Bang Goes a Troll by David Sinden, Matthew Morgan, Guy Macdonald, Jonny Duddle Read Free Book Online

Fielding,” Ulf said. “I wanted to come on the expedition.”
    â€œBut how did you get here?”
    â€œIn the back of the helicopter.”
    Dr. Fielding stared at Ulf in disbelief. “It’s notsafe for you here.”
    She shone her flashlight around the trolls. They were still grunting and growling.
    â€œSorry, Dr. Fielding,” Ulf said, hanging his head.
    Dr. Fielding turned to the little fairy. “And you should know better, Tiana.”
    Tiana glowed with embarrassment. “Sorry, Dr. Fielding.”
    Ulf stared at the ground. It was black. He bent down and wiped his hand over the chamber floor. It was covered in black dust. “Look, Dr. Fielding,” he said, showing her his hand.
    Dr. Fielding rubbed it. “That’s soot,” she said. She looked around the chamber. In the light of Orson’s lantern, the walls looked black, too. “What’s hap-pened in here?” she asked.
    She looked more closely at the trolls, taking care not to shine her flashlight in their eyes. Some of them had blackened skin. An adult female was scraping its sooty stomach. A wrinkled old troll with broken tuskswas chewing a sooty bone. A male was grooming a female, trying to clean black soot from her back.
    â€œWhy are they sooty?” Ulf whispered.
    Dr. Fielding started walking very slowly toward the trolls. “I don’t know. It’s odd.”
    Orson held his lantern up to protect her. Ulf and Tiana followed.
    As the trolls edged away from the light, Ulf noticed a big male lying on its side on the ground. A female was bent over the troll, licking its skin.
    â€œThat big one doesn’t look well,” Tiana said, hovering close to Ulf.
    Ulf took a step toward it.
    The female troll turned and growled.
    â€œBe careful,” Orson said. He swung his lantern from side to side and the female troll slowly backed away. “That’s it, girl. Give us a little space.”
    Dr. Fielding stepped to the big male troll lying on the ground. “Stand guard please, Orson. I need to inspect it.”

    While the giant stood over the troll with his lantern raised, Dr. Fielding knelt down beside it. The troll wasn’t moving.
    Ulf watched. “Is it alive?” he asked.
    Tiana perched on the troll’s shoulder. “It’s still warm.”
    â€œHelp me roll it over, Ulf,” Dr. Fielding said.
    Ulf and Dr. Fielding gripped the troll’s tusks and heaved, rolling it on to its back.
    Dr. Fielding pressed her ear to the troll’s mouth and listened. “It’s barely breathing,” she said. She lifted the troll’s wrinkled eyelids. Its eyes were cloudy. “It’s barely conscious.”
    The troll coughed, and sticky black phlegm splattered its hairy chin.
    Dr. Fielding took off her backpack and pulled out a packet of cotton balls. She wiped the black phlegm from its lips. With both hands she pried open the troll’s mouth, then shone her light inside.
    â€œUrgh,” Tiana said, smelling the troll’s breath.Ulf sniffed. It stank.
    He stared at the troll’s teeth. They were crooked and chipped, with bits of meat and fur stuck between them. Its tongue was thick and pitted. Its whole mouth was black with soot.
    â€œIt looks as if it has inhaled smoke,” Dr. Fielding said.
    â€œSmoke?” Ulf asked.
    â€œSee how swollen its throat is.”
    Ulf looked to the back of the troll’s mouth. The opening to its windpipe was constricted and its breathing sounded strained.
    The troll snorted and more black phlegm leaked from its nose.
    Dr. Fielding handed the cotton ball to Ulf. “Clean that up while I check its lungs,” she said.
    Ulf started wiping the troll’s nose. He put his finger up its nostrils, trying to clear its airways. The hairs inside the troll’s nose felt bristly as he scooped out lumps of black gunk.

    Dr. Fielding held her stethoscope to the troll’s chest and listened. “Its