Chapter Four: The Man-Child and His Friends
Emelia had seen enough movies to know that hanging by her arms for such a long time would not end well when she was finally let down from her spot on the tree. She couldn't feel her shoulders and wrists by the time the sun had completely risen above her.
She had been with the trolls long enough to pick up on the pattern of their lifestyle. They never ventured out of their little cave during the day time, opting instead to keep themselves holed up so far into the dwelling that Emelia often lost sight of them when she wasn't paying attention. She could always hear them, however, which made the whole situation feel that much more tense and terrifying. However, given her current situation hanging from the tree, she would have almost preferred to be stuck back in the troll hole.
The time she spent up in the tree had run together in a blur of painful sunlight and breezes that cut across her skin like razors.
At first she had thought she quite enjoyed the fresh air, relatively speaking. She didn't have to look at the trolls and she wasn't laying in a pile of gnawed upon bones. She had quickly regretted that line of thinking when she lost all feeling in her arms and began to slowly burn from the steady stream of sunlight.
Her lips split and bled every time she attempted to move them from the sun and lack of moisture. She had tried wetting them with her tongue, but quickly realized she just made them crack and smart even more every time she did.
Perhaps the most painful part of the whole ordeal was the way the wind made her body pull against the ropes that were wrapped around her wrists.
Just as she expected, time passed dismally slow once she realized she was going to be stuck there for the entirety of the daylight.
It was excruciating to know that she was just waiting for night time to fall for her captures to come back to visit and, more than likely, eat her.
The three trolls had left behind their cooking pots, various mugs, and some of their knives used for cooking. It seemed to Emelia, that the bigger the size, the less you had to worry about looters. They had left her out in the open, not even bothering to cover her up, indicating that they were either very unintelligent or very confident in their status when compared to the rest of the inhabitants of whatever place Emelia found herself in that wasn't Alaska.
Emelia was partial to believe it was both.
She had slipped in and out of consciousness for the better part of the day, lulling her head forward and backwards with every time she slipped out of focus.
She would have been the first one to admit, she wished she would have just been able to stay unconscious. Every single time she shocked herself back into awareness the pain in her body was worse than the last time. By the third time she woke up, she felt the moisture slipping down her body from sweating. She lived in a cold climate. Normally she loved it, but considering the fact that her entire body was covered in salty sweat, she hated it more than anything.
By the time it was dark enough for the trolls to return to their little 'kitchen' in the woods, Emelia had passed out completely and thoroughly. The addition of the heat and increase in perspiration had sped up the rate of dehydration. All of the sweat that had been sticking to her body had dried up, leaving her feeling like she was literally skin and bones with no real substance to her.
Emelia knew she had been having a fever dream when she was roughly shaken back into reality by the largest troll. She had been imagining herself holding her brother in the snow, laughing out loud.
"Does she look smalle' to you?" He asked over his shoulder to the other two trolls.
"She still looks jus' as maggoty and midgetey as before." The youngest said, flopping down lazily onto one of the stumps in the clearing. He pulled out a dismally disgusting cloth before blowing his nose into it loudly, causing Emelia to cringe at the revolting noise. "She still won't make any of us less hungry."
The troll in front of her leaned forward towards her, making her constant, never ending panic increase tenfold. He reached out his large hand, wrapping it around her middle, before pulling her up until the rope still attached to the tree was completely rigid, making her cry out in pain. He pulled her so close to his face, Emelia could smell the noxious fumes coming from his gaping mouth. She felt the bile turning in her stomach and mouth as he leaned close to her. He would just have to open his mouth a little more and she would be nothing more than a little snack.
Emelia didn't even bother to fight the tears from spilling down her face when the troll pulled her to his mouth and nose, inhaling deeply.
"I bet she tastes just as lovely as she looks." The troll said, sending involuntary shivers down her spine.
