Chapter Summaries

Nesta and the witch doctors trapped the gravely injured Debelius in a living prison, forcing it back into sleep, then decided to transport it to their heartland for study. As wolf packs converged on the troll army, Nesta prepared to meet their growing threat and led a force southeast to stop them joining together.

• The Black Blade-Tusk Beasts and other mountain Magic Beasts challenged the wolf kings, prompting several wolf packs and older Lord Wolves to turn away from Debelius's cave.
• Inside the cave, Debelius unleashed a devastating black-orb attack that severely damaged the barrier, but Nesta directed the witch doctors to reinforce it, bind Debelius with vines, and sustain their casting with melted fat.
• After a prolonged battle and another month of attrition, the prison grew into a massive plant, and the witch doctors' toxins subdued Debelius and put it back to sleep.
• Nesta and the witch doctors agreed to transport Debelius to their heartland for research, while Rough Tusk and the plant-type witch doctors stayed behind to reinforce the prison.
• The command center reported that wolf packs were converging, and Nesta learned that Azshara had gone north while the army prepared to face the eastern and southern packs.
• When the eastern and southern wolf packs joined forces, Nesta led Sharp Tusk, ten apprentice information-team members, and seven hundred Troll warriors southeast to prevent them from gathering further.

Nesta and Sharp Tusk captured wolf packs and helped the trolls prepare for a massive wolf offensive. The battle began with the trolls’ defenses inflicting heavy losses, but elite wolves broke through the frontline and started injuring soldiers.

• Nesta transformed into a wolf, defeated a Lord Wolf with Sharp Tusk’s help, and took command of its pack.
• Sharp Tusk captured the injured Lord Wolf while Nesta led the newly subdued wolves away and used Far Travelers to locate other packs.
• Nesta and Sharp Tusk subdued several more wolf packs, while Azshara and the twelve Wolf Kings helped reduce the number of independent Lords facing the main army.
• The trolls assembled behind layered chevaux de frise and spike traps as nearly fifty Lord Wolves led a vast force toward their position.
• The troll army hurled thousands of spears at the advancing wolves, killing many before the survivors reached the frontline.
• Heavy javelins struck the elite wolves, killing or disabling nearly two hundred Giant Wind Wolves, but the Lord Wolves pressed on and broke into the troll formations, causing the first soldier casualties.

The troll army defeated the wolf forces that attacked the positions, with Rough Tusk turning the tide against the Lord Wolves and bringing the battle to an end. The tribe had cleared most wolf forces from the forests near the caves, but still faced fleeing packs and the untouched Wolf King force, and its own casualties were severe.

• The warriors surrounded the elite wolf packs at two breached positions, while Lord Wolves tried and failed to break through or reunite with their troops.
• The Wind Wolves’ morale collapsed, and the warriors drove them from the positions after killing more than 2,000; nearly 600 surviving Giant Wind Wolves were then overwhelmed by the arriving troops.
• The Lord Wolves inflicted severe casualties on the warriors until Rough Tusk entered the battle and used vines to bind them one by one.
• The trolls gathered the remaining Lord Wolves onto an open battlefield, divided them with coordinated formations, and Rough Tusk subdued them as the last wolf was captured.
• The battle ended with most Wind Wolves annihilated, the Giant Wind Wolves nearly wiped out, and almost every Lord Wolf captured, though the troll army had suffered heavy losses.

After a costly victory over the wolf packs, Nesta staged an alliance with the wolves under his and Azshara’s command and sent Sharp Tusk to negotiate with the Wolf Kings. As the expedition ended, Nesta tested a moose-drawn railway to solve the problem of transporting Debelius’s enormous prison back to the main tribe.

