do something else”
Sarah started to cotton on to what I was trying to tell her, “Did the big troll change the law”
“Yes Princess, Mr Troll did not know the law had been changed, so that was why he made you stand in the cold like that”
“I was cold and frightened Daddy, I tried to be brave but I was cold and frightened” more sobbing – our daughter had been really put through the wringer thanks to the Clan Chiefs of the Delethon and Manjura
“Daddy understands, we know you tried, it’s not wrong to be scared, even I get scared sometimes, Mummy and Daddy still love you Sarah and always will, and you did nothing wrong Princess” I was just about getting the hang of comforting a crying child, but I was certain Angela was better at this than I. As Sarah’s sobbing calmed down, Angela came in and sat down on the bed beside us, so I handed Sarah across to Angela who held her on her lap, while I continued “Sarah, that big troll changed the law so that little girls like you did not have to stand out in the cold dressed like Mr Troll told you to dress. The big troll had had the law changed so little girls and boys could wear all the warm clothes they wanted if they had to wait outside the chamber, so when you put the smock on as the big troll got you to do, you were just obeying the new law”
“So I’m not in trouble Daddy” Sarah asked, her eyes still red from crying
“No Princess, It was Mr Troll who was in trouble because he did not realise the law had been changed”
The Angela spoke to Sarah, “The big troll is a nice troll really and he would never hurt you, he did not mean to scare you and he was worried about you and has come to say hello” Then Angela carried Sarah out into the main room and I followed them along with Merah

The Clan Chief of the Rachtal stood up

Sarah was right, he was quite big and I supposed to a five year old, quite scary.

“I am glad your majesty is alright” the troll clan chief told Sarah in a gentle quiet voice
Sarah was lost for words for a moment and was still pretty much in awe of him, then quietly and nervously replied “Thank you for the warm dress Big Troll”
“It was my pleasure, your majesty and I am sorry I scared you, I did not mean to” The troll replied then opened his arms, Angela handed Sarah over to him and the Troll gently held Sarah in his arms. Sarah was momentarily terrified, as she briefly went white as a sheet, then relaxed when she realised that this troll was gentle and would not hurt her. The Rachtal troll handed Sarah back to Angela, who thanked the troll again for saving Sarah from the cold and carried her to the bathroom and then got her ready for bed again and sat with her.

While Angela was sitting with Sarah, there was a knock on the door, it was Germal the other female troll bodyguard from the Manjura clan to relieve Merah. The two female body guards exchanged greetings and Merah left.

The Clan Chief of the Rachtral was about to leave when the Clan chiefs of Manjura and Delethon arrived.

The Clan Chief of the Manjura spoke first, “We are here to apologise to the princess”
“I bet you are” I said dismissively “what for, denying her food in the middle of the day, stripping her half naked and making her stand in a cold draughty alcove or one of your Delethon trolls thoughtlessly leaving this stuff” I got down the plate of crack cocaine, “where she could find it. She thought it was a treat for her and it was only my wife, who knew it for the poison that it is, who kept it from her”

“I do not know what that stuff is My liege we have never seen” The Manjura troll replied.

The Clan Chief of the Delethon interrupted, “We were referring to the removing of the blanket from the princess, on reflection we thought that “
The Manjura clan chief decided to complete the Delethon leader’s sentence “a towel or a blanket is not an item of clothing, so we should have let the princess keep the blanket she was wrapped in when she was carried down to the chamber”

“So” replied the Clan Chief of the Rachtal, “you are not going to punish Merah after all”
“No” replied the Delethon leader and looked down at the floor

Then I spoke up, “Clan Chief of the Manjura, can I say which clan looks after Karam Tag-Chou”
The Clan chief of the Manjura frowned and then replied “Yes, but no one has questioned the loyalty of the Delethon before”
“Oh but they were loyal” I replied, “when after an assassination attempt, which they let get through, when my family and I had to seek warmer shelter and food, they loyally guarded the apartment yet nobody went with us. When I wanted to speak to the clan chiefs, they were loyal to a law that put my daughter in harms way, and today, one of the loyal sentries put a plate of a deadly substance that looks attractive to children exactly where Sarah could get at it”

The Clan Chief of the Delethon blinked and looked at the Clan Chief of the Manjura.
“I Have now lost all confidence in the clan of Delethon, save for Merah, to protect me and my family. Clan Chief of the Delethon I want the Clan of the Rachtal to take over, as they have proved truly loyal to me and my family”
The Clan Chief of the Delethon looked absolutely shocked, “By you commands my liege”
“It will be an honour” The Clan Chief of the Rachtal replied grinning from ear to ear.
“Maybe you two can go and work out the details of the handover, but I do want to retain Merah, as she did prove loyal to me and my family in person ”
“Consider it done” replied the Rachtal clan chief, “If need be I will make Merah an honorary Rachtal”, then he and the Delethon leader left.

The Clan Chief of the Manjura was about to leave when I asked him to stay.
“This change over is most un-precedented my liege, The Rachtal fought against us with the orcs”
“I thought you wanted unity of the trolls, what is more united than two clans from either of the divide working together for peace”
The Clan Chief of the Manjura shook his head and sighed, he had no counter argument then said “I suppose you kept me back for matters other than assignment of clan duties”
“You got that right” I told him and then showed him the plate of Crack cocaine, “like the knife, this is from my world, it is an illegal and dangerous substance called crack cocaine. People take it on my world for recreational purposes, but it is highly addictive and dangerous.”
“Yes your majesty, I am sure the sentry who put it where the princess could find it will be punished”
“That is not my point, Clan chief, on my world the people who supply it are regarded as criminals, criminals who are dangerous, it was found in the possession of the Clan Chief of the Yataxal”
The Manjura troll was shocked, “My Liege it is obvious that someone is clearly interfering with the realm of mortals and possibly planting the blame on our clan, but you are accusing a clan, whose loyal warriors fought the fiercest and the longest in their battles, they must be being set up like the Manjura clan as well, most likely by the orc loving clans. Don’t be fooled by the Rachtal’s breach of protocol at the convocation”
“You mean the act of kindness that saved my daughter from dying of hyperthermia”

The Clan Chief of the Manjura backed down, he could see I was still angry at him for what he had forced Sarah to endure, in the name of some arcane and needless ritual.

I sat down at the table, and then I remembered something I had heard when I had investigated the world of narcotics a few years back. “Clan Chief, tell me more about the Yataxal and how they fought”
“With extra bravery and confidence, when other trolls would weary they would press on and attack the orcs ferociously.”
“Are their reports that the Yataxal clan engaged in a smoking ritual prior to battle”
“You mean like the hobbits, it was known, but other troll clans would smoke the leaf of a plant to celebrate a victory in battle or to celebrate they had survived”
“I said prior to, not after”

The Clan Chief of the Manjura thought for a moment then replied, “Yes we all thought it was odd, but then they were an odd but loyal clan. Sometimes their blood lust would be so great, they might turn on other troll clans who were in the way, these things can happen, so we let them alone most of the time as they were fighting the orcs most fiercely”
“Clan chief, smoking this stuff” I picked up a piece of the drug to show him, “is one way addicts take this, they believe it gives them confidence and keeps them going. I believe the Yataxal troops were being administered this drug”
“But why my Liege”
“During what we refer to as World War two, pilots who flew fighter aircraft were given a drug called amphetamines or speed, which is also illegal and addictive. They were given these drugs to keep them going for long periods of time, they have also been used in subsequent small wars. Cocaine and this derivative, Crack Cocaine have similar properties and I believe the Yataxal clan were taking it to give their warriors the reputation for fierce fighting. But this drug has similar and side effects to the amphetamines that were given to our pilots during our wars”
“Side effects?”
“Heart failure, dependence, paranoia to name but a few”

“The Clan Chief of the Manjura reflected for a moment, then with shocked realisation, “There were some Yataxal trolls who fell for no apparent reason, we thought it was because of the Drow or some foul poison used by the orcs”

A realisation hit me as well, “Clan Chief, where are the Yataxal clan now. Have they left or are they still like the Rachtal, in the citadel”
“I believe they left after the convocation, the deputy of the clan was eager to get away he did not say why, surely you do not fear an attack from the Yataxal? They were one of the most loyal clans in the war”
“Clan Chief, they are most likely addicted to this drug, and addicts can do extreme things just to get more of this drug to use. Now Clan Chief, if I had been assassinated what would have happened”
The Manjura troll thought for a moment, then gazed out the window as the dusk was falling, “There would have been bitter accusations, we would have accused those who fought with the orcs, some of them were hard to persuade to stop supporting their orc allies for the truce”
“Resumption of hostilities?”
“Possibly my liege, are you saying that a loyal clan in implicated in a plot to reignite the civil war, just to get this stuff here” the troll replied pointing to the plate of crack on the table”
“That is exactly what I am saying, I have seen this in my world where this drug has been brought from, addicts will kill senior citizens to steal what meagre amounts of money they have just to fund their addiction to this poison. And a clan of trolls, addicted to crack cocaine must be seen as a threat”

Angela walked in the room, she had been listening at the door after getting Sarah off to sleep. Sarah may be missing her evening meal, but at least she was warm in bed with Germal to protect her.

“Graeme, if the trolls are getting there crack from Earth, what are they paying for it with” Angela asked
“I have no idea, but it must have something to do with keeping the conflict going, that would be the only thing that would make sense”
“What about Sarah’s farther, he was just an architect, the others on the plane were just maintenance contractors”
“I don’t know Angela, but it must be connected”
“So My Liege, it comes back to the other crime being committed” The troll interrupted
“Which one is that?” Angela asked
“The number one crime, for which your husband was once charged with seven cycles ago, conspiracy to interfere in the affairs of mortals”

I thought for a moment, and then got down the knife, still wrapped in the handkerchief, and lay it on the table. I then got some ash from the fire, and just hoped it would work, all I needed was a light brush or at least something that would do the job. If Angela had long hair I probably would have considered some of that, if I did not know where Angela would tell me to get off. I would have to try with the brush used to weep the fire place. I dropped the ash onto the handle of the knife, and a gently as I could with the fireplace brush, I removed the surplus ash. And there I saw them, finger prints on the knife.

