Chapter Six: Malnourished Ground Roots

Even though I didn’t know who this Hoodah was, I still didn’t trust the fact that it’s clearly a troll’s name. Immediately, I tried to hide behind a tree that was wide enough to hide my body. I may be a human in the end, but my body is still a troll. I could feel my heart slam against my chest as each moment passed by. I didn’t even see where the troll voice came from but the accent wasn’t familiar to me. The only trolls I’ve ever known were from my old village - so I didn’t know if they were even an ally or an enemy.

“Hoodah! Where are you?”

The voice yelled again. I didn’t move an inch and just waited until I could see them. Eventually, I did see the owner of the voice. He was stockier than some of the other trolls I’ve ever seen but … he was my type of troll. Rather, it’s easier to say he’s clearly from my race of trolls. I remember when Shaman Anje used to talk about the village of the Orcs and how there are so many different types of trolls - those with red skin and those with purple skin. I think someone had asked him once if there were green trolls and that was the only time I remember that was the only time I’ve ever seen Shaman Anje laugh much less smile.

The other troll yelled over and over to a point where I couldn’t tell what was the echo and if it was him. I don’t know where exactly he was but I could hear his footsteps crush the plants around him and I could hear him grunting - fairly soon, I was able to tell where he was.

Because he was almost right next to me. I could see him but I wasn’t sure if he could see me. He wasn’t anyone I recognized but he was bald - at least no hair on his head. He was almost my height - but maybe shorter since he slouched. He wore a loincloth around his waist unlike me with my pants that I quickly made out of animal hide.

My throat dried up and I could feel my body grow hot - trolls do sweat but it takes quite a while for us. However, I could feel the sensation as I could hear the footsteps get closer and closer. My heart beat heavier to where I was growing worried that it was louder than I thought. I could feel each beat against my throat but eventually, I heard the troll stop.

The longer he stopped, the more my heart pounded. It felt like it crawled up to my throat and found itself stuck there. I could feel it throb in my neck the longer I didn’t hear any movement. I held my breath to hide my presence as much as I could.

Eventually, I saw him when he stood up from the ground suddenly. He’s closer than ever. I could see his expression on his face - almost like he’s relieved but also annoyed - but he didn’t seem to see me at all. Could he see me? I would never know. He muttered something I couldn’t hear - even though I was close enough to him but he turned the other way and walked away.

I couldn’t relax until I saw his thick, grey body disappear in the thick of the forest. However, this gave me some insight about my people - others looked like me out there, possibly from other villages. But this didn’t make me feel better - I felt more scared. What if they ally with them to hunt me? Was what my father did so bad that they would eliminate both Yaci and me?

I couldn’t take that chance. I had to get away from these forests. I don’t know who this Hoodah was but they could be just as dangerous as any other troll.

I eventually decided to wait a little longer after that troll disappeared - it’s a risk, sure, but if I could see this Hoodah, then I could better assess my situation. I may not be as good at hunting as Zoti, but I’m still really good for what I am.

Once a few minutes or so went by, creatures made their noises and I could feel my body easing as time went on. It looked like that troll didn’t come back. Eventually, I felt relieved and let out a sigh of relief. I don’t know what the situation was but I didn’t want to be involved.

I relaxed fully once I was absolutely sure he was gone and relaxed once I heard the noises from the sky and other animal noises. Demons haven’t been near the area since Daisy killed that one years ago; at least none of which I’ve heard. We’ve only focused our efforts on humans and hunting for food - we never considered if we should align ourselves with other troll villages. If someone else took care of the demons, good for them - that’s one less thing that would prey on our people.

Soon, I breathed. My heart felt it was back in the place it should be and if I sweated, then I wasn’t anymore. I felt relieved and I decided to move away from the Teal Channel when I saw something that surprised me - a bright purple rock that seemed to have turned itself around.

And then, I saw it breathe quickly.

What?

I blinked because I didn’t expect to see a moving, light purple rock ‘breathe’. Was this an animal? There is a possibility I don’t know and I did become more curious the more I stared at it. I started to walk there and I tried to think about what kind of animal it was - what I could use that purple hide for.

And when I got close enough, I gasped and took a step back - it was a troll! And he looked really small compared to the others I’ve seen before! He seemed to have difficulty breathing and I could tell by his black hair that he’s absolutely not someone from my village - I only saw brown and yellow ever in my village. Could trolls even get this thin? He looked extremely malnourished and that weirdly got me feeling sad and worried for him.

“Hey,” I caught myself asking, “what’s wrong? Why are you breathing like that?”

“F-f-food,” he gasped, “I need food…!” He tried to crawl in the direction of the Teal Channel. He forced himself to roll over and try to crawl in that direction - could he not see what color that grass was? Immediately, I decided to stop him. I threw myself on top of him and wrapped my arms around him. He struggled in my grasp so I held him tighter. I could feel how thin he was and how weak he was.

