7 Hambone

CHAPTER 7

Hambone Nobody greeted Lucas and Clara on the island of Burth. The trolls were neither friendly nor outgoing. They worked hard and grew vegetables for the entire kingdom. The kids walked to the stables in the village. Lucas tapped a sleeping troll on the shoulder. The troll snorted and rubbed his eyes. "What do you want?" he grumbled, with one eye closed. "We'd like to hire a horse," said Lucas. "What for?" asked the troll. "To visit a troll called Hambone," said Lucas. "Do you know where he lives?" "Pay up," said the troll. Lucas dropped a coin in the troll's grubby hand. The troll smiled and bit the coin. "He lives on Old Tinder Road. His door is marked by the sign of a

crescent moon," said the troll. "And don't tell him I sent you."

So Lucas and Clara mounted the horse and galloped along the rugged valley floor. Steep, craggy mountains towered over the island of Burth. The air smelled of garlic. They passed fields of corn, rows of turnips, and gardens of parsley. Soon the road began to go up. It twisted around and around a mountainside. Lucas and Clara passed cave dwellings all along the way. "Whoa, back!" Clara cried as she jerked the reins. "We just passed a crescent moon!" They tied the horse to a hitching post and knocked on the cave door marked with the crescent moon. A potbellied troll with green eyes and wild gray hair

answered the door. He looked Lucas and Clara up and down.

"We came for Queen Tasha's lost emerald," said Lucas. "Do you have it?" The troll recognized the boy as the prince. He knew better than to play games with the son of the king. "I found it in the Citrus Grove when I was gathering oranges," said Hambone. Big grins spread across Lucas's and Clara's faces.