Once Upon a Time: Ever After High (Book 3)

Ch.31 Troll bridge

As Faybelle and Vincent continued walking, Vincent noticed something hanging around Faybelle's neck.

"What's that hanging around your neck?" he asked.

"Oh" Faybelle said as she reached down her shirt and pulled out a little clear container filled with some black sand and was sealed with a cork "This, is dark fairy dust, I only brought this for emergencies, cause as she can see, there isn't really much".

"What does it do?"

"It can turn a vicious creature into something less harmful".

"Cool" he said amused.

Soon they came upon an old brick bridge that connected the 2 lands over a steep foggy cliff.

"Whoa" Vincent gasped "I've never seen this before".

"It's the Troll bridge" Faybelle said "You gotta pay a toll if you wanna cross. I've gone across here lots of times, they won't even let me fly across unless I pay".

"Do we have to go across this?"

"It's how I visit my mother".

"Well I don't have any money".

"Don't worry" Faybelle reached down her boots and pulled out a bag "I got some".

They then headed towards the bridge.

"Okay" Faybelle said to him "Just stay close to me".

Vincent followed her onto the bridge as the dry leaves brushed pass them.

"Where are they?" he whispered.

"They're here" Faybelle said as she placed a handful of coins onto the edge of the bridge.

They waited, and soon they heard some growls. All of a sudden these ugly and creepy human size trolls appeared from under the bridge with weapons. Vincent put his hand on the handle of his sword getting ready for an attack.

"It's fine" Faybelle assured him "I know them".

"Back again Ms. Thorn?" the bigger troll said in his growling voice.

"Yep" she said "We would like to cross please".

"Who's he?" the troll pointed to Vincent with his machete.

"He's with me".

The other trolls then started to sniff Vincent.

"Hey back away" Faybelle ordered.

"Who is he?!" the bigger troll demanded.

"Don't worry about it! We just need to cross, there's your toll" Faybelle pointed to the edge where she placed the coins "Can we please cross?"

The troll looked at the others, and then they all looked at Vincent.

"Wait a minute" the bigger troll growled as he pointed to Vincent "Aren't you a Charming from Never After?"

"Um...yeah" Vincent said nervously.

The trolls then gave an angry growl.

"One of your brothers blew up parts of our bridge last year" the bigger troll growled "And it took us months to rebuild it!"

"Really?" Vincent said surprised.

"Wait another minute" the troll growled "I know what this really is, this is a setup!"

"It's not!" Faybelle assured.

"He's just here to blow up out bridge!" the troll yelled as he wrapped his arm around Faybelle and put his sword near her neck.

"Let her go!" Vincent ordered as he pulled out his sword, but the trolls knocked his sword away and pushed him against the edge.

"No!" Faybelle screamed.

"Search him" the bigger troll ordered.

So the other trolls started to search through Vincent's pockets, but they found nothing. The bigger troll then shoved Faybelle against the edge as the other troll yanked the little container of fairy dust off her neck and examined it. He showed the bigger troll the container as they gave a chuckle.

"Dark fairy dust" the bigger troll chuckled as the other trolls went towards her "Let me guess, you were gonna use this on us so Charming can blow up our bridge!"

"What? No!" Faybelle gasped.

But behind the trolls, they didn't notice that Vincent had picked up his sword and started to attack one of the trolls. The trolls then back away from Faybelle and started to fight Vincent. Faybelle watched with amusement by how good Vincent was at fighting.

"Go!" Vincent told her "I'm right behind you!"

Faybelle nodded as she scooped up her fairy dust that was on the ground and started to run off the bridge as Vincent continued fighting the trolls. As he was fighting them, Vincent was able to knock one of them over the bridge and down the cliff. Vincent then tried to run off the bridge, but a troll that had knocked to the ground grabbed his ankle and pulled him to the ground as the other trolls pulled him towards them.

"Follow me!" Faybelle said as she ran through the forest "They don't know the forest like I do".

But when she turned around, she was shocked to see that Vincent wasn't behind her.

"Vincent?" she called.

She then realized that something might of happened to him, so she ran back to help him. Still on the bridge, Vincent tried to fight the trolls, but one of them knocked his sword away as the others hoisted him up and held onto him as the bigger troll aimed his sword at him.

"Revenge is the sweetest of all" the troll growled as he raised the sword.

But before he could strike, Vincent watched as the troll suddenly disappeared in a cloud of black smoke, he then looked down and saw that he had been turned into a cockroach. He and then trolls then looked up and saw Faybelle standing there with the container of fairy dust in her hand that was opened. One of the trolls headed towards her as she quickly poured some of the dust in her hand and threw it at the troll as he also turned into cockroach. And the last troll was about to attack her when she threw the last handful of dust at him as he too turned into a cockroach. Faybelle gave a sigh in relief as Vincent got up with a surprised look.

"You saved me" he said.

"Well you did the same thing to me when you distracted them and let me run" she said.

"Well, now all of your fairy dust is gone".

"Eh" she shrugged "I still have my own magic, and beside, this pretty much was an emergency".

"Well, thank you" he smiled as she returned the smile.

"Well we should get going" she said "There could be more coming".

"All right" he said as he gathered the toll coins and they headed off the bridge.

But before they walked off, they stepped on the cockroaches and finally went off the bridge.