Patty Liu - Silent Reflections

"Shhh, did you hear that?"

"What, Melody? I didn't hear anything," Patrick whispered back to Melody at his side. Wolf and Virginia had walked up ahead and left Patrick with Melody. The day was getting warmer and the sun beat down on them frying the hair on their heads. They had left the forest some while ago so there were no trees to give them cover.

"No, listen, Patrick." Melody stopped in her tracks. She’d have sworn on her mother's grave that she had heard something. It had sounded like a bunch of hooves walking on planks of wood. "There it goes again. Do you hear it?"

Patrick strained his ears and began to hear the same thing. To him it sounded like someone was hammering nails into wood. He looked towards Wolf and Virginia, who had also stopped and seemed to be listening to something. Wolf turned around and waved to them to catch up.

"Huff puff, I take it you both are hearing the same thing we are?" Wolf asked when Patrick and Melody caught up to them. They were in a large clearing of high grass and they looked in all directions and couldn't see anything.

"I think it's coming from over that rise there." Virginia pointed to a small hill just a little bit to the east. The four of them slowly and quietly made their way over the small rise and quickly dropped onto their stomachs to sneak a peek. They saw an ugly troll hammering away at wooden planks. Just one troll, though. Usually trolls traveled in groups but there was only one. And he seemed like he was concentrating pretty hard at his task.

"He's on a leash!" Melody whispered. She pointed out the a thin leather collar with a leash attached to it that the troll wore around his neck. But, so far, nothing was holding onto the leash to keep the troll at bay. The grass was pretty high and the troll stood above it hammering nails into the wooden planks. They couldn't quite see what he was making, though, for the grass covered up most of the wooden project. Then they saw the grass rustle next to the troll.

"I think something's approaching the troll," Virginia hissed out and pointed to the movement. "Oh my gosh, I can't believe what I'm seeing here!"

Three little billy goats trotted out of the grass into a small clearing next to the troll. There was a large one, a medium sized one and a small one. They began baahing at the troll and he rolled his eyes and kept on hammering. The smaller billy goat skipped up to the troll and grabbed his leash in his mouth and pulled. The other two billy goats baahed to encourage the smaller one.

"It's the three billy goats gruff and the troll from underneath the bridge!" Virginia exclaimed out loud. Her companions quickly shushed her but it was too late. The billy goats had heard and they were trotting up the rise to them with the smaller one pulling the troll behind them.

Wolf quickly stood up and was followed by Virginia, Melody and Patrick. He leaned over to Virginia and whispered in her ear,"Huff puff. They're pretty scrawny. Don't think they would be too tasty. What do you think?"

Virginia nudged Wolf to be quiet. The goats and the troll finally reached them at the top of the rising and they stood staring at them with three pairs of big round eyes and one pair of squinty eyes that rolled up again at the sight of them.

"Baaaaaah... for your information, we are the descendants of the first smallest billy goat. This is our slave troll that we caught. Baaaahhhh... Who are you? What are you doing here? Are you spying on us?" the bigger billy goat said in his loudest voice. The group of humans, and of course half-wolf, stared at the billy goats and the troll and they couldn't help but snicker at the sight. They made a pretty funny picture. Three little billy goats with matted, stringy hair and tiny horns had a huge, ugly troll on a leash.

"We asked you a question, baaaaah," said the middle-sized billy goat.

"You might as well answer them. They're pretty persistent buggers," the troll growled out.

"Baaaah... who said you could talk?" The bigger billy goat butted the troll in his knee. The troll rolled his eyes and pretended that it hurt.

"We were not spying. We are searching for our missing friends when we heard the troll's banging," Virginia calmly explained to the three agitated billy goats.

"Oh, baaaaah... why didn't you just say so then," the smallest billy goat baaahed. He tugged at the leash again and trotted down to the grass below. His billy goat companions followed him. Virginia gave Wolf a questioning look and Wolf just raised his hands and shrugged. They followed the goats down the hill. Melody grabbed Patrick's hand and pulled him down the hill too.

"Baaaaaaah... we're building a bridge," the littlest billy goat announced to them.

Virginia looked all around and didn't see any water. "What are you building the bridge for? I don't see any water and the river is pretty south of us from here," she asked the billy goats.

"For your information, baaaah... there IS water around," the medium sized billy goat remarked as-a-matter-of-factly. "There is water right over that high ridge over there. You can't see it though. It's a big lake right now."

"Huff, puff. There shouldn't be a lake there. I've lived in the Second Kingdom most of my life and I don't remember there ever being a lake." Wolf leaned down and examined the small bridge that the troll had been hammering at. "This is one funny looking bridge."

"Who asked you, half-breed! Baaahhh..." The biggest billy goat narrowed his eyes and glared at Wolf with malice.

