A red haze flowed through the small bedroom as Linda started to float into a deep tranquil sleep. The busy world faded away into nothingness as the red mist continued to seep into her bedroom like dry ice.

Soon she wasn't in her room anymore, but by a brook in the middle of a green meadow, with a deep crystal blue sky. The air was warm and smelled like roses.

"Where am I?" the teenager asked as she looked around.

"I would think that you would already know." A slightly older man approached her. He had looks that rivaled Wolf's, Linda thought. "You're in the nine kingdoms. The Third Kingdom to be exact."

"What?" Linda spun in a circle. "How, huh?" She laughed to herself, wondering how she could have missed something so simple; "Oh... this is a dream. That explains a lot." But then again, if this was a dream, where was Wolf? He usually showed up by this time in her dreams.

"Maybe, and maybe not." He gave her a sly grin. Those green eyes he had twinkled ever so slightly and Linda felt a good swoon coming on. He sat on a log that was next to the bank of the small stream, facing her.

"Wait a minute, I thought the Third Kingdom was supposed to be polluted with beanstalks and all that yucky stuff."

"Not all of it is," he replied in his secretive tone.

He looked so cute; she just wanted to jump him, but then remembered that this was not an NC-17 fic and decided against it. "So, who are you supposed to be. No, let me guess, you're a half-wolf... all the hotties around here turn out to be half-wolves." She sat next to him on the log.

"Nope,"´ He said. "I'm a troll."

Linda blinked, surprised and alarmed by his answer. "Funny, you don't look like a troll." "What's a troll supposed to look like?" he asked.

She thought for a minute, remembering the trolls from the movie. "They're tall, and ugly, and ewww..."´ Not realizing his reaction to her answer she went on, "Just hideous."

Standing up abruptly, she could see that he was angry, "Well, I'm sorry if I don't fit your stereotypical picture of a troll." He sighed. "Okay, so most of us look like that, but that's only because of the magic shoes and all the other drugs."

Linda shook her head. "Okay, back up, reverse, what are you talking about?"

"Well, when we're born, we all look like fairly normal humans," he started.

Linda didn't believe it, and look on her face showed her opinion.

"It's true!" He told her indignantly. "Then sooner or later we all become addicted to something, whether it be magic shoes, or dwarf grass, or pixie dust ... The addiction changes us ... Makes ordinary people turn into monsters."

Thinking about it, Linda sighed. "Guess that sounds about right. On earth, the Tenth Kingdom, similar things happen."

He sat next to her again. "So, you understand? Good." He sighed and relaxed. "Luckily I've been sober for a few years now, long enough to turn back into my own loveable self."

Linda giggled, softening up to him again, and kissed him on the cheek. "Yep. A quite loveable self, if I could say so. Damn, you're really cute, you wouldn't by any chance want to go to my prom?" She laughed again, bitter-sweetly; knowing it was going to be impossible to take him with her. Her body could already feel the wakening hours starting to creep up on them. Daylight was coming, and she had to go.

"I'll see you again, Linda," the troll boy told her as she started to drift away to the Tenth Kingdom.

And the mist overtook her.