A Monster Life

104 - No Time for Trolls

Raras was the first of the trolls to wake up, and discover he and his companions Sitas and Guras lay on their fat guts on the ground, their feet tied together with their wrists behind their backs like no troll had ever voluntarily placed them. He groaned hard and struggled to pull loose, but all it accomplished was him swaying in every direction on his own wobbly fat pillow. When he finally ceased, he glared at his captors sitting in front of him. 'Release me!' he spat out at the young woman and the undead one. 'I'll make you pay for this!'

Iphigenia stroked Ulric's head, who sat between her and Valdys. 'Tough talk for someone who's close to becoming food for my pet.' she said.

Ulric's stomach turned at the idea. 'Gross.'

She giggled inwards. 'You know I'd never have you eat such disgusting things, Wolfie. I'll let you happily eat me first if we faced starvation.' Her smile in amusement had the added benefit of making Raras nervous when he thought it was malicious while she kept her eyes on him. She leaned a little closer. 'What are you three doing here?'

The other two trolls groaned as they woke up, and Raras regained a little confidence with the idea he was no longer the only conscious one. 'None of your business.' he grunted.

Sitas raged when she discovered her position, with the same effect as Raras, while Guras struggled only once, then grumbled as he scowled at the two young women and their pet bloodwolf. 'What is this nonsense?'

Valdys leaned forward with her elbows on her knees. 'Us asking questions and you answering them.'

Guras sneered. 'And why would we, you filthy wench?'

Valdys held back Ulric and gestured with her head to look to his side. The ice cold gaze from the elf woman who placed the tip of her sword against the side of his neck chilled his spine.

Iphigenia cleared her throat. 'How many more are there of you, and where?'

Guras exchanged a glance with Raras and Sitas. They all knew it was not a good idea to betray their chief. He liked to keep those who did alive for as long as possible, and not in a good way. 'Who said there are more of us?'

Valdys reached out to the pile of junk next to them and pulled various items from it. 'Old weapons, torn clothes, some tools, but nothing of any value like money or jewellery or mana items, which tells us you have to give them to someone else, otherwise you'd have kept it all.' She leaned forward and on cue, Ulric growled soft but just loud enough to enhance the menace in it. 'Spill your guts, or our little darling will literally do it for you.'

The trolls thought the bloodwolf threw a snigger in his growl, and decided the demon could likely do similar things to them as their chief right now than him later. They'd just have to make sure they were far away before he could show them. 'Fine.' Guras said. 'Our tribe lives at the ruins.' He gestured into the direction with his head. 'Don't bother thinking of going there, you will end up in the stew like they all do.'

Valdys turned her gaze away at the thought of that kind of stew, and it fell on something poking out of the heap of trash close by. She reached out to a pinkish tube of cloth, and pulled out a doll. Its skirt was torn, half of the light coloured strands of hair were torn off, and it was covered in dried blood. She turned to the trolls. 'Children?'

Sitas cackled. Her tendency was to revel in how much disgust she could cause in others. 'The younger they are, the sweeter the taste.' she said and licked her lips. 'Not stringy like their parents. It's only annoying how noisy they can be while we save them for last, but adults bother us less when we kill and eat them first.' She grinned a malicious and broken toothed smile at the humans, thinking she had stunned them in fear of what's to come. 'We might be nice and let you go when you untie us.'