#Saomara's backstory

[saomarathesavage-archived]

Text messages and phone calls (The Noatak Horror), part 3

Story under readmore (It should go without saying that I’ve never been to the Noatak preserve or Alaska. Sorry if I get so much of this wrong.)

(An hour after Alora’s video, Elisi calls Nadia’s phone.)

Nadia: (in a panic) Hello?!

Elisi: It’s me. So--

Nadia: (shouting) OH MY GOD, ARE YOU AND ALORA ALRIGHT, WHAT HAPPENED, WHAT WERE THOSE THINGS, WHERE ARE YOU RIGHT NOW, HOW--

Elisi: (during that, groans in annoyance, and barks in a mom voice) HEY!

(Nadia quiets)

Elisi: (calmer tone, sounds tired and 1000% done) What are you going on about?

Nadia: Alora sent me a message on her phone an hour ago. A video. You were both hurt, and surrounded by those things--

Elisi: (still sounds done) She FILMED what happened? Instead of getting us out? Fucking millennial...

Nadia: Elisi, what the hell happened?!

Elisi: (sighs) Give me a second, I’m still patching up my wounds.

Nadia: Wh-you can talk and do that at the same time! Or hand the phone to Alora! Where is she?!

Elisi: No idea. I woke up alone.

Nadia: What?

Elisi: Okay, okay, so... we were taking the gyre to Anchorage, and we hit something big enough to get knocked off the rails and into the wall. We got flung off and I can remember hearing a bunch of squeaks like mice, or my kids when I come home with lunch. Next thing I know, I’m waking up by the river bank with my face covered in my own blood, and a bunch of teeth marks on my legs.

Nadia: Oh my god...

Elisi: What was in the video?

Nadia: Alora got the creatures on video, alive. There were.... she said hundreds maybe thousands of them... and something roared at her down the tunnel and gave chase. 

Nadia: Elisi, I think all these small trolls are babies. And whatever chased Alora was a parent.

Elisi: Shit

Nadia: Do you really need to swear?

Elisi: Please tell me the acceptable word I should be saying after learning I have essentially troll mice who are eating everything and everyone in my goddamn nature reserve?!

Nadia:

Elisi:

Nadia: ...not a swear?

Elisi: Whatever. So, what did the babies and mama frograts look like?

Nadia: The babies look like the statues, some were smaller and bigger, they were swarming so Alora was right about them being pack hunters.

Nadia: Couldn’t get a good look at the mother. The footage was grainy and dark. I had to turn the brightness of my phone up to get an outline.

Elisi: Ooooo, lookit the forensic investigator at work, using the high tech gadgets on her phone.

Nadia: Alora’s sarcasm doesn’t look good on you.

Elisi: Sorry. I’m tired and stressed, just caught my breath, trying to calm down and wondering what to do. So, what does she look like?

Nadia: Again, I just have an outline. Large four clawed hands, bigger version of the statues, scaled like bird claws. Covered in fur, not sure about the color. The eyes look to be a head tall and wide, and based on the eyeshine are yellow. The mouth seemed to be the length of the tunnel.

Elisi: There is no goddamn way.

Nadia: I’ve watched the video over and over again, trying to get a good visual. She seems to take up the entire tunnel. If it’s a she. Might be a he. Or neither. Alora thinks it’s a she.

Elisi: Hmm... Either way, none of these sound like trolls I’ve ever heard of. If they’re trolls at all.

Nadia: What about the cadavers? It’s the same as dead trolls exposed to sunlight.

Elisi: See, here’s the thing. I’m on a neighbor’s land, hoping to get a ride to my home. And, um... he’s dead.

Nadia: Oh! Oh no. Elisi, I’m so sorry.

Elisi: So am I, but not as sorry as these frograts are gonna be. The thing is, he doesn’t even look like he was attacked or eaten by a troll. The body is just up the hill. Drained of blood.

Nadia: (horrified and confused) What?

Elisi: DRAINED. OF. BLOOD. He’s a goddamn husk! Just the blood! JUST! THE! BLOOD! I mean, what happened to his dog is normal, it’s been ripped to shreds and the bones are near picked clean. THAT’s troll carnage there; makes sense for a hoard of little ones. But why drain the human and only the human?

Nadia: Elisi?

Elisi: (calms down a bit) Yes?

Nadia: Are you sure? Drained of blood?

Elisi: Yeah. Four puncture wounds in his chest, and everything’s there BUT blood. So...

