Softy the Troll Read online

  “We are protected by the circle of stones from any of the jungle’s many predators,” explained Dawn, setting up a construction of metal tubes that she had taken from her rucksack, and slotting them into one another. It formed a triangular structure on which she placed a kettle to boil.

  Softy came over to Jenny and gave her a big hug. “I have to go hide from the sun, will you be okay?” he asked, his brow crinkled with concern.

  “Yes, of course.” Despite herself Jenny’s eyes darted sideways at Dawn and Gentle.

  “You can trust them. I would not leave you with them if you could not.”

  Jenny did not like it, but what could she do?

  “Will you be all right? White said if you were exposed to sunlight you would die or something.” Jenny’s worry was suddenly overwhelming her. For a moment even her worry for Peter was eclipsed. “Softy, it’s nearly sunrise.”

  Softy smiled as Gentle picked him up and carried him over to a nearby tree. He gently pressed Softy up against its trunk.

  Jenny watched in surprise as Softy sank into the bark as if it was water, not wood.

  “It’s all right, his clan canny do that. He will sleep in there safe and sound from the sun. Would you like some tea?”

  “Um, yes please,” answered Jenny and was handed a battered metal mug of steaming hot aromatic tea.

  As they waited away the day Jenny saw many wonderous and scary things. Most times she felt sure they would come into the circle and kill them but it never happened. Sabretooth tigers stalked past or crashed through the bushes, chasing prey. Huge herds of elephants and woolly mammoths thundered past. Giant insects the size of buses buzzed by. Brightly coloured birds flew overhead, flitting from tree to tree, or preened on branches. As Jenny watched she began to realise that some of them were the size of jumbo jets. Some, she realised, were not birds at all, but flying dinosaurs. It was as if none of the creatures could see them within the ring. After one of them stopped to sniff at the stones for heart stopping minutes before stomping on Jenny could not help but stifle hysterical laughter.

  “What’s so funny?” asked Dawn, surprised.

  “I am sorry, but a bright pink t-rex? You have to be kidding me.”

  “What does its colour have to do with anything? It could still rip us to shreds.”

  “I am sorry, I just cannot take it seriously, said Jenny not sobered by Dawn’s grim explanation and look.

  “As it happens, that’s its colour because it’s in heat. They can change their colour to hide like a chameleon. One could be standing just in front of ye and ye would never know it until it ripped ye guts out. It will seem even funnier when ye have to go into the bushes to relieve yeself,” Dawn snarled, stomping off.

  Jenny stared after her.

  “Forgive her, miss, her brother was killed by them.”

  “I’m sorry. I did not know,” spluttered Jenny.

  “Of course you did not know, Dawn knows that. She’ll calm down soon enough and will guard you when you do have to, um, answer nature’s call.”

  He blushes a lot for a giant, thought Jenny.

  When it did finally come to have to go to the lady’s room Dawn did help her. She led her down a short trail leading from the stone circle. It ended in a small clearing.

  “See to ye needs, lass, I will keep an eye out for ye.”

  “Are we safe here?”

  “Yes, look down at ye feet.”

  Jenny did so. “All I can see is earth, roots, grass and mushrooms.”

  Dawn scuffed her foot through the earth to reveal a grey stone with more of the strange spiral writing. “The stone has fallen but it still keeps us safe, at least for a short time, so please do not dawdle.”

  Jenny did as she asked, and to Dawn’s obvious surprise, with her heart in her mouth kept watch for Dawn to do the same.

  The Arch

  As the last of the dappled sunlight left the jungle floor Softy stepped out of the huge tree as if he was pushing aside a curtain, and onto Gentle’s waiting hand. This was fortunate because Gentle had placed him a long way up the tree trunk and he would have fallen Gentle had not been there to catch him. Gentle placed him down next to Jenny who passed him a bowl of stew.

  “Are you all right?” he asked, that sad frown creasing his rough face.

  “We are all fine,” reassured Dawn.

  Softy’s eyes flitted towards Jenny.

  “I am fine. These two took good care of me as you promised they would.”

