~

Chapter Eleven

~

I waited for this Tie witch a couple hours, but I had time. What else was I gonna do, stroll around the dark corridors of Mordor? Among trolls that glared at me like I’m Sauron in the flesh?

We’d gotten word that we’d have a shot at the council after lunch. Hope the fare would be better than breakfast’s. I’m not keen on fried crickets. And I hope those weren’t roasted rats. Bats, maybe. Please, let ’em have been bats. Small marmots, even better.

Finally, a scrubs-garbed nurse-type called me into the back, settled me into what looked like any exam room outside of a mine. A twenty-count later a hen dressed in white strode in, glared at me.

“I’ve got more important ailments to see to than ogre blisters.”

But in all fairness, they hurt. “I thought—the whole—ethereal was—”

“What’s come of ogre kind?” she mumbled in Trollish.

My answer back, in Trollish, took a smidgen of the smug off her face. Yeah, I know yar language. She glared at me for a good ten-count. Her hands remained pressed into the pockets of her white smock. I guess she wasn’t gonna ease the bruises killin’ my feet.

“Ya speak better in Trollish than Standish, without the stutter,” she said. “Yar GP ever make any note of that?”

I didn’t stutter? I don’t actually think of it as a stutter. The words just get caught in my frontal cortex, a lymph node, or somewhere, and don’t want to come out. I explained that to her.

Her eyes narrowed. “And when ya use Ogrish?”

Same as Standish.

Her huge right hand extended, fingers slidin’ under my dreads, palm at my temple. She closed her eyes, lowered her chin. Boy she had cold hands. Neither of us moved a scintilla for a week or two. She finally came out of her psychosis and said, “So yar GP hasn’t done anythin’ about yar speech?”

I’m here for my feet, hen. Did she think she was gonna fix my autism? Suddenly make me understand why folk feel the way they feel? Make me care what they think? Feel?

Oh.

She asked me a question. I shook my head, which was a tad difficult with her mile-long fingers wrapped around my head.

Finally, she dropped her hand. “Recommend ya experiment, formin’ yar thoughts in Trollish before speakin’. Like reverse translation. May take some effort, but if ya care to improve, may be worth it. If ya see a change, speak to yar GP. Or yar particular specialist.”

My body seemed to vibrate a bit, warm a twinge, against the frigidness of the examinin’ room. Why do doctors always have such cold rooms?

Be awesome, if I could talk—like others.

Dr. Tie turned for the door. As she exited she said she’d send in someone to see to my feet. Guess I wasn’t gonna experience any of that ethereal business. Thought it was a bunch of hokum.

~

Nuel

~

There’s almost as much prejudice relatin’ to troll intelligence as there is goblin evil and orc character. I’ve tried to stand above bias, but it’s hard when social constructs are built on the shadowy, blurred history of our peoples.

A single God to humans, family to ogres. Oneness of creation among orcs. Trollen lack of intelligence.

But the library I stood in brought tears to my eyes, constricted my lungs. Soft sobs echoed briefly against the shelves reachin’ as far as I could see into the mountain.

Leather-bound volumes as thick as my fist. Thousands upon thousands. Millions. Sections of poetry, science—not a topic ya wouldn’t find in the North. Every spine stamped with a title in Trollish. Nowhere in sight a stick of literature from humans or any other kind. Some new works. Other ancient stuff.

I stepped closer to the near aisle of poetry and pulled out a random volume. The first shock, I had never assumed trolls had printin’ presses. I’d expected to see the artsy script of the Trollish alphabet. I warmed all over, for my stupidity.

I strode to the near tables and sat, flippin’ through the text. For poetry, not a lot of white space, and each poem spanned dozens and dozens of pages. I reached the beginnin’ of one and began readin’. A few moments later tears flowed down my cheek for the beauty of the language, power of the poet’s message.