“Clan chief” I started
“Yes my Liege”
I then pointed to the fingerprints on the knife highlighted in the ash, “These look like human fingerprints to me”
“Fingerprints?”
“Clan Chief” Angela started to explain “When ever we humans touches anything, we leave sweat impressions from our fingers” she continued showing the front of her hand.
“Could these not be fingerprints of a drow, a dark elf” The Manjura troll chief objected
“Clan Chief” I asked, “Do Drow use knifes as weapons, do they not use crossbows, short swords or magic”
The troll shook his head
“Clan Chief, I don’t think it is a case of entities interfering in the affairs of mortals, I think it is the other way around. Someone from Earth has been interfering in the affairs of the Mystical Realms”
“WHAT? Who” The Clan Chief of the Manjura spluttered

Another thought occurred to me, “Angela, if we were to wake Sarah, which I won’t and ask her, before the monster killed her first daddy and abducted her, which country do you think she would say, assuming her father told her and she could remember”

Angela thought for a moment, glanced back at Sarah’s room, went to the table and picked the knife carefully up by the blade, then put it down and turned to me and the Troll, “It would have to be Colombia, on the grounds that it is one of the biggest exporters of cocaine”

A Colombian Drug cartel, here in the Mystical Realms – Yikes!!

Then Angela had another realisation and went back to the knife, “The Yataxal clan chief, he was killed here with this, not on Earth Graeme, here” Then she added “Graeme, I don’t feel safe here”

“We can double the guard” The Clan Chief of the Manjura suggested.
“Until the Rachtal come on stream, I don’t feel safe here either, is there anywhere else we can stay”
“If you insist, only the billet for the Manjura, where we keep the orbs and the detection mirrors. We and the Delethon, well I suppose the Rachtal are the only ones with a permanent presence here at Karam Tag-Chou”
“Angela” I ordered her, “Get Sarah up, we are not staying here any second longer”
At this Angela went into Sarah’s bedroom and I went into ours to pack what clothes I could, whilst the troll stayed in the main room. I could hear Sarah grizzling at being woken up, but it could not be helped, the royal apartment was no longer safe, especially after at least one assassination attempt. I could not even be sure that the protection spell cast the first night we were here would still be working.

We wrapped up as best we could and the troll carried Sarah, still in her night clothes, Angela was carrying a bag of Sarah’s clothes, whilst Germal had her sword ready. We left the apartment into the night air.
“Are you all of to the banqueting hall” asked one of the sentries
“We have uncovered another assassination plot” the Clan Chief told them, “the royal family are moving to another location to be known only to myself”
“Do you know who these vile cowards are?”
“Other humans in league with members of the Yataxal clan” I told the sentry
“We fear this may be the case, I have seen the evidence for myself” Added the troll clan chief.

Then we started are march down the citadel to the Manjura quarters, there was a cool gentle breeze, but at least this time we were all wrapped up against the cold. As we reached the courtyard outside the mess hall of the Manjura, we noticed a body slumped against the wall. Germal ran up to see who it was, as did I. The Clan Chief of the Manjura turned to make sure Sarah could not see it.

Angela held on to the Troll Clan chief in horror.

I reached the body, just after Germal, to my horror the body was that of Merah, the other troll female bodyguard.
“She is dead, my Liege” Germal uttered, “But I have never seen wounds such as these”
I looked at Merah’s lifeless body, in ghastly recognition of what had killed her, “They’re gun shot wounds” I told Germal
“Gun shot wounds?” Germal queried
I ran back to Angela and the Troll Clan Chief, “It’s Merah, she’s been killed by an Earth weapon”
Before I could say anymore, there was a burst of automatic gunfire, I turned and looked as Germal dropped down, dead. The door mess hall opened and out walked the Deputy of the Yataxal, carrying a loaded troll crossbow
“What is the meaning of this treachery” The Clan Chief of the Manjura demanded

Then out stepped four men men not elves or drow but men they looked like they were of South American origin, all carrying Kalashnikovs and wearing bullet belts.
“I believe you should be addressing me” said one of the men in English with a Spanish accent, “and not my business partner. We are here to protect our business arrangements, and sadly, your majesties, that means your permanent abdication”
With that all the men pointed their guns at, me, the troll clan chief Sarah and Angela.

To be conclude

Episode VI – Treachery and Dissolutions

It looks like the attempt at uniting the trolls to end a civil war has failed here at Karam Tag-Chou, the ancient citadel of troll emperors

My family and myself plus the Clan Chief of the Manjura have been betrayed by the Deputy of the Yataxal clan to four members of an armed Colombian drug gang from Earth, who want us dead to prolong the war. They have already shot and killed Germal one the female troll bodyguards assigned to guard Sarah the orphaned five year old human girl, over the body of the other one Merah.

So is this how it ends?

Sarah caught sight of the Kalashnikovs pointed at us, she knew what they were and she screamed in terror
“Shut the brat up or I will” barked what appeared to be the leader of the armed men, he meant business, so the Clan Chief of the Manjura who was holding Sarah gently put his hand over her mouth, taking care not to cover her nose so she could breath.
“Please be quite Sarah or the men here will kill us” I heard Angela whisper to her.
Sarah was terrified and stopped her screaming but started to cry instead.
We had nothing more to loose so I asked the lead man “Who are you and how did you get here”
“I am Andre” he replied, then pointing at another gunman who looked similar “This is my baby brother Carlos and my other two associates, well they are my associates. This troll you know”
“So are you going to kill us here in the middle of the courtyard?”
Andre gave an evil grin, “Are you familiar with the Russian revolution?”
“You plan to shoot us in the cellar of our apartment” I ventured
“Yes” replied Carlos, “We will riddle your bodies just like the Romanovs”
“But not with bullets but with these I hope” came a familiar but chilling voice, It was the Clan Chief of the Delthon coming out of the Manjura hall carrying four crossbows and a number of crossbow bolts.

“So that’s how the snake got in our bed” I said angrily
“Indeed, who would have suspected a Clan Chief checking on the safety of the royal apartments?”

The Clan Chief of the Manjura passed the terrified Sarah to Angela, who held her tightly then seething with rage at his former ally asked him “WHY, I was your friend you traitor”
The Clan Chief of the Delethon walked up to the Manjura Troll, “You did not nominate me for emperor, what kind of friend does that, you did not even consider me, you just nominated this weak and pathetic human. We ran Karam Tag-Chou, this was a role that was rightfully mine”
“You know why we could not select a troll clan chief for emperor we could not agree amongst ourselves a candidate without causing a split in the reformed confederation” The Manjura clan chief replied
Then the Delethon troll showed him one of the bolts that was to be used for our execution, the Manjura troll immediately recognised them, “So the Rachtal are in on this treason as well, I thought as much”
The Delethon troll laughed, “Well that is what I hope everyone will think”, then he turned to me, “I really have you to thank you pathetic human, by giving me an excuse to go into his billet in the citadel I had the perfect opportunity to get hold of these with out him being any the wiser!

“So Andre” I asked the gang leader, “who is running the show you or the trolls”

Andre gave another evil grin and walked up behind the Delethon troll. Suddenly he pulled a large knife from his belt and plunged it into the Clan Chief of the Delethon’s back and twisted it. The Troll yelped in pain, a cry that none of us should have heard especially Sarah. I could smell that our daughter had wet herself in fright. The Delethon Troll sank to his knees groaning and then Andre quickly pulled out his knife and kicked the troll to the floor where he died in front of our eyes. “I am” he replied

The Clan Chief of the Manjura was stunned into silence, his long term political ally had betrayed him and had in turn been murdered by these intruders to his world.



“I always thought he was vain” Grinned the Deputy of the Yataxal, “What is one more death of a loyal troll clan chief at the hands of an orc lover”

Andre slung his Kalashnikov on his back and picked up the crossbows and the crossbow bolts and passed them to the Yataxal Deputy, “Now move” he shouted us as Carlos and the other two men waved their guns in our faces.

Slowly we turned around on the long journey back to the royal apartment and out deaths. Trolls had no weapon that could go up against an automatic weapon from our world. Even if I or Angela could jump one, there were three other armed men and a troll skilled in the crossbow to take their place.

We had just walked back a hundred yards when

BANG BAN BANG BANG BANG BANG

A burst of automatic gunfire behind us from one of the two nameless gang members.
“What are you doing Juan” Andre shouted angrily
“I thought I saw another troll following us” answered the man who fired the weapon behind us
“I killed that Delethon Troll Chief” Andre replied
“It was not that troll boss, this one was wearing red”

Wearing red!! – That had to be the Troll chamberlain

I turned around and Andre and the Juan we looking back towards the Manjura mess hall, I could see no other bodies save for the three trolls we had seen killed already.

“That old fool may be hiding” smirked the Yataxal troll, “Shall I go and snap his puny little neck”
“No” replied Andre, “We need you to be the loyal troll to discover the treachery of that troll clan the Delethon troll mentioned” then Andre instructed Juan to go and make sure there were no witnesses with that Juan ran off into the night.

We were then instructed to continue the slow walk up to the apartment, as we were only five minutes away, I asked Andre “So why did you have this child’s father killed and that plane destroyed, you owe her that much at least”
It was Carlos who answered “It was a stupid Gnoll we hired”

A Gnoll! – one of the other major races here, in the war they had stayed neutral fiercely protecting their lands from Trolls and orcs alike


Carlos continued, “one of our couriers wanted to go into business for himself and took our shipment of candy-cane by the time we found out he had taken off in his plane bound for Mexico, so we told the Gnoll to land on the plane grab our treasure and kill everyone else”
Then Andre continued the story, “When the gnoll contacted us to say he had done the job, we had already heard that the Federallies in Mexico had arrested him on landing, so we told him he must have landed on another plane that may have been in the area and whatever treasure he thought he had, was not ours and we were not interested and we were not going to pay him”
Then Carlos added, “Never send a Gnoll to do a man’s job, we lost our stash which was worth three million on the streets of Miami, we had to spend twenty grand to arrange a conventional hit in Mexico while he was in jail”
“So” I replied, “This child and the people that were killed on that plane were just collateral damage”
“Si Senior”, Andre replied “The Gnoll must have considered a blonde blue eyed child quite a treasure”
“It’s a pity Andre we dismissed him so soon” Carlos told his brother wistfully, “I know plenty of men who would have paid a pretty price for her”

“DON’T YOU TOUCH HER” Angela screamed, holding tighter onto Sarah, who was sobbing her little heart out with fear.
Carlos went up to her and with out thinking punched her hard in the side of her head with his fist, so Angela was sent flying to the ground with Sarah. Angela landed on her back and instantly released Sarah in shock Sarah rolled on the floor. Fearing that they might shoot Sarah in the back if she ran off, I had to quickly run and grab hold of her and pick her up.
“NO WOMAN SPEAKS TO ME LIKE THAT” Carlos yelled at Angela, and then went to giver her a good kicking when Andre intervened.
“CARLOS Leave her” Andre shouted, “You will have you chance later”
The Clan Chief of the Manjura helped Angela to her feet, already her eye was starting to swell and her nose was streaming with blood, “These men have no honour, striking a defenceless female who is holding a child like that” he growled.

