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The dim light of the moon hit the trees, their leaves rustling in a soft breeze, of the Arcadia Forest, leaving a blissful shine of grey on the black tint of night covering everything. It was dead silent, neither critters nor mammals seemed to be in this forest, the quietness only interrupted by slow, heavy footsteps. A creature, made of stone, color as bright as the moon itself almost glowing, was walking down a dirt trail, covering her pale feet in mud. Slow quiet breaths were drawn, some noise coming from a heavy bag on her back, looking for a place to cover her for soon the dead of night will be replaced by the dawn of day.This creature does not go unnamed, Clementine looked up to the sky, through the leaves, the moon reflecting on her white skin, the gloom ending in her deep black eyes with orange irises. Suddenly noise shot through the trees, rocks hitting against each other, a sizzle and then a orange light from in midst of mighty oaks.“What the?”She moved closer to the light, looking up to see were it was coming from, it was close, she could hear talking. Before her was a barrier of Ivy and Bushes held up by a wall made of wood, stone and metal. It looked disheveled, claw marks of animals, a phew small holes and some nails sticking out could be felt as her hand caressed over the enclosure. A large slit she moved her hand further down, a handle.She tried to open it, nothing, moss and dirt blocked the door, she rammed her arms against it, nothing, the people inside had fallen silent.“Hello?” she asked from outside “hmm.”She rammed in with her entire body, “anyone thereaaAA” the door opening with a crash, she fell to the ground dropping her back. The fire was extinguished quickly, whispers around the camp, dark silhouettes rushing in and out of bushes, huts and trees. One snatched up her bag. “Huh?” she stood up and looked around the camp, peaking into huts, most of them locked. She moved to the coal, some rests of fire, small sparks still left.“Someone was definitely here” she though to herself, one of the creatures ran behind her “Who is there! I am armed-” her eyes widen, she was silent on the outside but on the inside Clementine was screaming “SHIT WHERE IS MY BAG” over and over.“Please give my bag back! I don’t mean you any harm” she shouted.A voice from behind her answered: “Then why is it, that you are intruding”“Intruding…OH FUCK IM IN SOMONE ELSES HOME.” She turned around to the creature, and was surprised to see a troll, six green eyes glowing, the troll was smaller than her, the troll looked up at her a threatening aura coming from it.“Oh really, you are in our home?”“Sorry I didn’t mean to.”“Just take your bag and leave”Another creature, a smaller than the other one came and dropped the bag.“Nothing dangerous in there except for a knife which we took” “I cook for a living, that knife is from my mother!”The grey troll looked up, the sky had turned a purple to pink color, soft light grazing their face, grey skin a long face with a sharp chin, a scar on their ear.“you will leave tomorrow at sunset, you will get your knife back then.” The troll turned around and walked to their hut, slowly all the other trolls came out of hidding, the smaller orange troll with a round face and yellow hair went into a hut with a large purple troll and a small purple whelp, while a light blue to grey troll with brown hair went into a hut alone, a green, very short troll raised his voice."S-Sama who" He cleared his throat "Who will she be staying with"The grey troll peaked over her shoulder the the small troll "With the one who asks" they walked to their hutThe green troll walked up to Clementine and held his hand out, the pink and purple light from the sunrise reflected in his glasses making it seem like they sparkled "G-greetings, I'm Shorty"She gave a soft smile, took his hand with both of her's and gently shook it."I'm Clementine"
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„Pleasure meeting you“ he bows down a bit and then signals her to follow him to a hut.“I am still not sure about staying here” she looks around the dead silent camp "I-I can go if I bother any of you"“Nonesense, it’s only for a day“ he replies as he opens a creaking doorThe hut is filled with tables, materials, weird constructions and vases filled with liquids. In the back it a wall with a doorway, covered with a curtain from the other side blocking your view.“So this is where you live?“ she tapped on one of the vases causing a purple bubble to rise up and pop in front of her“And me” a dark grey Troll swings down from a pole on the ceiling, hanging like a bat “why is the intruder staying with us dad?”“because I asked the same question" Shorty looked up at the troll hanging down from the ceiling "I will show you your nest for the stay"Clementine stumbles through the hut trying not to bump into anything, a book was laying on the ground, she picked it up and brushed off some dust, some pages were part wise torn with stains, it was a old notebook, some recepies for mixtures, potions and poisons along with ingridients and their effects were written down in a messy handwriting."Interesting, I preffer cook recepies before potentialy deadly ones though" she closed the book, Shorty ran to her and snatched the book from her hands."Wanna see some of them?" Shorty smirkedIcarus rolled his eyes and swung back on the pole"If you like food you could help me work on a potion making plants grow at a high speed""Sure...?""Great!" Shorty grabbed her hand and pulled her to a table "hmm" he repiedetly snapped his fingers thinking "I will be right back!" he ran to the back of the hut and grabbed a phew glasses and other vessles with liquids and placed them on the table next to a vase."So what are you gonna do exactly?"He looked at her and grabbed a phew liquds and poured them in "Like a very, very intinse liquid vertilizer, humans found our garden and emptied it, but since it takes a while for new plants to grow but we still need food during that time I'm trying to do it like this" one hand of his hands tasted over the surface of the table searching for a glass but ended up grabbing