Time passed and every day during the time when Yerili and Nnelah were in school, Tulip sneaked through the bushes to talk and socialize more with Mikki. Tulip told him how it was living in the Grandiozo family and how he envied Mikki for having a pretty nice “master”. Some rare times, Mikki told Tulip a little about his past, but those moments usually didn’t last that long, and Mikki usually became quieter than usual after those talks. Tulip usually knew what mood it had put Mikki into and always tried to cheer him up by telling him something embarrassing he had been put through the other day. Tulip wasn’t really afraid of making himself look embarrassing in front of people, he had been put up with that since he could remember and was more or less a part of his job. And even though Mikki felt very sorry for Tulip’s misdeeds, he couldn’t help but to giggle at those every now and then.

“Hey, Mikki…have you ever done something really embarrassing?” Tulip once asked out of curiosity after cheering up Mikki a little, “I mean, even you must’ve done something that made your cheeks flush, right?”

Mikki thought this one over for a while before he started to squirm a little where he sat, looking uncomfortable.

“W-well…it was a while ago, and I can’t remember a thing from it…but I did something that made the family look really strangely at me..”

Tulip raised an eyebrow and looked very surprised.

“Man, aren’t you a wee bit too young to drink those…bubble drinky thingies?”

“What?!” Mikki said, looking just as surprised.

“Yeah, I mean…Nnelah’s parents drink something sometimes, and after drinking it, they just do…stuff you’d never expect them to do! I mean, they are very embarrassing when doing those things! And the next day, they don’t remember what they’ve done!”

“J-just hold up a second...”

“Mikki boy, you better stop drinking that stuff, as I’ve recalled, it makes you very, very addicted to it as well!”

“But…I didn’t drink anything!”

“A-ha! Then you’re smoking something? Because…I have seen Nnelah’s father do that when he thought he was all alone!” Tulip grinned, “But he didn’t expect me to be around, oh no! But yeah, he inhaled something and he gets very strange as well! And I’m not quite sure, but I believe that stuff’s even worse to you than that stuff you drink! You better stop that behavior immediately!” Tulip continued, looking really concerned about his friend.

“Nooooo…” Mikki said while tugging his hair slightly, “I didn’t inhale or drink or anything like that! It’s like…” Mikki fiddled a little with his tail’s end, “I got all angry and stuff, and then…I woke up, feeling all bad and everything looked bad and stuff…”

This made Tulip shine up as he understood what Mikki wanted to say. He looked pretty impressed as his tail wagged back and forth a little.

“You said that you…went berserk?!”

Mikki nodded slightly, looking confused over Tulip’s expression.

“Awesome! Man, I didn’t expect you have done something like that though…but hey, do you know what that means?!”

“That…I can get really, really angry..?”

“Oh yes, but you’re also a real troll! I mean, even though you’ve been under some owner for the most of your life, you’re still having those troll instincts!”

“Yeah, I guess so…”

“Hey, Mikki?”

“Yeah?”

“Have you ever heard about trolls with Elven blood in them?”

“Well, I’ve heard about elves with troll blood in their veins…”

“Yeah, either, I suppose. But man, those trolls must feel like a failure!”

“Why come?”

“I mean…that person will neither be elf or troll, just something in between!” Tulip sinks down a bit where he sits, “That must be so lame…even though I suppose it has some slight advantage…”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, they catch up both Trollish and Elvish language pretty quickly…I bet they have it in the blood or something…”

These words made Mikki go all stiff and pale-faced. A squeaky “hmm” was what Tulip got for a response. Tulip blinked and looked at his friend. The facial expression of Mikki told Tulip instantly that something he had said had a very bad effect on him. Eventually, he put a hand over his mouth and looked a little shocked.

“I…as long as I’ve remembered, I’ve understood and talked Elvish fluently, together with Trollish.” Mikki stuttered silently.

“M-maybe you’re just a quick learner…” Tulip said nervously.

“No!” Mikki squeaked and pulled his ear a little, “I remember when I was taken away, and I remember that those guys…it was the first time I heard Elvish! And, I-I…I understood it from the beginning!”

Mikki sank down and curled up to himself tightly while trying to hide his upset ness. Tulip gulped and pondered whether he should try to comfort his friend or not; he had never really needed to actually comfort anyone in a caring way, and knowing he was the cause of Mikki’s emotional breakdown made him hesitate even more.

