Page 21 of New Hope

“A troll?” Hannah repeated. The girls scrunched their noses as they looked at each other.

“Yes. A dirty, stinky troll that likes to hide in the bushes and whenever a princess or a butterfly walk by, I’ll jump out and take their candy.” He whipped around, shouting the last part. The girls let out blood-curdling shrieks then took off running as he dropped to his knees and began chasing them around the table.

“You’ll never get our candy,” Hannah screeched.

“Yeah, stay away, you bad troll,” Ellie warned. They made it around the table twice before they finally noticed me and all three came to an immediate stop. They stared up at me, their chests heaving from laughing so hard, their faces flushed with excitement.

“What’s going on here?” I asked sternly as I set the plate of food down on the counter. I placed my hands on my hips as I looked over them.

“We were just playing,” Ellie answered.

My eyes narrowed. “Oh, really? Because it looked to me like you were trying to outrun my brother.”

Ellie and Hannah looked at each other in confusion. “Your brother?”

“Yes. You see, I’m a troll too and I want all your candy.” River grinned at me. It only took our girls a second to realize what was happening and then they took off with River and I right on their heels, demanding they hand over the candy. When we finally caught up to them, we swung them up in the air then proceeded to tickle them until they were each begging for mercy. It was crazy, it was childish, it was a perfect moment.

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