The Traveler { Trolls }

° Chapter 4 °

Kenneth sat up and rubbed his eyes. He sat up and glanced around. It took a minute for him to properly process where he was and what had happened.

He felt pain push past his other feelings. His leg throbbed, and the rest of his body felt like it had been hit by a truck. In a way, he had been.

"Hello, Kenneth," Margarine said from the kitchen.

"Hey, Margarine," he said and tossed the blanket off of him.

"There are some clothes on the chair," she said and motioned to a rocking chair next to the sofa, where a set of clothes sat.

"Oh," he mumbled softly and glanced down.

He was in nothing but his underwear. He didn't quite remember how he got like that, but he could make a guess. He shivered and nodded.

He grabbed the shirt and slid it over his head. It was a little big, but otherwise fit well. He grabbed the pants, but as he did so, a pair of underwear fell out of them.

He picked them up and hummed. He glanced at Margarine and quickly yanked down the ones he was wearing. He pulled the new ones on just as quick as well as the pair of pants.

They were a pair of black cargo pants. They fit almost perfectly, and Kenneth could see why rock trolls liked them so much. They were comfortable and had many pockets to them.

"Do you want something to eat?"

"Hm? Oh, I wouldn't want to bother you,"

"Kenneth, please. You're so thin..," Margarine said, a hint of begging filling her voice.

"If I must," he responded and entered the kitchen.

There was a wall separating the kitchen from the front door and main seating area, so Kennth hadn't gotten to see the entire kitchen yet.

He found that it was simple. It had a sink, oven, toaster, refrigerator, and multiple cabinets. To the left, it had a table with 4 chairs around it. A window sat in the middle of the wall right behind the table.

"I'm making something simple. Toast, it'll be easy on your stomach."

Kenneth nodded and limped over to the table. He pulled out a chair and sat down, wincing a bit as pain shot up his leg.

"Where is Eli?" He asked and rubbed his eyes.

"Sleeping. You're going to have a long journey ahead of you," she responded and hummed.

"What time is it? How long do we have until the train leaves?" Kenneth asked and glanced out the window.

"It's 3pm. You'll be taking the midnight train to Sy- Volcano Rock City." She said, catching herself mid-sentance.

"O...kay?" Kenneth said, a bit apprehensively.

"We decided it'd be best to let you sleep for a while. You were so tired.." Margarine said, trailing off at the end.

Kenneth nodded and rubbed the back of his head. He groaned softly, feeling a large bump on the back of his head. It's probably from when Eli slammed his head against the wall.

Kenneth rubbed his eyes and groaned. He wanted to leave NOW. The longer he stayed in one spot, the bigger the chance he could get found again.

"Toast is done," Margarine said and plopped down a plate of toast covered in red jam in front of him.

"Thank you," he said and quickly began eating the first peice of toast.

He finished it off and began eating the second one. He didn't realize how hungry he was until both peices were gone, and his body was desperately begging for more.

Margarine knew that look on his face. She had actually worked with social services in the rock tribe before coming to Trollstopia.

In the rock tribe, since there was so much drugs and alcohol that ran through it, and since the tribe was so large, there was quite a lot of neglect that ran through rock families.

When Trash was king, he didn't address these problems because he himself did substances. When Barbara had taken over, she started social services programs, and the trollings were finally getting the help they needed.

Well, Margarine had been one of the trolls that had been hired as a social worker. She had seen emotionally and physically 'neglected' trollings.

She had seen that look in trollings before. The look of hunger and desperation after eating a solid meal for the first time in a while.

She truly believed the pop trolls didn't understand things like this. Their culture revolves around cupcakes and rainbows, and when another troll brings up something aside from that, they're out casted (*cough* Branch *cough*).

She could see Kenneth definitely had some qualities of a neglected trolling. The biggest one was how paranoid and anxious he was. Every little sound seemed to frighten him, and she could tell certain hand gestures made him get really nervous.

His interaction with Poppy and Branch told her a lot. She had studied abuse in trollings and what it did to them, and she just knew something had happened to him. Something.. recent.

"Did you enjoy your toast?" She asked and smiled as she took the plate.

"Yeah, but can I wash my hands?" He asked and shifted in his seat.

"Of course! Did the jam make your hands sticky?"

He nodded and whimpered, his hands being sticky was making him want to cry. Like nothing in the world mattered except for getting the stickiness off his hands.

He tried to get up, but without using his hands, he plopped right back into the chair. Margarine was quick to grab a wet washcloth to help him.

She gently wiped his hands off, making sure to get in between his fingers. She could tell Kenneth was a lot more relaxed after the jam was washed off his fingers.

"Is there any place in Trollstopia you'd wanna visit before you go?" She asked and raised her eyebrow, glancing at a clock on the wall Kenneth hadn't previously noticed.

"The train station."

"Funny, but i meant an attraction. Like, do you want to go to country coral? Or maybe we could go get some scones from Classical Crest -"

"No!" Kenneth blurted out, interrupting Maragine's sentence. "I mean - no thank you," he said nervously, glancing around and tapping his fingers together.

"Ok," Margarine said and raised an eyebrow. "Well, we have quite a bit of time until the train leaves. Wanna play a game or draw?"

"As long as we don't go out in public, I'm fine,"

"Well then, I'll go get some paper! Ever scrapbooked?"

"I've heard of it, never done it,"

"Well, you're about to learn!"

•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•

YAY ANOTHER CHAPTER!!! Anyways y'all imma have more time to write this because I was in a play, but it ended now, so I'll have plenty of time to write this!

Words - 1138