“Why is he so frightened?” Someone whispers in English surprisingly. 

“Haven't you been paying attention?” 

“No sorry I spaced out.” They switch to German. 

I pull myself together. “If I could, I would return to the surface just to talk to Kris and Susan. But then the cops will want to talk to me and-” My voice breaks, “I don’t know if they’ll believe that she pushed me.” I consider if I could just hide with Kris and Susan, or maybe not tell them about my attempted murder at all. But if anything went wrong in the relationship I’d have nowhere to go and I didn’t want to put all that stress on people that only just met me.

My head drops limp to my chest as I realize that they’d probably believe my stepmom that I just wandered into the caves and got lost like the helpless invalid that I was. They’d think I was capable of something that stupid. Then I’d have to consider the fact she might put me in assisted living and my dad would never forgive me.

I don’t realize that everyone is watching me get smaller and smaller radiating fear and depression. 

“Do you want to stay here?” The chief asks. I feel my head jerk upright, tears flowing with relief and disbelief. “Yes.” I can’t believe my own mouth, I wanted to go back home just two days ago but now I know I can’t. 

“Then it’s decided.” He stands up and roars. I shiver with something primal as everyone picks up the cry. 

The spy watches from a darker corner, even the other two spies join in one raising their arms in excitement. “I hope to see you grow into something stronger, Mottenflügel,” he glances at the chief, “And I hope you can finally find someone to love again.” He backs into the shadows, disappearing. I was given wine and food with someone on stand-by with medicine in case it was poisonous to me. The chief grumbles at the irresponsibility but knows it’s important for the human to eat and drink with the tribe. 

I stumble, legs like jelly. My speech started slurring a long time ago and I know I’m at my limit so I tell them I’ll pass out if I drink anymore. Only to hear light hearted laughs and oh no’s as I’m dragged back to the party. Was I talking to an actual rock? I laugh, face burning with embarrassment. They enjoy having me try all their favorite foods, purposefully avoiding some of the things only they could eat. Like minerals, literal rocks. I licked the rock to appease the person who wanted me to try it and everyone roared and rolled with laughter saying that I was funny. 

For a second I have a darker thought that they were just teasing me about the rock until I hear the crunch and grinding of someone eating it. Not all of it was good though. Some only saw me as entertainment, a pet. And some were outright against me being there. I bump into another rock, excuse me I slur not sure if it was a troll or not but they growl and shove me against the ground.

Air knocked out of me. I sober up for a second while wheezing to catch my lost breath. “Hey, not cool.” Someone complains picking me up and lifting me to their shoulders so I yelp and wrap my arms around their horns, they’re just as wobbly as I am and I’m worried what’ll happen if they fall. “No humans are allowed.” The older troll growls and re-enters his home. A few more grumbles of agreement reach me, “He’s not a human anymore.” A younger troll snides, “He’s a troll like us now.” 

“Oh then he should be able to take a push.” I hear mean snickers. “Well I’m more like an infant troll since I’m new to everything,” I point my finger in their random direction slurring more for the effect, “Do you normally push over babies?” I hear roaring laughter and flush but feel a twinge at the self deprecating joke. 

The party gets calmer and more and more trolls leave to go to bed. The ones that stay are sleepier and want to touch my hair or skin since it’s so soft and different. I’m sitting in the middle of the group and I’m exhausted but can’t leave.

Almost as if sensing my distress the chief appears. “Alright I’m putting him to bed.” 

“Aw let him stay, he can sleep with me.” One of the nicer trolls can’t even stand.

“You’ll roll over and crush him.” His friend jokes roughly pushing him over to initiate a wrestling match which he easily won since the troll just let out an oomph and layed there. They pass out the next second. The chief tells the others to go to sleep as well and carries me back to the tent. I hold onto him snuggling gently into the large chest muscles.

He doesn’t even breathe differently, not bothered in the slightest.

Upon getting inside the tent I commented, “You’re so big.” The chief just nods, my arms wrapped around his neck lifting me up and down. I let out a grunt as he laid me down in the bed. I refuse to let go. “I want you to sleep with me.” He lays down beside me, making me happy. “I was planning on sleeping in my own bed.” He says making the action less like he was doing it for me. I pout and when he gets comfortable scoot closer into his chest. He takes a deep breath and soon falls asleep.

I stay awake for a little bit, touching his torso, when was it bare? Did he take off his tunic to sleep? I stretch out my body to feel if his legs are bare then stop myself realizing embarrassed where curiosity and being drunk could lead to misunderstandings. ‘Sleep.’ I tell myself. ‘Oh crap I drank and I’m underage.’ I feel my eyes snap open. ‘I mean I was almost 21 but it was months away.’ I close my eyes again thinking about telling the cops I drank troll juice.

