July 30

I know I often write in the evening, but I forgot to write yesterday after I got back. I have gotten a tip about how to set up a rope trap to catch the fox’s leg. Once I snare it, I will need to get it into an iron cage somehow.

August 1st

I set up the trap outside of the hole, and am now watching it. The trap is made up of some coils of rope, with a loop lying on the ground. When the fox steps out from the hole, I will catch it, pull it up into the air, and place the cage below it. Then I release it and it falls into the cage.

Well, the fox was not in the hole. It walked up to what I would now assume is its den, carrying a quail. It stepped over the rope completely and went into the hole. Did it know the rope was th— OH!

As I was writing, the fox poked its head out. I would guess that it heard the scratching of my pen and came to investigate, and stepped directly into the position I wanted. I yanked the rope, tightening it around its feet and hoisting it up. I raced over and hurriedly placed the cage below it. The rope was already burning and was producing an acrid smell. Just as I got the door of the cage open, the rope burned through and the fox fell. I slammed the door shut and sat back in surprise. I had done it all so quickly that I had barely registered how heavy the fox was, it was easily 30 pounds.

Well… I need to take the fox back to the house, but that creates more problems, it could cause a fire, I have nowhere to keep it, and additionally, I do not want to get burned while carrying it.

August 1st

Well, it has been an eventful day. I have dubbed the creature a fire-fox due to its ability to set things ablaze. I determined it to be male, so it likely does not have cubs to take care of. I ran back to fetch the butler to help me bring it to the carriage house. We put a large stick through the loop at the top of the cage and carried it between us.

I have begun to experiment on it, and have already found that being within three feet of it produces enough heat to cause me to sweat heavily.

August 1st

I have determined that a piece of paper ignites in about 18 seconds. I do not know how high the temperature would be and do not have a thermometer.

Argh, I am quite lacking in equipment to study this animal, I may have to release it soon.

I need to make some changes to how I am studying these animals. I need a designated room, away from the maids, where I can keep anything dangerous. It cannot be on the second floor because they will get suspicious and it cannot be on the main floor because guests might stumble across it. This only leaves the cellar. I will look for a suitable location in the cellar.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

I will use the second store room. Perhaps I should excavate some of the space behind it. Even if I am unable to excavate anything I can still use part of the storeroom at the end of the hallway. There is plenty of extra space.

August 3rd

I can hardly believe it. This seems unreal. Just a year ago, if one had told me that there were monsters inhabiting our world, I would scarcely have believed it, but then everything changed and I began to find strange beasts that roamed the land, living in shadows and holes. I have since grown accustomed to it, but I was not prepared for what I had found today.

It seems to be almost straight out of a fantasy novel…. What I have found is … a troll.

Yes, I hardly believe it myself. This fantastical creature exists under an abandoned stone bridge in the middle of nowhere. I dared not go near, as there are many legends that speak of its ferocity.

I was out in the forest today, wanting to find a small mammal for one last test before I release the firefox when I stumbled across this great discovery.

August 5th

I am writing this many days after July 5th, I believe it was. There was a travelling circus in town and I decided to visit. It was advertised as having a new act. It was something called “hypnosis” and had been invented maybe 50 years ago? As far as I could tell anyway. As I watched, the magician convinced a member of the onlookers that he was a sheep and convinced another to do everything he ordered. It was quite the spectacle.

August 6th

I had an idea! I have no idea why this did not occur to me earlier. I could attempt to use hypnosis on the troll and get it to excavate the walls of the storage room instead of having to use only part of it.

August 7th

This is very stressful. I need to just grit my teeth and get it over with. I hope it goes well.

It worked! I don't have any idea how the science works but I am not complaining. I was able to hypnotize the troll after only a few minutes of trying. It nearly attacked me but I convinced it to wait while I showed it something impressive. It appears to be sentient, just like the fairy tales and stories said.

I found that the troll is very aggressive when defending its bridge, but does not care about anything beyond it, even if someone stands just a few feet away. It was only when I stepped onto the old stone bridge that the troll emerged from underneath and threatened me.

Would the hypnosis work on smaller animals such as the firefox or horned owl? Or does it only affect intelligent life? I will need to test this in the future.

On a different note, I feel invincible, not physically, but I feel I can conquer any beast I come across. Trolls are supposed to be among the worst monsters and I easily bested it.

August 9th

I waited until today to move the troll towards the manor. Even if I could always just hypnotize it again, I cannot endanger anyone else in the house. I had to wait to see if the hypnosis would wear off.

I will use the troll as manual labor as they are many times stronger than humans. Using the troll, I can quickly excavate not only a room to keep dangerous animals but an entire study suite for my experiments.

I have left the troll behind some trees near the edge of the forest. I will move the troll into the cellar during the night. In the meantime, I need to finish up my preparations before then. At the very least, I need to make a space to hide it for tonight

August 9th

I waited until the maids were asleep then crept out from my bed and went down the stairs to the main floor. I have unlocked the back door and am going to bring the troll into the cellar. I hope it goes well.

Well… the butler saw me. I must have woken him, and he confronted me from the top of the stairs with a shotgun in hand. I persuaded him to keep silent about my activities, and that he should not tell anyone of the beast standing beside me. He quietly went back to his room and I took the troll down into the cellar. I placed it in the room I had constructed (I had started working on it on my own but it was super slow, I have made a small room to separate any dangerous materials from the rest of the storeroom). It should be fine there overnight, but to be safe I locked it in.

August 11th

I got in very big trouble this morning. When questioned about the events of last night, the butler told Maryanne that it was I who had been prowling around at night. He wisely kept his mouth shut about the nature of why I was going outside at such an hour, but because of that I got blamed for making a mess.