Page 8 of Trolling For Love

As the day wore on, I became more comfortable with the humans. Not all of them approached me, but the ones that did were curious and didn’t seem to mind me being there. The work was amazing, and I struggled to remember a day when I had been able to be so close to the trees and enjoy their smell. I had worried that seeing them cut down would bother me, but Flynn Davies, or Flynn as he reminded me, made sure to only cut the ones that were not healthy and would have eventually died a slow death.

“That’s enough for today. The truck should be here anytime to take us back to camp,” Flynn said.

I looked at the other workers, some of them did not like me being here, but they stayed away and mostly ignored me. There were a few like Ben that were curious, but none were as curiousas he was. Flynn was very curious, but also different. He didn’t treat me any differently than he had the humans who worked with him.

A vehicle arrived and after they moved everyone around, we were all able to fit inside.

“We need a bigger van,” Ben said from the seat in front of me making a few of the workers laugh.

“You could be right,” Flynn said from the front seat.

I closed my eyes as the cool breeze blew against my face. I had to keep the window open and lean partially outside to fit, but I managed it. The guy next to me leaned as far away as he could but it was futile.

The camp wasn’t far from where we worked and in just a few minutes the dirt road widened into a large clearing. On the edge of the clearing were several of the tents they’d talked about.

“Gunnar, come with me,” Flynn said. I followed him to the tent that was all the way to the end, and he pulled back the flap for me to enter. “This should work. Did you bring anything with you?”

“There was a bag with a few items the institute gave me.”

“Oh yes, I think I saw it in the back of the truck you arrived in. I’ll make sure you get it. Is there anything else you need?”

“I’m not sure,” I said, and hoped the small bed was stronger than it looked.

“There’s a latrine where you can shower and clean up near the kitchen. I’m going to go see if I can find your bag,” he said and walked out of the small tent. I stood there for a moment, not sure what to do and more uncomfortable than I’d been all day. It seemed it was easier to figure out how to deal with humans when they were nearby rather than worry about what they were doing when I didn’t know where they were.

Footsteps approached the tent, and Flynn stuck his head inside. “Knock knock. Sorry but I found your bag,” he said before setting it on the floor by the bed. “Is everything okay?”

“Yes. Are there any tasks I need to complete in camp?” I asked, because I wasn’t sure what else to do.

“No more work today. Now is when you want to clean up, eat dinner, and relax. We’ll get up early in the morning and do it all again tomorrow. There are outlets for you to plug your phone or anything else you need located at the back of the tent.” I looked where he indicated and remembered the phone they’d given me during my training.

“I do have a phone,” I said, and after setting my bag on the bed I dug it out and handed it to him. They’d taken the old phone I’d arrived with. Not wanting me to have any connection to a human who may or may not have come up missing in the monster realm.

“There you go,” he said after plugging it in. Now it was Flynn who looked nervous as he stood there clutching the leg of his jeans. “I’m going to get cleaned up before dinner.”

“I will too.” I put the phone down on the bed and followed him out of the tent. The other ones were lit from inside, but most of the men were gathered around where the same man who fed us earlier was cooking food. Flynn waved to him as we walked past and into a building made of stone blocks. Sinks were on one wall and on the other side were shower stalls. Some of the men showered while others stood at the sinks washing their faces or hands.

“Did you want to shower?” Flynn asked. I remembered humans valued cleanliness and showered far more than any troll ever thought to bathe.

“No, but I do want to wash.” One of the other workers walked past us and hit my arm with his shoulder igniting the part of me that wanted to tear that arm off. But I didn’t. I focused on the training I’d been given and calmly walked over to the sink.

“That guy’s an asshole,” Ben said when he appeared at the sink next to me. I washed my hands and splashed water on my faceas Ben did the same on one side and Flynn on the other. I looked in the mirror just as Flynn was looking intently at my horns. Ben looked at him and rolled his eyes. Humans rolled their eyes a lot, which was a strange habit.

“Let’s go get some food,” Flynn said and all three of us left and walked to where a line was forming. Everyone moved along quickly and rather than the sandwiches we’d had for lunch, the old man Dwayne put some different foods on a metal tray.

“The stew was good,” I told him as he loaded up my tray.

“Well thank you. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure you get enough to eat,” he said and winked as he handed me my tray that had twice what the others had. I nodded in thanks before following Flynn to one of the tables.

“It’ll hold you,” Ben said, and sat down on the other side.

There were wooden stumps to sit on around each table which I thought would hold me, but I still sat down carefully to avoid ending up on my backside. Once I knew the stump would indeed hold me, I looked at the food I’d been given. Even though I’d been eating human food for a while now it was still strange to me.

“How was your first day of work?” Flynn asked and his voice was like a light through the dark of this confusing world.

I took a bite of the food, not really knowing what it was, before I answered. “It was a very good day.” The words were out of my mouth before I thought about it, and it was true. I liked this part of the human world—so far.

Chapter 8

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