Chapter 7

Mia

I can’t believe this. No matter how hard we struggle, no matter how Cragnorr tries to tear the rope open with his big hands, the net doesn’t budge.

I suppose I should have been more wary when we stumbled across that worn path. Whether this net was intended for humans or for game, we’re now trapped.

“Damn it,” I hiss, trying again to get comfortable, but it’s impossible. The ropes of the net are squeezing me even through my coat, smooshing me against Cragnorr’s body.

We hang like that for what feels like hours, curled up in terribly uncomfortable positions, forced to stare down at the food and supplies scattered all around the forest floor underneath us. The knife is there, just out of reach, which infuriates me more than anything. As if to taunt us, a squirrel runs out into the middle of the path and picks up a bunch of my peanuts, then carries them away .

We can’t even get up to any foolery with how awkward we are, and every time one of us moves, the whole net shifts, which presses us into even stranger contortions.

“Is someone going to come?” I ask, adjusting my body weight yet again, which pushes me even harder against Cragnorr’s chest.

He shrugs helplessly. He doesn’t know, either.

I’m getting sore as the sun starts to set. I hope we aren’t stuck here forever. My belly rumbles madly, and I’m so hungry that I feel like I might throw up. My mouth is dry as a bone. I try to reach down for the food where it’s scattered all across the forest floor, but it creates all sorts of problems, and we’re much too high up.

Cragnorr shifts his arm to take the pressure of the net off of me, but it’s not enough. I can see his skin is starting to turn red where the ropes have been cutting into him.

“We caught something!” a woman’s voice calls out through the woods.

I sit upright at the sound. They’re coming for us, whoever set this trap. A bizarre feeling of relief falls over me. Maybe they’ll free us once they realize we aren’t the deer they intended to catch.

“Whoa.” Two people appear, a tall woman with a thick braid and a shorter man with a pudgy middle. She carries two daggers, and he has a gun at his hip. The man is staring at us in wonder. “It’s...”

“An ogre?” the woman supplies.

“Please!” I call out to them. “Please let us down! I’m sorry if we were on your land or something, it’s just that we’re lost, and?—”

“All right, all right,” the man interrupts. “Shut up.” He turns to the woman. “What should we do with them?”

“Leave them for now,” she says, surveying us. “We’re going to need help.”

“Please,” I say. “We’ve been here all day. I promise we don’t want any trouble. We’re hungry, and thirsty, and?—”

“What the fuck did I say?” the man roars at me, and I fall silent. He rolls his eyes. “Yeah,” he tells the woman. “The ogre is going to be a problem.”

With that, they turn away and walk off into the woods.

“No!” I call out after them, panic rising up into my chest. “Come back! Let us down! Please, just give me some water!”

But they merely talk amongst themselves as they vanish.

I can’t control it anymore. A sob breaks out of me, and Cragnorr strokes my hair as I break apart.

They don’t intend to free us, whoever they are. And there’s nothing we can do.

Cragnorr

It’s much later that day, almost sunset, when the humans reappear. Mia has cried herself to sleep, twitching and shaking in my arms as ugly dreams haunt her. They emerge from the trees, now ten in number, with the man and woman from before among them.

Mia jolts awake, and frantically reaches out through the holes in the net. “Please,” she begs. “Let us down.”

“A big guy,” one of the newcomers remarks, stroking his chin. They’re completely ignoring her. “Good thing we brought the heavy ropes.”

One of the humans, a spry one with skinny arms and legs, crawls up the tree to where the net is fixed to the branch. He pulls something, and then, we’re falling.

“Oof!” Mia shouts with pain as we both land on the forest floor. One of her arms is caught underneath me, and I hope it hasn’t broken. Before I can roll away, though, the net is being dragged off of us.

“Grab him!” A dozen hands seize my limbs. I try to kick them off, but they’re quick, and before I can get to my feet they have ropes tied around my ankles and wrists. I thrash, but the ropes pull tight the more I move.

“Cragnorr!” calls out Mia as two men haul her up to her feet. I bellow in fury and swing one of my arms, managing to pull one of my captors off the ground.

“Shit,” one of them says. “We should have brought more people.”

This gives me faith for a moment that I can escape this. I roar and swing one arm with all my might—lifting the man holding it down right off the ground and flinging him upside-down.

A big man flings himself on top of me to pin me to the ground. “Two per arm and leg!” he shouts, and the others swarm around me like flies, two of them holding each rope. “Get him in the wagon!”

I can’t move as they drag me by the hands, the others holding my legs fast. Mia stumbles, and one of her shoes falls off. “Fuck you!” she spits out, trying to escape her own bonds. “Let us go!”

I roar and thrash, but trying to escape is useless as the men and women around me yank me up into a wagon, then lash me down on my back with ropes, each tied through metal rings fastened to the sides. Mia cries out as she fights the two men holding her captive.

“What do you want?” she shouts. “You can’t do this to him!”