“Now Move” barked Andre

I held on to Sarah, as Angela held on to my arm as we continued to walk back into the courtyard outside the royal apartment. The Delethon sentries were still on duty, one of them turned to look at us, a burst of automatic gunfire and both were dead. I did not see who fired.

We walked into the courtyard approaching the place all four of us would be ending our lives, either shot to death by gunfire or by Rachtal Crossbow bolts fired from Delethon crossbows.

The Clan Chief of the Yataxal was gloating at how they would soon be able to resume slaughtering orcs, even non combatants, and then they would cut out their livers to trade for the magic rocks.

“What do they want with orc livers” The Clan Chief of the Manjura asked angrily, “Mutilating the slain is against the warrior’s code”

Carlos poked the Manjura troll in the back with his gun, “Ground orcs liver is a wonderful euphoria drug, it retails at thirty percent more than candy cane”
“And” Andre added, “It is undetectable by the Dee EE AY and US Customs”

So that was what this was about, the Colombians supplied the trolls with Crack cocaine, so they could get high, making them fight more aggressively against orcs who they would then mutilate and pass the orc livers to the Colombians to pay for the crack, no wonder they did not want the war to end, peace would be bad for both sides in this despicable deal, and Sarah and her father and all those contractors on the plane were just innocent victims caught in the cross fire

We were just about to reach the door, the Yataxal troll walked ahead of us and kicked the dead sentries aside and opened the door.

AWK AWK AWK CRUNCH

Andre and Carlos looked around, some kind of beast had come out of the sky and had landed on the other hired gunman.

I recognised the beast, it was Gwildore the Pseudo-Dragon



Instantly, Carlos emptied a clip into the beast. The Pseudo-Dragon had no chance, and then Carlos went over to kick the dead animal off of his associate. The man did not move, Carlos bent down to examine him, and then said something to his brother in Spanish.
“The Pseudo-Dragon broke his neck” Angela whispered, I forgot she could speak a little Spanish.

“DROP YOUR WEAPONS” A voice boomed across the courtyard, it sounded like the Clan Chief of the Rachtal, but we could not see where he was.

Carlos fired a burst of automatic gunfire behind us at where we had come from, hoping to wipe out more trolls

“PERHAPS YOU NEED A LITTLE PERSUASION” boomed the voice again, this time from somewhere else.

Suddenly a round object landed at Andre’s feet, Andre getting hold of his gun, poked at it. Through the fading light, I could see it was a human head, Juan the other gunman, so instantly I held Sarah’s head to my chest and hoped to God she had not seen this horror as well.
“Get inside” Andre yelled at us as Carlos continued spraying the surrounding area with covering fire. As they still had the guns we had to comply.

As we got inside I put Sarah down on the ground
“Sir” Angela asked Andre, “Can I at least clean and change our little girl in to clean clothes before you kill us”
“Go and no tricks” he replied and Angela lead Sarah away by the hand to pick up fresh clothes from Sarah’s room and then into the bathing room, all the time Andre trained his Kalashnikov on her.

The Yataxal deputy was at the table, he had been loading the crossbow bolts with which we were to be shot with, the bolts being the ones stolen from the Rachtal to frame them.
“So you treacherous troll” The Clan Chief of the Manjura asked him which one of my clan gave you the dimension jump orb
“No one” replied the Yataxal troll, “My business partner found it with some humans he had dispatched to make way for their crop we use. They tried it out and thus we met.

Then I recalled what the Manjura had told me about how one of two trolls in antiquity had returned dead to the Mystical Realms killed by some dart object, “So you stole the device off of an indigenous people that you murdered to make way for your coca leaves” I accused Andre
“The man offered it to me if I would spare his and his family lives, I took it from him after I blew their brains out, it had been an heirloom for generations after a shaman stole it from a monster they say once attacked them”

So that is what happened to Astley and Fagal, the trolls from long ago, the original disturbance they detected could have been when the Shaman was exercising some ritual

Carlos came in and shut the door and threw his Kalashnikov to the ground and took out a nine millimetre automatic pistol and waved it at us

“Yataxal Deputy” I asked, “you had your own Clan Chief murdered I suppose”
“The old fool found out about our deal and was going to expose us, so we had him dispatched by the unfortunate human that the stupid pseudo-dragon landed on.

Outside we could hear the pounding of troll feet, someone had called out the guard, but I suspected it would be too late. The Yataxal troll went into Sarah’s room, where Angela had been changing Sarah, I noticed Angela had put the amulet of protection around Sarah’s neck, for all the good it would do.

[img=100x100]http://rising-dragon.co.uk/catalog/images/white%20crystal%20pheonix%20amulet.jpg[/img]

The Yataxal troll had not noticed and moved Sarah’s cot to gain access to the cellar. He lifted the trap door and went down into the cellar, carrying the crossbows for our execution. Suddenly we heard a screamed of pain and a thud. Sarah let out a large scream as she saw something down in the cellar, I could not see what.

The Manjura troll went to go into Sarah’s room but Carlos pointed his gun at him, “Sit down troll” he ordered him.
The Manjura troll obeyed, he had seen these weapons before and knew how deadly they were.
“You two, come out here” ordered Andre, and Angela lead Sarah, now bawling her eyes out into the main room and stood near the far wall.
Andre held his gun in his right hand while he fished from his pocket what looked like a dimension jump orb and handed it to Carlos and told him something in Spanish and went to investigate, suddenly he fired a burst of gunfire down into the cellar and came into the main room saying something in Spanish again.

In light of the room, Carlos looked at Angela and Sarah, then pointed at Sarah, and then said something else in Spanish to Andre
Andre seemed to look disgusted but said nothing
“DON’T YOU TOUCH HER YOU PERVERT” Screamed Angela, Carlos had obviously said something about Sarah that was unspeakable and even with her limited grasp of Spanish, Angela had understood what he said.

BANG BANG

Angela sank to the ground as she was shot in the abdomen with the handgun. “MUMMY” Sarah screamed

“No Woman speaks to me like that” he yelled, still pointing the gun at her as she lay dying on the floor while Sarah held onto her in shock.

I instantly saw red, and instinctively reached for the bowie knife we had found that morning and with all my might threw it into Carlos. To my surprise the blade hit home in his back, and I looked on stunned as Carlos sank to the floor. I had once killed a drow when I had once been transported to the virtual world of the World of Warcraft by firing a lightning bolt at it and had collapsed the entire world leaving the Spirit of Lust trapped in it, but none of that compared to the shock of killing another human being. I could not believe I had just taken another man’s life, no matter how justified it may have been. It was sickening.

Andre looked at the dead body of his brother then looked at me with hate in his eyes, “You have killed my brother, you have taken from me one that I loved, so now I do the same to you before you die” and before I could get round to protect her with my body, Andre pointed the automatic weapon at Sarah and fired a full burst of automatic gunfire at her

BANG
BANG
BANG
BANG
BANG
BANG
BANG
BANG

It was over

I closed my eyes; I could not stand to see Sarah, finally riddled with bullets because I had killed this man’s brother.

It was all my fault she was dead

I could not tell how long I stood there with my eyes closed as time seemed to expand into an eternity, then suddenly the isolated bubble to which I had retreated, waiting for Andre to finish me off with another burst from his machine gun, was shattered by the words, “Daddy, Mummy’s dead”

Sarah? – There was no way he could miss her with that kind of weapon at such a close range

“Daddy” came Sarah’s voice, this time pleading

I opened my eyes

Sarah was alive, I looked round at Andre, he was on his knees, with a shocked expression on his face and his body riddled with bullets, then he fell forward, dead.

The amulet of protection, had turned all the rounds fired at Sarah, back at Andre. Andre had effectively shot himself to death with his own Kalashnikov. Sarah was now screaming “Mummy’s dead” over and over again

“What, Angela NO”

Before I could get to Angela, the coffee shop manager, the one person on Earth I had only ever been able to confide in about my experience in the Mystical Realms, the clan chief of the Manjura had got to her side. He had grabbed the bottle of healing potion that the Rachtal lieutenant had brought earlier, opened it.



And pressed it to Angela’s lips. Angela was just conscious and was slowly sipping the potion. I rushed over and grabbed hold of Sarah and held her in my right arm and lifted up the green top that the Rachtal clan chief had given Angela that morning with my left hand to see the entrance wound magically heal up as Angela drank more of the healing potion. Angela’s face was also healing up her as well, where Carlos had punched her, and she was slowly getting stronger. Suddenly there was a yellow aura surrounding her for about five seconds, something I had never seen before, the two times I had seen this potion work, maybe it was because it had come from the clan of the Rachtal.

“Mummy’s going to be all right now Sarah” I told my frightened and crying adopted daughter, then kissed Sarah on the top of her head, “The troll medicine has made her better”
Sarah did not say anything but was still crying her eyes out and she wanted to go and hug Angela so I let her.

The Clan Chief of the Manjura stood up to go and look at the bodies of the two men lying on the floor.

Angela’s eyes flicked open and she looked at me and Sarah. “Is it time to go down to the cellar now” she asked, oblivious to the fact that the remaining Colombian drug gang members were lying dead on the floor.

Suddenly, in the main room was another troll with the tunic denoting his membership of the clan of the Yataxal, he had come from the cellar entrance in Sarah’s room.
“Oh no, it’s time” Angela whimpered, “It was nice knowing you all”
Sarah looked up at the Yataxal troll as well “Are we going to die now mummy” she asked in terror.

