Shirley explained that she lived in the biggest house in town, on the shallow hill. It was the one with the towers at the corners and the big gate to get in. To their own surprise they two boys simultaneously shouted out
“You mean the castle?! Why didn’t you say so immediately. It’s over there.”
Both of them pointed in the direction to where they themselves were travelling.
“Then it is settled. We will go that way Frank. Bob and Billy, would you like to join us as long as our paths lay together.”
After a lengthy discussion they finally followed the horse and the girl, who were already on their way. The path was straight, and easy to walk on. They walked for hours and hours, and Bob and Billy argued all those hours and hours. When evening came, they reached a river. There used to be a bridge over it, but that had been ruined a long time ago. As far as they could see, there was nowhere they could safely cross the river. And it was far too wide for Frank to be able to jump over it. But the twins came to the rescue. With their pocket knives, and the help of Frank, they cut down young trees and made a raft. It was just big enough for the four of them. Carefully they let the raft in the water. The river was running wildly, so it took them some effort to keep the raft in place. But finally all of them were on it, and they started to peddle to the other side. Frank the horse was in the middle for balance, with Shirley in front of him. Actually he was a bit more to the right, because Billy was peddling on that side. The waves on the river were very high, and water splashed all over them time after time. Suddenly a very big and high wave came up from nowhere, and it rammed from left behind. From the shock Frank tumbled over on his back. Slowly but unstoppable he rolled off the raft. Billy could barely jump away, or he would have been thrown of the raft as well. The big animal fell into the water with a big splash. In no time there was a considerable distance between them. They could just hear him shout
“Don’t worry about me, young humans. I can swim to shore somewhere down the river. Just make sure you get to the other side safely.”
before he went out of sight because of the darkness of the night. With all the power they had remaining the twins rowed the raft to safety. With a bang it hit the shore. Billy, Bob and Shirley tumbled off the raft and onto the grass. The river caught the raft in its current again and it drifted wildly out of sight.
They got up, but before they could stand up, a big and heavy net fell over them, and caught them. From the shadows a small and ugly creature emerged. Oh no! They were captured by a troll. Trolls hunt at night for young human children, and make them work in their caves as slaves. They can only hunt at night, because they are allergic to sunlight. On the back of this and two other trolls the humans were carried away into the woods. Soon they noticed that they were entering a cave. It smelled damp inside. The cave was hardly lit, only occasionally a torch would shed some light. After a long and rough walk, the trolls finally stopped. They threw the children on the floor, and released them from the nets. But that didn’t make the situation better, because immediately they were cuffed with handcuffs, and with chains together. They were led to a big hall, where they were forced to work for the trolls. With shovels they were supposed to dig tunnels in the earth.
“I will not do such a thing!”
The little girl refused. She thought this digging was beneath her class and she objected to her being taken prisoner. The trolls laughed angrily and pushed her over to the tunnel. She fell over and started crying. The trolls showed no mercy and kept pushing her until she picked up her shovel.
“Do what they say Shirley, because they will hurt you if you don’t.” Billy whispered.
So they worked all night long. And when they stopped a bit because they were tired, the trolls forced them to go to work again. Eventually the trolls left them with some bowls of dirty water and a few lumps of old bread. Hungrily they charged and consumed it within seconds. The trolls had started singing and drinking, and had lost attention for the young children. Not that they had any chance of escaping, because they were tied to a pole with their chains.
“This is not right! A noble girl forced to do manual labor by those horrible creatures. My father would be so ashamed.”
The little girl cried and sat down tired. They all sat down, and said nothing. Minutes went by, or hours. They couldn’t tell, because it was very dark. Suddenly, with ringing chains, Billy sat up straight.
“I think I can squeeze my hands out of these chains, because my hands are very small. You see Bob; it pays to be this thin. I told you so.”
Bob urged Billy to be quiet, or otherwise the trolls might hear them. So Bob and Shirley held Billy’s chains, while Billy tried to squirm his hands through the steel rings that held him. And indeed, after a lot of wriggling, his hands were free. He sneaked over to the edge of the tunnel, and found the key to the chains where the trolls had left them. He came back silently and quickly freed the others. On their toes the three youths slid past the drunken trolls to the tunnel from where they were brought in. They found it after a few minutes and made their way up. But after a few minutes of walking, they encountered a problem: the tunnel split in two. Which side should they take? Bob entered the one first, and then the other. He came back with a sad look on his face.
“I don’t know which one to take; they look exactly the same to me.”
Billy cursed his brother.
“You don’t even have to look to know the answer. Can’t you feel it?”
