Sweat and tears mixed as Venus pushed boxes around. Her dark chocolate hair was plastered against her pale forehead, making it heard to see, but she didn't need to see. From the boxes labeled QUANTUM theory to the ones labeled different DIMENSION travel, she knew every name, but she did not care right now.

"Mommy, what are you doing?" her little girl stared up with question-filled eyes and clutched her raggedy doll against her chest. "Where's daddy?" New tears sprung to Venus's eyes and she stopped her moving the boxes when she went over to her girl, Darrah.

She knelt in front of her seven-year-old girl and brushed away her daughter's dirty blond hair away from her face. "Daddy is gone. We are going on a trip to a place my parents took me, little one." Her voice was hoarse and more raggedy then the doll. She then kissed her child's forehead and went back to moving boxes.

After ten more minutes of moving, Venus uncovered what she wanted. It appeared to be a giant, dust-covered doorframe, but she knew that behind the ten-year-old pile of dust hid sleek, greenish metal and on the bottom a fiery green jewel like none other. She reached down and brushed the said jewel. 

Her child gasped and took several steps back when a green fire field the doorframe, knocking away all the dust which then touched the fire and disappeared with no trace. Venus reached out her hand to Darrah's hand and grasped it. "Come, little one. Nothing to fear."

The little girl timidly stepped toward the fire with her eyes almost popping out of her sockets. Venus swept her girl into her arms and hugged her close. She sucks in a deep breath and stepped into the green fire, shivering when she felt a surge of ENERGY that made her hug her child closer. 

The place she stepped into SPACE and TIME had no meaning. Its green fire stretched on ceaselessly, but ever so often there would be a darker spot then the rest. Venus headed over to one of those; she did not really care which.

She stepped through a dark spot and came out in a stand of trees on top of a hill. She smiled at the sight; this was the time and place that her parents use to take her. "Mommy, where are we?" Darrah's voice came out shaking and weak.

Venus set her daughter down and knelt by her. "Do not worry, little one. I have been here many times. Your grandpa spent twenty years here and grandma only half of that." She stood back up and grasped her child's hand. 

After a short walk down the hill they arrived at a weed-covered, stone road that they traveled south on for around two hours; Venus could not tell because she left all her modern things at home. 

When Darrah started to complain about her itchy wool dress and that her legs were killing her they stepped to the side of the road. They had just settled down under a giant oak when she heard a hard gallop against the road. 

They hurried over to a layer of bushes and buried themselves there. Venus inched forward just enough to see. Nothing appeared for twenty minutes, but the gallop steadily got louder. It took all her willpower not to scream when something did come. 

The man stood over two people tall and had a horse equally as big. Sewn together rags were the only coverings for his private parts and there was nothing covering his hairy, potbelly chest and mammoth-sized arms and legs.. His knotted beard and hair covered his head and there was only a hint of dark eyes on the broad face. 

He stopped by their hiding place and took a big sniff. His droopy cheeks turned up and he bellowed a giant roar. Venus felt Darrah that stiffened and a small whimper escaped her lips; Venus guessed she was not much better. 

The troll reached down to the side of the horse not facing them and a colossal club appeared when he brought his thick hand back up. He dismounted and headed to the bushes with lumbering steps. 

Once there he leaned down and snatched at the bush. Darrah screamed when the troll lifted her and some of the bushes up. The giant cradled the kid against his chest and mounted his horse all while Venus was crying out her girl's name. 

When the troll rode away faster then Venus could run, but a tad slower then a galloping horse. Venus just sat there sobbing and whispering her child's name over and over, waiting for her thoughts to come together or night, what ever came first. 

When the sun was shining its last rays Venus heard the clip clop of two horses. She did not feel like standing so she just watched through blurry eyes and watched the two riders come up.

They were a woman and a man about her age, five and twenty. They both had black hair, with the woman's braided and going down to her buttock and the boys in a shoulder length ponytail. Their Greek features went well with the plain clothing that they wore. 

When they reached Venus' hiding place the man dismounted and went over and knelt by her. "Who is this? A sad rose in an uncaring prickly bush? We cannot have that! Come sweet flower and flourish in the sun's light." His voice was as sweet has honey and Venus could not help and comply with him. 

He led her onto the road, reassuring her with storyteller's truth that it would be fine. "Now, what has made such a sweet flower droop so?" She could not refuse to answer the man's innocent question and told all about the troll and her lost daughter, then she realized that she had no idea how she was talking to, so she asked. 

