Draka

The discovery that our destination was infested with trolls did surprisingly little to dampen the mood. We packed up and moved back about half a mile, and ruled out any possibility of a fire that night. Otherwise my companions kept on talking and laughing, just in lower voices.

“Only once have I hunted trolls,” Valmik explained, his eyes wistful and faraway. “They are big and strong, but they are only just cunning enough to be stupid. They can take much damage, but they die like anything else if you do not let them heal. And we have a big advantage: they will make dens together, but hunt alone. And we stick together. One by one, that is how you kill a troupe of trolls. It is only a shame that we are not prepared. Their blood draws a fair price from the alchemists.”

Once darkness fell I volunteered to scout the ruin. They knew about my excellent stealth skills, though I still held back about my shadow magic; despite the trust and camaraderie we’d built, I still didn’t feel comfortable telling anyone but Herald. Her, I trusted implicitly, and I knew that the ever pragmatic dragon approved.

With secrecy in mind I put some distance between myself and the camp before I shifted. Being almost completely undetectable was obviously a huge advantage, but I also wanted to see if I could improve my endurance, letting me stay shadowed longer without becoming exhausted. And besides being good practice, it was honestly a lot of fun. As I drifted through the forest I made spooky sounds in my head, like some kind of demented ghost. And once I reached the ruin, there was nothing stopping me from going wherever I wanted. The trolls didn’t use any fires, and their den was even darker than the forest, which was perfect for me.

The ruin itself lived up to the name. The foundations were fairly intact, and showed that the main building had been large, with a footprint like a suburban McMansion. The surrounding buildings were smaller, but there were half a dozen of them to make up for it. Partial or whole walls stood in many places, but there wasn’t a single room that wasn’t open to the sky, with bushes and other low plants dominating the site. There were even trees growing in some places, though fewer than I’d expected.

I found the reason for that in the trolls’ den. They had dug, or possibly expanded, an entrance into what was clearly the villa’s cellar, as evidenced by the regular layout and the stone walls and ceiling. Most of it was intact, though roots hung down between the stones in places. Of course, no dirt meant nothing for the roots to draw nutrients from, which severely limited any tree unfortunate enough to try to grow above the den. And it probably didn’t help that some of the roots looked broken off or gnawed.

The trolls’ den was, of course, full of trolls. Not that there was a huge number of them – I counted five, one male and four females – but they had a way of filling the space. Not only were they big brutes, but they sprawled in a way that seemed intended to cover as much area as possible.

The den filled one large room of the cellar, along with one smaller one through an open archway that may or may not have contained a door, once. The floor was filthy, and the trolls had dragged in branches and brush to make sleeping spots. Much less refined and comfortable than my own nest, I noted with some satisfaction. And much poorer. These creatures collected baubles in the form of stones and bits of metal, but it would be an insult to compare anything they had to my hoard. If they weren’t eight or nine feet of hulking monster I’d have pitied them.

The den contained three more notable features, none of which was a Nest Heart. The first was a collapsed stairway, which must have led up into the villa. The second was a closed and intact door, made of what still looked like sturdy wood banded with metal. I placed a lot of hope on that door.

The third was a refuse pile, or possibly a horrid storage area. There I made a macabre, but not unexpected, find. Along with the bones and spoiling parts of various animals, large and small, it contained the unmistakable remains of humans. It was such a mess that I couldn’t count them, but I’d be surprised if there weren’t three.

I would have preferred to find the Three-ers alive, but finding what I assumed to be their remains didn’t bother me a whole lot. They’d known the risks, coming up here, and more importantly they’d been utter arses to Valmik. They still hadn’t deserved to die.

There was a very real temptation to throw myself at one of the sleeping trolls and see how much damage I could do, but it had little to do with the dead Three-ers and much more with testing myself. Common sense prevailed. I had no idea how strong one of these things were compared to myself, and we already had a strategy for dealing with them. Instead I left the den, keeping my shadow form until I closed in on the camp. When I shifted back I felt my mind relax, and a mental fatigue washed over me. Keeping it up for nearly twenty minutes had been a real workout.

