"Witchcraft?" Ash stared at her best friend unimpressed. "It's not-"Ash cut the girl off. "Do you want to go to hell? Because that's how you go to hell." Star groaned in annoyance. "Just be quiet and listen to me. Since when are you that religious anyway?" "I just don't want to risk it, I feel like witchcraft is at the top of the list of what sends you to hell." Star's blue eyes narrowed at the brunette. "I said be quiet!" Ash frowned "You asked me a question." Star turned away from Ash to pick up a book that was laying on the bed. "Anyway, have you heard of trolls?" "Like the ones that live under bridges. Oh dear god, are you trying to summon a troll? Like normal demons aren't bad enough." Star was ready to hit the other girl. "No, not like the ones under bridges- wait, you think summoning a troll would be worse than summoning a demon?" Ash shrugged her shoulders "Maybe? Who knows we might end up with an attractive demon, I highly doubt we'd end up with an attractive troll. They're huge and not very smart, most likely smell horrible too. They look like they'd smell bad." "Oh? Exactly how many trolls have you come across, since you have an idea of how they'd smell by their appearance." Sarcasm dripped from the words Star spoke. "I mean, didn't you grow up being read fairy tales to? They all have the same type of appearance in the books. Plus that one in the Harry Potter movie. Big and ugly."
"Anyway, smartass. That's not the type of trolls I'm talking about."
"There's more?"
"Yeah!" Star held up the book to a page showing little creatures in some kind of pods on a tree.
"Oh I see, the trolls kids grew up with for centuries are suddenly too scary so they now have to make kid friendly trolls so they don't scare them."
"Ash-" Ash cut the girl off once more grinning "Guess I don't have to worry about going to hell, no way something that cute can send me to hell. Wait, you mentioned a spell?" "Oh, you finally gonna let me talk?"
" These trolls have actually been around for centuries too. They just aren't spoken about often. Anyway, so from what I read these creatures can grant wishes. Apparently my great great great grandmother used the spell in this book to meet my great great great grandfather, a little troll popped up and helped grant her wish somehow."
"Somehow?"
"So, I don't know all the details." Star shrugged. "Anyway, let's see if we can get a troll." Ash stood from her bed and grabbed the book. "You trying to get a troll to hook you up with some guy?" She mumbled as she flipped through the pages. "No, I just think it's really cool. I don't actually have a wish I can think of. I just really want to see a troll, and it'll help me tell you 'I told you so'".
Ash rolled her eyes "Uh-huh, so, how are we going to do this?"
"I've actually already bought everything we need!" Star grinned and grabbed Ash's arm leading her down to the kitchen. She pointed at the counter filled with baking supplies. Ash glanced over everything. Flour, sugar, eggs, butter, various seasonings, and extracts. "Look, we can make mini unicorn cupcakes too!" Star held up a unicorn mold. "Since you like to bake I figured you already had a regular cupcake pan."
"When you said 'we can make mini unicorn cupcakes' what you really meant was 'you can make mini unicorn cupcakes' right?"
"Well…"
"Get out of my kitchen."
"Okay."
Ash rolled her eyes as Star ran off into the living room. What a weird way to request for her to make cupcakes, if she wanted cupcakes that bad, she should have just asked. "But no, she decided to come up with a ridiculous story to get me to bake something. At least I don't have to worry about going to hell for summoning a troll." She mumbled to herself as she washed her hands and measured out all the ingredients.
"Where's the unicorn cupcakes?"
"I didn't make them?"
"Why? I bought the mold just so you could bake them for me."
"I don't like unicorns." Ash shrugged. "Unless you're paying me you don't have a say in what kind of cupcakes I bake."
"Since when do you not like unicorns?! You used to love unicorns."
"That was ten years ago Star."
Star picked up one of the cupcakes "At least they're rainbow, it should help attract a troll." She spoke as she looked over the cupcake "Hey, you even added edible glitter, this is perfect."
"I'm sorry, what?" Ash snatched the cupcake from her best friend "You are seriously trying to do some weird spell to summon a troll? I thought this was a ridiculous gimmick to get me to bake you cupcakes." Shaking her head, she sighed. "Aren't you too old to be trying to do something like this? It's like when we tried to summon Bloody Mary in middle school. This stuff isn't real."
"If it's not real, then what's the harm?"
.
.
.
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"Fine, but you better not waste all the cupcakes I made. You can only use one as bait or whatever it is."
"Let's do it now! Come on, it'll be fun. We can tell our future grandchildren about the time we summoned a troll. Though, do you think we should have a wish ready before hand?"
"I think you're an idiot."
The two made their way through the forest in Ash's backyard. Ash stared at the back of the blonde's head wondering what she was thinking. Sure, Star comes up with crazy ideas but this one is just ridiculous. "How far into the forest are we going to walk? I really want to go back home and finish reading the book I just bought."
"This should be good." Star grinned as they entered a small clearing. "Okay, hand me the cupcakes please. I think we should use two, so we can try to summon two trolls. If we only summon one it might only be able to grant one wish, so we'll try for two."
