2 First Encounter in the Hill Country

A little girl with scraggly dirty-blonde hair and green eyes chased a rabbit through a misty forest. The rabbit hopped quickly to the left. The girl tried to speed up after it, her green dress flapping behind her, but she tripped over a root and fell down. She looked up from the ground to see the rabbit hopping away.

A voice rang out from the woods, "Helen!" The girl got up and dusted herself off. She was sad the rabbit escaped once again.

"I'm coming, Mama!" She yelled. Helen started running down a trail, back to the Valley of the Trolls. By the time she got there, she was exhausted, and breathing heavily.

Fern glared at her and said, "For heaven's sake, child! You're covered in dirt! Come, let's get you washed up." The girl followed her troll mother to the lake. Helen didn't like the lake, because its waters were always freezing. She'd rather run around dirty, dry, and warm.

"Take your dress off and get in the water." Fern ordered Helen.

"But Mama, I don't like-"

"Get in. Now." Helen pouted and took off her moss dress. She put her feet in the water and gasped when she felt how cold it was. After she had slowly lowered herself into the lake, she started shivering.

"It's so-so c-c-cold."

"That's what you get for misbehaving, you naughty girl. You shan't run off like that." Fern filled a wooden bucket with lake water. "What do you say, Helen?" Then the troll poured the freezing water over her adopted daughter, before she could move away.

Helen screamed as the water splashed over her. "I'm sorry, Mama, I'm so sorry!"

The little human sobbed. Fern then plucked a bottle of oil out of her belt, and started to wash her hair. "Good girl."

Later that evening in the hut, Fern crushed berries and herbs in a small clay mortar. Helen sat on the floor of the hut nearby and watched her silently. After a while, she looked down and started sniffling. Fern looked over at her daughter and set down her pestle. The troll gently took the girl's hand and said, "Helen, I'm sorry for what I did to you earlier, but you had to be punished. If you had behaved I would have given you a warm bath. I just don't want you to get lost and hurt, that's all."

The little girl rose to her feet and squeezed the troll with a tiny hug. "I forgive you, Mama. I love you." She said.

Fern was surprised. She slowly wrapped her arms around the girl and smiled faintly. "I love you too, my little forest princess."

The next morning, Helen was sitting on a log listening to the birds with her mother, when Fern said, "Helen, I want to tell you something."

"What is it, Mama?"

"Since you are such a very spirited child... I've decided that from now on, you are free to go wherever you like."

Helen's faced brightened. "Really?"

Fern nodded. "Only if you promise me one thing. If you ever go to the Kingdom, where the humans live, and see a child of House Chairn, you are never to approach him. Is that understood?"

"Why?" Helen asked, furrowing her brow.

"Do you remember what the prophecy said, Helen?" Her troll mother responded. A voice seemed to speak into Helen's head as she thought about it. Fern had told her the prophecy many times, and always in the old tongue that the trolls rarely used any more before it was repeated again in the common language. Hair black as raven feathers, skin white as snow, and blue eyes cold as ice. A child born to the House of Chairn shall have a frozen heart and rule over the frozen world...

Helen shuddered. "I do, Mama. If I meet a child that looks like the one in the prophecy, I'll run away really fast! He'll never get me!"

Fern chuckled. "Here, I have a present for you." She pulled out from her pocket a small wooden bird. Helen looked over it, and found that it had a few holes, but they were not because of a mistake.

Something clicked in the girl's mind. "A whistle?" She asked.

Fern nodded again. "You only have to use this when you are lost or if you are in trouble."

"Oh, thank you, Mama! It's beautiful!" Helen smiled and put the bird whistle instantly to her mouth. It was easy enough to use that she blew a few shrill notes without ever having practiced.

Fern laughed, and said, "You're welcome. Now, go. An adventure awaits you." Helen smiled and laughed with her mother and blew some more notes. Then she ran off, eager to use her new freedom. As she did, Fern heard someone behind her. It was Twig.

"Helen is a spirited one, isn't she?" He asked.

Fern's smile shrank as worry crept back into her mind. "Yes, she really is."

Helen had ran all the way out to the rolling green hills beyond the woods. She could barely believe that Fern had said the things she had. Helen had thought she had the toughest troll mother in the valley. Now she felt free, totally in control of her destiny. At the moment, she wanted to use that freedom to feel the sun on her skin and the earth under her feet. She wanted to climb the tallest hill and just look out on the world that was hers.

Every time that she climbed one hill, she would look out, breathing hard, and discover that there was another taller one that blocked her view. Today was the most important day of Helen's life; she couldn't let a single hill keep her from seeing what was out there. So, she would run down the grassy slopes and start climbing again. Before long, she had gone farther than she ever had into the hill country, but the sun was in the sky and she still felt strong, so she continued. This is what freedom felt like.

Then, after reaching the top of a very steep hill, she was surprised she could see the whole land of Misthaven everywhere she turned. Her tired legs fell to the earth, and she laughed. It lasted for minutes, then became a giggle. Where would she go now? She studied the horizon. There was the forest, and beyond she could see the dip in the land that must be the valley of the trolls. She had gone a long way.

In the opposite direction, she saw something entirely different. There were huts down there, lots of them, surrounding by fields of vegetables and herds of animals. Towering over all of them, the largest hut she had ever seen with huge grey walls and more windows than she could count. Was this the castle that Uncle Twig had spoken of in a quiet voice some nights when he came over to see Fern and her daughter? He had said it was the only one in Misthaven. Helen couldn't believe what she was seeing. It was beautiful. She had to see it.

