Credit goes to StarmanSlayer for his contribution to this chapter. Credit goes to FusionBlueCore, JT, and Newgame +LD for the parts of the original story being used here.
The Troll ran as fast as she could without damaging the terrified kids latching onto her back. She was so focused on evading incoming trees and rocks that she didn't even have time to think about looking back. Though she didn't need to check, as she could still hear the rapid footsteps of their assailant.
Still, the cries of her passengers confirmed her worries "Could you go a little faster? This isn't looking great" pleaded Hilbert.
"It's gaining on us!" warned Hilda. Trylla knew this chase was lost in advance, so she went against what her reason told her to do and started to head straight for the city walls, hoping the bells would be enough to deter their pursuer from continuing.
As they reached the outskirts of the forest and the great walls came into view, the troll let out a loud roar and the two kids started calling out to the closest bell tower, hoping to get the bellkeeper's attention. "Hey, we are over here! Ring the bell!"
Soon enough he snapped out of his nap, startled by the sudden commotion. He took notice of the two trolls running towards the wall and instinctively started reaching for the bell's rope, ready to pull as hard as he could, but he hesitated as soon as he saw the two kids one of the trolls was carrying.
"Ring it! Ring the bell!" shouted both Hilda and Hilbert, mimicking the pulling of a rope. Finally, the bellkeeper pulled the rope, and the troll braced itself for incoming sound.
As the first loud "Ding" rung out, the troll was knocked backwards, as if hit by an invisible force. Hilda and Hilbert fell off from the troll mother, as it started wobbling blindly, before falling into a nearby ditch.
"Well… There goes our ride," said Hilda after getting back up. She offered her hand to Hilbert, pulling him off the ground, when she suddenly took notice of the red eyed troll. It had slowed down, now walking towards them, and seemed rather unfazed by the bell's continuous ringing.
"Uh, why aren't the bells working?" asked Hilbert who was starting to panic "What do we do now?"
"RUUUUUUN!" yelled Hilda. Hilbert followed her advice and started running in turn, and so did the troll.
They started dashing between trees, jumping over rocks and taking sharp turns, all in an attempt to slow down their pursuer in vain. The troll never let up, and their short human legs could only take them so far before the red eyed troll caught up to them.
Back with David and Freddie,
The duo was exhausted by the chase panting and gasping for air. Hilbert's eyes darted in all directions, desperately trying to think of something that could get them out of this ordeal. Finally, he saw it: a berry bush, only a few meters away from him. He gathered the last of his forces and lunged towards it, prompting the troll to stare at him, confused.
"Hilbert, what the heck are you doing?" asked Hilda, who was just as confused as the troll.
"I'm saving our lives!" he proudly declared, after grabbing a handful of berries. He started to throw them at the troll as hard as he could. The berries went flying at astounding speeds, before splattering onto the target's hard skin one after the other. "Oh, yeah!"
Hilda facepalmed hard, leaving a red mark on her forehead. Though this assault was lacking in power, it did a fairly good job gaining time since their assailant was too unamused to do anything but stare at the boy. After a few seconds however, the troll snapped out of his trance and resumed walking closer to the kids until they were in range. At which point he wound up his arm and swatted the pair, sending them flying between trees. They landed against a thick log lying next to river and had no time to recover from the last impact since a woff, probably disturbed by the storm, was clumsily flying towards them.
"Holy shit!"
Hilda and Hilbert squealed and quickly climbed onto the log right before the woff slammed into its side, almost crushing them in the process.
Unfortunately, the impact made the log roll into the river where it started floating downstream. This series of unfortunate events made Hilda snap. "Great idea back there, Hilbert! Throwing small berries at a troll, truly brilliant!" she said sarcastically.
Hilbert snapped back. "Well, I'm sorry it didn't go as planned, but at least I tried SOMETHING! You just stood there, accepting your fate!"
The duo's bickering prevented them from realizing that their log was picking up speed as they were now going down rapids.
"Didn't go as planned? What were you expecting those berries to do? Explode?" She berated him.
Hilbert was about to retort, when he finally noticed what was lying ahead of them. "Uhhh, Hilda?"
"What? What are you bitching about?" she asked angrily, before looking around herself and understanding the situation.
"There's a-" Hilbert started.
"Let me guess, a waterfall?" She asked. Hilbert simply nodded with a tense expression on his face. Hilda sighed, she was completely over it and just accepted her fate. "Alright, all this misery might as well happen in one day." she said calmly before the log tipped over, sending the kids down the waterfall.
Their distressed screams were drowned out by the sound of the crashing water. The tumble felt endless despite the waterfall not being that tall. Finally, their bodies hit the water with force, sending them sinking to the bottom of the small pond.
