"There's an old story, my grandmother used to tell me. Long ago, there was a being who would grant wishes. Though the wishes always had a price, rarely was the wish worth more than the price you paid to get it granted." Trollex stared off as he spoke, it had been so long since he even thought of the being. He struggled to remember certain details. "It wouldn't push you to make the wish, but because the consequences were so high, most trolls stayed away. Though because of how dangerous the consequences could be, when my grandmother was still young the king at the time forbid anyone to speak of it so people would forget."
"A being?" Ash questioned, when Trollex nodded but didn't offer more Ash frowned. "Do you know what it looked like? Anything about it?"
"No, my grandmother only knew the basic story. She didn't even the last time any wishes were granted. The elders warned everyone but didn't share any information about what consequences trolls had faced. I don't know how the being was summoned to grant a wish either."
"So, if your grandmother was young and they were being that secretive about it, how did she learn about it the being and the wishes?"
Trollex laughed sheepishly. "I don't know. Honestly, I was so young it never crossed my mind to ask."
Ash laid back on the grass, stretching out and covering her eyes with palms. Wondering if the story of the 'being' granting wishes had to do with what happened to her and Star. However, neither had wishes granted nor were they warned of any consequences. She glanced at her bruised knuckles, could the woman from her dream be 'the being' that granted wishes for the techno trolls? Maybe other troll tribes have similar stories? She sighed covering her face, she was starting to get a headache from all of this.
"You're so different from trolls." Trollex mumbled.
Ash lifted her hands and turned to look at him.
He hadn't actually meant to say that aloud. However, seeing her laying on the ground like that just made the slight differences between her and trolls pop out more. When she didn't reply he felt pressured to speak more. "I mean, it's odd. You're so similar to the pop and rock trolls, but still so different." When she still didn't reply he motioned awkwardly to her limbs. "You and Star are so-" He paused trying to find the right word to describe them. Ash lifted her hands in front of her own face.
"We're built thinner than trolls." The two humans weren't even that thin to begin with by human standards. They weren't large but were average. Ash sat up and glanced at her thighs, the blue dress Satin and Chenille had kindly made her ended above her knees. "There are humans a lot thinner than us." She mumbled as she poked at her thighs. Trollex's eyes followed her stare. "I was really clumsy as a child." She touched the scars covering her knees as she spoke. Her mom always teased she'd never be a supermodel with all her scars. She wasn't even sure if trolls scarred like humans did, but if he was confused, he didn't mention it.
Trollex carefully reached for her left hand and pulled it towards him. He ran his finger over her fingernails, something trolls didn't have.
Ash glanced at the king's hand. "I can't imagine not having nails, I always take mine for granted until I break them or have to trim them for something." Trollex looked towards Ash as she spoke. "I had to cut mine once because of a class I was taking in school. But later my back started to itch, and my nails were so short they were useless. I had to deal with that over a month." She frowned at the memory. She'd always had long nails even when she was a child and having to go without them those few weeks really opened her eyes to how much she actually uses them. When Trollex didn't respond she slipped her hand from his to rake her nails gently across his shoulders.
Her hand sat in midair when the troll disappeared, only to appear on the other side of her a second later.
He looked like he'd seen a ghost. "Are you okay?" She mumbled before realization hit her.
"Oh my god, did I hurt you? I'm sorry, I didn't think I scratched you that hard-"
His shocked expression didn't change as he slowly shook his head no.
Ash frowned at his reaction; she was sure she accidentally hurt him. As she sat there the awkward silence was becoming too much. "I, um, I need to go talk to Star."
The troll still seemed to be in a state as he nodded his head.
It was probably rude to leave him in that state, she'd just bring it up later and apologize again. She assumed he didn't want her to feel bad about the fact she had actually hurt him. It wouldn't be the first time Ash unintentionally hurt someone with her nails, that was one flaw of them. She was sure she barely scratched him though; trolls must be much more sensitive than humans. At least the techno trolls, she'd have to keep that in mind.
It took a few minutes, but she was eventually able to find Star, who was chatting with Hickory. "Hey guys." She grinned as she approached them.
"Hey sweetheart, how are ya?" The yodeler grinned back.
"I'm okay."
"You want a cappuccino don't ya?"
Ash laughed and rubbed the back of her neck. "I mean, I'm always in the mood for a cappuccino to be honest. Though, I actually came to ask you a question. Do you have any legends or something about a being granting wishes?"
Star raised her brow at the question.
"Granting wishes?"
"Yeah, though they come at great consequences."
Hickory rubbed his chin as he racked his brain. "I don't think so, but I could ask Dickory." He offered.
"Yes, please do."
