CHAPTER 3
Troll Friend
If he hadn’t already been sitting, George would surely have fallen down. The brown creature he was ogling was hairier than an orangutan and more massive than a steer. Thankfully it wore what looked like leather shorts, but otherwise appeared naked, aside from a giant wooden club that hung from a leather belt around its waist. It seemed more man than ape only because its brutish face was near-human and devoid of hair except for thick beard on its big chin, and a hairy eyebrow that stretched around both huge brown eyes. It shifted its stance from one huge hairy foot to another, as if nervous, revealing massive shoulders and arms thicker and longer than a big man’s body. Altogether, the creature was wondrously strange, magnificent, and frightening.
“Ah-hum,” it rumbled, opening its mouth a bit to show off teeth the size of piano keys. “Called me you did, Harry? You want the boy to meet me, I do think.” He nodded towards George.
“Yes, my friend,” replied Harry, as he stood to greet the huge creature with a hearty handshake and gestured George to do the same. “This is of course George, son of Joan. George, Grog here is my longtime partner in adventures and my best friend in this or any other world.”
George managed to get up out of his chair, but could only stand mutely gaping as the massive troll extended a beach ball-sized hand towards him. Facts such as the creature’s ability to speak friendly, understandable English, and that he was Harry’s friend registered at some level, but not very potently. After Harry poked him, George finally reached out uncertainly and the troll gently enclosed his hand and arm up to the elbow in his own huge hand and shook them almost imperceptibly before release.
“How was that? Didn’t squash you, did I?” Grog asked.
“He’s not THAT delicate,” laughed Harry, who was apparently greatly amused by the awkward boy/troll encounter.
“It was fine,” agreed George, when he had gathered enough breath to respond. “I guess you’re pretty strong.”
“Yeah, I need take care with wee folk," said Grog. "Like you was good with ants and turtles and such this morning. The elves liked that. Elves like all living creatures, even Earth creatures. They liked that you find this place yourself also.”
“You were watching from the bushes then!" said George. "I thought that I heard something big!”
“I watch everything what comes here,” rumbled Grog.
“I’m sort of the brains of our partnership,” added Harry, “while Grog is largely the brawn. Among other things, Grog helps guard against unwelcome guests from either Earth or Narma.”
The Troll snorted. “Much times I be the brains and Harry be the brawn.”
“You’re from Narma, but you don’t glow!” George noted.
The troll grinned, exposing more of his huge teeth. George couldn’t help thinking that the troll could easily bite off a human’s head. “Good eyes you have, young one. Why you wear glass things?” He pointed at Georges glasses.
“Good point,” said Harry. “You won’t need these anymore.” He took George’s glasses off.
Before he could protest, George noticed that he could see perfectly well without them.
“Perfect health, my boy,” explained Harry. “Benefit of that bit of elf powers you were given. Pity it doesn’t give us immortality, but we can’t have everything. What were you saying, Grog?”
“You have good sight like your mother, George," said the troll. "My people be from Earth side, long times past, but all my close folk be now in Narma. Earth and Narma be almost the same, but enough different for humans with good sight to see where things come from.”
“You knew my Mother?”
The troll nodded. “Joan Simple be great troll friend. Be close Grog friend. Me big sad she gone now. Many adventures, we shared. It be a great honor for Grog to meet the son of Joan.”
“We’ll tell you more about all that later,” interjected Harry.
“And trolls originally came from Earth?”
“Not Earth,” explained Harry. “This universe, but another planet. Close cousins to Sasquatch, trolls are, but much more massive.”
“He’s a space alien?” George asked Harry, in awe, staring at the troll with rekindled astonishment.
“You look surprised, my boy, but it’s not as uncommon as most humans think," said Harry. "Being from our universe makes Grog more difficult to spot here on Earth, which is an advantage. He even has right-handed DNA and gets along well with Earth food. He sort of blends in here, especially when he wants to. Show him, Grog.”
In a moment, Grog changed from brown to tan, matching perfectly the color of the walls.
George laughed. “Amazing, but he’s still sort of easy to see.”
“It works much better in the woods,” noted Harry.
The troll nodded in agreement. “Grog be forest troll, not house troll.”
“Tomorrow, if you’re not too busy Grog, I’d like you to show George our forest. Just a quick look of a few hours; that’s all that he’s ready for now.”
“Happy to do," said Grog. "In the morning, young son of Joan?”
“Sure,” said George. “Will you come too?” he asked Uncle Harry.
“No, I’ll keep working here,” the old man replied, glancing at the table where he had laid out several books.
“All answers not be in elf books, or even in little elf statues.” rumbled Grog.
Harry shrugged. “True, the answers for the most important questions are in ourselves, wise troll. But wisdom is sometimes reflected in writing none the less.”
Grog made a dismissive snorting sound that caused George to return his attention to the big humanoid, but he was astonished to find the doorway empty! There was no troll to be seen!
“Grog has gone back to his forest,” noted Harry. “Solitary sort of creatures, trolls. Might explain why there have never been very many of them, that and their huge appetites.”
“I didn’t see or hear him come or go!”
“Trolls are amazing, but there is much, much more for you to understand.”
“I wish Mom were here to help explain things,” lamented George.
Harry sighed. “Me too. That’s what was supposed to happen.”
“But why didn’t she simply tell me about this stuff a long time ago?” asked George.
Harry looked thoughtful. “Maybe now is as good a time as any for something I had been planning to do after you had settled in longer.” Harry rummaged around through papers and books piled on the table until he had found a small book that glowed with Narma strangeness, even though it didn’t look very old. “This was Joan’s journal,” he announced, as he handed it to George. “It belongs to you, now. There’s a special note from her to you inside the book, also.”
