"I don't believe this," she muttered, thinking furiously. The money wasn't an issue; it was the principle of the thing. Lila glanced at her pilot and saw that she had eleven minutes to board or she would miss her tunnel connection. Stupid trolls.

Wait a minute, that gave her an idea.

Flashing him what she hoped was a winning smile, she said, "Lets approach this from a different direction, shall we?"

"Huh?" the troll replied.

She picked up her passport from the counter. "I'll just leave and then come back and we'll try this again, all right?"

"Er," he said, the furrows in his forehead becoming even more deeply etched.

Lila turned her back to the counter, composing herself and then turned to the troll. "Hello," she said, holding out her passport and smiling up at him.

"Uh, 'ello," the troll said, taking her passport and slowly opening it. He turned a few pages, squinting at the book and frowning. Looking down at her, he asked, "Youse human lady?"

"No," Lila answered.

"Huh?" he said, looking from Lila to the passport and back again. "Says here youse from Earth."

"That's right." She leaned forward, ignoring the stench of rotting meat being exhaled from his mouth and whispered, "I'm traveling in disguise."

"In da skies," the troll repeated in a low rumble. "What dat means?"

"I may 'look' human, but I'm really an elf," she told him, quietly.

The troll squinted at her. "Me thoughts elves was little folks. Short like an' kind o' greenish, wit pointy ears an' such," he mumbled, scratching his head.

Somewhat sensitive about her statuesque appearance anyway, Lila snapped, "So, I'm a BIG elf, all right?" then quickly calmed herself. She looked around as if to be sure no one was within earshot of their conversation.