The Yataxal troll moved to the table while the Manjura clan chief eyed him suspiciously, reaching for the knife still embedded in the body of Carlos. Then suddenly the Yataxal troll dumped a large object on the table.
Sarah let out a large scream, and then Angela grabbed her and held her tightly so she could no longer see the object on the table, and tried to comfort Sarah.

I walked up to it; it was the severed head of the Deputy of the Yataxal
“I have avenged my father’s death” exclaimed the Yataxal troll he was obviously the son of the murdered Clan Chief of the Yataxal. The Yataxal troll then sat down at the table and looked up at the Manjura troll, “As heir to the Clan of Yataxal, I offer you my surrender, I wish there to be no more dishonour from my clan”

Suddenly the front door burst open, it was a Rachtal troll captain followed by other Rachtal trolls. “Are your majesties all right?” the captain asked, then looked at the Yataxal troll sitting at the table with the Deputy of the Yataxal clan’s head in front of him, “So you have saved me the bother of executing this traitor”
“I wish to offer my surrender and my apologies for the shame that has been brought on our clan” With that the Yataxal troll got up, holding his hands aloft and walked outside, escorted by two Rachtal Trolls.
The captain spoke to the Manjura troll telling how his men would help remove the bodies and clean the place up. I interrupted and told him that we needed to search the bodies of the humans for identification evidence, as I had two friends in law enforcement back on Earth and that they would need it to deal with those involved in the conspiracy that were still on Earth. The Rachtal troll agreed and I got to do the grizzly task of searching them for what I could find.

Just then the Clan Chief of the Rachtal appeared at the front door, alongside the Troll Chamberlain.



“I am glad you are all safe and well” The Ractal troll chief told us and then added “believe the Troll chamberlain has something to tell you, your majesties”
The Troll chamberlain coughed then said, “I was coming up to query your decision to turn Karam Tag-Chou to the Rachtal clan, when I saw the slaying of Germal, so I had to use magic to get away and lure the human who came after me where this clan chief dispatched him with one cut of his sword”
“Not That Chamberlain” The Rachtal troll chief replied sternly, “The other matter”
“Oh yes that, I am afraid a lowly clerk now no longer in my employ felt that the hobgoblin’s infraction had caused me to loose face, as it was my job to organise your coronation banquet. I am afraid he acted with out authority and forged my signature on the execution warrant”

So the hobgoblin had not been murdered by the conspirators, and the sudden execution must of panicked the troglodyte to confront the Gnoll who had been working for the Colombian drug gang, who then killed him

“And now your majesties” Boomed the Clan Chief of the Rachtal, “It is clear that while the apartment is cleaned up, let us offer you the hospitality of the Rachtal for the night”

The Clan Chief of the Manjura turned to us, “You better go with him, if need be I will carry the princess”

Then we gathered new clothes for the following day and went down to stay in the private apartment of the Rachtal Clan Chief while he bunked with his men. When we got there, there was an elven physician, specially brought in by the Troll chamberlain, so I in full agreement with Angela got him to magically remove the memories from Sarah of being shot at with the automatic weapon and the severed head being dumped on the table in front of her. Sarah was our daughter here, and these were horrors no child should live with. The physician also offered a sedative, but Angela refused choosing instead to sit with Sarah on a large couch holding her and reassuring her everything was ok, until Sarah fell asleep in her arms, and I gently put her to bed, so Angela and I could retire.

The following morning after we had had breakfast, a subdued affair, we returned to the royal apartment which had been cleaned up.

The Clan Chief of the Manjura was waiting along with the Clan Chief of the Rachtal. The Manjura clan chief informed us that he had arranged for the information we had got off the Colombians to be sent to the FBI man I had met the previous year when we worked together to rescue the then Spirit of Fidelity. The FBI man had told him the information would be a help in the joint US and Colombian war on the drug cartels. We later to hear that the group that had been dealing with the Yataxal clan had been killed in a shootout.

We were given special Rachtal garments, which were incredibly warm so we could leave the confines of the citadel for a small valley in the mountains.



Here we observed the funeral pyre ceremony for Merah and Germal and the troll sentries.

They were given the full honours attributed to warriors slain in battle, I was not told how they disposed of the bodies of the drug gang members and the two treacherous trolls.

Sarah tried to be very brave, as she stood there watching the fire, standing between Angela and I as we held her hands, but still I could hear her sobbing quietly. But his was a funeral, it was allowed.

Also in attendance were the personal guards and Clan Chiefs of the Manjura clan, the Rachtal and the Najav. The rest of the Delethon clan had disowned their dead clan chief and so only the deputy attended as Merah and the sentries were from Delethon

As we returned to the royal apartment after the funeral the Manjura clan chief revealed to us that the Yataxal clan had withdrawn from the troll confederation in shame for what their deputy had done and for how they had been duped into aiding a criminal gang on Earth. They were to retire to their troll homelands so the remaining warriors could somehow come off of the addiction to the crack cocaine they had used to assist them in the civil war. The clan had promised that they would not fight against any other troll clan and would only fight if they were attacked.

The Manjura chief also revealed that the Delethon clan had also left, and likewise would be spending a period of time outside the confederation in atonement for the treachery of their dead leader.

Trolls took honour very seriously

We were also told that even after pleas from the Clan Chief of the Rachtal, the former allies of the orcs, the Clavial also withdrew in disgust at the Yataxal clan and how a Delethon leader had sought to murder the royal family and blame it on a clan that had fought on the wrong side. The Clan Chief of the Rachtal, did manage to get them not to assist the orcs further and not to fight trolls of other clans and so the Clavial elected to return to their lands and only attend to their business.

The Troll confederation had been broken, and it looked like the orcs would be able to resume hostilities safe in the knowledge that the trolls had lost three clans, even if the Rachtal had switched sides.

That evening however, a delegation of Gnolls arrived and requested an audience with me alone, alongside the Clan Chief of the Rachtal and the Manjura. When they arrived they informed us that the Gnoll who had killed Sarah’s father and the others on the plane, and dragged Sarah back to the Mystical Realms had been caught and executed by the Gnolls. They too felt shame that one of their own had caused this human child so much misery and pain. They had wanted to apologise to her in person, but their leader believed that the trauma of seeing another gnoll would be too much for her and did not wish her any further distress. I could tell they were absolutely gutted at what one of their kind had done.

The Gnolls leader pledged that, as one of their kind had lead to the dissolution of the troll alliance they would assist the remaining trolls in forcing the orcs to disarm and to allow the fairer races to return. It was not how they had envisaged the ending of the civil war, but the following day, word reached Karam Tag-Chou of the orcs unconditional surrender, bringing the civil war, started in a power grab by the Spirit of Lust, to an end.

Meanwhile, Angela and I continued to bond with our adopted daughter, trying to keep her mind off of the awful things that had transpired.

In the afternoon of the day that the orcs surrendered, just four days after my coronation, the Manjura and the Rachtal clan chiefs came to visit us. We were informed that the post of emperor of the trolls could only exist if the confederation of troll clans was complete, and as three clans had withdrawn, my term as emperor of the trolls was at an end after only four days. The Rachtal troll told us we were welcome to stay on at Karam Tag-Chou and we would be still treated as if we were royalty, but Angela objected saying that Sarah had seen too many horrors here. Our remaining here in the Mystical Realms served no purpose and Sarah needed to grow up amongst her own kind, humans and she asked if we could be returned to Earth.

The Clan Chief of the Manjura and the Rachtal conferred. It was odd watching these two once Clan enemies now having to work together, but as the Clan Chief of the Manjura had found, sometimes so called clan allies could turn and stab you in the back, at least with the Clan of the Rachtal, what you saw was what you got. I remembered back to how the Rachtal clan leader had saved Sarah from exposure brought on by slavish obedience to a stupid troll custom, this troll was a moderniser something the trolls and the rest of the Mystical Realms needed in the aftermath of the war.

The two clan leaders asked, if we went, what would happen if and when the confederation of trolls was reformed, how could they pick a leader, so I suggested that with the clans they had at the moment, they could have a rotating leadership, where each cycle of their world a different clan leader would be in charge, and then proceeded to tell them about how on Earth the presidency of the European Union rotated. They asked me who should be the first leader, and so I suggested the Clan Chief of the Rachtal, as he needed to be the one to drive through the reforms their world needed. The Clan chief of the Manjura nodded and he agreed, that under the new arrangements it should be a clan that was seen to be on the wrong side in the war.

So that evening, just around sundown, the Clan Chief of the Manjura brought us a dimension jump orb. Angela and I dressed in the clothes we had when we left Earth. Sarah was dressed in the clothes she was wearing when she was abducted. Sadly she could not take the hobbit clothes and we could not take the clothes that had been made for us in this universe. We then were instructed to all hold onto the orb, while it was triggered, this was so they orb would stay in the Mystical Realms, and unlike normal operations it would not travel with us. It would be a one way trip back, but neither Angela nor I wanted to return here again, there were too many unpleasant memories.



Suddenly the three of us were back in the pub, at the table where we had sat when Clan Chief of the Manjura had taken us from our world.

“Excuse me, I’m sorry” came the voice from a male member of the bar staff, “Children are not permitted in here after Three o’clock”
“Sorry I did not know” I replied
“Oh it’s you, you left this behind” At that the barman produced my overnight bag and laptop, they had been here all the time.

I took them and the three of us left the pub, Sarah between Angela and I as we both held her hands.
“Where are we” Sarah asked as we stood outside in the street.
“Sarah my princess, welcome to England”
“So now what?” Angela asked
“I dunno, I suppose it is back to my place to get my car and then I will run you and Sarah back to, your place”
“And you are going to stay with us aren’t you” Angela replied
“Of course dear, if that is what you want”
“Yes it is, I so very much want it”

Now we were back on Earth, but that would not be the end of our adventures as, the biggest one now would be to keep our little family together without the aid of the trolls

Epilogue – Family Matters

We were back on Earth, and in northern England. Angela and I had been returned after my brief reign as emperor of the trolls, but now we had Sarah in tow, a little orphan girl that in such a short time had won a place in both our hearts, and a little girl we wanted to keep and give a new home to

I looked back the pub we had just been returned to, had Angela and I not been transported to the Mystical Realms I was to be the designated driver and I would have then taken her back to my place to collect my car and drive her back to house that for several years she shared with her aunt until her aunt died of cancer. So the three of us were walking back to my flat.

