New Hope
He sniffed the air, not that it had changed from the constant state of filth, but by now, it was just a force of habit. Barely any room in the cramped cage, he stretched out the only limb that was left of the front two. A grey bandage slowly turning brown around the missing one.
Mouth dry, fur matted, and paws swollen, he struggled to get a weak cough out. It had only been about a year since he was brought into this world, and five months of it was he confined to the back of it by his neck. With the tempurature dropping, he shivered to keep warm.
He had previously shared the small cage as a home with four others. Three of them his siblings, which were sold as show animals, and his poor mother... Decaying in the bottom of another cage. A fate he knew was destined for his excuse for a body.
Being constraned by a ziptie, he couldn't exactly groom, or even drink any water from the digustingly crusty bowl. Only way he survived was by licking water from the wall when rain leaked throuh the molding roof. At least he could slip his snout through the bars.
He closed is eyes for sleep, but it was only in vein when the howls of trolls in other rooms began to stir. They got louder and louder, and eventually turned into whimpers of relief.
"What the fuck is going on?" he pondered. His movement was resrained at the neck, but he could still move his slightly broken tail up in a defencive motion.
There was a lot of shuffling going on, and this was when he began to think that the masters had returned to clean the place of more trolls to sell. Thuding against the shut door was what came right afer that thought. Trash, empty cages, and mold holding it in place.
It only took a few hits before the rotting hunk of wood busted. The only thing visible to the terrified creatures were blinding flashlights, and some tall figures.
Humans. It was the first time since the last sellable troll raid had happened, and they began to mumble to eachother. The woman looked to her companion with a fearful expression, and turned over to a small olive blood in a cage near her.
"How long have they been here? I can barely breath and we've only been here for five minutes." Her question goes unanswered as more of them come in with clean carriers. They begin to open pens and grab the small marsupials. One by one they all get put into the plastic tubs.
She adjusted her big, round glasses and brought a baby indigo that was sitting alone up to her cheek. "It's gonna be ok...You'll never have to be here again, I promise." It almost seemed to smile at her with closed eyes, and put a tiny paw to her cheek. She wiped some tears from her eye, either caused by the condition of the air or the pure sorrow she felt for the small creature, she had no idea, but they were there.
As soon as the room of almost thirty was cleared, the three legged troll decided to speak up. It sounded like the pitiful call of a newborn for it's mother in a thunderstorm. One of the workers turned a flashlight in his direction and gave a stern look.
"Harley, we have a bit of a situation over here. I think you should have a look at this.." He lowers an empty crate to the ground and steps closer to the stack of cages. Harley, the aformentioned female worker, steps up to him and tilts her head. "What is it Jake? More babies?" He shakes his head at her and looks back up to point at the solumn troll. He whimpers a bit more, too weak to growl. His tail is still puffed out in defence, even though the fur is clumped together from blood and dirt.
"oh my god..."
She holds a hand to her mouth to let out a choked sob. This defenceless baby was ziptied by the neck to the back of a filthy cage for who knows how long, and starved beyond the chart they use to measure the emaciation. He shivers again as a breeze comes through the space that he occupies. He wheezes out another whimper, causing her to drop to her knees and quickly unhinge the rusted lock.
His ears perk up at the squeaky door opening, and he closed his eyes in relief. He finally had some hope of living a real life, or dying. Either way, it wasnt gonna be here.
She tries to undo it, but it doesnt loosen at all, so she takes a pair of scissors from her bag. He feels the blade slip up by his neck and in one quick clip...it's off. He is able to move his head around again, and the first thing he does is flop over in a fit of coughing.
Standing back up isn't something that can be done by him at the moment, so she didn't expect any struggle picking him up. She unwrapped a towel to hold him in as he was carried out of the doorway to his personal hell.
Closing his red eyes, he sighed. Maybe this was his new hope.
The next chapter should be done soon
I know some of you still might not be clea on who the troll was, but that only because he has not been gifted a name yet.
Don't worry it will be revealed this upcoming chapter, and more will come.