CHAPTER FIVE- Enter the Hero

CHAPTER FIVE
ENTER THE HERO

Year 1667 Month 05 Week 06 Day 05
It was late at night, or maybe early morning, in either case the river picked up in speed, jerking me forward as I worked to keep my balance. The tides battered my raft from one side of the river to the other, if I looked out behind the black curtain of shadows; I could find eight legs dragging a large bulbous body between on tree and another. At one point, a sharp rock seemed to crunch into the bottom of her, terror struck me for I knew that should I fall in at this point I would be powerless against the current. With a jolt I was sent forward and then down into a wider lake, I lost several bundles as the mouth of the river came into view. It would seem that the worst was over. Having lost my oar I had taken to using my spear.

Using the flat side I attempted to paddle out aiming for the opening, in the end it wasn’t entirely necessary. The mouth of the river resembled a bay, with two thin stretches of land that seemed to close in on the opening that lead out into the ocean. Whether I liked it or not my raft was drifting towards the mouth of the river and out into the ocean. I sighed as once again the river's current did all the work for me; I had gone most of the night with very little rest.

That’s when the raft grinded to a halt, scraping against the surprisingly shallow floor of the lagoon below me. Realising this was as far as I could go by raft; I abandoned it and waddled my way to the east side of the river. The water reached my knees, yet the corals and rocks had given way to mud and gunk as I focused my weight on it, causing some steps to support the hard coral while others resulted in my foot being briefly stuck. Progress was slow and sporadic as I gained several yards in bursts between getting stuck and forcibly pulling my leg free. I held my spear in both hands, allowing it to hang by my arms, level with my hips. My foot hit a squishy patch and I exhaled audibly and pressed on irritated. However long before I reached the river's edge I heard something, shifts and squishes beneath the surface. I readied my spear and widened my stance, the ground was slippery and the constant motion of the water over it would not help my mobility. I didn’t like my odds here; still I didn’t know what I was facing yet.

That's when they appeared; bright blue oozed from the river bed and gathered together, it gathered between me and the side of the river. The creature I faced was some form of living slime; I watched it gather into a single entity. Its initial lack of speed as it did so was almost comforting; my immobility wouldn’t matter if it was equally slow. I was misled, the moment it had gathered itself it lashed out, and like a viper it was on me. I felt a burning sensation as it made contact and almost screamed at the sudden assault. The sentient glop clung to my torso, burning the fur that covered it, spreading out to my arms as I ran and thrashed desperately to get clear of it. Grasping for my spear, I started running forward. All I see is red; all I can think to do is running out of the river. At some point I felt solid land beneath my feet; I had made my way out of the river. As soon as I separated from the river, the glop seemed to whether, it sunk down and simply slipped off of me.

I turned to it and stabbed it with my spear. The blade of the spear pierced the mass of blue gloop, but failed to do any visible damage. It retaliated, or tied to. Being separated from the river had made it smaller and slower, the second it moved I jumped back, retreating to the bushes and ran away. I didn't go deep into the forest rather, followed it along the river's mouth until I reached the coast. By that point the slime was long gone and I ascertained that I was safe, seeing as nothing else was around. Then checking my wounds, I saw my flesh blistering with a vengeful red for one moment, then a more passive pink the next. In minutes the lesser wounds on my arm had all but healed, it was the faint marks on my chest remained. It would seem that this slime would only inflict minor burns in such short a time, that and as a Troll, I could heal relatively quickly.

I felt my side, running my fingers along the long scar that had been there since the day before. I couldn’t help but wonder what had happened. In my mind, I played with the idea of fighting as a puppet of me; considering the fact that many of the slaves and the spear that I held in my hands weren’t present before I was enslaved, did I have a part in enslaving those women and killing the owner of this spear? I studied it; maybe it was the very weapon that gave me this scar? No, the weapon that gave me this scar would have to be magic. Meaning that whoever I fought was a seasoned adventure, one who had probably performed a number of heroic deeds, saved people, slayed evil. I was the monster, who fought a hero.

Not wanting to torment myself anymore, I pushed on.

I followed the shore line. Keeping to the edge of the forests as I did so, it was still dark and there was something off about the forest tonight. I still had my spear, but my larger pouch had been lost during the skirmish. I had one pouch, filled with water, and a kilt made from animal furs I had found in the troll's cave, Me had quite the wardrobe.

I reached a point where the forest seemed to end, before me was an open plain. Over the hills was the village. I was back, I ran, and then I stopped. I saw it all. The village had been burned to the ground. I walked into the village, remembering the day the Pastor and Mother walked me into the village. I walked through a path leading pasted several black wreckages. Into the centre of the village, the marketplace that would was once a hub of activity and life. The memory was painful, sacred, and then I heard footsteps. Obnoxious, loud, footsteps, I turned to face the approaching individual. He was as tall as an adult human, making only slightly taller than myself. He donned leather armour, with some form of fur coat beneath it, like the bandits. No, not like the bandits, this hooded individual was a bandit and I will beat him. I raised my spear and charged. The blade of my spear plunged into- empty air. The leather cladded bandit had slipped under the blow and around me, positioning himself behind me as he unsheathed his sword. Once unsheathed, the blade of the long sword hummed and shined. The cold blue light engulfed the bandit and he smirked.