another vase he poured in the liquid and--BOOM! Smoke came from the vase along with a awful smell, Clementine and Shorty both got covered in soot and ashes.Shorty coughed and waved his hand to get rid of some smoke "Are you alright?""Wha- what happened" she coughed "whats that smell?" the smoke clearedShorty looked to his hand as his eyes widden, he looks up at Clementine embarassed "I uhhh I took the wrong vessel" One of his hands pointed at the vase in his hand, he chuckled nervously as he put it on the table and took the other one, emptying it into a bucket."Wait a second." Clementine took a yellow liquid along with a blue one and poured it into the vase "Come here" She said to ShortyShorty tilted his head as he walked closer to her and then she pull a piece of his hair out. “Ouch! what was that for!"She puts his hair inside the vase and and then covers it with her hand and then shakes it until it turns green, before grabing a pot with a little plant in soil and showering the mixture on the plant. Soon the plant starts to grow big and had three tomatoes, two large one small. “Woah” Shorty walked around the plant and inspected it carefully "Amazing"“sometimes, when I'm not cooking I mix potions or sow stuff, the effect of the potion depends on Dna since trolls are made of Magic like humans of blood, the result differs from troll to troll you can only find out what the potion does by simply testing it, and your in luck yours is growth!”Icarus laughs from the bar "The guy named Shorty has the effect growth? Kind of ironic isnt it?" He continues laughingShorty glares up at Icarus "Well, you come down from there so we can see what your is" Icarus stopped laughing and jumped down "Alright" He plucked out a hair and gave it Clementine She mixed it with more of the yellow and blue liquid until it turned red, she poured it onto the tomato plant "Here we go"The plants popped out small dot eyes and small mouthes, Icarus plucked one tomato and held it in hand, he smooshed it "disgusting"The other tomatoes sqeaked and dangled and swung on their stems, the other large one fell off to the ground and plopped out legs and arms, Icarus tried to grab it as it ran away to smoosh it too. She blocked his hand from the tomato "Wait, lets see what it does"The tomato fell down as it ran, Icarus groaned and held one finger out to assist the fruit with standing up, he wanted to pull his finger away but the tomato wouldnt let go.
“It thinks your it’s parent now” Clementine giggled the tomato soon had three fingers and toes, no thumbs though.
"I dont wanna be a parent or a gardener or whatever I am when taking care of this thing" he shook his finger trying to throw off the tomato "Cant I just get rid f it"
Clementine grabs the tomato gently "But they are so cute"
The tomato sneezes Clementine placed them on her shoulder, they yawned and fell asleep. The tomato in Icarus hand started to regenrated
"What the-!"
They jumped popped hands and legs too and humped to Clememtine, she picked them up and they stuck out their toungue at Icarus "Bleh"
The last tomato on its stem shook and swung on its stem trying to get off the plant.
"You can keep the two but three are to many"
Icarus wanted to moosh the third tomato too, he was balling a fist ready to smash it when he heard a whimper from them, they wanted to flee but were too weak to escape, he sighed plucked it off and let it sit on his hand, he brushed away a leaf from its face, it had three eyes insted of two, he lifted up the messy bangs covering half of his face revealing he had five eyes on that side.
Icarus: „Guess you come after me“ he let his hair fall back down as he gave a light smile.
Shorty picked up a tomato from Clementine „I want one too“ he picked up the sleeping one "Awww"
Tomato wimpers as it was being pet. “Well we have a lot of baby tomato’s" She chuckled "maybe the we could try mixing the potions later, but i think we should let them rest now" She placed the tomato back in the pot with soil, Shorty and Icarus did the same.
Shorty took the old notebook and a old pen sitting down next to the tomatoes writing down stuff about them
Icarus carved some wooden spears for hunting and Clementine sowed a phew ripps in her dress.
Slowly the bustle ouside started to get louder again "Its nighttime" Icarus jumped down from the bar
"Wanna do the second part of the "Experiment" now?" Clementine asked
Shorty: "Yes!"
"Alright." She stood up and took some of Icarus and Shorty's hair and mixed it with the liquid, it became a yellow to gold color, she poured it over the smallest tomato Shorty had placed on the table, it poofed into a whelp
Icarus:"Well, this is getting weird can we transfor this back to a tomato?“
The whelp cooed as she looked around and streched her arms out to Icarus, he stepped back weirded out, the whelp started crying so Clementine handed her to the grey troll, she calmed down and started to coo again, he looked at the whelp confused and weirded, out a phew minutes ago that was a lifeless tomato, and almost immediately gave it back to Clementine shoving the whelp away from him.
„Take it I don’t want it!“
The whelp reaches a arm out to him and lets out a sob.
Soon the whelp was crying it heart out without stop. “Shh it’s okay, it’s okay” but the whelp starts to cry louder.
Icarus placed it on the desk „Any way to get this back to a fruit?!“
“Well, I would have to try multiple different things and combinations so it could be a while before I can come up with a potion for that.”
„But this is a living being turning it back to a tomato is basically killing it!“ Shorty said
Clementine: "You're right, i dont wannabe responsible for the death of a whelp"
Shorty: "and two tomatoes"
Clementine: "and two tomatoes"
The whelp cried again
Icarus: „But I can’t take care of that- thing!“ Icarus pointed at the whelp „tomato fine! That’s handy (?), but this is a troll!“
Clementine: "And I can’t take it because it will scream in my ear with out calming down. Maybe Shorty can help you?”
Shorty: „like hell i am, I raised him and only him and I never wanna have a child again, Sama raised two and Olarri would probably get it killed in two seconds“
Icarus: "This is a disaster"