Dragonsbane (Dragonsbane Duology Book I)

Chapter 16: The Troll Forest

One of the Marauders went to a gently flowing stream to relieve himself and soon after a troll giant stepped on him and crushed him.

The gray giant rested a club on his shoulder and looked around, sniffing the air. His smaller friend joined him eager to revel in victory.

"Probably the last one," the small giant croaked.

His bigger comrade did not seem so sure. He continued to scan the area.

***

Morrigan, Cara, and Sandril trekked over tall tree roots and were careful to avoid stepping in gopher holes. Cara came face to face with a giant, glossy spider web spun between trees and moved past it with great care. 

And then they came to a small bridge over a shallow stream. Morrigan and Sandril crossed with light footfalls, Cara stumbled as one of the boards gave way, but her heart only fluttered for a moment and she regained her balance and looked upstream.

"Follow it up?"

Morrigan looked in the same direction and nodded.

It didn't take long to find the crushed marauder. He was almost completely flat, bones stuck from the paste that was his essence. Morrigan reacted with horror at the sight, she'd seen death before, but never like this. 

Cara was the first to hear the coughing nearby and ran to see who it was. There was a young man with a crushed leg sitting against a tree. He had dark clothes on and seemed strangely familiar. Morrigan recognized him when they made eye contact, because she was the only one who had seen him that night, his eyes only slightly more visible than the heathen's.

"You went into the canyon," Morrigan said, and he nodded. Sandril growled at the sight of him, or at the familiar scent he had associated with Morrigan being upset.

"Oh yeah. Sandril really wanted you for supper that night."

The Thief coughed up blood and pointed up as he slipped away from himself.

The big gray troll had his club raised above them, getting ready to strike. They stood frozen in fear for a moment. Then Morrigan picked up Sandril and fled with Cara as the club came down and crushed the Thief.

They ducked under a taller bridge and hid against the wall, digging in deep but not so deep they wouldn't be able to flee again. In the stillness, Morrigan breathed deep, coming back into the present moment she noticed the autumn-colored leaves all around her. 

She'd been lost in thought she hadn't even heard the cracking under her boots as she walked. It was an inappropriate time to admire nature, but it was happening nonetheless. The gray troll's smaller friend joined him, they could both smell the survivors but couldn't seem to find them.

"Did you see where they went?" the small, talkative one asked.

The Big Troll shook his head, focusing. "They weren't with them. The men in black."

"What?"

"They were on their own."

A dog barked once. The trolls took notice but wished it had continued to converge on an exact location.

"They had a mongrel with them," the big troll said.

Cara was paying close attention to the movements of the beasts. She was trying to perfectly plan an escape.

The trolls turned away from them, swearing the sound came from the other direction, further down the stream instead of further up. Cara found her moment and silently urged Morrigan on. She picked up Sandril again and headed out and led up the path towards the snow. 

They were going to make it, the air felt rewarding, until Cara stepped in a gopher hole. Her foot sank in and she was trapped, feeling pressure on her calf. Her groan alerted the trolls. The small one pointed.

"There's one!"

Morrigan went back for Cara, though Cara was shaking her head. Sandril circled around her when Morrigan put him down, like he was trying to find a way to free her, just like Morrigan.

"Go on without me!"

They could hear the thumping footsteps of the giants becoming louder and louder. The small troll arrived first, Morrigan and Sandril backed up after instinct won out, Cara turned to face the creature raising its club. 

Instinct kicked in for Cara as well, instinct that been buried in the deepest corners of her mind, she closed her eyes and threw up her hand. Flames erupted and flowed in a line and it encased the small troll and he flailed and shrieked and screamed trying to put the fire out.

Using the smoke screen as a diversion, Morrigan and Sandril rushed the big troll, she drew her sword and slashed at its knees and stabbed its legs repeatedly. He eventually fell to his knees. Sandril clamped down on one of the hands and it became enraged and shook him off, sending him airborne for a few moments before he hit a nearby tree and landed at the base of it. 

Morrigan wanted to scream, to fall to her knees and cry and curse the heavens for taking the last of her family. Instead, she let fury take charge. She climbed up the troll's body, stabbing and slashing madly. When she reached the head, she buried the short sword in the right eye and it roared at the top of its lungs and crashed to its back. Upon landing, Morrigan buried the sword in the other eye and it let out a defeated whimper.

 It stopped fighting, Morrigan took her sword next and dug it into the troll's neck and sawed, massive amounts of blood streamed from a tiny sieve and then brown gore emerged as she dug the blade deeper inside, with more malice. 

The burning troll fell backwards, as Morrigan noticed just in time and she jumped off her victim's corpse and stumbled to her backside as the small troll fell on the big one, both were dead.

First, she went to Cara and pulled her out of the hole. Cara was terrified of what she had just done but Morrigan's mind had never not been on Sandril so she ran to find him next, leaving Cara frozen where she stood. Finally, her first movement was to look at her hands, her gaze was one of total bewilderment, she didn't want it to happen again, anything but that.

She found Sandril on his side at the same tree he'd landed near. He was alive, his stomach was moving up and down, but Morrigan was too crushed to notice, she broke down, the rage inside had quelled and had been replaced by a deep hurt. 

He wasn't whimpering, he was probably in pain, but he was handling it to well, Morrigan went through his burial in her head, she'd cry a lot, cry to the point where her throat would lock up and no sound would come out. She'd be tired after but wouldn't sleep. Cara joined Morrigan, she had calmed down and tried to do the same for her friend, she eyed the mutt with curiosity.

"Are his legs broken?"

What? Of course, they were, still Morrigan's gaze went to him again, she began to realize she might have overreacted.

"Wait, there isn't even any blood."

She did a full examination of him, he was breathing, he was alive, she let herself accept that something was actually going right for her. The exam gave her nothing, there was nothing wrong with him on the outside. When she was out of ideas, she figured he could at least eat or drink something.

She reached into one of her front facing pouches. He smelled the air quietly, when the little bit of rabbit was presented, he sprang to attention and snatched it before she could even dangle it before his nose and wagged his tail. Morrigan and Cara coughed and laughed and Morrigan cried again but they weren't tears of despair. It started to rain as Morrigan hugged him close.