Discovery
Xainia didn't know how many days she laid in the cave, drifting between consciousness and sleep, slowly eating through the plants that had been hastily thrown into the satchel that she carried. Every waking moment, the images of the night atop Jintha'alor filled her head as she cried uncontrollably and thought of how she might have changed the grim events of that night. In the middle of one of the many winning fantasies she had dreamed up in trying to cope, she heard footsteps. Quickly, she tried to cover herself in dirt. Not finding enough, she curled into a ball and hugged the satchel.
"Zug Zug?" A deep voice issued from somewhere in the cave as the footsteps came closer.
A crackling noise followed the footsteps, it was a torch burning. Not having seen the light in some time, Xainia's vision blurred. Above Xainia a green skinned being with metal armor and a torch stood. Xainia curled up even more, hoping it would leave. Among the babblings of a language she didn't understand, she made out a few words.
"Troll? Blue Troll?" The green skin stooped down and looked at her. "Whatsit?"
Xainia tried to curl up more, hoping to become part of the cave wall in her fantasy. She began to weep in her fear as the torch didn't leave. The green skinned scout called back very loudly out of the cave, almost hurting Xainia's ears since she had not heard anything in a long time.
"Aid!" the being cried in its own tongue. Several more of the being trampled down through the cave with weapons drawn but stowed them as soon as they saw it was only a small woman-troll.
They held a conversation which Xainia could not understand.
"Denir? You needed help for this?" One of the others laughed heartily.
"I don't know what it is, Brog. It look like a troll, but it's blue. It look scared."
"You don't know how to speak troll?" another in the party asked.
"I'm too young. Remind me again, Drok." Denir glared over.
"Shut up, you two." Brog took a knee in front of the frightened troll and spoke in somewhat broken troll language.
"We orcs. You ca… You come with us. We no hurt." Brog struggled to make basic troll phrases.
Xainia uncurled a bit and looked at them from where her head was hidden in her arms then silently nodded once or twice.
Turning back to Denir and starting to walk away, Brog issued orders in orcish. "Pick her up and take her to the fire. We gonna find who she is and why she's blue."
Denir took ahold of Xainia and put her over his shoulder, she hung there limply. It took a good twenty minutes of walking past outposts and down long winding paths to get out of the cave; she was in one of the deepest corners. When they emerged, it was evening. Xainia saw the red tint of the sky and shivered at the reminder of the last night she had seen like that. Depositing her by the large central fire in the camp, Denir sat down with the other orcs. Xainia scrambled back against a wagon that was pulled up near the fire and curled up again. The other orcs looked at her then looked at Denir.
"Who she?" One of them spoke in orcish.
"I dunno, we find her in the cave. She look like a troll." Denir replied
"But she's blue." The other continued.
"Tell me something I don't know." Denir shook his head.
"The Warchief is rallying the horde" One at the fire spoke.
"What? Now?" Denir stood up in disbelief.
"Yeah, a warcaller just came through when you were in the cave."
"I gotta go tell Brog. No body touches the troll until we get someone who can talk to it." Denir got up and ran back into the cave.
The other orcs looked at Xainia and she looked back out at them from her safe spot by the wagon. Eyes still full of tears, she ignored them and went back to dreaming. Later on, Brog returned with Denir and the warcaller.
"Pack up camp now. The horde is on the move." Brog ordered as others from the cave re-entered the camp and helped pack up.
As the orcs began to pack and take tents down quickly, Brog approached Xainia.
"You get in wagon." He said in troll.
The warcaller looked strangely at Brog. "You're taking a troll with you? A blue one at that?" he asked in orcish.
"I'm not gonna leave it here. I wanna know why it's blue." He said back in orcish.
"You… Get in wagon!" Brog repeated in troll since Xainia had not moved.
Xainia continued to sit there curled up, lost in some dream. Brog became frustrated and picked her up over his head, putting her in the wagon. Immediately, Xainia scrambled against the inner back corner of the wagon and curled up again.
"What happened to it for it to act like that?" The warcaller looked to Brog.
"That's what I'm gonna find out." Brog walked over to one of the female orcs who was packing up a tent.
"Okquina, you speak troll. Go protect the troll in the wagon." Brog ordered.
"There's a troll in the wagon?" Okquina looked at Brog oddly then went and climbed into the wagon.
Not trying to engage Xainia in conversation, she just sat there and looked at the distraught troll while the camp packed up. Soon the wagon began to move for the shore, following the warcaller's guidance. Okquina stayed in the wagon with Xainia for the long journey, unsure whether she was asleep or just unresponsive. Finally, the wagons came to a halt. Xainia peered out of the back of the wagon and saw a great many orcs assembled outside. Okquina closed the flap on the back of the wagon so that Xainia wouldn't get bothered by any of them. The new horde had no trolls in it and the warchief, Thrall, hated forest trolls. Although she was blue, Xainia was still a troll.
An orc outside announced loudly. "Warchief, the horde is assembled!"
Xainia couldn't understand what it meant nor could she understand the conversation that followed, but soon the wagon began to move again. It rolled up a slope and then the ground was no longer solid, it rocked back and forth.
"We are on a boat." Okquina took the opportunity to say something in troll to Xainia.
Xainia nodded and kept herself curled up as orcs circled the wagon and tied it to the deck. The ships set sail heading west, Xainia could see the sunset out the front entrance of the wagon whenever she looked up. Pulling some now groady looking vegetables out of her satchel, Xainia began to eat. Okquina saw that the food had obviously gone bad and came over, taking the satchel and food from Xainia. Losing her satchel, an object she had used for feeding, security, and even remembering her parents, disturbed her greatly. She started crying loudly and she curled up even more. Okquina hopped out of the wagon, casting the bag aside.
"What noise in the wagon?" One of the deckhands asked Okquina.
"Ignore it. Go get me food from galley. I have your post." Okquina stood outside the wagon waiting for the other orc to return.
After the orc retook his post, Okquina brought in a bowl of soup and some bread into the wagon and set them in front of Xainia. The troll had since quieted down and had started rocking back and forth.
"Eat this." Okquina pushed the soup and bread towards her.
Xainia looked untrustingly out of her position at Okquina; she didn't want to eat, but the food smelled so good to her. She picked up the bowl and sniffed it, stifling out two words. "No troll?"
Okquina looked at her strangely and replied. "There's no troll in the soup. We don't eat trolls."
Xainia slowly started eating, this food tasted better than any she had ever had; of course anything tasted better than leathery bland wolf steaks. It even made her forget her sadness while eating it, but as soon as the bowl was dry her eyes were wet again with tears. She stifled out a few more words before continuing her crying. "Thank you."
Perplexed at the troll's behavior still, Okquina came closer to the small troll and held her; her motherly instincts brought forth by the crying young one. Xainia let the orc hold her, not caring what was going on around her. Eventually she found her arms around the comforting warmth that Okquina provided, wondering why the orc was doing this.
"You'll be ok. Sleep now." Okquina smiled and let the small troll rest against her.
