The Moon-Eating Dragon

13. Dancing With Trolls

~*~

Daniel finished strapping their minimal luggage to the horse and went to help Nadia onto the saddle.

"I'll walk from here onwards." She said, striding past him to join Matthew and the knight who were already taking their first steps towards the mountain pass, her hair a glowing black despite the scarce light of dawn.

Daniel looked to where they'd set up camp the night before. They had scattered their extinguished fire's ashes just enough to make it seem older than it really was. The knight had insisted they conceal as much evidence of their being there as possible.

Daniel had gone on to even water the grass that had crumpled from their sleeping on it saying that it would help it straighten faster. When Nadia made a fuss about the water loss he assured them that he'd walked this route countless times and that there was barely any need to carry water. In fact; he'd made the journey twice without as much as a water skin.

"Enough rivers between here and Wyden to quench the devil's crevice." He'd said at one point.

He gave one final scan of their camp and nodded to himself before leading the horse on its way.

When the sun finaly broke through the horizon it made the looming moutains glow red on the edges giving them an ominous look.

After what seemed like an eternity of walking and dawn had fully matured into day the mountains still loomed casting their shadows on the travellers. Nadia was beggining to think they would never reach the bloody things but didn't complain out loud. They refilled their water skins twice on the countless streams they had to cross with Daniel reminding them each time of how he'd told them so. Matthew merely drank from the stream silently lamenting his lost supplies.

The sun rose over the mountains to beat down on them at full tilt and they felt its stinging rays scortch their faces relentlessly. Without the walking forest to cover them they had no choice but to trudge on in the open heat. Amongst the countless shrubs a tree would appear and they'd adjust their route so as to end up in it's shade.

Not wanting to waste too much time they didn't stop for lunch but ate on the road instead. The sun had rippened and gone from yellow to orange. It now hovered behind casting their shadows before them.

"Maybe we should stop at the next reasonable tree and set up camp." The knight suggested. "At this rate we'll never hit the pass in time. "

"No. We're already in troll territory. We need to get through the mountains today or head back." Daniel said.

The knight weighed their options.

"Let's quicken the pace then." Nadia pulled ahead and the choice was made.

Shrubs and trees were slowly replaced by rocks and boulders. Yellow flowered grasses sprouted from the sandy soils bordering an evident path that seemed to have been deliberately cleared.

"It seems like there are people about." The knight said to no one in particular, eyeing the path suspiciously.

"No one comes out here. Fire mages from Wyden used to use the pass to get to the walking forest but not anymore. But they are not responsible for the path. No one knows how it came about. We are just greatfull that it exists." Daniel informed them.

"What were the mages looking for in the forest? Nothing in there but shrooms and occasionally a troll or two." Matthew asked curiously.

"Fire daisies. They harvest them for their experiments." Daniel said.

"What do they use now?"

"In his experiments one of them figured out how to plant them and started selling them. Made a huge fortune doing it untill his secret leaked to the common people. Apparently you just need to grow some purple looking sparkly mushrooms and the sun does the rest."