Chapter Text
No one remembered where Humans came from. There were legends that said they'd appeared there from another universe, and were protected by ancient gods long past. It was hard for a lot of Humans to believe it when things were as rough as they were. When children were forced to grow up on their own, and the legends that made their history were whispered in the dead of day by people too old to tend to their charges any longer.
It was hard, growing up on a planet where life was dangerous for a human. They were fought out, trolls being stronger and hardier as a species had mostly won the fight for space. Over the centuries humans had had to fight for supplies, adapt, evolve. Fighting the trolls was slowly growing detrimental to the species. Eventually the humans seen by the eyes of trolls were passable as lusi. Care givers to young trolls. It allowed them the things they needed to make lives for themselves
Dave's family was made of sun-starved albino, mute, humans, like all the other people within his village, and the others he knew of. His dad had been marched off when he was too small to remember him, he couldn't remember a time when he had a mother, but he remembered Bro said that they'd been in their teens, he had a different mom. His bro brought home a girlfriend, an errant human with strange gold hair and skin darkened to a peach tone(as compared to their own community, pale yellow, almost white hair, and porcelain-skin) who promptly left, flouncing off in disgust, after she discovered what they were counted as-lusus, guardians and caretakers of young trolls. She was never heard from again and it was always assumed she'd returned to the community she'd come from. That disturbed his Bro(and the troll who was always coming around. Shame on you bro.) They both gave Dave a lecture about continuing the line, at some point. It disturbed Dave, he discovered, watching as his Bro was marched off when Dave was thirteen. Bro had only been nineteen, himself. A scant handful of years older than Dave. Whenever someone in their community came 'of age' they were marched off with the rest of the white beasts. It was just the way things were.
Sometimes Dave wished he was one of the errant humans that ran 'wild' on the troll world.
It didn't surprise him, at all, when a drone came sniffing around his house. He wasn't surprised in the least when his door was opened. He simply placed the plate he was drying in the cupboard, turned, and made his way to the door, nodding at the drone to acknowledge it's existence. He knew that the house wasn't going to go to waste. Whatever Strider was left out there would be rustled up and moved into the house. There were many branches of his line out there.
No matter how unsurprised Dave was by this situation, he couldn't help the irritated scowl on his face. He'd captcha'd everything he had of value. The seventeen year old had collected everything of use or worth two days before his birthday. But now he'd have to wait for whatever grub he got to decide how it wanted it's house, and snag a room for himself so he could store his crap. His turn tables, his dresser, his computer, his desk. His things were going to go somewhere, or his grub was going to have a loooong first sweep while Dave guilted it into making a new space for him as well.
The march to the wriggling caves was long. Days passed, blisters formed on his heels, and an ache built in his stomach, but Striders were built for this. Even if he couldn't stop for food or water, even if the other lusi kept him marching he was certain he'd make it to the caves. Maybe he'd be weaving, but he'd get there. The views of the area was blocked by the lusi towering over Dave, even with his lanky, tall frame. He was at the middle of the pack. He supposed, though, that whatever the lusi were blocking couldn't be that interesting.
Finally they heard it: Somewhere ahead of them was the cool cave, and it's echoing squeaks and darker-shaded spaces. His ever present sunglasses had to be shoved up ontop of his head as he moved into the cave with the flowing pack, shoes smacking the cave-floor, the sound drowned out by the claw-scuffling of the other lusi's claws and paws.
There was that squeaking, growing louder, setting Dave on edge, raising the little hairs on the back of his neck. Trolls, he'd decided long ago, were the source of everything that was wrong with his world.
He watched as the lusi around him started picking out their charges, sifting through the wrigglers and grubs with practiced attention. Most of them were returning guardians. He almost felt guilt for whatever runt he got saddled with. He found himself wondering if his grub would care for him the way Dave had cared for his bro.