"I am the great story teller Gotthold who has traveled all over this world for the best and worst stories and with me I have this superb harp and lute player, minstrel, and sister, Astrid."

Venus muttered her thanks and was about to leave when Astrid spoke in a godlike voice. "Why don't you come with us? We have been here before and can help you find your poor daughter. My brother has a map for a brain." Venus searched their faces for falseness and agreed when she found none. 

They spent one day on the stone road before they turned on to and spent ten days on an old dirt road where Gott, Gotthold's nickname, saw the troll's horse's footsteps. During that time Gott would tell her stories of trolls getting in trouble and usually dying when the sun was up. She rode behind him on his horse and leaned against his reassuring back. 

During the night Astrid would play music to his tales and made it so real that Venus thought she was there. She would fall asleep with the tales on her mind and she would be the princess in distress and Gott would come and save her. It almost made her forget what they were seeking, but when she got to the end of the journey it all came back to her. 

They place that they arrived at looked like and, according to Gott, was a small mountain. It was covered with grass and had many holes covered into it. "This here is the home of the trolls where fried human flesh is used as dinner. This here is the hollow mountain where men's screams are used as music. This here is the castle horror whose inhabitants take child's blood baths." Gott twisted so Venus could see his face and smiled. "Who wants to go in?"

Venus swallowed and eyed the castle. "Are you sure Darrah is in there?" Gott nodded and patted her arm. "I will go in there."

"And I will take care of the horses," Astrid got a glare for that from her brother, but she just smiled and dismounted her horse. "What we cannot very well leave them by themselves. Now, give me your reins." Once she had both horses in her control she went in to the forest and melted into the trees, yelling out for Gott not to forget his mission.

"We might as well get on going, love flower. Be quiet as a mouse and follow me. I know a way in to the troll's haunt." After saying that he headed toward the mountain through the shadowy forest with Venus trailing. They were quiet as mice and got to the edge of the forest with none troll wiser. Then he went a quarter left where he found a small air vent into which a human could fit. 

In some parts inside the wormhole like place they had to stretch their arms foreword and kick back to move. Sweat made the slithering easier, but Venus soon was gasping for breath and lagging behind. Gott noticed that and slowed down till he eventually stopped entirely in a cavity. His strong arms encircled her when she made it in with her body shaking from muscle exhaustion. 

The echoes of her harsh breath traveled some distance, but eventually faded to a whimper of a whisper. Kind sleep welcomed them into her sweet embrace, where weariness left and energy returned. The troll's vile music could not be ignored and the two sets of eyes flashed open.

Gott cursed and looked into Venus' violet eyes. "Now, if I can only make my ears death and transfer their power to my eyes so I could see you better, love." Mouse could not be quieter, kiss so sweetly, nor pleasure so great, she that found out when she blurted out that she loved him. 

Scorching air bellowed down on the already burning bare limbs. "They turned on the heating fires. Get changed, love." Gott's voice was filled with an urgent plea. Limbs and torsos rubbed together when clothes were pulled on in the cramped space. 

The temperature continued to rise from sweat and the troll's fires while the two lovers slithered upward on the race for their life. Giving up was foremost on Venus' thoughts when she heard a sharp gasp and half-concealed yelp of delight from Gott. Squinting up she saw the barest hint of light reflecting off his shoulder blades. 

With a burst of newfound energy, Venus scrambled up the rest of the ever-hotter shaft. The music escalated when they burst through the opening. An oomph and a "how nice of you to drop in, love" came from Gott when she landed on top of him. Exhaustion enveloped them and they just lay there gathering their energy. 

From the looks of it, they must have landed in a corner of a feast room. Some tabletops were eye height with Venus, but others would need both of them and then some to see on to. One table must have been as tall as five humans; she was just happy the trolls that sat there were gone. Only a few tables had occupants and most were just seating on their mismatched seats and talking , but some trolls were eating a long piece of meet that was tied at each end; she shuddered at what the meat was, because it was neither boar nor bear. 

With a finger to his lips Gott inclined his head toward a large pile of hay. Like mice they went there and buried themselves into it. The hay scratched against uncovered skin and sight was non-existent, but it was safest place in the enlarged room. Venus huddled into Gott's not too warm body and drifted back to sleep. 

