Dragon Fish

A couple hours later the troll came back with 4 bags of potato chips, 3 bags of frozen peas, 2 carrots, 23 salmon fillets, a bag of fish sticks, 14 ribeye steaks, 7 bottles of ketchup, 3 cartons of broken eggs, 20 avocados, 43 apples, 7 bags of potatoes, 4 bags of flour, 14 cans of salt, 5 onions, 3 bottles of orange soda, 4 gallons of milk, 15 cans of cream of mushroom soup, 2 cans of corn, 13 things of butter, and 19 pot pies. Claire knew exactly how much of everything their was because Haf'gifr insisted on counting out every single item in front of her, and then replacing it in its plastic bag.

"Make something with this," the troll said.

"Oh, I'm going to make the most delicious fish stew in the world," she said. "But I need your help to do it. This cage is really much too small to make a stew in, so I guess you'll have to chop up the ingredients, pour them into the pot at the right time, make sure the heat isn't too high, but most importantly is art. You must put great art into it. Can you do that?"

"Why you not eat fish like the other pretties," asked Haf'gifr plaintively. A glumness settled over him. "You cannot ask this much from Haf'gifr."

"Does your mother eat raw fish?" Claire asked pointedly.

"No. She cooks her boys in the oven," the troll said meditatively. He stood up, scattering his groceries to the floor. "We put this in the oven and cook it there. No need for stew," He mumbled triumphantly.

"Wouldn't she be mad if you used her oven? My mom would be furious if I tried to cook without asking," Claire asked. Of course that wasn't true. Claire cooked almost three times as often as Sheila did, although neither of them spent too much time in the kitchen. But Claire was betting the troll's 'mother' would be a little different.

She was right.

The beady eyes of the creature widened. "No! You are right! Mother would be very upset."

"Better to use the cauldron," Claire agreed.

"But it's too much. I already got all these things. I got you many things from the place with the ugly lights. The man their screamed and screamed after I bit his arm. I had to kill him to make it stop, and then people were running and it was horrible. They shot little pellets at me, and yelled, and shined lights in my eyes."

"That is horrible," Claire nodded in agreement. On the inside she was panicking, horrified, and angry. Really angry. "I could chop the vegetables for you. But you probably shouldn't give me a knife."

"HAHAHAHAHAA," The troll laughed. "You think you dangerous to Haf'gifr? No, you think to escape! You try to trick Haf'gifr!" He stomped around one of the many protrusions in the cave, and when he came back a long butcher knife was in his hand. He casually reached in between two of his teeth for a key, pulling it out like a stuck toothpick, and unlocked Claire's door. "This is your weapon, puny girl. Haf'gifr has eyes like a sea dragon. He watches you. You run, Haf'gifr will crack your bones in his jaws."

Claire accepted the butcher knife, and wandered over to the table, preparing to chop up the vegetables. In one corner, the troll sat watching her, eyes glinting. "Of course I won't try to run. I doubt I could get three steps out of the cave without you catching me."

"Not even two."

She whistled as she chopped. "You must be a very powerful fighter, to take on all those humans. I wonder, how powerful? I bet a seventh level mage could defeat you by himself."

"Haf'gifr is the strongest! No human could beat me, even with magic."

"In the old stories," Claire said, as if to herself, "Trolls could be killed with fire or acid." By old stories, she meant the rpg that she'd been addicted to at 13.

"Hah! Your old stories lied to you. Trolls cannot be tamed by fire or acid, only wood." Haf'gifr smiled, his teach gleaming in the dark. "Long have warriors fought against us with your cold iron, your silver, and your stone pellets, but trolls are the children of the mountains. The earth is our kin, and your weapons are our brothers."

"Or sunlight. I've heard trolls turn to stone in the sunlight." Claire pressed.

"Bah! Light burns our eyes, but Sol is dead, and her arrows no longer threaten us." Haf'gifr chuckled, "No way you could hurt us, you puny humans."

