Thalenguard and the Trolls
OR
Eregon's Prank that Resulted in Thalenguard's Fear of Trolls
Arianala crept along the forest floor, her feet leaving no marks on the soft ground. Her eyes darted around her rapidly as she watched for any sign of pursuit. 'Where are you? I know you are near by. The forest is aflutter with your voice...'
Suddenly, from behind, a loud cry could be heard. Though the sound could have easily been mistaken for the scream of a woman, Arianala knew better. Cutting back across her path, she darted forward though the forest, only stopping when she found herself on the edge of a rock face. And what she saw nearly sent her tumbling over the side.
Down below, Thalenguard was darting around a clearing within a ring of rocks with three different female trolls chasing him in circles. Each of them tried to grab at him as he ran past, and one of them even dove after him a few times before he finally managed to jump back out through the break in the ring and run off into the forest, all three trolls right on his tail.
As her brothers frantic shouts of distress died down, she caught the sound of laughing floating up from below. Specifically she caught the sound of two laughs she knew all too well. Dropping back into the shadows, she crept along the top of the cliff face until it dropped low enough to a rock she could jump down from there to the top of the stone ring.
Reaching the far side of the ring from where she had been, she found Eregon and Baljin nearly rolling on the ground in laughter. Eyes narrowed, she jumped silently from the stone she was perched on and crept behind her two laughing brothers. As their voices finally quieted down, she took the moment to slip up behind them and straightened up.
"What did you two do to Thal this time?" her voice was stern, and she had to work hard to not laugh as both of her brothers jumped into the air and turned towards her, smacking into each other in the process and landing on the ground hard. The sight before her nearly caused her to fall over in a fit of laughter. Both of her bothers sat on the ground, their skin a green so bright she thought she might go blind and their hair an equally bright pink. Covering her mouth with her hand, she cleared her throat in an attempt to stifle her laughter but found it futile. She finally burst after a few seconds, having to lean against the rock to keep herself upright.
Behind her, another figure broke free from the trees. Saruine stood at the edge of the underbrush he had just crashed though, his staff at the ready. Leaves stuck out of his hair and his face was splattered with mud from his mad dash through the woods to his sisters side. Spotting his hysterical sister, he hurried to her side and attempted to determine the source of her near-hysterical laughter as he leaned her more against the rocks.
"Ari, what's wrong?" asked Saruine in concern. Instead of responding, however, Arianala could only point at the two figures kneeling on the ground. Turing to face his brothers, Saruine froze for a moment simply staring at the two disgruntled figures. Then, his lips began to twitch and he too fell into a fit of laughter.
It took several minutes for the twins to finally stop laughing enough to begin moving off into the woods to search for their brother, though it wasn't hard as all they had to do was follow the screams.
In the end, however, it took them nearly a week to find their brother, who had managed to climb up a tall tree to hide from the female trolls. When they pulled him down he smelled horrible and looked to have been drenched in something yellow and sticky. Arianala just shook her head, knowing what happened, and started leading her poor brother to a near by lake. Saruine figured it out as well and saved Thalenguard from having to answer when Durin, who they had found hiding in a cave from a group of giant eagles who had gone after him with a fervor similar to the trolls, began asking questions which seemed to only make Thalenguards face take on a pale and horrified expression.
"Its Troll pee," supplied Saruine sympathetically as he lead his still shaken brother towards the river. He knew all too well how horrible being chased by a troll could be, having had it happen to him many times while collecting supplies. "They marked their territory."
Eregon and Baljin woke up a few days after they had found Thalengard smelling of something foul with a flock of female ducks sitting outside their windows. After that, none of the four boys ever dared to steal any kind of animal pheromone from Arianala and Saruine's workshop again.