Read Online Nemesis and the Troll King by Ashley Du Toit - Free Book Online Page A

drawled, “They must be afraid of the big bad troll.”
    Yarg turned his gaze in the direction the giggle had come from. “What a shame they are too scared to come out and talk to us,” he said in sad tones.
    Folgoo nodded his head earnestly. “It is that,” he added.
    Before either of them could utter another word, a group of Nuffins appeared in front of them.
    Shorter than leprechauns, the Nuffins had two pairs of wings, the first set pointing upwards and the second set facing towards the ground. They wore red pants topped by blue shirts with rolled necklines. Some sported acorn-shell caps on their heads, others had messy hair that twined with their long ears and tumbled around their shoulders. They had very small hands. Set in their faces were the most expressive big eyes, and small … noses?
    How very unusual, thought Yarg, squinting a little to get a better look at the one closest to him. Its ‘nose’ looked remarkably like a sewn-on button that curled in a neat little spiral.
    The odd protuberance distracted attention from its massive mouth until the Nuffin smiled a smile that reached from ear to ear. Yarg couldn’t help but smile back. “Who is your leader?” he asked as the Nuffins moved closer to them.
    The Nuffins grinned around at each other, then one of them stepped forward.
    â€œMy name’s Gurt. These be my brothers and sisters …” he broke off turning to introduce his siblings to Yarg. Stretching his fingers out he pointed to each one and said their names carefully so that Yarg would remember them. “Bon, Eriee, Byron, Jillie, Ivy, Weezie, Susu, Lanie, Pickers. And the one over there is Ben. The others are roundabout somewheres,” he said turning back to Yarg and Folgoo.
    â€œWhy were you hiding?” asked Yarg looking around at the cute little faces.
    Gurt came closer to Yarg and said, “You want to send us away, and we don’t want to go.”
    â€œThat doesn’t give you the right to steal a river that doesn’t belong to you,” said Yarg, trying to reason with them.
    A pugnacious look set on Gurt’s face. He planted his feet further apart and crossed his arms defiantly in front of him. “We’re not leaving and you can’t make us!” he said stubbornly.
    Frustration brought Yarg’s troll nature to the fore. He grabbed Gurt by his shirt front and held him off the ground. “Oh yes I can!”
    Gurt looked up at Yarg, squinting his eyes in the sun’s glare. A single fat tear gathered at the corner of his eye and slowly slid down his chubby cheek. Realising what he had been doing, Yarg felt ashamed. He sighed deeply as he gently lowered Gurt to the ground. It seemed he still had a long way to go to redeem himself.
    He wondered if he would ever atone for the things that he had done.
    â€œI’m sorry. I don’t want to hurt you, I just want to talk,” Yarg said apologetically,
    â€œYou don’t want to hurt me!” quivered Gurt, managing to convey his outrage and disbelief even through the tremble in his voice.
    Yarg slowly lowered himself to be on eye-level with the Nuffins. “Why did you steal Bemoomba’s river?” he asked more gently.
    Gaining confidence now he realised that Yarg was in control of himself again, Gurt lifted eyes that were a curious blend of innocence and mischief to Yarg’s.
    â€œWe didn’t exactly steal it,” he said, “we kinda just made it go invisible so them orangey furballs couldn’t find it, but we just wanted a place to stay for a while and we came here but they didn’t want to share with us and then they told us to leave and then well we kinda got angry with them and then we teased them some and then …”
    â€œStop, stop,” Yarg broke in, bewildered by the speed of this speech. “How did you tease them?” he asked, beginning to see something of a misunderstanding in the