Perhaps it was silly to assume everything was settled. Hilda had found her way forward, often at the side of me and David. It's hard to believe things could come unraveled so fast. It all started on a normal evening after school too. I could never have imagined this.

Remorse Of An Adventurer II

Tangled Paths

By Daring D.D. Danger
I: The Ancient Evil

***Frida***

"Don't worry! We're coming for you!" Hilda's voice echoed behind me as we rounded the corner of an alley. We spilled back into the street and all fell silent. David, Hilda, Twig and I might never have been so focused.

"Help!" A small voice cried.

"There!" David pointed as it slipped under a car, into the street, carrying away the elf house.. It jumped through a gap in a fence, us diving through right after it and sliding down a hill the fence had hid. Gaining control of my rolling, I picked up speed as David fell behind. Then jumping out of the slide I pursued the creature as it darted into the trainyard.

Rounding the corner, all movement was gone. My vision settled as I looked for any hint. Hilda jumped between two train cars yelling and pointed out of the trainyard. A rustling bush had given it away, and we sprinted into the woods beyond.

Hilda and I ran side by side as evergreen trees whipped past us on either side. We quickly approached a gap and Hilda held out her hand. I took it and we jumped over the gap together.

We stopped and looked around for where next to go.The trees obscured the light, and we strained our eyes for any track. Our heart began to settle when Twig caught up to us, sprinting forward.

"Twig's got the scent!" I yelled, following Twig down another hill. Twig slid into the crawl space under a small red house, and I followed as quick as I could crawl. I coughed a little as Twig kicked up dust in front of me. I heard some rustling and saw a shadow in the corner of my eye and crawled at the spot. Nearly there, the creature sprinted out from the crawlspace. I jumped out after it, fingers brushing the elf house on its back as it dashed away..

I caught my breath and heard a small sound as Twig approached. Looking up, I saw him sitting in front of me, the elf house held gently between his teeth.

"Call off the hound!" The little elf yelled from in his window, a bit of Twig's drool running down the side. He set the house in my hand just as a bell began ringing.

"I've got you now!" A redheaded man jumped from behind the house with a pitchfork, before quickly lowering his guard. "Oh, sorry. You're not a Troll."

"It's daytime." I noted, with a little sarcasm and a smirk.

"Again, Sorry. I'm just on edge these days, what with Trolls walkin' up to me house and such. Ate me goat, right in front of me porch last night."

"Wait, there were Trolls inside the wall?"

"We're not in the wall, little girl." He pointed at the wall, and indeed I was outside of it.

"We must've run through on the train tracks. Do the Trolls normally get this close?"

"Only lately, I'm afraid. As if the Vittra digging tunnels in me field wasn't enough." Twig suddenly began gnawing on my leg. Only then did it strike me. I'd lost David and Hilda!

"I have to go find my friends, sir!" I waved with my free hand and ran back the way I'd come. It wasn't too long before I stumbled onto Hilda, in the place we'd stopped.

"Hilda, why'd you not follow?"

"Look." She said, still crouched low. I took in the scenery around me, as the wind carried a few leaves by. We were in a field of rocks.

"What is this?"

"Troll rocks. At least, I think they are."

"Troll rocks?"

"Yea. Though I can't imagine why they'd be so close to the city."

"I just talked to the man in the house down there He said they walked right up and ate his goat."

A moment of silence fell as we tried to understand what it all meant.

"We should find David, Hilda." She nodded and we walked back a bit, to where we'd jumped the gap, and found David on the other side.

"Sorry, I didn't think I'd make the jump." David laughed nervously as Hilda, Twig and I jumped back over.

"It's okay." Hilda gave him a pat on the back as we went home.

Later…

***Hilda***

"Bye Frida!" I waved as Frida departed down the street to her home, and to return the elf to his neighborhood.

"So the Trolls were really that close to the wall?" David asked.

"Yeah, it's odd."

