The Trow by Kathy P.

Rating: PG-13. A couple of swear words.
Disclaimer: Don't own them. I wish I did, but if wishes were fishes we would walk on the sea.
Warning: Can't think of any. I am a new writer so I guess that counts. Oh and this is unbeta'd
Summary: Blair's brings something unexpected home from Scotland.

It all started after I came home from visiting Naomi in the Orkney Islands in Scotland. Mom had found 'the most wonderful little retreat' in the Orkney's and wanted me to join her over there for a couple of weeks to visit.

Jim seemed to be handling his senses pretty well the last couple of months and I was feeling run down from my double duty as student and teaching fellow at Rainier University and observer at the Cascade Police Station. When Jim heard off Mom's invitation he insisted I go see her and relax for a couple of weeks.

Never should have listened to him. If I hadn't I wouldn't be here kneeling in the middle of the loft surrounded by a circle of sea salt and bee's wax candles, chanting an old Scottish incantation under the watchful eyes of a glaring Sentinel.

In my mind I tried to piece together what had brought Jim and I to this point in time.

While on the Island with mom I was taken for the grand tour of all the historical sites. My tendency to slip into lecture mode was definitely inherited from Naomi as she launched into a detail list of all the fairy folk associated with the island. My one course in Celtic Mythology was nothing compared to the knowledge I gained from Naomi that day.

Most of the stories were quite interesting. The mythology of the Celtic people was vast and they had a huge variety of earth spirits, fairies in laymans term, for every aspect of the natural world.

Mom brought me to an ancient fairy circle that had been found recently deep in the woods. We sat outside of it and talked some more about the region's myths.

Naomi's description of one type of fairy had me cracking jokes about what would happen if Jim ever ran into them. "It would be a war zone man. An utter war zone."

Naomi laughed as we stood up to leave and put an arm around my waist, guiding me away from the fairy circle. "It's a good thing you two don't live in Scotland then hmm?" Mom said playfully.

Gazing at her, I returned her laugh. "With my luck they will just follow my home!" I joked.

Me and my damn mouth. Gets me in trouble all the time.

"Jim," I yelled from my bedroom as I knelt to look under my bed. "Jim! Have you seen my laptop?"

"You don't have to yell junior. I'm a Sentinel remember? Enhanced hearing capabilities and all that," Was my roommate's sarcastic reply. "Did you look in the pit that you call your room?"

"Oh ha ha man. Your so funny," I mumbled as I straighten up and looked around the room again. "Where did I put it? I swear I left in right here on my desk."

"I don't know how you can find anything in there Sandburg," Jim said from the kitchen where he was preparing our breakfast. "There's probably a lost civilization or two that you can study in there."

Coming out of my room I glared at him. "You're just full of laughs today. I'll have you know that my room is very organized thank-you. I know exactly where everything is."

"Then why can you find your laptop Darwin?"

I flipped Jim the bird, drawing a smile from him, and grabbed the tea kettle to fill it up with water. An object inside the kettle caused it to rattle. Taking off the lid I peered inside. "Umm Jim, is there a reason that your tooth brush is in the kettle? I know your kind of fanatical about cleanliness, but boiling your toothbrush man, that's just plain weird."

"What?" Jim said in a puzzled tone as he looked over my shoulder. "Very funny Sandburg," he said as he reached over and grabbed the tooth brush from the pot. "What kind of experiment are you doing now? Trying to see if the Sentinel can track his tooth brush down or something."

"Whoa man, I am not guilty here," I said as I put the kettle down on the counter.

"Well, if it wasn't you junior who was it? The tooth fairy?"

"The tooth fairy, that's funny," I chuckled. "Maybe you were sleepwalking and your anal fixation on neatness decided that the ol' tooth brush needed a good cleaning."

Jim just glared at me as he went to put his toothbrush away.

'Well, that was weird', I thought as I filled the kettle with water and placed it on the stove to boil.

My laptop was eventually found under the couch. I ignored Jim's comment about absentminded professors and put the laptop back in my room on my desk.

I managed to put the strangeness from the morning out of my mind.

A gruelling case that Jim was on kept us out late. A quick bite from a fast food restaurant substituted for supper. When we arrived home we both immediately made for our beds.

Once my head hit the pillow I was out like a light.

It didn't seem like any time had past before the door to my room was flung open.

"Sandburg! What the hell are you doing in here!" Jim ground out between clenched teeth. He must of just gotten out of bed as he sported the usually bed head hairdo.

Sitting up in surprise I blinked sleepily at him. "What the hell are you talking about Jim?"

"I finally got to sleep when you started to make all this noise. What are you doing? Bouncing a ball in here or something?"

"Noise? What noise man? I was sleeping. How can you hear anything any ways," I said irritably as I rubbed my face with my hands. "Did you break your white noise generator?"

I had given Jim a white noise generator for his birthday a few month ago. It was actually more a present for me than for him as I could actually move around at night now with out rousing the grumpy Sentinel from his sleep.

"That's another thing Sandburg, I can't find the generator. Where and why did you move it?"

"I'm too tired for this man. I never touched your generator Jim."

"Well something happened to.." Jim stopped what he was saying suddenly. His head tilted slightly to one side, a habit he had picked up when he used his sentinel hearing.

"Jim what..."

Holding his hand up Jim spun around to look out of my bedroom door.

"Do you hear that?"

Listening hard for a moment I shook my head. "I don't hear anything Jim."

Jim's face screwed up with confusion. "It sounds like someone laughing. No, there's more than one person."

Getting out of bed I moved over to Jim's side. "You hear laughing outside the loft?"

"No it's in the loft."

Following Jim into the kitchen I watched as he scouted around the room.

