"Great ....just great" her trembling fist hit the ground in frustration "so fucking great ."
Without any clue of where a treant could come from instead of a forest, she moved her head to the side and questioned him:
"Do you know the way back ?"
Only " guru gra kya " came back from him. As if forgetting her indisposition, her brows knitted and her hand reached between her eyebrows pinching it lightly.
"Can you please talk again?"
"Kiaaaaaa."
She was sure. The treant was still a seedling despite his size. Young seedlings who didn't reach adulthood couldn't really comunicate and only understood roughly what someone else wanted from them and that was a big problem. A very big problem.
Because she couldn't really comunicate with him, she couldn't inquire from where he came from or, if he knew from where he came from at all.
She ,indeed, wanted to help him ,but not in a million years wanted to end babysitting a seedling. Hopefull, she returned her attention to the nymph.
"Can't you take care of him ?"
The nymph shooked her petite head and sighed as if thousand of burdens were already on her delicate shoulders. With a spontaneous idea she helped the girl to sit on her bum and formed in the air a sigil of green light.
" Bai...Is that your name ?"
The nymph grinned and made another sigil.
"My name ?" She paused unsure of what to do. Leaving traces behind was the last thing she wanted, but the friendship to a nymph was a rare and precious thing that came only in thousands of years. Maybe it was acceptable if she didn't divulge it all. "Eli. You can call me that."
The nymph formed with her plump lips the name Eli, but no sound could be heard. She
paced back and forth in little but steady steps and her hand constantly touched her own chin in wonder. As if a light bulb light up over her head, her whole body stopped for a moment to only be turned around brutally to face Eli once again. Big signs and letters and even images out of light were given generously and in big ample movements by the nymph.
"You want me..... to..... ask a forest troll for help?" she asked in disbelief.
Again the nymph nodded.
"Oh, no way. You won't see me ask for help from those little malevolent pieces of dirt and shite."
To which the nymph frantically gesticulated and ended crossed-armed ,pouting like a chipmunk.
The seedling didn't seem to quietly get the theme of their discussion,so he reassuringly reached after the human female and put an woody hand over her shoulder,his eyes now bigger than ones of the biggest baby she ever seen. He fixed his eyes on hers. He had glassy and pure eyes, his naivety streamed out of every crack on his body and crashed into her, to which a loud and clear " Ma-ma" followed.
Eli was astounded and speechless for a second.
"Oh,heeeeell naw. I ain't your mama." She speedily removed his hand. " I am too old to be a grandmother ,let alone a mother." Her shoulders sagged in defeat." Where do I find that troll again?"
With a very detailedly painted leaf as a map and one big woody cry-baby as a companion, she stealthily treked trough the forest, keeping an open eye for any dangers.
Not having experience with children made her feel exhausted even after an hour of walking. She had to make much more pauses during their journey because of the siedling's low stamina and aside that it was a struggle for her to keep her plant companion perfectly hydrated. To keep the seedling away from losing too much water in case she couldn't find any in the future, they tipptioed aroung the sunny openings of the forest, avoiding sunlight as much as possible.
Not that the sunlight was the only source of distraction for the young plant. He found himself immersed in all kinds of things. He would chase a butterfly with vigorous efforts, almost losing her amidst the woods or he would stop to collect flowers, braid them to flower crowns along the way and gift them todifferent animals. One fox even let him pat her glossy fur after receiving the crown.
As much as she found those little acts insanely adorable, every little break on their way made her stressed and impacient. She wanted to bring this little troublesome guy between his own kind as soon as possible. That's why, along the way she decided to tie a rope against his middle and connect it to her waist-belt.
Their surroundings only nourished her paranoia. The air felt chillier. Plants got rarer and rarer and the tree's crowns were barely having a fourth of their crowns filled with sick looking leaves, shivering in the wind. The sun which they avoided tens of meters behind was nowhere to be seen, hiding behind grey, angry clouds.
That was no mistake. They were in the right part of the forest.
"Watch.......where........ you put........ your....... foot. Be...... quiet. " she warned the seedling, gesticulating towards her own feet.
They had to pe especially quiet. Trolls loved to live in the forest, well under the forest, in little self-built dark tunnels, but they were not the only malicious beings wandering these parts. There were dullahans, banshees, dark treants, evil faes, cyclops and many many more creatures which would be more than happy to tear them apart and feeed themselves on their innards.
Hateful godbastards. Most of them were terrible mistakes of assaults or one night-stands between humans and gods, which flourished over time from feeding off of humanity and grew in numers like insects. Not that any child was responsible for the actions of his parents, but the offspring were not monsters because of their horiffic apearance, but because of their cruel acts against any other creatures.
She glanced behind her to the clueless seedling, after checking the map once more.
"You are doing great. Keep it up. We are almost there. "
"Ma-ma-ma.......ma-ma"
With a lot of control to not raise her voice, she spoke quietly between her teeth. "I am not your mother, seedling." Her voice trembled and broke when she tried to repeat the same sentence again, touching the necklace on her chest at the same time. To her surprise and utmost horror, the siedling took her words far worse than expected.
Missing his step, he almost fell, when Eli jumped forward, caught him in her arms and rotated them, so that when they rolled down the steep hill she'd be an human cushion for the fragile plant.
Her back crashed against rocks, mossy earth and stinging bushes, almost tearing her old tunic.
She sighed in relief as they reached the base of the hill, to only be overwhelmed by the pain. A hot liquid ran not only down her back but also down her shoulder to her chest and to her belly. Opening her arms, she saw a safe, but bawling seedling. She sucked abruptly air in her lungs.