  “See, we are all fine, my good friend. Now stop worrying and eat your stew and we can be off,” soothed Gentle.

  “Yes, drink up. We have far to go but the arch is not far. That will get us there quicker,” grunted Dawn.

  “Arch? What is the arch?” asked Jenny.

  “A door. A door that will take you wherever you want to go. On foot it will take us days to cross into the lands of the Winter Court.

  Gentle once again picked them up and stowed them in the pockets-saddles in his harness and off they went.

  They travelled through more mountainous trees. Jenny could see strange creatures living in some of them. There were snakes the size of trains, some covered in bright feathers. One was a cat bigger than a tiger that looked like it was crossed with a chameleon with a collar, changing scaly skin and bulging eyes. In other trees were built spun or grown tree houses. As they passed strange people emerged from these houses. They looked very thin and tall with unnaturally long arms and legs that bent at odd angles. Their skin was mottled brown and green, similar to Softy’s skin. Apart from a few straps and primitive shell and feather jewellery they did not seem to be wearing any clothes. Their features were abnormally long, their unnaturally large eyes and pointed ears making them animalistic but their huge mouths were disturbing. Some of them lifted their long arms in greeting. Jenny could not help noticing that their long fingered hands ended in unbelievably long talons. Gentle waved back, making their perches wobble and bounce. Jenny looked to see Dawn and Softy also waving back.

  “Jenny, wave to them, you will gain their favour.”

  “What are they?”

  “Elves.”

  “Look, there is the arch,” whisper-rumbled Gentle.

  Jenny had been expecting another giant stone construction so when she did not see it she said as much.

  “There.” He pointed with one of his huge grey arms.

  “All I see is trees, oh,” she gasped, suddenly seeing the jungle for the trees.

  What she had taken for two of the normal trees, if you could call trees the size of skyscrapers normal, was something quite different. It was made from trees. In fact, two trees had been made to grow and intertwine until they created a huge living arch. She thought they were trees, but were they? They looked as if they were not quite there, as if they were made from glass or seen under water. No, they seemed to be there, and yet not.

  When Jenny asked the others about this after Gentle had placed them at the bottom of this all they would say was, “What you see here is only the tip of the iceberg.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “It means that the arches are born from the seeds of the great world tree Ygdrasil. They exist in all worlds. Can you see the mist lying between the trees?”

  “Yes.”

  “Think of your brother. Picture his face.”

  Not understanding she did as she was told. The mist started to swirl as if stirred.

  Peter.

  For just a moment she could have sworn she had seen him.

  Go after him.

  Without thinking about it she did so, dashing into the fog after Peter.

  “Peter, where are you?” she cried into the fog. Her voice echoed as though she was in a cave without end. Peter had disappeared.

  “Peter, where are you?”

  Then at a distance another figure appeared in the mist.

  “Mum, is that you?” Jenny ran towards her, her arms wide, not considering what her mum would be doing there. As she
approached something huge reared out of the mist, a huge white shadow. It slammed into Jenny and sent her spinning. She fell down a tunnel, her fall seeming to go on forever.

  Yeti

  Jenny awoke. Where was she? She could not see, was she still in the mist? Slowly a ceiling swam into view. It looked like a cave. She was lying on something soft and checked herself. She was lying on and under many warm pelts. Where was she? How had she gotten here? The last thing she remembered she was in that hellish mist, falling.

  Catching movement from the corner of her eye she turned and would have screamed but something stopped her, she did not know what — terror probably. It was huge, like a polar bear standing on its hind legs. She knew she should not look it in the eye, but she could not help it, in fact she felt her eyes drawn to it. It had cold, ice blue eyes, like the icicle-like fangs and the talons that dangled from its paw-like hands and bare feet. They should have been the eyes of a dumb beast, but they held great intelligence, intelligence and sorrow. As Jenny watched huge snowflakes started to spill from its ice eyes.

  “What do you want?” asked Jenny in a cracked dry whisper.

