The Angry Troll

Once upon a time there lived a disgustingly ugly troll whose name
was Pentrax. Pentrax didn't have any family, and lived all on his own
in a large cave in the middle of a haunted forest.
Nobody ever came near his home, as the forest was inhabited by
seventeen hideous and frightening ghosts. Pentrax, however, had grown
up with these ghosts (although there had only been fourteen until
fairly recently), and kept out of their way as long as they kept out of
his.
One day, however, there was a knock at the door. Pentrax went to
answer it, but there was nobody there. Suddenly, a large male ghost
shot up out of the floor and screamed "Gar!" in his face.
Pentrax blinked, wiped the ghost spit off his nose and shut the door,
saying, "Not today, thank you."
He went back into his lounge and sat in his large armchair. He
wondered why the ghost had tried to scare him. Just then he realised
that it was October 30th. "They must be practising for when they go to
the Land of People and scare them on Halloween." He thought to himself.
He had heard some of them talking about this once while he was out
picking thistleberries for his tea.
It annoyed him greatly that he has been disturbed, and he began to
scheme a way of getting them back. He was still thinking about this as
he fell asleep in his chair, oblivious to the occasional knock at the
door.

As soon as he awoke, he set about preparing his revenge, which he
hoped could well result in the forest being free of ghosts for years to
come.
Because ghosts only come out at night, Pentrax had the forest all to
himself all day long. He cut down several large trees, and began to cut
the branches and trunks to form a very unusual-looking contraption. He
had built something that stretched out very far, yet turned on a
central axis so that, from a distance, it looked as if the trees and
branches were moving all by themselves.
His next task was going to require some bravery. He headed towards the
large empty clearing, and began to feel around on the floor. Suddenly,
his hand touched something. It was the handle for a trap door!
As long as he could remember, Pentrax had known about the ghosts'
secret hiding place. It was here that they kept all the things they had
stolen from the Land of People. Pentrax had been here several times as
a young trollette, and had enjoyed playing with all of the things, but
one day he had been caught by a ghost at sunset, and ever since they
had left a dog day-ghost to guard it.
Pentrax opened the door slowly, then breathed a great sigh of relief.
The dog was asleep. Very carefully, he pulled out all the things he
wanted. When he had finished, he closed the door quietly and tiptoed
away.
Back at his cave, he looked at his findings. He had several items of
clothing, some small morsels of food, and what looked to him like a big
black box. When playing as a child, he had found that if you held it a
certain way and spoke into it, it would repeat what you said back to
you.
He took it and held it up with one hand until he saw it start to move
inside. He spent the next few minutes recording ghostly noises onto it,
until his throat began to hurt.
Then he took the clothes, food and tape recorder and placed them all
by the contraption he had made. All was set for the evening. He smiled
secretly to himself.

As the sun set, the hardest part of the plan came into action. Pentrax
cloaked himself in a large black robe he had found in the trap door,
and waited by the edge of the forest.
Suddenly, there was a roar all around him, as all the ghosts zoomed
past him one by one. Immediately he began sprinting after them, as fast
as his little legs could carry him. After a few moments, he could slow
down. He saw where they were going. At last he had come to the Land of
People. He checked quickly behind him to make sure he knew the way
back, and carried on his way.
When he reached the Land of People, he wasted no time. There would be
plenty of opportunities to come and look around in the future now he
knew where it was, but this was not one of them.
Still cloaked, he walked up to a large window, and smashed it with his
fist. A light came on upstairs, and he heard voices. He walked over to
another window, smashing it, then another, then another. Soon there
were many voices shouting all around him, and people began to emerge
from their houses.
Now it was time for the last part of his plan. He ran up to a family
that had just left a house, and grabbed the smallest family member he
could see. He ran in the direction of the forest carrying the child,
only stopping occasionally to check people were chasing after him. They
were. Good.
As he entered the forest, he heard voices behind him.
"I'm not going in there. It's haunted!"
"That's my daughter he's got. No silly superstition is going to keep
me away from my family!"
"Hear, hear!"
Pentrax looked around once more, then made his way to his contraption,
making sure he was leaving a trail that could easily be followed. When
he got there, he set the child down, and pulled a scary face to make it
scream. When he was sure the other people could hear it, he disappeared
into the bushes and looked sneakily at the scene.
Soon, the people arrived.
"Thank goodness you're safe," one of them cried to the child, then
added, "What's all this stuff?"
They looked around at the equipment, and they got the contraption
going to see what it could do. They then played the tape player, only
to hear strange ghostly moaning.
"I see what's going on," one of them said. "This place isn't haunted
at all. It's one of the villagers playing a practical joke. Look -
here's his clothes!"
Sure enough, the others could see clothes the joker had left, and even
some food.
Suddenly, there was a shout, and four ghosts flew over their
heads.
"I must say - they are very realistic."
"But not real, dear boy, we have the proof. Proof of how the trees
seem to move on their own, and the noises we've been hearing."
Just then, one of the ghosts leapt out from behind a tree.
"Nice costume," said the man, still clutching his child, "but you
don't scare us. We know your secrets, and we're going to tell
everybody."
And with that, all of the people walked away.
When the rest of the ghosts were back, they had a long ghost-talk.
Nobody, not even ghosts, likes it when everyone knows their secrets,
and that's what these people had definitely said. Also (and this hurt
the ghosts more than anything in the world), they had said that they
didn't scare them!
Eventually, the ghosts agreed that they should leave the forest and
find a new place to haunt, where nobody knew their secrets. And so they
did.

Things were very quiet for Pentrax after that, and he was a very happy
troll.

The End