by Neo Edmund
“Bridge trolls are meat eaters. They hate the taste of vegetation.
I’m making myself smell like a garden salad,” Ash said.
Dote shook her head in disagreement. “That’s just an old wives’ tale. It never works.”
Ash rolled in the grass. “Unless you’ve got a better idea, I’m following the teachings of the old wives club.”
“What happened to Wolfgang?” Dote asked.
“I don’t know. I guess he took off,” Red said.
“Why am I not surprised that he ran off at the first hint of trouble?” Ash said.
“Why am I not surprised you were going to say that?” Red mumbled.
“Maybe the troll ate him and got a stomachache,” Ash said. Dote smacked Ash in the back of the head.
“That’s a mean thing to say, Dorkus Ashley.”
Ash rubbed his head. “Dote. That hurt.”
“You deserved it for saying such mean things,” Dote said. “Quiet down. The troll is getting closer,” Red said.
Dote gasped and started shoving sweet grass down her shirt. Red gave her a look of disbelief. “You just said that wouldn’t work.”
“With a bridge troll coming our way, those old wives are starting to sound pretty smart right about now,” Dote said.
“We could just make a run for it,” Red said.
“Don’t you know anything about bridge trolls?” Ash asked. “Running only gets them more worked up.”
Dote whimpered. “Well, it’s going to be here in about a minute, so we’d better be ready to deal with it, however the holy heck we’re going to deal with it.”
Red sighed. “Fine. Give me some of that stuff.” She began to wipe sweet grass all over herself and shoved several clumps down her dress. “I might be making this up, but this reminds me of the time we all got into a mud fight with some weird boys.”
Ash cracked a smile. “Of all the things to remember. You got us in a mess of trouble with that little scuffle.”
“How was it my fault?” Red asked.
“It wasn’t totally your fault,” Dote said. “Those creepy Gruff Brothers were a mean little trio.”
“Serious bullies, more like it,” Ash said. “They took Dote’s snake, Mister Squiggly, and wouldn’t give him back.”
“You had a pet snake, Dote?” Red asked.
“Thanks to you, I still do. You whacked those mean Gruffs around with a big stick and sent them running like a bunch of little babies,” Dote said.
“The next day you decided to get them back by ambushing them with mud clods from a tree outside their house,” Ash said.
“I did that?” Red asked.
Dote nodded. “You were a seriously tough toddler.”
Red cracked a grin. It was hard to imagine that they had done such things at age five, and even harder to believe she was once a rough and tough girl. In the orphanages, the other kids often pushed her around. She had always considered herself to be a serious weakling. It was nice to learn that it wasn’t always the case.
“Everybody quiet, I think I hear it,” Dote whispered.
The three friends stopped cold and held their breath. The thumping of massive footsteps could be heard, getting closer and louder with each passing second. Red put a hand over Dote’s mouth to silence her whimpering. Soon the branches of a nearby tree began to shudder. The troll’s heavy breathing erupted nearby. It was seconds from discovering them.
“This is it,” Red whispered.
Tree branches snapped and sheared as the bridge troll forced its way into their campsite. With a massive fist, it knocked a tree out of its way with a single bash. The beast’s giant head was the first thing they saw. Its mouth was big enough to swallow a person whole.
Ash screeched like a baby and curled up in the fetal position on the ground. Red grumbled in disbelief. She was now certain that he was going to be a liability in battle, but this didn’t mean she wouldn’t fight tooth and nail to protect him.
“You both get behind me.” Red said.
Dote didn’t hesitate to follow Red’s instruction. Ash was too busy whimpering to hear her. When the troll came into full view, a surge of crippling fear overtook Red. The beast was covered from head to toe in grungy wet fur and stood twenty feet tall. It stepped close to Red and gave a furious roar. The raunchy stink of its breath flooded her lungs, making her dizzy.
“Red, isn’t it time to go all Alpha on this thing?” Dote asked.
