It took a couple of hours for the weakness in my limbs to subside. The settlement fell quiet as the trolls went to sleep, and I started planning my escape. Pig Snout had been ordered to stay behind and keep an eye on me, while a dozen more guards were scattered throughout the settlement. Two guards stood atop simple wooden platforms on either side of each of the four gates, keeping watch for things outside the wall. All were equipped with blowpipes and poison darts. I’d have to find a window and escape before they had a chance to use them.

I’d been walking northwest when these things found me and dragged me away from the shore. It had taken them a while, but for me, it would be a short run back to my weapons — if I managed to make it to the north gate. I could use one of those platforms as a ramp, assuming it wouldn’t collapse under my weight, but scaling the wall without help would cost precious moments and likely earn me a few poison darts in my back.

I glanced down at my guard and caught him glaring at me over his shoulder. I waited for him to turn away once more, then reached for the small knife I kept in my boot.

Except it wasn’t there. It must’ve fallen out when I was undressing after the scuffle with the horse.    

Shit. I chewed on my lip as my pulse quickened, trying not to panic. There had to be something that could cut through the rope trapping me. I tried to shift my weight to reach all the different pockets of my jacket and trousers.

“Hey! Whatcha doin?”

Pig Snout grinned wickedly and gripped his spear with both hands, ready to stab that sharpened rock into my flesh.

“Oh no! Please!” I gasped, loudly enough to sound dramatic, but quietly enough not to draw any unnecessary attention. “Don’t poke me in the face with that stick! It’s already so ugly!”

Pig Snout took it as an invitation. He jabbed the spear into the net, aiming for my face, not expecting me to duck and grip the shaft. I shoved it back at him with all the force I could muster.

“Ack!”

The end of the spear hit his throat with a choking sound. I yanked the weapon out of his grip while he coughed and snapped the tip off before slashing it at the net in a wide arc. The ropes split apart, barely, and I had to tear at the ends for a moment before it gave and I tumbled out like a newborn calf. I landed on top of the troll and it gave a strangled groan.

“It’s esca—!”

I stabbed Pig Snout in the neck with his spear. The rest of his words came out in a gurgle, but it was too late.

Another troll shouted, “The human is escaping!”

I scrambled to my feet and charged toward the northern gate. The two guards beside it blew into their pipes and I dodged clumsily to avoid the darts, nearly losing my balance and momentum. I ran for the wooden platform to my left and the troll screamed and jumped off in horror as I scaled it in one movement. The scaffolding held long enough to give me a push to reach the wall and jump safely over it, the sharpened logs grazing my thigh. I landed roughly on the other side and struggled to my feet again. Then came the roar of the troll king,

“Release the wolves!”

My left arm wasn’t moving, though I didn’t have time to check for stray darts because my legs weren’t as steady as I’d hoped, and I began to panic. I stumbled blindly through the darkness, fighting against my own drunken limbs.

At this pace, the wolves would catch up with me in two leaps. I pushed myself harder even as every muscle in my body screamed in protest, even as fatigue pulled me toward the ground. A tree appeared out of nowhere and I bounced off it like a pebble, the pain sending a shock of clarity and adrenaline through my blood.

Then I heard it: a howl, two-hundred yards behind me, followed by another, then another. My poor heart flipped in my chest and I forced my exhausted legs to move even faster, hoping the fear would propel me forward. At least the howls reminded me of the right direction — away.

There was no sound but my own gasps. For a moment I almost thought I’d lost them, until another chorus of howls rang out. After it came the snarling of giant maws. I threw a quick glance behind me and cursed. There were three massive wolves, yellow eyes shining like beacons and enormous white fangs glistening with saliva. Sitting atop the largest one was the troll king.

“You can’t outrun me, human!”

His laugh sounded like cracking bone. Thorny roots burst from the ground, reaching for my legs, and I leaped and dodged over them like a desperate doe.

“Your fear will make your flesh tender! Nobody will save y—!”

Lupine squeals cut him off. A group of loud thuds shook the ground and the living roots fell limp back among the leaves. Though I knew I wasn’t being pursued anymore, I didn’t dare waste precious time to see what had caught them. I just ran.

There was a break in the darkness ahead, spilling out the sound of rushing water. I burst from the forest and I fell to my knees at the shore, wheezing as my lungs struggled to get air. I forced myself to crawl away from the river lest I tried to drink from it and took a moment to assess, reorient. I was alive, for now. My left shoulder was numb, but functional. My throat ached with dry thirst, my stomach groaned, and a stab of pain followed the sound — how bitter it would be to escape from the cat’s saucer, only to die of hunger at the doorstep.

I had to move. Who knew how much time I had before the troll king found me again?

Heaving myself up, I blinked as spots danced before my eyes.

But the spots didn’t disappear. Tiny sparks of blue light hovered in mid-air, each slightly further from the last. They formed a short path upstream, with the largest light at its very end.