"If trolls are so strong, then why haven't they taken control of this world already? Why are they in hiding?" Claire asked. Once the carrots were done she started on the potatoes.

"Hateful brambles of dead gods circle your world. It takes great magic and skill to slip in and out. Skill like that of my mother." The troll pounded his chest. "Soon she will open the portal to our world, and my brothers will pour out like rain, and the humans will bow to us."

Claire continued chatting with the troll, gleaning his secrets. She was out of the cage, she had a knife, and she now knew that trolls didn't like light, that they couldn't be harmed by weapons made of metal, and that wood was some sort of weakness. As long as she kept her cool and kept the stupid monster busy, she might be able to get away somehow. Slowly a plan began to form in her mind.

All you have to do is ask

            “Hod, where are you going?” David asked. As soon as they were done talking to Mr. Lords Hod asked to use the bathroom requesting David help him find it. Hod used his cane and David’s arm but as soon as they were out of the room he let go of David arm stood quietly for a moment and then took off down the hall his can swiping furiously from side to side.

            “Hod, I don’t think mister Lords would like us wandering his house. What if we ran into you know who.” David whispered furtively. Hod didn’t answer he just kept walking quickly every once in a while stopping to listen to who knows what, somehow he made turns in the hallway without any help from David.

            David was just about to stop Hod and demand an explanation when he heard what Hod must have already picked up on. As the got nearer to the sound it became clear, someone was crying. Turning one last corner revealed who it was. Sarah, Clair’s 7 year old sister, sat in a corner holding her hand and crying softly. How Hod had heard it David would never know.

            Hod knelt down and slowly reached his hand out feeling around in the air until he found Sarah’s head.

            “Shh… Sarah its Hodur.” Hod said putting a hand on her shoulder. “Sarah, are you okay? What happened?” Sarah looked up so Hod and threw her arms around his neck. She continued to sob into his hoddie. Slowly Hod stroked her hair and made soothing noises to her.

            “Sarah, what happened?” David knelt down in back of Hod so that he was eye level with Sarah. For as long as Sarah had known Hod she had always called him Hodur. While everyone would be playing video games or other activities that required sight, Hod would tell Sarah stories and jokes and make her laugh. David knew that Clair loved her little sister more than anything and he would often catch her smiling at Hod while he did that.

            Sarah looked up at David with big brown eyes, tears coming out of the corners and running down her face. Being from Mr. Lords second marriage Sarah didn’t look like Clair very much with her brown hair and freckles. From what Clair had told him that marriage hadn’t lasted long. Sarah’s mother had been after Mr. Lord’s money. In the end she left and Clair happily raised Sarah. Sarah sniffed loudly before talking in a little voice.

            “I heard you talking about a party for Clair. How she was sad. I wanted to make her happy to. So I went to the pool…” she sniffed loudly again. “and she and she said she didn’t have time for babies! And and I told her I wasn’t a baby and why was she being so mean… and then she took my hand cut it open with her finger.” She grabbed at one of her small hands but there was nothing on it. “she said did I hurt the little baby and then laughed.”

            She buried her head in Hods hoddie again and David strained to hear her through her muffled sobs. “Then she said I can’t go having little kids going around telling tells yet and then my cut was gone.” She sniffled and added. “Then then she said she had to go fix some lose strings and that if I told anyone she would feed me to a troll and then she said she had to go make sure she wasn’t eaten by a troll yet and laughed and then she got in her car and left.” Sarah looked up at David with big hurt eyes. “Did I do something to make her mad? Why is Clair being so mean?”

            Hod pushed Sarah gently away from him and and held her face in both his hands.

            “Sarah can you keep a secret?” he waited for her nod and quite yes before going on. “That’s not the real Clair. That’s not your sister. David and I are going to find your sister and save her from this boggy man.” Sarah looked at Hod with such honest trust that David didn’t say anything.

            “Do you promise?” Sarah asked.

            “We Promise.” David and Hod said together.

            They were able to get Sarah to her room and with a quick word to one of the staff make sure someone stayed with her and warm milk and cookies. True to her word Sarah didn’t say a thing about Clair not even what the not Clair had done.

