Chapter Eight – The Spirit of the Wishing Well
Kikimora's map guided the Mashups deeper into the forest and towards Bergen Town. According to CJ, they were heading towards the original home of the Pop Trolls.
"I think I read somewhere that the spot where the Troll Tree grows was originally the home of all the genres." Ozzy said. "The first trolls had a different home nobody can find, but that home was destroyed somehow. So, the first trolls' grandkids moved everyone to where the Troll Tree is."
"Do you think our ancestors were the guardians of the Wishing Well?" Cadence wondered.
"I think we should find the well and get home soon." Blue looked skyward. "It's already lunchtime. If we don't get back before dark, our families will worry."
"We're almost there." Clampers said, staring at the map. "When we see a waterfall, we just need to find these kinds of flowers. They'll show us the way to the Wishing Well."
"Here it is!" Everyone joined Coral Blush on a small hill, and they looked down to see a river with a small waterfall. They hurried towards the water. Then, Ozzy grabbed everyone in his hair and hurled them into the closest bush.
"What the heck, Ozzy?" CJ complained.
Ozzy shushed them, and that's when they heard heavy footsteps. They held their breaths as the sound grew louder. Blue peered through a gap in the leaves. A shadow passed over them, and a pair of dirty bergen feet stopped right next to the bush where the kids hid. Blue whimpered but covered his mouth to keep the sound from coming out. The kids could just make out the features of the bergen through the foliage. She had purple skin, splotched and dirty. Her hair was white and horribly tangled. Her pants and jacket were dirty and ragged, making it impossible to tell what color they used to be.
"It's Chef." CJ whispered in fear. Clampers motioned for everyone to stay quiet. They could only hope Chef didn't spot them and just moved on. Unfortunately, Chef decided that spot was as good as any to make camp. She made a fire and skewered some mushrooms on a stick.
"What do we do?" Blue whispered.
Clampers looked past Chef to the waterfall. The Wishing Well was there. If Chef caught them, she'd have them all for lunch. If they could just get past Chef to the Well, it would be easy to avoid her heading home. Clampers pulled a slingshot from her hair and scooped up a rock from the ground. She fired it over Chef's head and into the trees. Chef perked up at the sound. She scooped up a larger, thicker stick, no doubt used like a club, and went to investigate the noise. Clampers gestured for her friends to follow, and they tiptoed along the tree line towards the water.
Then, Cadence noticed a shadow and screamed. Chef charged for them, club raised, and the Mashups scattered before they could be crushed. Chef grabbed at them wildly, desperate for the taste of troll. She managed to get her fingers around CJ, but Ozzy scurried up to Chef's face and bit her ear. She dropped CJ, and Ozzy led her to safety. Chef tried to grab Coral Blush, but Cadence bravely buzzed about Chef's face like a pesky fly. Clampers pulled a couple ropes from her hair and tossed them to her friends. They lassoed Chef's fingers, toes, and even her nose and ears, and they tangled the ropes around Chef. It wasn't quite a hogtie, but it kept Chef from grabbing at them. The Mashups ran off, leaving Chef screeching at them.
Once they reached the water, they stopped and panted softly. They exchanged looks, and then burst into cheers.
"That was awesome!" Ozzy said. "Cadence, you were so brave to distract her like that!"
"Perhaps, but Clampers was so resourceful!" Cadence said.
"You guys all did great!" Clampers insisted. "That was amazing!"
"But we all agree we shouldn't tell our families about this?" CJ piped up.
"Agreed." The others nodded.
Clampers looked to the waterfall. "Hey, I think I see a path. Come on." She led her friends to the waterfall. They climbed on the rocks to get closer, and soon saw a series of steppingstones that led to a narrow space between the waterfall and the wall of the cliff. The Mashups stepped behind the curtain of water, and CJ pulled out more glowsticks as they stepped into a cave. It was oddly warm. As they ventured further, gems in the walls illuminated, though they could not determine if the gems reflected the glowsticks' lights or if they glowed on their own accord. After a short walk, the Mashups arrived at a pool of water. The gems in the black stone around them sparkled with a white light, like stars in the night sky. The Mashups approached the pool, and the shine from their glowsticks revealed a horse statue in the middle of the pool.
"What do we do now?" Ozzy whispered.
"Maybe make our wish?" Coral Blush suggested.