• The tribe recovered its dead, mourned the 183 warrior and 23 Far Traveler losses, and debated what to do with the wolf packs under Nesta and Azshara’s command.
• Nesta and Azshara led the wolves through a staged battle, then negotiated an alliance pact requiring the pack to provide food and join the trolls’ campaigns.
• The expedition on the western bank ended, and Sharp Tusk volunteered to travel alone to seek talks with the Wolf Kings while Nesta and the witch doctors considered how to move Debelius’s prison.
• After a supply convoy arrived, Nesta proposed wooden rail transport and helped build a 100-meter test track using new logging machinery.
• A moose-drawn carriage hauled heavy supplies along the track, but derailed when it could not stop; the witch doctors added Steelwood brakes and considered expanding the railway network.
• Nesta and the witch doctors concluded that transporting the prison to the main tribe would require a railway route of over 2,000 kilometers.

Nesta and the witch doctors organized an eighteen-hundred-kilometer rail project that would connect the tribe to the caverns and transform transport across the Black Forest. The chapter ended with four branch bases establishing factories, training workers, and preparing for construction while the wolf pack supplied food and searched for deer herds.

• Nesta and the witch doctors approved the rail project after determining the tribe had enough food reserves to support it, then established a temporary base on the battlefield and cleared and hardened the site.
• The witch doctors planned communications, supplies, bridges, and labor, ordering the tribe and allied tribes to provide thousands of workers; five witch doctors built a living bridge across the Black River.
• Surveyors mapped an eighteen-hundred-kilometer route, and the witch doctors established four branch bases, cultivated Steelwood for rails and machinery, and created industrial mother machines.
• Apprentices and Troll workers built factories at the bases, manufactured engineering vehicles and track components, and began training workers to operate the equipment.
• Nesta and Azshara’s wolf pack expanded its territory, supplied prey to the branch bases, and searched the forest for deer herds to meet future transport needs.

Nesta turned the Crown Wheat harvest into a plan for expanding agriculture, using modified seeds and machinery to address labor shortages while rail construction advanced. As production teams and new farms took shape, Sharp Tusk reached two Wolf Kings and reported that Debelius had been captured, leaving them to consider visiting the Tusk Tribe.

• Nesta tested ways to prepare Crown Wheat and decided the trolls would eat it in its husk for now.
• Nesta approved using eastern garrisons to reclaim farmland and ordered seeds modified so their harvested grain could not be replanted.
• Apprentices developed agricultural vehicles, prompting headquarters and the four rail branch bases to begin producing machinery and expanding farmland.
• Nesta organized headquarters and outside trolls into mixed production teams, while engineering vehicles and laborers pushed rail construction forward.
• Sharp Tusk told two Wolf Kings that the Troll Tribe had defeated and captured Debelius, and they demanded to visit the tribe before discussing friendship.

Nesta investigated the giant tree and the Cave Wolf imprisoned inside it, suspecting their connection was causing the tree’s rapid growth. He began altering the cage to obtain a sample from the Cave Wolf, but struggled against its toughness and decided to look for tissue on a withdrawn injector.

• Nesta visited the giant tree and found Rough Tusk maintaining his Treant form beside it.
• Nesta sensed that the cage had grown thicker where it connected to Debelius and withdrew one injector to compare its tissues with those still attached.
• Nesta reflected on how power had changed his priorities and considered eventually stepping down as Dictator after completing urgent work.
• Nesta reshaped part of the cage into a narrow tube with a claw intended to cut and retrieve tissue from the Cave Wolf.
• Nesta failed to open the claw against the Cave Wolf’s steel-like body and decided to check a withdrawn injector for residual tissue.

Aisa adjusted to construction work and intensive training at the Tusk Tribe’s western bases while Nesta studied Cave Wolf cells and began an experiment to harness their energy. The railway advanced toward connecting the bases, and Nesta agreed to receive the Wolf King couple as he prepared to test his ideas.

• Aisa traveled from his tribe to the Cave Base, where he learned to mix construction materials and earn extra food through hard work.
• After six or seven days, an Apprentice began training Aisa in the New Troll Language, tribal history, writing, and construction vehicle driving.
• Nesta examined Cave Wolf tissue and found that its cells appeared to lack ordinary nuclei, with an enormous energy-conversion structure at their center.
• Nesta asked an Apprentice to bring him a pregnant large beast and a bird egg, then enlisted Rough Tusk, Azshara, Earth Tusk, and Gonzalo to modify the giant tree and restore its ability to bear fruit.
• After three months of work, Sharp Tusk returned with the Wolf Kings’ request to visit, and Nesta agreed to welcome them.
• Nesta observed that the giant tree had begun taking energy from the trapped Cave Wolf, while railway construction continued closing the distance between the bases.