  The creature cocked its huge head on a long crooked neck. It turned and padded over to what looked like a natural rock shelf, took something off it and carried it over to her. Jenny shied away, trying to burrow into the furs. It held out one huge paw-hand to her. In it was a bowl shaped from an odd glass-like substance. Under the surface swirled a blue liquid like cloud caught inside a diamond. She peeked over the rim. Inside lay a deep red liquid. Was it blood? With a surprisingly light and gentle flick of the wrist it sent the bowl spinning. As it spun it caught the light and the liquid sparkled with droplets of gold. The scent filled her nose, sweet fruit, crushed leaves under foot, cold air caught on fur. It reached it up to its flat face and opened its fanged mouth. A huge pink tongue lapped at the liquid, setting it to ripple and flash. It then offered it to Jenny. Tentatively she took a sip and before she knew it she was guzzling it down. It was bitter sweet, the tart and sweetness of fruit. Its heat flowed through her as a huge paw-hand gently took the bowl from her.

  Jenny took another look at the creature. She could not be sure for it could be wearing white furs, but she thought it was naked. She could not put her finger on it but there was something about this strange creature that felt familiar.

  It shuffled over from one of the corners of the cave, carrying a bundle which it placed in her lap. Jenny looked down at it, not knowing what it was and cautiously combed through it, realising it was clothes. Only then did she notice that under the furs she was naked. She blushed from her toes to her crown. How could she have not noticed until now?

  Once again it came over to her with the big bowl, but this time it was full of what looked like water. It set it down by her bed of pelts and mimed bathing, then padded out of the cave.

  Jenny pulled aside the pelts and shivered as the cold air touched her skin. She stepped onto a skin that was placed there to protect bare feet from the icy ground, then splashed the water over her, shivering with the cold, and quickly dressing. Despite now being dressed she was still cold. The clothes she had been wearing were for the tropical jungle, not cold caves. The cold of the floor started seeping through her sandals, making Jenny stagger across to the entrance whatever it was had gone through. It stood not far from her, blocking her view of whatever else was out here. It was making growling noises that might have held words. If they were words, she did not understand them.

  Then to her horror it reached for its thick pelt with its huge icicle talons and started to slash at its own skin, ice blue blood steaming in the cold. Without a sound of pain it slowly skinned its own pelt off and turned to her. Instead of a bloody mess with exposed muscles and tendons, bones all slick with blood, new fur already grew on its pale skin.

  It offered her its flayed pelt. She could not take it so it draped it around her shoulders. It should have felt slick and sticky with its blood but it did not. It felt scratchy and warm. It must have been magic because it had been shaped so that it could be fastened with bone buttons and had a hood. The creature picked her up and placed her on a boulder, slipped off her sandals and placed paw boots on her feet and huge mittens on her hands. Warmth crept into her, even her face seemed protected from the slashing snow, ice and wind.

  “Thank you,” she said, not knowing what else she could say.

  The pelt was too big for her so she reached inside, undid the belt and refastened it around the pelt. As she did so she spotted the dagger in its sheath. Not knowing why she did so she drew it out. It glittered in the cold air as if it too was made from ice. She spotted that the tip had chipped off. Would this affect whatever White had expected to happen at the Winter Court? Fear coursed through her, making her colder than the winter wind and tears ran down her cheeks. Would they freeze on her cheeks?

  A shadow fell over her. She looked up to see the beast standing over her, staring down at her. It reached out for her face and Jenny instinctively stepped back, afraid of its ice talons, but as it reached for her face they retracted into its paw-hand like some huge cat. It touched Jenny’s cheek, brushing away her tears with the gentleness of a child’s touch.

  “Why cry?”

  Its deep growling voice surprised her. She had begun to think that it could not speak English. He is a strange snow monster. You do not know anything about it. You do not know if you can trust it. Despite these thoughts she found herself spilling her guts to it. “This thing was supposed to help me get Peter back. How can that happen now it's broken?”

  She shoved the dagger at it, hilt first. It took it from her and spun it with impressive dexterity. As it did so she saw the tip. She had thought it had been artificially blackened but the inside of the bone was even blacker than the outside. It ran its paw over the broken tip. Steam rose from its paw. Jenny realised that once again this was its blood. It had cut itself.

