The Fourfold Key

Chapter Nineteen: The Man Named Draoi

They walked under the tall trees with the pine needle carpet for some time. After a while, they came to a creek. That creek joined another creek which joined another, and soon the towering trees of the Elven Woodlands were gone and all that was left were little creeks joining up with each other until they made a mud land.

Gradually, they waded through the muck and made it to the Troll Swamps. The trees of Troll Swamps came so fast and so thick that as soon as they walked in, the only light they had to guide them was many little glowing mushrooms not unlike the shining fungus at the elves' village. The ground was moist, and Ruth was glad of the pair of shoes she had received from the elves - it kept her slightly dry. The water was there, trickling in amongst the shadows, but it was hard to see. There was a small path leading through the forest, so thin that Ruth began to get claustrophobic.

As they walked, Ruth began to see some empty, spacious patches of dirt that weren't mud or overgrown. Ruth headed towards one such patch so she could breathe comfortably again, but Tom pulled her back.

"Quicksand," he warned. "Oh, and, watch out for snakes. I believe there's only one kind here that's not poisonous."

"Oh, right. 'Cause that's not scary at all!" Ruth exclaimed in a voice that was an octave higher than normal. After that she let Tom do the leading and didn't take her eyes off the ground for a moment.

"So, how exactly are we going to find the trolls?" Ruth asked after a while.

"We're not. They're going to find us," Tom said.

"What?!" Ruth's head snapped up for the first time in hours. She clutched at her neck.

"We'll just build a smoky fire. When the trolls come to investigate, we'll be safe in the trees. And when they find that no one is here, they'll return to their camp and we can follow them."

"You're kidding."

"Sorry, no."

Ruth began to rant about what a terrible idea this was and how he was going to get them both killed, while Tom set about making a fire in a clearing he had discovered that wasn't quicksand.

Considering how wet the sticks were, Tom had the fire going in no time. The smoky blaze was well under way when Tom decided it was ready to burn on its own and turned to get up a tree. Only there was a catch...

"Uh, Tom? When you picked this place did you realize that all these trees have branches well above our heads?" Ruth leaned her head back to look at the branches. The lowest ones were probably about eight or nine feet up.

"Well, no, I didn't," Tom admitted.

"Oh. Well. Look who was right," Ruth said, her voice rising again.

"Come on, I'll boost you and then you can pull me up."

Ruth did as he asked and was soon up in the tree. But as it turned out, climbing into the tree from Tom's hands was a lot easier than pulling Tom up. Their fingers hardly touched, and Tom had to jump to get a good hold. As she grabbed his hands, she heard footsteps crashing towards them. Tom tried to get up, but only succeeded in almost pulling Ruth down. He gave up and rushed behind another tree. Ruth's heart lodged itself in her throat as she watched six troll break through the thick trees, eyes roving madly about the clearing. Their large noses sniffed wildly, searching for the tantalizing scent of helpless prey.

The trolls had large, humped backs, with moss and other small plant life growing upon them. Their long knobby arms held spears as long as them. Their legs were just as spindly as their arms, and had large, bumpy feet. The only thing each one wore was a loincloth around its middle, tied on with a frayed rope. Ruth's breathing quickened at the sight of them, and she almost lost her grip on the tree.