A flight too far 4/6

Jennifer Jane woke up feeling a lot better. She hadn't realised how tired she'd become until she'd sat on the bed. She poured water into a bowl from a large jug and had a quick wash before going down to see if she could have some breakfast. She was soon tucking into a big plateful of eggs and bacon on fried bread and was given a huge mug of tea to wash it all down.

"Proper English breakfast that is," said the landlord. "Now then," he continued, "how do you propose to pay for all this? What magic can young apprentice witches do that I might find useful?"

"I could make you a large cherry cake," said Jennifer Jane hopefully.

"My wife can make very good cherry cakes on her own without using magic," replied the landlord, "try and think of something else."

"How about chocolate swiss rolls?"

"Never heard of them, what are they good for?"

Jennifer Jane demonstrated with a small sample. The landlord ate it with a very pleased look on his face.

"Nice but not much more than a mouthful."

Jennifer Jane replied with a giant size roll which covered the table.

"You could cut that up into slices and sell them in the pub."

"Right then, let's agree that covers your breakfast, what else can you do to pay for last night's meal and bed?"

"How about another giant sized roll?"

"No thanks I've already got more than I can possibly eat."

"I don't think I can do anything else that you'd want," replied Jennifer Jane, "after all, I am only a first year apprentice."

"Are you any good at getting rid of trolls?" asked the landlord with a triumphant smile on his face.

Jennifer Jane realised she'd made a mistake by letting him know her limitations. Oh well she'd just have to do the best she could to clear her debt.

The landlord explained that all the good agricultural land was on the other side of the river to 'The Plough'. For a long time the farm workers had gone up stream a mile or so to the nearest ford and then back down stream again to be able to start work. A few years ago they had saved enough money to get the local stonemason to build them a bridge. This meant they could do more work in a day and everyone in the village became quite well off.

Everything was fine until a couple of months ago when a young troll had come to live under the bridge. He had some very peculiar riddles that no one had been able to answer, or cross the bridge since. The villagers had to go back to using the ford and as a result they were all becoming poor again.

"Get rid of our troll and we'll consider the bill settled," he concluded jubilantly.

Jennifer Jane sat quietly for quite a while thinking furiously. An idea began to form in her mind but it did rather depend on how fierce the troll was. The landlord had said he was young and if he turned out to be like Gordon he shouldn't be any problem.

"I'll have a try," she said at last "but first I must go and have a word with him."

The landlord and several of his early morning customers stood at the inn door and watched her fly off towards the bridge. Then he went back to the bar and started taking bets on the outcome. He was quite determined to make some money out of the situation in one way or another.

Jennifer Jane got off her broom just before she reached the bridge and walked down the riverbank until she could see underneath.

"Good morning, my name's Jennifer Jane, who are you?"

"Hello, you can call me Tony, don't you want to cross over my bridge?"

The troll seemed to be quite friendly. Jennifer Jane didn't mention that she could quite easily fly over the river on her broom.

"I'm new here," she explained, "so I thought I'd just come and have a chat. Do you have a lot of riddles that you can ask people?"

"Lots and lots," Tony replied happily, "I subscribe to a monthly riddle sheet printed specially for trolls, called 'Gordon's Goodies'. It's published by a troll in the far north and I've just bought sheet one and got sheet two for nothing. They're ever so good. I haven't been able to find any one who can answer correctly yet. In fact some of them are so hard I can't understand them myself, even though I have all the answers."

Jennifer Jane couldn't believe her luck, this wasn't going to be as difficult as she'd imagined. "What do you do to the people who can't answer your riddles, do you eat them?"

"Good heavens no," replied Tony, "that's all a bit old fashioned amongst us younger trolls. I just come out and chase them away making horrible growling noises. It's much more fun asking the questions than trying to eat tough stringy old farmers and I can live quite well without them. Can I ask you a riddle now?"

"I tell you what," said Jennifer Jane, "you ask the riddle and if I don't get it right you can chase me away growling as loudly as you like. If I do answer correctly then I challenge you to come out from under your bridge and have a race along a course of my choosing."

"Fair enough, here's the question, 'Why is a monkey when it spins?’" Tony looked at Jennifer Jane with a happy smile on his face and started practising his growl.

She laughed as she recognised one of her Father's jokes. Mother must have been visiting the village at Lurgin's bridge more times than she'd admitted.

"Easy," she said, "I'll come here and tell you where the race will be just before dinner time. Oh by the way the answer is 'because the higher the fewer'"

She laughed out loud as she saw the look of amazement on Tony's face, then she walked off, collected her broom and flew back to the inn. The landlord looked nearly as amazed as Tony, when she walked through the door. A slate had been propped up on a shelf behind the bar. 'J.J. 10-1 / T. no bets’

"Didn't he chase you at all?" asked the landlord.

"No of course not, I answered his riddle correctly and I've challenged him to a race just before lunchtime today. If all goes well you should be rid of him for ever in a few hours. Now here's what I want you to do."