Mary Anne Gruen - The House of Red

Overnight, the trolls began their assault.

Once again Wendell’s kingdom did well at holding back the enemy. Rose and her part-wolf soldiers sniffed out the trolls, howled their locations, and led Lieutenant Burke’s human soldiers in the fight.

Cinderella’s troops did not have the advantage of the wolf soldier’s keen sense of smell yet. They were still trying to pull their new furry recruits together. But the First Kingdom was a large and well-off one. They had many soldiers and they were all fresh and ready. General Orozco felt their sheer numbers would be enough to hold the trolls until their battle plans were in place.

As for the Second Kingdom, their troops were now in tatters. During the day’s fighting, the generals had their men change into various shades of brown. By nightfall they were more properly dressed. But they were also very tired and unprepared for another twelve hours of battle. Still, they fought bravely on for their country.

In the morning the giants switched places with the trolls.

Hoban the blond giant was already getting irritated with the wolf and human troops of the Fourth Kingdom. He planned to complain to Bluebell after the day’s fighting was over. After all, why did he have to fight all by himself. Why couldn’t some of the troll troops keep the wolves at bay? Then he could get farther.

Marron the redheaded giant was pretty much of the same opinion by lunchtime. The new wolf troops of the First Kingdom were very eager to show what they could do. Some of them were jumping up and digging their teeth into whatever they could grab onto. Then they held on, not letting go till he specifically threw them off. And their howling just wouldn’t let up. Between them and the endless number of human archers, he lost some of the ground he’d taken the day before.

Spider alone was advancing on his target, the castle of Red Riding Hood the Third.

Now that the Second Kingdom’s army wasn’t wearing red, they were harder to see through the trees and more of their arrows were finding their mark in the giant. But Spider was thick skinned. His hairy arms were covered with scars, a silent monument to all the battles he’d fought. Most of them had been inflicted by other giants with gigantic knives. So, the little arrows of the Second Kingdom were as nothing to him.

A little after noon, Spider stepped out of the woods. Burly and his men were close behind. They wanted to be on hand to take the castle and claim the kingdom. It wasn’t long before Burly realized the importance of his decision. For suddenly out of the sky a small contingency of green clad elves appeared. Leaf Fall’s husband Woodbine had gone into hiding in the waterfall again that morning and she had sent a few of her troops in defense of her friend Red’s kingdom.

The elves surrounded Spider’s head and fired a steady stream of arrows. These arrows hurt more than the ones shot by the humans because these had the sting of magic. But still, none of them was strong enough to kill. Spider swatted at the elves and managed to knock a couple of them out of the air. Burly’s men took aim and sent a barrage of arrows at them from below. Three of the elves were struck. Several others were driven back.

Spider strode rapidly to the castle. There were no people on the road that afternoon. They’d all heard of his advance and had gone into hiding. Burly and his soldiers were right at his heels, shooting freely at the attacking elves.

As the enemy approached, the castle guard of the House of Red emerged. They were in shades of brown as the troops in the woods had been that morning. The Chancellor had persuaded the Queen overnight that it was a necessity. The guards shot arrows and launched catapults against the giant. At first they held him off. But then Burly’s troops joined the fight and the going was harder. Spider caught a few of the rocks they catapulted at him and threw them back, causing major damage to both the guards and the castle. The elves were still in the fight, but their numbers had decreased and it was harder for them to fight now with so many arrows and rocks flying through the air.

Finally, the castle guard scattered and the elves fell further back. Spider stepped in and started ripping off pieces of the castle roof.

“The north side,” Burly yelled up to his giant cohort. “She’s probably on the north side.”

“Oh,” Spider said. With heavy feet he stomped to the back of the castle.

The north side had the best view of the river. Burly had guessed correctly that Queen Red Riding Hood the Third would choose the highest and most scenic spot for her royal rooms.Spider pulled off two sections from the roof before he came to the one belonging to the Queen. “Fee Fi Fo Feem!” he shouted in true giant style. “I smell the blood of an elegant queen.”

