THE
RAINBOW TROLL
BY
DENIS PLEW
WORDS YOU NEED TO KNOW
Norway ---- Norway is a country located northeast of England. It has steep mountains and deep valleys that reach down to the ocean.
Trolls ---- Trolls are make-believe small human-like creatures that resemble elves, only they are very ugly with their long noses. They live in the country called Norway. Norwegian stories say that trolls come out at night to play tricks and jokes on people.
Fjord --- Norway has deep valleys. Some of these deep valleys near the ocean fill up with water. These water filled valleys are called fjords. They look like long narrow lakes.
Kroner --- A Norwegian dollar.
CHAPTER 1
BEYOND THE FALLS
In the steep mountains of Norway runs a clear water stream that tumbles down extremely steep mountainsides to join large fjords far below. As the water thunders over the rocky slopes, it forms towering waterfalls. In back of these falls are where rainbow trolls are found. All of the other Norwegian trolls hate sunlight and only come out at night to play mischievous tricks on people. The rainbow trolls are different because they hate darkness, and live for the days that the sun shines its brightest. In this brightness, they perform their magic of producing the most beautiful rainbows on earth.
Rainbow trolls come to life inside small water droplets formed by falling water rushing over the falls. When these special bubbles are pierced by a beam of sunlight at just the right angle, a young rainbow troll is born. The bubble slowly drops to the pond at the base of the falls where it bursts. The baby rainbow trolls then swim to the backside of the waterfall where they are never seen by human eyes until they become older. When adults, the trolls’ bodies look like raindrops and their hands and feet are suction-cups attached by two long stringy arms and legs. They have long rainbow colored hair and an ugly long nose that’s covered with warts and comes to a point.
In back of the falls, the young trolls attend rainbow making school. They are taught by the older trolls how to capture water bubbles from the splashing water with their suction-cup hands. Then they learn how to split the bubble so that they can climb inside. Once inside, they are taught how to control the movement of the bubbles so that they can search for the brightest possible sunlight. The young trolls then have to learn how to tilt their bubble just right to split the sunlight into its many colors so that the colors reflect back out in the right order. Therefore, they have to memorize the rainbow color pattern from the bottom up: violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red. The older trolls try to instill in the younger trolls to take pride in making beautiful rainbows. The young trolls are told repeatedly to: NOT BLUR THEIR COLORS and KEEP THE COLORS IN THE RIGHT ORDER. Once the trolls have learned all these things, they can begin making rainbows on their own.
So for days they practice making rainbows until making rainbows becomes a habit. The young trolls have a lot of fun trying to outdo each other for the prettiest rainbow at the falls. They are disappointed that their beautiful rainbows go unnoticed because they are made so high in the mountains that few people ever see their handiwork. Most always their rainbow audience comes from the forest creatures that live close to the waterfalls.
Sometimes the rainbow trolls team up with one another to make group rainbows. They discovered that the more trolls they have working together, the bigger and brighter their rainbows become. It’s always great fun to produce huge rainbows that stretch across the falls. After days of practicing, the young trolls think they have learned everything that there is to know about making rainbows.
One day soon after rainbow school had finished, a little rainbow troll named Johan grew bored and uninterested in producing any more rainbows. All he wanted to do was stay behind the waterfall and be lazy. The other rainbow trolls couldn’t understand why he wasn’t making rainbows with them, because they loved making rainbows. But Johan thought there was more to life than catching water droplets each day and producing rainbows that only forest animals enjoyed. He grew restless and wanted to know more about making rainbows in the real world for PEOPLE to enjoy.
Each day he would sit in the cave and daydream about the crowds of people applauding his spectacular colored light show of “Rainbows are Plentiful”. He could imagine them saying, “That rainbow was made by Johan, the greatest rainbow maker of them all.”
Then one cloudy summer’s morning, Johan was out of the cave early trying to produce a rainbow in dull light. He knew by being out in the dull light he was running the risk of using up his energy. (Rainbow trolls get their energy from sunlight) The other young rainbow trolls were still in back of the cave trying to decide whether it was light enough for them to come out.