Being early February it was still pretty cold, now with signs of frost on the ground. Although we had warm clothes made for us in the Mystical Realms, we were told that they would not survive the passage into our world. They did not explain why. At least Angela and I had our coats which we had worn when we first went to the pub, but I was very conscious about Sarah, as was Angela. Sarah had been flying from a hot country to her home in New Zealand during it’s summer when the Gnoll had removed her from the plane she had been on with her father, so Sarah was not really dressed for this weather, so we had to pick up the pace, even so it took ten minutes to reach my flat and another two to open the door against the mountain of junk mail that had accrued in just under the week we had been away. By now Sarah was really suffering and crying telling us how cold she was, but even back on the Mystical Realms she had felt the cold quite a lot, even without the trolls and their bizarre ancient customs.

As Murphy’s law would have it, my flat was a like an icebox, it did not have central heating and I had switched off the storage heaters and the water heater as, I had expected I would be away from this place for a while. It really was no place for Sarah, so I got Angela to sit her on one of the wooden chairs in my kitchen come living room and passed her an old bath towel wrap around her, while I looked up some old jumpers that Sarah could wear. I did suggest giving her my own topcoat, but Angela pointed out it was not really suitable

“Do you live here mummy” I heard Sarah ask Angela.
“No this is where Graeme lives” she replied, forgetting for the moment that we were supposed to be married

Or were we now? – We were married on the Mystical Realms under troll law, but we were now on Earth and trolls did not go in for marriage certificates or come to think of it adoption certificates. Then I also realised, Sarah was not even a British citizen either, she was from New Zealand and she did not even have a passport let alone a visa.

After a while hunting around all I could find was an old cardigan, but it was quite thin and threadbare, then I remembered I had cleared a whole load of stuff out the previous month and silently cursed that I was making Sarah suffer in the cold again, just like I had done by asking to see all the troll clan chiefs at once, so I found one of my t-shirts, and hoped that would be enough.

I took it through to the living room where Angela was waiting with Sarah on her lap trying to wrap her top coat around herself and Sarah. Sarah was being very quiet, and I had seen that quiet before and it usually meant Sarah was worried or confused about something.
“Sorry Angela” I apologised “I don’t have anything warm for Sarah to put on”
“Oh Great, oh well I’ve been trying to keep her warm” Angela replied, “Now you have you got your stuff, I don’t want to freeze in this icebox any more than I have to. How do you survive here?”

Oops – I was meant to be grabbing stuff to take back to Angela’s place, she had got so used to being married to me on the Mystical Realms she had wanted me to stay at her place, I did wonder where I would be sleeping, as having seen her place, her aunt’s bed was a single one and so was Angela’s bed, but Angela told me that at a pinch, her couch folded out into a double bed, which she used when she had got relief care in for her aunt.

I packed a suitcase of clothes and other items, and took it into the main room. Angela told me that before she had found Sarah shivering away trying to keep warm in the towel, she had looked at my fridge and ditched out of date food. I thanked her for doing that job as it was not one I relished doing and apologised to Sarah.

When we got in the car, Angela sat in the back with Sarah and put her in the lap belt, she then told me we really had to get a child seat, since we passed near a place on the way back that was still open, I said we could swing by, which we duly did. And while Angela and Sarah sheltered in the warmth of the store, the staff fitted the child car seat in. Then Angela was a lot happier with Sarah riding in the car, so she got us to divert to a local mini-mart to pick up fresh food, as she knew she would have to empty her fridge out of out of date items as well, although she pointed out she did not have that many items anyway.

It was early evening before we arrived at Angela’s place, and as she had not expected to be away so long, her central heating was on full blast which was good for Sarah, as she was in a terrible state. Angela seated her on the couch and grabbed a blanket to put around her and sat there cuddling her while I cleared Angela’s fridge of out of date items and put the shopping away
Sarah remained silent, it was worrying
“Shall I make some hot chocolate” I asked, trying to be helpful
Then Sarah twigged something was not right, “Why does Daddy not live with you mummy”

It was time for the truth of our situation back on Earth

“Sarah, would you like to sit up at the dining room table” I asked her, “There is something we need to talk about”

Sarah tried to get up to comply with my suggestion, but Angela held her tight Even though effectively we had been “married” for four days in the Mystical Realms, plus come to think of it, all the years prior we had known each other, Angela could read me like a book, “No Graeme, I think it would be better if we discussed it here”
Angela was right, as always, “Sorry Sarah you can stay where you are” I told Sarah and sat down, so Sarah was between me and Angela, and put my arm around Sarah as well.
“Sarah” I started
“Yes daddy”
“You know what first Daddy said about obeying the law” I continued.
Sarah nodded
“Well sometimes the law will say something in one place, such as where we were with the trolls and in another place it will say something different”
A long drawn out “Yes” from Sarah with worry in her tone
Angela was second guessing me on my approach, so she continued “When Graeme and I got married it was in the Mystical Realms under the troll’s law, so it was recognised there”
“But under human laws we are not classed as being married” I completed.
“So here, mummy you are not married to daddy” Sarah replied, cottoning on, then her face started to crumple as somehow her five year old mind had unexpectedly leapt ahead of us, “So you are not my mummy and daddy anymore?” Sarah was now really starting to panic “Do you not want me any more, do I have to go away” and then Sarah burst into tears, thinking we wanted rid of her.
“Of course we want you Sarah” Angela interrupted and picked her up in her blanket and put her on her lap and cuddled her, “Sarah I love you”
“And so do I Sarah” I chipped in and moved next to Angela so I could put my arm around the both of them
“And no stupid law is ever going to change that” Angela added. “We are still going to look after you, we will still be a mummy and daddy to you, what ever the stupid law says, and we will not send you away”
“But first daddy told me always to obey the law” Sarah whined, she was now very upset and confused.
“Sarah, Princess, you are still our little girl”, I told her, “just because the law does not recognise our family, that does not mean we can not get it to recognise it” then just for good measure I told Sarah “I will get it so the law says we are your mummy and daddy, this is fixable, so hang on in their Princess I will fix this, it’s what I do”

Then I realised I had effectively told Sarah what she feared, here on Earth we were not her parents at all in the eyes of the law, we were not her mummy and daddy. She was just an orphan that we happened to have living with us

Sarah sniffed, and Angela produced a handkerchief from somewhere and wiped Sarah’s eyes. “You can still call us mummy and daddy if you like, we don’t mind sweetheart”
“Won’t I get into trouble because you are not my mummy and daddy any more?”
I had put my foot in it big time, Sarah was not going to be comfortable calling us her mummy and daddy if in her mind it meant violating her father’s injunction about obeying the law, even though she would not be violating any law. I had to think of something so she would not get any more distressed and confused, so I tried this “Sarah, until someone from the law says otherwise and either takes you away from us or recognises that we are your mummy and daddy, we are going to still look after you, we are temporary mummy and daddy if you like”
Sarah looked at Angela, “So you are temporary mummy now” then she looked at me and said “and you are temporary daddy”
“But we won’t mind, honestly, if you call us mummy and daddy” Angela replied, “We still love you and always will Sarah”. she added

I then got off of the couch and knelt down in front of Angela, it was time to get the ball rolling on getting our family legally recognised, “Angela, I know on the Mystical Realms you did not have a say but” I started
“Of course I will marry you” Angela interrupted, “and I don’t even care if it is a registry office, the sooner the better as far as I am concerned”
“Me too Angela, I’ll get the ball rolling first thing tomorrow” I replied.
I stood up and so did Angela and we embraced and kissed each other, like I had told the Clan Chief of the Manjura, we should have done this here on Earth long ago.

“If you are going to get married, will that make you my mummy and daddy” Sarah asked.

Angela and I looked into each other’s eyes, and it was like we were telepathically linked. Angela and I getting married was the easy part, legally adopting Sarah was a whole different ball game. First there was Sarah’s immigration status, and even if that was sorted out, would social services allow us to keep her, there had been horror stories reported of officials wanting to fit certain quotas on grounds of political correctness across all spectrums, there was no guarantee we would even be allowed to keep her. They could take her away and place her in the foster care system, especially as only Angela had had a criminal records check. We just did not know how this system worked and we were both afraid that by merely asking, we would bring the calamity we had wanted to prevent. It was the classic tonne of bricks question.

I sat down beside Sarah, “Getting married here on Earth Sarah is just the first thing we have to do, to be your mummy and daddy again, we then have to go through a process to adopt you, and that may take time”
“Will I have to go away until you can do that”
“Over my dead body” Angela replied also sitting down beside her and putting her arm around her, “I love you Sarah and I am not going to let them take you away”
“And neither am I Sarah” I told her

It was then I decided to place a call to Shamus McTuckle, a leprechaun who worked of the diplomatic service in the Irish government.
[img=200x300]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/Leprechaun_ill_artlibre_jnl.png[/img]

He had promised Angela and I help if we ever needed it because in our own ways we had sort of looked after Fidelity when she was still a minor spirit of virtue, and boy did we need him now.

I went into the hall and rang his private number and explained our situation and our fears that we would lose Sarah, Shamus listened intently and promised to get back to us. An hour later, as promised he telephoned us back, he had heard how we had done our bit to help end the civil war in the Mystical Realms, and would see what he could do, but first they had to see if Sarah had any living relatives in New Zealand who would have a stronger claim, if so it would only be right if she were returned to them or at least they had a say in her care. I had to agree this would be only right, even if Angela and I did not like it. In the mean time he would use his connections and leverage to sort out Sarah’s immigration status. As for British local social services, he had no influence over them, but if everything checked out, Shamus had a plan, and when I ran it past Angela, she liked it.

That night after an evening meal which Angela got me to cook, Angela ran Sarah a hot bath, and while she was in it, with Angela making sure she was alright, I put all Sarah’s clothes through Angela’s washer – drier (She had to use it for her aunt towards the end of her life) so they would be ready by morning. After the bath Angela found a very long t-shirt of hers and a thick jumper to put on Sarah and put Sarah to bed in her aunt's old room. Angela was careful not to mention her aunt in case Sarah got frightened and imagined seeing ghosts. Angela was now very protective of our Sarah, as was I. Angela also put on two extra blankets and told Sarah to tell us if she was still cold, so we could get her more blankets, she even provided a little nightlight in case Sarah awoke in the night.