Gott's gentle voice coached her awake with promises. He had dragged her out into the now dark room and first sight was his smile, "What..." her voice cut off when she heard a slight echo. 

"I found her, your darling daughter. I heard two gruesome trolls talking about a little girl that one of them had found. The troll matched your description. She is alive, but we must hurry! He plans to serve the old grandma troll her for breakfast." That broke her out of her drowsiness and she scrambled to her feet. 

"Where is she?" Her voice came out weak but urgent. 

"In a room in the attic with a fiery red door. Come, the trolls are sleeping." Staying by the walls and shadows they made their way toward the towering opening that was the doorway.

Half way there a small troll, only a human and a half tall, stepped in and swung his head around. Not breathing and squished together on the wall they waited for the outcry that the troll would make when they were discovered by him or her, it is hard to tell which gender they were, even the loveliest of trolls looked like commonly hags.

Unnatural sounds came forth from the troll while he swung his head about, making both hiding people tense up. After many tense seconds the troll shrugged his shoulders and left. Venus would have collapsed if it were not for the pressure of Gott's body against hers. Warm lips soon captured her many times and between them sweet nothings were whispered.

The image of the troll and a herd of attacking trolls soon filled her mind.. She pushed the lips away and blurted out her worry. "Let your thoughts of that leave, lovely. That hideous troll was just a poor mother looking for her wandering child." Surprise took her face and her voice issued forth a demand of how he knew that. 

"When I was just a little one, barely older then your poor child, I met a wrinkled old man who once was a prisoner in the dungeons of ever screams that are below our small feet. From the time he was my age to when wrinkles covered his face he stayed there not being eaten because there was always someone better them him to be eaten for dinner or drained of blood for baths. The troll's language eventually made itself known to him, so he knew it when they threw him out after they decided they had no need for him. He still knew it when I met him and learned it from him. Let us go, anon." 

Through the trodden dirt passageways they went, being like two mice sneaking in a mother's kitchen looking for mold cheese. Since day had left, making all trolls slumber, they were able to breathe easy. Safeness hugged them and worry left, until the thing that they forgot came; the troll mother's wandering child. 

Booming footsteps and a child's grunting laugh filled the air on the second to last floor. Rounding the corner the tiny troll, only a head taller then Venus, stopped as if dead. His grumbling voice filled the air and Gott replied in the same language, although his was more pleasing in sound but even spoken by the best voice, troll language still sounded bearish. 

The tiny troll looked hard at the two intruders before going on his merry way and disappearing from sight and sound. "Will he be back? What did you say?"

"No, he is gone. I said to him that we were weary troll travelers, but had to see the head jailer of the kid cells up in the attic. Also if he did not let us pass we would tell the head jailer that he was a human child who escaped his cell. I do believe he thought me true to my word. Trolls really don't get many a brain until the start molding and even then they do not get much."

Suppressing their laughter they made it to the attic where colored doors lined the hallway. An old chair, which looked about to fall down, supported a fat, old, huge troll with saliva dropping down his puffy cheek, disappearing onto his hairy chest that raised and fell with every snore. With a finger to his lip Gott lightly walked over to the jailer. His hands quickly reached through the slightly bent spokes of the chair and snatched the rusty keys on a ring tied to the troll's waist. 

Rolled up in the front of Gott's shirt the keys traveled back, when halfway there they decided to warn the troll by jingling. Gott froze along with Venus and their heads whipped around. The troll let out a big snore and snuggled closer into his seat and the lovers breathed deep. On the last leg of his trip back toward Venus he suddenly stopped and motioned for Venus to come over. 

Once there she saw why; the door he stopped at looked like someone had tried to imitate living, red fire. Gott reached up and slid a stolen key into the keyhole and the door slid open. The room they found themselves looking into, not including the hallway light had no light. By the dim light, they were able to see a dark shape huddling in the corner, which was immediately engulfed in arms when Venus recognized her daughter's form. 

With no incident they were soon under the happy moon and shady trees in the forest. There they lay for the night and for Astrid to come with the horses, or so Venus thought. When the moon was high in the sky she felt Gott's lips brush hers and leave. She asked him where he was going.

"I cannot be with you and this is not your place. Go home to your time and remember that I love you." With that he disappeared in a sparkling of gold dust. 

With her daughter and memories, she did go home, but memory was not the only thing she had left of him. She also had a little boy in her stomach.