"Jenka's Search"

Jenka's Search

by A. Fraser

(a brief explanation: I spent Christmas trapped with a six year old and an eight year old: My nieces Kelsey and Lindsey. I'm sure it was Good For Me. It forced me, in an effort to amuse them and stop them from attempting to help me solve crossword puzzles, to try to write a story for them. They liked it. I'm a bit hesitant to let adults read it, but here goes, anyway).

For the pumpkin and the peanut.
Deep inside the Rocky Mountain of Canada, far from the skiers and the 
tourists and the hikers and the snowboarders, there lived a troll. She ate 
berries and twigs and moss and maybe the occasional caribou that was old and 
sick. She never, ever, ate a human being. In fact, she had never even seen 
one and would have been scared of them if she ever did. She was only a little 
troll, after all. Her name was Jenka.  Jenka lived in a cave way up on the 
loneliest mountain in the Rockies. This was why she had never seen any human 
beings, not even an explorer or a park ranger. 

One sunny day, when the snow glittered on the mountain like sparkly jewels, 
Jenka thought about how lonely the mountain was and how lonely she was. She 
never saw any other trolls. Maybe she was the only one in the Rocky 
Mountains, but maybe there were others. She decided to go out and look. So 
she packed her old, patched bag made of tree bark and woven leaves with some 
berries and moss for her lunch, and she started walking down the mountain.

Along the way, she met a fat crow sitting on a tree stump. The crow was 
enjoying the sun, and stretching out his black wings to see how beautiful 
they looked against the white snow. "Good morning, Mr. Crow," said Jenka. She 
had always been polite to all the birds and animals on the mountain, even the 
ones she sometimes ate.

"Caw!" said the crow. Crows are usually rude. "What are you doing, Jenka 
Troll?"

"I am going looking for other trolls," answered Jenka. "I'm lonely."

"Hah! Good luck, Jenka Troll," the crow laughed. "I've never seen any other 
trolls on the mountain."

"Well, if you can't be any nicer than that, I'll be on my way," said Jenka 
with a sniff. She could hear the crow laughing at her behind her back as she 
kept walking down the mountain.

A little further on her way down, she saw a mother bear teaching her two cubs 
how to fish in the stream that babbled away on the mountainside. "Good 
morning, Mrs. Bear," said Jenka. "Good morning, Little Bears."

"Good morning, Jenka Troll," said the mother bear. She was much politer than 
the crow. Her cubs hid behind her because they were shy and scared of the 
troll. "Where are you going, Jenka Troll?" asked the mother bear.

"I am going to see if I can find other trolls," answered Jenka. "I would like 
some company. My cave up on the mountain is very lonely."

"I am sorry to hear that, Jenka Troll," said Mrs. Bear. "But I have never 
seen any other trolls in the mountains."

"None at all?" Jenka felt her hopes go crash, boom, down. Mrs. Bear was wise 
and would always tell the truth.

"Not that I have seen," said the mother bear. "But that doesn't mean there 
aren't any. You shouldn't give up so easily, Jenka Troll."

"Yeah," said the oldest of the two cubs, who were still hiding behind their 
mother. "You shouldn't give up so easy."

"I'm not giving up," said Jenka firmly.

"That's the spirit," Mrs. Bear told her.

"Yeah, that's the spirit!" echoed the oldest cub.

"Thank you, Mrs. Bear," Jenka told the mother. "Goodbye, Little Bears."

"Goodbye, Jenka Troll," said Mrs. Bear.

"Yeah, goodbye," said the oldest cub. The youngest cub said nothing, but hid 
even further behind her mother.

Jenka left the bears behind and kept walking down the mountain. She came 
across a nice, sunny, open spot with some asters dotted around where she 
could sit and have her lunch. She opened her pack and took out her berries 
and her moss. With some water from the stream, this made a nice lunch for the 
troll. As she was eating the last of her berries, she saw a caribou go 
walking past. But the caribou could smell troll and didn't stay around to 
chat. It ran swiftly and gracefully away before Jenka could ask it any 
questions.

After her lunch, she started walking down the mountain again. On her way, she 
met many birds and animals. She met squirrels and raccoons, jays and 
sparrows, deer and rabbits. Some of them were rude and laughed at her, like 
Mr. Crow. Some of them were polite, like Mrs. Bear. Some of them were shy and 
hid, like the Little Bears. And some of them ran away, like the caribou. But 
all the ones who would talk to her, rude or polite, said the same thing: "No, 
Jenka Troll, we haven't seen any other trolls in the mountains."

Poor Jenka! She was nearly at the foot of the mountain now. The sky was 
turning all purple and red as the sun began to set. The trees had long, dark 
shadows. She was hungry, and there were no berries or moss left in her pack. 
Jenka felt very sad as she sat down on a big rock to watch the sunset. It was 
a long walk back up to her cave, but she didn't want to sleep outdoors. She 
wasn't scared, because there aren't many things that can scare a troll, but 
she hated sleeping outdoors because the dew would get into her fur and make 
it look messy. And worst of all, she hadn't found any other trolls! So as she 
sat there on her rock, Jenka started to cry.

Trolls make lots of noise when they cry. They have big splashy tears and they 
say "Oh, BOO HOO HOO!" Jenka was making so much noise crying that she 
couldn't hear anything else. So she nearly jumped out of her fur when she 
felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned around, big tears still leaking from 
her eyes. Behind her was another troll! A boy troll!

"Excuse me," said the strange boy troll. "My name is Gunther. Are you okay?"

Jenka wiped the tears away. "My name is Jenka," she said, feeling a little 
silly to be caught crying. "I was crying because I thought I was the only 
troll in the mountains."

"I thought *I* was!" said Gunther. "It's nice to meet you, Jenka."

"It's nice to meet you, too," answered Jenka. "Would you like to have supper 
with me?"

Gunther and Jenka had supper together, and became such good friends that they 
soon got married. They had a nice wedding on the mountain, and they had a big 
party after. They invited Mrs. Bear and the two Little Bears to the party, 
and lots of other animals and birds, too. But they didn't invite Mr. Crow.

The End
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