Suddenly, the water of the pool itself began to glow, and a figure floated from below. She appeared to have the top half of a troll and the bottom half of a horse, like a Country Troll. Except her horse half had the front legs of a horse and the back was a Techno Troll tail. She was aqua green in color, with curly teal hair that hung around her shoulders. She wore only a rainbow tank top. Her teal eyes shined with kindness.
"Is she a hippocampus?" Cadence whispered to her friends.
"What's a hippocampus?" Blue asked.
"She's pretty." CJ said.
"Is she a troll?" Coral Blush asked.
The strange troll giggled softly. "I am the Spirit of the Well. Who are you? And why have you come here?"
"We're The Mashups." Clampers said. "We brought a Rainbow Stone, and we want to make a wish." Ozzy pulled out the Rainbow Stone and showed it.
The spirit inspected the stone. "You have created a powerful stone. Tell me: is your wish for you, or for another?"
"We want to make a wish for our friend, Mr. Branch." Cadence explained.
"We're going to wish his grandmother back so he'll be happy." Coral Blush explained.
The spirit hummed. "Your intentions are pure. That is a relief to me. The magic of this well should not be mishandled. But you may not get exactly what you hope to receive."
"If it makes Branch happy, we'll do it." Ozzy said. "He does so many nice things for others. We want to do something nice for him."
The spirit finally smiled. "A good wish. A very good wish. As the guardian of this well, I must warn you that the magic may not work like you think it will. But your wish will indeed cause some good for your friend. Do you still want to proceed?"
"If we may, Miss Spirit." Clampers requested. "We just want to wish something nice for Mr. Branch."
"Cast the Rainbow Stone into the Well and wish with all your hearts." The spirit instructed. "Then go in peace, and do not speak of your wish to anyone." The spirit galloped around the room. Glitter emitted from her wild mane of hair and settled on the children. She disappeared back under the water of the Wishing Well.
"All together, everybody." Clampers said. Each of them placed a hand on the Rainbow Stone. They shut their eyes and wished with all their hearts.
Let Branch have his grandmother back.
They tossed the Rainbow Stone into the Wishing Well. The stone sank slowly, like a piece of cloth, and continued to shimmer with rainbow light until it vanished.
Luckily, the Mashups returned home before dinner, and they only received a few comments and questions about where they had been all day. They returned to their homes for food and rest, still wishing and praying that their Rainbow Stone and the Wishing Well did its work.
Ozzy bid his brother goodnight and retreated to his bedroom. He dressed in his shorts and nightshirt and climbed into bed. Ozzy listened for his brother, but Riff was still in the kitchen cleaning up from their supper.
Ozzy reached into his hair and pulled out a book. He brushed away the dust to read the title: Rules of Magic. Yes, perhaps it was wrong to steal this book from Kikimora's bookshelf. He couldn't help it. For some reason, Ozzy could not push aside the feelings of suspicion he had for Kikimora. Yes, he was taught to never judge a book by its cover, just like his classmates. This was especially true now that trolls of all genres comingled. But there was something about Kikimora's words and mannerisms that made Ozzy uneasy. He couldn't really say why he took this book in particular. It was on the shelf closest to him. It looked very untouched, despite the cover implying Kikimora would have it out more often. Unless she never learned the rules on purpose, since she would most likely break them.
That train of thought wasn't helping.
Ozzy hid the book under his pillow. If Kikimora proved she knew the laws of magic and broke them, he would soon find out.
The next day, the Mashups inhaled their breakfasts, gathered together, and hurried off to find Branch. They eventually tracked him down and cornered him at a secluded spot at the lagoon.
Branch noticed the rather determined looks on the kids' faces, and he laughed. "Whoa there. Am I in trouble or something?"
"You seem in a particularly cheery mood, Mr. Branch." Cadence noted. Indeed, Branch's colors looked brighter and he seemed extra happy, happier than normal. However, he also had visible bags under his eyes from an apparent lack of sleep.
"I am indeed in a very good mood today." Branch said.
"From anything special?" Coral Blush asked.
"Why do you ask?" Branch inquired.
"Did you see your grandma or not?" Ozzy blurted out.
Branch stared at him inquisitively, and then his eyes widened. "Oh, of course! You guys call yourselves The Mashups."
"Yeah, yeah. So did you?" Clampers half-demanded.
Branch laughed and hugged each of the kids tightly. "Yes. I did."
The Mashups cheered, high-fiving and hugging each other. "When can we meet her?" CJ asked excitedly. "I hear she's really nice."