Aisa studied for the daily test, earned his team extra food, and traveled to the construction site, where his leaders let him try driving a cargo truck. The chapter ended as Aisa climbed into the driver’s seat and prepared to operate it under the vice-captain’s guidance.

• Aisa joined his team for morning exercises, then took the daily test and scored 82, earning extra food for them.
• The apprentice announced that Teams 3 and 5 would go hungry because Taut and Bishop had forgotten to write their names.
• Aisa and the other workers rode the moose-drawn train to the construction site and greeted the night-shift team taking over their track section.
• The vice-captain asked the captain to let Aisa try driving, and the captain agreed after checking the team’s vehicle.
• Aisa climbed into the cargo truck’s driver’s seat and began operating it under the vice-captain’s guidance.

Mechanism Tusk overcame six failed Stone Grinder designs after observing how water moved a wooden chip, and his insight led him to develop water-powered machinery and advance to Witch Doctor. Nesta praised his paper, which inspired water-powered factories that increased Stonewood Concrete production for the rail project.

• Mechanism Tusk struggled with repeated rejections of the institute’s Troll-powered Stone Grinder designs and worried that he had disappointed Nesta.
• On his walk back to the institute, Mechanism Tusk noticed water moving a wooden chip, then saw wind stir leaves and a door swing on its hinges.
• Machine Tusk’s demonstration of a scrapped machine helped Mechanism Tusk connect those observations and design a water-powered Stone Grinder; his fellow apprentices realized he had advanced to Witch Doctor.
• Ten days later, Mechanism Tusk’s paper on replacing Troll power with waterpower reached Nesta, who approved it and ordered it shared with apprentices and Witch Doctors.
• Witch Doctors built water-powered stone-grinding plants near rivers, producing Stonewood Concrete for delivery to the Forward Base and accelerating rail construction.

Nesta and Rough Tusk examined the results of Treebirth embryo-transfer experiments, finding that early-stage moose and wolf embryos showed signs of developing into stronger creatures while other embryos struggled. Meanwhile, industrial expansion accelerated railway construction until the advance teams from Cave Base and Base Two approached one another, leaving their crews poised to confirm the connection.

• Nesta and Rough Tusk watched a chicken hatch from a giant-tree fruit and found it was healthy but merely larger than an ordinary chick.
• Rough Tusk asked whether advancing affected Nesta and Azshara's fertility, and Nesta explained they were choosing not to have children for now.
• Nesta and Rough Tusk reviewed the embryo samples, deciding to remove the failing Moose Two, monitor Wolf Two, and continue observing the promising Moose Three and Wolf Three.
• The witch doctors expanded the giant tree's embryo-bearing vines to increase samples and investigate a safe path for future Troll-body experiments.
• Hydraulic factories and improved concrete supplies sped up railway construction, bringing the Cave Base and Base Two advance teams close to joining their lines.
• Aisa heard machinery ahead, and his vice-captain suspected Base Two's advance team had reached the opposing frontier; the chapter also introduced Base Two captain Quenna Tusk.

Quenna Tusk recalled how her grievance over Far Traveler recruitment led the tribe to reform its military recruitment and public feedback systems, then described her growth as a leader and student during railway construction. The final stretch between Cave Base and Base Two was completed, reuniting Quenna with old comrades as the teams celebrated.

• Quenna Tusk rejected the Pioneer's offer to join the Far Traveler Corps immediately and chose to keep training until the next recruitment.
• The tribe created the Conscription Bureau, opened Far Traveler recruitment to all citizens, and established public notice walls and suggestion boxes.
• Quenna Tusk led a construction team at the western railway front, studied and meditated diligently, and reunited with Isidosta while Silvesta guarded her jealously.
• Isidosta told Fuliesta that Quenna was nearby, but Fuliesta stayed at work after his deputy captain reminded him to set an example.
• Quenna Tusk and Fuliesta's teams worked together on the final railway section, then the twenty Trolls cheered and the four old comrades embraced.

