“I hear them, the children playing in the courtyards, the woman laughing, and the man chatting near the square. All their voices live inside my head,” said the prince.
Thuman had once been “heir apparent” to the troll kingdom. That was before the Dark One came with his Troth minions and took everything away.
“I know it’s the wind,” remarked Thuman. “But if I am silent and still long enough, I can hear my people’s voices.”
The young prince gathered an elite fighting force to break the Troth’s battle lines when the war began.
The group became overwhelmed, and the prince and his bodyguard were the only ones to escape. “I should have died with my men that day,” Thuman muttered.
Injured, the prince found shelter among the Waldvolker, who tended his wounds. Thuman’s bodyguard did not fare as well, and he soon died of his injuries.
When the prince regained his strength, the forest folk told him his people were gone. Thuman was the last living member of his clan.
Years have passed since that day. The princess’s dreams still haunt him for his failings against the Dark One.
Today, Thuman returned home to pay tribute to his father and beg forgiveness from the ghosts of his past.
“I am sorry I was not strong enough to stop the Troth. The fault is mine alone,” the prince whispered to the wind.
Thuman climbed the stairs to the throne room to see if his father’s bones remained.
“I must place him in the king’s crypt,” the prince thought.
Reaching the throne room, he found it empty. Nothing remained but stone and dust. “Those demons burnt his bones,” cried Thuman.
The prince searched the entire castle and found nothing remained.
“It is as if my people never existed. Nothing remains to show the world that the Dentasy Troll clan once lived here. The Dentasy are but ghosts now,” said the prince.
Thuman wanted to sit on the throne. He wanted to die to show the future that this was not the home of ghosts. It was the home of flesh-and-blood people.
“I will not waste my life on such foolishness. I will return to tell the stories of my people to the forest folk. They will carry it to future generations. It is meant to be that way,” said the prince.
Before the prince left, he stood in the courtyard, closed his eyes, and listened. “There they are, the children playing and the woman laughing. I swear I will tell your stories so you can rest in peace,” said Thuman.
The last prince of the Dentasy Trolls walked back to the great forest to tell his tales. You can find him any night surrounded by young and old telling the stories of his people. He will continue until it’s his time to cross over and be with his people in the land of shadows.
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