Chapter 10

           “Annabelle! Can-you-hear-me?” I heard Gwendolyn calling to me, but I still saw nothing but darkness. 

“Mhm!” I mumbled through what tasted like berry juice.

“Keep-calm! You-are-in-a-berry!” Gwen shouted.

“Um muh?” I gurgled.

“Hang-on!” Gwen yelled again before I felt tugging on my head.  Within a few seconds of Gwen pulling on the berry, which I had just found out was on my head, I heard a licking noise.

“Mmm mh?” I said, trying to ask her what was that.

“Ummm, ha ha…,” Gwen laughed nervously.

“Mmm mh?” I asked her again, but louder.

“Ummm, yea….Annabelle? There is a small, tiny, maybe, possible chance that there are trolls on your head licking the berry which is on your head right now,” Gwen quickly rambled before taking in a deep sigh.  I didn’t even bother asking about how a berry and trolls both ended up on my head, so I just remained silent as Gwendolyn pulled on the berry.

            I waited anxiously for about five minutes before I heard the sound.  Plop! I was free, but my hair was a wreck.  Gwendolyn laughed, placing her hand on her hip and handing me a shiny pebble so I could see my reflection.  I picked up the pink pebble and as I went to see my reflection and immediately broke out into a scream.

“Ah! Gwen what are they? Get them off!” I shrieked while struggling to toss these creatures off my head.

“They’re trolls, hang on!” Gwen replied before extending her hand to them which was soon a playground for the trolls. 

“Annabelle this is Patience and Sprout, the tree trolls,” Gwendolyn said smiling as she looked up at me.

“Tree trolls?” I asked perplexed.

“Yup, tree trolls,” she replied.

“How do you know that’s what they are?” I asked.

“I found them a while back as stray and misunderstood creatures so I took them in and gave them a name,” Gwendolyn said smiling.

“So you named them tree trolls?” I asked raising an eyebrow.

“Yup,” she giggled, stroking the little troll’s head leaf.

“What’s the leaf for?” I said wonderingly, looking at the troll’s leaf.

“Each troll has one, they basically represent their ranks upon their jobs in the forest.  Since these two little ones have only one leaf on their heads they are little kids around the age of two or three judging by the looks of the number of rings they have on their stumps.  Excuse my language,” Gwen replied, looking at both trolls’ rear ends where I also saw the rings.

“They are basically like walking tree stumps then?” I asked, poking the troll’s tiny wooden feet.

“Depends which way you look at it,” Gwen replied calmly before returning to her task of cradling the baby trolls.

 

Illustrated by my dear friend, Kristen Strutt.