Ash spoke without looking up, “Dote, you should know better than that. The smell of hot werewolf blood can make bridge trolls go psycho with hunger. If Red transforms, that thing will rip the forest apart to get at her.”
“Why in the world would I ever know a thing like that?” Dote asked.
Red took a nervous gulp. “Good safety tip, Ash. Let’s just hope your theory about the smell of veggies is just as good.” She pulled a clump of sweet grass from her dress and waved it around at the bridge troll. “Take a good sniff. This is what we taste like.”
The bridge troll grunted in disgust from the smell and backed off a bit. Red flung the sweet grass at the troll, causing some to stick in its wet fur. The beast roared as it reached up to pull the grass off. Its fingers were so massive that it couldn’t get a grip. The troll got so angry that it clubbed itself in the chest with its own fist.
“I see you don’t like this stuff,” Red said.
She pulled more clumps of grass from her dress and flung them at the troll. The beast became frantic as it tried to get the grass off of its fur. The harder it tried, the more damage it inflicted on itself.
“Major good plan,” Dote said.
“Just making it up as I go along here,” Red said. “I could use a bit of help.”
“Helping out is what I do best.” Dote gathered clumps of sweet grass and piled them near Red’s feet. “I’ll gather, you fling.”
Ash looked up just as the troll clubbed itself in the face. “Are we winning?”
“We just might do that if you’d man up and help,” Red said.
“Hey, go easy on me. I had a bad experience with one of these guys that I’m still a little shaken over.” Ash finally got up and grabbed a clump of grass. He flung it at the troll, hitting it right in the face. The troll responded by bashing itself, this time hard enough to make it stumble backward, off balance.
“Red, you’re a genius,” Ash said.
“I couldn’t have come up with the idea without you,” Red said. Red and Ash continued flinging sweet grass, driving the troll into a frantic frenzy.
“Why you hitting yourself, mister troll?” Ash taunted.
The final clump of sweet grass that Red threw went right up the troll’s nose. The beast wailed out in agony and began thrashing around. It swung a fist wide and smashed the trunk of a massive oak tree. The three friends watched in awe as the tree fell, crashing down on top of the troll. The beast twitched and trembled for a few seconds before it finally went lifeless. “Is it, you know?” Dote asked.
“Totally.” Red said.
Ash cheered and danced around. “Take that, you stinking troll.
That’ll teach you to knock my house over.”
“When did a troll knock your house over?” Dote asked.
“It was a tree house. I worked really hard on it,” Ash said. Dote glared at Ash. “You had a tree house and never told me?”
“I had just finished building it. I was going to surprise you on your birthday,” Ash said.
“Oh, Ash. You are the best friend ever.” Dote gave Ash a smothering hug.
“Save the mushy stuff for later,” Red said. “We need to get moving, double-time.”
“You’re right,” Ash said. “The scavengers will soon come looking for a free breakfast.”
Red cringed at the thought. “That’s not the reason I was thinking, but it is a good point.” Just as they were about to start walking, she stopped cold and sniffed the air. “You have got to be
kidding me.”
Ash gasped in a panic. “What is it now? It’s too close to dawn for tree gnomes. Is it road snakes? Tell me it’s not road snakes.”
Red would have asked him what road snakes were if she weren’t too annoyed for the words to come out. All she could say was “Wolfgang.” She turned around right as the wolf boy was emerging from the bushes.
“And we were just starting to have fun,” Ash said.
“Whoa. Is that the troll from Rowling’s bridge?” Wolfgang asked.
Red gave him a hard stare. “Where’d you run off to, Wolf Boy?”
“I had some personal business to take care of,” Wolfgang said.
Ash stepped up to Wolfgang and gave him a tough glare. “Is that your secret way of saying you had to find a bridge troll to sic on us?”
“It means I had to go potty. Number two, if you want the dirty details,” Wolfgang said.
“You are so lying,” Ash said.
Wolfgang gave Ash a dangerous stare. “Listen up, Ashley. I don’t like being called a liar. If you want to see the evidence, I’ll be happy to bring it to you.”