At this pointer, both Bob and Shirley felt it. A faint wind coming from the right side tunnel. That was their way out! Quickly they resumed their escape. And not a moment too soon. Because behind them they heard shouting and trolls running around. Their escape had been detected. With all the speed their little legs had in them, they ran for their lives. Nonetheless they could hear the trolls coming closer by the second. And another problem presented itself: again the tunnel was divided into two new ones. Because they didn’t have time to stop and discover which one to take, the twins and Shirley blindly ran into the left one. But that proved to be a potentially fatal mistake. The tunnel did go upwards, but it seemed to run dead. So they stopped, because they couldn’t go any further. They turned to face their pursuers. With an evil smile a handful of trolls approached them. The trolls knew that the humans couldn’t go anywhere. They drove them further and further back. But because they were walking backwards, Bob didn’t notice the big root behind him, and he fell over it. With a big bang he crashed into the dead end wall of the tunnel. The wall couldn’t hold the enormous weight that hit it, and the wall shattered. Immediately painfully bright rays of sunlight pierced through the hole Bob had made. Apparently they were at the side of a hill. The trolls screamed. The sunlight burned their dark skins, and you could smell burned flesh all over the place. As fast as they could the trolls retreated into the dark. Meanwhile, little Miss Shirley and the twins Bob and Billy climbed through the hole and out into the sun.
“Well, my dear brother. What do you have to say for yourself now? If I would have followed your advice, I wouldn’t have been heavy enough to break the wall. And then we would still be trapped down there. And who knows what would have happened then. I don’t think those trolls would have shown us any more mercy.”
Of course an argument broke loose, but it was settled by Shirley, who commented
“Actually, we have made it because you are who you are. If Billy wasn’t that thin, he wouldn’t have been able to set us all free. And if Bob wasn’t so heavy, we would have never gotten out of that horrible tunnel.”
The twins could both agree on that.
“Let’s get out of here and back to the river. We still don’t know what happened to Frank.”
So they ran away, anxious to get away from those evil trolls as soon as possible. They ran out the bushes and onto the road again. But with a big crash Bob banged into something big. Big and grey. They both fell over. With a painful look on his face Bob checked himself for bruises. But Billy and Shirley were already staring at what Bob had hit. It was a big grey animal with four huge legs, and a big thing in front of his face, that moved around a lot. Then, as if it played the trumpets, it spoke.
“Hi, my name is Nigel, and I am an elephant. And a big one too you know, I am almost 4,5 years old now. I like to play a lot with my friends, but now I lost them and I don’t know where they are. Or my parents.”
At first it had sounded like a happy trumpet tune, but during his story he sounded more and more sad. It turned out Nigel was lost, and when he found his way home again, all the other elephants had moved away. And he could find them nowhere. So he wandered around looking for someone, anyone… And then he bumped into Bob. It was very soon decided that Nigel would join them on their journey. It was decided by Shirley of course, because Bob and Billy were still arguing about it. They continued their travels first back towards the river. But there was no sign of Frank, so eventually they had to move on. They followed the road for a good while. In the distance they heard a faint rumbling. The further they went, the louder it became. It was like nothing they had ever heard before. They decided to check it out. Soon it became clear where the rumbling sound came from. It was a huge waterfall where great amounts of water fell down from into a small lake. They ran towards it, happy to get some water and to clean the dirt from the tunnels off of them. Nigel the elephant entertained them all, by blowing water from his snout over them. Billy checked out the waterfall. He went closer and closer. He was getting soaking wet from all the water falling down. Suddenly he was gone! He was nowhere to be seen anymore.
“Billy! Billy! Where are you? Stop playing brother, this isn’t funny!”
But no sign of Billy. They got worried. They all moved closer to the waterfall, but took care not to come too close. And then, out of nowhere, they heard Billy yelling:
“I’m in here, behind the waterfall. It’s great back here. There is a beautiful garden and lots to eat. Come in and see for yourself.”
The others looked at each other, and hesitated. But then Bob, who wasn’t scared that easily, followed his brother inside. Nigel was the next one, with Shirley clamping herself to his hind leg. And then they were all there, at the other side of the water. And indeed, before them lay a beautiful garden, with colorful flowers and big trees, with small clear blue streams and butterflies all around them. It looked like paradise. They explored the garden and it contained more beauty around every corner. But then they heard a horse cry loudly, loud enough to be heard over the thunder of the waterfall. They ran towards the waterfall and Nigel stuck his head through far enough so that he could see what was going on. Quickly he pulled it back.
“There are angry men there, and they are beating horses with whips. There’s a white one that’s all covered in blood. Why are these men so cruel?”
At hearing this, young Miss Shirley rushed towards the water, and looked through.
“Oh no! That is Frank! They have caught Frank, my lovely horse. It’s terrible!”
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