The tauren sat with his thick, ungulate legs splayed in front of him. His broad mass was supported by a shallow nest of living roots. Vines spread out and upward behind and around the low seat that had grown itself for the smiling, perpetually wet-chinned Kekkek.

Flowers, of a species that naturally thrived in low light but still seemed wildly out of place in the deep cave, opened their blooms wide and spilled the light they were supposed to be feeding upon. The cave was warm with their glow, or perhaps it was the tauren and his furry little companion that lent the normally dank place such a homey atmosphere.

The young hyena lifted his head and turned, stretched and tumbled down from Kekkek's lap. The creature was hardly a pup anymore, would be too large to comfortably sit on the tauren's leg within a few weeks. Soon, the young hyena with the violet fur would be sent off to join his intended companion and begin the rigorous training of a hunter's pet… but that is another story for another time.

Fyve had entered the cave and both tauren and hyena watched silently as the oversized troll dragged in a freshly killed talbuk. "Freshly," being the operative term; far more operative than "killed" perhaps, as one of the animal's hind legs still kicked spastically. Fyve dropped the electrically jittering appendage and stretched to his full eight feet, lifting two foot tusks toward the ceiling as he cracked his neck and shook his head. His overlong ears swung as he turned and grasped one of the deer's front legs, dragging its body over itself and causing a crack that could only be a rib breaking as its head became visible to Kekkek and the hyena.

The animal's front legs bent at the knees and then splayed as its mouth worked silently around the thick protruding tongue that it chewed. Its jaw was broken and one proud horn was missing; torn or broken out low. It still wore part of a bridle, though there was no sign of the saddle or its hapless occupant. Fyve didn't appreciate riders in his "Foress". Kekkek hoped the rider had escaped, though he didn't seek the answer. Knowing changed nothing. Kek.

Fyve bent low, placed a hand beneath the feebly struggling and broken buck's long chin. He lifted a foot and stomped down at the base of its elegant neck as he jerked his hand upward. The buck abruptly stopped moving. When he released its neck and turned away absently, the animal forgotten, the large talbuk's head stayed raised at that strange angle. Things that shouldn't bulge were bulging, even through the thick fur.

Hairy hide was soaked in blood in several places, but made it impossible to tell just what had killed the animal. Fyve's upper torso was covered in bruises and his shoulder was sliced, though it no longer bled. A troll rarely bled to death.

"Ifoundit," Fyve declared quietly, as he loped silently toward the back of the cave, doubtless in search of knives. Fyve had many knives. His feet left damp prints. Sweat. They faded with each step.

Watery brown eyes were fixed on a single, dull one that had rolled up to expose only the white. Kekkek lifted one hand, the thick pillow of his palm exposed toward the dead talbuk. He didn't stir from his seat as he licked his fat lips with his fatter tongue. The vines surrounding him crawled outward, more blooms opening and shedding their warm glow.

The aspect of violent death that had surrounded the broken body dissipated and now it was only meat and hide. The young hyena let loose a quiet, growling giggle as it crept forward to sniff the body and leap away; circle it and jump backward, hackles rising as it played at "stealing".

Toward the rear of the cave, which was lit by the occasional strange bloom, Fyve picked through the knives that lined one wall. To his back was a line of twenty-five empty tin flasks. Five and five and five and five and five… Five was the best number. Stones and coins were arranged around them. They bore a fine layer of dust.

The troll sniffed and cleared his throat, swiped at the side of his nose with a knuckle and leaned forward to grab a bag off of the ground. In his left fist he gripped an assortment of knives. The blades and handles clacked together as he held them carelessly and returned to the front of the cave. He kept his eyes ahead, ignoring the bizarre arrangements, straight lines and carefully counted assortments. Eyeless sockets stared from white skulls. Bones and leather were held together at strange angles. It smelled like books, though there were few books and those were far in the back of the cave. There were many items of jewelry; bracelets small enough to wear on his toes.

Fyve did not wear jewelry.

