After the grey room and the little grey man, the first new thing I could remember was a drum. I was warm, safe, and a drum beat a gentle rhythm of comfort. How long this lasted I don’t know. The passage of time was blurred with the drum and the gentle rocking. Part of my difficulty with time was that I drifted in and out of consciousness, tiring quickly and then slipping into dreams.

My initial waking was filled with terror, then my wits quickly returned with my rebirth. I felt horrible as I thought of Mr. Grey and what he had selected, the agony he expressed saying clearly what he thought my current life would be like. But after days of comfort, warmth, and the gentle beat of the drums, I lost my terror.

When things changed, I barely noticed the difference at first. The drums beat faster.

Eventually, the rhythm of the drums accelerated and pounded, the beats tripped and slammed over each other, a syncopation of chaos cutting through the previous pattern. Then came a roaring scream filled with agony and effort, then the warm ripping sound of wet leather tearing.

With a sudden jolt, I was shoved downward.

It was only as the wetness splashed away from my body and the large clawed hands cupped me was I able to understand what had happened. This was my birth, and it was not an easy one for my new mother. The only part that didn’t fit was the drums. I thought for a moment it was my mother's heartbeat, but it couldn’t be since I heard two loud drums not the single steady double beat of a heart.

My new mother stood over me and gently picked me up with her large clawed hands. While vaguely humanoid in body shape, no one would mistake her for a human. A tall green body with arms that could touch the ground without hunching, far longer than her legs. Long thin arms roped with corded muscle, large bulbous joints around elbows, fingers, and knees, which contrasted starkly with the wide bulky neck and shoulder muscles which seemed to be mounds reaching nearly to her ears. Her stomach was distended and extended in front of her in a huge potbelly, possibly from pregnancy, possibly from fat. Two sharp green ears extended from the sides of her head and rotated forward to bring to bear on my form. Tusks jutted from her mouth even as her lips were closed, her jaw was square, wide, and hinged oddly with large muscles framing her face.

Even given the monstrous and inhuman appearance it was obvious that she was a sentient being. Beyond the clear expressive green eyes, there was also the crude hide clothing which covered little of her form which denoted her intelligence.

Bringing my face closer to her own she gently rubbed the knuckle of her clawed hand against my face. The soft caress against my cheek came with a wide grin full of sharp teeth it stretched across her head seeming to connect her ears with a yellow and white toothy maw.

“Gur-Dun.”

Soft and gentle, it was the only thing she said.

Event Start! Tel-duth forest troll naming ceremony!

The Tel-duth forest trolls are an ancient race which has become nearly extinct. Each child born undergoes the harsh naming ceremony. Upon survival, the given name will be your official name.

Requirement: Survive.

Reward: Official Name ‘Gur-Dun’, translation - “Son of Suffering”

Failure: Death

The information for this ‘event’ was odd. Not just that this information existed and was given to me; that was odd enough. No, the longer I tried to focus on the effect the more confusing it became. None of the words were in a language I understood, each symbol was odd and unfamiliar, but focusing on a word had the meaning brought to mind as if I had simply let my attention slip from something I had known all along. The ‘window’ wasn’t in front of my eyes, my field of view was completely unobstructed, my mother's gentle smile and tear-streaked face were perfectly legible.

Mother sniffed, stroked my face gently one more time, then closed her eyes as she turned towards one of the corners of the room. With my mother turning me to face the wall I could see from my vantage point cradled in my mother's arms the large stacks of badly butchered meat. Four carcasses pressed against the wall, legs crudely tangled with ripped open bellies. I could see that another corner also had corpses, fewer than the stack my mother currently faced.

With a horrendous roar my mother tensed and threw my body at the wall legs first, the impact ripped up my body, my weak newly formed bones shattering. Excruciating agony tore through my body. I could see shards of bone pushing through the thin skin of my legs, one of my feet had twisted in my landing and pointed in an odd direction. Unlike a human baby, my body was not thick with a cushion of baby fat, I was lean, boney, and now broken.

Even as the agony tore through me and I started to drag myself towards the corpses I tried to understand my mother's actions, but more so my own actions. I had no urge to cry out, instead, everything in me said silence was important. The only thing more important than silence was the meat stacked against the wall.

Once I reached the meat my instincts demanded action and my mouth opened wide as I chomped down on what appeared to be the cloven hoof of a pig. My sharp teeth and strong jaw sheared through the fur, bone, and muscle in one loud crunch and I chewed and swallowed as quickly as I could.