Johan was tipping his bubble to one side when a gust of wind rocked him so hard that he was blown into the water below bursting his bubble. Although he was a good swimmer, he knew that he was in deep trouble because his energy level was low. But he decided to swim to the back of the falls anyway. About halfway to the falls, his energy ran out. At once the stream’s current began carrying him downstream away from the falls. In desperation, he reached out and grabbed a piece of bark that floated by. He was so frightened, that all he could think about was holding on tight. His bark boat was suddenly caught up in the stream’s fast moving current and the little rainbow troll found himself rapidly floating downstream away from the falls. He was terrified at the thought of being carried away from his home, but the more he thought about it, the less scared he became. Maybe, just maybe, this was his big chance to escape the dull life of the falls and join the excitement of the real world. Johan took a deep breath and tried to relax as he watched the evergreen trees along the rocky shore quickly pass by. He had never traveled that fast before. The only thing he knew to do was lay his head down, close his eyes, and hang on to his bark boat with all his might. He was swiftly moving to destinations he knew nothing about.
CHAPTER 2
NO FROGS ALLOWED
His bark boat rocked back and forth, and twisted and turned as he was carried downstream. Always before he had older rainbow trolls to help him in scary situations, but there was no help anywhere. For the first time in his young life, he had to count on himself for his survival. And the only thing that made sense to him was to hang on tight.
Two hours later and a little seasick, Johan found himself drifting through a beautiful flower filled mountain meadow. The once rapid current of the stream had slowed to a normal flow as the stream widened. Johan loved the beauty of the meadow. An abundance of colored wildflowers formed a blanket of mixed colors over the land. Just like a rainbow, he thought. My beautiful rainbows will blend right in with this magnificent field of flowers.
When his bark raft drifted close to the bank, he jumped off and swam to shore. He searched along the shoreline trying to find a place to call home, but there were no waterfalls. What am I going to do? I can’t stay here? I have to stay moist or I’ll dry to death, he thought. I must live here by the stream bank somewhere.
In his search for a home, he found a large flat rock that was setting near shore, half in the water and half out. He thought it might be a good home from which to make rainbows. He knew that the flat rock would keep him moist from the ripples hitting its sides. He was very happy to find such a good home so quickly. Now he could concentrate on making beautiful rainbows. So he stood on the rock and waited patiently for the right size ripple to splash against it to form a bubble large enough for him to crawl inside. He waited. And he waited. The gentle splashing of the stream’s currents against the rock didn’t produce the right size bubbles. Every now and then there was a ripple that rolled across the rock, but it made no bubbles. It did serve the purpose, however, of keeping him moist.
“I can’t live here if I can’t make rainbows!” he yelled out into the silent forest beyond. He sadly sat down on the rock with a beaten look on his face. He surely wasn’t going to be happy here if he couldn’t show off his magical rainbow-making skills. He knew he was going to have to move on if he couldn’t find a way of producing bubbles.
Then he heard a soft rough voice from the stream bank say, “Why do you look so sad, little one?”
Johan looked up and saw a small spotted frog sitting on the edge of the bank. “Hi, I’m Johan, the rainbow troll.”
“I’ve never seen a rainbow troll before. Why are you out there on the rock?” said the frog.
“I’m waiting for a bubble just the right size so I can make a rainbow for your beautiful meadow”.
“Come to think of it,” said the frog, “it’s been a long time since I’ve seen a rainbow. They sure are pretty. Can you really make one?”
“Not now.”
“Why? Are you sick?”
“No, not at all. I need a small bubble in order to make a rainbow. At home the waterfalls made hundreds of small bubbles. Here I’ve found none,” said Johan.
“Can you use a small bubble like this?” asked the frog as he pursed his lips and blew a small bubble on the tip of his mouth. Then he immediately punctured it with a flip of his tongue.
“That looked good to me. Can you make a little smaller one?” asked Johan.
The frog blew another bubble the same size as before, only this time he sucked in some air until Johan said, “STOP! That’s the right size, right there.”
Then, without warning, Johan jumped on the bubble. When the frog saw Johan on the tip of his mouth, he quickly hopped away destroying the bubble and causing the rainbow troll to fall to the rocky ground. Johan got up, checked himself over for punctures, and then yelled to the panic stricken frog, “Why did you jump? I could have been seriously hurt,” said Johan.
The frog slowly stuck his head out between the grass blades.
