Read Trolls Prequel Novel for Free Online Page B

hold up a hand and walk into the space, lightly touching the hanging portraits. They sway as I move through them.
    “They’re all the same!” I murmur. I really can’t get over this. Everywhere I turn, I see Mr. Dinkles reflected back at me.
    “No! They’re not,” Harper says, gesturing me over to the wall by the entrance, where she has her nose nearly pressed to the glass of a portrait of the tiny worm. When I reach her, she points at two hanging just over my head. “In this one on the left, Mr. Dinkles’s top hat is set at a forty-five-degree angle, but this one is closer to
fifty degrees.”
    She’s right. Harper’s the one with the trained eye, so I’m not surprised she’s the first to pick up on the subtle differences between each and every portrait. Now that she’s shown me, I can spot a whole bunch of others along the row.
    “Wow, Biggie. This is impressive,” I say.
    And it is. Biggie’s collection is
enormous,
and I’m crazy-impressed with his monumental artistic feat of capturing the tiniest variances in each pose.
    Harper seems to agree. She moves slowly from frame to frame. “Oh, and this one is overexposed just the smallest amount; whereas this one looks a shade or two underexposed. Am I right, Biggie?”
    Unfortunately, he can’t answer because once more, he’s overcome with happy tears. Oh, Biggie!
    “I just love seeing so much Mr. Dinkles in one place, on display for everyone else to see, too,” he says, sniffling.
    “Look, Mr. Dinkles. It’s you,” I say. “And you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and—”
    “We get it, Poppy!” Harper interrupts, smiling at me before turning to Biggie. Her eyes widen. “What is it?”
    Biggie is staring into his hand. “He’s not here!”
    “What?” Harper and I shout at the same time. Mr. Dinkles is
always
there, any time Biggie isn’t posing him in front of the camera. Always.
    “Where would he go?”
    Biggie is frantically turning in circles. I step toward him, but he jerks to a stop and sticks out a giant arm to halt me. “Wait! Don’t. Move.”
    I freeze mid-step, one leg lifted and the other planted. Biggie drops to his knees and pats the ground in front of me.
    “Okay, you can step here. But only here. Mr. Dinkles is small. One misplaced foot could…”
    He can’t finish his sentence, and this time, for the first time ever, it seems like Biggie might actually be about to cry with…sadness. Which positively can’t happen.
    “Mr. Dinkles!” I call. “Oh, Mr. Diiiiiiinkles!” We all strain our ears to listen for an answer, but there is none.
    “I am totally on this. Operation Locate and/or Rescue Mr. Dinkles starts right now. Biggie, you have nothing to worry about. We will find him and return him to you safe and sound, or I’m not the princess of Troll Village!”
    This seems to reassure Biggie. Thankfully. For her part, Harper is frozen in place, too, staring at me with wide eyes.
    “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do,” I say. “Uh, you didn’t happen to come across an astoundingly bejeweled and sparkling clipboard while you were hanging pictures, by any chance, did you, Biggie?”
    He shakes his head slowly, but I’m already racing on.
    “Harper, pass me a piece of paper from your sketchbook and one of your pencils. Please.”
    She stretches out her hand, and I do as well, but there’s too much distance behind us. With a quick “Don’t worry!” to Biggie, I drop to my knees and examine every inch of the ground in front of me as I crawl over to Harper. I definitely don’t want to endanger any stray pet worms.
    “Hi,” I whisper when I reach Harper’s toes. “Little help?”
    She reaches down and