Simon awoke to an unbearable pain in his stomach. He got up as fast as he could, ran to the bathroom, and doubled over. He then heard a knocking at the door.

“Are you dying in there?”

“Yes!”

“I told you not to eat that whole thing.”

“But I had too!”

The tavern they went to the day before was called The Blind Kraken. The smell Simon had followed was that of their famous dish, “The Kraken’s Fury”. It was eight layers of seafood and potatoes covered in grease. It was kind of expensive, but if you ate the entire thing by yourself in less than a half hour it was on the house. And you got medal.

“It was worth it!”

“Whatever you say. Hey, your crutch is still out here.”

“Yeah, so?”

“What do you mean yeah, so? Do you know what that means?”

“Uh… I had to use the bathroom?”

“No, well yes, but no! You walked across the room to the bathroom. You walked!”

The door to the bathroom swung open. Lucy slowly backed away.

“Please tell me you washed your hands…”

“I can walk again! It’s a miracle!”

“Well it’s not a miracle. It was my medical skills and your magic thingies.”

“This is great! We need to celebrate! Let’s go to The Blind Kraken,”

“No.”

“and then I can continue on my way to New Haven! Isn’t this great!”

Lucy’s face fell for a moment, before regaining her composure.

“Actually, it’s probably a good idea to stay here a little longer. Too much activity could put you in serious pain. That probably won’t be good if you run into another Troll or something.”

“Nonsense! What are the chances of me running into another one of those things!”

* * *

As it turns out, the chances of encountering a Troll had just increased exponentially. The Elder Troll had finished awakening. It’s mottled grey skin was clotted with dirt and stone that fell from it in chunks. It stretched its arms, destroying all trees in the nearby vicinity. It rubbed its eyes and looked around.

Where was the other Troll? It knew there was another Troll here at one point, but where was it? The Troll scratched under its chin, and felt a familiar scar. It began to growl, a low rumbling that caused its tusks to vibrate and the nearby pond to ripple fiercely.

There was a human. It used a glowing stick-thing. And now there was a scar. The Elder Troll feared that human. That human was different. But there were other humans to kill. The town nearby was full of humans without glowing stick-things, unlike Freemont.

The Elder Troll’s weight was too much to walk on two legs, so it moved on all fours in the direction of Dawnbell. That was the plan, but then something came over the Elder Troll. A greenish color flashed across its eyes for a moment. Maybe it should go in a different direction. Yes, that was a good idea.

The Elder Troll really wanted to go in that direction now, and nothing was going to stop it from doing that. As it lumbered through the forest it began knocking down trees on either side of a set of trees that had already been knocked down a week or so earlier.

* * *

“Well, I guess this is goodbye.”

Lucy handed Simon his bag and he slung it over his shoulder. They were outside of the house, and Simon was staring longingly at the forest. Lucy had tried to convince him to stay a little longer, but he insisted that he had to leave as soon as possible.

“Sure is! Thanks for taking care of me this past week.”

“It’s not a problem, you would have done the same.”

“Probably not.”

“Oh…”

“No! Not because I wouldn’t want to! I’m just incompetent. I probably would have made it worse.”

She laughed, “Yeah, I’d probably be better off with the Troll.”

“Wow, thanks for the vote of confidence.”

“No problem.” She smiled, “Well, enjoy your trip okay? It was nice to meet you.”

“And it was nice to meet you as well Lucile North, I hope we meet again someday.”

With that, they turned and walked their separate ways, Simon towards the forest and Lucy towards her house. She shut the door, and was immediately overwhelmed by the emptiness. She remembered something her mom said a long time ago.

“Listen carefully Lucy, there are a lot of people in this world. Sometimes they’re good, sometimes they’re not. But sometimes, you meet someone, and you realize that they are a true a sincere friend. Sometimes you don’t realize it soon enough, but when you do, follow them. Because these are the people you want to surround yourself with. People who will pick you up, and you know that you will do the same. Do you understand?”

“Yes mom.”

Lucy jumped as she realized that she had just said that last part aloud. But then she thought about it. He was fun to be around, he didn’t hesitate to follow what he wanted, be it food or adventure, and he was sincere. And best of all, unlike other people she had lodged, he didn’t make any advances towards her. They were… friends.

“We’re friends!”

Lucy looked around at the house. Sure, it was where she grew up, but now it was more like a prison, keeping her back saying “this is all there is”. Well you know what? Screw this house! It was nothing but a pile of memories that kept her from doing what she wanted. And right now, what she wanted was to be an adventurer, just like Simon, just like her parents.

Would Simon let her follow him though? Could she survive the life of an adventurer? Of course, she could! She just needed two things, her father’s journal, and his weapon. That would be perfect. Plus, she had money, and money is always useful.

She was heading to the storage room, ready to pack as fast as possible to catch up to her now realized friend, when she heard something coming from outside. A rumbling noise, coming from the forest.

Lucy ran to the window and opened it, leaning outside. Animals were running out of the trees, and not too far behind was a familiar idiot. She was about to yell out to him that she wanted to come with, but then she saw why everything was running.

A large, hunchbacked horror burst from the trees. It looked like the last Troll, but this one was at least twice as big, even when it was so hunched it was on all-fours. Its face was horrifying and bulbous, and it looked like plants were growing out of the hair on its back. Its skin was grey, except for patches of lighter skin that were obviously scars. The beast’s claws plowed into the ground, and its tusks would have been almost comically large if it weren’t for the fact that it was a giant terrifying monster.

Simon turned around when he got about halfway between the forest and Lucy’s house. He thrust his arm forwards and an arc of lightning struck the Troll in the face, leaving a dark mark, but not slowing it down in the slightest. He then held his arms out as two swords appeared within his hands, their blades glowing with a faint purple light. He turned his head and looked at Lucy, and her began to yell to her over the roar of the Troll.

