A sample from THE TROLL WHO CHOSE TO READ
The third chapter is done and I’m quite happy with the direction the story is taking. Here’s a little bit from chapter three to chew on. Keep in mind, it’s in its early stages so some of this will certainly be revised when I do my second pass before finishing it…
The next day dawned and it was time for school again. Gru dressed and left the house without a goodbye to his dad, despite Bogo being more than ready to give one of his own. The young troll reached the school hut and sat down next to Trocky, ready again to hear another lecture from Mr. Blarg.
“Listen up everyone!” Blarg slapped the table in front of him to grab everyone’s attention. “We’re going to be visited by the village chief after lunch, so best behavior, got it!”
“Yes sir…” they all grumbled.
“Speaking of, yesterday I was interrupted by—what is it now, Mr. Gru?” Indeed, Gru had his hand up, not two minutes into class time. “Do you realize that you are interrupting me talk about how you interrupted me yesterday?”
“I had a question about troll history.”
“Fine. What is it?”
“My dad told me that trolls used to live under bridges and challenge human travelers to riddles and things?”
“I believe the term is ‘battle of wits’ but yes, that’s the gist of it. Is there a question here?”
“He didn’t know why we stopped doing that.”
“First of all, there is no we. The trolls that hid under bridges were grey all over, with hard skin almost like they were carved from rock. They eventually became the Mountain Trolls that live beyond these lands. We don’t speak of them. The trolls that settled into this land are very different from those trolls of long ago.”
“Where is that? ‘Beyond these lands?’ What does that mean?” Gru could not contain his curiosity, especially now that there was a chance that the Mountain Trolls might still be avid readers.
“No one knows. Not any cave troll, I mean. None of our kind have any dealings with them. All I know is their land is called tenewyor.”
“Tenewyor?”
“Are you hard of hearing?”
“No, sorry. But…what happened exactly? My dad said the days of trolls challenging people to battles of wits are long passed. Why are they long passed?”
“Listen up class. I’m going to test you on this. I wasn’t when I got here this morning but now I might as well make some use out of Mr. Gru’s constant interruptions.” Blarg allowed for a moment to pass, during which the class turned to Gru to give him ugly looks.
“Sorry…” Gru said meekly, though no one seemed eager to accept his apology.
“Alright listen up!” Blarg began. “Long ago, trolls did little else other than eat goats and read books. So they had plenty of time to sharpen their minds and their wits for their battles against travelers.”
“But why have the battles at all?” one student asked.
“No questions!” Blarg snapped. “Anyway, one day, as travelers became more scarce over the great bridges of old, the reading died down, and all that was left was the eating of goats. As the people grew more scarce, other wilder animals moved in instead, forcing the trolls to fight them off for food. Being the readers they were, naturally they were ill-equipped to fight. Trolls fled from the old bridges, with some going North to Tenewyor; the Mountain Trolls they became. The rest travelled south to these woods, becoming cave trolls.”
“My dad also says cave trolls—that’s us—don’t like new things and such.”
“Your dad is right. We don’t much like interrupting students either!”
“Yeah but…” Gru continued, ignoring his teacher’s stern hint, “if cave trolls don’t like changing, why are we living in houses made of mud?”
“We have to.”
“But why?”
“It’s complicated!”
“Really? What could be so—”
“All the caves were taken, alright!”
“…Where?”
The class sat quietly, leaning in to hear the answer. Everyone apparently had been thinking the same thing but it was Gru who had the courage ask the question.
“Not taken away! I mean occupied! Bears” He said, shuddering. “Nasty things. Lazy though, didn’t much chase us. They just sort of claimed all the caves around, so we just let them and took to building houses. But other than that, we like to keep things simple, ya here!”
“Yes sir.”
“Are there any more questions?”
“Well—”
“Too bad! I got news for you—”
*GONG*
In the distance a low bell sounded, stopping Blarg from continuing what was sure to be a great little rant.
“Lunch time. Everyone break.” Blarg said, waving dismissively at his class as he exited the room.
The students gathered in the adjacent room, where ham hock stew was served to the hungry young trolls. Gru sat down with his bowl in front ofhim but never got to enjoy his first taste. A large green first dropped into it, splashing the thick liquid in all directions, mostly into his face.
“That’s for making me miss goat-skinning yesterday.” the large student—an angry troll named Goober—leaned over him as he spoke. Before Gru could react, Goober picked up the half-empty bowl and plopped it on the young troll’s head, letting the rest of the stew ooze down around his face. “And that’s for making me take a test about Troll History.”
Students began snickering; Gru could hear them all but he was happy at least that the stew in his face had distorted his vision. He grabbed his back and ran away from the lunch room. Hurrying to the nearest bathroom, he closed the door behind him and dropped to the floor to sulk in shame.
A few minutes passed, after which the loud *GONG* was heard again. Lunch was over. He’d not eaten anything. His hair and clothes were a mess. The village chief was coming. Mr. Blarg was going to be so angry.
“I can’t go back.” he told himself. Instead, he decided to wait in the bathroom until school was over, knowing that even if Mr. Blarg noticed he was gone, he’d probably be relieved not to have to deal with him for the rest of the day. Unfortunately, waiting in a bathroom until school was over meant waiting for three hours (that’s an eternity to a child).
Bored after five minutes, Gru did what he always did to pass the time. He reached into his bag, dug around a bit before finding the small leather-bound book he’d been reading whenever he had a quiet (and safe) moment. Reading passed the time like nothing else. One second it was the end of lunch. The next, it was near the end of the school day.
“And here is our bathroom where we—AHH!”
Mr. Blarg stood in the open doorway. The sight of anyone in there during class time was startling enough; seeing the boy reading a book about killed him.
“AHH!” Gru screamed at the sudden opening of the door and the panicked shriek that followed. His hands went up as a reflex and, as a result, he accidentally threw the book he’s been reading into the air. It sailed, end over end, as if in slow-motion, before finally landing on the head of the man standing beside Mr. Blarg.
The old man remained motionless, wearing a book on his head like it was an odd little hat. Gru wasn’t certain he knew who it was, but he had a pretty good idea. Mr. Blarg had entered the bathroom while giving a school tour to the old man standing beside him, Chief Rukwap.
The leader of their whole village clan.
As said, this is still very early in the book, and the title character’s terrible secret is only just now beginning to be exposed. What the consequences are will come in the subsequent chapters.
I hope to have the whole thing finished by the end of February.