The Troll and the Scarf

Once upon a time there was a little troll.

She lived in the forest, just down the road, and liked to hide under rocks and pinecones. Her favorite thing in all the world was a scarf that her mother had made her from moss and pine needles. She would wrap it around her throat, and then around her head once, because it was a bit too long.

One day, our little troll was hiding under a very nice, big pinecone, when a crow landed on the stump next to it.
“OH NO!, ” thought the troll.. , “if I come out now, it’ll peck me or eat me!”
So the troll hid patiently under the pinecone… It waited.. and waited… growing sleepier..and sleepier.. and sleepier…
When it woke up, the scarf was gone!

The troll was very sad… she started looking everywhere… Someone must have taken it! She couldn’t go home to her mother without her pretty scarf… so she decided to go on a little journey and make her own. It was evening already, and she was hungry, so first she stopped and ate some blueberries. She was so small that five blueberries and a half later, she was very full and feeling a bit more optimistic.

She started gathering bits of moss and pine needles… and tried to weave them together like her mother had. It wasn’t going very well. It kept falling into pieces, and her blue hands were making artistic handprints everywhere. She sat down, sad, and wondered what to do, while nibbling ont he other half of the sixth blueberry.
Then she remembered something her mother said.
“When things aren’t going well, sometimes it’s best to take a pause for a little while before trying again..”

So the troll decided to pause and started walking home instead.
She was so unhappy she soon decided to run instead of walking, and started scampering across the roots and rocks and moss and under the trees and branches and fern… She felt tired.. but she still felt wild, so she decided to climb a tree. She saw a very nice gnarly, but young oak tree, and started to climb up along the trunk… She sat in the branches and sang a little song to herself that only she could hear…
It went something like this:

Sitting in a TREE
oh poor scarfless little ME
What shall I do?
Where shall I go?
SCARFLESS IN A TREEEEeee

There were many other verses, but I shan’t tell you them now.

Eventually she stopped and just sat and thought for a while..
She thought and thought, but wasn’t sure what she was thinking about, because when a crow with a green scarf landed in a bush down below her tree, she was startled out of her ponderings. The scarf! It was the scarf! She looked around..
An acorn was all she could find.. She grinned.

She picked the acorn stealthily, muttering something to herself.
It went something like this:

an acorn for you.. a scarf for me…
then I can go home
oh happy me!

Being rather grumpy at the crow, I’m afraid she dropped the acorn!!
It hit the crow on the head so suddenly that it dropped the scarf it was holding in its mouth. It wobbled a bit, cawed once, and flew away!
The little troll climbed back down the tree, singing wordless joy, and grabbed the scarf. She wiped the scarf off. The blueberry on her hands had dried by now, so it did not stain. Then she started walking home, collecting yummy things to give to her mother along the way.

THE END.

For Dennis.