Jah'ren sat up, stretching and moaned as he felt his body ache. There were bandages, that was the first thing he noticed, and he wondered what could have happened to leave him this wounded.
It was dark wherever he was, but a dawning day threw a hazy light through a window, and in minutes his eyes were adapting and he could see a little of his surroundings. There were someone sleeping beside him on either side, curled up against his body, as if they had been keeping him warm and safe.
His ears picked up the rhythm of their breaths and he did not need to see their faces to know who it was. Lying down again he lifted a hand to his mouth, which hurt.
"No," he moaned as his fingers found the edges of his mouth, feeling what was not there.
His body shook with a sob and suddenly there was a hand that took his.
"Parnko," a kind voice whispered by his ear. "Don worry. Yah be okey."
"Jandi!" Jah'ren clung to the hand that held his.
"Yah be awake," another voice said, sounding like it had been very worried.
"Kor'alli." Jah'ren turned and smiled towards the flaming mohawk which was all he could see because his eyes were filled with tears.
Then he touched his head, finding his hair was gone too. The huge green mohawk he had been so proud of was cut down to just tufts of hair.
"Yah hair will grow back," Jandi comforted, lighting a lamp even though the sun now was rising outside the cabin.
"But not mah tusks," Jah'ren cried, unable to stop touching the strange gaps between his lips.
Kor'alli sat up and let his adopted brother lean against his shoulder until the sobbing died away.
"How yah find me?" Jah'ren asked them.
The twins explained what Za'rhin had told them, about the troll-hunters, how they died, and then how the warrior had been so lucky as to find Jandi.
"Dat's two weeks ago," Kor'alli grinned. "Yah've been havin' a bad fever an' we worry yah never was gonna wake up."
"Za'rhin?" Jah'ren looked around the cabin in case his friend and mentor was sleeping somewhere in the room.
"Nah," Jandi shook his head. "He got orders from da Warchief himself four days ago now. He tell us he know yah will be okey an' left yah in our care."
This saddened Jah'ren even more. He had missed the warrior a lot lately, because the older troll had been like a father or an older brother to him.
"Yah have to call me Jah'fon now..." he told the twins sulkily.
Then he explained how he had fought with his father, and there had been said things that could not be unsaid. The two did not seem surprised, and when Jah'ren had finished his tale Jandi nodded.
"We know. Hetar sent us a lettha sayin' what happen. Da Sre Kel be not good now. Da whole tribe be confused an' scared. Yah fatha has declared yah a traitor an' Hetar say the young ones no be happy about dis, dey still want yah be da chief."
"Ah be not goin' back," Jah'ren told them.
"We know. Yah sistha say we need to look for yah, she want to know where yah be."
"Have yah told her?"
"Nah." Jandi shrugged. "Ah feel we wait for yah to wake. She also tell us to look for Ba'ka, he be somewhere north an' she want him to come home."
Jah'ren was tired and his head hurt. He laid down again and sighed heavily.
Even if the young trolls in the tribe would have supported him as chief he could not go back now. Without his tusks he could not lead. They had been his pride. To let someone take your tusks was like letting them take your life, you were better off dead.
'
After spending another day in the care of the Fogo Juba twins, Jah'ren had decided what to do.
"Ah be goin' north. Ah think Ah know where Ba'ka be, an' him always think bettha than me."
"Za'rhin tell us yah would be doin' dat," Kor'alli grinned. "Dat's why he got yah dat ridin' raptor."
He helped Jah'ren to the door to see, and there, outside on the little grassy patch in front of Jandi's cabin there was a big green riding raptor, at the moment it was busy filling its stomach with the dead ape Katari and Trakkor had hunted down.
"Dat's for me?" Jah'ren asked, smiling for the first time since he woke up.
"Yeah, and Za'rhin leave somethin' else for yah too."
Kor'alli found the carefully wrapped package the warrior had told them to give Jah'ren. As Jah'ren opened it tears started flowing down his cheeks again.
The swords were slim and curved, worn with use, but obviously cared for and kept sharp.
"He always like him spear best," Jah'ren mumbled through the wall of emotions filling him. "Ah one day ask him: Why yah have da swords? Yah always like yah spear. An' he tell me da swords is important. It be one for da clear sky," he lifted one of the swords, watching how the light was reflected on the steel-blue blade. "It be for da good inside yah, he say. An' den one for da fight, one for da battle." The other sword was forged from something darker, a deep blue hue, mixed with lines of crimson which ran along the blade. "He say it be for da bloodlust in us. Blood in da water. He love him swords."
