A Lilliputian Perspective (reupload)

Chapter 11

The four travelers had guarded the dormant troll for most of the day.

As evening came and a few bright stars peeked out of the dark orange haze of the darkening sky, Hilda and Alfur sat beside each other on a smooth stone, warily watching the troll rock before them for any signs of movement. Twig was napping close by and Raven was flying above them. Alfur was passing the time by knitting something- such tiny needles! Hilda, however, kept her eyes on the troll. Something small moved out of the corner of her eye- she looked around, her elf ears twitching. She was bored, desperate for some kind of action or attention. She doesn't even notice when Alfur pokes a little hole through her dress with one knitting needle and attaches some red thread to it. Hilda stands up to investigate, but the thread doesn't let her go too far. She looks very irate as she is pulled back.

"Nice try," Alfur says casually, still knitting. Hilda pouts at him.

"Didn't you see that, too? It could be some kind of dangerous beast! I could protect us! Look at all these sticks, I could poke it-"

"Aren't Sparrow Scouts supposed to be friends to animals?" the older elf asks, rather bluntly. Hilda stops, puffing out her cheeks in frustration. Alfur knew the creature was just a little fox- the same creature roamed the woods often when Hilda still lived there.

"You... have invoked my wrath, Alfur! You shall pay for doubting me!"

"Oh, no," Alfur replies calmly, a slight laugh in his voice, "how terrifying." It was the sarcastic, rather mocking tone of a parent being "threatened" by their child, "I am absolutely quivering in my boots thinking of what you could do."

"You don't even wear shoes!" Hilda exclaims.

"It's an expression. But, I don't think you have a wrath. You're too cute to be scary."

Hilda's fuzzy face flushes red.

"When I'm a human again, I can be scary!"

Alfur just smiles, moving a lock of hair out of Hilda's face.

"I can't be afraid of you, Hilda. No matter what form you're in, I can't help but be in awe because you're still such a lovely girl either way."

Hilda tries to hide her bright red face with her ears, though they were also growing red. She could not handle the compliments, but she could not hide the creeping smile on her face.

"Sto-op," she laughs, her change of mood now apparent.

Raven flew back down from the sky, the look in his eyes softening when he looks at Hilda, gently nuzzling her slightly with his beak.

"Hey, you," he says softly.

Hilda is obviously enjoying the attention, her little legs rising into the air as she tries to climb onto Raven's beak, though, like Alfur, he doesn't let her go very far. He holds her in one wing, looking down at Alfur and Twig with a more serious expression.

"I saw the rock crumbling. We gotta skedaddle pretty soon."

"Trolls aren't evil," Hilda states as Raven lets her onto his back, "just misunderstood."

"I think they have more grudges against humans than they do anything else," Alfur comments, "considering that Edmund Ahlberg story..."

Hilda looks down, her face darkening.

"...It kind of makes me not want to be human anymore."

Raven and Alfur simultanously look at her in concern.

"We've done... pretty bad things... to the creatures around us. We drove the old giants away from the whole Earth, we hurt the trolls and took their land from them, we were very inconsiderate towards the elves-" she glances at the troll rock, "and the people in Trolberg... don't understand creatures like I can. I grew up here, among them, but Trolberg... Trevor hurt you, Raven, Victoria Van Gale hurt the weather spirits, everyone was scared of Jellybean, and the book that led me to cursing myself said that Trolberg would probably lynch me for using magic if they discovered I was interested in it."

She stares at her thin little arms.

"Am I better off being an elf? Knowing how you felt being too small to fend against humans?

Alfur simply tilts his head at the question, ears drooping. He lets out a heavy sigh, closing his eyes.

"Elves and humans, apart from size and... um, availability of metacarpal appendages, are not so different from one another. There are elves that were -and are- not so kind people," he says this with rolling eyes, obviously with someone in mind, "and there are elves that are good, just as there are humans that are good and humans that are... questionable."

"You could just say "bad", you know," Raven interjects.

"I refuse to believe a person's heart can truly be 'bad'. No one started out bad, anyway," the older elf turns his gaze back to Hilda, "but anyway, Hilda, you still have a human heart. If you think they're so bad, now, I can tell you that you have already been the change you'd like to see in this world of ours. You helped Raven, you set Styrmir free, you saved the barghest and let him live with his owner in the mountains where he belongs... besides, we elves are invisible, you didn't even know we were there."

"I mean, you could stay an elf if you really wanted to," Raven quips, "but living in Trolberg and hanging with your friends would be really awkward. Everyone would have to sign the forms if they wanted to see you, at school and on the streets- Alfur might not need that, but you live a human's life, and being tiny and invisible in a human city, living the life of a human- that would be pretty dang inconvenient for all of you, wouldn't it?"

Hilda thinks for a moment and nods.

"You're meant to get through this and become human again. You just have to remember you're one of the greatest ones we've ever known," Raven winks at her. The girl feels her face turning red again (more compliments!) and she faceplants into his feathers in an attempt to hide it.

"She's so cute," Raven comments.

"I know!" Alfur squeals.

"Guys," Hilda huffs, still very red and now mildly annoyed, "please stop."

The troll had shedded the thick layer of stone covering its body as it broke free, its former prison scattering across the earth in little chunks as the last of the sunlight vanished.

"I brought a few jars for this one," Alfur says.

"Gross," Raven sighs.

"I really hope that in the end, I don't have to drink the cure," Hilda shudders. Twig retches a bit in response to her statement. The troll stretches its arms, relishing in its freedom, and starts stomping forward. Raven follows it from a bird's eye view.

"So how are we gonna do this?"

"Um..." Hilda watches the troll closely, "I think... trolls can understand human language, I'm assuming, but they can't speak it. We should talk to it. They're not monsters. They are capable of compassion, I've seen it. So has Alfur. Trolberg might not think so, but I know so. It's worth a try, right?"

"But this is a lot like the forest giant. You walk up to this troll and ask for its spit, you're probably going to get kicked through the mountain," Raven retorts.

"That's the problem with most of the necessities for the cure, they're just... weird, specific things you'd never ask for in any other circumstance," Alfur adds.

"They're supposed to be challenging," the girl suggests, shrugging, "maybe it's to prove I deserve to be human again."

Raven and Twig observe as Alfur and Hilda approach the troll, armed with tiny glass jars. If things went sour, they were prepared to make an emergency rescue.

"Woodman wanted to see this, but he's not-" Hilda is cut off by the sight of Woodman lounging in a lawn chair several feet away.

"Here to see it?" Alfur finishes for her.

"Well, I can't say I'm surprised," she murmurs.