Chapter One
Nicky and the Friendly Trolls
Nicky and the Friendly Trolls
Terry the friendly Troll (whose full name is impossible for any human to say or even write down), lived alone like all trolls but he and the other Friendly Trolls were not at all unsociable and he had many friends. Terry lives under an old bridge to nowhere, on the edge of West Westerly in High Westerdale.
Under the old bridge, through a magical hole in the river bank, is Terry's home, (known to Terry simply as Home) a cave about the size of a large caravan, in fact it was just like a caravan and nothing like a cave at all. There were three separate rooms, the main room had a cooker, sink, cooler, cupboards and small round trollevision along one wall, with a very comfortable settee against the opposite wall. The third wall, was completely taken up by a bookcase, full from top to bottom with books of all sizes. The fourth wall had two doors in it, these two doors led to a small bedroom and an even smaller bath room. All three rooms were lit by large lights in the centre of each room, the light came from outside but how it does so, is a Troll secret. Everything but the lights was small, except that on the cooker, there was a large kettle and on a table in the middle of the room, a large teapot, cup and saucer. Friendly Trolls love a cup of tea and a kettle is always on the boil.
Terry was at Home having a cup of tea with his two beast friends, Norman and Jumbleweed or just Weed to his friends. Norman's real name was as unpronounceable as Terry's but not so Jumbleweed but even though every one could say Jumbleweed's full name, he preferred to be called Weed.
The three of them were drinking tea in silence, quietly reading books from one of Terry's bookshelves, when here was a loud splash from the river outside. Weed almost dropped his cup as he shot up from the settee but even so, he was the last one to the door. What they found was a young human girl, face down in the water, all three jumped in and dragged her out onto the river bank. The young girl was unconscious but breathing, what were they to do. Just then a chiming sound came form Terry's pocket and he pulled out his magical pocket watch, the time was correct, as always but the extra lucky hand, was pointing to HELP. Terry immediately interpreted what the watch had to say, as it was up to them to look after the girl, so between them they carried her inside the Home.
They laid her on the settee and covered her with a warm blanket, Norman filled the teapot to make a fresh brew. Weed went to see if the twins Geewhizz and Neenee were at home, Terry though it would be a good idea to have the girls there to help. The twins lived under a footbridge about a mile away, they had identical homes but on opposite sides of the river.
Terry looked at his magical pocket watch just as it chimed and the lucky hand was pointing to RELAX, he took this as a good sign, and stopped worrying.
The magical pocket watch is like any other pocket watch but with an extra lucky hand. Also around the dial with the usual numbers are eleven words, YES, NO, OPEN, GO, STOP, HELP, DANGER, RELAX, QUIET, DUCK and TEA. Of course it is always up to Terry to interpret what the watch had to say, for instance if the lucky hand pointed to DUCK, Terry had to quickly decide whether to look for a duck or avoid having his head knocked off, quite an important and potentially painful decision. There are only eleven words on the dial, if the lucky hand is pointeign to the number twelve, then everything was fine, it could have said FINE but it didn’t, it could also have said TEA again but it didn’t have to. Finally, if the lucky hand changed colour from its usual red to green, then it could be used for finding lost objects, like keys or it could give directions, sort of like a troll GPS.
Weed arrive back with the twins Geewhizz and Neenee, just as the girl started to stir, then ever so gently, she turned over, opened her eyes and found five Friendly Trolls looking at her. Of course she didn’t know they were Friendly Trolls but that didn’t seem to bother her, she just smiled at them, pushed down the blanket and said "hello". All five of the Friendly Trolls were more surprised than she was, they all took a step back and Weed almost fainted.
They had all had contact with humans before (you have probably met one yourself but most humans never remember, if you have ever been under a bridge, the chances are you probably have met a troll but you will just as probably not remember anything about it) but never inside a home.
Terry was first to respond with a "hello little girl how are you feeling", "I am feeling remarkably well thank you", said the little girl, "my name is Nicky and I live in West Westerly, who are all of you".
Geewhizz suddenly said "where are our manners, would you like a cup of tea Nicky", "yes please", replied Nicky, "I love tea". Almost immediately, Neenee produced a cup of hot steaming tea, "sugar" she asked, "just two spoons will do thanks" said Nicky. It was at this point they all realised they could be friends.
As they were all enjoying tea, the bedroom door burst open and in shot, Snorkeldork, who had been asleep the whole while. Snorkeldork, is Terrys pet, it is sort of like a dog but it is also sort of like a cat and it was just called Dork. Dork made straight for Nicky but again she didn’t seem worried at all and just started stroking him and scratching him under the chin. That was it, they were all friends.
After tea, Nicky said she should be getting back but would come and see them again tomorrow, if that was all right, they all agreed it was. Geewhizz and Neenee, followed Nicky to make sure she got back to West Westerly safely and then headed home themselves.
Back at the Home, Terry, Norman and Weed, were talking about Nicky’s accident, if in fact it was an accident, they suspected it could have something to do with Waterfall Trolls. Waterfall Trolls, live under Waterfalls instead of Bridges and are unfriendly and grumpy. Waterfall Trolls are usually damp, this could explain why they are grumpy but there is no excuse for being unfriendly. Waterfall Trolls are also envious of Friendly Troll magic, in comparison theirs is pretty poor, for instance, they spend a lot of time in the dark. In recent weeks, several Waterfall Trolls had been seen quite a long way from their usual territory, in fact, some were believed to be from the next Dale.
Later when everyone had gone to their own homes, and Terry was alone with Dork, he waked to the bookcase and took down the biggest most ornate book on the shelf, The Friendly Troll Book of Secrets and started to read. Eventually though, tiredness forced Terry to finish reading for the night and head off to bed, leaving the Friendly Troll Book of Secrets on the table but he did brush his teeth first. On a lovely warm night, he and Dork where soon sound asleep.
