The Young Man and the Troll

A young man named Kushi lived in a small village nestled at the foot of a rugged mountain range. Kushi was a quiet soul, content with his simple life as a carpenter. He spent his days crafting furniture and his evenings stargazing, finding solace in nature's tranquil beauty surrounding his village.

One clear autumn morning, Kushi ventured farther into the hills than usual, drawn by a distant shimmer that caught his eye. As he rounded a bend, he saw a magnificent golden tree standing alone atop a nearby peak. Its leaves glittered in the sunlight, casting a warm glow across the mountainside.

Kushi had heard tales of such wonders—trees with leaves of gold that were said to possess magical properties. Some whispered they could heal the sick or bring fortune to those who found them. Others believed they were mere legends woven into the fabric of folklore.

But Kushi, struck by the tree's mesmerizing beauty, felt an inexplicable pull to climb the mountain and see it up close. Leaving his tools behind, he began his ascent, guided by an inner determination he had never felt before.

As he began his way, a troll met him.

The troll was short and stocky and walked with a stick to help him with his limp. The troll looked as if he had been through many battles and had lost enough of them to determine he wouldn’t fight anymore.

The troll asked Kushi, "Are you heading up to the top of the mountain to fetch some golden leaves?"

Kushi said yes and started to walk past the troll to continue the journey.

The troll said, wait. I should warn you. The tree owner has built three walls on this mountain to stop people from stealing its leaves. No one has ever gotten over them, so I wouldn't waste my time if I were you.

Kushi was strong from his years as a carpenter, so he ignored the troll and continued his journey. After walking for a while, the young man came across the first wall. It was made of wooden trees and stood close to 12 feet tall. Kushi took a few steps back and leaped up to clear the wall, and he missed the top and fell back to the ground.

After dozens of tries, Kushi headed back down the mountain. Exhausted.

The troll laughed as he saw the young man walking sadly down the mountain.

While laughing, he said, "It's okay; you just have to jump higher next time."

Kushi went back to his village humbled but not discouraged. He trained his legs for weeks. He practiced jumping in the town by leaping over barrels and grabbing leaves off the high branches of nearby trees. The people of his village wondered why he was working so hard and asked him what he was training for.

Kushi would only reply with the phrase, "My hard work will be our future."

Kushi returned to the mountain a year later. His legs had doubled in size, his upper body was leaner, and he seemed taller than he was the year earlier.

The same troll was there standing by the wall. The troll smirked at the sight of Kushi’s new physique. He said, "Hey, you're back. You look good, too. Hopefully, all that muscle is not just for show. Good luck this time."

The troll laughed and sat down under a tree.

Kushi ignored the troll's laughter and started his journey toward the first wall. He was ready. He had practiced on trees much higher than this wall and knew he would clear it. He took a few steps back, jumped, and cleared the wall with one leap.

After clearing the first wall, Kushi immediately started his journey towards the next wall. As he landed on the other side, he looked up the mountain to see another wall in the distance. As he approached the next wall, he noticed this wall was 2 feet taller and made of wood with thorns on top of it.

Kushi had traveled too far to turn back, so he knew he would have to attempt to scale the wall.

With a deep breath, Kushi took a running start and leaped toward the wall. His hands grabbed hold of the rough wood, but as he began to climb, the thorns reached out, their sharp points digging into his skin. He screamed and dropped back to the ground. As he lay on his back holding his bloody hand, he looked around to see if there was another way around the wall. The wall stretched to one side of the mountain, leading to a long drop down to the ground below. The other side was solid rock and did not provide ridges or foot holes to get over the wall. Kushi saw no way over the thorns, so he had to head back down the mountain, back over the 1st wall, and back to his village.

As he got back to the foot of the mountain, Kushi passed the troll, and the troll said, "You will need thicker hands if you want to get over that wall. Too bad your hands are so soft, but at least you have a bright future making dresses for the women of your village."

The troll laughed hysterically as Kushi walked away in defeat. Instead of entertaining the troll's insults, Kushi wrapped his blood hand with a piece of fabric he tore from his shirt and headed back to his village. He spent the next few months training his legs and crafting gloves that could withstand thorns. Kushi knew that he would need to practice the jump in a realistic situation, so he went into the woods and found some twigs, and he used his knife to carve thorns into the twigs to mimic the feel of the top of the wall. He then tied them to a nearby branch. Next, Kushi grabbed his gloves, crafted out of leaves so they wouldn’t wear him down as he jumped. The next step was to test them out on the thorned branch. The first jump was unsuccessful; the thorns ripped through the glove and reopened the cut on his hand. Kushi screamed out in pain as he hit the ground, and the frustration of the failure made him punch the tree, which damaged his knuckles. Kushi headed home defeated again. As he was heading home, he saw a deer stuck in a thorn bush. The deer struggled to escape the bush but didn’t seem to be in pain. As the deer wrangled out of the bush, it shook off the thorns attached to it and ran off. As the deer was running away, Kushi noticed that the thorn bush didn’t bloody up the deer, giving him the idea to make his gloves out of deer hide.