"He didn't mean anything by it. It's a good bridge, with just a few minor problems. Perhaps I can help. I am pretty good with handywork," Patrick chimed in and squatted down to peer closely at the rickety bridge.

"Good. Our slave troll here is a nimrod. Baaah..." the smallest billy goat said. The troll just rolled his eyes again and ignored the comment.

"Where is the lake?" Wolf asked.

"Just over the ridge, I told you. It's the footprints of a giant that got flooded in. It's right by the border heading into the Sixth Kingdom. Baaahhhh... in order to get around the flooded footprint, you have to cross the boarder into the Sixth Kingdom. We're too lazy to go around so we're building a bridge to cross it."

"But won't it take longer to build the bridge?" Virginia asked.

The three billy goats peered at each other and shrugged their little billy goat shoulders. Their slave troll started to laugh and was quickly silenced by a tug on his leash.

"Well, we suppose it would. Baaaaaah... but we have time. Besides it's the troll that's building it."

Virginia decided to give up on the subject. She wasn't going to get anywhere. Patrick announced that he could help them build a more solid bridge with a few tricks up his sleeve. The three billy goats got excited and started prancing around on their little hooves in the grass.

"Pay attention, slave troll, so you can build one just like it," the smallest billy goat said.

The troll grunted and rolled his eyes. He sat down on the dirt ground and pretended he was paying attention while he picked at something stuck in his finger. Virginia found him pretty harmless compared to the trolls she had met over a year ago. This troll wasn't as fierce and ugly looking. He seemed to be just downright bored out of his mind. Virginia gathered up her courage and sat down next to the troll, making sure to leave about a foot of space between them.

"How come you're their slave troll?" she whispered so the billy goats couldn't hear her. They were busy ordering Patrick around anyway. Melody was helping Patrick by handing him things he needed and Wolf just stared at the pathetically skinny goats that were so unappetizing to him.

"What's it to you?" the troll grunted.

"I was just curious. You don't have to tell me."

"Well, I'll tell you if you get this damn splinter out of my finger." He shoved his hand into her face, showing her his tiny injury. Virginia recoiled from the large and dirty hand in front of her. But she quickly got ahold of herself and studied the troll's hand. There was a tiny splinter imbedded under the skin of his thumb. She pinched the skin and the troll winced and shut his eyes tight.

"Relax," she told him and wiggled his arm to relax him. She pinched at the skin again and grasped the tiny splinter between her fingernails and pulled it out. "There, all done."

The troll looked down at his hand and gave a wide and missing teeth grin. "Suck an elf, you got it out, Lady! Lots of thanks!" He pulled at his leash and grinned again. "You wanted to know why I'm their slave, right? There's not much to tell. The troll king died and the troll kingdom went crazy. I decided to venture out and do some exploring." He picked at something in his teeth and continued, "Then I met these three billy goats. They're completely out of their noggin if you don't mind me telling you so. They're obsessed with that whole tale of their great great great granddad who killed the troll under the bridge. I’m not really their slave, though. They just think I am. I’m just playing along with the story cuz I don’t have much else to do."

Virginia laughed at that and Wolf looked over at the sound.

"Huff, puff. What are you doing Virginia?" He squatted down to listen in.

"The slave troll here is telling me the story about how he met the billy goats," she said.

"I do have a name, you know. But no one has called me by it for so long that I think I forgot it," the troll mumbled underneath his breath.

"I can't help it, Virginia, but I think I'm going to give the goats some of our food. They are too skinny and just looking at them is making my eyes water," Wolf announced. "Wolves don't normally offer food but I'll be an exception."

Wolf rummaged through his knapsack and brought out some crusty bread and raw carrots. He handed some bread to the troll, too, who narrowed his eyes at it and snatched it away. The three billy goats munched happily on the carrots and baaaahed constantly.

"You humans are great! You have helped us out so much. Baaaah... I think we should give you something in return," announced the smallest billy goat when he was done munching.

"Let's give them the slave troll's shoes!" The biggest billy goat cried out.

"No, they're mine!" the troll yelled. He scrambled over to his bag and picked it up, hugging it tightly to his chest. “Stay away from me! The shoes are mine!”

“Oh, no, you don’t have to give us anything. We were just being nice, you don’t have to repay us. It’s quite all right. We don’t want the troll’s shoes.” Virginia quickly tried to calm down the troll. Who would want his dirty shoes anyway?

“You’re gonna want HIS shoes! Baaaaah...” the biggest billy goat chimed in. “They’re magical shoes!”

Virginia and Wolf recoiled at the thought of magic shoes. Their past experience with enchanted shoes had left them pretty wary of them. The idea of another pair was making them extremely uncomfortable. They sure as heck didn’t want to become obsessed with the shoes again like before.

