THE WAY OF THE WORLDS Adam mumbled a question and then Emily said something about rabid dust bunnies, but Ryan couldn't clearly make out their words. The two sounded distant, as if Emily and Adam were farther away than they really were. Ryan, on the other hand, was a lot closer to the opening. It gaped before him, a hole where wall and baseboard should be, shimmering the way the sky does on a very cold night. A draft of cool air brushed his face. He shivered. The air smelled of outdoors, of autumn, of the October night it was: a mixture of burnt leaves, frost-covered lawns, and something else . . . a strange tinge, an aroma he couldn't pinpoint. The fragrance tugged at him like a long-forgotten memory or a dream interrupted. One night Ryan and his sister, Emily, wake to find a monster under their bed: the troll from their favorite bedtime story The Three Billy Goats Gruff. According to the troll, the writers of the classic children's story got it all wrong. Trolls aren't the bad guys the Big People make them out to be. And that's okay with them. For centuries his people have lived contentedly in isolation, keeping the memories of the past alive while the rest of Creation has moved on. But when an object from that past resurfaces, possibly foretelling the destruction of all Creation, his people are forced to break with custom sending out Gryphus Adamantinus Iskodewaaboo as their ambassador, their *T.A.L. (*Troll At Large)