Troll Mountain: The Complete Novel Read Online Free PDF Page A

thought. This does not mean, however, that it is incapable of thought. Simple brains just think simply: eat, kill, gain advantage , but most of all: survive .
    “A troll eats humans to survive. A troll exacts tribute from humans to survive. Yes, some trolls are cruel, so their array of simple thoughts includes more wicked ones like: dominate, control, hurt, humiliate .”
    “So trolls are not naturally cruel?”
    “I don’t think so. A significant proportion of humans are cruel but that doesn’t mean all people are. It is only when the cruel sit in positions of power that cruelty can become accepted. This is as true for trolls as it is for people, but with trolls it can happen more readily as the simple-minded are more easily led.”
    Raf thought about this, and then realized something.
    “I have seen good people stand silently by while a cruel chieftain beat a tribe member out of sheer spite. The others all accepted the cruelty for fear of being subjected to it themselves, not because they agreed with it. And they were shamed by doing so.”
    “Emotions like shame and guilt,” Ko said, “are the price of having a larger brain: the human knows he can choose to stand up to cruelty. The troll can at least claim limited mental faculties.”
    Raf said nothing.
    “An interesting theoretical discussion,” Ko said. “I haven’t had one of those in years. One of the downsides to being a hermit, I suppose.”
    He looked around them. “Now. We face a choice. We can cross the Broken Bridge now and make some headway into the farthest regions of the Badlands through the night, or we can camp here.”
    Raf gazed across the muddy stream at the forbidding terrain on the opposite bank. Night was almost upon them. The full moon was rising above the mountains.
    “What about the mountain wolves?” he asked.
    Ko shrugged. “At some point in your journey, you were always going to have to make camp close to the mountains, Raf. A quest would not be a quest if it were easy. If we stay on this side, we will at least have time to make a defense against the wolves. That is the best we can hope for.”
    “I think we’ll camp here for the night,” Raf said.
    “A wise decision,” Ko said.

Chapter 7
    The sound of something large crashing through the undergrowth woke Raf.
    His eyes snapped open. It was still dark. He peered into the moonlit forest around him.
    Beside him, Ko was already awake. The old man’s head was perfectly still as he listened intently.
    The loud crashing noises were coming from the other side of the stream.
    Then Raf heard more noises: branches snapping, heavy footsteps pounding on damp earth, and then—suddenly, cutting through the still night air—deep voices.
    “ There he is! ”
    “ Get him
!
”
    The voices had a depth that the human voice box cannot reach.
    “Trolls?” Raf whispered.
    “Yes,” Ko said softly. “Stay under your blanket and don’t move.”
    At Ko’s suggestion, they had been sleeping just inside the tree line on their side of the muddy stream, without a fire, and with dense layers of leaves covering their blankets, creating a kind of camouflage. Raf huddled under his leaf-covered blanket and stared across the streambed, thankful that it lay between him and whatever was coming through the underbrush—
    A huge gray shape burst out of the thorn bushes on the opposite bank and skidded to a halt at the edge of the foul muddy gorge.
    Raf gasped at it in wonder.
    By the light of the moon, he could see it clearly.
    It was six feet tall, with monstrously broad shoulders, monstrously large fists, a monstrously thick neck, and a monstrously solid head.
    Indeed, the only things about it that were not monstrously sized were its legs—they were disproportionately short, thick, stubby things that held up its huge upper body.
    It was a troll.
    This was Raf’s first glimpse of one since the day his parents had died. Only this troll, despite its imposing size, was itself frightened .
    It was