            Hod was once again walking quickly down the halls, but this time David was not far behind.

            “We can’t leave her with that thing a moment longer.” Hod said coldly.

            “Nope.” David agreed adamantly.

            “We need to find her tonight.” Hod said.

            “Yep” David replayed. After a few more steps David said. “She already left the house.”

            “Yes” Hod replied.

            “How are we going to find Clair right now then we don’t even know where to start looking?” David Responded.

            “Well if you want to play with Richards toys early. I’ll you have to do is ask.” Both David and Hod turned around to see, well in Hods case it was more hear, Ms Lords Holding up a tablet computer.  

Eat for Pretty

"Sea troll?" Clair stood shakily to her feet.

"Yes, yes, sea troll is Haf'gifr." The creature grunted, rummaging around in the far corner of the room. He came back with more fish, half-rotted already, pale flesh puckered with fuzzy black mold. "Eat!, eat!"

"I can't eat that!" Clair shuddered, revolted. "It's not even cooked! It's three days old!"

The sea troll grimaced. "So many demands the pretty makes. Like the mother." It threw the fish into the corner.

Clair could here a whining bark, and out of the corner of her eye she saw a half-starved husky pawing furtively for the rotten meat. It had been a beautiful animal once, but now it's fur was matted, and madness rolled its eyes. An open sore on the dog's side swarmed with flies, but it didn't seem to notice. When Clair had first seen it, she'd assumed the husky was dead, so still had it lain.

The sea troll stomped around the cave, making the cage shake. "All I do for the pretties, and they show no respect!" Haf'gifr picked up the cage with the otter, and a moment later the creature that had almost brushed its nose to her hand was flying through the air. The little beast's scream was drowned out by the troll's roar. A moment later it was silenced as the cage and otter impacted the cavern wall, shattering both instantly.

Haf'gifr crouched low over the remains of the otter, picked it up from the wreckage, and started munching away half-heartedly. Blood dripped from his fangs, mixing in long streamers with his saliva.

Clair watched in horrified fascination, too scared even to scream.

Haf'gifr shook his head sadly. "The pretty otter broke. Not so pretty anymore. Only good for food now." He looked slyly out of the corner of his yellow eyes at the girl.

Clair swallowed hard, and closed her eyes. Something about this horrifying creature seemed... familiar. Petty. Small. She could handle this. She'd had lunch with the prime minister of Canada, gone treasure diving in the Caribbean, and hunted bears in Alaska. This wasn't even her first kidnapping, although the previous attempts had been less successful. Her father had taught her what to do in this situation. Everything would be okay.

Claire opened her eyes, and once again the troll was in front of her, watching her silently, the half-eaten carcass of the otter still in his hand. Dad had never prepared her for monsters like this.

Stop it. Everything was going to be fine.

Step 1: be observant. Clair looked around. the cavern was approximately 20 meters in diameter, with convoluted walls that could be hiding openings or escape routes. In any event, even though Clair couldn't see one, their must be a way in and out of the cavern for the troll.

Dozens of animals in cages were arranged around her in two long half-crescents. In the middle of the cavern a series of chests, similar to the one Haf'gifr had upended in front of her, sat neatly stacked. Besides the strange glowing fungi, their was little light. The sound of water lapping against rocks alerted Clair to the presence of water, but she couldn't see where it would be. Far to her left was a large, industrial oven installed into the cavern wall. Other incongruities seemed to leap out at her, now that she was paying attention. the large-screen tv and broken sofa to her right. The red and white t-shirts that made up that large majority of the troll's loincloth.

Step 2: know your captors.
Clair forced herself to look at the thing, the gangly fetid blue-gray horrible troll that had kidnapped her. Haf'gifr was now laboriously replacing each gold or silver coin back in the chest. His massive fingers seemed clumsy in their manipulations, but the look on the troll's face was utter delight as he held a coin close to his face, the glint shining in his eyes, and sniffed it softly, before putting it back in the chest.

