The holes in my memories were horrifically personal. I knew of the country of Denmark, but I couldn’t tell you what country I had lived in. I knew a useful acronym for the colors of the rainbow, but I couldn’t say what my favorite color was. Every part of my memory was like this, my personal history excised perfectly from everything else.
After the first day of gluttony and lethargic sleep, I began to think clearly about my situation. Watching my siblings, a brother and youngest sister, I tried to work out the reason for this ‘naming ritual’. I watched as each would scarf down food, bloat at the stomach, collapse into sleep, their arms and legs would expand and smooth out gaining muscle and definition, then shrivel and shrink as their bodies would mature, only to have this process repeated. I could only guess that [Troll Regeneration] was the cause of our unnatural growth. Perhaps the skill looked on physical immaturity as ‘damage’ which needed to be healed. The prepared food and the injuries to begin regeneration probably indicated that this whole event was built to give us a head start on physical maturity. I was hoping my reasoning was flawed since that implied a pretty nasty environment and life, but given Mr. Grey’s words, I had little hope that I was wrong.
An upsetting thought came to me; how old was my mother? How likely was it that trolls were horrific destroying beasts not because they were by nature, but because they were still mentally children? Again, a horrible thought but one I couldn’t immediately reject. The possibility of physically strong children with the ability to recover from almost any damage having temper tantrums? Yeah, I can see how trolls would be hated, feared, and probably hunted as well.
It was at this point that I started planning for my future. Three piles of meat, three children, a small but by no means unmovable rock blocking the exit. My guess is that the point of this event is for us to grow, push the rock out of the way, and then join the rest of the tribe. If we can’t manage this then we starve to death. It was cruel, but no more so than some of the harshest rituals of humanity and probably par for the course when considering the nasty survival conditions I’m probably going to experience.
My initial plan was to eat only as much as what my siblings would have, then share out the rest of the pile, then when they calm down, I would work to push the rock out of the way. It seemed like a simple and easy plan, and for the first day after I made my plan, I didn’t see anything wrong with it. But as the days passed and the meat and bones dwindled, as I watched my brother and sister chew through even meat that was starting to smell and rot I realized my error.
I had been looking at things from a modern humans point of view, from the viewpoint of an aware and capable person which had been raised as part of a social group. I didn’t remember that life, but those were my morals and outlook.
My brother and sister wouldn’t hit the ends of their piles, take stock of the situation then calmly work with me to push the boulder out of the way. They would eat, they would hunger, then they would try and eat each other and me! The danger in this room wasn’t starvation, it was cannibalism. I was given the largest pile because I was the first born and it gave me the best chance, but that’s all it was a chance!
In my arrogance of knowledge and intellect, I had failed to consider things as they were and had seen things only from my point of view. I had done the worst thing in the situation I could do. I had slowed my eating and my siblings had already started to outgrow me. I had only one real plan to survive which would save me and my siblings from cannibalism. I needed to finish not just my pile, but some of my sibling's piles as well, grow far more than them and then get us out of here before they moved on to each other or me.
The next few hours were a nightmare routine of stuffing meat and bone into my mouth and fighting to ignore the painful stretching of my stomach. I did all I could to avoid the period of lethargy and sleep that my body seemed to want so dearly for recovery. I began to bulge and grow even as my stomach swelled into a gross pot belly, the green skin stretching and ripping in places. Even as I consumed I could feel my bones creaking and growing. When I reached the end of my pile I intentionally saved a large thigh bone from a deer-like animal.
A crude weapon, but a thick bone with a large ball joint would work for my plan. I felt myself recoiling and shuddering at my idea but my plan was all I could think of. With a wobble I tried to stand, the bone acting as a cane for my clumsy drunk-like stumble. I approached my brother, his face spread wide in a toothy grin of happiness, his body covered in dirt, blood, and bits of fur from his last meal. I tried to take as wide a stance as I could, my mind still not fully able to control my bodies movements. Gripping the bone in both hands I slammed the bone into my brothers closest limb. The sound of his knee breaking vibrated up into my hands through my improvised weapon.
I tried to ignore the screams of the little green child in front of me even as I worked to break his other limbs. The plan was obvious, my siblings had to spend more time healing than growing. The more of the food I could claim for myself the less they could use to grow. The more of the food they spent on healing, the less they could grow. Disabling them provided more food for me and did the double duty of protecting me from their future growth. But even as I reiterated this to myself I couldn’t help feeling like the most horrific of evils. Far more than my species, it was my actions which made me monstrous.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
New Skill Learned!
[2 Handed Blunt Weapon] (Novice 1) - Two-handed blunt weapons are designed to break bones and internal organs. These weapons are useful when fighting armored opponents or when the disparity in strength is large.
While usually slow, the extra reach and damage can cover that weakness.
