Linou, beautiful little Linou. Creamy violet hair, the color of the exquisite blossoms on the blue jacaranda tree, rooting from a beautiful maiden. Roaming the streets of Prague if not in body then in spirit. She smiles like spring and moves like leaves dancing from a mighty oak in late fall. When you hear her delicate laugh, it sounds like a first snowfall.
On a bright summer morning before the city awoke, Linou found herself treading down a cobblestone path leading into town. She left her family back on the outskirts as she made her way to the heart of the metropolis.
She was always being sent into town, or frantically being called home. Never on her own time for even a fraction of a second, never able to fully enjoy the scenery of one of the most beautiful cities the world has ever known. Always running errands, always collecting little baggies.
"Hey, Linou!," called out a voice from behind her. She whipped around, startled, to find Ailyso.
"Oh, hi there!" She called in her musical voice with a laugh escaping her throat.
Ailyso's expression turned somber, "I was wondering where you were, I looked in the chamber and got worried."
"I'm sorry," Linou said, feeling guilty. "I just needed some fresh air, you know?"
"Well, fresh air isn't helping any, huh? Especially since you know you aren't to leave the caverns unless instructed to do so. What do you think you're doing?" Ailyso calmed himself. In a coarse whisper he continued, "They could find you here. Is that what you want? They found you once. Just think about Ol' Kelly before you pull this again. Now go and talk to Rigberts. He has something for you."
Linou felt dispirited. "Yes, Sir."
She started down the road to Prague again, straining to hear Ilysa get out of earshot. "Stupid Ailyso. Stupid Rigberts. Stupid, stupid, stupid.." She groaned softly, kicking pebbles.
A sharp pain in her shoulder brought her back to reality, while Prague was about 5 minutes away walking time. Turned around quick enough to look her assailant in the eye, and saw what she could of seen a mile away if she hadn't been so consumed in her thoughts. It was Ab Kenn the "Terrible".
"Why hellooo there my dahling," he sneered.
Linou anticipated his next move and caught his wrist. "Nice to see you too, Abby."
"You always used to love to call me that, didn't youuu, Linny Poo?"
She cringed and whispered, "You aren't Ab.."
"Thaaat's right." He croaked, from the hollows of his soul.
Linou immediately recognized the way his body ebbed and flowed was no where near Ab's. If she tried to see if Ailyso or Juno were in earshot, she would be meeting Ol' Kelly for the second time. If she didn't..well..a certain death awaited her.
Death by guillotine or death by stab wounds?
Inevitably, one or the other. In a rare occasion? Both.
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Ketaki sat in the Refectory, eating her bland water chestnuts and stauns. She resented stauns, little balls of chopped up Great White meat wrapped in kombu, when she heard Master calling. Thankful to drop her despicable fork with those stauns -- anyway.
Ketaki swam up to the door, and followed Master's call.
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This Ab look alike was really getting on Linou's nerve. Being held at knifepoint, for example, wasn't exactly how she had planned to spend her morning. "Who are you." She demanded .
"Everything you've ever wanted me to be."
"I'm no little girl, Amphrodyte. You aren't worth anything to anyone. And yet you'll still do their bidding? Pathetic. They don't care about you. They care about who you kill and if you don't kill them then you do. Nice life." She laughed.
"A the foolish fantasy once told me, 'We are all just vessels, after all.' Aren't we, Troll? Too bad that you and poor Ab ended up so horrible. Could've been beautiful. Interracial love." He spat out the last two words like curdled milk on a hot day. "Disgusting. Immoral. That is why you were put under the guillotine once, and as soon as you are found by your loving people. You will be again. Another vessel to be made, another vessel to be met."
"Master?" Called Ketaki from behind them. She was short but thin, and had old, bedroom eyes.
"You have come from the river slowly. What was the hold up?"
"Lot's of people were crowded around the Vletava banks, Master. Ketaki could not get out without being seen!"
"I see that. Never again take this much time, pochopit?"
"Chápu, Master. May Ketaki ask, who is purple haired? Troll?"
"Yes, Ketaki. She is a Troll. Linou, the Troll."
Ketaki gasped, "You mean, Ab Kenn, Linou?"
"Yes."
Linou glanced back and forth between the two of them. "Why does this freak talk in third person, and why is she so obsessed with me?"
"SILENCE!" The Amphrodyte roared.
"Well excu-use me." Linou muttered.
"Ketaki, get Ailyso, the Troll, from his caverns. Warn him about Linou, and I'll see what we can do."
Ketaki frolicked away back the cobblestone path Linou had first trekked out on.
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Ketaki approached the Caverns. They were underground, and Ketaki never goes underground unless she is going home in the Vletava. "Troll?" She called. "Ailyso, the Troll?"
"Who goes there," boomed a large, undistinctive voice.
"I am Ketaki, and Palba is Master. Palba has one of you, and I am here to bring one of you to Master. He seeks contact with one of you, and sent Ketaki to escort you to him."
"Who does he wish to see? Who does he have?"
"Master holds purple haired Troll. Master wants Ailyso, Troll."
"His wish shall be granted," the voice said, reverberating the walls, as Ailyso stepped out from the nearest cage door. "Let us commence our journey, shall we?"
"Ketaki must hurry. Master wants Ailyso, Troll, now!"
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"Oh look," Palba sneered, "Your friend has come to mingle with us."
"I have no friend in him," sneered Linou right back.
"Well that's good, so you can't say a friend has hurt a single hair on your head, twice!" His laughter bellowed throughout the city.
"My, my, my. Mingling with amphibians again, have we?" Taunted Ailyso. "Did you not heed my warning?"
Linou simply looked him in the eye, with her hands tied behind her back, and a knife to her throat.
"You wanted this all along," she scoffed, "just so you don't have to say that you killed me."
"Au contraire, mon ami. This is nothing of what I had in store for you. Poor Rigberts will be waiting all night for you. Shame, shame, what a shame." He tsked.
She felt the cold steel and she fought like she never fought before. She had died once, yes, but never again. She fought, and fought, and fought!
But came up short in the end.
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Epilouge:
Linou tried her hardest to remain strong, but failed. Palba now rules Prague with his servant Ketaki. Ailyso was one of the leaders of the Trolls army, but has lost the fight against the Amphrodytes after a century and three quarters. Rigberts never delievered his baggy, which contents may of helped the Trolls win the war. Or at least not of let it end so miserably.
