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The sharpened stick is smooth and worn in Tavros’s clawed grasp, pointing towards the menacing creature before him. The monstrosity had been on his scent for weeks, but today was the day Tavros made the mistake of staying out too late, and now the creature has found him.
It’s furry and tall, easily the height of seven fully grown trolls, and its slowly advancing, one foot in front of the other, tail quickly moving back and forth. One long tooth sticks out between a set of furred lips, and the ears are twitching, listening, searching.
Tavros’s position from the tree won’t keep him safe, he knows from previous escapes that the monster can jump incredibly high and climb with its curved claws, but he’s out of options. Keeping one eye on the advancing attack, Tavros reaches a hand towards his pack and pulls out the long and slim metal rod he’d found the other day. The point is honed to a narrow point, and the end has a red ball. He takes out his other weapon and stands his ground, both hands armed.
He’s run too many times, and he’s tired of running. Today he will stand his ground and reclaim his territory, or he will go down defending the only place he knows. Even though he might be the last of his race, Tavros can’t bear to leave the last place he’d seen anything like himself.
The growling thing pads closer, leaning back on its haunches and getting ready to launch itself into the tree. As it leans back and wiggles, a limb snaps and Tavros flicks his eyes toward the tree next to his where he sees something that doesn’t make sense—
“Hey!” is yelled, and a whistle is heard, causing the cat to stop and look towards the noise. The noise is coming from someone like Tavros? But they’re different?
Standing on the other tree, jumping up and down and making a lot of noise seems to be one of Tavros’s people, but, not the same? He’s confused, but he doesn’t waste any time jumping on limbs over to the first thing he’s seen like himself in what could only be years. But they don’t look very happy, if their facial expressions are even the same that is.
“No!” They’re waving their arms with renewed fervor, “You need to get away! I’ll take care of this!” And they pull some leaves out of their own backpack and start to descend the tree, towards the monster that has already started ignoring Tavros in favor of something more exciting.
Tavros stops in his tracks, torn. This is the perfect chance for him to escape, but he can’t leave now, he has too many questions for this stranger that looks so different, yet so similar.
He turns toward the dwellings of the giants, the only salvation for the both of them at this point. If he could only get them to come outside, the creature would leave them alone for the giants! But how? And without exposing himself…?
The laundry of the giants is blowing softly in the wind, drying in the summer heat. Behind him, Tavros hears the monster growl and a laugh from the stranger. Don’t taunt it! He sighs, eyeing the line on which the laundry is hung. If he can undo one side, then the wind might be able to carry it over there! And the giants would surely notice!
Tavros ignores the banter behind him and stows his spear away. He takes the sharp metal stick and bends it over his knee, making a U shape. He then takes the ends and turns them up as well, making places for his hands. The distance from this tree to the post holding up the dancing laundry is only one jump away, but it’s a long jump. And he needs to get to the side farther away if his plan is going to work.
He pulls out some fabric and ties each corner to a limb, making sure to leave slack. Taking a deep breath, Tavros backs up until he’s touching the main body of the tree. He really hopes this works. One more look is spared toward the stranger to see them dangling from a limb and giggling, kicking at the, now snarling, creature. What are they thinking? Tavros just shakes his head and braces himself.
He leans low, pulling the fabric close with his free hand, and starts running. As soon as he launches in the air, he lets go and holds onto his bent metal with both hands. The wind carries him, floating on it thanks to his makeshift body sail, towards the pole of the flapping laundry. As he nears it, he swings the metal contraption to hook on the pole, pulling himself on top of it. Standing on the post, he knows he must quickly devise a way to break the line and free the laundry, and he quickly searches through his pack to find anything sharp to saw with. A piece of sharp metal will do nicely, he thinks.
The rope isn’t thick, but he doesn’t know how much longer the stranger can distract the cat, so he sets to sawing it immediately. Only seconds later is a loud snap heard, and the wind rushes in to carry the laundry directly towards the monster.
The various fabrics of the giants fall off and blow around the now howling monster, trapping it and making it mewl even louder. It keeps trying to escape, but it just runs around and gets tangled more and more, confusing itself and successfully becoming incapacitated.
Tavros cups his hands around his mouth, “Hey!” he yells back, and the stranger, now wrapped around the limb, looks up at him. “The giants will be coming soon, we need to hide!” He grabs his bent metal and slides down the post, watching the stranger jump from limb to limb, safely landing on the ground.
“This way!” Tavros calls, heading toward the side of the giant’s house and slipping in a grate. Moments later, the stranger shows up and steps through the grate right as the door of the giant’s flies open. The stranger quickly steps away from the grate as a giant stomps outside.
A shriek is heard, and “Mittens! What are you doing? Why did you knock down the linens again? What have I told you about playing with them?” A pitiful meow sounds from the tangled creature.
Tavros turns toward the stranger who now seems to be scowling.
“I, uh, did I offend you?” He offers, confused.
The stranger frowns and crosses their arms. “Yes you did! I wanted to play with the cat, and I heard that this plant,” and they pull the leaves they were holding earlier out of their pack, “makes them do crazy things if they eat it, so I was going to feed it.”
Tavros stands there dumbfounded.
“You were trying to play with that monster?” he implores, indigently.
They merely shake their head, before adding, quietly, “and it’s not a monster. It’s a cat, or at least that’s what the giants call them.”
Tavros can only laugh. He starts off chuckling quietly, but then he’s bent over, holding his stomach, full on laughing, tearing up slightly. The stranger just stares, confused, at the howling Tavros. After a moment or two longer, Tavros stops laughing and stands up straight, sticking out his hand.