"Leave 'er be, William." The oldest one snapped from his spot hunched over the now bubbling pot of soup. It appeared, much to Emelia's surprise, that the trolls had names. It seemed so cultured and civilized for such barbaric people. "And come help with the suppe'."
The troll, who was apparently called William, immediately stepped back from her, releasing her roughly. Her body swung down painfully, making her cry out despite herself. Her shoulders cracked painfully, her left one in particular, sending fresh waves of pain everywhere she still had feeling remaining. She had dislocated her left shoulder in the fourth grade, leaving her prone to repeating the injury. She tried to hide her whimpers as she swung back and forth.
The trolls were quite firm in ignoring her when they weren't leering at her or fighting the urge to eat her whole. They didn't even look over at her as she cried from the unbearable pain in her shoulder. They were laughing loudly as they slapped and guffawed their way through cooking their meal. Emelia was surprised they had anything to laugh about, considering their dismal intelligence, but somehow they managed to keep themselves entertained for the majority of the evening.
The three trolls were debating over the meal when William held up his large hand to silence the youngest troll. William delivered a resounding crack to his head when he still laughed, earning a yelp of pain.
"Did you hea' that?" William said, standing up from his knocked over tree stump.
"Hear wha'?" The youngest one asked, rubbing the back of his head.
"Hooves. Over there." William gestured with his large arm over to the side of the clearing.
He didn't bother to elaborate further, opting instead to lumber off in the direction he had indicated. Emelia could hear him, despite the constant ringing in her ears from exhaustion, for what felt like forever, before she finally lost track of his loud footsteps. The two reaming trolls were watching the way he went, making snide remarks about his stupidity. Emelia would have laughed at the irony if she hadn't been swinging from a tree waiting for them to cut her down and eat her.
The other two had long given up that their companion was going to come back with anything valuable and had since returned to their seats by the fire when William came trudging back towards them holding two large masses that were obviously not human.
Emelia didn't know the trolls were capable of smiles, but she had been proven wrong multiple times since she had been unfortunate enough to fall through the ice. The other two immediately smiled at the sight of the struggling animals in William's arms. They were squirming and whining as they attempted to get out of the giant troll's arms. William squeezed them tighter, causing them to let out loud noises of protest before he dropped them rather ungracefully and uncaringly into a pin at the edge of the small clearing. The second they whinnied, Emelia knew that they were horses. The thought made her feel nauseous. She had to remind herself that horses being eaten were better than the alternative, considering the bloodshed she had witnessed the night before.
William wasted no time in returning back to the forest, making the trees shudder around his large form.
Emelia was rather proud of herself for staying conscious for as long as she had once the trolls returned. She did not fall into unconsciousness as much as she would have liked to.
She was awake to see William return with two more horses. Perhaps she had lucked out, as gruesome as it was to think about. They would surely eat four horses before they decided to eat her. She, while not abysmally small by societies standards, was considered below average height. She when compared to the four horses, would barely offer anything of substance for the large trolls.
"I don't want mutton again." The youngest troll said loudly. "We had mutton yesterday, mutton today, and blimey if it don't look like mutton tomorrow." He paused, glancing back over at Emelia. "Why can't I just eat 'er instead?"
"Shut yer complanin' Tom." The oldest one snapped. "You sound like a youngin'. We'll eat 'er when the time is right."
"Besides," William said, dropping himself down onto his seat. "These ain't sheep. These is Westnads."
Emelia appreciated William, ever so briefly, for distracting the youngest troll from her. She wasn't particularly fond of the hungry, leering look that Tom had been sporting as he looked over at her.
"I don't want to eat horse." Tom said, looking at the oldest troll, seemingly trying to appeal to him to fix something else. Probably Emelia. "They don't have enough meat and fat on them. All bones and nasty bits."
"It is better than that leathery old farmer from last night." The oldest one said, stirring the contents in the pot roughly. "All skinny and what not. His wife wasn't much better."
"She was fun before she died." Tom said, making Emelia cringe at the implication.
