2 Moons - Fairy tales Slashed

CH 9 - Rumours

"But mother." I whine.

"Now Wayo, come along."

"But I want to stay home and read." I say sadly. "My new book arrived about dragon eggs; I have to help Ming marry P'Kit."

"You can do that once we're back." She smiles and hugs me.

We head to the village in the carriage, a meeting had been called. My brothers and that guy already left.

"Isn't father coming?" I ask.

"He already left for his meeting." Mother pats my cheek. "What's worrying you Wayo?"

"Its... that guy." I sigh. "How long does he have to stay?"

"He's leaving today." She reassures me. "You can use his name."

I humph, it just makes mother laugh. I told her what he was doing, but his father did business with us, so we had to be polite, I'll be happy when he's gone.

When we arrive at the square, it's very noisy, it didn't take long to realise why. The miller and his 6 sons are here, number 4 and 5 being the bullies. They both give me glares, but when Ming stands next to me, they quickly run off.

"I'm going to break their faces if they touch you." Ming glares at their backs.

"They haven't done anything since my brothers came." I tell him.

"I wish I had been here." He says annoyed. "I wanted to see P'Kit fight, I bet he looked cute."

I was going to reassure him, but I see it's not needed; he has nothing but P'Kit on his mind. I hope Ming manages to complete the task soon, or I might have to kick him.

I sit between mother and Ming as the meeting begins and gets out of control quickly. When the shouting gets out of hand, P'Sing stands, and silence falls.

"You have to do something, Mayor." The Miller complains. "That troll hurt my boys, and we need that bridge."

There is a lot of cheering and agreement, it's mainly from the Miller and his kids. P'In looks annoyed. This started a few days ago, someone tried crossing the bridge, but the troll doesn't allow it, there was a fight and the miller's sons were hurt, they are angry and want P'Sing to order the troll to be dealt with.

"What you need?" P'In says, calmly standing. "Your sons hurt my troll, they started the fight."

"Look here In..." The miller stands. "It attacks people, it's a menace."

"No, you listen." He says annoyed. "He was defending himself; you or your sons have no right to be on my bridge."

This sets off a heated shouting match, the miller, the butcher and the fishmonger, complain how it's affecting them, and they don't listen to anyone trying to calm them, all shouting at P'In.

"Enough." P'Sing silences the room again.

No matter how badly the three men want to carry on, they are smart enough not to anger P'Sing. Not only is he the mayor, he is a powerful wizard, from a well-known magic line. They have served the courts and Kings in the past.

"The simple fact, it's privately owned land." He starts. "It belongs to In, and if he wants to let the troll live there, he has every right."

That makes the miller go red-faced and sit. The talk carries on, but P'Sing's words are final, In says the troll stays, the troll stays. Once the meeting is over, the hall empties, everyone heading for home.