"Whoa, whoa. Slow your roll." Branch laughed. "Sit down. I'll tell you everything that happened to me last night." He waited until they were all settled, and he chuckled at how they all leaned forward and glued their eyes to him. "Last night, I woke up after hearing a really weird noise. I went to investigate, and I saw a strange shadow moving through the castle. Now, I thought this was some sort of intruder. So I followed them, through the castle, up and down nearly every staircase, until I cornered them in the library. That's when I saw it wasn't an intruder at all." Branch pulled a picture frame from his hair and showed the picture to the kids. They saw a younger version of Branch, being held by an older troll with purple skin and green hair, eyes, and even lips. She wore a cream dress and a knitted shawl. "This is who I saw: the spirit of my grandmother I lost when I was younger than you. I was shocked, to say the least. She told me another spirit—the Spirit of the Wishing Well—helped her create a pathway back to our world so she could see me. I was so confused, especially when she said the spirit used a Rainbow Stone given to her by The Mashups. Honestly, I was too happy to see her to really think about it until this morning."
"We made the Rainbow Stone." Ozzy explained. "We found the Wishing Well and used it to wish for your grandma to come back. So you'd be happy."
"But we thought she'd come back completely. You know, back to life?" Clampers pouted. "We didn't know she'd only come back as a ghost."
Branch chuckled softly. "Kids, this is the best gift anyone could have ever given me. You must understand. I don't think there's any power in our world that can resurrect the dead. If I find one, I'll let you know. But my grandma and I talked the entire night. I finally let go of that last bit of guilt still clinging to me. Thanks to your wish, Grandma has her own special pathway she can use to visit me whenever she wants. In fact, she told me to hug you all as tight as I could to thank you." He gladly opened his arms to embrace the kids' group hug. "Thank you. Thank you so much for what you've done. You could've wished for anything."
"You're always doing nice things for everyone else." CJ pointed out. "We wanted to do something nice for you for a change."
"I appreciate it. But, now, I have to ask something big from all of you." Branch said. "I need you to keep Grandma a secret. Her and the Wishing Well. Can you promise me?"
"We promise." The Mashups said simultaneously.
"Thanks, guys. For everything."
Days later, Music Central was all abuzz to see the new sculpture that would represent the new troll home. The Mashups arrived with their families and soon were whisked away to the stage in front of the castle, where the leaders of the Major Genres and Minor Genres gathered. The tallest tower of the castle had something covered by a tarp on top of it. Trolls gathered in front of the stage, eager to begin the party.
"Welcome, citizens of Music Central!" Branch called over the crowd. "We've come a long way in such a short amount of time. Our ancestors created music together, but allowed themselves to be driven apart and forgot what it meant to be friends. At last, we've come together again and collaborated in the best ways! To celebrate our new collaborations and peace amongst the kingdoms, we decided to create a new symbol for the music that brings us together. This symbol and sculpture were designed by a group of kids who call themselves The Mashups. Let's give them a hand!"
The Mashups stepped forward, and crowd cheered for them. Cadence blushed fiercely. Blue tried to hide behind her. Clampers, Ozzy, and CJ looked rather proud, and Coral Blush beamed.
"These kids, part of our next generation of music-making trolls, created a symbol to represent how we've grown from our past." Branch continued. "It would be unwise to ignore the mistakes our ancestors and we made. Rather, we should learn from them to look to the future. With that in mind, I present the new symbol of Music Central!"
A group of Classical Trolls pulled off the tarp, revealing a harp made of a bass and treble clef, with eleven non-magical strings strung in the middle. The crowd cheered again, and Trollex kicked up the music. The Mashups stuck together as they wandered the party. Often, they were stopped by other trolls who complimented them on the sculpture.
Blue carried a tray of drinks on his head, and he distributed them to his friends. "A toast! To our awesome idea!"
"And to the success of our wish!" Coral Blush added.
"I think our future looks bright." CJ agreed as they drank their punch.
"But I don't think Kikimora came to the party." Cadence said sadly. "She must have been too scared."
"Well, maybe we'll visit her again." Blue suggested. "It might just take some time for her to open up."
"Or maybe she just likes living in the forest alone." Ozzy shrugged.
"Hey Coral Blush!"
All the kids looked up as Damion and Landon approached them. "Cool sculpture." Landon complimented. "I hope that single shoe was helpful."
"The shoe wasn't for the sculpture." Coral Blush corrected. "It was for something else."
