Swords of Power

Chapter 4

Chapter Four

The king's road was a large dirt path that could fit three full-sized buggies on it. It ran from the Trolland Ridge Mountains to the City of Huron. In between those destinations was a collection of small towns, with Bucklins home included. There were five cities along this road. After Trolland Ridge was the town of Pollen, then Mazoon, Pontian, Hermes, and lastly Brockerton. Brockerton was the largest city due to its location just outside the city of Huron. A desired destination for many nobles who enjoy country living but are still close to a high-quality lifestyle. With an abundance of trees and rolling hills, that glistened during the different seasons. Whether it was snow or autumn leaves. It was known for the perfect balance of class and the outdoors, but other than Brokerton, Mazoon which was Bucklin's home town was second in line for size, and pollen was the smallest. Mainly because it was so far from the civilizations of urban cities.

To get to Pollen he must travel north, opposite the capital of Huron and closer to the Trolland Ridge Mountains. Those mountains separated the Eastlands section of the Michland from its neighbors in Northland. Northland was the smallest of the four kingdoms, but its rough weather conditions made it an unwelcoming place to live. Its frozen landscape and rocky slopes make the country a difficult place to travel, but it's the inhabitance a traveler must pay the most attention to. With mountain cats, wolf packs, and the infamous sabertooth bears. It's the trolls that can cause the most danger.

Trolls are rather small creatures but extremely nasty little buggers. They stand about waist high, with a large oval-like head. That supports a large mouth with hundreds of teeth. Perfect for ripping apart flesh. They were built for the cold mountainous weather with a thick whitish-gray coat, and four hoof-like extremities. The difference between the trolls and the mountain goats that live there is their hooves actually have four slits in them. Allowing them to hold onto things, almost human-like fingers can.

Their intelligence isn't rather impressive, but they do communicate through a couple of different styles. The first is weird yells that sound like a dying goat, which Bucklin had never heard but was told through many sources that the troll's voice replicated that closely. The other technique used for communication was a collection of taps or bangs that would instruct some sort of plan. They primarily use this technique when stalking their prey. You see, trolls aren't very strong alone but once packed together they can become a very serious problem. Especially if fighting them in their neck of the woods. Their advanced hooves allow them to climb a vertical wall just like a squirrel would to a tree, so forests or ridges are the worst spots to be ambushed by a troll.

But Pollen for the most part has done a fine job keeping those little snots out of their city. There has been news of trolls attacking the town in the cover of night, but that was during the winter months when food can be scarce. During the summer season, they most likely spend most of their time prowling the forest for the abundance of wild game available this time of year.

Bucklin was shocked by the damage of the storm. More than once he had helped remove fallen trees that blocked the path and even took a minute to help a man who was too far down the king's road to take shelter from the extensive rains the previous evenings. His varied goods of linen and cotton were ruined by the massive amounts of thumb-sized droplets, and his buggy was filled to the brim like a bath. Bucklin had helped the old man tip the buggy on its side so that the water could drain out from the cabin. Luckily it was just a small rusted black studded one-person buggy, just like the one his father used during his travels. Luckily he and his half-tailed mule survived the nasty weather, and once the buggy was relieved of extra weight. The old man rode off back to his town in Hermes.

Because of Bucklin's kind heart, he was late getting to his buyers but arrived just before sundown, and the two women were grateful to see him. He had noticed they had a fresh stack of linens sitting on a rocking chair just outside the front door, that the duo was spinning into stronger threads for sewing into a clothing item he presumed. They halted their work and stood up to greet Bucklin by both shaking his hand together. Resulting in an awkward three-person handshake. After a short couple of shakes, they quickly slipped around his shoulders to peek into the wagon. To see two little piggy's smiling from floppy ear to floppy ear.