The hyena leapt back from the dead talbuk, squealing and chattering nervously as it bumped its rear end against a rock and turned to snap quickly at nothing. It hurried back to Kekkek at a crouch, giving the troll a wide berth. Dark red eyes, nearly mistakable for brown, watched it retreat from beneath a heavy and hairless brow. Fyve dropped the knives on the cave floor and drew a long sharpening stone from the bag. He quickly selected a knife and began swiping its edge along the stone, flipping it from side to side alternately on each swipe. His movements were precise.

A pleasant sound filled the cave, as the blade shed infinitesimal particles. It was a whisper and a barely audible click. Metallic song punctuated the beginning and end of sleeping breath. Each of the three found it soothing in their own way, and none of them remarked on it.

Three sets of ears twitched in rhythm. Six ears twitched in time with the sound.

Fyve opened the bag with one hand, removing several pouches and glass jars which he set quickly and carefully aside. Producing a thin leather roll, he unfurled it with his left hand, the knife held in his right. The roll contained five forks. One was long and thick and had bent prongs. The rest were meant for tinier hands; elf hands, human perhaps. None of them matched. He laid them at one corner of the unrolled mat and placed the sharpened knife at its center. He selected another knife and began sharpening. His ears rocked and bobbed from the base as Kekkek's ears swiveled and the hyena's ears flicked.

Soon the large troll was removing his black trousers and folding them, setting them along the wall. Naked, he circled around behind the dead buck and dragged it backward by the hind legs, stretching it long. The job of skinning it was messy. He worked deftly and in silence. Thick fingers, clumsy-looking, became elegant as they crawled along, working with the knife he held in his left hand to separate skin from membrane.

After cutting around the limbs and neck, peeling back the hide to expose the muscle between the shoulders, the troll reached into his bag and produced a pair of ropes and a stone half the size of his fist. Placing the stone between the talbuk's shoulders, he rolled the hide back up over it, grabbed it and lifted it toward him so that he held it inside of the thick furry skin. Holding part of the rope taut between his teeth, leaning forward so that his dreadlocks brushed the fur and flesh and his own forearms, he wrapped the rope around the flesh behind the skin-covered stone and tied it tightly. When he released it, it resembled the horn on a pony saddle.

Rising, he let the rope drop and carried the other as he circled to the front of the felled beast. Before long, he was behind the dead talbuk again. Its remaining horn was attached securely to one end of the second rope. The other end was wound about a massive boulder and tied tightly. The rope would give out before the knots. Fyve retrieved the end of the rope that was fastened to the stone hidden in the talbuk's hide.

He sniffed and cleared his throat as he stared at the bottom of Kekkek's hooves and caught the end of the rope between his teeth; wound it several times around his left tusk before placing a band of leather around his arm and wrapping the rope around that. He gave the rope another unnecessary pass over his left tusk. "Okay bye," he said quickly around the rope, which was pressed well back between his teeth, the free end dangling over his right tusk.

Fyve turned and marched toward the entrance of the cave. As the slack lifted and tightened, he slowed, his head tugging to the left as the muscles in his neck began to strain. His eyelids fluttered and his lipless grin widened around the rope, baring long teeth to pink gums. He growled deep in his chest and his nostrils flared as his tusk was yanked to the side. Tuskbonus. The troll jerked his head forward and leaned against the rope as he stomped and the talbuk's shoulders began to lift off the cave floor.

The beast at one end of the rope hung suspended and a tacky peeling sound began as the beast at the other end moved out of view. The thick rope rubbed slightly up and down the corner of the cave wall around which Fyve had disappeared. Kekkek chortled and drummed the bottom of his hooves on the cave floor, amused by the troll's never-ending ingenuity, though he'd witnessed this particular display before. Perhaps he laughed because he also knew what was coming. The tauren with the drool-slick chin clapped his fat hands as his fat belly shook beneath bright blue robes. The hyena hung back several yards, spiky hackles raised, head lowered and ears forward, torn between want and caution.