“Why did you jump on my bubble?” asked the frog. “That scared my spots right off me.”
“I needed to climb inside the bubble if I’m going to make a rainbow,” explained Johan.
“Well I don’t like you perched on the tip of my mouth,” said the frog. “It tickles.”
“Then how am I going to get inside the bubble?”
The frog thought a moment. Then he said, “When I make a bubble, I’m going to push it up into the air with my tongue; then you can catch it and climb inside.
“Okay, let’s try that,” said the troll. “Go ahead now and make another bubble.”
So the frog hopped back to the edge of the stream, put the tip of his mouth in the water and sucked in just the right amount. Then he raised his head and slowly made another bubble. When the bubble appeared to be the right size, Johan became so excited that he wanted to jump on it right away.
“Stop blowing, Frog. That bubble’s the right size now,” yelled Johan.
The frog stopped. Then he nodded to Johan that he was ready to flick the bubble into the air. Johan readied himself for the big capture. Suddenly, out popped the frog’s tongue, but the bubble disappeared quickly. Johan’s heart sank to his suction cup feet.
“Sorry, Johan, I hit the bubble too hard with my tongue. Say, let me try that again,” said the frog before Johan could say anything.
The next bubble the frog blew was just right, and it didn’t burst with the flick of his tongue. It sailed above Johan’s head and the young rainbow troll wasted no time clinging to it. He climbed inside and guided it out over the meadow. As soon as the bubble got high enough and turned in the sun’s rays, a beautiful rainbow sprang forth.
“Wow,” yelled the frog. “You sure know how to make beautiful rainbows all right.”
“Thanks,” yelled the happy rainbow troll as he guided his bubble down to his rock where it burst on landing.
“That’s a real magic trick you do with that bubble,” said the frog.
“It’s not hard for me to make rainbows as long as the conditions are right. But if I’m going to live here, you are going to have to help me by blowing bubbles. I feel bad if I don’t make at least one rainbow a day,” said Johan.
“Oh, I’d be proud to make bubbles for you,” said the frog.
“Good, then I’ll stay and make the meadow even a more beautiful place with my rainbows,” said Johan.
So Johan and the little green spotted frog became best of friends. Each day they got together and produced wonderful rainbows. The word soon got around the forest that beautiful bright rainbows were being seen over the meadow. Each day more and more forest animals gathered around the stream bank in the late morning hours to watch Johan and his frog friend produce bright colorful rainbows. They weren’t big rainbows, but they were brilliant ones. In fact, the other frogs thought that they were so pretty that they wanted to help blow bubbles. It was fun at first for Johan to show off his talents by using all of the frogs’ bubbles. But it was also very tiring for the young troll to try and satisfy all the frogs that wanted to blow bubbles for him.
Soon arguments broke out among the frogs about who was going to produce the next bubble for their new friend, the rainbow troll. This was not the type of life Johan had imagined for himself. Choosing which frog was going to make the next bubble was getting on his nerves. One day he decided he couldn’t live here any longer. The frogs were becoming too demanding.
When darkness crept over the forest and all the creatures had returned home, Johan looked for a way to escape the rock he had called home. He quietly snuck down to the shore in search of a boat. Soon he spotted, nestled among the high grasses, a large leaf. He thought it would make a good boat, but it was lodged beneath a tree limb. Johan yanked and yanked, but didn’t have the strength to move it. He tried everything to dislodge the leaf, but without sunlight, he had little energy.
He was returning to his rock, when he heard a loud pounding noise coming his way. Soon the noise was upon him, shaking the very ground. Johan crouched behind a small rock as a foot came crashing down beside him. He slowly peered up and saw a huge deer with large antlers standing over the top of him. Johan stood motionless even though his insides were quivering with fear. The deer looked around and then began drinking water from the stream. Then all of a sudden, he raised his head, wheeled around, and ran quickly back to the forest. Johan ducked as a large hoof swung over his head.
After the deer left, Johan saw that the deer had dislodged the leaf that he had tried to free. He pulled the leaf a few inches across the rocks to the edge of the stream. Grabbing a blade of grass for a paddle, he launched his leaf boat. Once again Johan was afloat in search of a place to live. He had had enough of the snippy little frogs.