Helen found her way to a muddy trail that she knew would take her to the castle. It didn't take long before she came around the bend and found a odd-looking hut. As she looked over it, the door swung open and she saw the boy. He wasn't like the boy trolls back in the valley, he was tall and had tan skin like her, and auburn hair. It was a human boy! She smiled and ran towards him, while he froze in place and stared.

"Hi!" Helen yelled when she came close, maybe a little too loudly because the boy seemed ready to run back into his hut.

"Huh? Who..." The boy wasn't very smart. It didn't matter, she was excited to meet another human.

"What's your name?" She asked, smiling widely.

The boy said nothing, but stayed rooted in place. He seemed older than her.

"Are you... wearing moss?" He finally said.

She looked down, then back up at him. "Yes, it's a dress!"

He looked at her strangely. She was getting impatient. "My name is Helen, what's yours?" She said, still forcing a smile.

"I'm Reimund Chairn." The human boy said, "Where did you come from?"

"Well," Helen replied, "I live in the valley of the trolls, in the woods."

"Trolls?" Reimund's jaw dropped.

"Yes..." Helen said, suddenly feeling embarrassed, "They raised me. My mother found me when I was a baby."

"Your mum is a troll? They... the trolls... they're real?" He sounded excited.

Helen giggled, "Yeah silly. Why don't you come meet my family? Come with me."

"Tonight... b-b-but auntie doesn't let me go out so late."

"I can stay at your hut for tonight and then we can meet my family tomorrow." Helen smiled

"Well... if my aunt is okay with it, you can stay with us", Reimund said as he scratched his head and turned back towards his cottage. Helen followed and they both walked through the front door. Helen looked around, it was a little bigger than the huts back at the valley. There were chairs surrounding the fireplace and a kitchen with a small wooden table. Wow! Is this how humans live? Helen thought.

A mahogany-haired woman came down the stairs. When she saw the girl in the mossy dress, she was surprised. "Who is this new friend you have here, Reimund?" She said.

"Hi! I'm Helen, it's nice to meet you!" Helen smiled brightly and stretched out her hand.

"My goodness, such a spirited little girl." Lisle said as she put her hand on her chest. Reimund looked down and tried not to blush.

That night, Helen sat at the table with Reimund and his Aunt Lisle for dinner. The girl looked down at a strange object next to the plate. It was a wide bronze stick with four pointed ends. "What's this?" she asked as she picked it up.

"It's a fork." Reimund said with a raised eyebrow as he chewed his food.

"A fork?" Helen was confused. Then she smiled and began to brush her hair with it.

Lisle gasped and Reimund widened his eyes. "Uh... Helen, you use the fork to eat." he said.

Helen looked at Reimund in surprise and then looked back at the fork in her hand. "Oh... like this?" she stabbed the cooked potato and took a big bite.

Aunt Lisle smiled. "Where do you live, Helen?" she asked the little girl

"The troll valley, in the woods." Helen said. Lisle choked on her food.

"Her mum is a troll, Auntie. She found her when she was a baby. Helen wants to take me to see her family tomorrow." Reimund said to Lisle as she cleared her throat.

After a long pause, the old woman nodded. "Well, she seemed nice enough. Her family probably is, too."

After dinner, Reimund led Helen upstairs to the second floor of the cottage. The boy opened the door to his bedroom. "I know it doesn't look like much, but this is where I sleep." Helen looked around the room. There was a single bed, a small dresser, and a nightstand with a candle on it.

Lisle entered the bedroom behind them, carrying a cot and a bundle of blankets. She set them down on the floor by the wall. "Here is your bed, Helen, and I brought blankets, so you that you'll be warm for tonight."

"Thank you." Helen said.

"Good night, Auntie." Reimund said. Lisle smiled, nodded, and closed the door as she went out of the bedroom.

"Uh, Helen, you might want to look away, so that I can change." Reimund said

"Oh!" Helen turned around to face the wall and waited a minute as she heard the drawer being opened and closed and then a rustle of clothes.

"You can look now."

Helen turns back to see Reimund in his pyjamas, she smiled as she went over and plopped down on her cot. "Do you have a Mama and Papa, Reimund?" Helen asked.

The boy sat down on his bed, "I used to... They disappeared when I was younger."

Helen gasped. "Really?"

"When I was really little, me and my parents... we visited my aunt in Misthaven. They left me there. I waited, but they never came back to me." Reimund looked down at the floor.

Helen felt sadness well up inside her. "That sounds horrible. How could they do such a thing? Where are you from?"

"I was born in Wintercrest." Reimund said.

Helen tilted her head. "Wintercrest?"

"It's a village north of here in the mountains."

"Oh." Helen looked at the blankets. "Do you have any brothers or sisters?"

"No, I'm the only one." Reimund said as he shook his head.

"Doesn't it get lonely?"

The auburn-haired boy shrugged. "Sometimes. It's actually nice, because I don't get my stuff stolen or fight with anyone." he chuckled a little. Helen glared at Reimund. He furrowed his eyebrows. "What? Don't look at me like that, it's true."

"Not all are like that. The little trolls back in the valley, they don't fight. They're like my brothers and sisters, we always play together." Helen said.

"Really?"

"Yes, I can't wait for you to meet them." Helen smiled.