Here’s to you Mum

The key was on a hook by the side of the door, and Charley immediately unlocked it - looking over her shoulder at the fat furry animal that quietly crouched there. She half wondered if she should take it with her and opened the door widely showing it a way of escape.

What she did not know was that this was in fact the Troll groundskeeper who had thus been responsible for locking her there in the first place. He had caught sight of himself in her magic mirror, and had been diminished to his ordinary self, having seen his true nature within and been reduced by it.

It was made all the worse for him when Charley had found him almost adorable.

She walked back out into the park and down the idling pathway to the main road - feeling more certain of herself than ever before, now content to meet face to face her uncanny future as it stealthily rose up to greet her.

“Here’s to you Mum” she quietly said.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances