Abigail

8 - Abigail Sings with Accompaniment Only

Abigail woke up soaking wet. She left her eyes closed. She could feel ropes around her hands and feet, tightly woven to keep her still. Then she heard the voices.

"A beautiful voice really," the first one said, deep and smooth.

"I'm hungry. We should skip the singing this time," the second answered, deeper and smoother. "First lunch wasn't nearly big enough."

"A most excellent stew they'll make," said another, high pitched and tingling like wind chimes. "Rodent soup with human bouillon is simply exquisite!"

Abigail could bear it no longer. She opened her eyes. The trolls were gigantic and horrifying. There were at least fifteen of them, seated around a fire with their legs casually splayed out. Laz was bound beside her, still knocked out. Beside him were five rodents, tied up like she and Laz were, about half the size of the trolls and double the size of Abigail.

"Human! Sing for us!" The troll was inches from her face and its breath almost knocked her out again.

His words were like coarse rolling drumbeats, deep and short.

"Honestly Brutto, you have no tact." He grumbled in reply, and the female troll turned back to Abigail. "I'm sorry about that; Brutto is half-barbarian. When you are ready girl, sing. Trolls love a beautiful show you know." Her pointy ears wiggled in delight.

Abigail paused. "What? But I don't sing."

A cacophony of voices raised from the trolls, like an orchestra chaotically warming up before a performance. The volume climbed higher and higher until she was pressing her shoulders into her ears. Laz woke up at the sound.

The female troll pushed slime covered hair back daintily, as if arranging delicate curls. "Excuse the family, child, but it sounded like you said that you did not sing? If you do not sing, you really have no benefit to us, and we can skip to second lunch." Drool dripped from the troll's lips readily.

Abigail caught her brother's wide eyes. The large rodents shook their heads exaggeratedly with their extra-large eyes opened wide. She bit the inside of her cheek. "I guess I meant... I don't sing alone. My brother and I—we sing together."

Clucks of understanding rose from the giant creatures. In response to the stress of her first statement, some of them had generated massive amounts of gooping mucus, and they wiped it off on each other. Abigail's stomach churned in disgust.

"Brother awook! SING! Stupid human!" Brutto shook his massive fist in the air; a collection of leaves and twigs were knocked free and fell about them.

Abigail stared at Laz and started the only song she could think of.

"Troll land, troll land." Her voice shook madly.

Her brother gawked.

"Troll land is the ... best land." Abigail tried with all her mental might to force him to sing with her. He shook his head reeling, but Abigail only sung louder: "Troll land, troll land, troll land is the best land. If I am in troll land, I shan't be found. Trolls are... cool and they smell like... morning dew. Everything about a troll reminds me of you," she sung, closing her eyes and remembering the fire dancing in Xander's eyes as he had teased her with the song.

A pleasurable "ooooooh" emerged from her poo-smelling audience. Some of the trolls started singing parts of it, though they were dumb animals and could scarcely remember three words. "Troll land, troll land," the voices started to come up cheerfully from the crowd, but Girl Troll cut them off.

"Sing it again child, your brother didn't join you."

Abigail kept her eyes squinting closed—there was something important in the memory, she could feel it. There was the fire, like this fire, the deep bass of Xander's warrior voice. Laz, lazily swinging a leg back and forth as he carved his flute out of wood. "Useless song," he had said. Useless because Lazarus was making a flute.

A flute that sung the trees down.

"My brother doesn't sing – I meant to say, he accompanies me by his flute."

"Ah beautiful, yes, yes we must have it!" Then, without Abigail even asking, the troll waved a hand and both their bonds were cut free.

"We've never heard such a song before," one of the trolls said. "I never knew trolls were liked, Human.

"Yes," said another. "Let's not eat them until we learn it through." The other trolls nodded vigorously.

Abigail tried to smile though her heart sunk. Not eat them until... she thought miserably. So they would still eat them after all. E worked the wood rapidly, carving in and out a familiar design. "Just wait until you hear it with the flute," she said, humming the tune for the trolls.

Abigail stood beside her brother and began again to sing.

"Troll land, troll land, troll land is the best land

If I am in troll land, I shan't be found.

Trolls are cool and they smell like morning dew—" She looked at Laz in confusion, who was playing as he had but nothing was falling. She kept singing.

"Everything about a troll reminds me of you."

"Again, again!" the trolls cried out before the song was even finished.

"Troll land, troll land, troll land is the best land," Abigail looked up at the branches above, but still nothing fell.

"If I am in troll land I shan't be found." Lazarus's tune changed then; it no longer matched her words. "Trolls are cool and they smell like morning dew/Everything about a troll reminds me of you."

She kept her eyes glued to the forest ceiling, and suddenly it seemed to be shifting. In fact, the entirety of the forest seemed to be caving in around them.

"RUN!" Laz shouted, grabbing her arm and pulling her with him.

They had barely gone ten paces when the trees started to land, uprooted from the very bottom of them and toppling over in the place they had just been standing, now between them and the trolls. Just then, Abigail looked back.

The rodents were attempting to gesture at her, straining against their bonds as if to say "Us? Us? Help us!"

"Fiddlesticks," Abigail breathed, wringing her hands and running back toward the chaos. Laz gave silent groan before joining her. Abigail lifted her dagger to the ropes, before feeling a sharp tug down. She ducked, a troll's giant arm swinging above her. She breathed a sigh of relief, cut the ropes, and ran.

Abigail grabbed Laz by the arm and pointed back. The trolls were running into each other in a chaotic dance. She pointed at her eyes and shook her head as she remembered: trolls cannot see.

"Where they go! WHERE THEY GO!" Brutto seemed almost in tears at having lost his second lunch.

The giant rodents had stopped too. Collectively, the five were digging a giant hole in the ground. Abigail watched in confusion as one after the other dove in and disappeared.

The trolls seemed to have gotten some general direction, for they were coming towards the siblings. Abigail's breath caught for about the fiftieth time today. She pointed at the hole and looked at Laz, unspoken question in her eyes.

He took a look back at the approaching trolls, grabbed her arm, and in they jumped.