Kushi headed home and grabbed his bow to hunt a deer. After a few hours, he was successful, and now he could begin crafting his new gloves out of deer hide. After a few weeks, Kushi crafted his gloves, healed his wound, and was ready to test his jump again. He returned to the branch with the thorns he crafted sitting atop it. He could see where the remains of his first glove creation hung on the branch. Dried blood was still visible on the leaves, staining them brown. Kushi gathered his steps and started his jump. As he leaped into the air, he grabbed the branch, and although he could feel the thorns on his hand, they did not pierce the glove. Kushi dropped down from the branch and shouted in joy. It was now time to head back to the wall and finally reach the golden tree.

The next day, Kushi went back to the mountain. He walked past the troll, giggling under a tree at the young man's gloves. The troll says, "I see you have new gloves. They don’t look very pretty on those dainty hands. I hope they work better than they look."

Kushi ignored the troll and started his journey to the walls. He cleared the first wall quickly; his legs were very strong at this point so that wall was the equivalent of jumping a small ledge. He reaches the second wall and hesitates for a minute. The jump wasn’t the problem, but the thorns were. He had tested his gloves on the thorns he created, but these thorns looked a bit sharper. Kushi shook away his fear and started to run towards the wall; in his mind, he decided to put all his energy into jumping as high as possible. He approaches the wall, jumps towards it, and gets up so high that all he has to do is plant one hand down to get his whole body over the wall and land on the other side.

As he lands, he is excited and screams in joy as he starts to run up the mountain; the golden tree is in his sight; all he has to do is bend the windy corner, and he’ll have a straight shot to his goal. Kushi rounds the corner to get to the last leg of the mountain, which leads to the golden tree; as he bends the corner, he sees a third wall. This wall is twice as high as the second one, but Kushi is undeterred; he has trained too hard and has come too far to quit now. Kushi goes to jump over the wall and misses; he couldn’t even get close to the top. Kushi tries again, and again, and again. Each jump gets him slightly closer to the top but not close enough to get over it. Kushi becomes exhausted, and the day starts to turn to night. Kushi has failed again. He begins the journey back to the bottom of the mountain.  He walks past the troll, who is laughing and pointing.

Kushi knows he has to train harder than ever to accomplish this goal. 

A few months passed, and Kushi built a wall in the woods similar in height to the wall he had failed to clear. He trains his jumps daily and finally has built his legs up enough to get his hand to the top of the wall and hold on. He then could pull his body up and over the wall. Kushi felt accomplished, but instead of celebrating, he rested his body and prepared for his final journey. The next day, Kushi returned to the mountain. The same troll was waiting for him with an ugly smile filled with mangled teeth and a mouth filled with insults.

“Welcome back, ma'am. I see you have your jumping legs ready.” Says the troll, laughing as Kushi walks by it. 

Kushi ignored the troll and started his journey; he quickly cleared the first two walls. His training prepared him to jump walls three times the height of the first two. He gets to the third, but the wall looks different. It seems higher, much higher. Kushi came too far and trained too hard, so he had to try and clear it. He gathers his legs and jumps as high as he can.

He misses.

He tries again. Fail.

He tries again. Fail.

Kushi was so fatigued from his attempts that he finally decided to stop trying and head home. As he is walking home, he starts to question his training; as he heads back down the mountain, he passes the troll, who laughs and says,

"I guess you just gotta jump higher next time, lady legs."

Kushi returns to his village, trains harder, and returns in a few months. He clears the first two walls quickly, and when he sees the third wall again, it looks even higher, to his surprise!

Kushi tries his hardest to clear it, but he just can't. Frustrated and defeated, Kushi slams his hands into the ground angrily and decides that reaching the tree is no longer worth it to him. He spent the past few years training to get to the golden tree and was met with nothing but obstacles. Kushi was able to clear some, but the last wall seemed to keep getting taller. Kushi felt that his training was in vain, so he slowly began to head home. He heads down the mountain, heartbroken. He passes the troll, who is laughing hysterically. The troll says, "I guess that tree just isn't meant for you." 

Kushi ignores the troll as usual and starts to walk home. He begins to reflect on his training, and then the last statement from the troll pops back into his mind. Kushi stops. He would not let the last few years of his life go to waste. That tree was meant for him; he worked too hard to reach it. Kushi had to clear that wall, or he would die trying. Kushi turned around and headed back to the mountain base; when he arrived, he saw that the troll was gone. 

Confused by the absence of the one thing that had been tormenting him for years, Kushi ignored it and set his sights on the task ahead. 