"You enjoy playing with your food too much for yer own good." William said with a loud hoot of laughter.
The three trolls chuckled darkly with each other for a moment, slapping each other on their meaty backs. It seemed so primal and juvenile to Emelia. Of course, everything that the trolls had done over the past couple of days had seemed primal to her. The way they treated each other was so gruesome and cruel. She had assumed they were brothers, but the way they treated each other was not the way Emelia would ever imagine treating her own little brother in any way, shape, or form.
"Just make sure you get rid of them nasty bits." Tom said, sitting back down onto his stump. "I'm sick of eatin' them nasty bits all the time."
Emelia watched them with ill-disguised disgust as she swung back and forth in the breeze of the night. Her shoulder screamed out in pain every time. She attributed her continued consciousness to pure adrenaline, rather than fortitude. She felt as if all of her actual energy had been completely drained from her body, leaving her with nothing left but the energy that came from being terrified out of her mind. She had toyed around with the thought that they weren't planning on eating her at all, and were in fact, planning on leaving her up in the tree until she completely starved to death.
"Get them 'nads to shut it." William snapped in a deep growl.
Tom leaned over to the horses, gesturing one of the cooking implements at them as a pseudo weapon. The horses bucked back at the sight of the large troll bearing down on them, making loud noises as they stamped their hooved feet. Tom slapped the pen once more before lumbering back to his seat, slumping down in it hard enough to cause the tree Emelia was hanging from to shake and send her pivoting back and forth.
In the time that Emelia had been with the trolls she had noticed, unfortunately, how often Tom blew his nose. She had not however, seen him ever produce anything like what came flying out of his nose. It was small, childlike almost, and squirming to get out of the trolls squeezing grasp.
"What've I just snooted up?" Tom asked, looking back and forth between the squirming child in his hands and the two other trolls. "Look what's come out of me 'ooter."
"What is it?" William asked, leaning over to look at what was squirming in his hands.
"I dunno." Tom sounded more panicked than normal. "But it moves around too much for my likin', Bert."
"What are you then?" William asked poking the little thing in Tom's hand. "An over sized squirrel? A nasty bogie?"
"I'm a bug-" The child stopped for a moment. "A hobbit."
"A bugglahobbit?" Bert said gruffly, eyeing the little thing. "I never heard of one of them before."
"He looks tasty." Tom said. "We could cook 'im with 'er."
"They won't make more than a mouthful." Bert said. "Even if they were cooked togethe'."
"Are there more of you around here?" William asked.
Emelia immediately froze as the three trolls looked over at her. The thing in Tom's hand followed their gaze, peering up as best he could before she saw his eyes go wide as he took in her current state of being. He squirmed a little bit ore before Tom finally dropped him to the ground. The little child, who looked curiously like a man, immediately scrambled away from the three trolls.
"Come back 'ere." William yelled, advancing for the little man-child.
The little man, or child, scrambled about underneath their legs, causing the trolls to struggle to keep with him and his quick movements. From her spot hanging from the tree Emelia could see the small person panicking as the three monsters bore down on him. She didn't really blame him. She had been panicking for the past four days solid. She would have burst into tears all over again if she had been on the ground in his position, scurrying around to avoid being grabbed up and eaten.
"He's too quick, the little buggar is." One of the trolls complained loudly. Emelia struggled to keep the little man in her sights as she swung around lackadaisically from the vibrations of the troll's large feet on the ground. After what seemed like an eternity of the little man moving about under the three troll's legs, William scooped him up, hanging him upside down, causing him to swing about.
"Are there more of you mucking about?"
The little man glanced over at Emelia for a moment before answering in a shaky voice. "No."
"He is lying he is." Tom said, poking the little man roughly in the stomach. "Hold him over the fire. Make him squeal. Then he'll tell us."
