Chalter three – the missing one

7 years ago

It was a bad day at the troll village. Some troll children – small children – had gone lost in the forest. With the rain starting some time later, their trail went down the drain. The parents were next to themself with worry. Peppy didn't know what to do. The forest was dangerous. And the search trups could not go in too far. They didn't know the forest too well.

„What do we do? What can we do? Where do we start?" In secret Peppy had hoped his secret adviser would come and just have a plan ready, but he didn't. Over the last year, this troll had come in to help him solve a bunch if problems and never said a word to praise himself. Their guardian angel. Peppy figured out, why he was never allowed to say something about his helper. And he wouldn't betray the trolls trust.

But he could really use some advice right now. Little did he know, the guardian angel was already on the case…

The young troll pushed against the storm and checked around him for any signs of the six children. As a guardian of the village, he placed check stations around the village to make sure, ir would be obvious, if something came into the village. It also worked, if something went out, but since actually noone ever went outside, it never happend. The only troll to leave the village, was the one to check the waterline. So noone else. But that also meant that noone else knew the forrest like that. So it fell on the guardian. King Peppy called him that and he kinda like the idea. Guardian angels were invisible. A good thing.

There was the next check point. And someone definitly left the safety of the village. In a drier spot were little footsteps and that made it official. The children came this way. Without hesitation the guardian walked into the same direction. They needed to be found and quickly.

The children were scared. The spider had caught them and now they were stuck in its net. With no way out.

„We're all gonna die.", Peach cried in horror and more tears fell down her face.

„No, we're not. They are gonna find us!", Woody retorted angrily.

„Face it! They don't know where we are!", Mendy screamed befor she started to cry too.

The others kept silent. Wind, Carron and Buttercup didn't know, what to say. Peach called for her mother a few times, but it had no use. In this storm, who would hear her?

One troll did. The guardian had followed the childrens trail and found the spiders net. The children were easy to spot. With their bright colours and fluffy hair, they struck everything. No wonder the spiders caughed them. The guardian needed to act fast, or the children would end as spider food.

How it happened, neither child could say. One moment they were trapped inside the net, the next Peach was gone. Her brother Woody screamed out for her, but Nowas quickly stunned, when Wind disappeared from next to him as well.

One after the other his friends vanished, until Woody was the last in the net. The spiders hadn't realized, what was going on jet, but they would soon. As soon as they felt the pull, when Woody felt something rip him off the net and threw him into the forrest. He fell through some leaves and landed on soft moos – unhurt. Peach threw herself at her brother and clung to his neck crying.

„Where are we?", Woody asked and stood up. His friends gathered around him. Everyone looked scared and worried, but uninjured.

„Better question. How do we get home?", Wind asked and gestured around.

„We could follow the light.", Buttercup suggested and pointed towards a lighter path of the forrest.

Befor anyone could say anything, Peach saw a Butterfly fly past her and ran after it with a squeal. Woody gasped and rushed after her, followed by his friends.

Little did they know, the butterfly was sent by their guardian angel, who followed them, to make sure, they got to the village safely. The butterfly would lead them right to the spot, where King Peppy planed to go with a search trupp this day. He would find the children and take them home. And none would be any wiser.

A loud snap from the right made the guardian flintch. One of the spiders had followed it's prey and closed in on the children, who couldn't hear it, due to their laughter and squealing. They to the village, without knowing, but they also didn't know about the spider behind them. Darn it. The guardian hoped, the children would make it and turned to the spider. He would protect the children with everything he had. So he attacked. The guardian jumped onto the spider and wrapped the hair around it, forcing it to turn around and run straight into a group of trees. That lead to him falling of, but it also disoriented the spider. The guardian used his hair to smash it around the spiders head and force it back. Away from the children, deeper into the forrest. Just when the spider reached a gab in the ground, where another creature waited for its dinner, it lashed out and threw the troll against a big boulder. A loud snapp ran over the clearing and the guardian felt a bone snap in his leg. It hurt! But there was no time. The spider was still there and it moved back towards the children, who where not safe jet.

With a jump the guardian kicked the spider the few extra meter backwards and watched, as it slipped down the gab towards its… well, the ine who would digest it soon enough.

With that done, the guardian slipped down and held his leg. But it was worse than that. His side was cut and bitten open. That was bad. With all the cuts and injuries he would have a hard time in the future. But first he had to make it back to the village…

A week later, the silent guardian found himself well enough to actually leave his house and go to the village. His leg was still in a splint and his middle was bandaged, but he made it.

Present

„I figures out, what happened a long time after. I noticed the injuries and heard the childrens story and it fell into place. Our secret guardian angel reinforced the perimeter and made sure to mark ways to move though some parts of the forrest, which were not to bad to be in.", Peppy ended his tale and smiled proudly. „We found the kids chasing a butterfly and everything returned to normal. Until about a year later…"

Hint No. 3: This troll knows the forrest.

I'm sorry for taking sooo long. Thanks for waiting. We had a sudden death in our family and there were lots of things to take care of. Again, I'm sorry. It's nice to see, you keep checking.

Love, Prim