Nesta inspected the completed railway between Cave Base and Base Two, visited construction sites and the other bases, and then oversaw preparations to relocate the giant tree at Cave Base. The tree was finally loaded onto a massive wheeled platform and began moving along the railway, pulled by eight hundred moose.

• Nesta rode the newly completed 490-kilometer railway to Base Two, where he checked the moose reserves, inspected the city and industrial base, and addressed construction workers.
• Nesta visited the eastern worksites with Azshara, encouraged the laborers, and toured the remaining bases before returning to Cave Base with the other witch doctors.
• Nesta rejected the idea of moving the tribal headquarters and helped plan a way to transport the giant tree using wide flatbeds and rows of wheels.
• The witch doctors reshaped the tree’s canopy and severed its deep roots, then guided it down onto five joined flatbeds, damaging buildings and opening a wide breach in the city wall.
• Nesta ordered compensation for affected residents and the excavation of the remaining roots, then sent eight hundred moose pulling the giant tree along the railway.

After the railway was completed, Nesta planned to keep the foreign Troll laborers by offering them land and homes, and he raised major questions about how the tribe should distribute land and manage future growth. Meanwhile, Silvesta’s romantic misadventures with Quenna ended in a beating and led to a strange application at the Marriage Registration Bureau.

• Nesta’s convoy reached the Second Base as news arrived that the railway connecting the eastern Black River to the western caves had been completed.
• Nesta told the witch doctors to keep the three thousand foreign Troll laborers by rewarding them with homes and farmland and persuading them to stay voluntarily.
• Nesta raised questions about land distribution, ownership, harvests, machinery, inheritance, settlements, and labor, asking the witch doctors and government officials to consider them before future discussions.
• Silvesta slipped into Quenna’s tent after the banquet, found her other two male friends there, and ran off to another female Troll’s tent.
• Quenna found Silvesta in the other Troll’s tent, dragged him away by the ear, and later beat him; an unusual application subsequently reached the Marriage Registration Bureau.

Quenna’s second marriage application was sent to headquarters, where Trista rejected it again, while Nesta’s convoy continued toward the main settlement. The chapter left the convoy nearing Black River Bridge, with the eastern tribes’ leaders gathered to witness its arrival and the newly hatched Wolf Two revealed as a Giant Wind Wolf.

• Quenna sent her second marriage application to the Marriage Registration Office before parting from Fuliesta and Isido, who headed back to Cave Base.
• Trista received the application, recognized it as the same one he had previously discarded, and tore it up again.
• Nesta ordered the eastern tribes’ chiefs and witch doctors to attend the celebration and continued the journey toward Base Four aboard the Great Tree train.
• Nesta’s witch doctors opened Moose Two’s egg and sent the newborn moose calf ahead to headquarters for further research.
• Wolf Two hatched as a Giant Wind Wolf pup, astonishing the witch doctors and prompting speculation about the next eggs.
• The convoy neared Black River Bridge as witch doctors widened it, while the eastern tribes’ chiefs and witch doctors gathered at the station for Nesta’s return.

Nesta celebrated the Expeditionary Army’s victory by displaying the captured Cave Wolf, Debelius, before the trolls and their allies. Across the Black River, the Wolf Kings withdrew after confirming Debelius was imprisoned, while a curious black Blade-Tusk Beast continued toward the Tusk Tribe.

• The train brought the Great Tree and three thousand Battle Soldiers into the station, where Nesta announced the army’s victory and claimed a vast new homeland for the trolls.
• The shamans opened the Great Tree’s trunk and revealed the bound Cave Wolf, Debelius, whose threats frightened the crowd until Nesta reminded them he was a prisoner.
• Twelve Wolf Kings learned that Debelius had been captured, abandoned their planned attack, and ordered the pack to erase its tracks and retreat south.
• The Wolf Kings arranged for Yubelus and Lukia to stay behind and investigate how the Tusk Tribe had captured Debelius.
• A black Blade-Tusk Beast heard Debelius’s voice across the river, panicked briefly, then continued toward the Tusk Tribe to investigate the Great Tree.