William moved towards the fire briefly before he let out an almighty squeal of pain, sending the hobbit flying about in the air like a rag doll. William kept his grip, if anything tightening it, before he righted himself, glaring around the camp for the source of his pain. Emelia followed his searching gaze, sincerely hoping it was some form of military or coastguard here to kill the trolls, but she found herself quickly becoming disappointed at the sight in front of her.
It was a man, a single man, standing at the edge of the clearing brandishing a large sword up at the three trolls. "Drop him." He looked as if he was certain of himself when compared to the three massive creatures, which Emelia couldn't help but find to be so tragically comical, she couldn't help but snort form her spot.
If this was some sort of rescue it was in the poorest and most pathetic taste and fashion possible.
"You what?" William asked, squeezing the little man tighter in his massive hand, causing him to cry out in pain.
"Clearly you're as stupid as you look." Emelia couldn't help but roll her eyes at the snarky remark coming from the unknown man. It didn't exactly seem like the time for sarcasm. "I said, drop him." He enunciated every possible syllable, doing his best, from what she could hear, to sound intimidating.
The troll, for some unknown reason, threw the little man at the other less than intimidating man, sending them both crashing to the forest floor in a heap.
What happened next Emelia was quite sure she was hallucinating. It was highly likely, considering how little nutrients she had been given. As soon as the two men fell to the ground, a pack of about ten other men, all of a questionable height and weight ratio, came hurtling out, brandishing varying types of edged weapons and tools. She counted at least six axes, which was odd, considering it was the 21st century. The thought occurred to her, as she watched them slicing at the trolls, that she might have just been a victim in a rather cruel and though out nerd fest.
She hadn't realized her mouth had fallen open until she felt what little saliva she had left drying up rapidly.
The men looked far too old to be playing such a silly game, leaving her with the only option that was plausible. She had been able to delude herself into thinking that she was part of a very vivid hallucination off and on. Sometimes it was easier to convince herself than others, but for the most part she had been just delusional enough from hunger and exhaustion to imagine that everything was some cruel trick of the mind.
The whole mess was real, and she was certainly stuck at the worst end of it.
"Psst, My Lady." Emelia immediately jumped from the sudden voice below her. "Down here."
Emelia wasn't sure she could trust someone who looked so tiny yet bore the face of a full grown man. In fact, she wasn't really sure she could trust anybody in the godforsaken place she had found herself in, considering what had happened thus far with the trolls.
She could still hear the sounds of a battle happening behind her, causing her mind to go slightly fuzzy with the confusion of being addressed politely for the first time in what felt like ages and the sounds of screams filling the night air.
"Are you hurt?"
"Erm," She paused, realizing that she wasn't exactly speaking intelligible words from pure exhaustion. "It's no sho…."
"I'm sorry, but that wasn't…" the little man suddenly stopped, letting out a loud breath of surprise. It seemed the trolls had noticed the his absence.
William lifted the little man up, squeezing him much harder than was necessary, before moving over for Bert to grab a hold of the poor man's other half. Bert squeezed the little hobbits arms so tightly, Emelia could see him cringing visibly at the pain.
"Oi, lay down your arms, or we'll rip this little rabbit's off." William snarled down at the group of men, indicating their swords and axes with a little flick of his head.
She struggled against the ropes on her wrists, trying to see what the group of men's reaction would be. She tried to do her best to avoid drawing attention over to her, keeping the noise coming from the ropes and the creaking of the tree down to the least possible. She had had enough of the troll's attention on her for the past four days. She felt slightly sick for thinking that way, but her survival instincts kicked in. The men were looking back and forth between each other as Emelia watched them from her spot across the camp from them. It helped her line of thinking to not know any of their names. It helped her to not think about them in such personal terms. They, as well as her, were probably about to be eaten anyway, regardless of whether she knew their names or not.
The men looked back and forth until the one who appeared to be in charge threw down his sword, indicating that all of the others should do the same.
It didn't take long for the trolls to move towards the company of men, grabbing them roughly by their stomachs and clothes, before shoving them into bags that they pulled from some part of the camp. As much as Emelia hated being kept hanging from a tree, she did not envy them being shoved into bags that the trolls kept who knows what in.