“Hey, I…man, I’m really regretting my words this time.” Tulip said and lowered his head.

Mikki really didn’t seem to be able to respond to this, which made Tulip feel even worse about what he’d just said. Eventually, he sighed slightly and gave Mikki a comforting hug, which seemed to calm down the blue haired troll a little bit.

“But hey, if I thought you actually were pure troll…then it can’t be much Elven blood floating in those veins of yours…you look too damn cool for being an elf!” Tulip said and grinned a little, “Man…not to be evil or anything, Mikki, but I’m really feeling gay now.”

Mikki looked at Tulip and smirked a little.

“N-no, you’re not.”

Tulip frowned and mimed Mikki’s try to keep his face.

“N-no you didn’t…you really need to learn how to lie properly!” Tulip said and pushed Mikki away playfully.

“Y-yeah, I guess so!” Mikki said while giggling.

Tulip grinned and sighed out, looking pretty relieved.

“I’m glad that you’re easy to make somewhat happy again at least!”

A call from the other side of the bushy wall was heard. Tulip groaned and cursed couple of times before he rose from his spot.

“Seems like my job starts now!” he walked over to the hole in the wall, “And hey…no matter what you are, you’ll still be a cool dude in my eyes!” he said before he disappeared into the hole.

Mikki sighed slightly as he suddenly heard the voice of Yerili. Mikki quickly climbed up in an apple tree, picked one of the better looking apples and polished it a little before he ran over to his owner.

This day, it was the end of the week, meaning that Yerili would have two days of rest before a new week and new school assignments started. This usually made her a little calmer and more cheerful; two days of rest and actually enjoying yourself was what she needed to go through the other rather rough school days. Mikki knew this and usually managed to give away a happy smile at those days, hoping that’d cheer his owner up even more. Today though, there was no need to try cheering up, Yerili already seemed pretty cheerful when she met the troll.

“Hey, guess what?” Yereli said while she gestured Mikki to break the apple in half.

“It’s…the end of the week?” Mikki answered while he broke the apple and offered it to Yerili.

“Of course it is! But tomorrow…” she took a piece of the apple, “…you and I will take a trip to the city market!”

Mikki blinked a couple of times before he stared at his owner.

“You…you mean that..?”

“Yes, you and I will like…look out some clothes for you and such. Sure, those clothes that you have are stuff you can wear, but to be honest…” she giggled, “They make you look pretty stupid! You should have something that fits you better!”

“Do you mean something more Trollish?”

“Not necessary all Trollish! But look at yourself. That light blue shirt, the beige jacket and those light brown pants…I’m actually feeling sorry for you, needing to wear something like that, so we better get something more fitting as fast as possible!”

Mikki just stared at Yerili, looking stunned by this decision. Eventually a wide smile decorated his face.

“Whoa, t-thanks a lot!” he said and looked a little out of place.

Yerili looked at Mikki and smiled broadly.

“It was rather easy to convince my parents to let me get some clothes for you; I suppose they all felt a little guilty for that bad fashion.”

Mikki grinned happily and it wasn’t really hard to see by his facial expression that he really appreciated this gesture from the Fangilano family. Yerili was rather impressed with Mikki’s ability to be so still though; even though his face said that he could barely wait for the next day, the rest of his body and behavior seemed to be rather calm. This made her smile more than once while looking at the troll, who either just smiled back or blushed a little, probably feeling out of hand from being looked at. At those times, Yerili couldn’t help but to think that he actually looked a little sweet. Like a dog or something. That impression of sweetness Mikki gave faded pretty quickly away though, as she got reminded by the green skin, the tail and the fangs. A troll will always be a troll, she thought for herself. Gruesome and something a respectable elf like herself never should get too friendly with.

The night passed and the next day, Yerili and Mikki got a nice little carriage to get themselves into the centre of the city. Yerili’s parents were a little skeptical towards letting Mikki actually sit in that carriage, since trolls usually walked besides the carriage in situations like this. But since Mikki still was rather young and not so tall by troll standards, he got allowance to sit there and accompany Yerili. Yerili wasn’t very talkative this day though, and she was more or less amused by Mikki’s pretty jolly expression.

