Meeting in the dark night

Buffy hurried over the bridge and into the darkness.

Helmer! Helmer! she thought.

She could hear the strange scrabbling noise from up the hill. She slowed right down. It was time to be as still as a tree. As silent as a stone. She sat down and moved just a tiny bit every now and then.

Then she caught sight of two scoundrels. Two? Shouldn’t there be three?

Buffy had a clever idea. She pretended to be engrossed by the leaves on the ground. She picked up a fallen leaf. Held it up as if it were an important note she was reading. Then she put it down, shuffled a bit closer and picked up a new leaf. She was just a small stone-like figure, busy reading all the leaves. She wasn’t the slightest bit interested in scoundrels.

Now she could smell them. Like clay. She heard them muttering quietly to each other.

From the corner of her eye she saw they were digging into the mountain. The biggest one hacked at the cliff and dislodged a huge boulder with a crack. They tore into the mountain as easily as Buffy dug the soft middle out of a bun!

She noticed that the leaf in her paw was trembling.

But she pretended to be completely uninterested. She cared only about the leaves on the ground. Closer and closer she crept, humming to herself.

The middle-sized scoundrel hacked at another bit of cliff and was about to pull out a boulder, when it suddenly stopped, sniffed and put its nose in the air. They had discovered that Buffy was there.

They began mumbling amongst themselves. It became a muttering that grew to a brumbling. But Buffy sat still, now lifting two leaves and comparing them in the moonlight. She hummed to herself.

The bigger creature came towards her with a strong smell of earth and mud. In the blink of an eye,Buffy saw that it was exactly the thing she had been thinking about!

A thought flashed through her head: “I don’t believe in trolls.”

But now she was looking at some.

She had to believe in them. You have to change your thinking when you’re presented with new evidence.

What had happened last time she met trolls?

The memory flooded back. They had rolled right over her with a great roar, and they’d flattened her. That’s what had happened!

Another thought flashed in her head. The dream! Now she remembered. Helmer had said something about how it was “actually a very kind friend”.

It hadn’t been a dream. Helmer had said something to her as she slept.

Now the troll put out its enormous hairy fist and took one of her leaves. He didn’t seem angry but, rather, peered curiously at the leaf, turning it over and around. He was of course wondering what could be so interesting about it.

Buffy felt very small and unprotected. Should she sing the troll a soft and loving lullaby? Should she try tickling its shaggy belly?

“Always take a little cake when there’s a mystery to be solved.” Wait, she had cakes in a bag.

She took one out and showed it to the big troll while staring at the ground and saying not a word.

The troll took the cake, turned it over, sniffed it and put it in his mouth. The troll began to brumble, a loud brumble that grew to a bellow and made Buffy’s ears flutter.

The other, smaller troll came forward and was also given a cake. Sniff, taste, brumble.

Buffy looked up cautiously and hummed a little.

Both trolls were brumbling so loudly that everything shook. But inside that thunderous noise, Buffy suddenly heard a faint pinging. Inside the brumbling could be heard a quiet, friendly voice. Now she could understand what they were saying.

“Our gracious thanks!” said the larger troll.

“We’re so happy that you’ve welcomed us!” said the smaller troll.

Buffy was surprised. Goodness, they were so polite and friendly. She didn’t know how to respond.

“You must be Chief Detective Buffy,” said the big troll. “Kind Helmer told us about you when he was here a moment ago.”

They were still speaking in the same way. A loud brumbling with a small, friendly voice inside. If you didn’t listen carefully, you didn’t hear the gentle words.

Buffy stood up and put out her hand.

“It’s a privilege to meet you,” she said. “You’re quite right, I’m Buffy.”

“My name is Bong,” said the smaller troll.

“And I’m Bang,” said the bigger one.

A very real troll called Bang was standing right in front of Buffy.

At the police station, most of them were awake by now, even though it was still night.

Badger had made an enormous quantity of tea in the biggest teapot. A good cup of tea makes you hungry. The animals began to murmur. It would be lovely to have a little something with the tea. A cookie? A cake?

Gordon had also woken and he felt very hungry.

Sadly, there wasn’t a crumb to eat in the station.

Wait! Had he not hidden a bag of cakes in the drawer for important notes? He crept over and pulled out the drawer. What? The bag was gone. There was only a stack of papers and you couldn’t eat those!

What do you do when you’re missing cakes? Hmm.

On the topmost paper was written some old advice.

Always ask someone who knows.

The paper was correctly stamped. Who knew how to get cakes? He went to Buffy’s bed and found that she’d gone. The investigation had summoned her, of course. And had Helmer gone with her?

The kindergarten youngsters were lying in bed, dozing.

“Help me,” said Gordon. “What do you do when you want cakes?”

“You bake them!” said a baby hedgehog.

“I can show you,” said a baby mole.

“We’re really good at baking!” said two young hares. “Sponge cake!”

“But where?” asked Gordon.

“At the bakery, of course!” they all said in chorus, and laughed.

“We could all go together to the bakery,” said a shy owlet.

So simple and obvious when you asked someone who knew!

Gordon noticed the baker family.

“Is there anything left in the bakery for us to bake with?” he asked.

The bakers both nodded and said oink. Everything they needed was still there.

Right then, there was nothing to stop them.

Gordon and Badger took the lead. A procession wended towards the bakery in the forest.

“There’s no scrorching or brumbling to be heard,” said Badger. “All is well! Trust me.”

Inside the bakery, the bakers pointed out all the ingredients. The young ones from kindergarten

knew exactly what to do. They mixed the batter for a sponge cake and kneaded dough for biscuits. But of course the oven was cold and would take time to heat up.

Gordon felt hunger pinching his stomach.

“We can eat the mixture,” said the mole child. “Cake mix is good.”

“I think the mixture’s tastier than the cake!” added the hedgehog baby. “Why does it have to go in the oven?”

Gordon was the first to agree. Soon they were all eating cake batter and dough. The big ones got to use the spatula, but the small ones simply dipped their paws into the bowl and licked them. Or rolled small balls of cardamom dough. It wasn’t a bad breakfast. In the middle of the night.