to get there. A wall of force that had no source, which she cleverly tricked a giant with red hair into turning off for her was the first one. Tor smiled getting it. That was supposed to be Rolph? Well, he was big enough… The force field then was the door to their room? There was that magical device he had to use to let her in, so the play was kind of right in a stylistic way. Then she had to face down a pack of wild beasts, who she sang to sleep with her beautiful voice. The girl could actually sing, Tor noticed, even if the song itself was just a simple lullaby. Then she had to face freezing to death while she walked the endless track of cave, snow falling on her even inside. That, no cleverness would fix, so she had to simply persevere, going on simply because Galasia needed her too. A boy narrated this for them, so they didn’t get lost.
Tor couldn’t get the last things. Freezing? In his room? Was that about the heat plate thing? The timing for that would be way off though. And why were there beasts? Their dorm didn’t even have a pet cat or dog like some of the sections did.
Finally she had to face the evil troll know as Tor. He was short, played by an old man that stood on his knees, so that the proportions were “right”. Their Tor had a lumpy mask which appeared to have currants or raisins stuck all over it haphazardly. Moles he realized after a second. The nose was huge. Big enough that Tor touched his own nose self-consciously. His nose didn’t look like that. It was slightly small if anything. In his whole life no one had ever bothered to make fun of his nose, not even Dorgal. His hair, his too pale skin, his being too skinny or little, all that, but his nose? Trice saw him do it and stiffened a bit, he noticed. He did it again and gave her a worried grin.
The troll Tor didn’t seem to care much for Galasia at all, saying several times that the city deserved its fate for being lazy and not doing the work they should have to fix the problem before it poisoned them all.
“They deserve to die. It’s no kindness to save them, for they shall only forget in time and let this happen again. Oh yes, oh yes. Humans always forget their lessons.” The troll shouted at the audience shaking a fist. The audience booed back and called out denials, saying they’d never forget.
The girl cried, and pleaded, and even offered her own hand in marriage to get the evil little being to cooperate, which he cruelly spurned. He spent several minutes berating the girl for daring to think she was good enough for a being of true magic like him and called her names that Tor thought were a bit strong for a children’s event, if not actual curse words. The troll even called her ugly and suggested she go away and die several times. Tor definitely didn’t remember that conversation with Sara at any point. Really it had been more of her handing him an envelope and explaining things and him setting to work on a plan, then going almost directly into an emergency build.
Finally the evil Tor Troll relented, but he placed a geas on the devices he sent with her, so that they would run for only twenty years and not a second more.
“If in that time the fools of Galasia cannot fix their own problems in two decades, then they deserve to parish. Any fool could fix such a trifle in the time they have. Let them not come back to me a second time if they fail to even try! I’m much too busy for such nonsense. Much too busy. Now take these devices and be gone girl. I have work to do and no time to stand about nattering with the likes of you.”
Thanking the mean little being profusely for a while the girl then flew to Galasia to save city. She just held her left hand out in front of her and ran around the stage while a crew of others changed the scene. It was the wrong hand for the flying rigs back then of course, and Sara would have walked back to her room, not flown anyway, but that was pretty trivial all things considered. It was a cute way of doing it, giving you something to watch while the work was being done behind her. It even gave a hint that she was flying when they carried the new backdrop in. No one else died from the sickness and the water that had gone foul and stinking was restored, better than it was before even, made clean and pure so that it could be drunk safely without even boiling first.
Really, for a kids play it was pretty good. Better than anything the Two Bends School had ever put on. Tor clapped loudly when it was over and the kids all took their bows. For a laugh the old man that played Tor the troll came out for a bow too, only to have the girl take him away by the ear. It was cute, obviously planned out ahead of time; still the laugh it got was earned.
The girl was actually a decent actress, which Tor mentioned to the Ferdinand, who sat closest to him, being on the right of the bench they all sat on, Trice being on his left, holding his hand a little harder than normal.
“My daughter Meryl. They all worked very hard on this production, as you can tell no doubt. I can’t say that I agree with their presentation of Tor as a troll myself, the man saved us after all, and never even sent a bill for the work. But still, it’s not like he’ll ever see it right?”
Shrugging Trice turned to the man. “Well…”
Rolph moved in and gave the man a serious look, Sara just looked scared and embarrassed for some reason. Embarrassed he could get, after all the play had made her seem a little… godlike. Scared made no sense at all to him. Tor looked around and saw that she was staring at him. Worried that he’d go all Troll on them maybe? He smiled at her and winked.
“Well, they all did a great job. Do you have any plans for fixing the sewer breach yet?”
The large blond man smiled and spread his hands.
“We have to re-dig the sewer, holding the broken section in place while somehow leaving the whole thing working. It won’t be easy… if it’s even possible. It was a poor design to begin with. Short of making a whole new system though…”
Tor’s mind started spinning. If the earth was packed hard enough and the surface turned to glass or brick, would it hold water he wondered? Could he make a device for excavating? That should help a little at least. If he could come up with something. Wasn’t it like moving water? He’d done that before with dirt, if old dried feces counted as dirt at least, which really, it should. It had a lot of the same problems and wouldn’t work if they hit solid stone at all, but…
Standing the Prince moved to his side and shook him by the shoulder a bit.
“Tor, don’t fade on us now, we need to leave soon or we won’t get to the Capital by nightfall.”
Right. They were traveling. Maybe he’d come up with something in the air. Or maybe that would be a recipe for sudden crashing. He’d have to be careful.
Ferdinand’s eyes went huge and then he stammered, sounding a bit breathless.
“You’re… Tor? As in…”
“Oh… yeah, obviously my nose isn’t really that big… I didn’t want to mention that, because, you know, the play and all. Plus everyone was so excited to see Sara. They really did a good job, make sure and congratulate them all for me? I’ll let you know if I come up with anything that can help with rebuilding a new sewer system for you.” He shook the man’s hand again, which was a little limp this time.
Hopefully it wasn’t anything he’d said; Tor didn’t want any more enemies than he already. People here already thought he was a troll after all. He kind of wondered how that had happened. Had his message at the end come across as that hostile? Tor had just meant that the problem should be fixed, not that they were responsible for it happening and all those deaths. That was kind of harsh and he’d have never said that, even if they were responsible like the play had accused him of saying. If they thought that’s what he meant, no wonder they kind of thought he was evil. They got the short and ugly part right at least. Not the nose though. If they did the play again they should probably change that. No moles either.
They flew straight through the rest of the way, and Tor thought he had the basic control and flow system down for the earth movers by the time they got to the King’s river and started to follow it. They’d gone at least two hundred miles further east than they should and overshot the Capital by a good ways, which was a pain, as it meant nearly another hours worth of flying. On the good side he finally got to see the Falcon’s river, or at least half of it. It was so clear that it really didn’t look like much from the air.
Well, as long as they remembered to turn it off once the rains started, they’d be fine. He’d have to make sure and pass a reminder along to someone at the palace. Connie maybe. He could do it when he gave her the thing he’d made for her. It wasn’t a present, not really, he told himself. Just something to pass the time. She probably wouldn’t even like it and, well, even if she did, being Queen, she got a lot of stuff every day.
It wasn’t like Tor was singling her out for any special reason, other than that she’d been nice to him. Right? He definitely didn’t have a puppy crush on her. Certainly not. She was his best friend’s mother for goodness sake! Who did that?
On top of that he had a perfectly lovely and nice fake fiancee. He just wanted to make sure she knew that he appreciated her kindness. That was all.
She probably wouldn’t even remember who he was. Richard either for that matter. They were both busy