"Well, do you need any more?" Damion pulled out several single shoes from his hair. They were all chewed or had holes or missing laces or otherwise damaged in some ways. "Yeah, these are all mine that got chewed up by the cuddle pup I was hiding."
"I think I'm good." Coral Blush said. "But you can ask King Trollex if he wants them."
"Okay!" Damion nodded. "Hey, no hard feelings about scaring you, right?"
Coral Blush smiled. "No hard feelings. I bet I'll get you next time!"
"You're on, kiddo." Damion laughed.
"Save it for All Hallows' Eve, you twit." Landon flicked his brother's nose. "Enjoy the party, guys. You earned this." The twins departed, heading for the refreshments table.
"He's right, guys!" CJ cheered. "Let's go party!" She herded her friends onto the dance floor.
Branch and Poppy danced together as well. They bumped into Trollex and Barb attempting to do the same.
"Hey guys! Trollex is teaching me how they dance in Techno Reef." Barb said. "I've been trying to convince him that I should slip on some flippers and try it myself."
"It's not easy for a footer to dance in the water." Trollex said. "But I think Barb can do it."
"You two seem to be spending a lot of time together." Branch noted.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Barb demanded, grabbing Branch by the front of his vest. She glared into his eyes, growling a little.
"Nothing. Nothing at all." Branch whimpered.
Barb smiled. "I'm just messing with you!" She kissed his forehead and playfully pushed him back, which caused him to trip and land on his tailbone. Barb looked sheepish. "Oops. Sorry."
Branch laughed as he stood. "Good one."
"Any word from Techno Reef or Volcano Rock City about those creatures?" Poppy asked.
"Nope. And don't worry about that right now." Trollex helped Branch stand. "This is a time to celebrate. If we hear something, we act. We take preventative measures. That's all we can do."
Poppy exhaled slowly. "Thanks, Trollex."
The party lasted well into the night, and trolls trickled home from exhaustion. Coral Blush had to be carried home, falling asleep in his father's arms. Clampers crawled into her aunt's hair and promptly passed out. When Delta Dawn got her to her room, Clampers still didn't wake as Delta Dawn brushed out her hair, changed her into a nightgown, and tucked her into bed. CJ held DJ Suki's hand as they walked home. Somehow, she still bounced a little from the excitement of the night. Ozzy rode on Riff's shoulders, using the drummer's beanie as a pillow. Cadence could hardly flap her wings hard enough to keep her afloat as she flew home. Blue dragged his feet, a loopy smile on his lips. It was truly one of the best parties they ever attended. Who knows what adventures tomorrow would bring?
A small group of troll leaders stayed behind to help clean up. Lights lit up the new sculpture, and nobody could look at it without smiling.
"What a party!" Dickory sighed. "Reminds me of Yodel Yak Fest back home."
"What the heck is Yodel Yak Fest?" Wani asked. "I'm almost afraid to ask."
"No, no. It's a grand time." Hickory said. "Lots of good yodeling and fun games and yak races!"
"Remind me to visit your homeland sometime." Poppy said.
"Excuse me!" a couple Techno Trolls approached the leaders. "Sorry to bother you, but have you seen our daughter?"
"Her name is Neon Breeze." The second Techno Troll said. "We sort of lost track of her while we were dancing."
"I'll help you look for her." Trollex offered. "She couldn't have gone far. Maybe curled up to sleep somewhere."
"That is odd." Trollzart mused. "A mother came to me saying her child was missing, too."
"It was a busy party." Tresillo shrugged. "They can't exactly disappear completely. They have to be somewhere in Music Central."
"I'm sorry to bother you." A Funk couple had arrived. "We seem to have misplaced our twins. They were going to get some snacks, but we haven't seen them in a few hours."
"Our daughter was just going for the punch, but she never came back." A Country Troll said. "I can't find her anywhere near the refreshments."
"Whoa, hold it!" Wani called as several more couples arrived. "Are all of your kids missing?" The adults nodded to confirm.
"I'm sure they just got a little turned around in the busyness." Poppy said. "We'll all help you search."
"Maybe a couple of them even went home with other trolls." Trollex suggested.
"Everyone, spread out and start searching the area." Branch ordered. "If we can't find them here, we'll start knocking on doors. Let's not panic." At least, not yet.
A/N: Some of y'all who browse tumblr might have seen a picture of a troll who looks like the Spirit. That's my OC, drawn by an awesome artist named x-elyssa-x.