"Lou, come back home, it’s getting early!"
     "But, mom..."
     "No more ’but mom’. Be a bad troll and get into the cave."
     "Okay, okay, I’m coming. See ya, guys."

The first light of day poured over the plains of Mordor, while little Lou was having his breakfast and getting ready to go to bed. As every morning, mummy told little Lou to say his prayers ("Mummy, again that May Lord Melkor return thing?") and then his stony eyes began to close as he was falling asleep.

Lou dreamed. Yes, trolls dream, why shouldn’t they? They don’t have nightmares, of course, but daymares. But anyway they dream. Lou dreamed, and in his dream he was riding a wain. It was an strange dream, because he didn’t know what a wain is at all, but there he was, going fast over a green plain along with other Wainriders, with a war-cry in his throat and a spear in his hand. He was no more a child, but a big warrior and somehow he knew he was that bloodstained guy, fighting mad, killing some other guys and getting hurt now and again.

Big battle, it was. Lots of people died. Not that it worried him much, to his surprise. He knew, the little Lou that was dreaming, that people die in battles, and sometimes he thinks about daddy, there in that big caves the Dwarves delved so many time ago, and wonders if daddy had to fight and kill people. Somehow that didn’t fit. Daddy was... well, daddy. He was kind to Lou, at least from a troll’s point of view. So, why would those pale guys like to kill daddy?

     "’Course, everybody knows Men and Elves are rebels, and they want to kill us just for the fun. That’s not fair, but that’s the way Men and Elves do, I guess," little Lou thought, inside his own dream. Meanwhile, the fierce Wainrider retreated with his host to camp for the night. "Funny people, they sleep in the night!" little Lou thought.

There he was, no longer fierce-looking, but tired and grim and hurt. Lou-Wainrider tended his own wounds and was relieved because none of them were more than scratches. Then, Lou-Wainrider lay in the ground trying to sleep. For a moment, little Lou felt as if Lou-Wainrider was staring at him, and was afraid. Then Lou-Wainrider closed his eyes, and nothing happened so maybe he didn’t see little Lou, after all.

Suddenly, Lou-Wainrider woke up, looking around as if he heard something. And then, inside Lou’s heads, both the little troll and the big Wainrider, some strange words rolled like thunder, saying "You are promoted."

Little Lou jumped out of his bed, shouting, scared and calling for mummy. Thank Melkor, mummy was there, and he was no more a Wainrider, but a little troll, and his cave was just his cave and no more a green field where a battle had been fought.

     "Come here, baby, and tell mummy what happened. Don’t be afraid, little pebble, mummy’s here."
     "Mummy, what’s 'promoted'?"
     "Why do you want to know?"

Then little Lou told mom his dream. Mummy was silent all the time, looking at her child talking about things he couldn’t know. She was a little worried, but then she thought maybe her son had heard about Wainriders and all talking with his pals, but didn’t remember it. Sure, it had to be that. So she smiled and, when Lou finished talking, she just hugged him and said: "It’s all right, darling, you just had a daymare."

Mummy said it was getting late, so Lou could get up and have dinner if he wanted to. She would cook his fav, and Lou was glad everything looked the same as every day before. The daymare began to fade in his mind, busy thinking about the dinner. You know, troll’s minds can’t hold two ideas at the same time, one of them must go away and make room for the other one. So Lou forgot the whole thing as soon as he was munching his dinner.

Now Lou is a big troll. He lives in a training camp, he left his cave some time ago. Mummy disappeared last year, and he wept diamonds for a whole week. Nobody knew what had happened to her, but some people said she was getting old and maybe forgot to get into the cave before sunrise. Lou didn’t believe them, but he was unable to find a better explanation. So Lou had to get over it, although there was a crack in his stone heart.

But today, after his training, Lou met a little Balrog on his way. The Balrog was staring at him, so Lou stopped and looked at the Balrog. Then he felt there was something familiar in the little Balrog’s eyes, just as if... But no, that couldn’t be, it made no sense. The Balrog shook his head, and both the troll and the Balrog went on their ways without saying a word.

And then, in Lou’s head, the same rolling-thunder voice filled his whole mind. It said: "She was promoted."