108 Symphony of Hope - Troll’s Tragedy
“Oh how do I like elven forests”, - said druid quietly, beholding before its beginning. These neverending evergreen
pieces of nature: a variety of plants and impassible thickets, hunting trails and unknown animals gives a rush of
emotions and inspiration, here you can relax every minute.
After dinner the sun began to roast, and the human was very glad to get under the leafy shade that came upon
him here. This shade was here all the time, giving no pass to the daylight reaching the ground. At the same time
it became a bit cooler.
A watercourse flowed somewhere nearby, and as later found out, it was hardly reachable. Riversides were up to
high and it took a whole arm to reach and fill the bottle. After that druid decided to rest a bit before the meeting
that might come at any moment now. Elves don't make themselves wait.
The scouting elf party (these were also a bit green, maybe haven’t seen the sun for too long?) met him almost at
the beginning of their land, but they knew his right to be here. Also they knew that he was forbidden to pry where
he did not belong. So without any following questions they led him to the settlement.
The town of Eleroot was a capital of the local elves. It was not very popular between visitors and trade caravans.
There was nothing special here - only herbs as well as rare wood species, perfect for bows thou, spiders silk and
other useful junk. In other words - peaceful and quiet place for a steady life. But the north neighbors had
everything to boast about - minerals, gems, metals, weapons and armor, even a magical wine.
City gates met them at the evening. In such a dark place, the night lanterns were already glowing, making a fairy
atmosphere. They were hard not to notice, completely falling to the eyes, impressing with their difference - from
deep blue to emerald and ripe warm tones.
The town traditionally was settled upon the trees, growing to its heights. And in between there were many
connecting bridges of different kind.
Every dwelling, regardless of its type, was like a part of the tree, germinating and combining with it over the
years. Structures were not of large sizes, local elves do not require a lot of space for living, only the most necessary.
At the ground level there were some human-type buildings, for convenience of new comers and trade caravans,
and also some warehouses-dugouts.
Druid was met neutrally, it looked clearly that there was no big deal to him but he was concerned about the fact
that everyone here were some inflated. The elders were busy at the moment, and he had to wait. Different voices
were heard from the hall in front of him, some were elvish and some others, not human, but very familiar,
but whose?..
The doors swung open - three trolls went out from there, that is… not just three - one of them was a female
half-troll. An unusual appearance that is, but for the druid she seemed to be interesting, and, maybe, attractive
as well. She had more humankind nature rather than trollish blood, of course she was not an elf, but could
compete with some of them easily.
The hall was full of heat. A hard conversation that is was. Elven leaders already knew about the growing threat to
the forest and also knew what had happened to the lake and what was going on there. They didn’t know what to
do either, but claimed to have everything under control (yeah right…). They didn’t pay any attention to his
mission and the spirit hunt. Later they said about the trouble at the trollish village south of here, and it would soon
be swallowed, the trolls who came here for a help, but were denied.
Making it down to the ground, druid noticed that very three trolls, ready to move on, but he called them for a
wait, alerting a bit. Despair was seen in their eyes, it lurked throughout there, but suddenly a human offered his help.
The trolls weren’t familiar with human language, only elvish a little, so they led talking to her.
It was odd to admit that these small little tusks looked cute, and her light green skin with violet tint only gave her
uniqueness, like a wild flower.
At first they didn’t want any type of help, but elder trolls persuaded her, assuming that this human, having been
in the heart of the fiery pit and managed to survive there, could be useful. The last but not least, he was a nature’s
servant, which meant them a lot.
They ventured south, far away from here. The road was far from over so they decided to make a camp for the night.
Reaching a somewhat catchy location, where almost under a wall of night you must follow quite nimble trolls,
which marched without getting tired, they came to a small moonshine glade, pretty cozy, defended by rocks and
shrubs. A moonstone column stood at the center of the glade, absorbing all the light and pouring it all around.
- This is the light well, during the day it powers by the sun, and at night - by moon. It means a lot for our people and
bears the memory of many generations, - Eitigar told him.
Druid walked towards the stone and as soon as he touched it - fell down unconscious. He felt deep trance and saw
everything that could imagine - the past, future, fall of the ancient empires and the birth of new, forsaken gods and
vanity of mankind, and all possible consequences.
This state lasted several minutes, and when he woke up, Eitigar already looked after him, taking of warm rag from
his forehead and offering to take some nasty drink. It was terrible, but it helped.
- You had a vision, human, - she said with calm accent. - Rest now, the morning is yet to come.
And he dropped into sleep.
In the morning he woke up with others. Light meal and off to the road again. It was weird to spectate how these trolls
ate rotten raw meat, and it was completely common for them.
During the trip they encountered silk-weaver spiders, but they were too busy to pay attention down at four visitors,
making ready their webs for other preys. These spiders appeared to be delicacy for trolls, somewhat a forbidden fruit,
but they were under elven’s protection until now. Recent events made them change their minds to follow the ancient
agreement. They decided to capture one for dinner.
And they did so, the human tried to stop them but couldn’t, it won’t establish good relations between races in future.
The second spider instantly vanished, after seeing his friend dead.
A bigger troll bore the spider carcass, giving his spear to the other younger one. There was no other troubles till the
evening, when they were close to the village. The heat grew with every step, understanding that the forest were set
ablaze.
After a hundred feet away before the village, trolls ran, understanding that they could accidently be late to help here
instead of venturing to elves.
They ran to the edge of the ravine and froze in horror…
The twisted land swallowed everything on its way, making dust from the one mighty forest before. And the village was
next. Bustle in the village only escalated the situation, trolls were hardly seen from here, but there was some time left,
or they wanted to believe in it that way. Only the river hindered their way farther.
Everything they have seen in the village is its complete absence. Ruins… and bodies. Not everyone managed to flee,
someone must have been survived. But why are bodies here? How did it happen?
The trolls fell on their knees in despair and helplessness, killing themselves in grief. But sounds of battle distracted the
druid. They went out east of here from hidden lowland. The noise from the doomed river muffled the cries, that’s why
he had heard them not from the beginning. The trolls were too desperate to hear anything.
He noticed a soaring gargoyle up there and rushed as fast as he could, the rest were stumbled in fact of such an action,
but sensed trouble and went after him.
A dozen of trolls, old and young, fought with gargoyles for their lives: throwing stones, swung staffs and retreated.
Everything looked terrible, but these four would definitely clean up the mess.
Druid had far more magic control on his ground, rather than on that ash. He raised powerful thorns, which captured all
of the flyers and squashed them to death.
The survivors were frightened of such nature’s materialization, but seeing a human and three tribesmen, came calm and
rejoiced that the danger passed, for some time at least.
Grief and sadness reigned in the hearts of the trolls. For a one day they had lost everything and even more. No home and
no future, only few relatives left, but enough for procreation.
A long journey was yet to come, new home, rebirth. But not for all of them, life already decreed their fates long before
their birth, and someone had to leave the tribe…
There was a heated argue among pure blood and half-blood. Eitigar furiously wanted to have revenge and perform justice,
but no one ever listened to her, did not share her view. And they were right. Why? How to have a revenge, when you
have no one to make it, no one who will be glad to see you after? First of all, a tribe must survive and renew itself, maybe
merge other tribes, but no vengeance right now.
She was accepted for her half-blood nature, and she had no influence in the tribe. Her last idea was to ask elves for help
led to a catastrophe.
The argue was resolved by a druid’s suggestion. He offered a company, help and a chance for vengeance, but later,
promising to let her know on the way. She knew that the choice isn’t wide, so she decided to pick the better one from
two worse.
Together they ventured forth, now to the capital of human kind - the city of Ice Sun.