Star nudged Ash. "What are you talking about?"
"I'll tell you later." Ash whispered back.
While Hickory stepped away to make some drinks for everyone Ash pulled out a notebook. "Could you do me a favor? I need you to ask some pop and funk trolls about any legends they might have regarding a being granting wishes. I'll ask the rock and country trolls if they know anything."
"Uh why?"
"I told you I'll tell you later, I just need you to ask them if they know anything. The leaders have already gone home but there's a few funk and country trolls who are around."
"Tell me now."
Ash rolled her eyes at the blonde, why was she so stubborn? "It's honestly not something I want to talk about in public. It's kind of complicated."
Queen Barb raised a brow at Ash's question. "A being that grants wishes?"
Ash sat across Queen Barb with a guitar in her arms, the queen was still attempting to teach the five fingered human how to play the guitar. It wasn't going well. Ash struggled to figure out where to place her middle finger as the queen pondered the question.
"There is one story, an evil being that grants wishes. But I don't think it's true, just a story to scare young trolls into not being too greedy." Barb thought back to the stories Carol's father would tell them when they were younger.
"Do you know what the being looked like?" Ash questioned, still struggling with the guitar in her arms.
Queen Barb shook her head. "No, they didn't really have an appearance. That doesn't make sense, I think it was supposed to be like mist or something like that? I don't really remember."
Barb shrugged. "Anyway, we're heading back to Volcano Rock City in a few days. Are you coming with?"
Oh, right. She was hoping to push that in the back of her mind for a bit longer but if Queen Barb is leaving so soon, she really needed to make a decision and she knew Star really didn't want to go. As she struggled with her thoughts the pop trolls broke out into another song. Queen Barb and Ash shared a look.
"I really want to go, but I'm worried about Star."
Queen Barb glanced over Ash's shoulder as she spoke, the human turned to see the Techno King. When their eyes met his widened, he awkwardly waved before disappearing. Ash turned back to Barb. "That was weird." Barb nodded in agreement. "Really weird."
They chatted for another hour before Ash decided to dismiss herself, the guitar laid to her side forgotten. She had tried just moving a finger out of the way to use only three of them, but it didn't help much. Honestly, she'd probably actually have to get her finger cut off the learn to play the guitar in this world. Fortunately for her fingers she was quite fond of all five of them so that wouldn't be happening.
On the way back to her pod she came across an older country troll who shared that he'd heard of similar stories when he was younger but hadn't heard anyone talk about the being that granted wishes since he was a young troll. Ash found it odd that the rock trolls seem to still tell stories about the being to their children, but it seemed the techno and country trolls tried to leave the stories in their past.
"Hey! You gonna tell me now or what?" Star grinned as she approached Ash, Hickory was not far behind her.
"Did you do what I asked you to do?"
Star threw her arm around Ash's shoulder and grinned. "Yup."
"Okay, well, let's go back to my room and talk. Were you able to speak to your brother?" Ash questioned Hickory as she removed Star's arm. Hickory nodded. "Yeah, I got a bit of information."
"Great, you could join us?"
As they spoke Ash noticed Trollex not far from them, before she could greet him though he quickly disappeared.
Star tilted her head in confusion. "That was weird."
"I'll explain in my room." Ash mumbled leading her two friends to her pod.
So, it turned out everyone had a story of a being. With everyone but the rock trolls taking it extremely seriously and it turned out King Peppy hadn't mentioned it to Queen Poppy because of how fearful he was of the supposed being. Ash decided not to get into the conversation about how Star was able to get King Peppy to have that conversation when he hadn't even told Queen Poppy yet. She found him to be an odd troll.
However, none of the stories said anything about the being having a solid appearance.
"So, anyway, you were gonna explain the Trollex thing?" Star grinned causing Ash to roll her eyes.
"I think he's avoiding me."
"Why?"
"I accidentally hurt him, and he's been acting weird ever since. He acted awkward when he came across me while I was talking to Queen Barb too." She sighed. "I honestly didn't think I scratched him that hard? I guess trolls are just more sensitive than humans. Or at least techno trolls."
Hickory raised a brow. "You hurt him?"
Ash nodded and raised her hand to show her nails. "We were talking about our differences and I mentioned my nails. I scratched him to help explain what I was referring to, but I guess I hurt him because he started acting strange and now he's avoiding me."
Hickory stretched out his arm "Let's see."
Realizing he was asking her to scratch his arm she shook her head. "No, I don't want to hurt you too." The troll didn't drop his arm and stared at her expectantly, after a few seconds she realized he wasn't going to budge, and she scratched below his elbow.
"That's not painful." Hickory stated bluntly.
