A Midnight Stroll in the Woods - Book 1 in the Troll Warrior series

Chapter 18 - In my dreams...

A rough hand grips my neck and shoves me into a stoney brick wall. "GIVE ME THE SWORD!" It's all I hear. The hand pushes me harder against the wall. I can't breath and I can feel myself loosing conciousness. Gomber will be okay with out me.... NO! What am I thinking! I slowly rise up my head and struggle to open my eyes. Through my eye lids I catch a glance of an ugly, warty, green face that belongs to a troll. I scream and try to wriggle out of his grasp. It only tightens. I am really starting to panic now. He starts to move back from the wall and I think he is going to let me go. I am sooo wrong, soo wrong. He runs at the wall and I slam into it hard. He lets go and I slide down it and crumple at the bottom behind my folded knees. He picks me up by my hair and holds me up to his face.

"You gonna give me the sword missy? You'z gonna be a good gurl?" I just shake my head and try to not scream. "If you give me the sword then I won't kill you." I shake my head again and don't open my mouth. "You gonna give it to me? Hay? Hay? Give it to me! NOW!" I wimper and then scream when he drags his warty, jagged nail against my face, making a dirty cut. I scream and shake and flail my arms about. He get out a piece of broken glass and holds it against my arm. "GIVE IT TO ME!" He slides it across my arm in a 'T' shape. I scream in his face and pull aginst my arm and try to get away. He only reaches out and grabs it so I can't get away. He cuts a 'h' shape in my arm and I just lie there, past it. He continues until the word 'theif' is cut into my arm. "Give it back!"

"NO!" I scream, "No, no, no." I break down into tears. I'm surprised I was'nt crying already. He hits me in the chest and I go flying up the wall and over to the other side. I land in a heap and just lie there, silently crying away my pain. Except, it won't go away. I start to scream and grip myself harder. I yell for Gomber and shake on the ground. I am in serious pain. I scream again then have a panic attack. I go into a woozy state and everything goes fuzzy. I fall onto my side and just lie there with tears silently streaming down my face. I open my eyes and see a sword a few meters away. I pull myself on my stomach to it. Only, the closer I get, the further away it goes until eventually it is only a small spot on the horizon. I give up trying to get it and stay still. It hurts too much to move. I call for Gomber once more then let go. I drift away. I leave my body behind me.

I sit up straight and throw out my fist at the face of the person in front of me. I hear a deafining crash them look up to see Gomber holding his bloody nose, cursing and trying to get his butt out of the wall.

"What the hell was that for?!"

I leap up and rush over to him. "I'm so sorry! I really didn't mean to!" 

"Shure you didn't." he grunts, "But can you stop blubbering and help me out?" I grab his hand and put all my weight into pulling him out. I heard a 'POP" and I was flying across the room onto the bed. I land on it them bounce and hit my head on the head of the bed. I sit up and rub my head. It really hurts. I see a bruise on my leg and a few deep scratches. When did they get there? I guess my fall into that rose bush did more damage than I first thought. I look up and see Gombers bloody face RIGHT THERE. I scream and roll off the bed, landing on my back on the floor. He stretches out his hands and... oh no. He starts a tickle fight. Bad idea Gomber. I throw my hands in too and tickle him to death. So much for tickling me. By the end he was rolling around on the floor and begging me to stop.

"Is everything alright in there?" I hear a deep voice say. I glance and Gomber and we quickly have a silent conversation.

Am I allowed here

Yes!

So do i reply?

Yes!

Now?

Yes!

"Sorry. Tickle Fight."

"Ok. So i'm not interrupting anything important?" Hold on. I've heard that accent before. my eyes widen.

"Gomber!"I whisper, "there is a troll outside our door. On my mark jump out that window and run. Ok?"

"But...."

"One, Two, Jump!" He races over and launches himself out the window. The troll hears the crash and barges in. only too late did I realize that I had no plan for me to escape. I look at the trolls face and gasp. He was the one from my dreams. Panicking I summon the closest thing to me into my hand. It happened to be a cheese sandwich. I desperately throw it at his face. He catches it in one hand and eats it. Eurgh!

I summon the sword and it appears in my hands. Great! I can do long distance summoning! Not so great that I didn't know that before. And also not so great is that if I don't mange to kill this troll then either the troll will or the sword will kill me! I charge him and whip the sword wildly around me head. He reaches out and blocks the blade with his hand. It puts a deep cut on his palm. I watch as he seems to melt, almost as if he was a candle and pool all over the floor. Then he was gone. All the 'wax' was gone and the only thing the even hinted he had once been here was a red stain on the floor. Just one spot. I sit down on the ground and stare at it. I don't know how long I was there. I just sat until Gomber climbed back in the window and came over to sit next to me. 

"Did i do that Gomber?"

"Do what?"

"Kill something."

"yes why?"

For some reason it felt like I had just destroyed something big, something powerful. And I knew, that was NOT the last of the troll race. This was only the beginning.