“No! No! Don’t go there!” I growled out. “That’s the Teal Channel! Do you know what happens to us trolls if we drink it? Do you?”

He seemed to be scared by my sudden holding him and tried to struggle out of my grasp even more. But because he was way weaker than me, especially when he looked at how massive I am compared to him.

Soon, he stopped struggling. He stopped and seemed to have slumped in my arms. Once I realized that he wasn’t struggling against me anymore, I let him go and I sat up. I watched him carefully in case he tried to run away again. However, I just saw that he was struggling to even move. Where did all that energy go?

“What? No, I don’t want to drink anything. I’m hungry… but if we’re close to the Teal channel, there’s not much I can eat.”

“Oh, is that all? Here, let me get up.” I moved him away enough so I could get up. Once I did, I opened my makeshift pocket on my belt and fished around for some snacks I may have saved in there. Eventually, I did find some jerky I made last night. I was going to reserve it for myself but if this troll was this thin, then it should be okay to share it with him. I don’t know if that other troll was going to come back.

I even grunted softly to let him know that I’m there as an ally, not an enemy. He certainly looked different but he also looked bad enough where I didn’t think he was going to survive if he didn’t eat.

The light purple troll sat up as best he could and held his head with one of his hands. From what I could tell, his nails were the dirtiest I’ve ever seen on a troll - but it’s not that uncommon. Most trolls who are out hunting longer than a week tend to have really dirty nails. It’s probably part of the reason mine are so chipped compared to Zoti’s.

He stared at it with curiosity and I could hear something growl - not him, but maybe his stomach. He grunted and snatched the jerky from my hand. He continued to stare at it and then he looked defeated. He grunted finally in response and I released a breath I didn’t know I had as he slowly put the food in his mouth. He held his nose and chewed the jerky and seemed… to hate it? I was happy that he ate and even grunted back in return, but to look like he hated it? I didn’t understand why.

“Hey,” I grunted as he finished the rest of it. He grunted in response and wiped his lips and seemed to ‘wash his hands’ with the dirt before him. Then oddly enough, he brought his dirt-covered hands and sniffed and looked at them. He ignored my cry but I couldn’t say anything else as he did this. I was honestly enthralled with what he was doing. I stood there with my mouth open as he licked his hands after he inspected his hands.

What? What the hell is he doing? I couldn’t help but step back and watch this in horror. The troll looked at me with his yellow eyes and seemed to finally realize what he was doing in front of me. He slowly moved his hands from his lips and wiped it again on the dirt - but in a motion where it’s like he had something nasty on his hands. Dirt clods popped up because instead of rubbing it, he was beating it dry.

“Ah,” the troll grunted. “Sorry about that.” He cleared his throat and I stepped back closer to him ever so slowly. He turned around him and we stayed in our place for a little bit before he turned back to me. I was curious if he looked for someone or something but I turned back to him when I didn’t see anything. Soon enough, the other troll looked at me and let out a sigh that I let out - a relieved sigh.

“Thanks for jerky.” He cleared his throat once more as he seemed to hate something invisible. Finally, he looked up again and tried to stand up.

“Thanks for not letting that troll know I’m around.” He grunted his thanks.

“Sure, but why was he looking for you? Wait… are you Hoodah?”

The other troll grunted. “Yeah, I am. What’s your name?”

I didn’t want to forget about that instance where he licked his hands. “Why were you licking your hands like that?”

“Uh, don’t worry about it. Really. I mean, that’s how I track humans. I taste the soil to find out where they went. So, what’s your name?”

I ignored the name question. That’s not a tactic I ever heard of. “So, what exactly are you tasting? Why do you burrow your hands like that in the dirt? I know how to track footsteps but I know they don’t go that deep in the ground unless there’s something the others back at home aren’t telling me.”

“Why do you need to know? Are you sure you’re not part of his tribe? After all, you both are grey. And what’s this mark on your belly?” He pointed to my star mark. Of course. It’s hard to miss it after all. “Then again, if you’re way out here with a mark like that, I’m pretty sure you’re not part of any tribe. Aren’t you?”

“What do you know about this mark?”

“I don’t know anything about marks. I just know how our people are. Just tell me your name so I can thank you and we can move on.”

“Look, don’t think I’m going to judge you or anything…”

“Why do you want to know? You’re clearly not like any of the trolls from any of our tribes so of course, you won’t judge me.”

“Look Hoodah--”

“Don’t use my name until I know yours. Did you forget troll etiquette?” I was surprised at this and then he just let out a defeated chuckle. “I’m kidding. We’re not part of any tribe… so fine. I’ll tell you. Just tell me your name.”