He reached inside the castle from the top and groped through Queen Red’s closets with his hairy hands. Finally, the Queen’s screams told him that he’d found his quarry. He pulled his hand out and held it up above the parts of the roof that were still intact. His fist held not only the Queen, but a confusing array of red gowns as well. Spider blew off the excess clothing like chaff from wheat till only the Queen herself remained.

Red Riding Hood the Third screamed and cried and commanded that he put her down. But of course he didn’t. He caught her by her gown as she ran around on his hand and held her up in front of his face so he could get a better look at her. Even in the midst of having her castle raided, she was well turned out. She had on a dress of red moiré decorated with silver tassels. On her head had been a series of combs with more silver tassels. But they’d fallen out in the struggle with the giant. Her beautiful red hair was now in a state of confusion. And her matching moiré shoes had fallen onto the roof.

As the Queen screamed once again for the giant to put her down, a stick-like man came dashing out of the main castle doors. He threw himself at the giant and began fearlessly pummeling his large leather boots. "Stop!” the man shouted. “Let her go!” It was the Queen’s private secretary Ichabod.

The giant looked down vaguely at the thin little man and decided to ignore him. Burly motioned for two of his men to take Ichabod prisoner.

“Time for lunch!” Spider said, his yellow eyes glowing. And he guided the dangling Queen in the direction of his open mouth.

Ichabod fainted.

Burly couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “No! NO!” he yelled up.

But Spider wasn’t paying any attention.

“NOOO!!!” Burly screamed. Then he started hitting Spider’s leg with his battle-ax.

“What?” Spider said, looking down.

“She’s a valuable captive!” Burly bellowed. “She probably knows lots of secrets. First we torture her. Then we question her. And after that we kill her publicly in a real showy way. Like maybe with fire, so everyone can hear her scream for a really long time. Not only is it more fun that way, but her people will see it and know she’s dead. There won’t be any body to rally around and no myth that she’s hiding somewhere. Her people will be totally mortified and at our mercy.”

“No lunch?” Spider asked.

“You got a whole kingdom full of people here. Eat all of ‘em if you like. Only not her.”

“O.K.” Spider said, his pockmarked face filled with disappointment.

“Now put her down and my men will take her to the dungeon.”

Spider did as he was instructed, dropping Queen Red Riding Hood unceremoniously in a red moiré heap.

“Take her away!” Burly told his men. “And take the skinny one too. He can keep her company.”

Two of the troll soldiers stepped forward and took hold of the disheveled Queen. “But how do you know they got a dungeon?” one of them asked.

“Oh!” Burly couldn’t believe he was surrounded by such idiots. “Because it’s a castle. All castles have dungeons! Don’t you know that? Just keep going downstairs till you find it. And, Spider.” Burly pointed his battle-ax up at the giant. “Before you go eating the populace, could you put the roof back on the castle. This is my palace now and I don’t want no rain damage.”

Spider nodded his understanding and started reaching for pieces of roof.

“There. That’s a good giant,” Burly said. “Real nicey nice! Now.” He pointed to all the soldiers on his right. “All of you, into the castle. And you.” He pointed to the bulk of the soldiers on his left. “Secure the town!” He looked up into the sky for elves, but they had all gone.

Burly stood proudly on the steps of Red’s castle. One hand was on his hip and the other held his battle-ax jauntily over one shoulder. He couldn’t see himself at that moment, but he was sure he looked magnificent. He had taken over a kingdom. Something neither his brother nor his sister had been able to do so far. This win would give him an edge. After this, they wouldn’t be equal to him. He would be the dominant one. He would be the one and only King of the Trolls. Today the Second Kingdom, tomorrow the Sixth. The crazy Naked Emperor’s great-grandson, would be no match for him and his trolls. Perhaps with this win, they could get even more giants to join their cause.