Ganainm awoke in a field. The first thing she experienced wasn't anything she saw. In fact, that very first thing — the thing that had awoken her — was a tongue. A warm, purple, and fleshy tongue. It licked her across the face, heat and saliva alike greeting the girl on such a fine morning.
When she opened her eyes — also prompted by the tongue's distinct scent of digested grass — Ganainm noted that the tongue was, indeed, purple. With ridges and lumps, and valleys and bumps. Definitely not smooth.
As the girl scrambled to her knees, she began noticing other things around her. The first of them wasn't actually around her, it was below. Grass. She laid — now sat — on an infinite field of grass. Grass even greener than the greens she had seen in the Realm. Although, to be fair, the greens there eventually did turn into vortexes of rainbows.
From the things specifically around her, Ganainm noticed some feet. As she turned her head she also counted them. One, two...seven...Eight in total. And a few hooves too. Those she didn't count, the tongue was enough for her own record.
The feet — each pair of them — belonged to a troll. She knew they were trolls because they said so. To be exact, right as she was assembling her brain back together, one of them said:
"Human, how do you exist here? No human exists here. Yet you are here. How? You are not a troll. I am a troll. We are trolls. I exist here, we exist here. Are you a troll?"
At first, she thought them addressing her as 'human' to be rude and unseemly, but then she remembered there were far worse things to be called. Like vermin. There were also worse things to be done to oneself, like throwing literal hands that burned with as much heat as a small sun. The trolls didn't do that. They just existed.
Before answering, she looked around for Katsugi. He was nowhere in sight but then, after a small glint of light darting into her retina, Ganainm noticed a keen sheen on the neighbouring hill. The fact that another group of trolls had gathered there as well also helped.
"I," she began, pulling herself upwards, "am not a troll. Yet I exist here. I assure you, I am a human. My friend over there," she pointed towards the big glow, "is also a human. We mean no harm."
"Hmpf," the troll spokesman huffed in response. "If you do not mean any harm, why is there one of your kind performing harm?"
Ganainm frowned. "I... am not aware of such an individual. Why would you think I would be, though?"
"Well," the troll said, "you are certainly both human. You know other humans, do you not? You have stories, know of your brethren's exploits, hm?"
"Not... to that extent," she answered, "I cannot infer what every member of my people is doing at any given time; there would be no harm being done did such a condition exist." She then clarified, her position clearer.
"Huh," the troll snarked. "You are not linked? With one another?"
Ganainm shook her head.
"No wonder your people make harm."
"Wait, you are?" the girl asked. "Linked? I mean."
"Of course!" the troll exclaimed, pride beaming through his voice. "However else are we supposed to know some had lost a sheep!"
Well that sure seems useful, she thought.
"We seek safe passage through your lands. We, my friend and I," she again pointed at the still seemingly knocked-out Katsugi in the distance, "have an appointment with the host of the Roaring Peaks."
That sounded so well to her. An appointment with a dragon, like, what other, what better way to establish one's own status that a line like that. Ganainm felt very proud of herself for that. That fairy had taught her well.
