Patty Liu - Silent Reflections

The small band of travelers made their way through the Second Kingdom. It was night so the going went slow. Sometime during the night they found the billy goats and their slave troll lounging around a small campfire by a tree. Tony laughed at the hilarious sight of three little billy goats dragging a troll around by a leash. But they had been in a hurry so Virginia only thanked them for the shoes and gave them back.

“Hey, it says you only used up two questions here,” the troll called out as they were leaving their camp. Virginia turned around and said that they did. They never got around to using the others but other than that, the shoes had been very helpful.

“Baaaah… well. It’s only right you know. You should get all your four questions,” the smallest billy goat said. He turned to his billy goat companions and they murmured amongst themselves and seemed to have come to a decision. “We have decided that you can keep the shoes and use up your remaining questions. Then you can return it to us. We will have the troll here program it so only two more questions can be asked. After the day is over, it will still recharge but only allow two more questions to be asked until we re-program it. Here’s a bonus too, we’ll program it so anyone can wear the shoes. But only two more questions, all right?”

Virginia was surprised by their generosity and accepted the shoes. She thanked them and gave each of them a scratch behind their ears. She also gave the troll a pat on the head too.

“I thought I’d let you know that I remembered what my name is. It’s Shaquil O’Neal!” the troll declared, so sure of himself with a huge grin.

“What?!” Virginia and Tony both cried out with confused expressions.

“No wait, that doesn’t sound right. Where in the Nine Kingdoms did I get that? Damn, I forgot it again.” The troll started to mumble to himself and Tony and Virginia just shook their heads and left the little campfire.

The sun was out and the travelers were getting tired. They had trod through the entire Red Riding Hood forest the whole night and hadn’t gotten a wink of sleep. Wolf seemed to be the only one bursting with energy still and he kept urging his companions to keep going.

“Wolf. We’re tired. We need to sleep,” Virginia said with a yawn.

“But the sun is out. It’s a beautiful day. You can’t go to sleep!” Wolf bounded from tree to tree.

“Wolf. Listen to Virginia. We don’t have the kind of agility that you may have. We’re practically walking in our sleep right now.” Tony stretched his arms high above his head. “Besides, we’re not in that much of a hurry, are we?”

“I suppose not. Fine, fine. We’ll stop by the edge of the river and catch some shuteye.”

Patrick explained that since they were going to stop by the river, he might as well make a short trip to the Mother Goose village and gather some provisions for their trek across the Fourth Kingdom later on. He claimed he wasn’t too tired and he wanted to check on his pumpkins, too. So he left the group promising that he’d meet up with them across the river.