This following will be the first of many. Twelve, in fact, all revolving around the trolls' ancestors and the stories I believe that they may have had to tell. Some of it will my own interpretation of events that have been shown in canon, others will be purely my own creation. I hope you enjoy them. :)
Death's Handmaid has arrived for her final task...
Warnings: Minor swearing.
A Determination to Die
A silent figure lands on a ship, bright red in colour; the shape of a fork. Her form petite and frail, thin from lack of food. In her eyes, normally dull, however, there was nothing but simple determination. Today, she would recruit an important pawn in her master's plan. And today, once that recruitment job was complete, she would then be killed.
And she was determined to do things right.
Her target is already there to greet her. A proud troll, a proud leader. But was she really a leader, without anyone to lead? They are the final two, blood of the royal and blood of the peasant, opposite ends of the spectrum, but both key players in the destruction of their race. This leader is known as Her Imperial Condescension, or more preferably, just the Condesce. Going personal, though, she is a Peixes, part of a long line of fuchsia blooded rulers.
The one who stands before her is a demoness, though. For centuries beyond the length she should live, she has terrorized the trolls of Alternia. She alone is responsible for nearly every great event in Alternian history. She is Death's Handmaid, or just the Handmaid. But she is also a Megido, ancestor to one who would and already has played a key role in troll history.
"Death's Handmaid," the Condesce addresses her with a cool air. It would be a crime not to know who this demoness is. "Watcha want, bitch? I'm a bit busy."
"I am here to extend an offer given to me both many sweeps ago and right this moment," the Handmaid replies. "To serve my master, a monster that is better known as Lord English. There is no answer to this offer, though, just simple acceptance. You have no choice."
A common understanding passes between them. The one who is tired of it all, and the one that is ready to start fresh. Both murderers of many, many trolls, both aware of the constant push and pull of the forces of power. The Condesce smirks, lowering herself into a position that tells Megido that she is ready to fight.
The Handmaid carefully, delicately, steps out of her heels so that she is barefoot. She then casts the footwear aside before lowering herself into much the same position as her opponent. Today, she will be both punished for her crimes and rewarded for her service. Today, as she leaps forward to meet her foe in battle, she will die.
The memories from her youth were hazy, now, but she distinctly remembers her recruitment day, just as she knows Peixes will, as well. She remembers the lightness in her heart as she experienced freedom from her captor, a cue ball headed man who was and is both cruel and kind all rolled into one. The servant of her master before she. Her predecessor.
She doesn't quite remember what had provided the distraction that allowed her to escape his latest, and later she would learn his last, lecture. She remembers an odd creature of orange skin, lanky and tall, rather troll like in appearance but not quite. Whatever it had been, she had leapt out the window as fast as possible, screaming insults and making inappropriate hand gestures that had been satisfying at the time.
Only now, during this heated fight, will she experience that same rebellious vigour she'd had in her youth. Only now does she spew forth foul insults to taunt her opponent, to bring on a death that will be both fast but well earned. She always knew that she would never go down without a fight, no matter how much she wants this.
She'd run as fast as she could from her slavery. The surroundings of the planet she was on were unfamiliar to her, she had never ventured outside before. She didn't care at the time; all she wanted was to get away from her captor. But now she almost wishes she had not run, for she ran into a much worse master.
She remembers stumbling backwards as she nearly ran into a thing that had appeared before her without warning. It was big, monstrously big, with a hugely muscled chest and a flash cloak befitting a king; or perhaps a lord. His eyes flashed with multiple billiard balls, constantly switching out to create a hypnotic gaze. His grin was ugly and terrifying.
His voice even more so as he boomed, "You truly think that you can flee from a master who is already here?!"
This was when her service has truly begun.
From there, she was acquainted with her race in a way she could never have imagined. She was Lord English's weapon, sent to various points in time to wreak havoc on her people. She had not felt such sympathy for her kind until then, when she was destroying homes, killing young trolls, and leaving others orphaned.
There were a few times, times that happened before she was thoroughly hardened to this rainbow bloodshed, when she would come across something that she simply couldn't do. A young wriggler sitting before her, looking up with impossibly huge eyes, one of many that she was ordered to massacre. She would turn her back on such duties and he would punish her severely.
It became so that she would care more for her own health than the lives of many.
But today is the last day. She will not need to commit those crimes, she will not need to murder those that do not deserve it. That was a job that would be passed on to this troll today. The fight is over, and the Condesce had one.
The fuchsia ruler, caring little for the Handmaid, tosses her aside, sending an arc of rust coloured blood that stains the bright red ship. She begins to walk away, but something makes her ears twitch a little, the faintest of whispers. The Handmaid's last words.
"Thank you."