Hilda quickly swam back to the surface, gasping to regain the air she used up to scream. "That was quite the fall! Right, Hilbert?" she said, still half stunned from the fall. But as nobody answered, she got worried. "Hilbert?" she called out.
She started frantically looking around for her friend, spotting him floating on his back. He seemed to have been knocked unconscious by the landing, either that or he fainted during the fall itself.
"Oh, crap!" Hilda quickly scrambled towards him, grabbed his arm, and pulled him towards the shore. Once on land, she kept dragging him for a few more steps to make sure he'd be lying on a dry surface before setting him down. Hilda was scared her friend might've drowned, but she forced herself to stay focused since now was not the time to give in to panic. Doing her best to remember what her mother taught her about first aid, she recalled one of the last resort options: mouth to mouth. She was hoping she wouldn't have to resort to this, but as another minute passed with no movement from the boy, she knew she had no other choice. With a deep sigh, she pinched Hilbert's nose, and looked up at the sky "Ugh! Why do I have to do this?" she asked with both desperation and disgust in her voice.
She took a deep breath, clenched her eyes shut and leaned in… But as she was halfway from Hilbert's face, she heard a loud gasp coming from him, which caused her to open her eyes in surprise.
Hilbert had finally woken up, sending a wave of relief through Hilda's head. But that relief turned into nervousness when she saw his eyes widening, she suddenly remembered what situation she was in. She had her face inches away from his, with her lips faintly parted.
The realization hit the two kids like a truck, and they both jumped and scrambled away from each other. "Ewww! What the heck were you trying to do?" shouted Hilbert as he backed off.
"Oh please, you know this wasn't anything weird!" Hilda responded, both embarrassed and annoyed. "I was just trying to help."
"By smooching me in my sleep?" he asked incredulously.
"I was gonna give you mouth to mouth! Why would I just kiss you in a moment like this? Ugh!" she frowned.
"Oh, right…" he finally understood. "Well why didn't you try to slap me awake first? That would've avoided this misunderstanding!"
"Because you would've complained anyway?" she answered.
"I see your point. I… Uh… I-is it me or is it getting cold suddenly?" He wrapped his arms around himself while his teeth chattered.
"That must be the adrenaline dropping down after you got knocked out." Hilda stated, a hint of worry creeping back in her voice.
After a few moments of silence, she walked towards him and took off her jacket. "W-what are you d-d-doing?" he mumbled between the clacks of his jaw.
Without a word, Hilda put her jacket around his shoulders. "W-won't you get c-cold?" Hilbert asked in response.
"I'm not cold right now, so it's okay." she softly replied. "It's to make up for being rude to you earlier, I know you were just trying to help. Even though your plan made you look like an ass!" she admitted with a smile.
"W-well I guess I was being an asshole too, j-just n-n-now. Sorry about that, I just g-got startled!"
"That's fine," said Hilda, before turning on her heels. "Now come on, we lost that weird troll so let's head back towards Trolberg before he finds us again!" she exclaimed, full of determination.
"What about the trolls? We still go to calm them down."
"At this point, it might be no use since the runestone is changing them more often. Only thing we can really do now is to catch up with the others." Hilda sneezed.
Hilbert chuckled before sprinting to follow her.
In another part of Trolberg, David and Freddie were going through the grounds to confront the vitra. It was trickier said than done since it was night, so finding the vitra was not an easy task.
"Where they hell are they?" Freddie kept plucking the ground.
David inspected the ground, yet he kept finding crab grass. "I did recall they try to be near the surface to get some sunlight. They got pissed off when we pulled their friends from the ground."
"Well, we can't just hope for a miracle, let's pull these suckers out."
Freddie and David started doing their tasks. Eventually, the same vitra from years ago popped up, looking cranky. "Ugh, here we go again. What they hell are you doing here?"
"Look, we have to talk," Freddie crossed his arms with a frown. "You got to stop hurting the residents of Trolberg. One family got killed since some of you used a barbeque on them."
"Well, that's what you get for throwing parties all night long," the vitra complained before burping. "Boy, that beer is really effective."
"Have you been drinking?" David asked in bewilderment.
"Yeah, it isn't really entertaining just lying around here,"
"That does not mean you can just harm innocent lives here!" Freddie argued. "You got to stop that!"
"Oh, we will stop harassing them," the vitra rolled his eyes. "If they can cut their music crap out!"
Freddie groaned while David shrugged. Back with Frida and Dana, they were trying to locate the runestone. It should have been simple enough to figure out who would have stolen in the first place. They got to their destination, but they were denied entry.
"Crap! There must be a way to get inside!" Frida snapped her fingers in frustration.
