Fallen Angel: Chapter Eleven

[the_siobhan]

My question caused a rather surprising reaction.

The troll who had been holding the spear that was immediately threatening my breastbone dropped the tip of the weapon to the ground and yelled loudly, "I was just asking 'im that!" and spun to grab one of his companions. He yanked the other troll against his hip with enough force to jar teeth loose, in response to which treatment his victim leaned forward to murmur earnestly at me, "S'true. He did."

I knew an opportunity when I saw one.

"That's outrageous!" I sputtered. "What the hell are they thinking? I tell you, I knew lots of trolls back home and..."

I paused. OK, all the trolls I've ever met lived under bridges, but who knew if that was the Shangrila that trolls dreamed about. Plus, you know, all those stories involving goats. Better play it safe.

"... All the trolls I knew back home, they had it rough, but at the very least they had a bridge to call to their own..."

The entire array of troll pulchritude arrayed around me let out a unanimous sigh. I grabbed onto a tree to keep myself from being knocked over.

"A bridge," sighed the troll with the spear. I was beginning to suspect that he was a bit of an intellectual among his brethren, given the speed of his uptake. "Aye, by me dah's rotten breakfast, I've alleyways dreamed 'o' me own bridge."

The hordes around him sighed again. I was just thinking I might be able to sneak away when the troll leader frowned and the metal tipped spear lifted again.

"You're having us on," he said "You're telling us fairy tales to win us over. A trolls lot is to toil above ground and to find shelter and cool and darkness after death. That's the word, that is. That's what they tell us. Only trouble makers come here with talk of bridges."

"I'm sorry," I said with the broadest sweetest smile I could manage "I'm new and I had no idea you weren't allowed to talk about bridges here. I'll never do it again."

There was a pause. I watched the tip of the spear tremble in front of me as a whisper gradually spread through the troll army in front of me. I expected that was probably going to die horribly. I tried to keep a straight face.

The troll leader thrust his face towards me. I gasped and tried to hold my breath. "Where is this place," he hissed. "Where is this place you claim all trolls get their own bridge?"

"I spun around, confident and glad to be free of troll-breath. I lifted my arms over my head and pointed westward. "Back in the city," I said, "All the trolls I've met there live under bridges and we leave them raw meat as gifts when we want to pass by and..."

I felt the blow hit the back of my head and travel as a shock down my torso just before the entire world went black.