My dreams are of me getting arrested by a sexy troll cop. His shirt is about to burst open at the buttons. And I have a sneaking suspicion of who’s the “chief” of police. I’m all tied up with rope and naked. ‘How did I get like this?’

I wake up from the horny dream. I check myself, trembling in pleasure, under the safety of the covers. I bite back the urge to moan softly into the pillow. I don’t feel the chief next to me or smell him. I sit up with a gasp realizing what I’m doing, what I was about to do. I look around, listening for anyone. Literally anyone could be here. “Hello?” I call out. Silence. I lay back down slowly, maybe if I was really careful and listened for anyone approaching. I really need to calm down otherwise I might do something I regret in real life. I cover myself up with the blanket and curl into a little ball, letting my body have its way, thinking the feelings might go away with it. 

I stroke myself, writhing a little in pleasure, moaning into the spit soaked pillow. Reasoning gone I whimper softly and bite down on the pillow to shut myself up. I didn’t realize I was this pent up. I roll over burying my face in the pillow and let the noises muffle into them. Imagining the Chief is the one holding me down into them, I gasp finally feeling relief. As I ride it out I notice the sound of someone breathing, much quieter than my heavy gasps. I didn’t hear the chief enter the room because of that. I didn’t smell him until it was too late, ‘he heard what I was doing. Should I just pretend I didn’t notice him!?’

I sit up and amazingly brush a towel with my elbow. Reaching out I realize it’s placed next to a bowl of water. I clean up myself quietly as I sense him coming closer. The hair on the back of my neck stands up. My troubled breaths and trembling could be explained away as after effects. Letting out a long sigh I flop back down. I pull the blanket up to hide my face and pretend to be asleep. He slips away quietly. Relaxing I close my eyes, ‘thank goodness he didn’t say anything but wait he might not have known what I was doing and him leaving without saying anything means he didn’t want to embarrass me and that means he knows exactly what I was doing. I groan, hiding deeper into the bed. ‘Stop overthinking everything!’

The chief stands outside the spy’s tent. He knows he’s the closest thing to an expert about humans but he’s not sure he wants to talk about what he just saw.The spy is standing behind him when he turns. He grins, fang-less mouth looking just like the humans, “what is it?” 

The chief sighs, “I saw the human doing something weird.” 

“Yeah?” The spy holds open the tent entrance, “Your human, eh?” 

“You know what I mean.” The chief gravels as he enters.

“Okay,” the spy says after serving something to drink, “what is it that you think you saw?”

The chief is quiet for a second wondering if he should just lie, “Scent marking?” He says finally and the spy goes on an excited jumping and ranting spree through the tent. “He’ll be making or leaving you gifts next.”

“No, I think he just wants the tent to smell like him, you know a comfort thing.” 

The spy sighs and leans against the wall folding his arms, “You should just trust your gut instinct.” He suddenly thinks of something, “Be right back.” He digs through the relics of the above world. “Here, pick out what you think he’ll like, he will want gifts too.”

“But…”, the chief realizes what the spy is implying, “I’m not saying I’m going to go along with it!” 

“He’s your pet, he’s accepted you now treat him like it and you’ll make his transition here so much easier.” The spy smirks, “Unless you don’t think he’s cute anymore in which case I wouldn’t mind taking him off your hands.” The chief glowers at this. Snatching all the gifts he storms out.

“Thank-less as always.” He rubs his face and then brushes his hands through his hornless hair as he watches the chief; he gave everything up for, walking away to somebody else. “I’ll have to pine over somebody else,” he sighs. A stone-still spy listens from outside the tent, a cave flower wilting from the warm sweating hands. Awkwardly he backs away realizing his question had already been answered. He drops the flower.

The spy exits the tent, eyes redder than they were before, almost immediately his eyes alight on the cave floor, confused he goes over to pick it up. This was an engagement flower. He sniffs it but can’t tell who’s scent belonged to it. Turning his head. There are no other tents close enough for it to make sense that it was supposed to be for them. He narrows his eyes, but they abandoned it so were they breaking up? He takes it inside confusedly. Not wanting it to die before he could find the owner he places it in a little moss water. 

I’m laying in bed and feel a shiver as a familiar scent reaches my noise. He thinks I’m asleep. I feel him tuck me in and then hesitate. The chief strokes some hair out of my face and then playing with a strand for a hot minute leaves something on the desk next to me before leaving. I open my eyes and reach for it curiously. I smell something delicious and realize it’s human food. I scramble upright and shove it in my face, closing my eyes, making an mph of pleasure. 

The chief hovers in hearing distance and smiles to himself. He had ordered the spy to bring back some food, curious to see how the human reacted to it. He was glad he did. The human was obviously very happy.