"Will the back door help?"
Frida rolled her eyes. "Of course, that will help. It's not like it is locked or anything,"
The two went up to the back door, and Frida was flabbergasted when Dana simply opened the door.
"Uh…"
"Don't. Just don't."
While entering, they had to keep hiding from gangster children since outsiders weren't allowed in here. There were some close calls, but their objective is nearby. Trevor was seen hitting his club on the runestone. "What the hell is this?"
"Seems like a magic stone, boss." Kelly replied.
"And based on it's looks; it could be trouble." Another one of Trevor's goons checked the item.
"Perhaps we should keep it inside something like a chest so we can harm that blue haired idiot for making a fool out of me," Trevor finished his root beer. "Come on, we can't let anyone steal this!"
The two girls carefully viewed where the runestone would be placed. They eventually snuck inside to inspect the area. Kelly was guarding the runestone, so a distraction was needed.
"You got your magic with you?" Dana asked.
Frida raised her wand with a smug. "Does this answer your question?" She managed to make a sleeping spell on her target.
"Huh? Who's there?" Kelly asked her as she felt her eyelids start to droop. The girl tried to stay awake, but it was no use as she ended up falling to the floor. In no time at all, she managed to be knocked unconscious.
"Epic!" Dana fist bumped Frida. "Let's get what we came for!"
Frida noticed a red wagon on the side, so she grabbed it to help carry the runestone. Dana found a sheet so she could hide it away from Trevor and his goons. But this didn't matter as Trevor and his minions were in front of them.
"Well, well, well, look what the cats dragged in," Trevor puffed out smoke from his cigar. "A couple of lasses stealing a valuable treasure of mine."
"We should teach these punks a lesson, boss," Bagsy cracked his knuckles.
"I can't wait to burn them at stake!" Anders grinned as he held up a lighter.
Their plan was interrupted when Frida sprayed them with a water spell. "You know, you psychos are going off the deep end!" The girl hoped on the wagon while Dana pushed it. "So long, suckers!"
Trevor positioned himself to stop the wagon, but it didn't matter, as he was run over by it anyway. "Damn!"
Soon, the wagon exited the thug club, and it went down a hill. Dana hopped on the wagon to ride with Frida.
"Hold on tight, Dana! This is gonna be one hell of a ride!"
At a wall near the school, Johanna was eating a cucumber sandwich. She was wondering where Hilda and her friends were. She didn't have to be concerned for long since she noticed her kid and doppleganger reaching the block. "There you are, Hilda. Where have you been?"
"Trying to fix this mess. And it seems that it is getting bigger!" Hilda gasped when she noticed the sky turning green and orange. Some parts of Trolberg were flying, including Miss Hallgrim driving her car.
"I regret drinking that beer!" her voice can be heard.
"We are in a time limit, Hilda!" Hilbert cried. "The Trolls are gonna cause mayhem as we speak!"
"I know that! We just haven't figured out how to calm them down!"
"How about bells?" a first grader suggested.
Hilda and Hilbert glared at the child. "NO!"
The child felt nervous as he backed away slowly until he fell down a sewer hole. He yelled in pain as an alligator ate him up.
"We should probably get back to the apartment," Johanna covered herself with the umbrella. "It's gonna pour a lot here."
"We still have to take care of the trolls; they have been going bananas!" Hilbert cried.
"Well, we can't have you two shocked by lighting. We can worry about that later," Johanna insisted as she ushered the kids on the way back home.
Hilda felt worried about her friends as well as their doubles. Stay safe, guys. We might have to sit out on this one.
David and Freddie were currently grabbing the vitra to smack them out of their mischief. But this isn't getting easy since they came equipped with weapons such as maces, spears, and knives.
"I don't remember them being this brutal!" David cried as he felt his shoulder getting bitten. "Ouch!"
"We can't take any chances!" Freddie summoned a shield spell, though it did not last long as more vitra kept throwing turnips at them.
But what took the cake was that there was some roaring heard from the distance. Everyone looked to see that there were some trolls running by. David and Freddie only witnessed the intruders since the vitra panicked. Ignoring the two boys, the trolls, including Trylla and Baba were chasing the vitra so they can no longer be hungry.
"Gah! Don't eat us! We taste like crap!" the leader vitra shouted.
It wasn't before a runaway wagon was rolling by. It turned out to be Frida and Dana, who felt burned since they passed by some fires on burning homes.
"Whoa," David was shocked. "You guys got burned."
Frida and Dana narrowed at them with an annoyed manner and flipped him off.
"Let's just meet up back with Hilda and Hilbert before anyone of us gets killed." Freddie coughed.
To be continued…