Lizabella and The Troll Parents

Once, many years ago, there was a little girl named Lizabella whose parents were replaced by Trolls.

The trolls broke into her house one night; swallowed her parents up whole and then, using Troll magic to transform themselves, took their form so that, in the morning, when she woke up, it appeared to Lizabella that her parents had become mean and selfish, lazy bullies.

They would spend all their time just lying in bed and growing fat and made her do all the housework and cook food for them and would constantly put her down and call her names.

But though they were so awful, she was a kind and gentle girl who loved her parents deeply, so Lizabella put up with their meanness and did as they wanted without complaining.

One day, however, they sent her to the market to buy groceries to make food for them and she met a stray dog; a honey coloured Labrador and, because she liked dogs and this dog looked very beautiful with big sad, brown eyes, she gave him a piece of food from her groceries and, jumping up, he licked her face.

Unfortunately, when she said goodbye to the dog and tried to walk away from him, he started to follow her and wouldn’t leave her even when she did her best to outrun him and give him the slip by ducking down alleyways and hiding behind lampposts.

And so Lizabella let the dog follow her home. She didn’t mind so much, anyway, because she was sad and lonely and it was nice to have a friend.

When her Troll parents saw the dog however, they screamed and snarled and seizing hold of brooms tried to drive the dog away.

“Get that horrid mutt out of here”, her mother yelled angrily, pulling an ugly face and glaring, “He’ll bring fleas into the house and put muddy paw prints everywhere”.

Trolls do not like dog’s, you see and the dog did not like Lizabella’s parents either because just one sniff told it that they were Trolls in disguise.

But it did not want to leave poor Lizabella to the mercy of the wicked trolls and so it ran to the back of her house and hid, then, later, when Lizabella was in her room, it scratched upon her window and she let it in.

“I’m so glad you didn’t run away”, she said, hugging the dog, “Because I don’t have anyone to talk to. My parents only want to eat and sleep nowadays; they’re either snoring or burping and, when they do talk, it’s just to call me names or give me orders”.

But then she wondered what she ought to call the dog.

“You don’t have a collar on”, she said, examining him, “So I don’t know what your name is”.

Suddenly, however, the dog started to look around frantically and, seeing a stick, a twirling baton, nearby and, picking it up in his jaws carried it over to Lizabella, placing it upon her lap.

“My baton?”, asked Lizabella, “You want to play fetch?”.

The dog shook its head from side to side and then, pointing to the stick with its right paw, it also pointed to Lizabella’s knee and then to itself.

“Baton…knee?”, thought Lizabella puzzling over what the dog might be trying to tell her, “Stick…knee?”

But then, suddenly, a light went on in Lizabella’s eyes as she realized what the dog was saying.

“Rod…knee, Rodney”, she said, gasping with realization, “Your name is Rodney?”.

Now, the moment she said the dog’s name, every strand of fur upon it started to glow brightly and its eyes lit up like stars and then, to her amazement, the dog began to transform into a human being and not just any human being but a prince dressed in fine clothes of purple velvet with a golden crown upon his head.

“Many years ago”, he told her, “A very wicked troll transformed me into a dog and told me that I would never be restored to my true form until someone again called me by my name. Unfortunately, because I couldn’t speak, I could never tell anyone what my name was and I was sure that I would remain a dog forever until, that is, I met you”.

Then he asked Lizabella to come away and live with him in his palace as his adopted daughter.

“I can’t do that. I can’t leave my mother and father”, she said.

“But they’re not your mother and father”, the prince replied and then, sadly, he revealed to the little girl what had become of her parents, that the trolls had eaten them and taken their form.

Lizabella couldn’t believe what the Prince was telling her; however, just then, she heard the sound of her parents calling out to her.

“Where’s our lunch Lizabella?”, grumbled her mother, “We want food, we’re hungry!”.

And then her father started to grumble too, “Food! Food! We want food”, he complained, “Bring it to us and bring it now, you lazy, ungrateful girl”.

“Give them their food”, said the Prince, “But, when you do, look at their feet. Trolls can transform every part of themselves except for their feet which remain clawed and hairy. You will see then that I’m not lying”.

And so, going downstairs, Lizabella prepared her parents lunch as usual and carried it up to them in bed and, grabbing it from her, they began to devour the food just like pigs, sticking their faces in the soup and slurping it down noisily before burping loudly.

But then, as they were eating, Lizabella went to the foot of the bed and, suddenly, grabbing hold of their duvet, she threw it up over their legs.

Then, to the little girl’s horror, she saw that the Prince had been telling the truth, for instead of normal human feet, her parents had blue feet with white fur and toenails like sharp pointy talons.

Screaming and dropping her serving tray, Lizabella ran from the room and, as she did, the two troll parents, realizing that they had been found out, transformed again into their true hideous form.

“Garr!”, growled the male troll,“Lizabella has been a very bad girl hasn’t she mother?”.

“She has, father”, said the female troll, angrily, “A very, very wicked girl”.

“Well what do you think we should do with her, mother?”, asked the male troll.

“I think we should teach her a lesson”, the female troll replied.

Then the trolls got up out of bed and, as they stomped out into the hallway, Lizabella saw what they really looked like, covered from head to foot in white fur apart from their blue faces and hands; their noses long and bent with rings through them; their ears as pointy and large as bats wings and their mouths filled with sharp crooked yellow teeth.

Then, roaring and raising up their taloned hands, they stalked slowly towards the terrified Lizabella.

And who knows what might have become of her if Prince Rodney had not rushed towards them, his sharp sword drawn and driven its blade into their pitch black and thoroughly evil hearts.

Writhing and wriggling; screeching and squealing the two repulsive monsters suddenly began to shrink like balloons that had been deflated and they shrank and shrank, growing smaller and smaller until they disappeared altogether.

But though Lizabella was safe from the trolls, she was crying because now she realized that she was an orphan.

“Don’t cry Lizabella”, said Prince Rodney, “Your real parents are in heaven because that is where all good people go and you can live with me in my palace where you will be safe and comfortable and, I hope, happy too.”

And so Lizabella was adopted by Prince Rodney and became, herself, a Royal Princess and, looking down from Heaven, her parents were very happy for her not to mention very proud of the daughter they loved.