Red stepped in between Wolfgang and Ash and nudged them away from each other. “It seems convenient that you took off right before the troll showed up, and then came back right after we finished it off.”
Wolfgang growled. “I didn’t want to give away our location so I hiked out a full mile to do my thing.”
“Lies, lies, and more lies,” Ash said.
“It makes sense,” Dote said. “The smell of our ... you know ... stuff ... can attract razor-rats.”
Wolfgang clenched his fist tight. “Not to mention it’s a dead giveaway to a skilled tracker. Ice only hires the best of the worst to do her dirty work.”
Red shrugged. “It all makes perfect sense.”
“You’ve got that right,” Wolfgang said.
“I wasn’t done,” Red said. “It makes perfect sense. I’m just not so sure I believe it.”
“Finally.” Ash said.
Wolfgang’s face twitched with anger. “So you think I’m lying, Alpha?”
“I don’t know enough about you to know what to think.” Red turned her back on Wolfgang and started walking away. Ash and Dote followed closely behind.
“So is it cool if I come along, or what?” Wolfgang asked.
“If I say no, you’ll probably just do it anyway,” Red said. Wolfgang bashed a fist into a tree, busting a hole through the thick bark. “I’m going to make you trust me, Red Riding.”
“Not if I have anything to say about it,” Ash said.
Red looked back and saw Wolfgang bashing his fists into the tree. The intense rage in his eyes was both disturbing and tragic. It almost made her feel sorry for him, though she knew that thinking this way had too much to do with the strange attraction she felt for him. Telling him not to follow would be the most sensible choice, but that was a decision Red just couldn’t bring herself to make.
CHAPTER 18
“This has a major risk factor,” Ash whispered to Red and Dote. “I say we hang back and wait for Granny to give us a sign that it’s all clear.”
The three friends had been hiding in the bushes across the clearing from Grenda’s house for well over an hour. Red knew something was out of sorts as soon as she set eyes on the place. It now looked like a dump that had sat abandoned for years.
“Granny put a protection spellcraft on the inside of the house,” Red whispered. “Is it possible she could have expanded the spellcraft to cover the outside, too?”
Dote was tapping a nervous finger on the tip of her nose. “The enchantments feel like Grenda’s. The problem is a skilled witch could do a pretty good job of faking them, if she knows the nature of the spellcraft Grenda uses.”
Red sighed. “So what you’re saying is that there is no way of knowing for sure.”
“I’m sorry, Red, if I was a better witch, maybe I could. I mean, I’m pretty good, but not that good,” Dote said.
Ash was lying on his stomach in the dirt, trying to get a clear look at the house. “We know Ice knows that Red lives here. There’s a good chance her cronies are hiding out, just waiting for us to show up.”
Dote whimpered. “Grenda could be in major danger. She could be in hiding, or hurt, or something way worse.”
Red had never felt so tired in her life. Her body was aching from the events of the previous night. It didn’t help that the sweet grass she had stuffed down her dress earlier was causing an itch that would not quit. The thought of sitting in a nice hot bath was almost enough to risk stepping out into the open.
Complicating the situation, Wolfgang was lingering somewhere nearby. No matter how hard Red tried to avoid thinking about him, it had become physically impossible not to. Her heightened sense of smell was locked on to his distinct scent and would not let go.
Trust was the major issue Red had when it came to him. His reasons for helping them escape from Ice’s palace didn’t quite add up for her. It made it hard to ignore Ash’s claim that Wolfgang had a secret motive. At the same time, she could sense good in him, so it was hard to blow him off entirely.
Red again turned her attention to Grenda’s house. “We need to make a decision right now. So tell me what you’re thinking here.”
Dote took a deep breath to center herself. “We’ve been here for an hour now and I haven’t sensed the presence of any dark spellcraft. I think we should go for it.”
Ash crawled up from the bushes. “But if you’re wrong, there could be a dozen of Ice’s goons standing right on the front porch.”
“Anybody wanna know what I think?” Wolfgang asked.