Beyond the sounds of my gluttony, I heard the roar of my mother behind me as a sibling was born.

New Skill Learned!

[Troll Regeneration] (Novice 1) - Trolls are well known as creatures with hearty recuperative powers only stopped by fire. When well-fed trolls have been known to survive even lethal wounds.

Higher levels of [Troll Regeneration] can strengthen bones, improve muscles, and provide other increased survival adaptions. Hidden synergies are available.

New Skill Learned!

[Improved Metabolism] (Novice 1) - The ability to consume and process large amounts of food is a vital adaptation which can keep a traveler moving even in the harshest environment.

Positive effects - Food consumed is more quickly absorbed by the body. Accelerated recovery from the effects of hunger. Reduced chance of experiencing the negative effects of the status [Over Full].

Negative effects - Increased penalties from the status effect [Hungry].

Hidden Synergy - [Troll Regeneration]

“Eat and Live. Eat and grow stronger” - Dal-Spo, first warlord of the Tel-duth forest trolls.

New Trait! [Hunger Frenzy] - When starved and presented with food you may experience the status effect [Feeding Frenzy]. [Feeding Frenzy] temporarily increases Strength and Endurance while reducing Intelligence and Control.

The new messages drew my attention away from the effort to chew and swallow, but only for a short time. A sudden grinding pain followed by a snap brought my awareness to my legs and how I was no longer pulling myself onto the pile of meat by just my arms but also my now healed lower limbs.

The sound of a third roar followed shortly by the sound of another small body hitting the wall told me that I had more than one sibling, but I was strangely ambivalent about the pain and suffering my brother or sisters were facing. All I could focus on was the feel of bone, flesh, and meat in my mouth as I chewed and snarled, ripping large slabs of flesh with sharp jerks of my back and neck muscles. Everything in the world seemed to focus on the consumption of food.

I’m not sure how long I existed in my trance of hunger, but eventually, I found myself laying back on what was left of the pile of meat. Across the room where two other small green blood-covered bodies which crawled, chewed, and bit at their own, slightly smaller piles.

Sometime during my frenzy, our mother had left, rolling a large boulder across the small exit of the cave. It must have been very difficult for her to crawl out through the hole, but obviously not impossible. This entire setup must have taken days to construct and prepare. The cave, the boulder blocking the exit, the food. Even the small hole high up on the ceiling which let in some light, none of it was a simple setup.

Despite the obvious pain and danger of this ceremony, I didn’t feel afraid. I felt annoyed, I felt hurt, I felt betrayed, even mad, but not fear. Even reading the text saying the goal was to survive, which means I could die to this event, didn’t really lead to fear. At best I felt a general unease and contemplation. I knew I should feel afraid, I just didn’t.

With a bit of care, I raised my sharp nail covered fingers to my face. Each hand was almost large enough to palm my own head. Delicately touching around my skull I found two small, barely formed, tusks pushing my lower lip outward. The tips still hidden behind my lips. The teeth in the front of my mouth were sharp, serrated, and fit together like well constructed mechanical shears. Opening my mouth wide I realized I could place nearly both hands inside my mouth at the same time, my lower jaw dropping down to my thick neck even as I bent my head back to make more room. Closing my mouth I could feel the muscles along my back and neck flex as my jaw snapped shut, both hands luckily having left my mouth before my experimentation. Clawed toes and short legs with a head covered in short bristly hair completed my disturbing visage.

What the hell am I?

This rhetorical thought actually led me to a useful answer.

Status Name: Gur-dun (Pending) Race: Tel-duth Forest Troll Attunement: Unknown Health: 73% Stamina: 10% Mana 100% Strength: 13 (+) Dexterity: 9 Agility: 11 Vitality: 22 (+++) Endurance: 18 (++) Resistance: 12 Intelligence: 13 Wisdom: 9 Control: 16 Traits [Hunger Frenzy] Skills

[Troll Regeneration] (Novice 5)

[Improved Metabolism] (Novice 3)

I wasn’t sure what some of the symbols or what the numbers actually meant in the real world. But I could feel my exhaustion slowly ebbing away as I watched my stamina slowly rise. The exhaustion from my exertions in my [Feeding Frenzy] washed away in slow pulses. Across from my throne of meat I watched my siblings curl up and fall into slumber and soon I joined them; dreaming of screens of information which were brightly invisible and the sweet taste of meat.