“What kind of magic shoes are they?” Melody became interested and asked nonchalantly. She loved to get her hands are anything magical.

“The Shoes of Truth!” all three billy goats baahed at once. They started prancing around again and one of them tried to grab the bag from the troll. The troll snatched his bag away and jumped onto a rock.

“No, you can’t have them! No!” he called out with frustration. He could easily snap the necks of the billy goats to kill them but he just couldn’t do it. They had become the closest things he’d ever had to friends.

“Seriously, we don’t want his shoes,” Virginia cried out again. “It’s really all right.”

“Huff, puff. Wait a minute, Virginia. I’m getting kind of curious about these Shoes of Truth,” Wolf whispered to her. “They might come in handy. If you know what I mean?”

Virginia gave Wolf a questioning look and finally realization dawned on her.

“How about if we compromise?” Virginia announced finally when the troll had calmed himself down. The billy goats stopped their prancing and stared up at Virginia.

“What did you have in mind? Baaaah,” the billy goats asked together.

“How about if we just BORROW them?”

The billy goats looked at one another and started whispering amongst themselves. The troll stood on the rock and gave Virginia a pleading look. She had helped him get out the splinter and she was only going to borrow the shoes. Maybe that wasn’t so bad, he contemplated to himself.

“We shall accept,” the billy goats finally said. “Baaaah… but only on one condition. Only one of you can wear them and you must return them by tomorrow.”

Virginia nodded and accepted the terms. “Don’t worry, Mr. Troll. We will return your shoes. We will take good care of them.”

The troll hesitated but finally got down off the rock and handed Virginia his dirty brown bag.

“How do the shoes work?” Patrick chimed in, now that he had finally completed the little bridge that he was fixing for the billy goats. He noticed that Melody was looking very distressed and she was absentmindedly picking at the ends of her sleeve and she was also biting on her lower lip. Something was obviously bothering her so he went up to her and gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze. She looked up at him from her daze and gave a weak smile. Now that Melody knew the shoes were the magical Shoes of Truth, she became afraid. What if the shoes revealed that she was out to kill Virginia? She silently wished that the billy goats would change their minds but it was already too late.

“Baaaah… whoever wears the shoes will speak the truth when asked a question about anything or everything. But only four questions are allowed within a day. They aren’t of the best quality so the recharging time is about a day,” the smallest billy goat explained. “Now, choose who will wear them and I will have the slave troll program the shoes so it will only allow that person to wear them for the day.”

Virginia and Wolf looked at each other, then peered over at Melody and Patrick. Patrick shrugged to let them know that he didn’t really care if he wore them or not. Melody looked like she wasn’t paying much attention to the whole thing.

“What do you think?” Virginia whispered to Wolf. “Should one of us wear them?”

Wolf scratched at his forehead and deliberated over the situation. Virginia and he both wanted to know who was behind the sabotaging, but they weren’t sure if Melody or Patrick were the instigators. What if it was someone else entirely? But whoever wore the shoes would automatically know the answer to anything so it didn’t really matter who wore them.

“Virginia, you wear them,” Wolf finally said after contemplating. Virginia raised her eyebrows in question.

“What if I become obsessed with the shoes like last time?” she asked with a worried frown.

“Don’t worry, my love, I’m here for you if you need me. I won’t let you get enchanted like before,” Wolf reassured Virginia.

She finally nodded and agreed with Wolf. She told the billy goats to program the shoes for her to wear.

The billy goats told their slave troll to program the shoes accordingly. The troll took the shoes out of the bag from Virginia and began winding up the shoes, twisting them this way and that. The shoes were plain looking. There was nothing extravagant about them at all. They looked like a pair of brown penny-loafers, actually.

The troll fitted the shoes to Virginia’s feet and the shoes wrapped themselves around her feet snugly and tight. The troll took them off again and began pressing them here and there.

“All right, the shoes are now fitted to your feet only. So only you can wear them. If someone needs to ask you a question, they must speak your name first while you wear the shoes. You can take them off and put them on whenever you like. But it can only work four times,” the troll announced after polishing the shoes on his sleeve. “I want them back. Don’t walk in mud with them. Keep them clean and try not to walk around in them too much.”

Virginia took the shoes but didn’t put them on right away. She thanked the troll and the billy goats and stuffed the shoes into her knapsack. Patrick and Melody gathered up their things also and Wolf said a farewell to the billy goats, ordering them to eat more. The billy goats baahed and promised they would try. They instructed the slave troll to pick up their little bridge and take it over to the footprint lake.

“Baaaah… meet us back here tomorrow to return the shoes,” the smallest billy goat cried out behind him.