Angela sat with Sarah until she nodded off to sleep and then Angela and I went into Angela’s bedroom sat on her bed, just to see if it was too small, and perhaps we might not need the fold away couch after all. Angela quietly closed her bedroom door, and silently we started to remove each other’s clothes and stood for a while looking at each other’s naked body, then held each other and kissed, then we put on night clothes in case Sarah needed us in the night and squeezed into the single bed and just slept in each other’s arms until the morning.



The next day after breakfast, which consisted of a hot oat cereal, hot so Angela could tell Sarah it would help keep her warm. As Sarah did not have a coat, Angela got her to wear one of her old jumpers as we were taking Sarah into the city centre. Angela’s mission was to take Sarah to the clothes shops for more clothes, shoes and a warm coat. My mission was to secure the marriage licence and book the registry office. By law we would have to wait at least fifteen days, but in terms of bookings we had to wait three weeks, it would have been a longer wait had I not asked for as early in the day as possible, nine thirty as most people liked to get married later in the day. According to Shamus that should be enough time to do a background check on any relatives of Sarah who might have a prior claim, even though officially Sarah was thought to have died in the plane she and her father had been aboard.

We agreed to meet up at Angela’s coffee shop. By the time I got there, Sarah had been kitted out in much warmer clothing, including, trousers, a pink padded rain coat a woollen hat and pink gloves. Angela mentioned she had also bought Sarah some vests to wear to help her keep warm as Sarah had never had one. Angela told me that she had got Sarah to put a vest on when Angela got her changed into the warmer clothing in the disabled lavatory. I knew Angela meant well and was committed to showing what a good mother she could be to Sarah, no matter what her legal status was, but to me this was too much information , Angela was also determined to show Sarah she loved her and was absolutely committed to looking after her, and as Sarah felt the cold badly, Angela would help her to be wrapped up as warm as possible..

The cover story we gave to anyone we knew was that a week or so ago, I, as they did not know about my family background , had received a call from New Zealand, that some relative I had never heard of had been murdered by a junkie in front of his daughter, since her mother had died in an accident when Sarah was six months, I was her only living relative and could I come and collect her. The aim was to keep as much truth in the cover story as possible to make it more convincing. Sarah was not aware of the cover story as we did not want her to have to lie as well, so just in case anyone spoke to Sarah, part of the cover story was that the junkie was wearing a mask and to Sarah it was a monster and she was very traumatised by it and was confused. We asked our friends not to talk about it, as it upset her.

Angela according to the cover story had offered to go with me as moral support, due to my lack of experience with children, and when we got there Sarah had latched on to Angela as the mother she never knew. Angela was also taken with her, and loved her as if she were her own from the moment she saw her. I had noticed that, and as we had been kind of seeing each other for six to seven years, I had asked Angela to be my wife, and a mother to child that I had become the semi-legal guardian of. Angela had of course accepted with out a moment’s hesitation.

The main reaction to our wedding announcement was “What took you so long to realise you were meant for each other”. How come a troll had spotted this and our acquaintances had spotted this, but we hadn’t?

But now we had to endure what would seem the longest wait of our lives.

Angela cut short her leave and went back to the coffee shop, so every morning we got up early, I cooked breakfast whilst Angela got Sarah ready. Then we would drive Angela to work. We would sit in the coffee shop whilst Angela went through the morning routines of getting the pastries, dealing with the milk deliveries and opening the shop. I would have my latte and Sarah a hot chocolate. Then round about nine, I would take Sarah to see the shops, a museum, to the park to look at the ducks and even visiting the beach,, anything to occupy the time with things she liked although in February it was still quite cold. We would always meet back for lunch at the coffee shop, when Angela took her break, so we could eat as a family, and Angela would always give Sarah plenty of hugs. Sometimes in the afternoon we would go back to the park if the coffee shop was busy or a museum if the weather was bad, but if it was quiet, we stayed there keeping out of the way until it was time to go home. In the evenings, Angela and I took it in turns to help teach Sarah how to read.

On days when Angela had a day off, I think they stayed at the house doing arts and stuff, while I worked on disposing of the flat I had lived in for more years than I cared to remember and its contents. For all intents and purposes, I had moved in with Angela to give Sarah a stable home life, which actually was true. At weekends we made a point of doing something fun with Sarah together, to reassure her, that even though we were not officially her parents and we were just temporary mummy and temporary daddy, we loved her and cared about her were looking after her and wanted her to be a part of our lives, just as she had been on the Mystical Realms

All the time, Angela and I were looking over our shoulder, fearing the knock on the door from immigration or social services and sometimes in town when we were looking at the shops, the educational welfare officers looking for truants. Luckily my paranoia made me look out for them, so we could evade them.

All this time Sarah would ask when we could be her mummy and daddy again, and told us she loved us and really would like us to be her mummy and daddy and promising to be a good girl. We kept telling her we loved her too, and we so much wanted to officially be her mummy and daddy, but it would take time to sort out. Angela would always try and reassure her that no one would object if she just called us her mummy and daddy, but her first father’s injunction coupled with the crass way I had mishandled things, meant she was still conflicted and still used the word temporary a lot and on one occasions referred to us as Mr Andrews and Miss Roberts after she had spoken to an elderly customer at the coffee shop. Angela managed to gently squelch that one gently making sure Sarah knew the customer was out of date and Sarah did not have to follow what they had told her.

Sarah was also quite good and obedient, although I suspected that was because she was scared that if she was not a good girl we would send her away, as we were not her proper mummy and daddy, something we would never do, because of the way she kept telling us she was trying to be a good girl and how she kept tearfully apologising for imagined wrongs,. Angela and I loved Sarah unconditionally, and at every opportunity we told her so and how much we wanted her to be a part of our lives.

After two weeks, we heard from Shamus, and it was quite a revelation about Sarah’s sad past. Her parents had first met at a children’s home in Wellington, so grandparents on either side were not an issue, thank goodness we selfishly thought , but she did have an uncle, her father’s younger brother. This uncle was not considered available for Sarah, since he was serving a life sentence for murder in New Zealand after strangling his girl friend when he found out she had fallen pregnant by him. Sarah’s uncle pathologically hated children, due to his experience at the children’s home. Maybe that was why her farther had so drummed into her about obeying the law, and not following her uncle’s example. It was obvious that the two brothers had fallen out, as Sarah, via surreptitious questioning by Angela, revealed she new nothing about her uncle’s existence. As for Sarah’s biological mother, when Sarah was born, there were complications somehow and Sarah’s mother had died of a brain aneurism. Sarah was effectively alone in the world, and this gave us a green light for the plan to somehow adopt Sarah.

We also received from Shamus, I do not know how he got them, Sarah’s birth certificate and medical records, along with a duplicate New Zealand passport a visa to enter the UK and a confirmation letter of her permission for indefinite leave to remain from the Home Office, and we would keep these documents for Sarah so she could see them when she was a lot older

It was now the social services we feared, who we kept thinking would remove Sarah from us, on some spurious PC grounds just to fill some quota figures to satisfy certain pressure groups, whether those pressure groups wanted them to or not.

We had just week to go, when my flat was sold giving us some much needed income to pay for what would be a trip of a lifetime.

It was finally the day of our wedding, and I got up early to pack the car with suitcases. By now Angela had arranged a property broker of some kind to sell the house she had inherited from her aunt. Now normally the groom and the bride spend the night apart before the wedding, for Sarah’s sake, we were not playing ball with tradition. We would all be driving down together and attend the registry office together. Some of Angela’s friends thought it odd and suggested I should stay in a hotel over night Some even suggested that they should look after Sarah the night before the wedding. Angela gave them short shrift and would have none of it, as far as Sarah was concerned we were a family and she did not want that disrupted. We also maintained that it was low key, in order to save money for a new house and the “honeymoon”

After I had got Sarah into her car seat, I cleared out the rubbish bags. Everything in the fridge or cupboards we could not take was being binned. Angela stood outside with the key to lock up for the last time. She was crying silently. I asked her what the matter was and she told me that this was an end of an era, as she had grown up in this house when her parents had died and when her aunt contracted the cancer that would ultimately kill her, it was here she cared for her until her life ended in a hospital bed. I held Angela in my arms to comfort her, and reminded her that this was going to be the start of a new and better one. Angela smiled at me and wiped her tears away and told me I was right and she was just being “silly”. Then we got into the car and left for the registry office.

Angela wore a sharp suit and skirt all in white, with a wide brimmed hat she had inherited from her aunt; I had my best suit that I wore whenever I needed to do process serving. Sarah wore a pretty white dress, although Angela had made sure she was wearing something warm underneath as there had been a heavy frost overnight. Sarah was to be the bridesmaid and carried our rings into the registry office.

Jenny Green, the assistant manageress at Angela’s coffee shop was to be one of the witnesses, and I had got one of my former neighbours as a witness. I had sent an invite to my parents, but they were unable to attend on account of visiting their grandchildren at my sister’s who by irony of ironies lived in Auckland New Zealand. A number of Angela’s colleagues showed up, including some from other coffee shops of the same chain from around the region. I was out numbered

The service was simple and succinct as we recited our vows to one another. In the Troll ceremony, Angela did not have a choice in the human one she did, and she chose to be my wife, and I loved her even more for that, if that were possible. We were then pronounced to be man and wife, and we kissed each other, more for the benefit of the others, but we liked it also. As we walked outside, we made sure that Sarah was between Angela and I and each of us held one of Sarah’s hands

After that we posed for the obligatory photographs. We did not hire a photographer, so we asked the witnesses to take them with our digital camera. We insisted that Sarah was in all of the photos, so Sarah did not feel excluded.

As we crossed the road to a public car park where we had parked, my former neighbour asked me where the reception was being held, and we had to break it to him, that everything was on a shoestring and we had to get going because we had to catch a ferry. He then suggested some really exotic places to visit in Amsterdam, my neighbour had thought we were going to be honeymooning in Europe, I thought it best for everyone to think that so I just told him I would bear his suggestions in mind.

