Thank you so, so much for your encouraging reviews. I will try to make good use of the crits. I will try to put up the last of the chapters tonight. Don't worry, they're short ;-)
Chapter VI
Something comes. To check the traps is my guess. I will hide in this hole and kill as many as I can while I live. Bigger than a squeaker… I know this smell… Trollen! Gloden? No, Ai! Stay in your hole until you know, Venny. Go slow, go slow.
It is kin but not Gloden or Fodden. But kin, yes. Does he work for the Blacklands? Will he try to take me? He walks free in this place. He's checking the trap. Can he see the broken door. Ah, I think he smells me.
Son of filth! Come closer to my smell - I will make him tell me of my kin and then I will kill him. What is it that I hear?
Scratching… it has the sound of squeakers digging. Where did my filthy brother go?
There, they break through the wall.. maggots broken through. Two, three, six, there are more. They have not seen the rope. They do not know the rope. Hi! The trap is on them. He comes with his stick but the door is broken. He is against many. They have hooks. And their cursed ropes and chains. Time for Venny to come. Time for the claw to help.
oOo
"I took you for Blacklanden. Come, we will block up that hole. Fix the trap. We can use the squeakers chains and hooks. They do not know about you? How? I see. This is still Trollway. I have not been so happy for a long time. Let me tell you about my kin."
oOo
Thag has taken me to see the tribe. They are six. Maybe we are the only ones left in the world. Other than the slaves of the Eye. Many have died in this fight. Their grief is my grief. Yet they do not try to get them out. The might of the Eye is too great. Maggots in great numbers and other beasts. Some with Power. I tell them about the Firething and I show them the claw. They see what it can do and that I have three more. We decide that we might, at the very last of our hope and lives, do some damage and avenge our tribe.
But it is hard to come to this point. These Trollen, they grunt more than they talk. Too long have they been alone and few. My Mama's blood can not be seen much in my face but I carry the language of Garganten in my head. And my body honors her too. I am bigger than any I have met. The only beast bigger lies buried on the mountain. Slain by the Skything's son. Only as small as an outside thing but with Her Power. This must be a lesson to Trollen. We can not win by size alone.
Ah, their talk is humble but I see that they have knowledge still. They live right under the Blackland and remain hidden. They have made this trap and now there is a feeling of hope that was dead when I came here. They look to me to lead them. Maybe there is something we can do.
oOo