Nesta and the Witch Doctors captured a Black Blade-Tusk Beast after Far Travelers went missing, but discovered it had come with a message from Sharp Tusk seeking an alliance. The beast remained wary of the Trolls, leaving Nesta to consider how to resolve the dangerous misunderstanding.

• After six Far Traveler teams went missing along the left bank, Nesta halted the meeting and led Witch Doctors and troops to investigate.
• Nesta and the Witch Doctors used the Bridge Tree to trap a lone Black Blade-Tusk Beast, then surrounded it with Moose Cavalry and Battle Soldiers.
• Nesta recognized Sharp Tusk's pouch and ordered the Battle Soldiers to step back instead of attacking.
• Azshara approached the beast, which let her pet it and handed over Sharp Tusk's satchel.
• Nesta read Sharp Tusk's message explaining that he had befriended the beast and hoped to establish ties with its kind as potential reinforcements.

After the Far Travelers vanished without explanation, Nesta strengthened patrols and began planning plant-based scouts, then moved the heroes’ memorial to Great Tree and held funerals for the fallen. The chapter left Nesta confronting Quenna Tusk’s complaint about marriage registration and wondering whether he had imposed inherited moral rules on the Trolls.

• Nesta sent Daba and Rough Tusk south to search for missing trolls, while Azshara coaxed the Black Blade-Tusk Beast to follow her back toward headquarters.
• After the search found no trolls or enemies, Nesta ordered stronger patrols and asked Rough Tusk to guide research into plant-based scouting units.
• Nesta and the shamans moved the planned monument complex to Great Tree, established a heroes’ tomb and plaza, and held solemn funerals for the fallen.
• While the Rune Council kept allied representatives waiting through extended meetings, Nesta, Rough Tusk, and Azshara returned to research near Great Tree with the Black Blade-Tusk Beast, Darknight, following Azshara.
• Quenna Tusk arrived to complain that officials had ignored her applications and Suggestion Box complaint about registering a family with three male partners.
• Nesta questioned why Quenna wanted a ceremony, then hesitated to explain his view as he wondered whether his ideas about morality and ethics belonged in Troll society.

Nesta explained to Quenna that the tribe’s scattered bases and outposts stretched its small population thin, and argued that limiting her to three exclusive male partners would hinder population growth. After Quenna agreed to give up the idea, Nesta asked her to organize others who had faced government neglect and demand change.

• Nesta outlined the tribe’s population, its outposts, and the strain of keeping them supplied with people.
• Nesta explained to Quenna that pregnancy and nursing would leave her unable to have children for years, while her exclusive claim on three males could reduce the tribe’s population growth.
• Quenna accepted Nesta’s argument and said she would give up having the three males all to herself.
• Nesta asked Quenna to find others who had faced the Executive Government’s neglect, the ignored Suggestion Box, and a lack of legal knowledge, then organize them to make a fuss.
• Nesta reassured Quenna that he and the Witch Doctors would handle any resulting disruption, then gave her instructions before she left.

The witch doctors studied the animal embryos altered by the high-energy environment, finding that Wolf Three had exceptional physical qualities while Moose Three lacked a Magic Crystal. After Nesta raised concerns about the risks of Troll embryo experiments, the witch doctors agreed to establish experimental ethics and continued their work with animals.

• Wolf Three showed a larger Magic Crystal reflection and a stronger body than Wolf Two, while Wolf Two and Moose Two had died from embryonic malnutrition.
• Moose Three displayed exceptional physical qualities but no Magic Crystal reflection, so the witch doctors expected it to reach only sub-leader status.
• Nesta rejected proposals for Troll embryo experiments and explained the possible consequences if an altered Troll child survived with congenital differences.
• The witch doctors agreed not to begin Troll embryo experiments lightly, to create strict rules for them, and to make experimental ethics a mainstream standard.
• The witch doctors set aside Troll embryo experiments for the time being and continued their animal research.