Larrikan walks carefully through the woods. The usually familiar paths are deeply buried. Trees make strained creaking noises under their loads of snow and ice. The bubble of streams is absent or subdued, sealed under a layer of ice.
Usually silent, the fox’s footsteps make soft crunching sounds. He can hear his own breathing, and leaves clouds of breath behind him. Care and attention keep him sure-footed in the frozen woods.
When Larrikan reaches the trollhome, he is worried, but not too surprised by what he sees. The door to the troll warrens is set in the side of a hill, and the unusual amount of snow on that hill has slipped down and buried the entrance.
Larrikan does not know the trollhome well enough to know if there is another entrance. He walks around the hill, shouting, “Hello? Anytroll home?”
The quiet is unnerving.
Just as Larrikan is about to give up, he catches a scent, only barely drifting through the still air. Wood smoke. He follows it around the next hill, where he finds a chimney which smokes pretty steadily.
Reasoning that most people put the fireplace in the middle so it can warm all around, Larrikan moves on over the next hill, hoping for another entrance.
He finds one. A huge, stony troll guards the big doorway. Larrikan is a little intimidated, but knows he has done nothing to upset these – or any – trolls, so he approaches the huge guardian.
“Ho, fox,” rumbles the troll, asking, “You lost? What doing out in this cold?”
Larrikan properly introduces himself, and explains his errand.
The big troll replies, “Ah. I Sighvat. No trolls go out today. Too much snow, ice. Too risky.”
Larrikan agrees, and tries to give Sighvat the dryad’s note. He doesn’t get a chance to, as the troll says, “Right. Too risky. You stay here, safe.”
“What? No, I have to go help the dryads,” starts Larrikan, but he is interrupted by the troll standing and scooping him up. Larrikan thinks, “Not again.”
“Ay! Aki! Found silly fox wander in snow,” Sighvat calls, catching another troll in the warrens, “You find warm spot for him, feed him, ja?”
“What? Ja, feed lost fox,” enthuses Aki, taking Larrikan from Sighvat.
Larrikan knows not to struggle. Even though Aki isn’t as huge and stony as the old door guard, she is plenty able to manage one little fox. She’s only a foot and a half taller than he is.
While he can’t fight his way free, he might be able to talk his way out. He tells Aki why he is there, and that he is not lost. He tells her the dryads expect him back to help.
Not even the trolls want to annoy the dryads, apparently. Aki tells him, “Okay, you go home. Have lunch, get warm first, ja?”
“Yes, please,” replies Larrikan, smiling.
LOL! The trolls are still fun! :)