Chapter 15: Bula

It was another pleasant morning for the giant troll. Last evening had a bit of a rain though, so she had rested inside her cave. Another, much smaller being had the same idea, and Bula had caught them.

The brown-bearded gnome rested on one of her stone-carved shelves. To his right, rooted in a bundle of dirt and positioned near a stream of incoming water was a giant red-capped shroom with a sullen face on its stalk. The cap had a bite-mark on it, which was slowly regrowing.

Bula chewed a chunk of shroom-treant in her mouth as she studied the little, 2ft tall gnome. The pad of her thumb was pressed against his stubby legs.

“Mmf,”, she began. “Keep squirming like that against my thumb and it might be hard to resist flattening you. I’ll ask you again, where do you come from? Where’s your village or city or whatnot?”

“I’ll never tell!”, said the gnome. He continued fruitlessly pushing against a thumb bigger than his entire body.

“No matter what,”, he continued. “I’ll never tell. I’ll never-agh!”

Bula pressed down, turning his legs from the knees down into paste. She quickly flicked the mess away. The gnome’s squeaky screams reached her ears, and she smirked.

“Are you sure about that? If you wanna leave my cave alive, you better tell me. I promise I won’t just up and wreck your home if you do.”

The gnome needed a few more seconds to stop screaming, which Bula begrudgingly gave.

“You, you promise you won’t just kill them all?”, he said.

“I do, I won’t *just* up and kill them all. Now talk, I’m getting impatient here.”

She hovered her thumb over him again.

“Ok ok, it’s to the south--southwest, really. There’s a rocky clearing between some trees. That’s where I live. We have some tunnels underground too, connecting our homes and the like, so be careful where you step. You wouldn’t want to collapse them.”

Bula smirked. “That should be enough to find them. Alright then.”

--==--==--==--

I scooped up the gnome. He was still bleeding from his legs, but not as much as right when I crushed them. I moved towards the exit of the cave with him screaming all the while. All the jostling in my palm hurt him, it seemed.

Oh well.

I twisted my hoop-piercing so that the fae within could get some fresh air and, of course, delight me with their myriad groans and the like. Up till now, they were watching the inside of my body try to heal around them. The thought of how that might look to their tiny selves had me chuckle.

The gnome asked where I was taking him and the like, but I stayed silent. It wasn’t so much as to torment the little gnome--though that was a nice bonus. No, I was just busy thinking of all the fun stuff I could do to his village should they not cooperate.

My imagination was running wild. Tunnels under normal earth... I envisioned myself putting my lips to one end of a tunnel and inhaling. All those gnomes flying right into my maw: my mouth watered at the thought.

“What, what’s that in your belly ring!”, he asked. “Are those... sprites? Fae homes?”

My palm was low to my belly. He must’ve noticed my little piercing there.

“Don’t worry about them, they bothered me for quite some time.”, I said. He asked more questions about the settlement and I didn’t bother to answer.

My feet moved from cool cave stone to warmer natural ground outside. I stepped forward to find some nice ankle-high trees. My feet fell on a few of them as I bent towards one in particular. I tilted my palm and towards it and dropped the gnome down by that tree’s roots.

“Wait wait!”, he shouted. “Are you just leaving me here?”

“I said I’d let you out of my cave alive, and you are.”, I said. I shook my hand and the last bit of his blood was off of it.

“But my legs, you crushed them. I can hardly move. The pain alone is-”

“Not my problem.”, I said. “You should’ve talked faster. Who knows? If you’re resourceful, you might be survive still in the forest.”

I rose up to my full height and checked the sun in the sky. I turned to the southwest and took a step. The vibration of it slipped him from the tree roots down more towards the ground.

“Stop. No. You can’t!”, he said.

I very clearly could, and took another step away. He then asked another question.

“What are you gonna do them, to my village?”, he said.

I paused to answer it.

“If they like what I have to say, they’ll live, at least most of ‘em. If not, well, I had a pretty light breakfast today.”

I patted my taut tummy, then walked away. No matter what, though, I’d help myself to at least one of those villagers. It had been awhile since I ate any gnomes.

Fin