(no subject)
Solo sat with a chin in her hand staring at the creature across the way. Even though her brother had scolded her for the ridiculous idea, she was doing it anyway. Books could only teach her so much after all. Who had actually captured the troll was still under question as many tried to take the credit. But that didn't matter. It was caged with steel bars and looking none to happy about the situation, but then again who would be.
She motioned to the three bowls in front of her. Deer meat in one, a muffin in another, and finally some assorted lettuce and other greens. She spoke in Troll, probably with a horrible accent, but she would never know. At least not now. "Which one do you want?" The setup was basic. Three different foods to build the vocabulary and pronunciation. Sometimes she requested the creature name the foods, sometimes the position left, center, or right and other times the color of the bowl. It wasn't advanced, she knew that, but hey, had to start somewhere.
In front of the bowls about four inches past was a large scrape made in the cement floor. A mark to denote the creature's reach. Even at a charge where it could tip the cage over precariously, it could never go past that point. A safety measure. A very necessary safety measure.
It snarled the word 'dear meat' in its native tongue and she snapped her wrist out, sending the bowl sliding over to the creature where it clanged when it hit the metal cage. It devoured it greedily. She placed down another bowl this time with bread.
Heavy footsteps came behind her, and she tilted her head back to see who it was. Ah, one of the other boys under her current weapons master. A bit more boisterous than the others, wanting to prove his worth, but all in all a decent fellow when his head wasn't inflated with hot air. She offered him a wave in greeting before staring at the troll again. Unimpressed by her lack of interest in his arrival, he mocked the creature. The troll simply snarled and spoke rapidly at the boy. Oh, she knew those words. Those weren't in any books, but it was the first one he had spoken to her when she started this little game. The boasting and snarling between the two continued for another half a minute before she got up and left. She'd try again after dinner. With less of an audience.
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After dinner and slinking around her niece's room to avoid getting caught for tea time, she returned to the cage. No guards adorned the door. It wasn't really necessary, the creature wasn't going to be able to break out of the cage anyway.
As she opened the door, she was greeted with the sound of bones crunching and red liquid staining the floor. The boy was missing the upper half of his torso and really it was quite the gruesome sight to see. But his feet were located across the line that had been drawn in the cement. Did the creature goad him over the line? Or did his own stupidity of thinking he could kill a caged creature easily make him bold? Perhaps both, but it hardly mattered now. The creature gave her a toothy grin, blood dripping past his teeth as he said in slow dialect as if teaching a child and looked pointedly at the three bowls still lying on the ground.
"Human meat."