  “Wait, what are you doing?”

  It did not answer, all it did was the same to the other paw. It reached towards her waist and with great gentleness replaced the blade back in its sheath and licked its paws clean.

  “I know if you not magic is in blade. Still sleeps. Still work when need it.” It was surprising how gentle its growling voice could sound. “Come, you getting cold. We eat, then get you to Court.”

  “Thank you,” said Jenny almost crying again.

  It lifted her off the boulder and took her hand, and paw in glove they walked back to the cave. Jenny sat back down on the bed of furs. It padded over to her, carrying the bowl again. Before it gave it to her it spoke its growling words and breathed on the bowl which steamed, waves of heat rolling off it. This time it did not hold liquid, but what looked and smelt like some kind of stew. Balanced on the edge of the bowl was a huge chunk of a crusty loaf. Jenny took a sip. It was some kind of fish chowder, she could not make out which fish because it was full of spices.

  “Mountain stream fish curry chowder. Family recipe.”

  “It’s delicious, thank you.”

  It smiled a huge grin. Despite the fur, long whiskers and huge fangs its smile made it seem like a huge cuddly teddy bear.

  “Like more?”

  “Yes, please.”

  In fact, to Jenny’s surprise she had three bowls full. It offered her another bowl.

  “Thank you, but I could not eat another mouthful.”

  “You’re sleepy now?”

  “Yes, very.”

  “Then sleep, still have time to get to Court.”

  Should I? I do not know it. I could go to sleep and wake up in who knows what trouble. I must be getting soft, she thought as she lay back on the bed of furs.

  Ice

  Jenny woke, not to the cave roof but a gently rocking night sky full of glittering stars. Where was she? She tried looking down but all she could see was snow and ice glittering in moonlight. She looked up and saw something, the huge head of the snow monster, yeti, troll or whatever it was.

  “Wher
e am I?”

  “You looked so sweet asleep, shame wake you. So carried you. Near to palace of Court, look.” It pointed with its bristly chin.

  Jenny sat up, cradled in its arms. At first she thought they were facing a huge mountain or ice ridge but then she realised what she was really looking at. It was a huge but delicately sculpted ice palace, coloured and transparent ice forming huge and narrow slitted windows. Many thin straight and spiralling icicle towers stabbed and clawed at the sky.

  “Is that…”

  “Palace of Winter Court.” It padded towards an ice bridge that curved over a huge chasm.

  Jenny glanced down at it and wished she had not. She could not see the bottom, just deep darkness. Suddenly she felt very dizzy and was grateful she was held tightly in this strange creature’s arms. Despite the bridge’s soaring bulk she kept expecting it to crack under the creature’s huge feet but it never happened. They reached the other side safely.

  Instead of heading for the huge portcullis it headed to the left, towards what looked like a solid wall. Jenny tensed herself for a crash into solid ice but felt cold air as they passed through the wall.

  She blinked. After the night light the bright warming fire was blinding. The beast slowly lowered her to the ground and let go. Jenny looked around but she could not see much, then heard a familiar cry. The next thing she knew Jenny was swept off her feet and whirling through the air. Then she was held fourteen feet off the ground in front of a familiar stony face. Gentle.

  Jenny cried in happy relief. He smiled his goofy beautiful smile and to Jenny’s surprise, with his accustomed gentleness gave her a huge kiss. His lips were cool and hard and his breath smelt of earth and summer fruit.

  “Put her down ye big jessy, ye’ll squish her if ye not careful,” came Dawn’s gruff voice from near Gentle’s feet.

  Gentle smiled again and lowered her to the ground. Dawn reached out and gave her a big but brief bear hug. It was a good thing it was brief because it was rib cracking. Last, but not least, Softy padded up and gave her a much softer but somehow far more intense hug. The relief she felt at seeing the three of them was great but the relief at feeling Softy’s hard rough skin against her face was more than she could put into words.