The Secrets of Pimsim Cove - 16. Chapter 16

I think I’ve had enough of men to last me a lifetime. I swam towards the distance silhouette of the Cove instead of back towards the McLoughlin’s house. Making out the protective stone wall that surrounded the little town and continued into the ocean water, I decided that was the perfect spot to swim ashore.

The late day sun was hot as it beat down against my bare shoulders, but it would help dry out my khaki pants in no time. Amazingly, the cute green tank top retained its shape even after hulling that heavy glass globe around all morning while I searched the miserable underbelly of the Palace, looking for Talbot’s hidden dungeon.

Blinking at the sun, that was now cast far across the sky, I couldn’t believe that I had been in the City that long. It had felt like only an hour, but judging from the position of the sun, it had been way longer than that.

There was no time to dwell on that. Dad told me where he hid the Ring and it was now up to me to do, what none of the guys could…find it!

The soft sand clung to my bare feet as I pulled myself out of the water and up the steep embankment to the hillside overlooking the ocean. I stumbled once and slid backwards a few feet, but continued up the hill, grabbing onto a stray clump of grass. The strong roots held my weight as I pulled myself back up through the dirt. When I reached the top, I looked down at my grass-stained pants and frowned.

“What is it about my khaki’s that always…” I stopped for a second and stared at the stain. “Oh my goodness, that’s it!” I jumped up and down on the top of the steep hill. “That’s it!” I repeated to myself, as I took off running at full tilt towards the open field that edged up to the towering stone wall.

After I crossed the gravel roadway and stepped foot onto the grassy meadow, I instantly felt the cool breeze change. It wasn’t the salty air from over the ocean. It was the stale musty smell of the forest floor.

It was the decay of leaves and moss that grows in damp places. My heart pounded inside my chest. I turned to run back towards the ocean, but I heard the distant rumble of Rook’s old pick-up truck driving up the gravel road, and flung myself to the ground to avoid being seen.

The soft brown mud smooched under my fingernails when I dug my fingers into the warm moist soil.

I had come this far. I couldn’t just turn and run away now. After his truck passed by and I couldn’t hear it anymore, I rubbed the moist dirt over my arms, face and even matted my hair back with gooey clumps. Ripping a handful of grass from the ground, I stained the rest of my shirt and pants with the green chlorophyll seeping from the springy stems.

Looking more like a wild child from the earth than a mystical creature from the ocean, I closed my eyes and felt the earthy breeze retreating away from me. Satisfied that the Forest Fairies would not try to attack me in my present mud and grass encrusted state, I ran towards the narrow spot where the moat, the meadow, and the stone wall all came together.

Light brown water churned in the moat. It was deep but that wasn’t what stopped me from leaping in…it was the stench. Living in a big city like Atlanta, I thought that I had smelled everything imaginable, but nope, this was offensive times infinity!

I had to hurry up and make my decision. The narrow strip of land along the wall was only wide enough for me to inch along on my tippy-toes and it was getting harder and harder to keep from falling off of the embankment. I watched the guard step down from his watchtower above the drawbridge, but I didn’t know how long he was gonna be gone.

A small round hole burrowed into the ground on the opposite side of the moat, where the top of the drawbridge would land. The hole was tiny and only looked big enough for a gopher. I had to be crazy…was I really considering going inside there?

CLINK! CLINK! CLINK! The links in the metal chain moaned when the guard started to lower the bridge. Someone was coming out of the Cove. Time had run out! If I was going in, it was now or never!

Jumping as far as I could to the muddy cliff on the other side, I barely missed plopping into the stinky water. I scrunched down to avoid being whacked by the huge wooden bridge descending on top of me. As the planks came down, making a proper bridge, I watched the tiny gopher hole expand into a full size tunnel.

Amazing! I quickly scrambled inside. Looking back, I noticed the entrance was still a tiny speck in the cliff. That’s when I realized that the entrance was really an optical illusion to keep out unwanted guests!

“Very cleaver, Trolls.” I muttered as I ventured farther into their hidden maze of tunnels.

My feet squished through the muck while I trudged down the first tunnel and made a right like Dad had instructed. He told me to remember, “RR and LL.” Make a right and then another right, followed by a left then another left.

Dad kept it quick and simple. He told me, he ran in and out as fast as possible, when he ventured into the Trolls’ hidden lair, all those years ago and I didn’t blame him, because standing in this smelly tunnel right now, I understood exactly what Dad meant. I wanted to get out of here as fast as Humanly possible!

I don’t know what smelled worse, the stagnant water in the moat outside, or the dingy tunnels running deep underground. Small cracks in the ceiling let in little glimpses of sunshine that seemed to reflect off the bits of metal in the huge piles of trash that was packed against the tunnel walls. Trolls must live like pack rats, dumpster diving and hoarding everything that they could find. Yuck!

Most of their trashy treasures were old appliances and I lost count of how many discarded metal coffee pots that I passed in the first tunnel alone. A baby stroller, a single leather boot, and even several lamps in assorted different styles and shapes were crammed into every corner.

Making the second right, I noticed an animal burrow in the wall that led straight up to the surface. The passage was narrow, but it was still big enough to let in some more light than the little ceiling cracks.

I pulled one of the old toasters out of the junk pile and wiped off the metal side. Setting it on the floor, just below the animal hole, the little toaster caught the light streaming in from above and reflected like a flashlight down the next hallway.

“Cool!” Now all I needed was to find something else to set down at the other end to keep the reflection going. A tea set’s serving platter and half of an old broken mirror did the trick! Within moments the length of the dim hallway was lit well enough for me to stumble the rest of the way through to the second left turn.

