Everyone, even proud Sorceresses of the Northern Skies, knew about trolls and bridges and sensibly paying the modest toll rather than taking on the extremely burly bridge troll.

But who had any idea that snow bridges across crevasses in the frozen mountains would have snow trolls just as keen on getting their dues? Or that the dues would be substantially less modest than their low-land cousins charged? The Sorceress of the Northern Skies had no idea... but more pressingly, nowhere near enough money in her purse to pay the Troll. And of course, she'd already crossed the bridge.

Calmly, trying not to panic, she cast one of her finest glamours and reasonably explained to the troll that most certainly she would pay him, but could she do so in installments as she only had a small amount of money here? And he was a very fine fellow, and what was his name?

Ogbrag, replied the troll, equally reasonably. Sadly, he continued, just as reasonably, that customers who wanted to pay in installments never did, so if it was all the same to her he'd take his payment from her now. One way or the other...

Hywel's Note: this was the last set we shot in the Alps. We'd walked up a goodly distance from the top of the cable car to get some peace and quiet and some more spectacular views, and Ariel had already shot two sets, one of them nude. We were about 1800 meters above sea level, just high enough for the air to feel a little thin without any acclimatisation, especially when wading through the softening snow to get to our final shoot location. Plus it was a good three hours since breakfast, with not even a cake to keep her going, and the tie was a breath-stealing hogtie. Needless to say, it was Ariel's idea- she wanted to finish off with a really dramatic "proper hard bondage" tie in the beautiful mountain scenery.

Some combination of those factors were slightly too much, even for Ariel. If you look at the last couple of shots you can see that she's starting to have trouble holding her head up. You actually can't see the final shot, which is a blurry one of her half out of frame as I was already hauling the camera strap over my head and running over to check she was OK and get her the hell out of the ropes. Fortunately, she was- very woozy and light-headed, but out of the hogtie she quickly recovered enough to head back down to the cablecar cafe, where gluhwein and cake completed the rejuvenation.

At that point, though, we decided "job done".

This is one of my favourite sets of all time. When I was sixteen, I suddenly discovered some artistic talent. Despite woeful performance in art classes at school, I discovered that I could draw, at least kinda. My very first picture was a back view of a blonde in a long flowing gown, a sword by her side, gazing out over a mountainous fjord. This combination of beautiful blondes, flowing dresses and mountain background was the mainstay of my drawings for the first few years, and even if they didn't have any bondage in them, the versions in my head (not for public consumption) certainly did. I never imagined that twenty-five years later I'd have the privilege of being able to bring them to life at 1800 meters in the Alps with a stunningly beautiful blonde in a long flowing dress!