Two-handed blunt weapons are usually less expensive than the bladed equivalent since even a complex design is usually fairly crude consisting of a large weight affixed to a strong pole.
Examples: Staffs, large maces, large hammers, and tree limbs.
Quickly I shoved the new window away from my mind and returned to my terrible work.
Only after destroying both of my brother's limbs did I drag him away from his food and into the corner furthest from the piles. Even as I dragged him away from the food I watched his bones shift and snap into shape. His hands scratched the ground weakly even as I clumsily dragged him back. Remembering my own scramble towards the food, even with broken limbs dragging behind me, I guessed that I wouldn’t have long to eat and grow.
I was right.
It took only a couple hours, but soon an emaciated body, bloody from dragging itself across the ground, joined me in eating at his former pile. He started to growl and snarl even as he stuffed himself with food. I had made one enemy already in my plan, but I knew that I had to go further and repeat my actions with my new sister. I wasn’t going to let my modern sensibilities convince me to leave my sister unharmed just because of her gender. I still remembered the large fangs jutting from my mother's mouth and the shining love in her eyes even as she prepared to condemn us to this horrific process. I had no doubt that my new sister would be just as capable and willing as my brother to rip the flesh from my bones in her hunger.
Even as I gutturally mumbled to myself my plan, repeating it over and over, I was screaming in horror in my mind. Yes, they were green and dirty and blood covered, but there was no doubting they were also children. My sister more resembling a nine-year-old in size, my brother somewhere around five and my body just now reaching a growth spurt into the teenage years. I wasn’t seeing monsters, I was seeing children, more, I was trying to see them as my new family, even as I prepared to break and smash my sister's body with a weapon ripped from an animal. The primitive and animalistic horror of my actions swept through me even as I slammed the bone into her repeatedly. I aimed for her limbs as I did for my brother. I was hoping to make movement difficult which would provide more time for me to eat. My attack went astray from the first swing, my new sister having seen my previous actions. She had not prepared well, simply trying to squirm away as I lashed out at her crawling body, but my morals cried out further as I staggered after her.
The ten-minute fight felt like it took hours, I slammed my weapon into my sister repeatedly as she weakly tried to fend me off. At one point my wildly swinging weapon smashed into her forearms snapping her clawed hands back into her own face. The fear and tears on my baby sister’s face as she tried to back away nearly made me throw up in disgust at my actions. I raged at my mother for putting her children into such a situation, crying as I tried to drag my sisters shuddering body away from her food.
With a will, I shoved meat, fur, and bone into my mouth. The snapping of my jaw and teeth ripping into the carcass as I tried to grow fast enough to avoid the coming horror. When I noticed my brother down to his last animal I knew that the time had come. I was still bloated with a belly overflowing with food, my limbs were actually bulging with fat, but I couldn’t wait. My sister had joined me not too long ago and was busy eating even as she shied away from me.
Waddling my body with its distended belly into the tunnel I started to second guess the viability of my plan. The stone covering the cave entrance was far larger than I had thought, most of its bulk hidden by the mouth of the tunnel. Shoving my still developing body against the rock I tried to shift its mass.
With more than a few grunts I moved the rock a small amount, more of a shifting into a more stable position than anything else. I tried laying back and pushing using my legs, shoving at the top of the rock trying to cause it to roll forward. I felt some movement but not enough. If I could get it to roll forward then I could walk my legs backward and keep the momentum moving but I failed even in that.
Soon I heard sniffling and grunts behind me within the cave, as I continued to strain I could hear the dragging of a body. I was guessing that my brother had finished his pile and was moving to begin on my sister's pile. My time was running out.
Shoving as hard as I could against the rock I heard my joints pop when suddenly pain drove into my back as something failed inside me. I tried to ignore the sharp ripping pain as I had ignored the mental pain I had already experienced but it hindered my actions and stopped the rock.
Sky.
I could see a tiny sliver of sky, a dark blue sky heading towards night time, but sky none the less. Tears of joy started to fall from my face but I soon frowned when I realized the rock was still too close to allow escape. I began to beat and kick at the rock in frustration even as my back healed. I pushed and shoved, desperate to make further progress but the capstone rock failed to budge.
In desperation I crammed my crude bone weapon under the bottom edge of the boulder and pressed down even as I shoved awkwardly at the top, my body nearly pressed in an arch in the air against the conflicting forces. With a grinding of bone and stone, the sudden movement of the rock heralded our new freedom.
Event Success!
Tel-duth forest troll naming ceremony!
The Tel-duth forest trolls are an ancient race which has become nearly extinct. Each child born undergoes the harsh naming ceremony. Upon survival, the given name will be your official name.
Requirement: Survive.
Reward: Official Name ‘Gur-Dun’, translation - “Son of Suffering”
Failure: Death