CHAPTER 3
A NEW FRIEND
Johan traveled all night. He couldn’t see a thing as he raced downstream on his tiny leaf boat. When sunlight came creeping into the valley, he could see that the last of the big steep mountains were behind him. He found himself floating down a large body of water not to far off shore.
The water of the fjord was much calmer, and the ride a lot smoother. In fact, he felt like he wasn’t going anywhere. He took his blade of grass and started paddling toward shore. Suddenly a splash of water lit beside him, tipping him to one side. Surprised and half scared, he looked up and saw a young boy skipping flat rocks across the water from shore. A second later, another splash hit close by. Only this time the splash produced a tiny bubble. Johan knew he had to escape or run the risk of being hit by skipping rocks. When he saw the bubble, he immediately climbed inside and guided himself towards shore.
The little boy, who was skipping rocks, was surprised to see a rainbow floating toward him. He started stepping backward in disbelief. After a couple of steps, he decided that being chased by a rainbow just didn’t happen in the real world, so he stopped just as Johan landed on the shore. The two just stared at each other.
Then moments later, the boy said, “What are you?”
“I’m a rainbow troll,” said Johan. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m camping with my family. What are you doing here?” questioned the small puzzled boy while kneeling down to get a closer look at this fairy tale troll.
“I’m trying to find a good place to make rainbows for people to enjoy.”
“Well, if the rainbow that chased me is a sample of your work, you do make good rainbows,” said Eric.
“Thanks,” said Johan. “But I need a good place to make them, and small streams don’t work very well unless you’re under a waterfall.”
Why is that? It seems to me that you could make them anywhere you wanted,” said Eric.
“I have to have a small bubble just the right size, you see,” said Johan.
“How would you like to come home with me, and I’ll find a place where you can find tiny bubbles everyday?”
“Then I can make rainbows all the time for people to enjoy?” questioned Johan.
“That’s right,” said Eric.
“Sure, I’ll go home with you. I have only animals to see my rainbows around here, and they don’t appreciate them much.”
“I’m going home tonight,” said Eric, “so just before I leave, I’ll come down and get you.”
“Okay,” said Johan. “But you have to come to get me before it gets dark. You see, I can’t be seen in the dark.”
“I promise,” said Eric.
“By the way, do have a name?” asked the rainbow troll. “My name is Johan.”
“Yeah, my name is Eric.”
Johan and Eric played together most of the afternoon. Eric would pick up rocks and splash them right in front Johan. Johan would then see how many tiny bubbles he could capture. From the gathered bubbles, he would produce brilliant rainbows of different sizes, depending on the number of bubbles collected. Late in the afternoon, Eric’s arm grew tired of throwing rocks so he walked back to his campsite leaving the young troll alone on the beach.
When evening came, the little boy kept his promise and went down to the fjord’s shore carrying a glass jar with a wet paper towel inside. But it was darker than he realized.
When Johan saw him coming, he stood on top of a rock and tried to make a rainbow to show Eric where he was. It was a fizzle. He couldn’t even produce a small light because the boy had waited too long.
Eric looked all around, but couldn’t see the little troll.
“Johan, where are you?” he yelled out in the darkness.
The rainbow troll couldn’t answer. Johan didn’t have enough energy to speak loud enough for Eric to hear him. Then Eric remembered what Johan had said about rainbow trolls needing light to operate normally. All at once Eric put the jar down and ran back to his camp.
Johan was left all alone once again. He wanted to go with the young boy so badly that a small tear trickled down the side of his face. Silently he stood there on the moist beach expecting to spend the night by himself. Johan’s thoughts and dreams of entertaining people had come to an end until he spotted the young boy running his way.
When Eric returned, he was carrying a brightly lit flashlight. He shined a beam of light along the shoreline where he had last seen the rainbow troll. Once the bright light fell upon Johan, it energized him enough to produce a small spark of light in the darkness that Eric could see.
“Oh, there you are little fellow,” he said as he placed the glass jar down beside Johan. “Jump in.”
“Keep the light on me until I’m in,” said Johan.
The boy did just as the troll said. When Johan was safely inside, Eric ran back to join his awaiting parents.
“Where on earth did you run off to so fast, Eric?” scolded his father. “We were ready to leave fifteen minutes ago.”
“Dad, I had to get something that I forgot down at the fjord.”
