Beneath the Sunless Sky

Chapter Two

—World of Niflheim—

The smell. Gods below, was there a worse smell in the entire world, the entire universe? No. It wasn't possible. This was the worst smell in all of Ishara. She was sure of it. She needed no further evidence. Eyes closed, Lulu breathed in small, controlled breaths, meant to manage how much of the smell invaded her nose at any given moment.

This was absolutely not happening. The texture. The sound. The smell especially. She would deny it all until her dying day. It didn't matter that there were witnesses. It didn't matter the smell would likely never come out. This entire day was not happening, and, most importantly, she was definitely not covered head-to-toe in troll puke.

She was not.

"Whoopsie," the massive rock troll in front of her smiled the best he could as he swayed in front of her. "I think I..." Hiccup. "I think I..." Hiccup. "Need 'nother drinkie. You want?" He held up an inordinately large mug, the contents inside sloshing over the sides, frothy foam spilling onto the dirty floor.

Lulu didn't move an inch, her eyes glued straight ahead as she tried to process everything that had just happened to her while ignoring the muffled laughter of Duncan and Isaac behind her. The rock troll seemed not to notice her displeasure, continuing on as though he hadn't emptied his entire stomach's contents onto her. The only movement that came from her was the subtle tightening of her fingers around the hilt of her sword. It would take some time, hacking through solid rock wouldn't be easy, but she could kill him, leave him a pile of rubble as she looted through his belongings.

But, just as soon as she thought of it, a gentle clearing of a throat had her relaxing her grip. Idelle came to stand beside her, probably doing her best to suppress her smile despite Lulu not being able to see her currently. Just having her friend next to her was enough to make her reconsider murder.

"I...think I missed a lot," Idelle spoke quietly.

"Nope," Lulu managed to say without opening her mouth too much. "Nothin' happened."

Duncan snickered loudly. "Yeah, except the most amazin' thing I've ever seen. I'm pretty sure she swallowed some, too."

"What's wrong with swallowing, Duncan?" Lulu turned, ignoring the way the offending liquid dripped off her nose. "Doesn't Isaac do that for you every night?"

"Hey!" Isaac glanced at her, pointing a finger. "I never swallow. I'm classy."

"There's nothing classy about the way you moan, Izzy. Hate to tell you. You have slut written all over you."

"Better than having puke dripping all over you," Duncan let out a loud laugh, barely able to speak his sentence before dissolving into a riotous fit.

"It's not funny!" Lulu shouted, her sword swinging out to clang against the troll's left shoulder. It barely chipped the rock, but the troll staggered back, alarmed at the weapon's proximity.

"Whoa! No hit, womany human. I says sorry!" the troll pouted unhappily, shuffling back toward the fire pit. He kicked a few rocks with his large, square foot, shoulders hunched dejectedly. Lulu rolled her eyes, muttering to herself as she made her way over to the pool of water nearby.

The cave they had found was hidden deep within the mountain pass. They were lucky to find it when they did. Starving, nearly frozen to the bone, and running on only a few hours' sleep for the last several days, they had all but collapsed when the rock troll, Ukhimu, had emerged from his lair and offered to share his home with them.