Dad said two rights then two lefts, then look for the waterfall. I only had to walk over to the small alcove, carved into the dirt wall, to find what he was talking about. I could hear the splashing of water even before peeking inside. A large round table sat in the center of the jam packed room. Even with most of the junk pushed out of the way, it only left enough space for me to barely squeeze through.

“Where is it?” I grumbled to myself. I rummaged through the trash, pulling out a broken baby doll leg, an umbrella, and I even found a hot pink flip-flop, but not what I was searching for.

Gross! Everything was sticky and moldy. Turning around in frustrated little circles, I nervously twisted my fingers together. “Come on! Where the smurf is it?” I said a little too loud, then immediately clamped my teeth down onto my lower lip.

Suddenly, the smallest ray of light peeked through a crack in the ceiling, the light reflected off the wall with the cascading water. Little glass tiles were pressed into the mud and bits of sunshine bounced off them, turning the room in to a beautiful display of colorful lights.

With more light, I saw a small piece of wood protruding from the side of the dirt wall. It was a rudimentary shelf, I hadn’t noticed it before.

Perched on the very top was a pale pink clam shell. I jumped up and down and exclaimed, “That’s it!” Trying to climb the trash piles to reach the shelf, my legs kept getting sucked back down into the muck.

The pretty pink shell was perfect and clean. It looked like a priceless diamond tossed into this trash heap of rotting garbage. I wiggled my dirty fingers, leaning forward, trying to stretch those last…few…inches…there! I had it!

My heart soared when I snatched it off the shelf and leaped off the trash pile back to the soft squishy floor.

My fingers trembled when I opened the shell and gazed down on the Ring nestled inside. It looked exactly like Rook had described it. The dark, midnight blue pearl was huge with its setting of elaborate gold bands that swirled around the exotic pearl. I don’t know if it could magically produce a male child or not, but I had to admit that it was absolutely beautiful!

Now that I had the Ring, it was time to haul butt out of this awful place. I shoved the Ring into the little side pocket of my khaki’s and pulled the zipper flap to secure it.

“Who are you?” The high pitched voice shrieked.

My head snapped up to the opening of the small round room to see that the only way out of here, was now blocked by two big hairy Trolls.

“Well? We haven’t got all day! Who the heck are you?” The Troll with the bright orange wiry hair impatiently tapped her massive furry foot and waited for my answer. The other Troll was slightly smaller, not that it really mattered when they were both well over six feet tall. She sniffed at the air before taking a step into the small room and sniffed again, a little bit closer to me.

“I still can’t tell, Nettie!” The smaller Troll exclaimed. She took another step closer as I took a step back. Her thick, coarse fur was a dark mustardy yellow that matched her huge yellow eyes.

She inhaled a lung full of air and held it, “I thought I smelled…” she sniffed again, unsure of what I actually was, “…a child of the sea, but now… I’m not so sure!”

The yellow one stepped in closer, forcing me to quickly move back towards the splashing waterfall. “What are you?” The big orange Troll demanded.

“Are you a child of the sea or a child of the land?” The smaller Troll chimed in.

I could feel the tingles of water droplets landing on my arms. “I’m neither!” I said holding my head up a little higher. “I’m…something entirely new!” Lifting my hand into the pouring water, it ran down my arm and dripped muddy drops to the dirty floor.

Oh, please let this work or I’m so dead! Purple, purple, purple, I commanded and let out a sigh of relief when a thick vine of purple flowers flowed down my arm. Smiling at their shocked furry faces, I quickly stuck my other arm into the water and heard them gasp as flowered scales continued to appear down that arm too.

“She has the scales of the sea children.” The yellow Troll muttered.

“And the flowers of a land child. The creature was telling the truth Nettie, it’s something entirely new.” The big Troll grunted and then an evil smile curled over her orange face. “Now, what are we going to do with it?”

My heart thudded in my chest as it missed a beat. What where they going to do with me? Oh now, that didn’t sound good! Thinking fast, Anna. I blurted out the first thing that popped into my head.

“There’s no need to do anything with me,” I said with an awkward laugh. “I was just bringing a gift down here for Maggen--”

“Maggen?” They chimed in unison.

“Yes, Maggen,” I said, “I brought down this lovely shell for her, as a little ‘thank you gift,’ since she was soooo kind to me--”

“You know Queen Maggen?” The orange Troll shouted.

I was afraid to answer her, so I just nodded my head, ‘yes,’ and held out my hand with the pretty pink shell inside.

“But how could she know the Queen?” The smaller Troll asked the bigger one.

Her wild orange eyes narrowed in on me and the pink shell that I was holding in my hand. “If you know Queen Maggen, then prove it!” She growled.

“Fine,” I said and nonchalantly shrugged my shoulders, still covered with thin scales. “Maggen told me all about her trip to America. She told me that she had a lovely time visiting with Marcella--”

Both of the Trolls’ eyes shot to each other.

“And I don’t think that Queen Maggen would be very happy if something bad happened to me, especially down here, when I was only bringing a gift for a friend!” I put as much emphases on the word ‘friend’ as I could. They both obviously understood my subtle threat and each took a step away from where I was standing.

“Like I told you,” I said sweetly, “I’m something entirely different!”

The yellow Troll was scared of the Queen and kept backing out of the small alcove, until I could barely see her dark mustard silhouette in the narrow tunnel, but the bigger Troll was more reluctant.

She was skeptical, but wasn’t going to chance angering her Queen. She stepped out into the hallway, but didn’t move completely out of the way. When I approached her, she held out her large fuzzy hand and I placed the delicate shell inside.

“Please see to it that Her Majesty gets my gift.” I said as I pushed past her thick orange fur.

When I was past her and heading back down the dim tunnel, I called back to the big Troll over my shoulder, “tell her it’s from her, ‘Ginger American’…she’ll know who I am.”