When Halthor woke, he found himself feeling stiff and
uncomfortable. He moved to stretch and realized that the fire's
smoldering ashes were near his feet. He looked up at Freystein's
face. By the light of day, he could see that craggy face was a bit
more humanoid than it seemed in the dark. With their eyes closed, the
mountain troll seemed a carved statue, perhaps a grotesque that would
have graced one of the high arched roofs of the temples. The mountain
troll was perfectly still. Halthor questioned of the mountain troll
was perhaps sleeping. He carefully stood up and found himself at eye
level with the gigantic head that was resting upon a forearm,
creating something of a roof over him to shelter Halthor, the dog,
and the fire from the gently falling snow.
Halthor questioned how the mountain troll knew his name. He
wondered what they had meant when they had said that Griff had
sheltered them. More questions came to mind as Halthor looked about,
first being how exactly was he going to relieve himself with out
offending the mountain troll. Halthor turned around and found that
Freystein had opened their platter sized eyes. "I WAS HOPING YOU
WOULD WAKE SOON. WE HAVE FAR TO GO. WE MUST BREAK OUR FAST AND THEN
PREPARE TO GO ONWARDS." Freystein boomed. Halthor's ears rang
and he nodded in agreement. Freystein opened their arms and arose to
their feet. The snow that had drifted up against their right side
collapsed upon itself into a pile that nearly threatened the fire.
Freystein reached out an enormous finger and carefully moved the
entire pile of snow aside, revealing the grass hidden down below.
"Just what do you eat?" asked Halthor, doing his best to
keep his sudden bout of nervousness out of his voice. Freystein
smiled and gestured towards a tree. "You eat trees?" he
said in confusion. Freystein chuckled and walked over to a gnarled,
dead oak. Gripping the trunk at its base, with a grunt, the mountain
troll pulled it free from the ground. Dirt fell off of the roots and
scattered everywhere as Freystein walked back to Halthor.
"TREES FEED ME, I FEED THE TREES," they said. "MEN
EAT FLESH AND GRAIN. TROLL KIND EAT TREES AND STONES. THE STORIES OF
TROLLS EATING MEN ARE MOSTLY UNTRUE." Halthor squinted at
Freystein. After an awkward moment, Halthor realized that the
mountain troll was making a joke and shook his head. Halthor walked
over to a clump of bushes and attempted to discreetly attend to his
bodily needs. As he was doing so, Freystein said, "MEN ARE LIKE
CATS AND HIDE THEIR LEAVINGS. YOU STILL REMEMBER BEING PREY. IT IS
WHY YOU SURVIVE." Elwis had the audacity to piss on Freystein's
right leg. The mountain troll looked down as it turned the tree in
its hands around so that the roots were upward. Halthor found himself
deeply concerned that Elwis wasn't long for the world but then
Freystein laughed. "DOGS DO NOT CARE ABOUT POLITENESS, DO THEY?"
Halthor settled his clothes and rubbed his hands in the snow to
clean them. He then walked over to where his pack sat beside
Freystein. "GRIFF FOUND ME AS A YOUNGLING, A VERY SMALL
YOUNGLING." Freystein said as Halthor rummaged around in his
pack and pulled out a flask of ale and a loaf of bread. "HE KEPT
ME IN HIS HOUSE UNTIL I WAS AS BIG AS HE WAS. HE THEN BROUGHT ME TO
THE FOREST AND TAUGHT ME TO FORAGE. GRIFF WAS A GOOD FRIEND. HIS WIFE
CALLED ME HER STONE BABY." Freystein smiled and took a bite out
of the rootball of the tree. A noise like stones grinding together
came from their mouth. "WHEN I HAD GROWN BIGGER, THEY CALLED ME
LORD STONE. I TRAVELED FROM FOREST TO FOREST. I CARRIED NEWS FROM
TRAVELERS TO GRIFF." Freystein said around a mouthful of roots
and rocks. They swallowed and looked down at Halthor. "WHY ARE
YOU NOT EATING?" Halthor looked down at the loaf of bread in his
hand and shook his head slightly, as though waking from a dream. He
broke off a section of the loaf and tossed it to Elwis. The red eared
dog began eating the bread with a small growl. It was clear that
Elwis wasn't pleased with the loaf of bread portion for his meal.
Elwis finished tearing at the bread and began to sniff the ground.
After a few moments, the dog began to trot in the direction of a rise
in the snowy ground. It began to dig and soon a rabbit came popping
out of the ground at a place near Halthor.
Freystein dropped a hand down around the rabbit. Halthor winced as
his stomach roiled, fairly certain that the rabbit was nothing but
red ruin. Elwis came over to Freystein's hand and began to dig under
it and there was the muted sound of a scuffle shortly after under
Freystein's hand. Freystein continued to leisurely chew on the tree
in their other hand. They lifted their left hand from the ground and
revealed Elwis tearing at the freshly killed carcass of the rabbit.
"You've done that before?" Halthor asked.
"ELWIS AND I HAVE TRAVELED TOGETHER. GRIFF SAID THAT HE IS A
SPECIAL BREED. ELWIS IS SMARTER THAN MOST DOGS. BRAVER THAN MOST
TOO." Freystein replied. "GRIFF TOLD ME TO FIND ELWIS WHEN
THE BAD MEN CAME THROUGH WYE. I RETURNED TO WYE AS GRIFF WAS DYING
AND WYE WAS BURNING. HE GAVE ME THE DAUGHTER OF ALYRIN. HE TOLD ME TO
BRING HER TO THE BLUE LADY AND THAT I WOULD FIND YOU THERE. HE SAW
YOU IN THE BLACK MIRROR AT THE FAIR HOUSE." Freystein chewed on
the middle portion of the tree and looked at Halthor. "YOU DID
NOT KNOW GRIFF WAS A HUNTSMAN, DID YOU?" Halthor shook his head.
"HE SERVED THE STORM LORD AS YOU DO NOW," Freystein
said, "WE SHOULD LEAVE NOW. A STORM WILL COVER OUR TRACKS IF WE
DO." Freystein crouched down and held an arm out beside their
side. Elwis whined and Freystein looked down at the dog. "NO,
THIS IS BETTER." Halthor didn't have to wonder what the elf-dog
was complaining about. He wasn't comfortable with the idea of riding
on the mountain troll's back again either. Still, with a sigh of
resignation, Halthor picked up Elwis and clambered up the mountain
troll's side after putting on his pack. "YOU DID NOT EAT MUCH,"
Freystein said as they began to walk. The rolling gait of the
mountain troll covered ground faster than Halthor could at a run, but
it was enough to make him feel mildly sick as he swayed from side to
side slightly with his arm and legs wrapped around the sapling
growing from Freystein's shoulder. "ARE YOU WELL?"
"I'll be fine once I'm on the ground again," Halthor
answered. Freystein's great head bobbed up and now and it seemed to
make the world rock a little harder. Halthor's stomach clenched.
Deciding it was best not to engage the mountain troll in conversation
as they traveled, Halthor held on and watched the trees and meadows
pass by.
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