Angela wanted to take Sarah to use a toilet at another nearby coffee chain before our journey, but a number of people wanted to talk to both of us, and wish us congratulations, so Angela had to get Jenny to take her. When Jenny came out of the coffee shop, I saw her approaching my car, leading Sarah by the hand. She must be putting Sarah in her car seat now I thought, but no, Jenny had opened the boot and was taking out Sarah’s suitcase!!
Angela suddenly noticed her as well and went over to her, “Jenny what are you doing?” she asked
“Oh I was going to find somewhere for Sarah to stay whilst you two went on your Honeymoon” Jenny explained, “I think my mother could probably look after her for a few days and maybe then …”
“Oh no you’re not, Sarah is coming with us” Angela objected and grabbed Sarah’s hand back from Jenny
“But it’s your honeymoon?”

I thought I did not want Angela and Jenny parting on a sour note as, as over the years they had been such good friends and she had been Angela’s loyal lieutenant, so. I came over, opened the car door and asked Angela to put Sarah in her car seat and that I would explain things to Jenny

Jenny stood there looking confused, so I went up to her and took back Sarah’s suitcase, “Miss Green, when Sarah lost her father she got it into her head that people she loved were deserting her, so we don’t want to put her through any further separation anxiety like that.”
“Sorry, I was just trying to help, I mean when my brother and his partner got married they left their eight month old son with our mother when they went on honeymoon, I thought you would be doing the same”
“You weren’t to know Miss Green and I appreciate you meant well, as far as Sarah is concerned we are just going on a family holiday” I explained.

Then I apologised to the well wishers that we had a ferry to catch and drove away. What the well wishers did not know, was that we were never going to be coming back. Angela had the previous day, handed in her notice at the coffee shop.

As we were driving away, Sarah asked “Now you are married are you my mummy and Daddy again”

that question again

“Sarah, us getting married was the first step” I replied without thinking, “getting to be your legal mummy and daddy is what I am going to do next”
“So you’re still not my mummy and daddy again” Sarah replied with disappointment so heavy in her voice that I thought she might start crying again.
Angela turned round to look at Sarah and held her right arm out to hold Sarah’s hand to try and comfort her, “Sarah, it does not matter what some stupid law says, we still love you, and we are still going to look after you”

Angela so wanted to refer to me as daddy to Sarah and her self as mummy, but we had agreed that Sarah had got conflicted because of what her father had taught her about obeying the law and how she had mixed up what I had said about her legal status. This confusion caused her upset, which we did not want to happen given what she had already suffered in the Mystical Realms, but it was obvious to us, she wanted to call us mummy and daddy and she loved us too

Sarah was quiet for a moment, then asked why “Aunty Jenny” tried to take her away and that Aunty Jenny said that she should not be here with us as we were on something called a honeymoon. Angela Still holding her hand explained that when people got married, usually they did not have any little boys or girls with them, but it became apparent that Jenny had told Sarah about how her nephew got left with someone when her brother went on honeymoon.

Now was the time I had to let Sarah in on what we were doing
“Sarah”
“Yes Temporary Daddy”
“What Aunty Jenny did not know is that the reason you are coming with us, instead of being left behind as Aunty Jenny thought you should be, is that we are all moving to a new home to start a new life together”
“Why?”
“A friend of ours there is going to help make us your mummy and daddy again, just like before, would you like that princess?”
“Yes please, I want you to be my mummy and daddy again, because I don’t have a mummy and daddy”

Angela was still, twisted around, holding Sarah’s hand still trying to comfort her, “We want to be your mummy and daddy again too” she told her.
“Angela?” I whispered
“Yes Graeme?” Angela replied looking at me while still holding Sarah’s hand
“If you want, I don’t mind you sitting in the back with Sarah, I would hate for you to pull a muscle or twist awkwardly”
“Are you sure? I would like to sit with Sarah, but I thought you would want me up front to navigate as you don’t have Sat-Nav”
“That’s ok love, I know where I’m going, I drove down to Luton without Sat-Nav trying to rescue Fidelity last year remember?” With that I pulled into the nearest lay-by and Angela got in the back with Sarah.

We now had a hard drive with toilet stops to get to Stranraer, where Angela had found us a B&B that catered for children. We had fed them the same cover story as we had given the others, about me being the only surviving relative Sarah had, and that Angela and I had got married to give Sarah a new stable home, and we had plans to adopt her. We had to cover our bases if Sarah was too honest, and again we had both agreed we did not want to get Sarah to lie. Luckily at the time of year we were, it was not the tourist season, so there were not many people about and we could stay in our room. We took Sarah for a meal out at a local fast food chain and visited the harbour to show her what kind of boat we would be sailing on the following day.



When we got back, Angela requested extra blankets for Sarah, as she explained to them that Sarah felt the cold more than most children as she had been born in the southern hemisphere.

The following morning, after breakfast we left as soon as we could to get there for the 09:55 sailing to Belfast. We figured that as Belfast was still officially the UK, we would not need to go through passport control, and mercifully that proved to be the case. As we stood on deck, watching the UK Mainland disappear, I started to relax slightly, but not too much. During the voyage, Angela seemed to spend much of it in the toilet, she obviously suffered from seasickness, Sarah and I sat in the open air looking into the horizon. Sarah was not that well either and I had to keep telling her to breathe in and out and look into the distance. A trick I had once learned. Unfortunately Sarah was seasick as well, and we had to get the help of a ships steward to clean her up. Again Sarah was in tears for most of the time due to the sea sickness and for being sick.

We landed just after 12:30 and managed to disembark. We had the passports ready, and Sarah’s New Zealand passport, her visa and the letter from the Home Office to accompany her, but we were not asked for them. We found a simple café in Belfast, but both Angela and Sarah were still quite green from the crossing, so Angela had a cup of tea and I Coffee, whilst Sarah had some milk to drink, but I insisted we have some plain toast.

After that, it was a long drive south, again with Angela sitting in the back next to Sarah, we would not have it any other way. Again we got anxious when we approached bandit country as it was called during the height of the troubles and then the border to the Irish Republic.

[img=400x250]http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j171/jabbawocky3816/Trip469Border.jpg[/img]

We were waved through no problem. We were effectively safe; I just had to push on south,

To Shannon

To a farm

A farm, where the O’Docherty family lived, the family that had adopted the former Spirit of Fancying when she had been left by the fairies as a baby at a Dublin police station, and last year when we brought them her twin sister The Spirit of Fideltiy, except now they were ordinary mortal teenagers called Caer and Fidelity, or Fid for short after they had both given up their status of being minor spirits of virtue out of their free will at Shannon International Airport.

Shaun and Felicity O’Docherty had on their farm three holiday cottages, and they were going to let us live in one of them. I had been promised a steady job at the secret Bureau for the registration of those entities that crossed under a special treaty, between the Mystical Realms and the Republic of Ireland, so I could pay him a small rent, although he was so grateful that Angela and I had looked after Fidelity and brought her to them, that he had offered to allow us to live there rent free.

We arrived there late at night, and Angela and Sarah were asleep in the back of the car when we arrived. Felicity, the twins and their son whom they had also adopted had got it ready for us. I gently woke Angela, and as she was a bit groggy, Shaun carried Sarah into the cottage and put her into bed. Sarah’s room was as warm as toast, as Angela had forewarned him that Sarah felt the cold.

To make conversation with Shaun, while we unpacked the car, I asked how Fidelity was shaping up, he said she was still a work in progress as she still had a habit of suffering in silence and he mentioned how couple of weeks previously when the twins went down with the Noro Virus that had been going around, while checking Fidelity was ok as she had not recovered as fast as Caer had, they found that the heating in Fidelity’s room had broken down and Fidelity was shivering in bed just trying to endure the cold. If it had been Caer’s room, Caer would have been onto him like a shot. At least the fault had been easy to fix and Caer was only to happy to let Fidelity seek sanctuary from the cold in her room while the heating was fixed. Shaun did say that Fidelity had taught Caer to appreciate how privileged her life had been.

After we had unloaded the car, my head was still buzzing from the driving and Angela was still feeling the after effects of the travelling as well, so when Shaun left, we did not even bother to get undressed and we collapsed onto the top of the bed.



The following morning we slept in until eight, which was quite late for all of us, but we had been so tired from the travelling we had had to do. We found the cottage had been stocked up with food, so we did not have to go shopping, especially as the farm was very remote. At around nine o’clock the twins came round to see us, and again there was an emotional reunion between Fidelity and Angela. Fidelity came wearing the coffee shop uniform Angela had given her when we had come to see Fidelity get adopted by Shaun and Felicity. Angela had to remind Fidelity she was no longer her boss, but her friend.

At ten thirty, Shamus our leprechaun friend from the Irish diplomatic service turned up with a lady. She turned out to be a doctor working for the adoption board. Shamus explained that normally we would have to be resident in Ireland for a year before applying to adopt, but due to the unique circumstances, and in recognition of our services to the interests of the Irish government the year before, they had waved that rule. He also informed us that the usual six month wait for the final oral hearing to assess our case could be shortened, but he could not say by how much. The doctor then requested to do a cursory inspection of Angela’s and my health, in accordance with the Irish procedure and so we complied. Then she examined Sarah in private away from us. Angela was livid, but said nothing, as she saw the examination in private as a slur, but as I told her, it was just procedure and because we had cared for Sarah so well we would be fine, which proved to be the case.

At the end of it, we were granted a kind of residential order to allow us to keep Sarah, when I showed her the piece of paper; I told her that now we were “Acting Mummy and Daddy”. Sarah could just about understand, we were nearer being her mummy and daddy, but not quite there yet. Angela and I were relieved that for the moment no one was going to take her away from us, and I suspect so was Sarah.

My job with the Bureau was mostly routine processing, but I loved it, especially as it was now a steady wage as I was supporting effectively a wife and a child, and going to work kind of helped Sarah get into a routine. I would always telephone Angela when I got in and insisted on speaking to Sarah as well.

Angela was helped by Felicity and the twins a lot. Fidelity and Sarah could identify with each other because of their shared experiences of the Mystical Realms and of feeling alone in the world at times. Felicity helped with getting Sarah signed up with a GP and with basic schooling, as due to the remoteness of the farm, Caer and Timothy had been home schooled.

Sarah was fitting in really well, but still she would ask if we were her mummy and daddy yet from time to time. Caer and Fidelity were a godsend and was able to give Angela and I a break from time to time by safely showing Sarah around the farm animals. The fact we had the residential order did make Sarah a little more relaxed and happier, but still her insecurities remained. Sarah knew we were looking after her and that we loved her and wanted her, but what she seemed to miss was a sense of belonging, everyone likes to have, that us legally being her mummy and daddy would bring her.

