A dozen trolls sat at the table and waited for Elise to take her designated seat at the other end, across from their mother.

They banged on the oblong table and made all sorts of noises as two of their brothers pushed the girl forwards against her will, chanting in unison.

“Move it! Move it! Move it!”

One of the trolls sat her down. She looked down. Three plates with lids on stood before her in a sequence, from large to small.

Looking across the table, she noticed that the plates looked identical to the ones in front of the female troll. Elise gulped as its voice rang throughout the cave and hushed the wicked trolls.

“Silence!”

Her heart was in her mouth. What was going on? Why did they bring her here? Before she could come up with an answer, a reasonable one that is, the female troll broke the silence once more.

“The rules are simple. Neither of us knows what’s inside. Whoever eats the most… wins.”

An eating contest? All of a sudden? After what the troll did to her own child, this was the outcome? She couldn’t believe her ears.

“Let’s see…” Elise gulped as the female troll let her wide-set eyes hover around the three dishes. “Which one shall I choose?” The troll then paused and met her gaze. “Why don’t you choose, my pretty? To keep things square and fair, hmm?”

Elise averted her gaze. The foul smell wafting from the three dishes was equally bad and stomach-churning.

But she had to make up her mind and choose one, she was well aware of that, or the female troll would certainly serve her as supper instead.

Besides, what was the worst-case scenario? As long as she didn’t choose the plate with the giant troll’s severed head, she’d take on anything – that was how hungry she was!

She lifted the lid of the third and final plate. A sigh of relief escaped from her lips and her shoulders relaxed. Worms. Alive and kicking but edible, nonetheless.

Her eyes drifted to Ude among the sea of trolls, who breathed out in relief as well and nodded his head as if to assure her that everything would be okay.

The other trolls, however, who anticipated her to lift the second lid with their brother’s skull in it, booed and hissed at her, calling her names and saying she bamboozled them.

But their mother remained quiet and let the brawl die out before digging her teeth into the worms on its plate.

With a trembling hand, Elise picked up her fork and knife. The worms were trying to make their escape. She gulped. Now that she thought it over, she wasn’t that hungry.

Glancing across the table, she noticed that the female troll only had a few worms left on her plate. This wasn’t good. Was this really going to be the end of her?

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She picked up one of the escaping worms and moved it closer to her trembling lips when something touched her feet from under the table and broke her off.

Ude? The tiny troll gestured for her to pour the worms down its throat.

The trolls were too busy cheering on their wicked mother, tapping and stomping for the nth time, to take notice of her.

Without wasting more time, she did as the troll instructed and emptied the plate. She needed not wait for long. Trollemor was the first to notice the clean plate.

The female troll stopped chewing. The worms in her mouth escaped through her parted lips along with their juices. Her children followed her startled eyes and gasped at the sight of the spotless plate.

The doubt in the female troll’s voice was hard to miss. “You… you ate it all?”

As the initial shock wore off, the female troll said something that not only took Elise by surprise but also her own children. According to the deal, she was only supposed to choose one of the dishes and finish it before the female troll.

“Oh, you thought it was over? Your poor, poor thing! Lift the second lid and lemme see your guts!”

One-half of Ode’s skull was on her plate and the other half on the female troll’s plate.

Tears welled up in her eyes. Why did it sacrifice itself in vain? This time, not even Ude could save her from a certain death. It was over. It was—she glanced up.

“Boil the broth, children! Seems like we’ll eat some hearty meal tonight, after all!”

The trolls chuckled at the top of their lungs, smacking their lips as they ate her alive with their tear-streaked faces from laughing too hard.

They banged on the table yet again in rhythm and hailed their mother. The plates bounced up and down and followed the macabre beat. Elise grabbed half of Ode’s head as it was about to roll off the table.

“Hail our King, the boldest of them all,

Hail our Queen, the slyest of them all,

Hail our Mama, the fairest of them all,

Hail our Trollemor, the most wicked of them all.”

Elise bit her lips as she stared into the lifeless troll’s eyes. She owed her life to it. It sacrificed itself so that she’d escape, only for the female troll to cheat and bend the rules.

If she kicked the bucket just like that right now, the wicked trolls and their equally wicked mother would only grow bolder and threaten the lives of not only the humans but also Salwodor itself.

As the great-granddaughter of Lady Urius and the descendant of the deities, she had to put a stop to this madness before it got out of hand.

“Do you even know who I am?”

The cheers fell silent as Trollemor shifted its eyes and focused on her.

“A human, what else could you be?”

“Think again! And if the answer’s still the same, think once more! The blood in my veins may otherwise cost not only your life but also the race of your kin.”

It worked. The female troll’s eyes narrowed, perhaps pondering on whether she was being serious or trying to deceive her.

“Not… a human? Then you must be—”

“My father’s name is Logan, the grandson of the founder of the Council, and the headmaster of Deodscùa Lárhus. If you lay your filthy hands on a single strand of my hair, know that the deities won’t let you off the hook and that you’ll pay the price!”

A smirk crept on the female troll’s thick lips.

“A deity, huh? I should’ve known… Yes, I should’ve indeed. That sweet smell of your flesh… But, sad news, my pretty. I can’t let you go.”

Elise blinked. This wasn’t the answer she expected to hear. Panic set in before she could hinder it.

“I- I won’t say anything to my father or- or—”

“A deal is a deal! You failed. Unless…” Its eyes landed on Ode’s head in front of her. “You eat your fill, that is.”

Elise's chest rose and fell in a rapid beat. Her quivering eyes sought Ude in the sea of wicked trolls.

What was she supposed to do? She couldn’t possibly—Ude nodded, confirming what went through her dire mind.

She could almost hear him say it: ‘Do what you must do to save your skin and make my brother’s untimely death worth it.’

She picked up the fork and knife, hesitating greatly, before taking the first of several bites.