“You look pretty happy today.” Yerili suddenly said.

“Oh?” he looked a little embarrassed, “W-well, I haven’t been around outside my…eh, homes that much…so to speak.”

“Well, hopefully you’ll have a nice day to remember today.” Yerili continued before she looked out the window.

Yerili knew though that Mikki’d probably do something even more exciting as he got older. Her parents had usually discussed about the future for Mikki’s part. Sure, he was overly nice for being a troll, but a troll is always a troll, and you can’t keep a 3 meter troll in your bedroom all your life. And they didn’t want to see Mikki fall in love with their daughter either. After all, the Fangilano family had to try keeping up the good reputation they had gained during the years, and some slave troll shouldn’t came in the way for that. So, whenever the troll’d hit his puberty in some way, they’d make him a free troll, letting him walk freely around Kumgolia without being afraid he’d be put into slavery again. Mikki didn’t knew about these plans at all, and sometimes, Yereli wondered what Mikki’d think if he knew this story. Would he feel happiness? Sadness? Maybe he would get enraged? Yerili herself knew that she felt a little sad about it. It would be like…losing your pet or something like that, she thought.

Eventually, the carriage made its stop outside a tavern and Yerili was told to be back in 3 hours. She wasn’t really afraid of walking around the streets here, not if she were accompanied by Mikki. She knew what he was capable of when wanting to save her, and was quite sure he’d do the same for her again if needed. Yerili’s rather happy thoughts were soon disturbed by a voice she weren’t quite fond of at all.

“Aw, come on, Tulip dear!” the voice said.

“Tulip?!” Mikki thought for himself.

“No, don’t tell me that she’s here!” Yerili moaned.

Soon enough, Mikki saw Tulip standing in the crowd, not looking happy at all. Mikki couldn’t blame him though; those kinds of clothes he was wearing were really something that almost was too much even for a male elf of noble birth. A leash from his neck led down to an Elven girl, looking very light-skinned and light in general. It was quite a contrast to Yerili’s dark skin and copper hair, Mikki thought. Yerili snorted a little and looked at Mikki.

“Well, we can’t stay here all day, can we? We better get moving befo-“

“Ah, but isn’t that Yereli my eyes have spotted?!” the girl shouted.

“Crap!”

Tulip looked up and his eyes met Mikki’s pretty shortly. Probably being very embarrassed about his situation, he couldn’t do more than smiling a little nervously.

“So, so…” the girl walked towards Yerili, dragging Tulip, “How come you are out here, pestering the air?”

“Well, Nnelah…” Yerili responded a little irritated, “If that’s so important to know, I’m going to shop clothes for Mikki.”

Nnelah looked at Yerili, then Mikki.

“Starting to like your little slave too much, eh?”

“I just want him to look respectable.”

“Ah. I can see why, those clothes look a little out of fashion. To be honest, I’m also out, regarding little Tulip here…”

Tulip made a sound of unlikingness sound while squirming. Mikki just felt sorry for his friend.

“He needs a new hat and matching clothes to that. Hopefully, I also get the time to highlight some parts of his hair so he looks even prettier!” Nnelah said and beamed of joy.

Yerili looked at Tulip, then back at Nnelah.

“Your troll doesn’t look pretty. To be honest, he looks really silly. You should accept the fact that you can’t make a troll look pretty, how much you try.”

Nnelah stared at Yerili, looking like she was about to explode out of angriness. Eventually, she smiled a very smug smile towards Yerili.

“Well, that explains why you never will look pretty either, I presume.” she said and walked away from Yerili, dragging Tulip with her.

Yerili stared at the vanishing equipage, looking not too happy about the words she had received. Even though she was used to this kind of treatment in school as well, she wasn’t really comfortable with letting Mikki see it, especially since his knowledge of the Elvish language was very good. She looked up at the troll, seeing his angry glare almost burn into Nnelah until she vanished.

“How mean..” he growled in Trollish.

“Hey, I’m used to it all the time. It’s the price you’ll have to pay for not being fully an elf.”

“It’s still pretty damn mean though.”

“Whatever.” She grinned a little, “She pretty untalented anyways and won’t get far when she gets older. But anyways, to the city we shall go now!” she said and started to walk into the streets.