Kushi started to head up the mountain. He cleared the first wall; he cleared the second wall, but as he got to the third wall, he saw something shocking; he saw the troll on top of the wall, adding stones to make it higher. Kushi was furious and yelled at the troll, "Hey, what are you doing."

The troll was startled by Kushi and fell from the wall. As soon as the troll hit the ground, Kushi pinned him down, and with fury in his voice, he yelled, "Why are you making my journey harder than it has to be." 

His knee was pressed firmly on the troll's throat.

The troll squeaked out while gasping for air, "I never thought you would make it this far. The tree at the top of the mountain is what's left of my treasure. My father gave me all his treasure when he died, but one day, out of jealousy, his spirit returned and took my riches. He then turned my riches into a stupid tree and shone every night to taunt me. His spirit guards the tree against me, and I'm thrown back down the mountain any time I get close to it. I tried to have someone else retrieve it for me, but then I was turned into a troll. 

The story didn’t sway Kushi. He pressed his knee down further on the troll and asked, "If someone else can retrieve it, why are you working so hard to stop me from getting to it?"

“Let me go, and I promise I’ll tell you why.” says the troll, struggling for air.

Kushi didn’t believe the troll, but he knew the wall would be too high to jump, and he needed to know how to get over it. The troll was small and had a disfigured leg, but still managed to get to the top of the wall. Kushi reluctantly let the troll up. As the troll gathered itself, Kushi looked up at the wall and asked the troll again, “So why are you working so hard to stop me from getting to the tree?"

The troll picked up a huge rock from off the ground and screamed, "BECAUSE IT’S MINE!" as it went to hit Kushi with it. 

Kushi saw the troll’s attempted attack and kicked the troll in the face, knocking it off its feet. As the troll hit the ground, the huge rock fell from its hands on his head and crushed it, killing the troll instantly. Kushi looked back at the wall and then at the troll as it lay there. Kushi noticed the troll's walking stick had a hook at the top, with rope wrapped around it. “That’s how he's getting to the top of the mountain; it was using its walking stick,” Kushi says to himself as he picks up the stick. With this new tool, Kushi decided to try to clear the wall one more time. He stepped back and ran towards it at full speed, stick in hand, with a new sense of determination to succeed. As soon as he prepared to jump, a lightning bolt struck the wall, shattering it to the ground. Kushi was thrown back from the blast. As he gathered himself and looked up through the debris, he saw a glowing figure standing there amidst the wreckage of the shattered wall. 

It was a large man with a long white beard and a golden crown on his head. 

Kushi looked at the man and asked, "Who are you?"

The man replied, "I am the King who planted this golden tree. The seed was created from the last of the treasure my son squandered. My son killed me to inherit it, and I watched him from the spirit world as he spent it all on his own pleasures. My son was very greedy, and when he noticed that he would lose all the treasure, he planned to raise taxes from the people of your village and the rest of the villages in the land. I saw the from the spirit world because I was not allowed to be at peace until my son was killed. I did not want to see that happen, so I salvaged the rest of the treasure by turning it into a seed and placing it on this mountain. A tree sprouted from the seed, which would produce golden leaves from its branches. I didn’t want my son to have access to the tree, so I built a shield of protection that would push him away if he got close to it. This shield would not affect normal men, so my son tried to persuade people to go up and grab leaves for him. Because of this, I turned him into a troll to deter people from speaking to him. Ever since he became a troll, he has tried to deter people from reaching the tree by building walls along the path to the tree. Once he saw you overcoming his walls, he went out of his way to stop you. He physically couldn’t kill you, so he had to construct obstacles to stop you. I watch your struggles, and I admire your determination. You are an honest man, and I know why you want to get to the tree. Since you have gone all this way to retrieve this treasure, it is yours." 

Kushi proceeded to follow the king up the mountain to the golden tree. Once they arrived, the king shook the tree, causing a huge bundle of golden leaves to hit the ground.

"You can have these leaves on one condition. Half of the treasure must be used for the world's good, and the other half will be yours. I will not allow you to make the same mistake my son did, and since you killed my son, you will only be able to take the leaves that are on the ground."

The King then asked, "Are you okay with these terms?" 

Kushi nodded and started to collect the leaves. He used his shirt as a basket to gather every leaf that hit the ground. He told the king to thank you and apologized for killing his son. The king nodded and faded away into the tree.

Kushi started his long walk home, and as he walked, he noticed all the walls had been destroyed. He thought about how he would disperse the money to his village and use the leaves for the world's good. 

As he reached the bottom of the mountain, he realized what he could do. He reached into his makeshift bag that he was using to carry the leaves and grabbed one out. He found a small tree nearby and carved an arrow pointing to the mountain's top. He then carved a deep hole into the tree and placed the golden leave in it. He left the top of the leaf visible so that it could be spotted by the next person who passed by the tree. 

Kushi then gathered his leaves and headed back to his village.