His dad grabbed the jar away from his son and looked inside. “I don’t see a thing in here except a wet paper towel. Was getting that wet so important that you had to hold up our trip home?”
“Yes, Dad, it was. See, I’ve captured a rainbow troll.”
“Let me see that,” Eric’s dad said as he forcibly grabbed the jar from his son’s hands. “Why there’s nothing in there that resembles a troll. And I know a troll when I see one. Now take your ‘whatever’ and get in the car.”
“Frederick, don’t be so rough on the boy,” said his mother. “He’s just a young boy with a good imagination.”
CHAPTER 4
DEAD END
The family arrived home at two o’clock the next morning. Eric had fallen asleep in the back seat with the jar tucked between his legs. When his dad picked him up to carry him to the house, the jar toppled to the floorboard coming to rest on its side. Johan didn’t crawl out for fear of drying out. For now, he was safe, but imprisoned by the moisture on the towel inside the jar. He hoped that Eric would remember to rescue him in the morning.
Eric woke up at nine thirty the next morning. He sleepily walked downstairs to have breakfast. He was eating a bowl of Granola Puffs as a beam of light suddenly filtered through the kitchen window striking his spoon and reflecting back into his eyes. Instantly he remembered his rainbow troll.
“Mom, where’s my jar I had last night?” asked Eric.
I don’t know son,” said his mother. “I haven’t seen it in the house this morning, so it still must be in the car.”
At that, Eric jumped from his chair and ran outside to see if his dad had ridden his bicycle to work. He had. A moment later, Eric was back in the house.
“Where did you disappear to so quickly, dear?” asked his mother.
Without answering he said, “Mom may I use your car keys?”
“Why of course, son,” she said. “I see that you’re still chasing down that troll.”
“Yeah, Mom, and if I don’t get him out of the hot car, he’s going to dry up.”
Eric’s mother walked into the living room and got her car keys from her purse. He immediately ran out of the house to the car and quickly unlocked the front door and pressed the automatic locks. Then he opened the backdoor and saw the jar lying on the floor. He couldn’t tell if Johan was dead or alive until he grabbed the jar and brought it out into the daylight. He looked inside and saw a small beam of white light resting on the drying towel.
“Get me some water. I’m drying out fast,”spoke a weak little voice from within the jar.
Eric ran over to the lawn sprinkler and placed the jar down on the grass. Then ran to the side of the house and turned on the outside water faucet. A couple of seconds later, water began squirting out the sprinkler. Drops of water rained down on the jar opening moistening the paper towel once again. Eric ran back to see if his rainbow troll was getting any sprays. When he looked into the jar, his eyes saw a small pretty rainbow.
“I was afraid I had killed you,” said Eric.
“You almost did,” said the rainbow troll. “But I’m gaining more strength every minute now.”
“Good,” said Eric.
Just then Eric’s mother came to the front door.
“I’m glad to see that you’re taking responsibility for watering the lawn. It needed it. Now don’t forget to bring back my car keys.”
Eric placed the jar down and peeked inside. “I’ll be back,” he whispered to the young rainbow troll.
After a few minutes on the moist paper towel, Johan regained his strength. He jumped up and sat on the rim of the jar. When the right sized water bubble formed in the sprinkler’s spray, he jumped inside and directed it to the middle of the spray. A small brightly colored rainbow appeared.
While Eric was finishing his breakfast, Johan was organizing other bubbles and water droplets into a large magnificent rainbow that spread across the width of the sprinkler spray. It was the biggest rainbow he’d ever made by himself.
When Eric stepped out of his house, he was dazzled by such a brilliant rainbow. He quickly turned around and yelled to his mother. “Mom, come quick!”
His mother ran to the front door thinking that something was wrong. “What is it, Eric? Are you okay?”
“Look, Mom, over the sprinkler. See what my rainbow troll has made.”
“It’s beautiful, Eric. But I’m afraid it’s the sun shining through the sprinkler water making your rainbow, not some troll.”
“Mom, come to the sprinkler and I’ll show you it’s a real troll,” said Eric.
“Eric, I haven’t the time now to spend with your nonsense play. I have a lot of cleaning to do after our trip. You’ll have to play make-believe on your own for now,” said his mom as she walked back inside the house.