SHORT STORY | HORROR | SUSPENSE

How to Slay the Trolls Under the Rainbow Bridge

A short story of bravery

Romeo, a devilishly handsome Cavalier King Charles spaniel, eyeballed the long expanse of the Rainbow Bridge warily. Animals strutted across the wide bridge that he’d never seen before. Cats, yes. Freakin’ cats, he’d seen. But pigs and turtles and rabbits and gerbils and more. No fighting or bickering, just walking with purpose toward the clouds. Toward Heaven. Some with their people and some solo.

And in the meadow, vast herds of waiting pets, like an endless wildebeest migration of mutts, calico cats, lizards, hamsters, poodles, frogs, guinea pigs, goats, and on and on.

Just an hour before, Romeo’s heart finally gave out. Walking had been a struggle for a long while. Breathing too. But not in this meadow. It had taken him all of five minutes to find his sister Julie. After tumbling around together for a while, now they sat resting side by side for the first time in two years and gazed at the bridge. They had to wait for their human, but as spots go, this place was the spottiest.

The bridge itself was a gigantic misty pastel marvel. It rose steeply over the forest in the valley beside the meadow and trailed off into the clouds.

As Romeo and Julie stared at the packs of fortunate pairs hiking to heaven, they noticed steam rising from the forest. It billowed outward, expanding into a mushroom cloud that reached up toward the Rainbow Bridge and outward to the meadow. Romeo felt the warmth on his nose as the breeze helped the steam envelope the field.

As the steam thinned and the treetops became visible again, Romeo noticed they were shaking. Gentle sways at first, then increasingly violent jerks. As the animals watched, treetops in the middle of the forest began disappearing straight down. Not toppled. Sucked straight down.

The rumbling sound could be felt before it was heard. Like ground thunder, the meadow trembled under their feet. Far louder than the raging river and the normal non-stop cacophony of barks, bleats, chirps, neighs, and grunts.

Romeo glanced back up at the animals and their people on the Rainbow Bridge. Some were now sprinting together up toward the clouds. Some seemed to be backtracking in fear. Some were frozen in place, looking over the railing at the forest below - down at the circular, dark void formed from the missing trees.

Gutteral, raw howls erupted from the void and echoed off the bridge and across the meadow. In the field, many animals were locked in their tracks in fear yet a few eased toward the forest out of curiosity. The remaining steam wisps hung over the valley and the howling intensified.

Then came the stench. Like something rotten or dead. Or both. Even some of the more bold and curious retrievers reversed their cautious trek to the forest.

The onlookers at the bridge’s rail with the best view of the void scattered and fled. Soon, the animals in the meadow understood why.

Huge, otherworldly beasts appeared over the treeline, climbing on each other’s broad shoulders en masse like enormous ants, forming an ever-growing pyramid of slick, leathery bodies. From this distance, the stacked beasts looked like a single, undulating behemoth. As the living pyramid grew ever taller, the target became apparent.

The beasts were trying to reach the Rainbow Bridge. They wanted to breach the pathway to Heaven.

By now, the howling had reached ear-splitting levels as more and more beasts poured out of the void and climbed up toward the bridge.

Over the monstrous din, a poodle behind Romeo and Julie, who’d been in the meadow for many, many years waiting for his person, shouted at the top of his voice, “TROLLS. THOSE HAVE TO BE TROLLS. I HEARD LEGENDS ABOUT THEM A LONG TIME AGO.”

The rabbit next to him nodded her head in eager agreement.

The meadow animals could only stare in bewilderment at the sight.

The troll behemoth finally reached the bottom of the bridge. They tore at it with a frenzy. Colored puffs of mist exploded in all directions as the trolls ripped at it.

Chunks of rainbow dropped away and the bridge began a slight sway. A large piece of orange dislodged and dropped into the pit. This seemed to energize the excited trolls even more and the beasts at the top of the pyramid leaped to the bridge, wildly swinging their arms, anything to get a grip. Some of them failed to take hold and plummeted to the ground. But others latched on and scrambled to the surface of the bridge. They chased the stragglers down and, as the meadow animals watched, dumped them over the side, people and pets alike.

The sight of this abomination finally shocked the meadow animals into action. First, the large dogs charged forward, baying, barking, and growling. Small animals jumped on the backs of the horses and they galloped down the slope, overtaking the dogs. The cats and small dogs and the rest of the meadow’s animals followed, even the pet mice, iguanas, parakeets, and parrots. Courage flowed deep in the meadow.

The sacred Rainbow Bridge must not fail.

The fur on Romeo’s back stood up and he ran with an energy and purpose that he’d not had in years. Julie was right on his heels. Their long ears flapped in stride.

