The next two days were spent in a mixture of boredom with brief moments of terror. The tribe’s hunters rotated a patrol of our backtrail waiting for trackers. On the second day, we had a short moment of fright when a small fox started up the washout when no one had expected our hunters to be returning. The sudden sound of the brush being disturbed had everyone ready to defend or run away only to surprise a poor fox. The frozen tableau was broken when one of the hunters started to chase after the small animal.

After two days everyone seemed to be confident that we had outrun our pursuers. I tried to discuss with Whisper who they had been and why they were hunting us but the most I could get out of him was ‘Hunters’.

The next week was an unpleasant return to our normal practice routine. Unpleasant since whatever Whisper had been trying to train us to be able to do, Oopsie and Hungry had figured it out. I was still failing to pull off whatever odd thing they were doing.

The first time it happened, brother was standing across from me in his usual stance, his new club cocked back over his shoulder prepared for his consistently telegraphed opening move.

Part of the problem was that I had grown cocky and overconfident. Brother attacked in a powerful but slow overhead strike at the start of every fight. My response had become automatic, wait for him to approach, dodge then counter-attack. This time things changed. Brother’s rush seemed to stutter at the start, a moment of confusion passed his face and then he stopped and howled a roar of utter bestial fury. After his yell, he started to breathe hard while staring at me while a strange red mist flowed out of him.

After his yell, I just stood there slack-jawed while the odd mist like dust swirled around him. With a deep inhale he seemed to burst forward in a flying leap, covering the distance between us in a moment. His overhead strike was so fast that even if I had been prepared I would never have been able to dodge, with my flat-footed confusion I had no chance. The next thing I knew I was waking up with a splitting headache and a window floating in the front of my mind.

Skill Up! [Troll Regeneration] (Novice 73)

Lately my Troll Regeneration had stalled out, only leveling up under a severe injury from training. Given the nearly shattered feeling from my skull and the obvious hours I had spent unconscious, I’m guessing I had lost that round.

After my spectacular failure, brother had far fewer training rounds with me and sister. Whatever he had done was his first step to preparing to work with the hunting group. He spent most of our training time with a hunter who sat out the hunting to talk with him, miming attacks and hearing hunting stories.

Sister had been a more precise and difficult opponent, worse, Troll females were no smaller than males so I didn’t get to enjoy any type of real size advantage. The next few days with Whisper and Hungry consisted of Whisper throwing us into a very intense training routine. Our battles became more frequent with less recovery time in between and each fight was far more violent.

When sister made her breakthrough she suddenly started moving the way Whisper would in training. Not exactly faster, but as if the world itself moved out of her way, it was difficult to explain. It was as if each attack was followed by something pressing down with her swings. No stronger, no faster, but each attack was harder to take, far more damaging.

From that point on brother and sister alternated fights with me. I was being pummeled to within an inch of my life, my Troll Regeneration skill started to tick up quickly, finally topping out at novice 92. When they were both tired, then Whisper would start to ‘teach’ me. His blows far more damaging and practiced then sisters.

Finally, on the fifth day of my repeated beatings, something seemed to swell up through my feet. A strength, a resistance, a force like the sudden shifting of a mountain ran up my body. With his body emitting that odd intangible red mist again brother struck down on me undefended body. I had lost my club earlier in the match and all I could do was raise my left arm up in defense. I was planning to sacrifice my arm so I would be able to get in closer and get a few punches or kicks in. When the club hit it thumped against my arm in a loud sound like wood on stone. My arm still broke, but it was barely a hairline fracture, something that healed in minutes for us.

Whatever this power was it kept pushing up into my body, I felt like a balloon filling up beyond the bursting point. My right arm snapped out in a heavy uppercut and the power traveled through me and drove into my fist throwing Oopsie away with a broken jaw.

Attunement Completed! Attunement: Earth.

Noticing that I had gained my attunement Whisper gestured for us to take a break. Quickly I checked my status.

Status Name: Gur-dun Race: Tel-duth Forest Troll Attunement: Earth Health: 86% Stamina: 22% Mana 63% 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 92)

[Improved Metabolism] (Novice 45)

[Carpentry - Weapon] (Novice 24)

I didn’t know what my attunement meant, but I noticed my mana was lower. I guess that I had some kind of magical control over the earth? How did that relate to my defense or that big hit at the end?

Walking over to my brother I grabbed his foot and started dragging him back to our hut. I had some food there and he would be happy to have it available when he woke up. He should wake within the next half an hour or so.

Eventually, Whisper came to collect us and present us to Strong and the rest of the hunters. Mother stood back and smiled broadly, a smile which would frighten a shark but only felt like love to me and my siblings.

Standing in front of us, Strong started his disjointed speech.

“Rage. Nature. Earth,” Nodding at each of us, in turn, he then turned to face the hunters.

“Adults. Hunt, then named.”

