by Mark Swaine
Yu-Huang smiles assuringly at Xunsu's apprehensive expression, gesturing her forward. Xunsu holds the boulder providing her cover, but as she prepares to move she accidently loosens a stone. Xunsu winces as the pebble bounces in a rhythmic, tapping roll to the ground. Yu-Huang raises his hand, informing her to be still. Yu-Huang grimaces as he listens to the footsteps of a troll slowing to a halt. In the dark, it's difficult to see the troll's hard flat face turning in Xunxu’s direction. But in the dark, it’s hard for a troll to see anything at all, for the eyesight of a troll isn’t much better than a bat's, relying mainly on their acute sense of sound and smell. Even though the huge beast isn't able to see Xunsu, the longer she remains behind that boulder, the sooner it’ll catch the scent of her body odour. Xunsu remains calm as the twenty-foot shadow looms above her. The massive figure stands on the spot, sniffing the air and looking in all directions whilst grunting quietly. The troll takes heed not to alert his kin to his suspicions, for if it is food he can smell, he would be the one to bring it to his king, or sneakily eat it himself in a dark corner somewhere.
The troll sees the rock covering Xunsu and drops on all fours in a dire attempt to be stealthlike. With its armour and weaponry clanking together, it sniffs around the rock. Xunsu edges against the rock until her back is fully pressed against the rough surface. She edges around the boulder on the tips of her feet as the troll's stubbly, block shaped head peers round the corner. Sniffing and grunting, panting billows of steam, stenching of rotten meat, the pale beast sees nothing but darkness. Xunsu fights the urge to wretch each time the beast exhales, yet remains perfectly still. Confused, the troll studies every side of the boulder, unaware of the human creeping quietly around the blind spots. The dim witted troll grunts an obscenity in his mother tongue and appears to give up tracing the faint scent of fresh meat. Returning to its patrol, the troll lumbers away whilst keeping his ears sharp. Believing the coast to be clear and underestimating the troll’s intelligence, Xunsu dashes for the next boulder. Clearly not as dim-witted as it seems, the troll turns quickly to catch Xunsu in mid run. The beast doesn't take kindly to being mocked, especially by a midnight snack. The troll growls with intensity as ropes of yellow saliva droop from its mouth.
Xunsu remains frozen, petrified, as the lumbering beast suddenly charges forward. From the shadows behind the charging beast, a larger troll savagely swings his giant club hammer to the side of his brethren’s head. Barging his fellow centurion to the ground, he wastes no time in pursuing the human cub. Yu-Huang immediately jumps over the boulder he was using as cover and charges past Xunsu with lightning speed, as if the wind itself had possessed his very feet. Yu-Huang launches a flying kick into the hammer wielding troll's muscular solid gut. The brute rolls backwards into a flying tumble.The beast recovers to its knees whilst clutching his gut and Yu-Huang leaps to deliver a chin breaking uppercut followed by bya straight kick to its shin. As the beast yells in fury, Yu-Huang drives his fist forward, breaking the troll's nose. Noticing the other dazed troll recovering from the club hammer attack, Yu-Huang yells at Xunsu to run for the bridge. Xunsu hesitates until his command is repeated more furiously. The two trolls advance more cautiously toward their enemy. The Emperor swaps his stance to a more optimal attacking position as they flank him. The smaller troll charges forward with his back arched and head low in an attempt to catch his prey off-guard. Yu-Huang leaps onto its flat bald head, using it as a platform to deliver an inverted whirlwind kick to the broken jawed troll on his other side.