“Stay inside Lucy!”

Stay inside pumpkin.

No…

“I’m gonna take care of it!”

Daddy’s gonna take care of it.

Not again…

She was not going to let these be the last words to leave someone’s mouth again. She wasn’t a scared little girl anymore, not like last time. She turned and ran into the storage room, prepared to fight.

* * *

“I’m gonna take care of it!”

Who the hell did he think was he kidding. He barely beat a regular Troll. This thing was an Elder Troll. When he had learned about monsters he remembered reading about how these things have hide that even magic has difficult getting through, and had venom on their tusks that did a lot more than paralyze you.

He had to try though. Lucy was his friend, and he was going to protect her. And all the nice people in Freemont too. Maybe he would even be able to stop it before anyone noticed?

The Troll let out a roar that sent birds flying away from Freemont.

“Or maybe not. Oh well. You wanna dance big guy?

“GWAAR!!!”

“I… I’ll just fight you now.”

Simon clenched his swords and charged the Elder Troll. It had a green color in its eyes like the last Troll, but the color seemed to go away for a moment as it looked down and noticed Simon. As he charged down the Troll, he noticed something interesting. There was a large scar on the Troll’s neck, and it was a lighter color that the rest, as though it were fresher. If he could strike that, he might have a chance!

Suddenly, pain shot up his leg as it buckled out from under him. He collapsed to the ground, which was probably lucky, because the Troll had moved its tusk directly into Simon’s path. As he slid forward, he mused on his good fortune at missing the tusk above his face, at least until a claw swung into him, flinging him into the side of Lucy’s house.

Pain was slowly filling his leg and chest, but he stood up anyway. The Troll seemed to be taking its free time moving towards him, as though it was enjoying toying with him. He tried to run forwards again, but he collapsed almost immediately.

The Elder Troll placed a claw on either side of Simon’s body, and leaned its head over him. Drool dripped down in puddles, the grass dying where it touched. Simon had lost his swords when he had been flung, and he wanted to recreate them, but he couldn’t with this thing concentrating on him. Worst of all, the downward tilt of its head had blocked the scar, so he couldn’t even go for an all-or-nothing attack.

Suddenly, there was a bright flash of light. It almost looked like a spear of light had been flung from somewhere out of his field of vision. It struck the Elder Troll in the face, right where his lightning bolt had hit earlier. The Troll began clutching its face, and Simon decided to take this opportunity. He created a sword and slashed at the Troll’s leg, causing it to rear backwards

Simon quickly climbed to his feet, turned towards where the light had come from, and ran. He fought through the pain, only focused on getting away and getting to Lucy. As a matter of fact, she was right in front of him.

She was shaking, but smiling at the same time. Clutched in her hands was a gun. Guns weren’t too uncommon since the discovery of gunpowder, but they still weren’t something you saw every day, and this wasn’t any normal gun. It was about the size of a revolver and looked like it was carved from wood, but without any of the wear and tear you would expect from a gun made from wood. A silvery metal connected all the pieces of the handle and the hammer together, leading to the barrel, which was longer than a gun of its size should be. Tiny blade-like pieces of metal came from under the barrel, as though the weapon was also meant for stabbing. Smoke curled out from it.

“Lucy!” Simon ran up to her and was surprised as he was wrapped in a hug, “Wait, what’s happening?” And then she slapped him.

“What is wrong with you Simon?!”

“What?!”

“I just nursed you back to health! I refuse to let you run out there and kill yourself again!”

“Listen, I appreciate the concern but…”

“Don’t you dare tell me what to do! You are my friend Simon, so if you want to fight a Troll, I’m going to help you and that’s final!”

Simon smiled, “Wouldn’t have it any other way.”

A roar interrupted the moment as the angry Troll turned to face what had shot it. A large portion of flesh was missing from the right side of its face, with bone visible within. Black smoke poured from around the skull, dissipating into raw magic.

“Simon, give me your arm, let’s get out of here.”

“Wait, why don’t you just keep firing those light things at it? The skull is thick, but enough shots of that should…”

“I can’t.”

“What?!”

“I’m not going to explain it now, but that was a special shot. I have to wait before I can do that again, and I don’t think regular bullets will do the trick on this thing.”

“Damn it!”

They began to move as fast as they could, and luckily the Troll seemed distracted. They were moving away from the house, and it looked like the Troll was trying to decide if it should follow them, or plow through Lucy’s house. Eventually its eyes clouded over with green, and it decided.

The sound of shredding wood could be heard for miles around as the Troll plunged through the small house at the top of the hill. Simon and Lucy watched helplessly as pots and pans flung in all directions, and paper were shredded and scattered into the wind. Simon could hear Lucy begin to choke up next to him, but they didn’t have time for sadness. Simon knew that the Troll wasn’t stopping.

“Lucy, I need to go back.”

“No, we need to go!”

“Listen! I have a plan. I don’t think I can beat that Troll. It has a scar on its neck, but I don’t think I can get close enough to hit it in my state. I need you to run to Freemont.”

“Simon…”

“When you get there, evacuate everybody. I’m going to distract it long enough for everyone to get out.”

“There has to be another…”

“We don’t have time to think of anything else! I’m not going to just run away and hope someone else swoops in to save these people! I refuse to sit idly by and know I could have done something!”

“…Okay…”

Lucy began running towards Freemont, and Simon staggered towards the Troll. To his right was the forest, to the left was Freemont. In front of him were the remnants of Lucy’s house, and a Troll bent on destroying everything.