Chapter 8: …and Trolls

We unsheathed our weapons, slid off our horses, and turned around to find ourselves face-to-face with the giant, snot-filled nose of a troll. I rammed the pommel of my sword into its forehead. The attack was as effective as trying to kill a lindworm with a toothpick. Nonetheless, the troll stepped back in surprise and gave us time to get into attack positions. Stump grabbed a first aid kit and ran towards the unconscious Grubby.

The troll howled like a wolf, shaking the ground with the magnitude of the inhuman sound. Seconds later, a boulder rolled off the side of the mountain revealing a cave and two more trolls.

Trolls were hulking beasts. They grew to three times the size of an average human and were vaguely humanoid. Their bulky arms reached their calves and their ears were slightly pointy. Their noses were flat and their eyes were slanted. Their mouths were filled with monstrous blunt teeth, able to crush almost everything. They also had grisly tusks which jutted out of their lips, covered in their victims blood.

The three trolls shuffled from side-to-side, sizing up their prey. I clenched my sword, getting ready for any sudden lighting fast strike that might follow.

Just as predicted, the largest troll from the cave lunged forward without warning, a bloodcurdling cry booming out of its drooling mouth. I leaped to the side to avoid the deadly wooden club. Imbeseel swung his axe and it cleaved into the troll’s shoulder, causing it to howl in pain. Imbeseel yanked the axe out of its shoulder only to be sent flying by another troll’s club, shattering his already damaged breastplate. I danced out of the way like an annoying fly as the troll launched its attacks on us, smashing his massive club onto the ground. I jumped on top of his arm, ran up its shoulder and stabbed the troll in its eye, pushed my sword through the tiny eye socket in its dense skull and into its pea-sized brain. The troll collapsed, dead.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Urf playing a deadly game of Whack-A-Mole with the other trolls, occasionally shooting an arrow into their armpits.

I dodged another club and quickly stabbed one attacking troll in its chest. I pulled out my sword from the troll's chest and turned around to fight the other troll but then suddenly I was lifted off the ground. The troll that I stabbed was more annoyed than hurt by his chest wound. He wrapped his massive hand around me and squeezed, causing pain to shoot through my entire body.

“Auugh!” I yelped.

Intuitively, I recalled a section in the ADMI training handbook about troll’s pressure points and I stabbed the troll in the wrist.

“Graaaaaa!” The troll screamed in pain, dropping me and clutched his wounded arm.

I fell roughly onto the rocky ground. I barely managed to avoid smashing my head on the large boulders or I would have gotten a concussion, despite that my protective helmet would absorb most of the damage. I quickly caught my breath, picked myself up and repeatedly stabbed the screaming troll in its stomach until it fell over, presumably dead.

I turned around to find my teammates finishing off the last troll. Imbeseel’s axe was imbedded in its temple and it had arrows protruding out of its eye sockets, armpits, and butt-cheeks. If I did not just survive a near death experience and was overwhelmed by exhaustion, I would have laughed at the sight.

“Good job guys.” I said nonchalantly, as if taking down trolls was a regular Tuesday for us.

“Oh…did I miss all the fun?” Grubby, whose head was rested on Stump’s thigh, appeared to be waking up. Imbessel and Urf ran over with joy to the grassy patch where they were positioned.

“Ouch… are you okay?” I asked with concern.

“I gave him three drops of the magical potion that was given to us by Professor Heyward for emergency,” Stump reported.

Professor Heyward was the backbone to the Health and Rehabilitation Facility at the ADMI Academy. I met him once when Ivan slashed my gut open. Needless to say, it was not a pretty sight. I did not remember much about his appearance except for his Einstein-style silver hair because I was very distracted by the guts spilling out of my stomach. Urf, having been trained personally by Professor Heyward, gently put his left palm on Grubby’s chest and pulled his eyelids shut with his left index and middle finger.

“Grubby has got six broken ribs, grade two concussion, and mass internal bleeding. He’ll live and, after a bit of rest, he will be able to fight.” Urf testified. I felt I could finally breathe properly after hearing that good news. The last thing we needed was to lug a comatose, one hundred and twenty pound Grubby across the entire Raventopia. Or even worse, his corpse.

We decided to camp at the troll’s cave for the night, seeing that Grubby was in no condition to travel. Mercifully, he kept going out of consciousness so we did not have to endure his endless whining.

The cave was surprisingly nice and cozy despite having been inhabited by several unhygienic trolls. It even had a pantry with edible food like fruits and nuts that we mercilessly stuffed into our hollow stomachs. There were also bare skeleton of various animals and half eaten caresses that we managed to ignore. The violent caveman-like sketches on the wall displaying decapitated men slaughtered by murderous monsters did not seem to have disturbed our appetites. It was then that I realized we had not eaten or drank a drop of fluid since breakfast at the campsite on the edge of the ADMI woods.

As the sky turned blood red and the sun slowly descended behind the northern mountains, I started a fire and sharpened my sword. Urf rummaged through the pantry for some medicinal herbs and continued to attend to Grubby. Imbeseel tried on his spare breastplate. Stump kept disappearing behind a tree. I think perhaps his stomach was playing up after eating all those fruits and nuts.

Suddenly, Stump shouted, “Hey everyone, dinner time!” He ran over to the fire with his right hand dangling three sacks that appeared to be hairy and dripping with red liquid. As he got closer to us, I realised that he was holding three dead squirrels. We all jumped up with excitement!

“Wow…well done, Stump! You are the hero!” Urf exclaimed. “James, you said you didn’t need a squire. I think you do!”

I scowled but I could not deny that I was happy to be relieved from eating tasteless nuts and mouldy apples.

We cooked the squirrels to perfection over a spit and ate them next to the warm fire as the night started to get chilly. We even stuffed bits of meat into Grubby’s mouth whenever he became conscious. After our stomachs had been fully satisfied, we fell asleep next to the campfire.

The next morning, we woke up and, after breakfast of fruits and nuts from the pantry, decided to do a bit of training.

“How far away is Qwantle?” I asked as I sparred with Urf.

“According to the map, about twelve kilometres away.” Urf replied.

“What!” I exclaimed as I swiped at Urf, “We’ve gotta get going immediately!”

“I know.” Urf replied as he sidestepped my attack and jabbed at me, “but Grubby needs rest.”

I dodged and whacked the hilt of his blade, disarming him. I was very annoyed with Grubby. If he had not been too busy boasting and saw the attack coming, we would be in Qwantle by now.

We ended up spending that entire day at the Troll Cave because Grubby was still not fit enough to travel. After dinner, I fell asleep immediately despite the cacophony of Imbeseel’s ground-shaking snores.

In the middle of the night, I was shaken awake. I squeezed my crusty eyes open to see a magical portal behind a figure whom I did not recognise. I instinctively kicked him back and drew my sword. I had a strange sense of déjà vu, flashing back to the day when I first came to Raventopia.

“Whoa there!” The figure said.

“Who are you, who sent you?” I asked.

Shaking from the horrific sight of his chest being pointed at by a razor sharp sword, the figure nervously replied while shaking from head to toe, “I’m from Qwantle. I am here under the orders of Grand Sorcerer Qeer to retrieve James Dolan and his Eagle Shield team. He knows of their famous quest and he wants to help. Do you happen to know where I can find them?”