The troll's face jolts repeatedly against the flurry of barefooted, iron-cast foot blows. As the tiny feet knock out the troll’s gold teeth, it screams in frustration and knocks Yu-Huang away with a sudden swipe, as if he were nothing more than an irritating fly. Landing with his feet digging into the ground, he unearths a cloud of dust as the force of the blow forces him into a backwards skid. The other trolls on guard are alerted to the continuing battle and form an inescapable makeshift arena around the three combatants. The trolls cast a glow upon the arena with torches the size of small village bonfires, casting a hot burning light upon the slamming ground of death dealing limbs. The eager spectators armed with large hammers, swords and morning stars, grunt and bob their heads, anticipating the Emperor's lifeless broken body. From the hundred foot high, flesh-veiled entrance of the palace of bone, the Troll King's second in command, Commander Yǒnghéng Jǐzhù observes the ground shaking commotion. Meanwhile, in the arena, the smaller troll tries to crush Yu-Huang with his solid giant feet, one earth shuddering stamp after another. Yu-Huang rolls and somersaults from side to side, evading the descending battery of hammering feet. Yu-Huang manages to gain ground before sprinting up the troll’s thick hairy leg and leaping up from its shoulder, vanishing from sight.
The troll looks around, wondering where the nimble mortal insect has disappeared to. Suddenly, the troll hear’s an ear-deafening crunch as Yu-Huang descends from his leap, landing feet first upon its head. The two rushing bare heels compress the troll’s head between its shoulders, fracturing its thick skull. Yu-Huang leaps from the troll’s head as it drops to the ground, rolling and moaning from its searing headache. The other toothless troll grabs Yu-Huang in mid-flight with both hands and screams into his face, releasing its frustration. Holding the human captive in two clenched hands, the troll's eyebrows burrow low beneath its partially merged pupils. The grey faced troll manages a wicked smile, revealing its bare bleeding gums growing with fungus. The troll licks the side of Yu-Huang's face with the tip of its slimy leathery tongue, leaving a trail of green and yellow mucus. The troll closes its eyes, savouring the rare taste of fresh human meat. The troll gnashes its few remaining teeth close to Yu-Huang's face, taunting him. With his face caked in green and dark yellow phlegm, Yu-Huang is disgusted and reinvigorated with rage. Breaking his arms free, he reaches inside the troll’s nostrils and grabs two handfuls of crusty nose hair.
Curling the tough hairs around his fists, Yu-Huang pull’s the troll’s head toward his, head-butting it between the eyebrows until it finally loses its grip and falls to a knee. Rubbing the circular wounds on its forehead, the troll curses the sprightly insect positioning himself into an unusual stance. Yu-Huang steadies his fist and mutters a spell, solidifying his glowing knuckles until his fists pulsate with a golden metallic shine. As the troll stands to its feet, Yu-Huang draws back his arm. The troll steadily jog toward Yu-Huang gathers speed into into an indomitable sprint as it tears forward in bellowing rage. As the troll throws its fist like a downwards hammer, Yu-Huang unleashes a flurry of golden punches connecting with the troll’s entire body. As the troll stands dazed, swaying and bleeding, the Emperor connects his hands and thrusts them forward with his palms outstretched. Unleashing the magic contained within his wrists, it flows to the palms of his hands and intertwines, releasing a massive fist of light. The fist connects with the trolls face, chest and gut, knocking it far over the arena against the mountain face. The circle of trolls stares at the human victor, conflicted by their King's orders and the rare opportunity to feast upon a one of a kind meat. Resenting the mere presence of their banisher, the trolls close toward him in a single pack. One of the trolls suddenly stops and screams wildly whilst clasping its icy, crystallising leg. As the troll's leg shimmers, cracks and steams with cool air, a singular high pitched war cry bellows into the night as a tiny figure leap kicks through its frozen limb. Flying through a cloud of the blue sparkling ice particles, Xunsu races to the Emperor’s side and forms a stance of attack, preparing to fight back to back.
“I told you to make for the bridge,” says Yu-Huang, wearily.
“I'll not leave your side, my Master,” replies Xunsu, stubbornly.
“ENOUGH!” says the Troll King's second in command.
The Troll King's Commander pushes his brethren aside to enter the circle where Yu-Huang and Xunsu wearily prepare for battle.
“I am Yǒnghéng Jǐzhù, Commander of the Gǔgé Fěnsuì Jī Legions. Your King, would have words
with you, Yu-Huang the Merciless,” says the Commander. “Take them before the King, without another mark on them!” shouts the Commander in a series of grunts.