I sighed. It looked like he wouldn't relent until he knew my name. For a troll who looked how he did, I felt a bit embarrassed he got to me. I stood up straight and tall and grunted out my name. “Ayagi.”

“Ayagi, huh? That’s such a normal troll name.” He slapped his leg and clicked his tongue. After that, he grunted. “Anyway. Build a fire here, Ayagi. I think we might be here for the night.” I could feel myself get annoyed. I’m just trying to find out some information about this outside world and he’s already making demands. I frowned.

“Let’s move on. It might be better in case that other troll comes back.”

Hoodah shrugged. “That troll wants to forget about me. After all, he’s the one who said I’m not part of them anyway.”

“Well, if you’re a tracker then you’re pretty important to the hunting party. It might be best if we’d leave. If that troll wants to forget about you, it’d be great if it was just that one troll.

“But if you’re a tracker like you say you are, then you’re pretty important after all. And more trolls will try to come to get you. And if that’s true, I’m not sure if I want to defend you from all of them. I only gave you jerky and asked a few questions.

“It doesn’t matter what happens to you to me.”

He gave me an annoyed look but seemed to consider what I said. After that, he clicked his tongue again and finally stood up. He wiped the dirt off his body. I did my best to cover his tracks, along with mine that I could see. He did his best to help but honestly, it might’ve done more damage than good. I didn’t want to say anything though since even if they did find his tracks or even my tracks, they would assume we were in the Teal Channel.

We walked although my pace was faster than his. He seemed to struggle and always yelled after me to slow down. His voice was the only thing between us - just asking me to slow down and when could we stop. I didn’t want to answer him. We were still in troll territory. There’s just no way that we could talk. I don’t know how far troll territory stretched.

Soon, it had gotten dark and Hoodah breathed as much as he could. I personally could still go on but it’s clear that I pushed this light purple troll any further then he might be more trouble for me. I told him to at least build us temporary campsites while I hunted. I asked him about the animals around her and he just grunted. He told me that I would be able to find food easily and he’d just wait there and build the fire.

After I got enough food for the both of us, along with some spots of drinkable water to note for later, I honestly half expected him to run off on me. I expected to find an empty site that should’ve been our campsite for the night.

But I was surprised to see he had indeed built what I asked him to - and pretty well-done too. I could see he endured some scratches but even though he had scratches, I was still impressed at the quality of the site, as temporary as it may be.

I cooked the meat and to me, I smiled as I smelled the fresh hide as I made more jerky. I had to adjust my pants while Hoodah just stared at the burning animals before us.

He sat on one side while I sat on the other. I only spoke when I noticed he was staring at the food.

“Ah, Hoodah, the food’s almost ready. Just be patient.” I smiled at him to reassure him - the smell was so delicious. “I didn’t realize that this deer can be found all the way over here. I wonder where we are… This forest is so big!”

Hoodah was surprisingly silent. He continued to stare at it.

“Hey, so, Hoodah,” I grunted to get his attention. He still stared at it. “Now that we’re settled, tell me more about your tactic.”

Hoodah finally tore his eyes away from the fire and sighed. He rubbed his eyes and I still see how dirty his hands were in comparison to mine. Then he yawned. No, no, no! Don’t get sleepy!

“Huh? Oh. The tactic… Well, the truth is that I’m not a tracker. I’m actually a look-out. And… well, I guess this is as good as a place to say it. But I’m what you would call vegetarian.”

“A what?”

“A vegetarian. It’s someone who doesn’t eat meat or anything that was once living, and eats something called ‘vegetables’... at least that’s what I understand.”

Honestly, I had never heard of this. “But trolls can only eat meat. I mean, look at you. You’re lighter skinned than me. Are you older than me? I’m only 22 years old.”

“Well, I’m only 20 years old.”

“WHAT? You’re only 20 and you look like this? How could this have happened? You said I’m not part of any tribe anymore - you’re right, but what about you? What’s your story?”

Hoodah sighed. “Do you really care to know or are you just saying those things?”

My curiosity took over my mouth. It looked like we’re stuck together for an unknown amount of time - I might as well hear his story. I grunted over and over to let him know that I wanted to listen.

He let out another sigh. “Well, if you insist. But I need to get some food for myself. Sorry, Ayagi. I made you waste your time in killing that animal.”

I didn’t care. It meant more food for me but I know that trolls could only eat meat. How is Hoodah going to survive on his own? No, I determined that I wanted to help him. Was it my human side who wanted this or my troll side to want to use him later?

“No, go ahead. It’s fine. I can probably cook this food and take it with us in case you need it.”

I could barely see Hoodah’s cringed look but I didn’t push it further. I let him tell his story.