While Sarah was a little happier with our revised status of “Acting mummy and daddy”, there was one wobble where, briefly while we were waiting for the oral hearing we had an interim inspection from social services. Shaun and Felicity had been coaching us so we were able to satisfy the social worker, but Sarah had asked her if it was alright to call us mummy and daddy, as we continued to say she could if she wanted to, and the social worker bluntly told her that we were not her mummy and daddy yet, just her temporary guardians. Sarah was deeply upset by this and burst into tears, and after the social worker had left, we had to again reassure her how we felt about her and how we were still working on being her mummy and daddy. Caer was brilliant and shared with Sarah how things were when Timothy was being adopted and it was just the same and that Shaun and Felicity were now Timothy’s parents, and so we would be hers.

Then we got the date of the hearing to finalise our adoption of Sarah. The date rang a bell and so I checked Sarah’s birth certificate. The adoption hearing would take place after just a month since we arrived in Ireland, on Sarah’s sixth birthday at one thirty in the afternoon. Shamus must be some kind of romantic leprechaun I thought

The day arrived, but we had been keeping this information from Sarah, as one, we wanted it to be a birthday surprise and two, in theory it might not go the way we wanted so we did not want to raise false hopes. A number of birthday cards for Sarah had been arriving in dribs and drabs, from the Shamus, the O’Dochertys and also one from Jenny back in England.

Jenny Green had made manager at Angela’s old coffee shop after Angela had strongly recommended her in her letter of resignation

We were waiting to show Sarah our card later.

For some reason Angela was slightly distracted, but I assumed that was nerves about the coming hearing, but Shaun and Felicity had continued to coach us so I was moderately confident it would go the way we wanted.

On Felicity’s suggestion, we left in the morning for Shannon where they were having the oral hearing and visited a specific church she suggested. There following a suggestion by Felicity, Angela helped Sarah light two candles, one for her first mummy, whom she never knew and one for her father that the Gnoll had murdered on the plane before abducting her to the Mystical Realms. As I looked from a pew where I sat, Sarah looked so fragile standing before the candles, holding Angela’s hand, trying to be brave. Then Angela had to pick her up, as Sarah dissolved into tears, I assume because Sarah felt she was alone in the world, so Angela had to come and sit on the pew next to me comforting Sarah, telling her that we were here for her.

A priest saw us and approached us to see if there was a problem, so I left Angela cuddling our little princess and went and explained to the priest that Sarah was an orphan, the candles represented her dead parents, whom she was grieving for, but unbeknown to Sarah we hoped would be finalising the procedure to adopt her that afternoon and be her new parents. It was kind of closing the book on one chapter so Sarah could move to the next one. The priest thought it was an interesting idea and asked if there was anything he could do, I thanked him for his concern but told him I could not think of anything.

After we left the church we met Caer, Fidelity and Felicity at a McDonald’s restaurant for an early lunch. Jenny Green also met us there and for a moment it seemed like an awkward meeting. Jenny had been upset that we had not told her why we had fled to Ireland and had told us one of her cousins was an expert in family law and would have been able to get us a residential order for Sarah in the UK, but that this was a much nicer place to bring Sarah up and probably the right call. Jenny once again apologised for trying to take Sarah away when on our wedding day and that she had liked Sarah as well and would not miss what we were doing for world.

I think Sarah just assumed that the people we were meeting up with were for her birthday party to be held later at our cottage, as we asked them not to mention the adoption hearing to Sarah and as far as we were aware, Sarah did not have clue

Then it was time to head over for the hearing, and as we all reached the outside of the building, Angela and I squatted down and Angela asked Sarah what she would most like for her birthday, in the corny saccharine manner you expect in a trashy weepy, Sarah’s response was very poignant “I want you to be my mummy and daddy again as I don’t have a mummy and daddy anymore”, then she burst into tears, obviously the lighting of the candles earlier, intended as a symbolism of the closing one chapter in her life had only resulted making her feel alone in the world, and she had just been reminded of it. Angela picked her up to cuddle her whilst the others assisted in comforting her. Sarah really loved us and wanted us to be her parents officially, to satisfy the lack of belonging, in spite of our reassurances, that she so keenly felt.

I waited for Sarah to calm down, which thanks to Caer and Fidelity was very quick, those twins were wonderful with Sarah, then I told Sarah, “Let’s see if we can do that now in this building. And so with Sarah walking in between Angela and I holding our hands, we walked in to the building where Shamus met us.

At the oral hearing, we were asked certain questions on oath in order to establish our identity and eligibility to adopt and thanks to representations to the board by Shamus on behalf the special diplomatic service, the Board was satisfied as to our eligibility, in spite of not being resident in Ireland for the statutory year. We were asked certain questions on oath about our suitability to adopt, and so finally the adoption order for Sarah was finalised. As we left the hearing, I showed Sarah the certificate of adoption, and told her “I told you I would fix this, we are now legally, officially and actually your mummy and daddy”
“Can I call you Mummy and Daddy again” Sarah asked nervously
Angela picked our daughter up and smiling at her answered “Of course you can sweetheart, you are officially allowed to now and we would love you to call us mummy and daddy”
“I love you Mummy and Daddy” Sarah replied and smiling, gave Angela and I a big hug as much as she could manage.

Jenny had to leave us, but we went home with the O’Docherties to get our daughter’s birthday and welcome back to the family party going. There I showed Sarah our birthday card to her

“Happy Birthday Sarah from Mummy and Daddy”

Sarah gave us more hugs and kisses, she loved us as much as we loved her.

The party was a huge success and Sarah was all smiles, which made her look even prettier and we had plenty of Celtic music. It was the happiest day of Sarah’s life and Angela’s and mine too. We considered our wedding at the registry office just the ratification of our wedding in the Mystical Realms.

After everyone had gone at the end and we were left alone, Angela asked Sarah to sit down beside her on the settee, I was going to sit down beside Sarah as we normally did, but Angela wanted me to sit next to her, I was mystified as to what was going on, then Angela took my hand and Sarah’s hand and placed them on her abdomen, then she turned to Sarah and said “as this was your special day I did not want to say anything until now, but your going to be a big sister, then she turned to me, Graeme, I’m pregnant, I’m having our second child”

Second child – So that was the reason why that strange flash occurred when Angela had that healing potion nearly two months ago, it was saving and healing her unborn child as well

Then Angela put an arm around our daughter, and before Sarah might wonder where she now stood with a natural new baby on the way, as it were, Angela told her “And as a big sister I will need your help looking after your little baby brother or sister, will you be able to do that for mummy”
Sarah smiled and nodded, she had been included and felt the belonging she had been missing
“Angela, Sarah I love you” was all I could say at that moment.

This news of Angela’s pregnancy was actually something that helped Sarah to put behind her the trauma she had suffered on the Mystical Realms, gave her something to look forward to and helped increase her low self esteem. With the help of the twins her self-confidence grew, and she did not cry as much as when we first rescued her and she still remained a very loving child, eager to please, but not this time because she feared rejection, but because this was what you did when you loved someone. Sarah was just as excited as Angela and I at the impending arrival of the new baby.

At work, I was given the chance to transfer to the tourism office, to promote Ireland as the wonderful place we found it to be. It was more money, but to tell the truth, we wanted to have nothing more to do with the Mystical Realms if it were possible, and I was more interested in our growing family.

The O’Docherty family were also a great help, with helping schooling and helping Angela with trips to the ante-natal clinic, and advice. Shaun told us not to think of Sarah as our adopted daughter, or our adoptive daughter, but as our daughter who one time we just happen to adopt, which Angela and I were only to happy to take.

When it was time, the twins’ baby sat for Sarah, while I took Angela to the hospital, where our son, Paul Shaun Andrews was born (8lbs 6oz)

We were now looking forward to a greater adventure than any we had ever had in the Mystical Realms, that of raising two lovely children. We hope one day we will take Sarah to see her native New Zealand, but for the moment she is happy, with us as her mummy and daddy and doting on Paul, her lovely baby brother, living here near Shannon in the Republic of Ireland

THE END






UK Inter Dimensional Entity Control Instant Messaging System

FacilityHQ Ah Field31 I am so glad I caught you on the IMS
Field31 Oh ok
FacilityHQ I read your report on Graeme Andrews and Angela Roberts
Field31 You mean Graeme and Angela Andrews
FacilityHQ Yes I forgot they were married now, LOL, anyway I concur with your recommendations
Field31 To downgrade their security threat level?
FacilityHQ Yes, we contacted his supervisor and they have no interest in Inter-dimensional activities and are more interested in playing happy families
Field31 Maybe we can close the file on them then, like we did with the O’Docherty twins back in January
FacilityHQ Might be an idea to leave it for a month though, I must say, tricking the Andrews to move into the same location as the O’Docherty Twins did make surveillance easier
Field31 LOL I would love to see the face on that IDE Shamus when he finds out how we manipulated him and his department. Even them allowing the Andrews to adopt that girl helped us with containment, I can’t believe how much they played into our hands on this one
FacilityHQ Yeah – especially after last year’s humiliation it’s about time we had some payback on our Irish partners
Field31 Absolutely. BTW I heard the guys in immigration did not like being made to give that child a visa and the ILTR letter
FacilityHQ Well I’m weeping into my beer over that one, but like with the adoption, it was the best way to keep containment
Field31 Well we did not want her talking about it to some New Zealand foster home we have no control over. With regards to the Andrews I like the fact that they actually like being where we had them placed, that has got to be an added bonus
FacilityHQ Yes LOL, it is beautiful down there I must say though. Anyway changing the subject
Field31 Yes
FacilityHQ We have reports of a civilian who has had a run in with an IDE, can you deal with it
Field31 I’m already on it
Field31 BTW
Field31 The civilian by shear coincidence is known to the Andrews
FacilityHQ Really, remember if need be you do have authority to terminate any IDE or civilian in order to keep IDE activity out of the public domain
Field31 Understood I am arranging for the civilian to be picked up as we type
FacilityHQ Out of interest, who is this civilian that is known to the Andrews?
Field31 The former assistant manageress at Mrs Andrews place of employment
FacilityHQ Former assistant manageress?
Field31 Yes she got promoted to manageress
FacilityHQ So what is her name?
Field31 Jenny Green