Chapter 2
Making Friends
The sound startled both of them so that Robert started taking a few steps backwards out of the cave. As Ricky also turned in response, Rob snagged the strap on the top of his pack and started to pull too, but Rick struggled against him trying to pull him further in.
“Lissssten!” said the voice again. “Boysss must go now, or othersss will sense them soon!”
Both boys stopped and peered into the darkness. Robert’s heart beat in fear and frustration both. He didn’t know how close the owner of the voice was and hoped it wasn’t within a near grab of them. Ricky’s raced at the potential to speak with the ugly little creature and find out how he disappeared so quickly outside.
As they tried to focus their eyes further down the cave’s walls a shimmer fell not ten feet before them and the little troll came into focus. He was wringing both hands in front of him and his sharp teeth shined blue in a tense grimace. It risked a couple steps towards the boys and motioned with both hands, palms up in an attempt at pleading with them. But the black-nailed, claw-like fingers along with the creatures teeth, ears and deathly skin tone made Robert all the more afraid to move.
“Human boysss. You mussst go now, or they will sense you! Then I get… rosh’t’aken!”
Ricky, ever the curious cat, asked, “Rosh taken? What’s that?”
The little critter raised its hands and waggled them back and forth in response. It hummed to itself in a monotone as it placed one long, boney index finger on its nose and thought, eyes rolling.
“Uh…grounded. Kile will be…grounded if others find you here!”
“There’s others!” Ricky almost shouted it.
Kile returned to waggling his hands back and forth before them. Robert for his part gulped and tried to imaging what kind of trouble they’d be in themselves.
“No, no!” Kile hissed. “Shhh, shhh!”
“What in the freak are you?” asked Ricky, his hands on his hips, puzzled look upon his face.
The little troll mimicked the smaller boy in return, standing akimbo and eyeing him up. He even giggled a little in his raspy troll voice as he did so. He’d never had a chance to actually talk with a human, let alone play a sort of game with one before. Mimic was a troll’s greatest magical defenses, of course, but copying the humans’ motions and expressions were not quite the same thing.
“Kile!” he eventually replied.
“Well…what’s your name then?” Ricky continued.
Robert behind him was starting to regain his sanity a little. He swacked his little brother’s right shoulder, hard, and made a shushing sound himself, extremely unlikely to be heeded by the smaller boy.
“Um,” said the little troll, placing a finger on his mouth this time before responding. “I Kile!”
“Kyle? So…your name is Kyle…and you are a Kyle? …How do you spell that?”
Kile clapped his hands and laughed again in a raspy hum and giggle combined as he tried to mimic the raised eyebrows and somewhat haughty look Ricky was giving him. Unfortunately troll eyebrows don’t really raise very well, although they can squash together when frowning or squinting. The effect was that of wide-eyed terror or surprise that was so awkward even Robert had to laugh.
“I am troll. I mountain troll!” Kile said, and then pointed a thumb back at his chest. “Kile!”
“Uh-huh,” replied Robert. “And we’re both humans, and…I think we’ll just be leaving now.”
Robert turned and forcefully turned his little brother around, who protested and fought. As they looked to the exterior of the cave a large shadow loomed over it, making the light inside even more eerily blue. Then a very large troll seemed to materialize out of a shimmer in the air. It’s nose and it’s ears were considerably larger than Kile’s. In fact, the entire head, body, and the lengthy, orangutan-shaped arms were all considerably larger. It hung from the edge of the cave entrance such that it looked almost bat-like, blocking the entrance. A rough and reverberating voice came when the creature opened its mouth, exposing large stone-colored and rugged teeth.
“Ker-atch’k?” It asked. Then it dropped to the floor of the cave entrance with a heavy thud, spinning as it went to land on its feet.
The boys heard a quiet Trollish curse uttered behind them, “Chi’at…”
Then they turned back to the monster filling the entrance just feet in front of them.
It glared at the two of them in turn, then made a sharp gesture with one arm towards Kile. It seemed to be asking the smaller troll a question about the two brothers. As it spoke it demonstrated taking a large food item (a hind quarter of a cow, perhaps?) and pretended to nosh on it as it held it between two fists.
“Cu’moh neer’at tah neekin, Kile?” it growled, and then gestured again towards the smaller troll.
The two humans turned their heads slowly about to see what Kile’s response would be. He waddled towards them wringing his grotesque hands together again. As he stepped to answer the larger troll he parted the two brothers. Neither human knew it, but it was an attempt to ensure Dronosh did not take the initiative in enjoying a nice human munching either.