The fur-garbed, bone-armoured trolls reluctantly escort the two humans to the Ròu hé Gǔtou Palace. Inside the giant bone crafted archway of the temple palace, Xunsu jumps at the sounds of screaming originating from the endless corridors meeting the main entrance to the palace hall. The temple is warm and moist and stinks of rotting cadavers. The steam filled journey is well lit by chandeliers of exploding fire suspended some hundred feet of the ground. The chandeliers, crafted from the fuel glands of scavenger dragons, light the flapping curtains of stitched skin preventing the chill of the mountain slipstreams. Xunsu and Yu-Huang continue up a wide ribbed pathway leading towards an even wider flight of steps. Coerced up the short flight of steps, they enter a large throneroom. On both sides of the raised catwalk leading up the steps of the raised throne, a graveyard of bones, skulls and discarded ribcages decorate the lengthy tables and bloody floor. Body organs and bones belonging to trolls, dragons, humans and various other beasts, clutter the spacious river red floor as thirsty trolls lap up the fly festering soup strewn with rotting body parts. Xunsu places her sleeve over her mouth and nose and Yu-Huang informs her to place her arms by her side, as the trolls are easily offended by humans. Yu-Huang observes the newly crafted throne occupied by a troll slightly smaller and younger than the others. He laughs in realisation and self-stupidity.
“I should have guessed,” chuckles Yu-Huang.
“Master, who is that sat at the throne?” asks Xunsu.
“Kao Lu, son of Yěmán Rén, the self-proclaimed King of the Kunlun Mountains. Now silence, say nothing,” warns Yu-Huang.
Yu-Huang and Xunsu approach the base of the short flight of steps where the King Troll sits casually on his throne of bones. Yu-Huang studies the offspring of his sworn enemy, fully armoured in his descendant’s impenetrable skeletal remains, but not Yeman Ren’s. The crown of a tooth-rowed mandible sits firmly on Kao Lu’s head, a hulking ribcage and solid sternum rests comfortably over his own, forming a secondary protective chest plate. Spaulders formed of red dragon scales appear fused to his skin, seared to his muscle by dragon fire from the fashioned fuel gland fitted to his other shoulder. A cloak of stitched flesh and scales hangs loosely over his shoulders, supported by his father's braid fastened around his thick bulky neck. King Kao Lu strokes and feeds a black and white cow moseying by his leg, ignoring the trespassers. His greasy black hair hangs below his low creased forehead. His partially merged eyes shift to his father's enemy and human cub at the base of the steps. Xunsu observes the trolls unique appearance, she had never seen a troll before. Now that she’s face to face with the King, she can’t take her eyes off the marvellous giant. King Kao Lu's partially merged pupil, much larger than his green pupil, glowers at the child. A long scar crosses his forehead, flat spread nose and lipless mouth.
“Well, well, well, Yu-Huang the Mighty, Yu-Huang the Wise, Yu-Huang theMerciful,” says the Troll King condescendingly, “if only your people knew the true extent of your mercy... Yu-Huang, murderer of my people, destroyer of my kingdom and Banisher of my Father. Much pride, much pride you have, entering my domain,” says King Kao Lu, staring down his enemy.
Alerted to Yu-Huang placing a foot on the first step to his throne, King Lao Lu grips the hilt of a broad sword sheathed inside the arm rest.
“That’s close enough, Yu-Huang,” says King Lao Lu in a familiar secret language.
Yu-Huang and Xunsu look at one other in question.
“How is it you have come to know of the ‘Spell of the Tongue,’ asks Yu-Huang, curiously.
“Yu-Huang, I know a great many things you do not,” replies Kao Lu.
“Where is your father? I demand to speak with him,” says Yu-Huang.
“You demand nothing; you are in my domain now,” replies King Lao Lu, sternly.
“Where is Yeman Ren, Kao Lu?” says Yu-Huang, more threateningly this time.
“I relieved my father of his crown. I am now King of my rule, King of these Mountains,” says the King Kao Lu, leaning forward.