"It's all around us Blair. What is going on here?"

A loud bang from the bathroom made Jim wince.

"Now I heard that," I said as we both moved towards the bathroom.

Standing behind Jim, I raised up on my tiptoes to peek over his shoulder as he slowly pushed the bathroom door open.

"What the hell!" Jim said when we both saw his white noise generator laying on the bathroom floor.

Spinning around Jim just about knocked me on my keister as he quickly shoved past me.

"There's that laughter again."

I looked down at the white noise generator laying on the floor then up at Jim's tooth brush that was back in its proper place.

Uh oh.

Groaning, I covered my face with my hands, shaking my head back and forth. "No, this can't be happening. It can't be real. How can they.."

"Sandburg," I heard my Sentinel growl behind me. "Why do I have this feeling that you know what's going on?"

Slowly turning around to face the firing squad I threw what I hope was my most enduring innocent look at Jim. "Jim, I don't know what you're talking about. I.."

"Exactly Chief. You. You seem to know what's going on here and I wanted to know what it is."

"But Jim.."

"Now Sandburg."

Holding up my hands defensively I headed back to my room. "Ok, ok. I think I know what's going on, but man, I don't know wether to believe it or not. I mean, sure your living proof of the supernatural but this, this is just too weird. Man, Naomi would be in heaven if she was here."

Digging through a pile of books I picked up in Scotland I found that one I was looking for.

Moving back into the main room I headed for the couch. Sitting down at one end I started to flip through it.

Suddenly Jim was in front of me, plucking the book out of my hands. Turning it over to look at the cover I was reward with Jim's 'give me a break' look.

"A Witch's Guide to Faery Folk. You have got to be kidding me Chief."

Snatching the book back from the smirking Sentinel I opened to book to its index. "Relax Jim. I picked this up in Scotland. It has a complete listing of fairies from around the world," I said as I looked for the right page. Glancing up at Jim I gave him a small smile. "I thought that it would be interesting to read about South American fairies. See if there is any mention of Sentinel's or Sentinel abilities."

"Ah ha. Here we are. The Trow."

"Trow? What are the Trow?" Jim said as he moved to sit beside me on the couch.

"The Trow are some fairies that originate from the Shetland and Orkney Islands."

"So," Jim drawled. "You think we have a fairy problem."

"Ya, smart ass. I think we have a fairy problem," I said reaching over to smack Jim in the arm. "It makes perfect sense."

Jim rubbed his arm and look at my skeptically. "Uh huh. Perfect sense. To you maybe."

"Just listen for a moment. It says here, and I quote, "Trows are native to the Shetland and Orkney Islands and possibly to the Upper Hebrides. They are completely nocturnal and sneak around at night moving things around just for the fun of aggravating human. Since Trows have no legs, they move around by rolling on their bulbous forms or by bouncing like rubber ball."

Setting the book aside I turned to face Jim on the couch. "Don't you see Jim? It makes perfect sense." I started to tick my points on my finger. "One, our stuff being moved around and placed in strange spots overnight. Two, when you woke me up you asked if I was bouncing a ball, that would be the Trow moving around. Three, the laughter that you heard. That's probably them laughing their asses off at us."

Jim put his elbows on his knees and hid his face in his hands. "Why does all this weird shit happen to us," he groaned.

Patting him on the back I chuckled. "We must have done something interesting in our past lives to deserve this man."

Sitting up again Jim glared at me. "So what's your theory about why they are here, in this loft of all places."

"Well, that's my fault actually."

"Why do I have no problem seeing that?" Jim grouched.

"Ha ha man. Like I sent them an engraved invitation or something. Jeez. I don't know why they followed..oh shit," I said as I moved away from Jim just incase he decided to come after me. "Me and my big mouth. Well, I think I know why they followed me home. When I was in Scotland with Naomi we went to a fairy ring in the woods. We stayed there a while talking about the local beliefs, fairies being one of them. She told me about a fairy that loved to move things around and I sort of joked that they would drive you absolutely crazy. It's kind of funny in a 'be careful what you wish for' way."

"Yeah Sandburg, it's just hilarious." Standing up he towered over me threateningly. "I don't care how you do it but I want these fairies out of my house now."

"Jim, it takes days to prepare for something like this. I use to have a girlfriend who was a Wiccan, a witch, and when she did spells she would prepare days in advance."

"Sandburg," he growled leaning over me.

"Or I could just wing it," I said in a nervous squeak.

So that is the tale of how I ended up doing a banishment spell in the middle of the night under the watchful eye of my Sentinel.

It must have done the trick because when Jim tilted his head to listen for fairy laughter he gave a sigh of relief.

"All clear?" I asked hopefully, still sitting in the circle I had created.

"All clear," he confirmed as he used the rest of his sense to sweep the loft. "Let's clean this stuff up so we can get some sleep tonight."

I quickly closed the circle. Figuring that it didn't hurt to do it properly as I had already attracted the attention of one mystical being. Or is that two?

After we tidied up we headed for our respective rooms. Before I could be reached it Jim called to me.

"Hey Sandburg."

"Ya."

"No more travelling unless I'm with you. Got it."

"Whatever you say man. See you in the morning."

"Goodnight."

Laying in bed I thought of travelling around the world with a Sentinel hot on my heels. I grinned at the thought of all the trouble we could get into together.

Grabbing my pillow I twisted it into shape and snuggled deeper into my blankets.

Yep, life was never going to be dull again.

I thought this story up while I was flipping through a book of fairy lore. I was actually looking for South American fairies when I ran across the description of the Trow. The first thing that popped into my mind after read the description was how would Jim dealing with having them in the loft. LOL.

Hope you enjoyed.