"You like treasure?" Clair asked carefully. "Am I being held for ransom?"

"I like my pretties." The troll grinned at her. "These are my pretties." He waved at the coins still on the floor. "Those are my pretties." His hand swept around the room, encompassing the animals in their cages. The gesture ended with Haf'gifr pointing at Clair. "You are my pretty. You must eat, or you will become ugly. When you are ugly I will eat you." The troll burst out laughing, loud, rude guffaws that echoed in the cavern. Abruptly he stopped and returned to counting his coins. "All the living pretties become ugly eventually," he added conversationally.

"Do you like your pretties more, or... eating them?"

"Always I can eat fish, but my pretties make me special. No other sea troll has living pretties like me. No one!"

"If you please," Claire said, "I would like to stay pretty. But I can't eat the food you gave me. Do you have any crackers or chips? Anything cooked? Or even fresh fish would be better." Clair gestured at the fish in her cage. "I'm not strong like you. If I eat these, I would become ugly very fast. But if you give me good food, I can be prettier than all your other pretties combined. And I will stay pretty for a very long time."

The troll regarded her with his beady little eyes. "Yes. The best pretty. Yessss." He stroked the mangled fur of the otter in his hand, and then gulped the rest down and wiped his mouth. For the moment he seemed to forget the rest of the coins on the cavern floor. "What will the pretty eat? What can Haf'gifr get for it?"

Haf'gifr

Clair moved as far away as she could from the leering creature. The crude cage only aloud so much room. The thing had really long arms and legs attached to a small torso. It had long hands and feet that were webbed and it was using those hands to push rotten fish in the cage all the while never taking its eyes of her.

 “Youur the Prettiest. Eat, stay pretty.” The creature said as it pushed pieces of fish through the holes.

Clair was frantic. Her head was still fuzzy so it was hard for her to think. Each time she told herself to calm down all she could think about was that she was in a trash cage and some monster was staring at her, not only that but it was talking!

Calm down, Clair thought. I have to calm down. She looked around the room, if only to stop looking at the monstrosity long enough to compose her-self. She was in the cage and the cage was in a large cavern. The walls wear slick and a sort of slime or moss grew on them and glowed bathing everything in a yellow light. That shouldn’t be happening either, Clair thought and shivered.

Hers was not the only crud cage in the room. There were more like hers and they weren’t all empty. There was a red fox in one cage, it kept passing its cage every now and then it would give a small bark and hide in a corner. A white tailed deer, with beautiful clear white spots running along its back and sides, was curled in a ball its head tucked in its stomach. Some sort of bunny or hare was in another every once in a while it would run back and forth looking for a way to escape. A large sea otter poked its head through a hole in the cage next to hers and looked at her curiously. She heard a loud whinny and looked over to see a painted horse staring at her it eyes rolling in fear.

“You not hungrey? Why you no hungry?” and just like that she was back to looking at the strange monster. “Maybe you not hungery… maybe you wants to see other pretties that I finds in ocean? Yes I show you those.”

With that the creature ran off. It was more of a lurching lop, but it was fast. In moments the thing was back carrying a gigantic sea chest on its back, one of those old mettle strap ones. As it got close it upended the chest right outside of her cage and spilled out all its contents. Clair could only stare at the appropriately named treasure. Gold coins jumped across the floor and a silver plate rolled passed her cage. The creature had to be very strong because the chest must have weighed a ton in gold silver and jewels. Most of it now spilled across the cavern floor.

All the while the creature was staring at her. Looking to see what she thought. Clair swallowed, this was no time to be scared, or to be caught staring at the treasure. She had to find out what was going on.

“what…” She took a moment and swallowed what she had been about to say, disguising it by clearing her throat. “Who are you?”

The creature jumped up and down excitedly “She wants to know who I is. Me name is Haf’gifr Hagson the sea troll”

Party prep

"What we were thinking, Mr. Lords, is a surprise party for Claire might cheer her up," David was saying. "She's been changing her life up a bit, and some of the kids at school haven't been super supportive. I was thinking, if we could show her how her real friends feel about her, it might help out."