The endless stampede of animals raced toward the forest, following the river which flowed beside the ancient woods. More pastel chunks were being ripped off the bridge as the stack of trolls grew ever taller. The front of the animal infantry reached the treeline and without hesitation ran between the trees and through the brush, straight toward the steaming troll pit.

The smell of putrid troll became more intense the closer they came to the pit. And the angry howling drove some of the pets to the brink of madness. But none turned back.

When they got close enough to see the beasts, courage turned to ice in even the bravest among them. The trolls were enormous. The height of elephants, with blackened, burnt skin that looked more like armor. Their long arms were dense with muscle and their legs looked like oak tree trunks. They had talons at the end of each finger, and when Romeo arrived at the front he could see that most of them were bloody from scratches and cuts, apparently from wildly climbing each other.

Still, the animals did not hesitate. The horses rammed into the trolls at the base of the pyramid. The dogs chomped and tore at their legs. The cats scratched and clawed and bit. The little pets scrambled up their sweaty, slick bodies and attacked their beady, bloodshot eyes.

But most of the pets were no match for the large, vicious trolls. Soon animal bodies flew through the air like leaves in a windstorm. More of the Rainbow Bridge collapsed from above. And still more trolls burst out of the darkness of the pit.

Some climbed up to attack the bridge and some stayed below to fight the animals.

Romeo and Julie gnawed at the toe of an enormous troll and it simply flicked its meaty foot and the pair went flying and fell hard to the earth at the base of a tall tree. Yet they still returned to the fray to fight with the rest of the meadow army.

More trolls climbed out of the bowels of the pit. The huge stampede of animals fully surrounded the trolls by now, but the beasts shooed most of them away like flies.

All the while, the expanse of bridge above their head was being chipped away by the upper trolls. The parakeets, parrots, cockatoos, and finches could only zig-zag across the faces of the ugly beasts, hoping to distract them from tearing away at the beloved pathway. But those birds that weren’t swatted away easily were simply ignored and the destruction continued. The trolls’ huge arms bashed the bridge with piston-like speed.

They had almost cut the bridge in two. It swayed more now as the heavy trolls stomped all over it. The people and pets that had initially retreated back down the bridge raced back toward the trolls now, attacking them any way they could. But like the animals below, the beasts readily turned back their attempts. They flung men, women, and pets over the side of the bridge to rain down on the battle below.

A gigantic troll stomped to the remaining section of rainbow that separated the two parts and began jumping up and down wildly. Each time it landed its long toes dug into the surface and more jagged chunks broke off. The bridge shook violently under its relentless pounding.

A person and her pet Great Dane charged the monster. It flicked them both over the railing with a backhanded whack.

As the great troll jumped back into the air to finish its work on the bridge, a shadow suddenly covered it. Before it could land back on the broken surface, iron-strong hands gripped its huge head and pulled it upwards into the air.

A cheer went up from the bridge army. None of them had ever actually seen an angel before. His broad, white wings beat with all their might to lift the floundering beast. As soon as they were past the rail, the angel released his grip and the troll dropped like a boulder to the ground below.

Now dozens of angels dived from the sky and yanked the troll demolition crew one by one off the bridge.

The meadow army at the pit below noticed the trolls dropping out of the sky and looked up to see the angels. The animals roared their approval and jubilation and fought with renewed passion.

Once the damaged bridge was cleared of trolls, the angels worked together to topple the pyramid of beasts. The trolls at the top swung their fists with wild abandon at the angels and managed to break the wings of one, sending him hurtling into the fray below.

Above, the remaining angels managed to knock off the highest trolls, who tumbled down the side of the pyramid, knocking their fellow trolls off balance on the way down. With a deafening roar, the mountain of beasts fell into a fetid heap across the battlefield below, crushing trolls and animals alike.

But most of the fallen trolls regained their footing and the troll army on the ground now outnumbered even the vast number of meadow animals. Several dozen angels targeted the largest trolls and did their best to snatch them and carry them high into the sky, before dropping them to smack the ground below a few moments later in unceremonious splats.

Circling high above, viewing the carnage, the archangel made a desperate, unprecedented decision.

He raised his ancient horn to his lips and blew, sending a message ricocheting through each of the pets to their respective guardians.

Then he beat his mighty wings and dove down to join the fight.

Across the globe, people sensed their lost pets more strongly than they had since their passing. Deep in their souls, the guardians felt the urgent message.

The Rainbow Bridge is in peril as you hear this call. Simply grab something special that belonged to your pet and you will join us in our time of grave need.

As the archangel slew troll after troll, his heart questioned whether the holy bridge could be saved.

Would the people come?

From the depths of the pit, trolls crawled out to take the place of their fallen. The archangel knew their number could not be withstood.

