“Now, what do we have here?” VONDUR muttered, as he walked to the other side of the table. Something had caught his eye as he was about to leave the room. He approached it cautiously, praying that it wasn’t what he thought it was; a dead animal, or worse yet, one that was still alive, waiting to pounce on him.

​

“These stupid immigrants. How did these animals manage to sneak one of their rabid pets in here?” he muttered, as he tried to sneak up on whatever lay a few feet away from him. He grabbed a chair and lifted it behind him, trying to be as silent as possible.

​

“Die!” he screamed, as he brought the chair down on the animal, after he had snuck up behind it. To his surprise, nothing happened. There was no scream. There was no scurrying, no hiss, no growl. The only sound that he heard was of the chair’s legs hitting the ground.

​

“What the…” he muttered, as he began to cautiously look under the chair. He stared at the animal that he had tried to kill for a few seconds, bewildered at how he had managed to miss it, and also at how it still refused to move even an inch, until he began laughing loudly once he realized what he was looking at.

​

“A TEDESKIMMA!” he screamed, as he picked the little creature up. “You gave me quite a scare, little one! Bad SKIMMA! Bad SKIMMA!”

​

“Now… let’s see who you belong to,” he said, as he began examining the SKIMMA.

“Hmm… UNA… this must be your actual owner,” VONDUR said, as he ran his fingers over the larger lettering in the language that was very similar to his.

“And this must be your new owner,” he muttered angrily, as he felt the lettering right below it, written in the language of the immigrants he monitored and processed daily, “the greedy animal who, I am sure, stole you from the former. Thieves, all of them. Everything of ours they want to take. Even something like you, something that brings comfort to our children. Backward barbarians, the lot of them!”

​

VONDUR swallowed his anger and put on a fake smile as the door to the room opened and NALLA walked in.

​

“Hey! You done? It’s time for us to clock out,” NALLA said.

​

“Yeah. Done. Let’s go,” VONDUR replied.

​

“What’s that?” NALLA asked, pointing at the SKIMMA.

​

“Nothing. Just something that was left behind,” VONDUR replied.

​

“Oh. That sucks. Poor little kid, wherever they are. As if this whole ordeal isn’t enough,” NALLA said, looking intently at VONDUR as he did.

​

VONDUR knew what NALLA was up to. NALLA was looking for a reaction. He wanted VONDUR to respond.

​

What do you know, you bleeding heart crybaby? VONDUR thought, as he stared back at NALLA with an insincere smile on his face. You would let every immigrant into the country if you could. You aren’t a true patriot like the rest of us. You don’t even know the truth. You are blind, brainwashed; a complete and utter waste of space. You constantly go out of your way to be nice to these animals who invade our country every single day. Every day they try and infest our country even more, and you try to welcome them with open arms. You sickening traitor.

​

“Hmmm… I’m ready. Let’s go,” VONDUR said, as he continued to curse NALLA silently. He wasn’t going to give the traitor the reaction he craved.

​

“Let’s stop by inventory before we get out of here,” NALLA said, as he held the room door open for VONDUR.

​

“To hand the SKIMMA over to them, you goof,” NALLA laughed and said, after he saw the perplexed look on VONDUR’s face. “So that they can give it to some of the kids… you know, the target audience for this thing. The ones who will get some joy out of it. Well… unless… you want to keep it so that you can play with it… have a tea party with it perhaps, braid each other’s hair and what not?”

​

VONDUR stayed silent for a few seconds. NALLA could tell that he had gotten on VONDUR’s nerves to some extent. NALLA abhorred VONDUR and the others like him. He couldn’t stand their cruelty, their naked hostility towards anybody whose skin didn’t resemble the gray of theirs. He could do nothing about them. He had tried reporting them, but, thanks to the higher ups being just as rotten, it had only made things worse for him. He could, however, rile them up, annoy them, and try to make them feel shame, even if it were only a minuscule amount, as often as was possible. And that was precisely what he thought he had done. What NALLA didn’t fully know yet, but would realize sooner rather than later, was that VONDUR, was the troll that trolled trolls.

​

NALLA soon found himself staring at VONDUR’s face, trying to decipher what the smile that had formed on it could possibly mean.

​

“What a wonderful idea, NALLA!” VONDUR exclaimed. “Thank you! I think me and my new friend here will do just that. Brilliant!” he said happily, as he put the SKIMMA on his shoulders and walked out of the room with it, leaving a bewildered NALLA holding the door.