With that, the hunters started out into the forest through the tiny creek between the two boulders. The forest outside our second village was lusher than our previous location. Tall evergreen trees packed together with little undergrowth, the moist fog crawled across the ground with little sunlight breaking through to dissipate it even in the middle of the day.

Oopsie stuck close to Whisper in the back while Hungry and I drifted closer to the center of the pack. Strong led us off at a gentle but mile-eating lope. After an hour or so we came upon something on the ground which caught Strong’s interest. The entire troop huddled down and slowed, moving along a game trail in a gentle hunched posture.

New Skill Learned!

[Sneak] (Novice 1) - Sneaking is the art of avoiding notice, from noise, actions, or demeanor. Sub-Skills in exist for nature, urban, and even polite society.

Hidden Synergies Exist!

I was surprised to see a sneak skill, but it made sense considering the other skills. I’m not sure how sneaky a six-plus foot troll who tops out at almost three hundred pounds could be, but every skill could be useful. One thing that I truly detested about my new existence was communication. Why were we sitting here? Why did we wait almost an hour just hunched and waiting? I had no clue and no one around would have told me if I had bothered to ask. They all just seemed to accept that Strong knew what he was doing and that this entire process would work out. Given that almost every hunt brought back food I had to agree as to his competency, but I still would have liked to understand why we were waiting. Just another penalty of my modern upbringing.

Eventually Strong gestured a few of us out to one direction and then a few of the rest of us out in another direction. I was grouped up behind Strong, we slowly walked wide around something ahead of us, eventually, we came to the edge of a clearing where a huge herd of Elk-like creatures was grazing. While these creatures looked liked Elk, the goat horns and furry hind legs said these were not, strictly speaking, Elk.

Strong reached down to a large boulder, a rock nearly his own size, his hand gripped and the stone seemed to move slowly out of the way like he was reaching into a pile of clay. When he had a strong grip with plenty of room for his fingers to move he gave a small grunt and lifted.

Hauling the boulder over his head he strode forward with ponderous steps until he reached some kind of stability at which point he started to accelerate. The Elk snapped their heads up as he started to barrel through the brush, the huge overhead boulder slapping through branches and his body knocking over saplings. I ran behind trying to keep up with his bull rush.

When the Elk started to move away he took aim with a small hop and threw the boulder with a huge yell. The boulder plowed through not the largest group as I had expected, but instead the group which had been moving off course from the rest of the hunting group. Not only did Strong get a few of those Elk but he drove more of them to the other hunters. A few of the other hunters lobbed boulders, though none as large as Strongs, while others jumped out from behind trees or from dips in the forest and swung weapons at the running herd.

By the end of the small engagement, both Oopsie and Hungry had managed to bring down an animal each. More than one of the hunting troop had nailed more than one animal each. Strong alone had crushed at least four animals, a quick stomp and jerk snapping the neck of each downed animal. I had been too slow and in a bad position to get an Elk, another hunter had also failed to down a beast because of an unfortunate slip which had left his ankle twisted and broken beneath him. After he had straightened the limb and waited a half an hour for it to knit together the rest of the troop was up and moving toward the village.

On the way back the troop stopped one more time and hunkered down again. Strong grabbed my shoulder and gestured for me to stay still and pointed the rest of the hunters to head out and around. I was guessing it was important for me to get a kill and the rest of the hunters were preparing to drive the animal, whatever they were, towards me.

Hunkered down by stacks of the hunters kills I waited for my chance. I knew it could take hours for them to get into position or things could go quickly and it would be moments. Either way, I had to be prepared at a moments notice. I had removed the padding from my training stick back at camp and so all I could do was grip tight my bludgeon and wait for my chance. I had been the last of the siblings to gain my attunement and I would be the last to get a kill on my first hunt, but I wouldn’t be the only one to fail.

Streamers of pain and numbness suddenly passed through my body, my frame arching backward as something caused my muscles to flex out of my control. Behind me two humans and an orc rushed towards me, the orc was standing with one hand held out towards me his hand glowing with a gentle green light.

Both humans passed in a wide loop towards my twitching form, careful to be sure not to break line of sight for the orc caster. I tried to swing my arm out as one of the humans reached for me, with my eyes rolling in my head I was barely able to swing at him but it appeared that this had been a faint in order to get his friend closer. With a click a metal loop wrapped around my neck.

Both humans jumped back and started to rush towards the orc who panted as he dropped his hand. What felt like black ropes wrapped around my mind and down to the metal collar. The ropes multiplied and tightened, strapping my mind down, tightening and causing me to hyperventilate as I felt like I was being smothered. Just when I felt like I would pass out, the ropes locked onto my mind and snapped taught with etherial bonds stronger than steel, each cord anchored into the metal collar.

Panting I tried to roll over and reach my feet but my movements were interrupted by the orc speaking in badly accented troll.

“No fight. Sleep.”

Then I knew no more.