That's it. She's lost her mind; she actually believes this is going to work. Ash looked rather disturbed as she wordlessly handed Star the container holding cupcakes. Just let her do this, then she'll see it doesn't work and let it go, like the Bloody Mary thing. She thought to herself.
While Ash stood awkwardly to the side Star set up a small circle that looked a little too much like something that might summon a demon rather than an innocent troll, yeah, there is no way some innocent cute creature would be coming from that. The fact that Star didn't seem to notice that it looked like a legit summoning circle for something dangerous started to concern Ash.
Did Ash believe the happy cutesy trolls were real? No.
Did Ash believe that demons and legit summoning circles were real? Yes.
The brunette shivered as it felt like the temperature around them dropped to a cold that she could feel in her bones. Deciding now would be a good time to speak up and tell the dumbass in front of her to stop before a legit demon appears, she opened her mouth only to be cut off by a loud guitar sound, which quickly changed to a pop tune, then country, classical, techno, funk, and was that kpop? Before she could recognize any other genre, they seemed to mold together into something painfully loud followed by a blinding light.
Slowly Ash sat up, her whole body ached. She took a moment to piece together what happened. She glanced at the blonde across from her. Oh, that's right. The idiot decided to summon a demon, she frowned at Star. "Wow, you just skipped the demon part and just sent us straight to hell, huh?"
Star blinked. "You think hell is this green?"
Ash motioned for Star to look behind her. Star's eyes widened at the view, it looked scary, rocky land no green to be seen and were those rivers of lava?
"I-I don't understand. What happened?"
"You created a portal to hell."
"This can't be real." Star turned towards Ash, she started to shake as it sunk in what was happening. She had somehow transported her and her best friend to some place that may or may not be hell. The fear quickly spread through her veins and started to overwhelm her, causing her to hyperventilate. Ash moved quickly beside her friend; she raised her hands to comfort her but held them slightly hovering. Were you supposed to touch someone hyperventilating? How are you supposed to handle this type of thing? "Star, you need to breathe. Please, I'm right here with you. Breathe in and out slowly." Though the breathing steadied she broke down into tears. "What do we do? I don't understand what happened? I'm so sorry, I just wanted to do something fun. Ash. The story my grandmother told me. I'm sorry. I can't believe I've done this to us."
While Star cried and apologized Ash slowly steadied herself to breathe. It was difficult enough with Star panicking, they needed her to stay levelheaded now. I can panic later. She patted Star awkwardly on the back as she glanced around at their surroundings. The summoning circle/portal was gone, where is the book? "Star, do you have the book?" Ash distanced herself a bit to glance over her friend. She frowned when Star started to cry harder. "It's okay, it's okay. Please Star, calm down. I know you're scared but we really need to figure out where we are." They didn't have the one thing that could probably get them home. Ash looked around them, the trees seemed to be abnormally big. "Listen, I'll give you some time to calm down, but we really need to get up and find out where we are. Maybe we can find someone to help us."
Though it took a bit longer than Ash had hoped, Star did calm down enough for the two of them to set off. Both decided they would go deeper into the forest rather than test out the rocky land.
The walk was quiet, neither knew what to say to the other. They had walked about two hours before they finally came across something. A giant worm like creature stood before them, almost the size of a school bus. Despite it's bright pink and yellow appearance it looked dangerous. Opening its mouth showing sharp yellow teeth.
"Run." Ash whispered grabbing Star's arm. The creature followed; they had only been running a few minutes before Ash began to get tired. So much for life-or-death situations giving you a burst of energy Ash gravely thought as she continued to drag the blonde with her. We are going to die. She thought right before hearing a warrior like cry. Some weird greyish blue thing jumped out in front of the giant beast, and somehow was able to chase it off. Their hero turned to them with narrowed eyes.
"What are you?"
Neither Ash nor Star replied.
"Well?" The odd creature pulled out a sharpened stick. The thought that death by the worm would've probably been quicker crossed Ash's mind.
"Branch! What are you doing?!" Another one popped out of the bushes knocking the stick from the grey one's hand. This new pink one turned to the two friends "Hello!" Star managed to respond first.
"Hi."
"We don't know what or who they are!" The one named Branch stepped slightly in front of the pink one in a protective manner.
Ash stared at the creatures in confusion, their hair that looked like a fuzzy texture defined gravity. Matching the colors of each of the creatures.
"We're humans." Ash mumbled awkwardly.
The pink one tilted her head staring at the odd looking 'humans' before her. They seemed nice enough. "Hi, I'm Poppy. I'm Queen of the pop trolls, and this is Branch." She pointed towards the grumpy looking troll beside her.
"I'm Ash." The dark-haired girl spoke unsure of herself.
"I'm Star, thank you for saving us." She turned towards Branch with a small smile. "We're really thankful you came when you did."
Star's eyes widened "Wait, did you say trolls?"
Both trolls nodded.
A shit eating grin grew on Star's face while a frown crossed Ash's.
"I told you so!" Star shouted in Ash's ear.
Ash sighed rubbing her forehead. Well, at least they weren't in hell.