Degloved and shiny, red and white and pink with fat and muscle, dark where bruises had been hidden and now trapped blood leaked free; the buck was stretched back by its hips now. Deep gashes were revealed; the manner by which the troll had worn their meal down becoming more and more apparent. The rope trembled.

White threads held the fatty flesh to the skin, snapping with delicate sounds; the smoothness with which the hide slowly peeled back a miracle to any who knew how much strength it took to remove it with a sharp blade, let alone by sheer force.

Fyve growled as he leaned forward, his tuskbonus fading as the rope tore at the left side of his thin lips and cut into the thick muscle of his bicep despite the leather he'd protected his arm with. He jerked his head to the right, and despite all his annoyance the growl changed and he leaned forward, huffed through his nose and pressed forward with renewed strength.

Kekkek leaned forward. The hyena lowered itself as it leaned forward. The talbuk lifted sharply, legs trembling as the rope lifted and trembled. With a sudden rip, the skin was yanked free and the skinned talbulk fell heavily to the floor. The skin bounced against the wall as it was whipped around the corner, followed by a loud thud. "OWDAMYOU!"

Fyve rounded the corner, the skin rolled unceremoniously in his arms. His knees hadn't faired much better than the talbuk. Sweat coursed down his body, mixed with blood halfway down his legs and painted his feet, left colored prints in his wake. He unraveled the rope and dropped the skin as he lifted his pointed chin and long tusks to behold the hyena, which had found the brevity to creep forward and grasp the side of the buck's breast.

The small doglike animal's claws scrabbled for purchase as he backpedaled and used his teeth to worry at the bloody flesh simultaneously. Brownish red eyes met black ones and the hyena flipped back its lips around the meat. Fyve's brow furrowed, pupils pinpointing and irises becoming brighter red as he bared his own teeth in turn. His were bigger. The hyena yipped as its feet scrabbled more frantically at the troll's approach. Now escape was its only goal. Before the troll could close his hand around the hyena's neck, it finally thought to release the corpse it was clamped onto and cackled in agitation as it fled.

Kekkek laughed and clapped.

Three bellies gurgled as three beasts occupied the deep cave in the forest. One was dead. One was a pup. The other believed himself to be ancient, yet was young as well. The third living belly belonged to one powerful and benevolent, in the form of a brain-damaged slob of a tauren.

The hyena danced forward and back, spewing complaints and wordless obscenities that sounded like crazed laughter. Kekkek emitted no complaints, but did laugh often. Fyve uttered the occasional grunt or quiet obscenity, finally tossing a chunk of gristle at the hyena to shut it up.

Kekkek liked this part. He fell silent and leaned forward, belly folding as he placed his hands on his knees, hoof-tipped fingers spread. Fyve wore blood in lieu of proper clothing. He licked his fingers clean and the crest of quartz-clear white fur that ran down his spine rose, dark eyes flashing bright again. Instinctively, the hyena hung back and fell silent.

Taking a deep breath, letting it out slowly, the strange giant began the delicate task of trimming and seasoning several steaks. He did this with extreme care, artist hands, eyes alive and sharp. He was focused. He hummed, "Hnnnn…" The only other sound was the occasional sniff and clearing of the throat.

When he had finished, he loaded his arms with rocks. Five and five and five; a fire ring. He returned shortly for the steaks, choosing a plate from a stack of twenty five along the cluttered wall. He returned again, for five more stones.

The next time he returned, the troll carried the plate with the steaks on it. Juices dripped down his arms as he squatted near the roll, set the plate down. He grabbed a clean, sharp knife and the fork, and set to work cutting each steak into squares. The squares were near perfect. He carried the plate to Kekkek; handed it to the tauren, along with the fork.

"K-kekka f-feh-f-fahfah t-t-tah…"

"Shaddup," the troll's nasal growl interrupted the tauren's banter.

Kekkek grinned toothily and laughed, the plate tilting toward him; dark liquid spilling into his lap. He dropped the fork in the pool of wet that rapidly absorbed and stained his robes. Small hoofs dug into the high pile of squares and began feeding the gamey meet into the tauren's slimy-looking mouth. He grinned as he ate, smiling brown eyes watery as he regarded the pugnacious troll's retreating form.

