“Trollsielone’s Dream Come True”

Once there was Trollsielone, who lived a lonely life and had no friends. She was an outcast because she was covered with dead roots and infertile soil. All her mountain neighbors were healthy with plenty of nutrients to sustain tall trees and beautiful flowers to grow. Thus, Trollsielone was always mocked by her appearance and had no one to talk to.

One day, Dally, the excited mountain climber did her usual hike on a rainy day. Trollsielone was patiently waiting for this human to come to her so she can show her how challenging she is. But Dally climbed the mountain to the left of Trollsielone. And when she was done, she went home right away.

One month later, Dally, the excited mountain climber did her usual hike on a rainy day again. Trollsielone was patiently waiting for this human to come to her so she can show her how challenging she is. But once again, Dally did not climb Trollsielone, she climbed the mountain to the right of Trollsielone. Trollsielone was once again disappointed.

One year passed, no human ever climbed Trollsielone. She gave up all her hopes and expectations on wishing that someone would climb her. However, on this day, the weather was extremely beautiful with the dazzling sun. Trollsielone was cheered slightly by the weather and amazed at the beautiful nature scenery of the sky. Just then, Dally the excited mountain climber came by to do her usual hike. However, because over a year she trained herself well with climbing mountains, she wanted to try something challenging for once.

And thus, she decided to climb Trollsielone. Trollsielone was super cheerful and happy. Afterwards when Dally was finished hiking, she said “all this time I never expected this mountain to be the best hike of my life, I guess I was just misled by its scary look, I will definitely come again!”

And with this, Trollsielone was visited by Dally more and more often, and as time passed by, Dally brought more friends to hike too. Eventually, Trollsielone became a popular site for climbers, the government even decided to have a makeover of the mountain so it would look more alive and pleasant through adding more trees and making the soil fertile. With this, Trollsielone became the most beautiful mountain there is and stood out amongst her neighbors. No mountain troll ever mocked at her again, but rather they all wanted Trollsielone as a friend and were nice to her ever since.

—PVCity

“Troll Traveler”

Let me introduce you to Giilk, a tiny but stout creature who lives deep in the fjords that stretch across the coast of Kempi. You may have seen his home in popular travel photos of this unique destination. Every morning Giilk has the privilege to awake to the awe-inspiring view from his little nook that is carved high up the cliffs of the fijord. The sharp peaks are dusted with snow today and Giilk thinks to himself, maybe I should take a vacation this winter instead of turning to stone like everyone else of his kind.

Giilk decided to visit Pico a place known for being everything opposite of Kempi. When Giilk arrived it was everything he wanted, nothing like Kempi. The water was a crisp translucent blue unlike the mercy grey blue that is in the fijords. Pico was also much warmer than Kempi because it had a big potato in the sky that kept the air warm and turned Giilks skin a touch scaly texture.

Giilk also found a community not so different from his friends and family in Kempi except they were the ten times the size of Giilks kind and they liked to make fun of his big floppy ears. Nonetheless, they didn’t mind Giilks tiny stature and so he fit in well. Giilk enjoyed riding the smooth wet rock slides in the forest, catching rainbow birds, and swimming in the water that glowed. Giilk lived in a small hut that floated on top of the water and he always went to his neighbors hut in the morning for a nice chat and some fresh milk water.

But one morning after being in Pico what felt like a lifetime he found everyone in Pico had turned to stone. He was confused because his kind only did that for the winter and it looked as though Pico never had winter. Giilk wrote a long farewell note and left it at his neighbors house incase he woke up and then began the long journey back to Kempi.

He arrived home to find that everything was the same as before and everyone made it through the winter as a stone statue. Giilk was greeted ever so warmly but he will never felt whole again because part of him is sill attached to Pico.

—Laura Krause