"It makes me want to shiver a bit." David stopped abruptly. "What is that?" I looked to him, and then forward, at an odd truck in front of our home. It was covered in all sorts of weird gadgets, the most prominent looking like a harpoon gun.

"Trolberg Safety Patrol." The badge at the back of the vehicle read, though I was too far away to actually read it.

"Hilda, why are the police in front of our house?" David said in an accusatory tone.

"I haven't done anything!"

"David, Hilda, come inside! You're late for dinner!" David's mum was sticking her head out of the window. We ran up to the door and quickly found ourselves face to face with two people in maroon uniforms, with police badges.

"Hilda did it!" David blurted. The male officer laughed. He was tall, with long dark hair and a muscular build. The other officer, a woman, had a similar build, but was much shorter, and had fair hair.

"You're not in trouble kids. I'm Erik Ahlberg, new head of Trolberg safety patrol, and this is Gerda Gustav. We're here for Hilda."

"Has she done something wrong?" David's mum asked.

"No no no. She's done something quite remarkable. She's won our First. Annual. Student essay contest!" Deputy Gustav threw confetti behind Ahlberg.

"You didn't tell me you'd entered a contest." David's mum said.

"We all had to do it for school." David moaned as Deputy Gustav handed me a certificate. "It was on the perils of Trolls, and ways to prepare."

"Hilda wrote a thrilling piece about how she was almost eaten alive by a Troll!" Ahlberg said with excitement in his voice.

"You what!?" David's mum seemed baffled.

"It was before... everything." I said softly. The room fell silent.

Gerda broke the silence. "You get to join the safety patrol for a ride along tomorrow as a reward!"

"We're checking the Troll defenses!" Ahlberg added.

"Are you and Frida going to be alright without me David?"

"It's just a library trip, Hilda. It sounds like your Saturday is going to be a lot more thrilling than ours."

"Here's the permission slip, mum." David's mom took the slip of paper, grabbed a pen, looked at me, to Ahlberg, then back to me. She sighed, signed it, and handed it back to Ahlberg with a small resigned half-smile.

"Until tomorrow, Hilda!" Ahlberg tipped his hat as he and Deputy Gustav left, taking the atmosphere of the room with them.

"Come on now, dinner!" David's mum gestured David and I to the table. "Did your mum know about the Troll Hilda?" I froze.

"I didn't tell her everything." I said, moving slower than before

"Well, please tell me things like that in the future. I know I'm not your mum, but I still care about you, ok." She smiled at me, even as her attention was on the steaming green bean casserole she was just now setting down. I nodded

"David, how was Frida's place?"

"What?"

"You were at Frida's today. I see you both have mud on your clothes."

"We played a bit in the garden." I noted, which was not false.

"Please wash your clothes tonight then."

The Next Day…

"My essay was a broad historical perspective on Troll safety." Frida acted as if she was bragging as we approached the library. "Still I bet riding along with the safety patrol will be fun, Hilda."

"That Ahlberg guy seems interesting if nothing else." I noted. I waved to the others as I turned towards the safety patrol building. "Have a good day."

"Tell us about how it was when you get back." Frida said.
"Unless something freaky happened." I smiled at that, and David smiled too.

***Frida***

"Do you think Hilda will get to ride in that dirigible that's been circling the town recently?" I asked David as we passed through the library doors.

"A dirgable?"

"No, dirigible. The big new blimp."

"Oooh. Maybe. I'd never ride in one of those though. The thought makes me feel sick." Suddenly a book dropped in front of us and David screamed.

"I found your book." The librarian had come up behind us.

"Why!?" David was hyperventilating.

"Because you asked me to." She replied "Why else?"

Sitting on the floor was a very tattered old book, the title indiscernible despite the signs of large lettering. The spine had one word left: 'Eden'.

"Eden?" David asked.

"This book does lack viable sources, and is really just accounts written by the author. But it's the best I've got for you." The Librarian noted. "It talks heavily about the Alp in particular."