"You really think a party would help?" Mr. Lords rubbed his beard thoughtfully. He was a large, muscular man whose only concession to his 51 years were twin bars of gray at the sides of his head.

"Of course it would, honey." Mrs. Lords said briskly. She snapped her cellphone closed. "Sheila", as everyone called her, looked ten years younger than her actual 32. "Claire hasn't thrown a party in months. I wouldn't be surprised if she wasn't itching for a little social interaction outside of school meetings." She winked at David, "Not that we blame you for that, dearest."

Mr. Lords still seamed uncertain. "It might be she's going through some tough times right now. I don't know if a house full of people would be welcome."

Sheila patted his cheek fondly. "Of course, not for you, darling, but your daughter is a different kind of person altogether. In any event, I just finished making the arrangements for the party for this Saturday night. Your staff is warned, the decorations and catering services have been notified, and the pool is scheduled to be cleaned Friday. Nothing for you to worry about."

David nodded appreciatively, noticing as he did so that Hod seemed preoccupied. His head was cocked towards the door, like he heard something. "Thank you, Mr. Lords, Sheila. This is going to be awesome! I bet we could even use some of your surveillance stuff to make sure that it's a total surprise."

Mr. Lords grimaced. "Hold on a second, I'm not going to spy on my daughter just so you can have a surprise party."

"But aren't you already tracking where she goes?" David asked. "I think she told me once that you monitored the gps in her cellphone, or something like that." He held up his hands. "Leaving the surveillance to you, Mr. Lords, but maybe if we could track where she's going lately... her schedules all messed up recently, see? So it'd be a good idea to make sure we know she's far away from the house when we're trying to set things up."

"You just want a chance to play with my toys," Mr. Lords grumbled.

"What, sir, me? Just because you have the absolute-coolest, most amazing security system in Canada, and being able to use a little tiny bit of it just so we know where you're daughter is, as a favor to her, which we hope will help cheer her up..."

"Alright, alright." Mr. Lords conceded, "But only the day of the party- actually, I'll be out of town. I'll right, you can swing by the house on Friday and I'll give you the code for the phones."

"Yes! Thank you so much, Mr. Lords. You won't regret it."

"I better not."

At The Gate

After a quick conference with Hod and a quick word or two to one of the gate guards they were able to get Mr. Lords over the two way video monitor.

“Well hello David, oh and there’s Hod as well what can I do for you boys?” Mr. Lords had a no nonsense tone of voice that he used for everyday circumstances. David tried not to let it bother him and just went on with what Hod and he had come up with.

“Hello Mr. Lords, we were wondering if you had a moment that we could talk to you privately.” David said trying to put as much confidence into his words but at the same time seem a little nervous. Hod had said it would work better if he seemed a little nervous.

“Hmm, well I don’t have anything pressing at the moment why don’t you boy’s come up to the house we can talk there. Does Clair know you’re coming? Do you want me to get her?”

“No don’t tell Clair. She isn’t around is she?” David asked quickly. That was another thing Hod had told him to do, although David would have probably done it quickly even without Hods coaching.

“No she’s not here at the moment. She said she wanted to go for a private swim in the pool and that I wasn’t allowed to let anyone in because she wanted to be by herself for a while.” Mr. Lords got a worried look on his face. “This isn’t about why she’s been so moody these last couple of weeks is it? One moment she can barely eat and is moping all over the place the next she is out all the time and is barely at home long enough to say hello.”

“Actually Mr. Lords it’s about that. So if you wouldn’t mind not telling her about us being here we’d appreciate that. We kind of want this to be a surprise.” Hod Said from the other side of David.

Mr. Lords got a suspicious look on his face as he started to think. “Don’t worry Mr. Lords we just want to help her out as much as we can. That’s why we want to tell you our idea and see if you can help us out.” David said quickly. Almost instantly the suspicion and worry disappeared from Mr. Lord’s face.