"Well, I guess techno trolls are just more sensitive then? Their bodies are slightly different than other trolls."
Star rubbed her chin. "You scratched his arm there?"
"What?"
Star motioned to the area Ash had scratched Hickory.
"What? No, it was here." She moved to scratch Star across her shoulders similar to the way she touched King Trollex. Star's eyes widened at the contact.
Oh. Star bit her lip to hide her grin.
"What?"
"Nothing."
The blonde turned to Hickory; she didn't want to bring it up to Ash without speaking to a troll about it. Would it be weird to ask Hickory? Hickory tilted his head in confusion when he noticed Star staring at him. "Anyway! Well, it's late. We should head out." Star grabbed Hickory's arm as she headed towards the door. "See you tomorrow Ash."
Ash sat on her bed in confusion as the two left. "It's only six o'clock." She glanced at notebook with a frown, guess I'll have to tell her about my dream tomorrow.
"Welcome back."
Ash blinked in an attempt to get her eyes to focus, her head felt heavy and she struggled to place her surroundings. Once her eyes focused, she realized the odd woman in the emerald dress was standing across from her and she was once again in the library.
"You're the 'being' from the stories, aren't you?"
The woman raised a brow. "So, you have your memory this time."
"What are you?"
Ash frowned when the woman didn't answer.
"Why are we here? The stories say that you grant wishes, and the wishes have great consequences. We didn't make any wishes; we didn't have any wishes granted."
"These are consequences being fulfilled from a wish many years ago. They were foolish to believe they could escape it."
Before she could question who 'they' were everything went black. A pop song pulled her from the dream.
She sat up in bed with a frown, she wasn't stupid. That woman had to be the being from all the Troll legends, but that didn't explain why her, and Star were dealing with consequences from someone else's wish. It didn't make sense. She groaned, it was too early, and the music was making it difficult to think. Ash reached for a notebook on the table beside her bed and quickly wrote down the details of her dream, fearing she might forget something important from them later on.
"Grandma, I need to talk to you about something." Kathy took a deep breath as she approached her grandmother. The family debated telling the woman, they were worried about the toll it would take on her health. "It's about Ash."
Kathy told her all the information she knew regarding the situation, how Ash and her best friend Star disappeared without a trace. Neither had packed clothing like they were running away, and police found no signs of foul play. They seemed to be at a dead end.
As Doreen let her granddaughter's words sink in, she frowned. A conversation she once had with her grandmother pushed itself to the front of her mind, it had been decades since she had thought about it. Yet, after hearing about Ash's disappearance the words her own grandmother had once told her played hauntingly in her mind, completely distracting her from whatever her granddaughter was saying about the disappearance.
"She disappeared with a friend?" Doreen cut Kathy off from whatever she was saying.
"Yes. But we don't think they ran away. It doesn't make sense, Ash didn't even take her phone or the book she was-"
Doreen cut her off once more. "What's her friend's name?"
While Doreen loved her great granddaughter, they weren't that close. The generational gap and distance they lived from each other made it difficult to properly build a relationship with her youngest great grandchild. She only saw her granddaughter and great granddaughter during holidays. "Is it that Thompson girl that's always on her facebook post?" Her stomach twisted as she asked the question.
When Kathy confirmed it was indeed that Thompson girl Doreen stood from her chair and headed towards her bedroom. "There's a story my grandmother used to tell me, my mother told me I shouldn't take it seriously, that my grandmother's mind was crumbling." As Doreen spoke Kathy followed her to the bedroom. "She would tell me a story of how our family is cursed, that her and her best friend made a mistake when they were younger. It was a story of creatures called trolls and an evil witch who granted wishes. She truly believed the story to be true, I'll never forget the fear in her eyes as she told me the story." Doreen opened her walk in closest and turned towards Kathy.
"There's an old wooden box on the top left shelf over there, please get it down and bring it to the dining room table. I fear I've made a mistake never telling you this story."
Notes: So, I read somewhere that a good amount of people hate if there is no spacing between characters speaking. Like instead of it being written in a paragraph as they speak people prefer it to be spaced. I was actually really surprised and a lot of people said they don't even read a story if it's not spaced that way. So um, is that true? Which way do you prefer? So that's why it's changed if you prefer it the other way I'll switch back. Thanks for the feedback and follows. For the one who asked in the comments, I wasn't able to reply since you posted as guest, but for Branch's appearance, I'm following the movie coloring for the trolls. I haven't seen much of the tv shows.
So Kathy is Ash's mother and Doreen is her great grandmother. I know I didn't refer to Kathy as her mother but I'm hoping you could catch that.