The sun rose, birds chirped and the blue swordsman readied his stance. I wouldn’t stop. Holding my spear in a single hand I slashed at him, he took my strikes directly, letting them ineffectual hit his sides. I thrusted forward aimed at his face only for the blade of my spear to find nothing but air once again. His luminosity was impossible to miss and looking up I found him shooting into the air. In an incredible show of grace he danced and flipped through the sky, he appeared as a morning star that briefly outshone the sun itself. On his descent back to earth, he faced the ground, his body lining up perpendicular to the floor. I saw him look and aim, the tip of his blade following his line of sight. It was pointed at me. Then he pushed his arm forward and just like that he was gone, I moved instinctively leaping to the side with everything my legs had, abandoning my spear as I did so. Behind me, a shining bombshell had collided with the world, the explosion sent me flying, my back burned and my eyes teared up as I lost track of the ground altogether. Then I found the ground again, and it had crashed into my left side: hard. If I could hear, I would have heard a crunch. My ears were ringing and bleeding. This wasn’t like any of those bandits, whoever this was, I couldn’t beat him.

“hah-haheha haa...” the laugh escaped me, beat him, even now faced against someone who could have, very well of, killed my mother I couldn’t kill, I was hopeless. But I stood up. Looked at the man who had already pulled himself from the rumble of the crater and I dared him to fight.

I brought forth the bear, “GIVE ME A FAIR FIGHT - you coward!” I bluffed, roaring and cradling my left arm as the pain from my back ebbed away, he smiled, and embedded his sword into the ground. The moment his hand released that magic blade, the light subsided.

Now it was just me and the leather cladded stranger. His head was un-hooded and I could see he wasn’t actually human. First I saw his ears which were more reminiscent of- well, a wolf or dog. His entire head was structured like that of some kind of wolf. He was covered in fur, in fact, most of what I assumed to be clothing under his armour turned out to be naturally occurring fur on his body. My assailant was a bipedal hound easily the size of a full grown man. Strangest of all, was the massive smirk on his face.

“Then let's go partner,” he said raising both hands, yes those were definitely human like hands with a very thin layer of fur over it (I had assumed it was gloves), he dashed towards me stopping only to get into a striking stance. Placing his foremost foot between my own he launched his assault. He drove his fist into my gut and reeled it back before I knew what hit me. I almost doubled over and his other hand hooked me in the throat causing me to stumble back, my throat felt like it would collapse and I struggled to breath, but he didn’t stop. His foremost foot hooked onto one of mine and, pulling his leg up till it was level with his head, kicked up my foot until it was well above my own head. I fell onto my shoulders and neck, and flopped to the ground like a helpless baby.

He backed away, he wasn’t going to kill me, “Is that it, I thought trolls were tougher than that,” was he baiting me? Still I wouldn’t have that, Cosmos shadow appeared and indicating that I had dislocated and fractured my arm, so with Cosmo showing me how I sat up, raised a finger to my patient opponent, and popped it back into place. I would have cried or screamed normally, but with him around I wouldn’t show any weakness. I would still have to avoid using my left arm, but at least now I wouldn’t be holding in its place.

“Come closer, I’ll show you what I can do.” I coaxed him. I let the bear take over; there was no holding back against him, even now. I felt my shadow stretch as if it were cast by a much larger entity, the fatigue from my muscles had all but gone, and I let out one long audible breath. Then the leather cladded wolf man dashed at me. Only to be swiped away with by my right arm, my nails, while far from long, cut his side like daggers. He didn’t stay down long, he was on his feet again and circling me almost as soon as he hit the ground. Like a predator stalking its prey he was sizing me up. I roared and charged him at speeds which would baffle a deer or rabbit; he dodged it and sent a flurry of kicks, three in all, at my legs tripping me over. I went down into a roll and turned to see him leap into the air. Growling, I took on the full force of his flying kick, even pushing my chest out to meet the strike, the leather clad man visibly twisted his ankle as he ineffectively bounced off of me. Then, with my right fist, I battered him to the ground before he could ready himself. I stomped down, and my foot smashed into ground forcing it to give way.

I was soaked in blood, had red hot scars covering my back and a fractured arm, all on top of the largely healed burns from the slime and the all but gone cut on my side. He had several deep cuts in his side that were slowly bleeding out, a twisted ankle and a swollen bloody face.

We were both covered in sweat. We were both grinning like madmen. We ran forward, wordlessly decided to end this in one last exchange. My right fist, verse his left. The punches were straight and struck true. We both received a fist in the face.

It was midday by the time we sat down in the green plains far outside of the village.

“I take it this wasn’t you’re doing,” The beastman proclaimed,

“No, I used to live just over there,” I pointed towards the far side of the village and the beastman nodded understandingly,

“My name’s Toby and this,” he placed his hand on the hilt of his sword “is Heylel, it means ‘light bearer’ or ‘brightness’.” we had sat facing the village and even now we didn’t feel the need to look at each other, after fighting, Toby had taken smoked rabbit out of his pack and shared a great portion of it with me, the meat was nicer than the raw food I was used to, I was hungry and grateful for the meal.

“Robert.” I pronounced my own name oddly, almost growling certain vowels, it had been so long since I had used my mouth to speak, and I must have been out of practice.

“That's a nice name,” he commented, over pronouncing each word to tease me.

I focused and fully pronounced, “Thanks”, it came out oddly forced.

“So,” Toby said, looking up at the clouds, “Who did this?”

“Why?” I asked hurt by the mere mention of the village.

“Answer me first and I’ll answer you.” Toby was simply insufferable.

So I complied, “Bandits, they wore animal furs over their head,” I looked at him, “now tell me why.”

“I just wanted to know the son of a bitches that did this, to my friends home.” he was serious, so much so that I found myself awestruck, I watched Toby, as he got up, picked up his pack and started north. Before me was, by all accounts, my first friend.

“Wait,” I called out, “where are you going?”

“To Warka, the closest city around here.” he pulled up his hood at the mention of the city, then Toby continued, “there's an Adventurer's guild there that should have at least some information on any serious bandit groups nearby.”, with that he turned around and continued walking. I gathered my belongings and headed off with him. Walking alongside Toby, today just felt brighter, I wasn’t alone anymore.