[Sticks]

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

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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