He hacked off both of the forelimbs, sniffing and breathing noisily through his nostrils. These he tossed them at the hyena. He waited for it to go after the first one before aiming the second leg so that it struck the hyena in the side and sent it rolling. It quickly regained its feet and resumed dragging the legs away, one at a time.

Finally, it was time to eat. The cave was alive with chewing sounds as Fyve crouched in back of the cut, partially skeletal and bloody remains of the talbuk. He bent and grasped what was left of the back legs, dragged it a few feet and dropped it. "Emhunry."

Kekkek nodded as he ate noisily, though nobody was looking or cared. He laughed quietly.

"Ismine. I foundit." Fyve reached inside of the punctured cavity where the remainder of the talbuk's guts resided. His blunt-cut claws scraped the inside of the spine as he stretched the tough membrane with his fingers and wrist, felt around and gripped. He twisted his hand and tore out a fistful of torn and weeping organs. Hunched over, covered in all manner of gore and nightmarish in his strange proportions, Fyve glanced warily in the direction of the tauren and hyena. The hyena had hidden wisely out of view. Kekkek had lowered his gaze before Fyve could note him watching. He smiled at his plate and chewed loudly.

"Yacanna habbit my gaddamn shit," Fyve muttered. He sniffed, cleared his throat and leaned his head forward, shoulders raised and forward. His face was twisted in rage as he began stuffing guts into his mouth in the manner of one hastily hiding evidence. Fyve ate like he was starving. He ate like he was kicking hunger's fucking ass. His jaws bulged as he chewed once or twice before swallowing each mouthful. He choked himself on huge gobs of organ meat, fat and flesh that he wrenched free. It was a wonder he didn't bite his own fingers, not that he'd never done so in the past.

His eyes were slits as he busily filled himself with a shocking amount of meat. He favored the parts many would consider best left for last or not eaten at all. Protein, iron and fat-rich gristle filled him until his prominent lower rib was near obscured by his swelling belly. Lips that were smeared with red and brown, a bit of yellow clinging to one tusk, peeled back as narrowed red eyes flicked about cautiously and then lowered again to fix on what some might consider an appalling meal.

Kekkek sucked his lips as he watched, clearly entertained. The hyena stayed out of view as it ate. Its back legs quaked. Short tail stayed tucked and hidden.

Fyve stood, thin with a heavy belly. He wiped his face, gathering greasy muck from his chin and the base of his tusks and wiped it on one bare thigh. His belly was round as he stood before Kekkek and scratched the side of his jaw with one thick finger.

"I ficked in my head."

Kekkek nodded, handing back the empty plate. He grinned a silent 'You're welcome.'

Fyve took the plate. "Alrigh bye." He turned and stomped off, leaving the dead talbuk in the pool of blood. He would return later clean the mess, drag it off and bury it. Or he'd drag it up a tree. Perhaps he would throw it in one of the many rivers that wound through the jungle that was Scholazar Basin.

The gore-spattered, full and naked troll rounded the corner and left the cave, plate still in hand. Kekkek watched calmly as the hyena crept out to chew on something more appealing than a skinny, furry foreleg.


Long time no upload. I've been tooling around at Deviantart dot com. My page there is Iwilo . DeviantArt . com. Ignore the drawings, as they are shitty. Check my favorites. There are some amazing drawings, not done by me, of my characters! There are also some silly shorts involving many of my toons. Hope you enjoyed this little scene. Kekkek has his hooves in everything. Many of my characters know him, though they don't know each other. Stories involving my characters that aren't in a specific series are NOT necessarily written in chronological order. My mind doesn't work that way. XD Comments, as always, are greatly appreciated. I'll be revamping my site sometime in the hopefully near future, posting some of these stories with silly illustrations. I'll make an excited announcement whenever that happens. Thanks for reading, guys.

~ Yoah pal, 'Wil.