"He say it was da last blades of the Meri Kri."
"Yeah," Jah'ren wiped a tear from his cheek and held up both swords. "It be da swords of da Ocean Blood. He say he neva wanna loose dem."
Jandi smiled and nodded. He was frying sausages, which Kor'alli had bought them some days before in Booty Bay so they could celebrate when Jah'ren woke.
"He tell us: Ah feel old an' Ah will neva have anyone dat can carry mah blood an' mah swords, but Jah be mah Tata Parnko."
Kor'alli followed Jah'ren as he left the hut and went outside to stand in the sunshine. Jah'ren smiled as he moved the swords slowly through the air, winching as old wounds and stiff muscles complained. He still remembered training with these swords, how Za'rhin had laughed and laughed as the young troll attacked with both swords at once.
"Like dis, Tata," he heard the voice of his friend in the back of his mind. "First yah use yah good," the steel-blue blade spun, "den yah turn, use da force from the blade, follow it, and let the blood follow." The other sword swished, cutting the air with a thin sound. "An' yah dance..."
'
That evening the three brothers said goodbye. Jah'ren would leave in the morning and nobody was trying to stop him, even though another week of rest would have been best for his body.
The twins and their friend spent the evening in the big wooden tub behind Jandi's cabin. The hot water was slowly drawing tension out of Jah'ren's body and he laughed as Kor'alli found a cloth and soap to wash him.
"Ahm no a cripple," he told the redhead, grabbing a tusk teasingly and shaking Kor'alli's head a bit.
"Ah know, Parnko." Kor'alli was grinning happily and stroked the soapy cloth over Jah'ren's scalp and short hair. "Dis be just like we be whelps again."
Jandi jumped into the tub, splashing water on the other two. In one hand he held a bottle and the other held a piece of cloth.
"Ah got somethin' nice," he laughed, opening the cloth for the other's to see.
"Black stick!" Jah'ren clapped his hands with enthusiasm. "Ah havn't had black stick for a long time."
As the night progressed the bottle was emptied and much black stick had been chewed. The three young hunters laughed and fought and talked until the moon stood high on the black, velvet sky.
"One last song," Jandi told the other two as they tried keeping him from going to bed. "Just one."
"Da one about bloodelfsies an' why deir women is so angry!" Kor'alli shook with laughter as he tried remembering the lyrics.
Jah'ren suddenly stood up, water cascading down his naked body.
"Ah have one!" He declared. "Ah learn it to yah! Once Ah meet dis troll, name is Fllawen. Oh, him a crazy one! Not all troll, but he be okey. Him be okey."
The twins waited patiently while Jah'ren mumbled and hummed, trying to find back to the song.
"Oh, yeah!" He declared when he finally had remembered it all. "It's like dis: Ah kill two dwarfs in the morning,"
The twins burst out laughing and clapped their hands.
"Ah kill two dwarfs at night," Jah'ren sang, grinning like the missing tusks and hair was already forgotten. "Ah kill two dwarfs in da afternoon, an' den Ah feel all right!"
They sang it together some times before Jah'ren started the second verse:
"Ah kill two dwarfs in time of peace, and two in time of war. Ah kill two dwarfs, before Ah kill two dwarfs, an' den Ah kill two more!"
Jah'ren and Kor'alli sang loud and false, but their faces were smiling and there was the haziness in their eyes that indicated they probably had eaten too much of the black stick.
"Dat's a bad song if da dwarfs hear yah," Jandi laughed.
"AH KILL TWO DWARFS BEFORE AH KILL TWO DWARFS AN' DEN AH KILL SOME MORE!" Jah'ren and Kor'alli shouted, Jah'ren grabbing his friend by the mohawk and pushed his head under water.
"Yah be crazy," Jandi told them as he threw a wet piece of cloth at the two, fighting like a couple of lion-whelps. "Yah both be crazy!"
********************
And thus it ends. That is the last chapter of this story. But if I know me I won't be able to keep away from my ragged band of trolls forever!
Za'rhin actually gave away his swords, I was surprised at this, but he told me it meant a lot to be able to give them away to someone he loved like a brother. The sad thing is that Jah'ren never sees him again alive.
So, that aaaamaaazing song they're singing is not my work! It is written by Nicebutdemonic at Deviantart. It is also her troll, Fllawen, who teaches the song to Jah.
I hope you all have been enjoying the story and that you'll follow the other stories I'm working on.
Thanks for reading ^^