They kept out half of them, tying them quickly to the spigot. They had stripped them of their outer clothes, much like they had done with Emelia. They kept their long underwear on, as well as their boots, but other than that, they were wearing nothing.
"Why can't we just eat them as jelly?" Tom asked loudly, causing the men to immediately panic. "That's my favorite."
"I want 'em cooked." William said, pushing the smallest troll slightly. "Not squished."
"We will add some sage." Bert said, as if it ended the conversation.
"That does sound nice I guess." Tom said, smirking slightly through his disgusting teeth. "Better than that manky woman and farmer."
"Either way, you better ge' a move on." William said, turning the spigot with his hand. "Dawn isn't too far off, and I don't fancy being turned into stone."
Emelia had heard more preposterous things in her life, but for some reason the thought of sunlight turning something into to stone was so laughable it was just ridiculous.
"Wait, you're making a horrible, terrible mistake." The little man, the hobbit, jumped up from his spot. He hopped in spot for a moment before stopping a little in front of the trolls.
Emelia couldn't hear what the rest of his group was saying from her spot. She had already been straining to hear with her arms pushed up against her ears. She got patchy pieces of information, making for an overall sense of confusion about what was happening.
"What about the seasoning?" Bert asked, bending over to look at the hobbit.
There was more talking from the group of men before Bert held up his large hand angrily.
"What do you know about cooking up a plate of dwarves?" William snapped angrily.
Emelia had thought the bit about turning to stone was just stupid until she heard William talking about dwarves.
"Shut it." Bert snapped. "Let the fluggarbluggerhobbit talk." Bert bent down even lower to address the hobbit.
The hobbit mumbled something else.
"Come it. Tell me what the secret is first."
The hobbit mumbled something else before shouting. "You have to skin them first!"
Emelia didn't know what a hobbit was, but she wasn't sure she imagined them to be so brutal. The men, or 'dwarves', around him erupted into an uproar.
"Get me filleting knife." Bert said, gesturing behind him.
"What a load of rubbish." William snapped. "I like 'em more with the skin and boots."
"Yea, nothing wrong with a little raw dwarf." Tom said, moving over to the pile and picking up one of the sacks. He hung it over his mouth, sticking out his long, misshapen tongue.
"Wait! He's infected." The little hobbit shouted. "They're all infected."
Tom dropped the dwarf almost instantly. He whipped off his hand on his skin, let his face fall into a grimace. It was kind of odd, considering how dirty he was, for him to be cringing at something so small. She let out a small laugh at the sight, feeling her stomach work painfully as she used those muscles for the first time. She hadn't realized how loud she had laughed until Tom looked over at her, eyes lighting up as he remembered her handing from the tree.
"She ain't infected." He pointed to her with his large finger. "I've been waiting for her for days."
He immediately moved towards her, extending his hands. She began squirming, struggling to get the ropes off her wrists. She didn't like the hungry look in its eyes as he moved towards her, extending its huge hand out. She let out a cry of surprise as it grabbed her roughly around the middle, snapping the ropes painfully.
"The foolish little bitch thought we wouldn't eat her." Tom let out a loud little giggle, squeezing her so tightly she heard cracks. He lifted her up closer to his mouth, licking his lips in anticipation.
"The dawn will take you all for fools."
Tom looked around, immediately dropping Emelia to the ground in a painful heap. She looked up from her spot, ignoring the pain in her body, feeling tears springing up in her eyes.
She felt her mouth drop open at the sight in front of her. It seemed that not all things were ridiculous as she thought. The trolls, despite what all rationale would predict, were slowly but surely turning into stone. As ludicrous as it was, Emelia wasn't going to complain. They were shouting and screaming in pain as their bodies hardened, leaving them into the positions they were last in.
It seemed that some things were not as ridiculous as she thought.
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