They just laugh as they toss her into the front of the wagon, where I can no longer see her. I’m forced to stare up at the sky, at the tree branches criss-crossing overhead, not knowing what awaits us—and terrified that I can’t protect Mia from it.

Mia

“Come on, you guys,” I say for the fifth time, trying to pour as much sweetness into my voice as I can. “We didn’t know this was your place. We would never have been using your path if we knew it belonged to someone. I promise, we’re innocent.”

“Make her shut up,” the woman with the braids growls. Finally, one of my two captors—the terribly skinny guy who’s apparently named Gru—rips off a piece of my gown and shoves it in my mouth.

I had expected this sooner or later. My mom has always called me a chatterbox.

Besides, they don’t care why we’re here. I tried to tell them that we have no money, that Cragnorr presents no threat to anyone, but the words washed over them like water. They laughed at me.

“The King will love this story,” one of them said. “A little girl and her big strong ogre, on the run.”

King? I furrow my brow, because there’s only one king, and he’s a dumb old oaf who lives in a castle far away, existing only to make war with the trollkin. That can’t be who they’re talking about, way out here.

I grumble into the scrap of fabric stuffed in my mouth as my captors prattle on. Poor Cragnorr, tied down like an animal. I turn my head to try to look at him, but one of my captors jerks on the rope binding my hands and I snap my head forward again.

What are they going to do with him?

It’s almost full dark when, up in the distance, lights come into view. With the lights comes noise , like dozens—no, hundreds of people—are all singing and laughing and arguing at once.

We push through the trees, and I’m completely unprepared for what I see.

A town . It’s hidden well here, surrounded on two sides by a steep hill. There are spiked logs arranged all around the outside in a wall, lit torches burning in what look like small guard towers. Up ahead, a gate opens, and the woman with the braids hails up to the guards.

“You weren’t kidding,” one of them calls down. “It is an ogre!”

“I would never lie about that,” she says. “I lie about plenty of things, but not that.”

Then the wagon is moving again, and we pass through the gates. Just great. There’s no way I’m getting out of this place if it’s guarded that well. My only choice is to talk our way out of this.

Beyond the gate is an open space with a stable off to one side. There are all sorts of wagons and carts assembled, many full of sacks and goods, while others are overflowing with vegetables, some beginning to rot. I can tell by the reek.

I’m dragged out of the wagon by my captor, Gru, and I thrash in his grip. “Stop doing that, girlie, or you’ll regret it,” he snarls at me, and I fall still. I don’t want to know what he means by that.

Then everyone in the party stops moving and talking at once. A man approaches us, his hands folded behind his back. He’s tall, with sharp, square shoulders and a trimmed goatee, his long black hair hanging down around his ears. His jacket, while brightly-colored and quite fancy, is dirty. High-waisted pants flare out around his knees before squeezing into tall leather boots, which are also filthy.

“Your Majesty,” the woman with the braids says, bowing.

“Who’s this?” The man pauses in front of me, then tilts his head to one side. Gru reaches into my mouth and pulls out my gag so I can answer.

“You’re the King?” I ask. Maybe if I can get him to listen to reason, he’ll have the power to release us.

The man turns to me, arching an eyebrow. “That would be me. You still haven’t answered who you are.”

“Look, I’m just some girl. Really. I’m not special or important or anything.” I don’t know what he wants with us, but I have to prove that we’re not worth it. “My friend and I are just trying to survive. We didn’t mean to trespass or anything, really?—”

“Shut up,” Gru says, yanking on my ropes. “And it’s Your Majesty .”

“Does she always talk this much?” the King asks my captors.

“She never closes her trap,” someone else says.

With a sigh, the King waves a hand at me dismissively and walks away to examine Cragnorr.

“Wait!” I call after him. “There’s really no reason to hold us. We’re just more mouths to feed, right? Let us go and?—”

Gru slaps me across the face, and my head reels to one side. My ear is ringing when he steps away.

The King ignores us, continuing his inspection of Cragnorr. “You really found an ogre,” he murmurs, and Cragnorr growls in return. I just hope he doesn’t do anything to warrant them hurting him even more.

“Caught in our net in the woods,” the woman says proudly.

“Please,” I say again. “He’s not what you think he is. He’s not one of them .”

This supposed “king” pauses, then turns to look at me again. “You said he was your ‘friend.’ What does this mean? How does a human girl come to be ‘friends’ with an ogre?”

“He’s good,” I say. “He might be trollkin, but he’s no danger to anyone. I promise. I’ve known him since he was a kid.”

The King purses his lips thoughtfully. Then he turns back to Cragnorr.

“Fascinating,” he says. Then he gestures at the ropes. “Take the ogre to the holding cells. He’ll be a perfect addition to our arena lineup.”

“What?” I demand. “We haven’t done anything wrong! Why are you putting him in jail?”

The King circles back around so he’s standing in front of me .

“And this chatty thing,” he says, leaning forward to get a closer look at me, “I want her. Take her to the beer hall and tie her to the chair next to mine. I can’t wait to find out all about my new pet.”