Chapter 50 A new home

“The rest of you creatures are so selfish; you don’t even realize it when your actions hurt others,” the troll said.

The silver was already making Joana weak, she looked at Derick who lay right beside her, the same thing was happening to him too.

“I don’t understand, why do you do this? This volcano doesn’t belong to you!” Joana yelled as much as the silver binding her could allow.

“Says who? I’ve been the one looking after this volcano for centuries, making sure it doesn’t erupt, and if it weren’t for me, you creatures wouldn’t even have any earth to be looking for in the first place!”

Joana looked up at the troll, she tried to find anything that would depict her belonging to the sea, but she couldn’t find any. Derick was the next one to speak, asking the troll the question she also had in mind.

“You’re a sea troll, why then do you fight for this earth?”

“I am not a sea troll; I am just a regular troll with powers. I am the last troll and I intend to keep it that way.”

Joana tried to resonate with what she said but couldn’t. There were a lot of trolls in the enchanted forest, why then did she think she was the last one?

The troll as if reading her mind, continued her story.

“My name is Katariina, and I was thrown into this volcano to die when I was a baby. Maybe the people who threw me here didn’t realize that this volcano wasn’t active, but I’ve been stuck here all my life with no way to get out because I can’t swim through this large sea surrounding the volcano.

“The sea trolls used to live around this volcano, they were my friends, until the other creatures came and were harvesting them one by one for their evil deeds and to enhance their marine powers, until there was none left. I was so young then and couldn’t stop them. All the other creatures who come here only care about what they come here to take, and if I keep letting them take the earth, it’ll make the ground weaker, and the volcano might erupt again, it’ll kill me if it does. I might not have been able to save my friends from the hands of the wicked ones, but I won’t let them take away the only home I have. I can’t live in the sea like my former friends because I am a land troll.”

Joana heard all the troll said about the volcano erupting, and even though she knew she didn’t pay much attention in geography class, she knew very well that wasn’t how it worked.

Suddenly she began to feel something hot and trembling coming up from the ground below. The troll couldn’t feel it yet, but the vampires with enhanced senses could.

“You feel it too?” She asked Derick, who nodded his head in confirmation. She turned back to speak to the troll.

“Katariina, look I’m sorry if we have been bad visitors, but I think this volcano will still erupt regardless of if anyone takes the earth or not. We can feel the lava coming up very slowly.”

“I don’t believe you,” Katariina said. “I might have fallen victim to some of the lies you creatures told me before just to escape, but I am much smarter now.”

Joana could hear the lava boiling underneath more loudly, and the silver weakening her more and more. She didn’t know what she could say again to convince this troll that she wasn’t lying.

An idea then struck her head, she didn’t know if it would work, but it was worth the try.

“Look Katariina, believe it or not, it’s the truth, this volcano will erupt in a few hours and if we all don’t get out of here fast, it will kill us all. I’ll make a deal with you, if you let us take some of the cold earth on the surface, we’ll take you to a new home, the enchanted forest, there are lots of other mystical creatures there and guess what? You aren’t the last troll. There are lots of other trolls there who would love to welcome a new friend. If you want us to take you there now, we will, but you’d better hurry up. We don’t have much time before the sun rises and you know you can’t be seen during the day.”

Katariina thought of what Joana had just said, could it be? There were other creatures like her who were still alive? How come she hadn’t known this before? Suddenly she didn’t care if Joana was lying or not, this was the sweetest offer she had ever gotten and she wouldn’t let it pass because of her insecurities. She would have to be more cautious though, she didn’t want to be played again the way she had been before.

“Do you promise to take me to the enchanted forest if I release you?”

“We promise, we’re even headed there now.”

“Cross your heart,” she said.

“We can’t do that in these bands but we do promise.”

She let out a sigh and released the bands on Joana and Derick. It took a while for them to regain their strength but they did. It would really hurt her if they were lying, but she was willing to take the risk. Living alone in this big empty cone for so long was no fun for her at all.

Joana then gathered some of the earth on the ground, and put it in a small sack she carried along before turning to Katariina.

“Thank you for trusting us, Katariina, let’s go to your new home now.”

They held each of Katariina’s hands and flew her into the sky.

“Hold on tight!” Joana told her as they headed towards London, which wasn’t too far away.