“Hello there stranger, I’m Tavros, and I haven’t seen anyone in years. I’m sorry I ruined your fun, but that monster has tries to eat me on several occasions, and I didn’t want the only other I’ve met in years to get eaten by a ‘cat.’”
The stranger grins back and takes his hand.
“Howdy there Tavros. I’m Jade! And you’re the only other I’ve seen in quite some time too! Well, you don’t look really similar, but that doesn’t matter, hahaha! And I guess I can forgive you about ruining my fun, considering you were thinking you were saving my life.” And she smiles, letting go of his hand.
“I could say that you look weird too Jade. How do you even exist out here without claws and teeth?” Tavros inquires, turning and waving for Jade to follow him farther underneath the giant’s house.
She giggles, jumping down some bricks and falling in line behind Tavros.
“You just have to think on your feet! And make friends, not fight them off, like that cat.” She goes quiet when she sees Tavros’s home beneath the house.
A moment passes before she stammers out, “Is this where you live?”
The home is two stories tall, and all made completely by Tavros. Since he’d been living on his own for years, he’d taken a lot of time to add little details to his house like a porch, a balcony, and paintings on it.
“Yeah,” he grumbled, looking down.
“It’s beautiful,” she breathed, walking closing and inspecting one of the paintings near the front. She turns around, “You did all this, didn’t you?”
Tavros nods. “I’ve been alone for a while, and I wanted it to look nice in case anyone ever came back. But no one ever did…” he trails off.
After a moment, he walks forward and opens the door, motioning for Jade to come inside. She quickly jumps and follows, closing the door behind herself as Tavros makes for the kitchen.
“Do you like tea?” He calls, heading for the cabinets and pulling out the dishes he’ll need.
“I don’t know what it is, but I’ll try it!” Jade announced, stopping to look in every room. Tavros just chuckles and goes about making tea for them.
He sets down the tea on the table and pulls up a chair for Jade. She wanders in a takes a seat, grabbing a cup inspecting it before putting it back down. Tavros pours her a cup, and himself one, before sitting back down and taking a light sip.
“So Jade,” Tavros starts, setting down his cup, “where are you from? What’s your story?”
She furrows her brow for a moment, picking up the tea and taking a big gulp from it before spiting it back out and making a face. “What is this crap and why is it so hot?”
She sticks out her burnt tongue and Tavros lets a laugh or two out before she continues.
“Well,” she begins, “my people are called barrowers. Or, er, they were. There’s not many of us left, and I’m not even sure how few of us there are. I lived far away from here, near this body of water that spanned on forever and ever, never stopping, and on all sides. I think it was called an island? Anyways, I lived there with my grandpa, the borrower who taught me everything I know! But, he passed away a while ago.” She stops for a moment to catch her breath, slowly picking up the tea and sipping on it this time before continuing.
“He taught me many things, things the other barrowers didn’t want us to know. He taught me about science and how to make things that run by themselves and fires that run on wires. We lived a good life, only taking what we needed, and making everything else. I’d see another barrower every now and then, but I mostly just stayed with my grandpa.
“It wasn’t until a bad storm hit, after his death, that it occurred to me that it might be time to move on. So I left. I made a boat to cross the waters. I packed all the food I could fit, taking other only essential items, and set off. I don’t know how long I was out there for, but it seemed like eternity before I hit land. This was probably about a year ago? I’ve been wandering around ever since.”
Tavros nods and takes another sip of his tea, it cooling much in the span of Jade’s story.
“So,” Jade leans forward, pushing up her glasses with one finger and grinning, “that’s all about me. What about you?”
Tavros sets down his cup and laces his hands together, and quietly recounts.
“We were warring trolls, always fighting with others, never many of us together at a time, and always wanting what we didn’t have. There were many territory wars, and only the biggest and the best would survive. My clan was originally twelve strong, but much dissention between our ranks caused internal conflicts that couldn’t be easily solved. Simply put, we started fighting each other.
“We’d already noticed a lack of other trolls about, and that only caused us to become antsy in our warring nature. They disliked me because of my hesitance to engage in fighting, so by the time we started killing each other, I left. A friend came with me, but her murderous nature and belief in luck got her killed on a lone hunting trip. Not long after that, I stumbled upon this relatively nice place a few years back, and decided to settle down. I was never one for the nomadic life.” Tavros finishes, leaning back in his chair and putting his hands behind his head.
Jade frowns, “you must be terribly lonely. My grandfather died many years ago, so I’m used to being alone. But it must be a big change to go from a clan of twelve to being by yourself.”
Tavros shrugs. “It is, but it’s honestly better without most of them. A few were okay, but I wasn’t okay with all the fighting. It was a relief to finally get away from them all with just Vriska, but she honestly wasn’t the best choice to leave with. It has been lonely though…” he trails off.
“Jade,” Tavros starts, “would you want to stay here?”
Jade’s eyes grow big and Tavros begins to stutter.
“I, uh, I just mean that, we’re both kind of, by ourselves, you know? And I have plenty of room! It would probably be better if we stuck together anyways as you saw today what happened—“
Jade leaps out of her chair and tackles Tavros, enveloping him in a tight and strong hug.
“Yes! I would love to live here! It’s been so lonely roaming around, and you’re such a kind soul!” She pulls back and beams, her hair all crazy from jumping about. “I’ll be here as long as you’ll have me.”
Tavros grins and hugs her back. He thinks maybe he can get used to having someone around who plays with monsters instead of fighting them. Maybe, just maybe, this peace will last, and a friendship can bloom.