"Speaking of that, something odd's been happening since I returned." I remembered. "I've been lucid dreaming."

"What's that mean?" David was confused.

"She can control her dreams." The Librarian answered.

"Lucky."

"Except I always do it." I continued. "Most people have to train themselves to do things like, look for a ball. I'm in control from the very start, every night. And it's always in Trolberg."

"It can't be a coincidence. Have you talked to Hilda about this?" The Librarian pressed.

"No."

"You should. In the meantime." The Librarian flipped through the dusty book and stopped. "The most alarming thing, if this Eden person is to be believed, is this part."

"The Alp has the ability to freely translocate, but only to places it's been, or seen in dreams." David and I read out loud.

"So it can just, change where it is in the world?" I asked.

"More specifically, because of what you told me, it can jump right to Trolberg now because of these dreams you are having." The Librarian said.

"Did Eden say how to get rid of it?" David was pleading, clearly.

"They say it is only weak when it is feeding." The librarian's finger underlined the words as she read them, and I could feel David shiver in dread..

"You can read this book freely, but take it with a grain of salt." She said pleasantly, like she'd just handed us a childs fairytale. "And do not remove it from the library." The Librarian vanished as quickly as she'd come. I flipped a few pages back, to the beginning of the Alp chapter.

"Like a Marra, but more powerful in every sense." I read.

"Why did it have to be a Marra!?" David was shaking so hard a bug fell off of him, skittering under a bookshelf.

***Hilda***

"Hilda!" Ahlberg greeted me excitedly.

"It's your lucky day!" Gerda cheered. "You get to ride with us in that!" She gestured to the blimp with both hands, still tied to the ground near safety patrol headquarters. "Let us go make preparations." She and Ahlberg scurried over to their machine.

"It looks safer then a Woff." A familiar voice said.

"Alfur?" I grabbed the elf from my hair. "Why aren't you with your boyfriend?" I was teasing him a bit.

"We decided dating wasn't… appropriate for us." Alfur scratched his head a bit.

"Oh?"

"His world is much bigger, and older than mine will ever be. He actually left Trolberg last night."

"Without saying goodbye to any of us?"

"He said he'll be back, he's just got his own things to do." Alfur said. "We decided it was more appropriate to be something of a platonic couple." I gave a raised eyebrow, and he continued. "Basically we're like friends but way closer, just not... a couple."

"I'm not sure I get it, but as long as you are happy." I smiled at him.

"I think I am. Anyway, there's a dirigible ride and a report waiting to happen!" He stuck his little pen in the air.

"Ready to see the city from the air?" Ahlberg yelled from the door of the blimp.

"I think so?" I replied.

"This isn't too much like, you know what, is it, Hilda?" Alfur was clearly concerned.

"I think this shouldn't be an issue." I really did think that a blimp ride was not the same as a car ride. Just, in the air.

"Come on Hilda! We're going to ring in a new era of security! And we'll ring it in with the sound, of a bell!" Ahlberg pulled a hand bell out of his pocket and rang it. He led me onto the ship, a mostly empty space with a panorama of windows, engine equipment in the back, and captains chair in the center of a long control panel.

"Take us away Deputy Gerda!" The fair haired woman in the captains seat saluted us and the ship roared to life.

Once airborne I pressed myself against the window to watch the city, thinking about the drawings I'd made from Raven's back a while ago.

"You can really see how far it goes from up here." I noted.

"I think Edmund the Troll Slayer would be impressed at how much the city's grown."

"Why did they build a city in Troll country?"

"The Trolls weren't doing anything with the land, so why not?"

"Coming up on the first tower!" Gerda yelled.

"Not much of a bell tower." Alfur giggled.

"There's not even a bell in there!" Ahlberg gasped.

"That is a violation of the bell tower act of 1892! All bell towers must be equipped with working bells!" Gerda yelled.