Romeo, battered, bloodied and limping, dragged the injured Julie to relative safety through the trees and back out of the forest. The earsplitting noise of the front line at the pit dimmed on the outskirts of the woods. He could just barely hear the river again.

As he tended to Julie, he looked behind, up the hill in the meadow overlooking the valley, and he noticed a person running toward the battle. At first, he assumed this was an escapee from the bridge, but something seemed different.

As the person sprinted downhill right at the spaniel, Romeo saw that this person was different.

This person was alive.

As the person got closer, Romeo saw the familiar face of his guardian. It was his person.

Scarcely believing his eyes, from behind his sprinting guardian, dozens of other people, then hundreds, then thousands, appeared out of thin air, popping into the meadow. They all began to race toward the forest.

The wounded animals gathered outside the treeline began baying and howling in joy.

Over the roars and war cries and screams, the archangel heard the new din coming from the rear. He twisted the neck of the current troll he was grappling with and spread his wings wide, leaping straight up and taking off high into the air above the raging battle.

The sight of wave after wave of humans flooding the meadow and sprinting into the fray made his heart burst with hope.

He grabbed his horn again and blew out the battle orders.

Romeo watched as his guardian whipped by him.

“TAKE CARE OF JULIE, BUDDY,” he yelled as he kept running directly into the woods.

He sprung out in a flash clutching a sturdy branch. From overhead, the archangel pointed out where he wanted the people to dig.

“EVERYONE GRAB SOMETHING TO DIG WITH,” Romeo’s person screamed at the onrushing mob and bolted away toward the river.

Legions of people grabbed sticks and rocks from the forest floor or the river bed. Some people simply dug with their hands. The archangel messaged scores of dogs and pigs still fighting on the front line and they broke away from the battle to join in the digging.

Julie began to stagger toward the excavation crew, inch by inch. Romeo limped behind her. They meandered their way through the enormous crowd and stopped right beside their guardian. Despite their pain, they both started digging with all of their remaining strength.

Romeo caught his person’s eye as they both dug wildly. His person winked at him and kept digging. Romeo could see tears running down his face. But he kept slamming the branch into the ground and tossing away the loosened soil. There was no time to stop. Just one purpose. Save the Rainbow Bridge.

Dig.

Back at the battlefield, the angels circled around the trolls, forcing them to stay in the pit. The beasts tripped over the fallen tree trunks and ripped and clawed each other as much as they fought the angels and animals. The meadow army surrounded the pit as well, savagely attacking any troll that tried to escape the huge void.

Any animals or angels that fell with the grasp of a troll paid a steep price. A band of trolls bull-rushed their way out of the pit and tried to force their way through the front line. A herd of horses charged them in unison, ramming them backward, till horse and troll both dropped into the steaming void.

Once the dig crew had made enough headway on the requested task, the archangel nodded, then pointed to the start of the excavated area. The archangel implanted his vision into the minds of the corps of diggers and they immediately understood.

The people, dogs, and pigs cleared out of the dig site, scattering to the meadow side. Then hundreds went to work on the last section which lay between the river and the top of the channel they had already dug. Branches, rocks, hands, paws, and hooves attacked the earth until finally…

The river burst through. Rushing water filled the freshly dug canal and flowed in a rage straight through the forest.

The archangel blew his horn again and the meadow army and the angels retreated from the battlefield around the pit, escaping through the higher elevations of the forest or through the sky. The angels carried some stranded animals to safety.

The rapids spit aside trees and dirt as the water flowed through the woods toward the pit. The torrent slammed into the void with almighty force, knocking trolls head over tail. The water found the depths of the pit and quickly rose from there. The beefy trolls’ size now was a weapon against them and they sunk like stones in the deepening water.

Any trolls that were on higher ground were savagely attacked by angels and animals until they retreated back into the pit, where they vanished under the water and drowned.

The meadow army retreated now back out of the valley. They all watched the river claim half of the forest and form a new lake. Over time the lake would be cleansed of all remnants of the poisonous trolls.

In the confusion, Romeo looked around for his person. The crowd was too large and packed together to find anyone. Then he heard the horn for the last time.

As the lake rose and the danger passed, the archangel blew his horn again.

Thank you for your help. Your pets thank you and still love you. You will see them again one day because of your bravery this day.

With that, the people popped back out of the meadow, back to their lives at home.

The next day, both Romeo and Julie, still recovering from their wounds, helped the angels start repairing the Rainbow Bridge. They both looked forward to seeing their beloved guardian again so that they could walk to Heaven together.

But not this day. Or even the next. Because, honestly, as spots went, this meadow and the Rainbow Bridge were the spottiest.

Dedicated to all my dogs that are waiting to cross the Rainbow Bridge. Fred, General, Murphy, Sadie, Chelsea, Sax, Julie, and Romeo.

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