Nadia: This... helps to narrow down what these things are. If the babies kill and maim like trolls, but the adults drain blood... I have to admit, this isn’t something trolls naturally do.

Elisi: Yeah. Look, how about you get in on that research. I’m going to patch up, and find a way to get to my family and make sure they’re alright.

Nadia: What about Alora?

Elisi: Any word from her since the video?

Nadia: No! I’ve called and texted. Nothing.

Elisi: She’s a Shard too, whatever happens, she can’t die. Keep me posted if she answers. I’m sorry, Nadia, I have babies at my house. Babies I need to keep safe above all other forms of life.

Nadia: ...I understand. Call me back when you get there?

Elisi: Okay. Stay strong, sis. We’re going to be okay.

Nadia: Okay. I’ll talk to you soon, Elisi. Please be careful.

Elisi: Yep yep. Talk to you later.

(they both hang up)

(Text sent from Alora’s phone to Nadia’s phone, twenty minutes later)

Alora: Bitch

Alora: btch

Alora: bitch

Alora: Bitch

Nadia: ??? Alora? Are you alright?

Alora: bintch

Alora: No

Alora: typing with one hand

Alora: hurts

Alora: pans

Alora: pain

Alora: fucking spell checks

Nadia: Alora, calm down. Where are you?

Alora: Nest

Nadia: A nest? Of those trolls?

Alora: Yeah

Alora: Eaten

Alora: Again

Alora: Again

Alora: Again

Alora: Hate it

Nadia: I’ll call Elisi and tell her where you are

Alora: No

Alora: Food

Alora: Me food

Alora: won’t hunt

Alora: Keep her talking

Nadia: Do you mean the mother troll? She can talk?

Alora: Yeah

Alora: First tongue

Nadia: First tongue? She speaks the oldest troll language?

Alora: Yeah

Alora: No English or trail

Alora: Troll

Alora: Saomara

Nadia: Is that her name?

Alora: Yeah

Alora: Told me

Nadia: Old name. First tongue.

Alora: Frozen

Nadia: Frozen?

Alora: Thawed

Alora: Woke up

Alora: Swam

Alora: Eggs

Alora: Hunt

Alora: Basically that

Alora: Tired

Nadia: Okay, listen, I think I can get you out of there. Are you alone right now?

Alora: Nope

Alora: Hatching

Alora: Feeding soon

Nadia: Listen, I can teleport you out just like in Killahead. Give the word. Should I do it now?

Alora: No

Alora: NO

Alora: SHE’S COMING

Nadia: Okay. Stay strong. Give me a signal when you’re ready. I’ll get you home, I promise.

(There’s no further response from Alora)

(Elisi calls Nadia’s phone the next morning)

Nadia: Elisi? Are you okay? Where are you?

Elisi: Home. Everyone’s fine. Nothing even looks out of the ordinary. Piri tended to my wounds. I should regenerate completely by tonight.

Nadia: Oh thank god. And the bad baby trolls?

Elisi: (chuckles) Bad babies?

Nadia: Yes. Any sign of them on your way back?

Elisi: Oh yeah. Lots of them. Looks like they’ve been digging tunnels underground. I found a bunch of holes just off the river banks. Lots of small bones, and more dead frograt statues. I don’t understand why there’s so many dead ones. Like, are they just walking out into the sunlight willy nilly, not knowing what happened?

Nadia: Yes.

Elisi: ...that sounded confident.

Nadia: I found out what they are. If you have a moment I can tell you.

Elisi: Everyone’s asleep and I’m in bed recovering. All I have is time. What did you find?

Nadia: Alora managed to contact me. She’s in the mother’s nest, being used as a food source for the hatching babies.

Elisi: (extremely alarmed) Oh shit! What?! How did she manage to--

Nadia: She’s not a happy camper, I can certainly say that. The good news is that she’s gotten the troll to start talking. It’s name is Saomara--

Elisi: Wow. That’s an ancient name. Like Victoria, or Gladys, or Pepper Pompadour.

Nadia: Older! Like caveman old!

Elisi: Yeah, I know. Go on.

Nadia: She’s indeed female, and she speaks in the First Tongue.

Elisi: ...so it’s a caveman era troll?

Nadia: Exactly! She was frozen in a glacier thousands upon thousands of years ago! But the ice melted a couple of years ago. She must have come from Syberia or somewhere in that area, because she swam the Berring Straight to get here.

Elisi: ....to fucking Noatak?!