"And we'll make sure they are!" Ahlberg held a powerful fist in the air. "We must check all the others at once!" As the blimp turned some gray clouds came into view. It looked odd though. Were these the weather spirits David and Frida warned me about?

"Maybe we should go around?" I pointed.

"Nonsense! Safety waits for no one. Engines to full!" Ahlberg commanded. Gerda began accelerating the ship. We impacted the clouds and the atmosphere became charged with electricity almost instantly. There was a flash of light and the blimp began descending. We slowly tilted forwards and I grabbed the seat as I lost my footing to the momentum and increasing slope of the floor. Ahlberg joined me in grabbing Gerda's seat.

"Get control Deputy!" Ahlberg pressed.

"It's not responding!" She replied, turning to frantically pushing buttons and pulling levers.

"That's not good." Alfur moaned. The ship began leaning to one side, and Ahlberg and I found new footing on one of the windows.

"Come on!" Gerda smashed her fists against the controls and the lights came back on. She pulled up, sending Ahlberg, Alfur, and I tumbling toward the back wall. As the machine leveled my stomach suddenly turned and so did my breathing. Pressure built up in my head and I began crying.

"Hilda!" Alfur ran back from wherever he landed. "Hilda you've got to stop hyperventilating!" Everything was happening all at once and I didn't want to hear him.

"Come on Hilda. Focus on me. Breathe! Remember the exercise I taught you? Picture the Woff!" Alfur had taught me this thing, where I imagine a Woff, and that my breathing made the Woff float, so I needed to keep it steady. I focused on the little Woff in my head. Slowing my breathing felt difficult, like I needed to be doing it faster. In, and out. In, and out. Eventually fatigue overtook panic and I opened my eyes to Alfur resting his head on my face. I reached over and pat him on the head with my finger.

"Are you okay little one?" Gerda was kneeling over me as well.

"I think that's the end of the flight today." Ahlberg said, grabbing his hat from the ground. "Maybe we leave this out of the report."

"I won't be leaving it out of my report!" Alfur retorted.

Later…

"This is the anti-troll car! Full of anti Troll devices!" Ahlberg pat the roof of the car like a car salesman, beaming smile and all. My heart sank and stomach turned at the thought of riding in it.

"It has a bell, a shield. And 25 canisters of Troll repellent." Gerda added.

"Hilda, it's safe. I promise. Look, I even wrote up a document guaranteeing it." Alfur pat my head a little, and I smiled just a bit at the thought. "I'll be with you." We entered the car and began driving the city. I couldn't help but grip the seat a little.

The first stop was the docks, where a fisherman noted the only concern to public safety was the cod sandwich at the Salty Maiden. Sounded fishy. Gerda had promised to investigate it. Another had asserted Trolls could walk underwater and avoid the wall that way. There was apparently a dormant underwater bell from hundreds of years ago. I had to roll my eyes at all the bell talk, but it was all Ahlberg wanted to talk about. Finally, we'd found our way to a wooden shack just outside the wall, where Ahlberg was knocking furiously.

"Who mans this station Deputy?"

"That'd be me." A man with a hood over his head approached. He removed it to reveal a full mustache and beard, his hair fading from a light black on top to dark gray on his chin.

"You are the keeper of the bell?" Ahlberg asked.

"For quite some time, yes."

"What is the current threat level?" Gerda asked.

"I'd say kids cause more threat to the wall than Trolls." The Bellkeeper looked directly at me.

"Have you seen any Trolls near the wall?" Ahlberg asked.

"Funny you should ask. Last night I made a sandwich."

"What kind?" Gerda pressed.

"Cucumber I think."

"That's my favorite." I noted.

"Enough about the sandwich." Ahlberg said.

"Anyway I like to eat my sandwich on the top of the wall. Last night I dropped it and a Troll swooped in and ran away with it." He began laughing.

"Why didn't you ring the bell?!" Ahlberg demanded.

"Why bother? The Troll left." I said.