Makanna was on watch when I returned to the camp. She must have heard me coming because she was turned in my direction, spear in hand, but relaxed when she recognised me.

“How did it go?” she asked softly. “Did you see any trolls?”

“I got a head count. They’ve got their den in a cellar below the ruins. I snuck down. There’s five of them.”

Makanna’s eyes widened. “You entered the trolls’ den? Alone?” she whispered harshly. “I can’t tell if you’re incredibly brave or incredibly stupid!”

“Brave.” I ignoring her tone. “And extremely sneaky.”

She ran her hand over her face. “This is… Draka, please be more careful! What if they’d woken up?”

“I would’ve fought them, or ran.” Not that there was ever any chance of them noticing me, but I wasn’t going to tell her that.

“You could have been killed! I know how tough your hide is, and how strong you are, but trolls can tear through armour and survive injuries that would make you sick to see. What if they’d caught you? We rely on you! Herald…” She trailed off.

I actually felt a little chastised by that. I hadn’t thought much about how the gang would be affected if I got myself hurt, or how Herald would react if I, against all odds, got killed. Again, there had been no risk, but I couldn’t blame Makanna for worrying.

“I’m, uh…” I said. “I’m sorry. I didn’t consider that. But the risk really was very small. I can be extremely sneaky when I need to.”

“Yeah, I know. And I’m sorry for snapping. But please, try to think about these things in the future.” She sighed, and looked to one of the tents. “Herald adores you. She has friends, but I can’t remember her ever having one that she was so… taken with, as you. I don’t want to see her get hurt, alright? I can heal most wounds, but I can’t do anything about grief or a broken heart.”

“Yeah. Again, I’m sorry. Honestly. I’ve gotten used to doing things on my own.”

“I get it. Dragons are solitary, right?”

“Right,” I said, noncommittally. “Hey, do you want to turn in? I’m good at keeping watch, and I don’t mind.”

Makanna was about to say something, hesitated, then considered for about two seconds. “Sure. Thanks.” She got up and moved towards the tent she shared with Herald, then turned back.

“Draka,” she said apprehensively, “did you tell Herald something about, ah, specialty leather goods, at some point?”

I looked at her innocently.

“How do you even know about that?”

“G’night, Makanna,” I whispered as I settled in.

She gave me a tiny smile. “Damn it. Good night, Draka.”

I woke with the others when Tamor, who'd had the last watch, decided that it was time for breakfast. I went off for water while the others ate, having finished off a haunch of venison the night before. With everybody satisfied, it was time to gear up and head out.

I got the feeling that Herald had really splurged. She didn't have any new armour with her – she'd ordered a set modified for her, but it hadn't been ready in time – but she did have a nice new bow, longer and heavier than her old one, and the same went for her sword. Her old sword, while fine, had apparently been too short for her to capitalise on her long arms. Makanna had a new spear, of course. It had a foot of head with a crossguard, and metal reinforcement for another several inches below that. She clearly didn't want a repeat of her last fight. Tamor and Valmik didn’t look like they had anything new, but they’d been doing this for longer than the sisters and were probably happy with their gear.

Stalwart the mule, of course, came along. We were not about to leave the poor thing tethered to a tree with no one to watch over him, not when even a fox might be big enough to take him on, never mind the trolls.

We started in a position overlooking the ruin. It paid off; after a while we saw one of the trolls emerge, its skin mottled green and brown in the sunlight. Some noises came behind it, and it turned back to roar into the den. The noises were just about regular enough to be some kind of rudimentary language, but that might have been me anthropomorphising the creatures. Our target, one of the females which I decided to call Camouflage, or Camo for short, took off northwards, and we followed.

