Erisa gathered it into a towel, then handed it to her niece. “Throw it in the fire.”
Will was full of mixed emotions, but he spoke before sorting them out. “Wait. I’ll take it back.”
His mother stared at him suspiciously. “You said it was a parasite.”
“It’s a troll,” he admitted.
“How did you get a troll in your leg?”
“Someone was playing a joke.”
Erisa’s voice ascended the scales to a much higher pitch. “This was someone’s idea of a joke?”
Will tried to give a brief review of what Arrogan had taught him about troll reproduction, which failed to impress his mother, and elicited a nervous giggle from his cousin. His mother spent the time carefully bandaging his bloody thigh. When she was done, Sammy fetched the crutches that Erisa kept for patients, and they helped Will up and onto his feet. “How far do you have to go to return this troll?” asked his mother.
“It’s a bit of a walk,” he admitted.
“I’ll come with you,” she told him.
“But…”
“I’m coming or you don’t go. Would you rather toss it in the fire? I’m still in favor of that plan,” she responded, cutting him off.
He gave in, realizing he had no hope of winning, and his mother helped him hobble over to the corner of the room where the congruence point was. Will had the troll-let wrapped in the towel, but somewhere along the way it managed to slip its head free. He felt a sharp pain as it bit down on one of his fingers.
Gritting his teeth, he pried it loose and pushed it back into the towel, wrapping it more tightly. Then he transported them across to Muskeglun. He was surprised when he arrived, for several trolls were sitting around the area of the congruence, using a fallen tree as a bench. One of them smiled at him, and he thought it might be Clegg. Trolls were still hard for him to identify.
Erisa reacted to the smile by nearly falling over, which almost took Will down with her. After a few seconds of fumbling, they regained their collective balance. “It’s all right, Mom. They’re friendly,” he reassured her.
The troll that had smiled stood and moved closer, while Will held out the towel and opened it so they could see what lay inside. Then he pointed at his wounded leg.
“Hello,” said Clegg, confirming his identity with the greeting.
That was a relief. “I found this in my leg,” said Will.
The troll chief cocked his head to one side. “And you brought it back?”
“I couldn’t leave it in my world,” said Will. “You know how dangerous that would be.”
Clegg examined Erisa. “Who is this?”
“My mother, Erisa,” said Will.
“Mother, an interesting thing,” said the chief. “We do not have them. All trolls are fathers, until now. You are the first to bring one back.”
“Pardon me?”
“Many times have troll played trick on humans. Never do your kind return with troll.”
Will gaped at Clegg. “Were they supposed to?”
The chief troll shrugged. “Not care. Was joke.” Then he focused on Will for a long minute. “But you are strange. You have earned a name.” The chief turned to the other trolls, and they talked for several minutes, ending the conversation with a long series of cough-laughs.
Clegg turned back. “You are Grak-Murra, Troll-Mother.”
Will was stunned. “I thought trolls didn’t have mothers. How do you have a word for them?”
“Just made it,” said Clegg. “Mother sounds bad to us, so ‘murra’ is close enough.”
Feeling vengeful, Will made a request. “Can I name the child?”
Clegg smiled. “What would you call it?”
“Gan,” said Will. “After my grandfather.” He could still hear the troll’s cough-laughter in his ears when they reappeared in the laboratory.
His mother was giving him a strange look.
“What?” asked Will.
She shook her head. “You’ve changed so much in the last few years. Those things were terrifying, but you talked to them as though it didn’t bother you at all.”
“I was swarmed by vampires yesterday, Mom. I guess it’s all relative.” He had no intention of mentioning the joke regarding him having to sacrifice an arm.
“Why did you tell him to name it Gan? Why not Arrogan?”
“That’s what they called Arrogan,” said Will.
Sammy could hardly contain herself. “That was quick! What happened?”
Will explained while struggling up the ladder. With only one leg, he was forced to hold himself up with both arms while he took each step. It turned out to be easier than he expected, though his leg complained every time he bumped his right foot against anything. After he had finally pulled himself over the edge, he sat and rested a moment while the others came up.
He noticed something interesting in the middle of the giant, four-poster bed that took up one wall of Arrogan’s old bedroom. A small pedestal of cushions had been built up, and in the middle of them, resting like royalty, lay the goddamn cat.
Trying not to scream when the muscle was pulled as he stood up, Will hobbled over to examine the demigod, who appeared to be sleeping. In his housecat form, the Cath Bawlg always appeared as a gray tabby with short hair, but there was something different about him now. Sammy stepped up beside him, then put a finger over her lips as she whispered, “Don’t disturb him. Mister Mittens is sleeping.”
Will’s eyes bugged out. Mister Mittens? Had the goddamn cat heard her call him that? He looked Sammy up and down, but he saw no signs of scratches or bloody wounds. Then he looked back at the cat and realized what had been bothering him subconsciously.
Someone had tied a neat little pink bow in the goddamn cat’s hair, centered between his ears—and it was adorable. Using the crutch, he shuffled out of the bedroom as quickly as he could, giving Sammy weird looks the entire way. Once they were in the front room, he confronted her. “Did you do that to him?” he said in a worried half-whisper.
“Do what?” she asked innocently. “I made him the bed on top of the bed, and I brushed him out,” she admitted. “From what I could see someone hasn’t been taking very good care of their cat.” She gave Will a look of disapproval.
His jaw dropped. “My cat? Are you insane? He’s nobody’s cat. He’s a goddamn demigod! Did he let you put that thing in his hair?”
She smiled. “It wasn’t easy, but he was sleeping and Aunt Erisa always tells me that I have very clever fingers. I tied it by hand.”