Mustafa pulls down the book written by a man named Frederick Grimm and opens the first few pages. There is a dedication to “the many souls who have died for our knowledge of the awful creatures.” He opens to a random page.
The preponderance of evidence suggests, astoundingly, that there is some truth to the ogress’ origin myth as told in the sacred legends of their goddess cult. At one time, this species was entirely herbivorous as the males are to this day. While it is impossible to answer the question of a historical Roztegmu, there does seem to be a point in the distant past where an ogress modified her biology to become both physically massive and carnivorous and passed this along to her female progeny.
How this happened exactly is not well understood, but sorcery appears to be at the heart of their way of life. The journal of ogress scholar Forest Everett is our best primary source on the matter. He followed a young ogress’s coalition through Zinek from a safe distance. He overheard the females explaining that it is important to eat “meat with a soul while the heart is still beating.” By this they mean sentient life like fairies, halflings, and of course humans. Later transcripts go on to relate the ogresses rationale for this grisly dietary necessity. To quote the ogress being studied “Our strength and magic comes for meat’s life force. So keep the meat boy alive as long as possible so we can be strong.” This suggests that there may be some truth to the grim urban legend that ogresses can tether the souls of their victims to their bodies post mortem. If this is true, that makes the awful prospect of predation by ogresses an even worse fate than previously imagined.
Sadly, Dr. Everett was not able to discover the exact mechanism of this sorcery or any ways of defending against it. However, his work has made one other noteworthy contribution to our understanding of these creatures, namely that they are in fact literate. The last page of Dr. Everett manuscript is written in a different handwriting and reads: “I am the smartest book boy in Zinek. I learned so much about majestic ogresses. I saw them fuck, I saw them poop. I saw everything except the mighty ogress huntress sneaking up behind me. How did I not see her with my big stupid glasses? I guess I’m not that smart.” The entry is signed “Kaltzu’s Ass Fat, PhD.” We were very fortunate that Dr. Everett’s manuscript was not badly damaged by all the blood.
“That book is a favorite of the morbidly curious.” Sage comments while walking back into the room.
“Yeah.” Mustafa says softly as he closes the book. He thinks about Jason still out in the forest.
“Makes you glad we’re in here doesn’t it?” Mustafa is too lost in his own thoughts to respond to the statement. After standing in awkward silence for a few moments, Sage tentatively announces. “The water for our tea is ready.”
