Tami and the Nakesh Troll
by
Erik C. Martin
***
Tami and the Nakesh Troll
Copyright 2011 by Erik C. Martin
***
The first rock stung Tami’s arm and made her yelp. The second rock sailed past her head and set her off running down the gravel path toward the forest. Another rock cut through the leaves to Tami’s right, while a chant of “Fatty, fatty, freckle face,” broke out amongst the rock throwers.
Looking over her shoulder, Tami was dismayed to see that her three tormentors had decided to chase her today. Sometimes they were content to just tease her and throw a few stones, or maybe some crab apples, or an old tomato. Tami would run and they would laugh with satisfaction. But when they were particularly bored, they would chase her and subject Tami to any variety of torments and indignations if they caught her.
Tami left the gravel path and cut down a narrow trail into the forest. Sharp thorns tore at Tami’s legs and briars got tangled in her stockings and stuck in clumps to her dress.
“Fatty, fatty, freckle face!” came the chanting from too close behind her.
Kasha, the ring-leader, was ahead of the others, a rock in either hand. As Tami glanced back, Kasha hurled one of the rocks and struck Tami’s shoulder. The pain spurred her legs onto greater efforts. Blindly, she cut down overgrown paths at random, ignoring the branches that whipped across her face. In her haste, Tami didn’t notice when she ran past an oak that had long ago caught fire from a lightning strike, and now resembled a wild, ebony-skinned old man with white hair, a beard, and outstretched arms. She did not see Kasha and her friends stop dead just before the tree and quickly turn back toward the village. It wasn’t until she thought that her lungs would explode and she could run no more that she stopped, panting, hands on her knees. When she looked up, Tami suddenly realized that she was lost.
Worried, she looked around, hoping to see something that she recognized. There was nothing, not a tree, rock, or stream that looked familiar. A small creek was off to her left. Maybe it fed the stream that ran past her village. But she had no idea which way to follow it; she might wind up even farther away than she was now. Tami decided that the best thing to do was to try and backtrack. However, after just a few forks and faint branches, she had to admit that she had no idea from which way she had come. She had simply been running, taking trails at random in hope of eluding her pursuit.
She really was lost.
Worse, she began to suspect why nothing was familiar here and why her pursuers had abandoned the chase. She knew all of the forest for miles surrounding Nakesh Village, except for one section—Troll’s March.
Just then, to confirm her fears, Tami heard a horrible sound come from behind a nearby group of bushes. It sounded like two, congested boulders scraping together with a deep, bassoon accompaniment.
She froze. Then slowly, very slowly, Tami turned in the direction of the sound. She heard it again; it kind of lingered this time. The bushes moved, or was it her imagination?
“Only the wind and some stones falling from the cliff side beyond,” she said, even though there was no wind and the cliff side was on the opposite side of the creek.
For a third time, she heard the noise.
“Beavers gnawing on a log. The sounds are amplified by the arrangement of the trees,” she suggested to herself.
Run, her instincts whispered. But her feet wouldn’t let her. Her stiff body, she found, would only let her inch slowly forward. Sweat ran down Tami’s face and into her eyes. Gnats and mosquitoes, attracted by the sweat, buzzed noisily around her head. When Tami was right next to the bush, she stood on tiptoes and peered over the top.
A horrific face stared back at her. It was mottled and green with big, watery eyes and a bulbous nose from which mucous ran freely.
“Troll!” she yelled.
Now her feet worked and Tami backpedaled, turning just in time to trip over an exposed root. She fell, landing sprawled out in the dirt and leaves.
The troll stomped out of the bushes behind her. Tami tried to crawl away, but a massive hand grasped her by the ankle and pulled her up into the air. Effortlessly, the troll held her high, so that she was eye to eye with the monster. Its breath was awful and the look of the troll’s dull, filthy teeth made her shudder.
“Rawr! What are you doing here?” it asked in a stuffy-sounding voice.
“Nothing! I just got lost. Sorry to have troubled you. I’ll just be going now,” Tami said.
“Going? Plump thing like you? I don’t think so. I think I’ll have you for dinner,” the troll said. Then it seemed to shudder and emitted the same noise that Tami had first heard. Mucous and spittle sprayed out of the troll’s nose and mouth and wetted her down thoroughly.
“Dinner? No! I mean, you don’t want to eat me.”
“Why not?”
Twice more the troll shuddered and blasted Tami with snot and spit.
“Are you sick?” she asked.
“Is nuffing. Just a cold.”
“But I could help you with that,” Tami said.
“What could you do?” the troll asked suspiciously.
“Put me down and I’ll tell you.”
“Okay, but don’t try to run,” he warned.
“I promise.”
The troll set Tami down, more gently than she expected. She picked herself up and wiped the troll spit from her face as best as she could.
“How can you help me?” the troll asked again.
“My mother, her chicken soup is a guaranteed cure for a cold. If you don’t eat me, I’ll bring you a pot of it, a big one,” Tami said.
The troll scratched its head, thinking. Its expression was sour but Tami couldn’t tell if that was normal or not. Another sneeze wracked its massive frame. This one seemed to start deep from within and when it was over, the troll seemed to sag. It sat down in front of Tami, its eyes watering freely. It sighed.
“If I let you go, you won’t come back,” it said.
“I will. We’ll make a bargain and then shake on it. That means we’re both honor bound to fulfill our part. Do you know what honor is? It is very important to the people of my village,” Tami told the troll.
“I know what honor is. Humans don’t believe a troll can have honor, but it isn’t true. Very well, we’ll make a bargain. I don’t eat you and you bring me the cure for this cold—by tomorrow,” he said.
“It’s a deal,” said Tami, extending her hand. Gently, the troll took her hand in his huge one and shook it.
“Umm, the only thing is,” Tami continued, “I really am lost. Do you know the way back to my village?”
“Yes, I can show you,” he said standing.
They walked back through the forest together, the troll pointing out the correct paths and the landmarks that would help Tami find her way back. When they reached the burnt oak tree, the troll stopped.
“This is as far as I go. Can you get back from here?” it asked.
“Yes, I know this part of the forest. Thank you. Umm, my name is Tami. Do you have a name?”
“Of course I have a name.”
“What is it?”
“Why do you care?”
“I don’t know. I was just curious,” she said.
“Just bring me the cold cure, Tami of Nakesh Village, or I will come to your house and maybe have your whole family for dinner,” the troll said.