Finally drawing enough nerve to face the older troll eye to eye, Kile began to plead on their behalf. His hands moved a lot, and the explanation was lengthy. When he was done the large troll huffed at him. It then placed one over-sized palm on Kile’s head and leaned over him to look more closely at the humans. He took several giant whiffs of air, smelling the boys, seemingly contemplating their flavor. Then he stood up again and folded his arms before them, breathing heavily.
“What is it? What is he saying, Kyle?” asked Robert breathlessly.
Kyle turned his head somewhat back to them but did not dare turn his back on the large troll. He mumbled out of the side of his mouth a quiet response.
“Dronosh want to know…umm,” again Kile seemed to be seeking the right words. “He want to know why I not eat you already.”
“Oh cra…” started little Ricky. But he did not get the chance to finish.
Kile attempted to continue on his explanation. It took several sentences and the larger troll seemed less and less happy with it.
“Na’lah tah neekin derre humanssss?! Ne ta’lah tah neekin, ogen mysah derre humansss!”
“Uh-oh,” mumbled Kile and then he attempted to complain again to the large troll. His voice was raising and it seemed to Robert that the little troll was getting desperate.
“What? What is it?” insisted Robert every time Kile took a moment to inhale.
Finally, Kile responded in his nervously raspy voice.
“Dronosh say, if I not eat you, he eat you. I try to tell him against the rules now.”
Robert and Ricky both looked at each other. Ricky finally seemed to understand the predicament that he had brought both himself and his brother into, and there was some honest, nine-year-old fear reflected on his face.
Rob grumbled very low, “Ricky?...I think I’m gonna let him eat you first, you doofus. Maybe he’ll get full.”
Ricky gulped and then both boys turned back to the conversation. Kile also turned from his conversation, exposing his back to the larger troll. Subconsciously, Robert thought perhaps that was a good sign. Indeed Kile was smiling when he spoke to the boys, although it seemed forced. Forty-seven pointed teeth shone from his wide grin.
“See? We talk it out!”
“Oh yeah? So what’s for dinner then?” asked Ricky quietly.
The large troll still stood behind the three with his arms folded, chest rising and falling heavily as he huffed.
“No, no, no!” Kile said. He clapped a hand on either boy’s shoulders, which was a little hard to do since both, even Ricky’s were quite a bit taller than the small troll’s drooping hands and turned them into the cave, walking slowly. “We are mountain troll. Not bridge trolls. We not eat humans. And! Mountain trolls can talk too! We fix this.”
“Fix this?” Robert asked nervously. “What’s going on? Can’t we just leave now?”
Robert had stopped them in their tracks and Kile’s eyes flicked nervously about.
“Uh…Dronosh not let me let you go until we talk to king,” he responded, trying to push the boys to start walking into the cave again with him.
“What?!”
Kile stopped and rung his hands a little before responding. Dronosh also stopped and smashed down both clenched fists into the cave floor, shaking it slightly. Obviously, there was still quite a bit of tension between them all and Robert had already decided he could do nothing but go quietly with Kile’s plan even before he got the explanation.
“Well…Dronosh is our…um…guard?” Kile still had trouble with several words. It was then that Robert understood this was a second language for him, and he was struggling with it just as Dad had when he spent one summer trying to learn Spanish.
“Guard?” Ricky asked? He turned to Rob and then said in a whisper while finally smiling again, “Like Dad!”
“No, doofus. Dad is in the Army National Guard. I think this big guy is like the door guard to the cave.”
“Yes!” giggled Kile. He wondered at how smart the little humans were. They seemed to understand a whole lot more than he would have expected. “Dronosh guard door. He say must eat you so no more humans come. I tell him that is against rules. We don’t eat humans anymore.”
“Anymore?”
“Well…mountain trolls used to eat humans. Insides taste very good…at least that what Dronosh say.”
“How does Dronosh know?” asked Ricky.
“Oh?...well…Dronosh very old. He eat humans many hundred years ago in old lands. But he won’t eat you…if King tell him not to.”
“Oh great. I get it. You still have to convince him,” Rob grumped. “Ricky, I swear you’re getting eaten first!”
“No, no, no!” Kile tried to ease them both with his huge grin again. “King made rules. King not going to let eat you.”
Kile slapped them on the shoulders reassuringly as they continued into the pale blue glow of the troll caves. The pathway twisted and turned and descended into the roots of the Rocky Mountains. The temperature dropped and occasionally the boys could hear either water dripping in the caves or various grumblings of other trolls echoing through the caverns ahead.
The two boys were not reassured by Kile’s friendly slaps.
Troll Brother Page 6
