Slight tremors shook the cave, waking Laelia from her troubled sleep. Quakes were as common as rain on planet Ode and the shudder did not frighten her. Surrounded by craggy walls of stone, she lay still for what seemed like eternity. The tremors released vapors that seeped out of the rock crevices and filled the thick air with perfumed gas. Laelia felt intoxicated by the fumes and struggled to keep her mind clear! She sat up, trying to collect her senses. She suspected that living in this gas was the reason Zote appeared dull-witted. The little mountain troll could not know the scent spewed out of the cavern’s bowels was ethylene gas. If she remained in the cave, she would soon be a simpleton, just like Zote.
Deep within the twisted stomach of planet Ode lay pits of black bitumen oil that gave off sulfurous fumes. Mixing with water, the fumes created cracks that in time ballooned into limestone caverns. Zote’s home was one of these caverns.
Frequent quakes created fissures throughout his cave, which released ethylene gas. The sweet-smelling gas merged with the stench of decomposing corpses. Now this ghoulish cavern was Laelia’s home.
In the dimly lit cave, she watched from her cage as Zote moved from one chamber to the next. She studied him closely, looking for signs of kindness. Engrossed in his work, Zote seemed oblivious to her eyes. His huge hands grasped a long wooden paddle as he stirred a thick liquid in a black pot. The cave was silent except for the screech of rats and Zote’s humming as he worked. Bright flames flickering under the large pot cast light on his whiskered face, revealing beads of glimmering sweat dripping down his beard and falling into the boiling fluid. Sitting in the cave’s recesses were baskets woven from willow limbs and filled with fine white crystals.
She watched as Zote retrieved the body of a dead troll lying in one of the catacombs. Now Laelia recognized the bubbling, golden brown liquid. Zote was stirring resin that came from the forest’s pine trees. Laelia felt nauseated as she watched Zote pour resin inside and outside of the troll’s body. When finished, he carried the body back to the catacomb and carefully placed it into its niche. She realized the baskets of white salt-like crystals were filled with natron. She knew natron and the viscous resin were used to embalm dead trolls. He must have previously filled the body cavity with the salt. Now, several days later, after the natron dried the fluids, the body was ready for Zote to finish its mummification. She tried to keep her eyes off Zote and not look any farther into the cave’s dark corners. In a living nightmare, Laelia curled up and cowered in the corner of her cage.
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Squeaking rats and mice scurried about, dragging naked tails behind them. Some ran through her little prison. Looking up, Laelia saw strings of dead mice tied by their tails hanging from the cave’s rafters.
She understood why there were no rats hanging with the mice. Zote was smart enough to keep the rats alive. If the ethylene gas reached a dangerous level, the rats would sense it before Zote and rush out of the cave; he would follow them. Eating constantly and comfortable for the moment, the rats made the cave their home.
After he finished embalming the troll, Laelia watched as Zote pampered himself. He selected one string of well-fattened mice and stuffed all of them into his mouth. Like a dog, he swallowed them without chewing. Then Zote tossed a string of mice out for the rats, and another he threw into her cage for her to munch on. Short gasps of air escaped from her mouth at the sight of the dead mice lying on her cage floor. Making it worse was Zote’s morbid humming ringing in her ears.
She feared the underground crypt might be her own place of burial. Somehow, she must attempt to break away. But if Zote caught her, Laelia wondered what this humongous troll might do in his rage. Closing her eyes, she imagined Mt. Grieg and its green beauty. The little troll had to believe the towering peaks of her mountain would some day guide her home.
After his meal of mice, Zote opened her cage. Breaking the silence, he demanded in his booming voice that she follow him, announcing they were going snake hunting. Hairy hands reached for her; horrified, she pulled back.
Laelia then meekly followed Zote through the dizzying maze of tunnels. Light flowing from the tunnel mouth gave her a strange sense of hope. But now she knew that even if she could escape her cage, there was no way she could find her way out of the dark labyrinth of catacombs. It was clear to her that any plan for escape had to start after Zote had led her to the surface.
As they stood at the opening of the cavern, the bright sunlight was blinding. When Laelia’s eyes adjusted, she saw Zote wore around his neck an opossum skin pouch.