He watched the lusi avoid a pair of grubs. Mutants, he knew, ripe for the culling. They really should have been culled by now, but someone had saved them. It didn't matter if no lusus would take them.
Well, someone might want the little bright yellow grub. It was clear to Dave that the little guy was a psionic, they were all mutated. There was a mustard-yellow one with one red and one blue eye, not too far away being 'courted' by a bicyclopse lusus with the same eye-set. Yellows were all mutants. That was the only explination for the little yellow psionics crawling around.
Someone sniffed about the little yellow, only to have the little red swipe at it. When the lusus made to snap at the red, the yellow's psionics threw it away. Clearly some of the trolls were picky. These two must be that.
Not only that, but when the other lusi pointedly ignored the red, the yellow one scooted closer, flopping across it's fellow grub in what Dave supposed was meant to be a comforting manner. The red grub grunted, and squirmed, then settled, looking disgruntled as the yellow troll began mouthing at it's hair. That brought a smile to Dave's lips. Tiny, but there.
It faded when he realized that now that the yellow and red were closer, they were both being ignored. The yellow had become complicit in whatever the red one was guilty of. Whatever happened to be far beyond the human's understanding. All he knew was that he couldn't look away from them, the way the lusi seemed to be content to.
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The grub heard was thinning. True lusi marching off with their little baby butt-munches and Dave sighed. He had to make a decision or he was going to be culled right there in the cave.
It hit him then, the little grubs were going to be culled if he left them there, and there was no sense in one death, let alone three.
Ok little dudes. I hear your little squeaks and eeks. It's ok. I'm coming. Even though they couldn't understand his complex signs, he felt comforted by finally making them to someone other than his mirror. The last four years had been lonely as hell. Maybe he'd teach the trolls the language.
He sighed soundlessly as he picked his way over the other grubs, ignoring them as he focused in on the two little, pitiful troll-babies. He crouched infront of them, a foot or so away, motioning to them both, then making a sort of grabby 'come here' motion with both hands.
The little red one got the idea first, squirming out from under it's companion, crawling to Dave's outstretched, pale hand. It seemed to begrudgingly arch into his palm as Dave smoothed the ruffled hair. He found out the troll's hair simply didn't smooth out, and he sighed, signing 'uncool, bro' with one hand. The red one was shoved out from under Dave's hand, the yellow one's four swooping horns bumping against his fingers.
Dave chuckled breathily, watching as the two grubs wrestled under his hand, and he scooped them up.
'Well, if nothing else,' the human thought, carefully hugging both the trolls to his chest, daring the first drone he passed to say something about it. 'If nothing else, it's never going to be boring around the hive'. He looked down at the half scowl on the red grub's face, and the broad, big-toothed grin on the yellow grub's face, comparing them, for a moment.
The yellow grub had two blue eyes, angled up, with two slits under them, one on either side of it's face. It had big front teeth flanked by larger-than-normal fangs, a psionic-characteristic. He watched as a pair of lighter blue eyes cracked open from the slits, and Dave tilted his head in curiosity.
Well, that was different.
He turned his attention to his other charge, the grumpy little troll in his arms. His eyes narrowed and he tilted his head curiously.
The red troll had FINS just infront of his ears.
He'd seen sea trolls before, but he'd never seen them...Red. Red was a mutation. One he knew got people killed. It was the reason for his sunglasses. Sympathy flooded him and he sighed.
He'd have to keep his little mutants away from the ocean. He'd lived by the water his whole life. He'd hate moving inland, but he had to keep his charges safe, and at this point, the ocean he'd grown up loving wasn't safe anymore.
The sounds of the grubs eeking, wrigglers shrieking, lusi keening, barking, mewling, growling, yeowling, snarling, clicking. It was all grating on him as he followed the flow of lusi, carefully cradling his little squishy babies.
It was going to be a long haul to the age of majority.
Long and arduous.
Especially when the yellow one insisted on mawing whatever he could reach of the red one.
Gods save him from fussy trolls.