George opened the book reverently to an arbitrary page, than flipped through many of the pages eagerly, while expectation changed to puzzled disappointment. “It’s written in elf language,” he exclaimed.
“Of course it is,” said Harry. “Much superior to human writing. Easier too, once you learn how to do it.”
“My mother knew elf language?”
“Quite well. Her note may help explain. It’s in the envelope. Your Dad dropped it off here months ago, while he was on one of his business trips.”
Inside the book’s back cover has an ordinary Earthly envelope with George’s name written on it in very ordinary English. After tearing it open, George pulled from it three small sheets of paper, each one covered in his Mother’s neat handwriting. “It’s in plain English!” he was clearly relieved to announce.
“I suspected as much,” said Harry, as he rose from his chair. “I have some chores. Dinner will be at six.” With that, he left his nephew.
George took the letter and journal back to his rooms, where he could look at them surrounded by some of his Mother’s things.
The letter was dated only six months earlier.
‘Hi, George. It seems strange writing a letter to you, when you’re sitting nearby in you
r room doing your math homework. It would be so much easier to simply tell you everything, but your Father made me promise a long time ago that I would delay telling you my family secrets as long as possible. That way you get to retain innocence and normalcy at least for a while. If you are blessed (cursed?) with the powers passed on through my family, they will begin to show themselves sometime over the next three or four years, and we will disclose everything at that point. That’s soon enough.
‘But if you are reading this, something has gone terribly wrong, and neither I nor your father could tell you all of this in person. Hopefully you are safe and sound with Harry. He’ll be able to explain things better than I can anyway. I know that you and Harry haven’t seen much of each other, but he’s a great and good man, and he has dedicated his entire remarkable life to helping to protect both Earth and Narma. Lately he has been studying elfin writings and speaking with statuettes to try to better understand dragons and Evil.'
Dragons? George paused to re-read the word several times but it still said dragons! And what did she mean about speaking with statuettes? Harry had mentioned that but not gone into details.
‘Me, I dedicated much of my youth to that same cause, including several quests to Narma. In Narma, the psychic and magic powers of Earth folk are greatly magnified. I was able to help the Elves and their allies survive the onslaught of the Dark One’s Horde, at least for a few years, as well as the curses of a witch. Your uncle has done a dozen times more than I have, but now he grows very old. Trolls are longer-lived. Grog has been able to help take up much of the slack, but strong and valiant as he is, he’s only one troll. Elves could be detected here by the Horde and that would be catastrophic, so for the most part they can’t help directly on this side of the Portal.
‘What has this to do with you? Maybe nothing, but maybe everything. According to prophecies of both Narma and Earth, someone from Earth, perhaps from the Simple family line of humans, will have the potential to save Narma as well as Earth from the Dark One. Harry has tried for many years to become that Chosen One but has failed. For reasons Harry will explain to you, as a female, I couldn’t quite qualify. George, you could be the champion of the prophecies, the Chosen One, or one of your male decedents might be.
‘Chosen by whom for what? I’ll leave those details to Harry, but let me reassure you that great honor and greater responsibility are involved. But it involves struggle and tremendous danger also - I won’t sugar-coat it.
‘If you aren’t the Chosen One, you will still be greatly needed as the eventual replacement for Harry. He is much, much older than he looks. Grog, the elves, and others can help, but a male human with appropriate powers MUST be involved. I am convinced that human is you, George. Already I can sense that you are special.
‘So here is the tough part. I know you’ve thought about going to college and becoming a scientist or a teacher, and I know you could do well in either of those careers. You’re bright and hard working. Far more important, you’re a very good person. Especially because of that, your father and I are more proud of you than I could ever adequately express here. But as interesting and valuable as a normal life and career would be there is something much more interesting, valuable, challenging and dangerous that you may HAVE to do. For the sake of both Narma and Earth, I am asking that you trust me and Harry and continue with what he started.
‘I know this is a lot to expect from any human being, let alone a young man that is just now learning about all of this. It was our choice to let you lead a normal life as long as possible, and hopefully it was the right choice. It also helped hide us all from the beings of Evil that seek our deaths. Yes, Evil with a capital ‘E’. Most things you will have to try to rectify or defend against are the fault of the Dark One and other creatures that deal in true Evil.
‘People are going to get hurt and die but it’s not your fault. Despite your powers you aren’t God and lots of bad things are likely to happen that even you can’t prevent. Don’t blame yourself; just do the best you can. The only time you can blame yourself is if you don’t do the best you can. Even then, you need to understand that you’re basically only one human, despite your gifts.
‘Your natural reaction to all this is that you probably want nothing to do with it. That was certainly my reaction; long ago, and it was Harry’s also. But without us, Evil of some sort would have already triumphed here on Earth years ago. It is likely that everything and everybody on Earth would be dead already without Harry and his elf friends. We can’t just let ourselves be slaughtered or enslaved; we must defend ourselves, our world, and our species. We didn’t pick ourselves to be champions against Evil, but that’s the way things ended up. If we falter, Evil will triumph. That’s just how things are.
‘Some words of caution. Even if you are not the Chosen One, you will face great temptation as well as exercise great powers. Remember that you’re in this situation and doing what you are doing for everyone, not for yourself. Don’t ever get caught up in it so much that you lose sight of who you are, and you’ll be OK. You’re our son. Do us proud!
‘There are others that fight Evil. You will be tempted to develop friends and allies, and you will need to do so, but always be very cautious. They may harbor hidden Evil, or ordinary selfish motives or other types of evil. Not even all trolls and elves can be trusted, even those that may appear to have the best intentions. Certainly many humans can’t be trusted, including governments, much as we’ve come to appreciate Rick.
‘Above all, remember that you will never be alone, for our love is with you always.
‘Mom and Dad.’
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