"Hilda, this is official Safety Patrol business, not a race with pirates!" Ahlberg gestured for me to back away. Gritting my teeth, I did.

"I can't believe Trolls like sandwiches." I said to Alfur.

"But what kind of sandwiches!" Alfur was scribbling in his book, sitting on my ear. Suddenly I noticed something. I ran around the wall a bit, and found the train tracks from the previous day. Ahlberg followed me with Gerda.

"This is a security weak point." Gerda scribbled something.

"I ran through here yesterday, right into a circle of Trolls." I said, more to myself than anyone else.

"You saw Trolls? Near here?" Ahlberg was holding my shoulder, clearly excited. "Show me!"

I pointed us to the area the Trolls had been in, and sure enough they were still present.

"Deputy Gerda! Some photos are in order!" Ahlberg demanded, giddy with glee.

Ahlberg spent several minutes hamming it up with the Troll rocks as the shadows grew towards the end of the day, possibly too close.

"Ahlberg!" I yelled. "We should think about leaving!"

"No no, just one more. Come over here." He said, and started posing me. "Now, look frightened." I froze up as a troll towered over him, a boulder larger than its head held high.No sooner did Gerda push him out of the way of a swinging fist. Ahlberg smiled wide at my reaction.

"Yes! That's very good."

The troll chucked the boulder right at us, and at the last second Gerda tackled us out of the way. We tumbled together, and I watched as a second troll, it's shell shattered by the thrown boulder, quickly engaged with the first.

"Glorious!" Ahlberg picked the camera up from the ground and began photographing the Trolls, now all rapidly returning to consciousness. One swatted him backhand like a fly and he sailed past Gerda and I.

"Gerda! Get the camera!" He yelled, bracing his side.

"Are you kidding?" He had to be kidding. As I spoke Gerda dove for the camera, only for a Troll to take it and put it on it's arm, like a bracelet. I made a run for the anti-Troll car loud footsteps only just behind me. Gerda reached the car as I did, throwing me in, but I began hearing the dinging of a small bell. I turned to see Ahlberg ringing his little hand bell. I sprinted out to him and jumped up, grabbing hold of his arm.

"Stop that!" He eyed me like when I had earlier interrupted, and ripped his arm free. A smile spread wide across his face, then faltered, and he shrank up a little for the first time since I had met him. The Trolls had completely surrounded us. They all eyed us, glaring down with their featureless faces, with one emotion reading clearly across that blank slate: hatred.

Suddenly the sound of a bell rang from the car. The two headed Troll left the circle and picked up the car like a toy, flipping it on it's back as they threw it at the ground. I grabbed Ahlberg and we fled down a nearby hill as the others looked on. Guided by it's faint light we ran up to a farmhouse, the sound of Troll roars making my skin crawl. I noticed a hole under the building and slid into it. Ahlberg followed.

The Trolls followed, milling around the house like drunks after the bar closes, until another bell started to ring, and they left to pursue that. I jumped out and begun running, when suddenly I heard a roar behind us and looked to see Ahlberg, standing between me and the sprinting two headed Troll. I dove into a hole in the ground, and Ahlberg tumbled in after me, his bell clattering all the way down.

"You and your stupid bell!" I grabbed it and threw it out of the hole. "They just make them angry!"

"Exactly!" He replied. "The bells are a surefire way to rile them up!"

"You want to rile them up?" I asked, dumbfounded.

"All Edmund had to do was wander into Troll country and boom! He was famous. Today you need to do more than make a stand. You make history happen! That's what I intend to do!" We began moving, and I realized we were in a Vittra tunnel. Something fell down one of the tunnels next to us, and Ahlberg turned on his light and Deputy Gerda was there.

"Are you okay?" She asked.

"I think these tunnels run under the city." Ahlberg mumbled.

"That's a security breach!" She replied.

"I'm going home now." I exhaled and left the officers behind me. Today was a huge letdown.

To Be Continued In: The Draugen