This could be another trap and yet I stumbled toward it anyway, because beneath that final light was my satchel and my knapsack and my bedroll, all spread around the spot where I’d first lost them.

Either I’d die by the hand — or claw — that had set this mousetrap, or I’d die when the troll king caught up to me; at least now there was a chance to retrieve my weapons.

By the time I passed the fifth light, they disappeared all at once, snuffed out like candles. My things remained. When I reached for them, they were tangible and real and mine.

I didn’t have time to look for whoever had helped me or why as another howl sounded in the distance.

I gathered my things. The tinderbox and lantern were still in my satchel, but there was no time nor light to search for kindling, so I cut off a piece of my hair and wrapped it around a dry enough branch. Then I struck the fire steel. The first sparks died upon the damp shore. The second shot out and bit into the hair, igniting it. I spilled the last of the lantern oil in an arc around me near the edge of the woods and threw my makeshift torch into it.

“Burn, you son of a bitch.”

The oil exploded.

I fell back toward the water, more surprised than terrified, and stared in confusion as the blood red flames literally roared to life. Shapes began to crawl out of the thin strip of oil, arms and claws and mouths reached out into the dark forest, fingers and teeth closed around tree trunks and squeezed until they cracked and shattered. Blistering and furious, the flames grew so bright I could no longer look at them, but the silhouette melting my vision looked almost like a many-legged serpent.

Though the fire spread away from me, the heat had made the air too hot to breathe. I had no time left. I had to make it across the river.

I tore myself away from the sight and hurried along the shore until I found a shallow spot and threw myself into the freezing water. Heat licked my back in waves while ice caught my legs and held them tight, threatening to do the same to my lungs. I breathed as steadily as I could and dared only one glance over my shoulder: the flames rose toward the sky, screaming as they devoured everything in their path. Birds took startled flight like darkened clouds. In the distance, something wailed.

I stumbled against the current and fought the slippery sediment, doggy paddling when I had to. Finally, I crawled out onto the opposite shore. The heat was so near and so sweltering that I didn’t have an opportunity to freeze. The flames kept away from the river, destroying everything in its path on the other side without trespassing to the other.

So I stayed. Lying on the shore, basking in the warmth.

Watching fire eat the world until I couldn’t see anymore.

My sleep lasted long enough for the flames to become distant smoke and the sky turn deep blue. Despite my trying to kill my habit of getting up early, I was once again awake before dawn.

But it wasn’t the light or the smell of charred wood that had woken me. Rather, it was the quiet but heavy fall of hooves, so close I could feel them in my chest as they hit the earth.

I opened my eyes. I couldn’t move yet; deer spooked easily, and few things were as dangerous as prey animals scared shitless. Though I doubted anything here would qualify as “prey”.

As I waited to hear if it had left or not, I realized the rushing of the river was absent. In fact, almost every sound was gone, like it had been when I’d first entered this cursed forest.

No, not every sound. Above my head, only a couple of steps away, something was breathing. Heavy, calm breaths, slow and long to fill giant lungs. The creature was waiting.

I raised my head, carefully, and turned it to look at the visitor.

The deer was so large I had to rise to my elbows to see its head, so large my first instinct was to flee. But the wonder had me paralyzed. I sat up and crawled back, closer to the still-silent water, staring at the massive, magnificent creature before me.

Shining blue eyes stared back, watching me without blinking or moving. Not like the deer back home, all still and trembling and terrified, but with calm intrigue, as if it had found a curious rock and wondered if it was edible. It had no reason to fear me, and it knew that. Somehow, I knew it, too.

“I …” The sound escaped before I could catch it. It looked as though it waited for me to justify my existence and something in me had responded.

The deer did not react to my bleating. Morning light reflected off the pale jewels hanging from its antlers, which were the size of small trees and could easily fit the length of my body between them. Their velvet matched its midnight coat; it was so black it seemed a hole in reality itself.

I carefully got to my feet, trying not to break eye contact. Even at my full height, my head didn’t reach its withers.

I had to say something, apologize or explain myself, or ask if it wanted anything. I felt dumb for expecting an animal to speak, but couldn’t shake the feeling it was far more intelligent than any deer back home.

“I’m sorry for trespassing,” I managed. “I’m only trying to find my sister. I won’t be here long.”

Of course, it didn’t answer. Instead it let out a beleaguered sigh before finally taking its gaze off me, slowly moving past. I expected it to wander into the perfectly still river, but as soon as its hoof should’ve hit the surface, the water recoiled and lifted into the air.

I watched in awe as the deer continued forward and disappeared, the river itself rising and closing above it like a shimmering gate. Before I could move to see what was at the end of this aquatic tunnel, the water collapsed, splashing everywhere and nearly soaking my clothes all over again.

“Shit!” I jumped backwards too late; my boots were already sloshing.

Great. This was just what I needed.