Nadia: But the hundreds to thousands of babies, big enough to fill the gyre tunnels, Syberia, frozen for thousands of years, AND can drain blood? I’ve found what she is!

Elisi: Well, don’t keep me in suspense, woman!

Nadia: She’s an Evlakeel!

Elisi: ...

Nadia: ???

Elisi: ...what’s that?

Nadia: It’s a tribe of prehistoric trolls. Just like what you’ve seen, they breed like rabbits, but they don’t care for the hatchlings until they reach a certain age. Because of this, the babies tend to die off in droves! The mother only cares for those who’ve managed to survive on their own.

Elisi: Ugh. That’s awful.

Nadia: They’re an extremely aggressive species and because they can multiply so fast and grow their territory so quickly, they would become a huge nuisance to everyone around them. They would eat any animal, person, or troll they came across, not caring for conservation or any other form of life. Left unchecked, they could strip the world of everything in a matter of months.

Elisi: Sounds like Gunmar. Only one who just keeps making babies by the sound of it.

Nadia: Yes! A female will lay up to one million eggs a season! Almost non stop! For the entire season! The good news is that the chance of survival due to non parenting is very bad for the little ones. One in a thousand make it to the next stage of development, THEN she will start caring for them, and will do so VERY protectively. So, once she stops laying, the number of her brood should drop to.... maybe a hundred?

Elisi: Still doesn’t sound much better. I need to get these prehistoric pests off my land!

Nadia: I do hear you. The species is supposed to be extinct; hunted by other tribes of trolls because of their natural overpopulation. Looks like this one survived somehow.

Elisi: It’s not unheard of for trolls to be frozen solid in ice, or petrified deep within the earth. Survival stories do happen. Jeez... why this one, though? This one sucks.

Nadia: Yeah. So, now we know what we’re up against. Now we just need a plan of attack.

Elisi: How did the trolls from the past exterminate the Evlakeel?

Nadia: I assume how they killed other things. Primitive weapons, larger numbers, fire, larger trolls... Must have looked like a much messier Battle of Killahead. Only it wasn’t a war. It was genocide.

Elisi: I mean... if they’re gonna be assholes about what they do...

Nadia: What I am thinking is if she can talk, she can be reasoned with. We could try talking to her and maybe try to find a peaceful solution.

Elisi: No.

Nadia: I-- what? But--

Elisi: If she doesn’t control her brood, they’re going to wipe out every animal, fish, bird, insect, plant, AND human by the end of summer! THEY won’t be reasoned with. It’s my responsibility to make sure NONE of those unholy vermin survive. And once they’re all gone, I’ll deal with the mother personally.

Nadia: Listen to yourself. If you go after the older brood, the mother will come after you!

Elisi: GOOD! Lemme kill the source of the eggs first, then mop up the mess over the summer. Sounds GREAT!

Nadia: Elisi--

Elisi: WHY WOULD YOU REASON WITH THIS MONSTER?! YOU NEVER CAME HERE! YOU HAVEN’T SEEN WHAT I’VE SEEN! YOU’VE NEVER EVEN SEEN MY HOME! THIS BASIN IS MY HOME! I’VE RAISED SIXTEEN GENERATIONS OF WHELPS HERE! I HAVE A HOME AND FAMILY TO PROTECT AND IF YOU CAN’T RESPECT THAT--

Nadia: Elisi!

Elisi: --THEN I’M NOT LISTENING TO ANYTHING ELSE YOU NEED TO SAY! IF YOU WON’T HELP, THEN DON’T CALL AGAIN!

Nadia: I WILL HELP!

Elisi: Yeah, how?

Nadia: You’re right. The babies can’t be reasoned with. They all have to be exterminated. It may be possible to move the mother somewhere else. Or determine a way to find her at her weakest. Elisi, I will help you. I’ll help save your family and your home. I’m just trying to find the fastest solution.

Elisi: (after a minute of silence) Fine. Just find your fast solution FAST!

Nadia: I’ll do a bit more research and get back to you. I also need to see to Alora. I don’t think she’s going to last much longer.

Elisi: Alright.

Nadia: Get some rest. I’ll give you a call tonight, okay?

Elisi: Yeah.

Nadia: Rest well, sister.

Elisi: Yeah, you too. (hangs up)

(Texts sent from Alora’s phone to Nadia’s during the phone conversation)

Alora: Bitch

Alora: bitch

Alora: binch

Alora: btch

Alora: btch

Alora: super bitch

Alora: super bitchy

Alora: bitch

Alora: gonna eat my hands

(The texts stop)