“Your father pledged a vow to remain within the mountains after his defeat at my hands…” says Yu-Huang.
“I am not my father. I pledged no such vow to keep within the mountain caves. I have long since removed my father as ruler. Now there is a stronger, wiser leader and King. Under my leadership, we are now a much stronger people,” says King Kao Lu.
“People?” scoffs Yu-Huang. “Scavengers, murderers... cannibals,” replies Yu-Huang sneeringly.
"Much like your beloved dragons,” counters the Troll King.
"How dare you compare your kind to the might of the dragons? Even a dragon is able to sense the difference between a child and a meal,” says Yu-Huang angrily.
"You truly reside in a dream realm, if you didn't have your head so far in the clouds, you would know that dragons eat anything that moves, even children,” says King Lao Lu.
“A few rogues perhaps,” says Yu-Huang guiltily, “I do not keep track...”
“Never mind. Times have changed Yu-Huang, now we breed our food and hunt only raiders and mercenaries that pass our way. We no longer feed on dirty peasants and human cubs. Gone are the old ways, in favour of a much more...civilised society,” says the troll patting the large mooing cow looking doe-eyed at Yu-Huang.
"Time is not enough to change your kind. What do you want Kao Lu, why did you request my presence?” asks Yu-Huang irritably.
"Request?” says Kao Lu in an astonished tone, “Yu-Huang, you overestimate your power. I could have destroyed you with the snap of my fingers...” says King Kao Lu with his snapping fingers creating a loud bang, “if I did not need you alive...” says Kao Lu, baring his teeth and squeezing his armrest.
“Were my pupil not in harm’s way, I would force you to put your claims to the test,” says Yu-Huang daringly.
“You left my father for dead. You banished us to the depths of the darkest mountain caves and you gave me this when I was but a child,” says the King proudly, pointing to the scar on his face, “you took the lives of my people when you...”
“...your father mounted an attack on my village! You ravaged our livestock and slaughtered and cannibalised my people. Consider yourself fortunate you walked away with little more than a beauty scar, for your exile might have been more permanent were I a lesser man and leader,” says Yu-Huang, crossly.
King Kao Lu knows the Emperor's argument is justified and finds no cause for further debate. As much as he still relishes the notion of snapping his body in half, he knows that if he’s going to lead his people to victory, then he must find it within his savage nature to remain diplomatic. The King Troll's eyebrows burrow as his stomach rumbles loudly, so he abandons his thirst for vengeance in favour of his ravenous hunger. King Kao Lu gently lifts the patchy mooing cow onto his lap and turns it upside down before biting a huge chunk out of its round belly. A high pitched mooing scream echoes through the throne room before its head slumps back limp. A steaming splatter of cascading blood floods down the steps in a splashing spillage of glossy red guts. Xunsu gulps and retches as her upchuck reacts with repeated heaves, yet she’s unable to look away from the nauseating site of the troll licking his fingers as the cow’s blood sprinkles their feet. Yu-Huang looks down at Xunsu and sees her turning a shade of pale green as she retches once more.
“Don’t you dare,” warns Yu-Huang, quietly into her ear.
Xunsu heeds her master's warning and regains her disposition as the troll sucks and slurps the cow’s long intestine past its cracked lips like a long noodle saturated in lip smacking sweet and sour sauce. Kao Lu savours the hot meal with satisfaction in his raised eyebrows as entrails flicker this way and that until disappearing into his mouth. Xunsu heaves again as she watches King Kao Lu spit out the cow's udder onto the steps and as it lands with an explosion of milk, Xunsu suddenly vomits onto the floor. Yu-Huang shuts
his eyes in disbelief as he feels the wet patter of vomit impacting the side of his feet. In disbelief and contempt, he refrains from looking at her as he shakes his foot to rid of the girl's dinner.
“Forgive me Master, I feel much better now,” says Xunsu, wiping her mouth.
“Your manners appear to be somewhat lacking,” says the troll as he discards the remains of the cow to his soldiers.
Xunsu appears surprised at King Kao Lu's observation as she watches three trolls tear the limbs from the discarded cow.