Makanna, Tamor and Valmik stayed well back initially, while Herald and I stayed closer, using her eyes and my nose to track Camo. We didn’t just want to attack when she was alone; we wanted her to be busy. Distracted. Vulnerable. We followed her for half an hour before an opportunity presented itself. Camo had found some carrion, and was inspecting it carefully. But as Herald fell back to tell the others to hurry up, something distracted Camo, who took off to the east, her prize in hand.

I had to rush back, tell the others, and then rush forwards and after Camo with Herald the best we could. Thankfully the troll had a pretty distinctive, earthy smell, and was fairly easy to follow. We found Camo in a glade, and found that Camo and I had something in common.

Camo had found a rabbits’ nest, and was trying to get herself some delicious little bunnies. While the others closed in, I finally got to see those large hands in action. The trolls had wide, thick nails on their large hands, and Camo put them to good use, digging out dirt by the armload. The others reached me, and we quickly decided on a plan of attack.

Distracted as she was, Camo didn’t notice me before it was too late. I had leapt into the air, and came at her on the wing. But I didn’t go for the kill. I didn’t crash into her, trying to bring her to the ground the way I usually did. Honestly, it probably wouldn’t have worked. I was probably somewhere north of 200lb, while Camo looked like she must have been half a tonne at least, with a sturdy, stable build.

Instead I came in just close enough to rake her with my claws, hurting her and grabbing her attention. It worked as well as one might expect. Camo roared with pain and anger at me, though I was long gone. Once I’d whirled around and came back towards her I could see that she’d left the burrow and was standing ready, waiting for me to come back. So, they had some shred of intelligence. What had Valmik said? Just clever enough to be stupid?

I swept in above Camo, and saw her prepare to leap when she realised that I was too high. She was too slow, never even coming close, and when I looked back I saw her following me on the ground, stumbling about in a rage, waving her arms and roaring at me. I led her around for a while, swooping on her to keep her attention, and when she started slowing down I did my best to manoeuvre her closer to the trees, then turned her around.

The others began their part. As I came back in I saw a long arrow slam into Camo’s back, and she roared and threw her arm around her chest, feeling for what had hurt her. Among the trees I saw Herald readying another arrow, and Camo set off towards her. Herald calmly loosed, then vanished into the trees. Camo stumbled, telling me that she’d been hit again, but didn’t slow.

I landed behind Camo and ran after her, but it was mostly up to the others now. I had enraged the troll and tired it out. Now the others would wear her down until we could all go in together for the kill. As Camo ran there was a flash of reflected sunlight, and Makanna’s spear lashed out from among the ferns to take her in the back of the thigh. Camo turned towards the tiny woman, trying to slap the spear away, but the speartip kept the troll at bay while Makanna menaced her with feints and aborted stabs.

There was another rustle, and Valmik came in behind the troll, stabbing for a kidney before falling back. I was getting close now, and I saw the wildness in the troll’s eyes as it realised that it had enemies on every side. Camo started turning, flailing wildly, and when I got close enough and she faced me I sprayed her in the face with venom. She roared, wiping at her face with one shovel hand, blinded but otherwise seemingly unaffected. Still, it effectively ended the fight. She was slowing, blood loss taking its toll, and blinded. As she stumbled and flailed Makanna moved in and, with one determined strike, drove her spear up to the guard into Camo’s throat before withdrawing it and dancing back.

Camo gave a gurgling moan and fell to one knee, but the fight was not out of her yet. She still lashed wildly around her, trying to reach us until finally Tamor came in behind her. He focused, poured magic into his blade and, with one cut, severed Camo’s head. Amazingly her body stayed on its knees, continuing to flail for a full five seconds before it slumped to the ground, jerked a few times, and stilled.

There were cheers all around. Herald grumbled a little about the arrow that had broken under Camo’s collapsing body, but it was obviously theatrics.

We had just started talking about how to proceed when there was a roar, a loud crash of breaking branches, and a second troll threw itself at us at almost point-blank range.