"Don't cry, please." She patted him to which he whined even harder. Afraid he'll dehydrate himself once again and with no chance to fetch some water in this area, she took a partly healthy branch of a bush, twisted it in the form of a baby-pacifier, sprinkled some sugar from her bag on it and inserted it inside the mouth of the seedling.
The crying stopped as he sucked the improvised baby toy.
With a moment of peace she checked her back and her front, to be relieved the front of her tunic was only wet because of the seedling's tears. She made a mental note to avoid those words in the future if he ever called her that, thinking that maybe he was abandoned by his dear ones once.
Once again on her feet and with an aching back, she realized how the hill they tumbled down had a big stoned door. She checked the map once again.
This had to be the place.
She first got the seedling behind her back before knocking twice on the massive door. A thunderous snarky voice shouted from somewhere deep inside the hill.
" I am not buying anything. I have enough remains to last a lifetime, so scram !!!!!"
She sighed. " I am not here to sell you remains. I need your help, troll! "
"Banshee, I dont need to know when I'll die or prevent someone from dying. So GO ON, YOU GHOSTBUSTER!!!!"
Shaking her head, she was unsure what to say next, an angry troll was not really something she was looking forward to. But maybe.....
"Bai sent me. " she said this time, hopping the nymph's name could make him change his opinion.
Feeling a brise from underneath the door. Her arms once again bent the air, the made objects catching fire after she lightly blew on them. A longsword and a shield. Ready for battle.
The door was tore open, barely hanging on its hinges, by a big humanoid creature. A big, hard as stone and furred body with a little head, covered in multiple smelly furs stood there blocking the whole door. The diva- like troll, stared at her with curiosity, eying the opaque shield and sword covered in flames.
" Why didnt you say so from the beginning?!" He held his bloated belly as if it'd have burst open from only laughing lightly. " Bai saved my life once. Bai's friends are all interesting after all."
He stepped aside, inviting them inside to a massive table only a couple meters away from the door, in the middle of a lot of disgusting junk. Ugly books, bones of different beings hung in different forms, bassins of muddy greenwater and much more things she couldn't name, but knew from so many centuries wandering the earth.
With an elegant gesture she let her arms fall beside her middle, her weapons disapearing into nothing. She sat on the overside stool placing the seedling behind the chair. The table almost reached her shoulder. That big was the difference between her and the forest troll.
" I don't often get the chance to talk to someone like you. " he laughed once more in a strained way, his big uneven nose scrunching like a pig.
" No wonder. You'd be dead by now if you were on the wrong side of the battlefield. " She said as a warning , seeing his glassy scheming eyes.
He was, without a doubt, weighting his chance of winning a fight against her.
He laughed again, this time much more naturally. " You, valkyries, have always been confident beings. " He handed her a pillow, covered in a crust of dirt to sit on.
" Not exactly a valkyrie." she took the pillow and positioned it under her arse, making her have her bust above the table. A better arrangement to chat with him, than barely looking over the table.
"But you are definetly as beautiful as one." he added in an overly sweet tone.
" Careful. We don't wanna play with the fire of a so called valkyrie, do we?"
He swallowed hard.
" Then, how can I help you, friend of Bai ?" he eyed the treant sucking on a piece of wood, taking in all of the shabby room, tunnel ,whatsoever.
" I need your magical and prophetic skills." she also glanced to the treant behind her, which was now trying to shove a spider inside his mouth beside the improvised baby-pacifier. " No, don't put that in your mouth!" she took the spider and threw it somewhere in a pile of bones, placing afterwards a sugar cube on the palm of the treant. " As you can see. I have this seedling with me and I need you to backtrack through your skrying from where he came from. "
The big hands of the troll clasped his chin in a death-grip thinking hard about it. After a couple of seconds he showed a tight-lipped smile with ice-cold eyes. " A favor for a favor. " he slowly said " You bring me one thing I need and I'll look into the tree's home. "
He held his wrinkled hand in agreement over the table for her to grab it.
" You wont just look into its location, but also tell me where the treant's home is. The exact location. Clearly, not in riddles or puzzles, images, whatsoever. " she sharply added, knowing the dirty tricks of troll.
Was it right to take his hand? He surelly had an ulteriour reason, but right now he was the fastest way to get to know from this seedling came from.
She learned from her mother that a valkyries word was sacred and had to be held at all costs.
" And only a thing, not more, not a collection, and I don't have to murder anyone for that thing...." she added again.
A bit shook, he laughed nervously. " Sure, valkyrie. I add all those therms in our verbal agreement. " he still held his hand stubornly over the table.
Reaching a deal she shook his hand, fastly returning it to her body and wiping it discretly on her tunic.
With big stepps the troll brought one of the bassins with clearer water and situated it on the middle of the table.
"Then, let me show you the thing you'll have to retrieve."
With rough but good enough movements, he copied the purple sigil of a witch over the basin. The surface of the water instantly changed from a hideous portrait of the troll's face to the image of an exotic garden during a sunny day. In the middle of the blooming flowers of the garden, there stood a girl resembling an elven goddess, with her platinum hair and eyes as vibrant and lively as the most fresh grass on the elven grounds, sipping from a pricey porcelain cup. She was watched attentively by tens of servants, lined beside the round table where she sipped her drink.
" This is the thing. " said the troll pointing on the girl, remindind Eli that creatures were for trolls also things. Some were precious jewels and some were pieces of rock, ready to be disposed of. A troll's greedyness was sometimes even greater than the god's vanity.