“Okay, why don’t you boys come up my private entrance.” Mr. Lords said. The gate guard face looked surprised when he heard this. “That way we can make sure you’re not found out by Clair. Park in the open bay, I’ll meet you there.” With that the screen went back to some to some cheesy company screen saver, Lords Insurance.

“Well Mr. Lords must like you boys.” Said the gate guard. “First time I can remember he’s let someone use his own private entrance. He didn’t even let the Prime Minister use it. Go on in I’ll open it for you just you stay to the right. You’ll be parking under his office so no one will now you’re here.” He hesitated for a minute and then continued. “I hope you boys can cheer Little Miss Clair up. She’s been acting awfully strange lately. She used to call me by name and say hi every day after school and now she won’t even look at me just sticks her nose in the air and drives on by.” The guard gave a little jump just realizing what he said, and that maybe he shouldn’t have been talking like that about his employer’s daughter like that.

“Just you stay to the right.” He said and opened the huge Iron Gate to let them in.

“Well at least we know your right, Hod. There is something off with Clair. You’re not the only one who sees it.” David said after a few moments of driving in silence.

“Yes but it doesn’t make me happy to know that. If anything it makes me more worried. What is it, and where is the real Clair?” Hod said

Kyrie

Later that evening Hod waited in David's Tesla. David usually took about an hour after school saying goodbye to people, during which time Hod would listen to music or a book on tape of some kind, but tonight David was at the car in minutes.

"What took you so long?" Hod still asked querulously.

"I was keeping track of not-Claire, and I had to say goodbye to a couple people."

"She'll be driving the real Claire's car. Anything that can look so close to the real person would be driving her car."

"Hod, shut up."

"Sorry." Hod shifted uncomfortably. Mozart's Mass in C Minor (Kyrie) was playing, and small patters of rain broke the quiet in the car. "David, you don't think I'm crazy, do you?"

"Hod, I was there when you won the poetry contest," David tried to keep his voice light. "And... you know how most people react to me. I think, for us, weird is kind of normal."

"This is a completely different level of weird."

"I've seen you ice a drink in your hand. Despite being blind I sometimes think you have a better sense of direction than me, and I would place bets on you vs Jet Lee. Hod, I glow sometimes. Literally. Like a light bulb. I think what we do is a little bit past parlor tricks."

They were quiet a little longer, idling. "She just came out of the building, didn't she?" Hod asked.

"Yeah. Now she's talking to some people."

"Does she have anything in her hands? Or is she wearing anything different from usual?" Hod asked suddenly.

"Well, she has on a silver chain necklace that she keeps playing with, but I don't know if it's new." David was quiet for a moment. "She's getting into her car. Let's go."

Claire's family lived in a large "house" about 20 minutes away from school, just outside of town. Large Corinthian columns connected the first and second floors, and wings arched off the sides. White-gabled windows jutted out of the steeply pitched roof for the third story. In the back the house connected to a circular indoor pool. Huge iron gates and a high stone wall surrounded the house and 40 acres of private property.

"What are we going to do now?" David asked stupidly, as they sat down the road a little ways. Of course the thing that looked like Clair would be in her house. "How are we going to get in?"

The problem was Claire's father. He was an insurance mogul who had spent the last 15 years perfecting personal home security; David and Hod knew for a fact that he had saved a few tricks especially for his own house.

Closed circuit video cameras and motion detectors were just the beginning; Mr. Lords  had also installed laser fields, ultrasonic and microwave sensors, pressure detectors, a camouflaged moat, tazer panels, hidden bunker installations complete with underground passageways, on two levels, and a few barely-legal turreted "deterrants". In addition, a small staff of dedicated armed guards with guard dogs patrolled the grounds on a constantly rotating schedule, and a pair of tigers haunted the back acreage.

David wasn't sure how Mr. Lords had managed the tigers, but he had personally designed the Prime Minister's security detail; he doubted anyone was going to call him on it.

"We could just ask." Hod suggested.