The Magic School for the Utterly Hopeless (Completed/First Draft)

Chapter Thirteen

From the darkness, trolls appear. And they have a pet with them. It's not a cute and cuddly daggertooth kitten or a friendly Coyoxwolf. It's a monster. A real one. It's a bovclop.

I've seen a ghost version of one before -- my parents captured it hiding in someone's garden shed -- and this is much more terrifying.

The monster eclipses the trolls with ease. Horns jut out of its rotting flesh, it has one yellow eye on its pincer-sprouting head and has crab-like claws for limbs.

'Guf duz aduw huvull kudpum juvaw jub,' growls the troll leader, his tusks the largest and stained red.

Umm, did someone just cast a gibberish spell on him?

Hank and I look at each other and nervously raise our shoulders in bewilderment.

'Anyone knows what it's saying?' asks Rachel.

'All of you will come with us,' says Mr Nos. 'It's Trollian.'

'Trollian?' I say.

'Yeah, the language of the trolls. Well, one of them.'

I didn't know trolls have their own languages.

'And you know Trollian?' Eddy asks Mr Nos.

'I learned it when I was young for reasons I don't want to discuss,' he replies.

Ooh, very mysterious. Something else to ask him when we get out of this mess.

'They speak Trollian in the south,' starts Peni, 'Trollish in the north, Trollese passed the Mighty Mountains in the west and Trollic in the east --'

'Again, Peni,' says Eddy, 'Time and place. Time and place.'

'Guf duz aduw huvull kudpum juvaw jub,' the troll leader says again.

No way we're going with them.

'What's 'no' in Trollian?' says Emily.

'E. U. D,' replies Mr Nos. 'It's pronounced Oowd.'

'OOWD!' we bellow.

Not surprising, the trolls don't like that. They start growling, showing the rest of their teeth, and set off the Bovclop. The monster snaps its pincers ferociously.

Yikes. That's made it a lot more scary. I wouldn't want to be caught up in those things. They would rip you to shreds in seconds.

'Guma aufup,' the troll leader shouts back, its eyes ballooning with fury.

The other trolls start banging their clubs on their huge hands.

'And what does that mean?' stammers Emily.

Whatever it is, it's definitely not good.

'For us,' answers Mr Nos, 'it means time to cast spells.'

He doesn't have to tell us twice.

Spells fly down the alleyway and hit the trolls with a blast. They go down like a deck of fortune teller's cards.

We're not so lucky with the Bovclop, though. It only takes a tumble before getting back on its claws. It lets out a squawk and green slime that can turn bone to mush pours out of its mouth.

Gulp.

'Time to go,' says Mr Nos. 'This way.'

He pushes us over to a fire escape and we clammer up the side of a building to the roof.

The bovclop doesn't follow. It's too big for the fire escape.

Thank goodness for that.

Instead, the monster starts eating its masters.

Ooh, that's not nice to watch.

We then continue on, heading towards the lord's castle. We can see it in the distance. We cross roof after roof.

'We should've come up here to begin with,' says Emily. 'It's a lot safer than the streets.'

I peer over the edge and see more marching trolls with monster pets.

But once again, someone spoke too soon.

FLASH.

The spell hits Mr Nos right in the chest with a shudder, instantly turning him to stone.

Screaming at the top of our lungs, me and the others dive to the ground as more spells whizz towards us.

'Everyone behind that chimney,' I yell.

On our hands and knees, we speedily crawl over and get out of harm's way.

'I can't believe what just happened to Mr Nos,' pants Peni. 'I can't believe what just happened to Mr Nos.'

'Where are the spells coming from?' bellows Rachel.

FLASH.

FLASH.

FLASH.

'I can't believe what just happened to Mr Nos,' Peni says again. 'I can't believe what just happened to Mr Nos.'

'Get it together, Peni,' says Eddy.

'Get it together? Mr Nos just turned into stone right before our eyes.'

I briefly pop my head out to see who's casting the spells.

'What is it?' asks Emily.

'Dark fairies,' I reply. 'Several of them. They're across the street, flying in the air.'

'Let's give them something in return,' says Eddy.

'Okay, but watch out for Mr Nos,' I say. 'I don't want him to break.'

We jump out and cast spells but the dark fairies dodge them effortlessly.

'We need a new plan,' says Rachel, as we clamor back behind the chimney.

I start rummaging through my bag, looking for a specific monster ghost.

'What are you doing?' Hanks bursts out hastily. 'Just toss some bottles at them already.'

'I'm looking for a winged monster ghost,' I reply. 'Nothing else will have a chance against dark fairies. Drat.'

'What?'

'I can't find one.'

'Okay, forget about defeating the dark fairies,' says Emily. 'All we need is a distraction so we can get back to the ground and get away. Just throw some wingless monster ghosts at them.'

'Good idea,' I say.

I take out a bottle of a dragordon and throw as hard as I can. I then it smash on the opposite roof followed by the dragordon's bark of rage. Spells cease zipping our way.

I take another peek.

Good, the dark fairies' attention is now on the ghost.

'It worked,' I say.

'Now let's get back to the ground,' says Emily.

'What about Mr Nos?' asks Peni. 'We can't leave him up here.'

'We can't take him with us,' says Eddy. 'Unless you want to carry him.'

'We need to leave him,' I say.

Peni hesitantly nods and we run to the edge of the roof.

Below, the street is empty.

'Now how do we get down?' I ask.

Hank points to the awning of a shop beneath us. 'We jump down on that.'

'Are you mad?' Rachel bursts out. 'I'm not impressed.'

Just then a spell almost clips my ear. I turn and see the dragordon ghost is no more.

That didn't take long.

'No time to debate this,' I say. 'JUMP!'

Hollering, we leap off the roof.