Red, Ash, and Dote screamed. They snapped a look back to find Wolfgang standing right behind them.
“Why, Wolfgang, what amazing stealth skills you have,” Red said.
“The better to sneak up on you, Little Red.”
Dote looked at Red and Wolfgang with a perplexed glare. “Something about the way you two said that felt odd.”
Red and Wolfgang looked at one another and shrugged. “What we need to do is put a bell on you,” Ash said.
Wolfgang grinned. “Then maybe you could go around and put bells on all of Ice’s cronies, just in case they try to sneak up on you.”
“Do you think that any of them are hanging around waiting to ambush us?” Red asked.
“Nope.” Wolfgang said.
“What makes you so certain?” Dote asked.
“Because with all the noise you kids have been making, they would have found you already.”
Red grimaced. “He’s got a point.”
“I remain skeptical,” Ash said.
“I’ll prove it to you.” Wolfgang leaped from the bushes and out into the clearing.
“Wolfgang, you get back here this minute,” Red whispered. Wolfgang walked across the clearing and straight on up to the porch. “Come and get me, Ice Seether. I’m right here.”
Red watched Wolfgang for a tense moment, but nothing happened.
“That doesn’t prove anything,” Ash said. “They’re not after him. They’re after you, Red. And what if he’s on their side and he’s trying to trick you out into the open.”
“That’s dumb,” Dote said. “If he wanted to get us, he could have done it already.”
“I agree,” Red said. “I’ve had enough of this.” Without another thought or hesitation, she stepped out into the clearing.
“Right behind you.” Dote dashed after Red.
They were halfway across the clearing before Ash raced out after them. “Hey, wait for me.”
Red’s senses were on edge as they walked the fifty feet from the bushes to the house. From what she could tell, there wasn’t a hint of danger anywhere around them. After a tense moment, they reached the front door, where Wolfgang was waiting with a smug grin.
“You see. Nobody’s waiting around to ambush us.”
No sooner had Wolfgang said th
is, then Ethan the woodsman leaped out from behind a pile of logs. He grabbed Wolfgang by the throat and picked him up off the ground with one hand while clutching his massive battle-axe in the other. Wolfgang’s legs flailed around as he struggled to get away.
“Helheim, I warned you to stay away from here!” Ethan shouted.
With a vicious roar, Wolfgang transformed into a werewolf. He planted his feet on Ethan’s chest and pushed with furious force, breaking Ethan’s grip. When his feet hit the ground, he kicked Ethan in the gut, knocking him back several feet.
“And I warned you to stay away from me, old man!” Wolfgang growled.
The two warriors circled one another in an intense stare-down.
Wolfgang had his claws raised. Ethan gripped his axe, ready to strike.
“Hold up a minute,” Red said. “What is going on here?”
Ethan swung his axe with deadly intent. Wolfgang leaped over it and followed up with a kick to Ethan’s chest, knocking him back.
Red turned to Ash and Dote. “Do either of you know what this is all about?”
“It’s an old grudge,” Dote said. “The woodsman has a major issue with Wolfgang’s family.”
“Everybody in Wayward has a serious issue with the Helheim Clan,” Ash said. “Hack him to bits, Ethan!”
Ethan repeatedly swung his axe at Wolfgang, time and again missing by only a hair. Wolfgang unleashed counterstrikes, but Ethan was too big and powerful for him to stop.
Red knew that if one of Ethan’s strikes connected, it would be over for Wolfgang. She had no idea how to stop the fight, or if she even should.
“What has his family done that’s so bad?” Red asked.
“Where to begin?” Ash said. “How about a total disregard for every law ever written? Stealing. Lying. Cheating. Backstabbing anybody who ever trusted them. Oh, and they started a riot that ended with them burning down half of Wayward Village.”
“That is true,” Dote said. “But most of that happened a long time ago, before Wolfgang was even born.”
Ethan swung his axe at Wolfgang’s head. Wolfgang dodged and countered with a furious slash of his claws across Ethan’s wrist. Ethan grunted and lost his grip on his axe.