The Start

A Magical Quest

‘Greetings, great troll’ Sheila says, ‘We come here in peace, we’re just passing through’.

The troll looks up at her weary, then his eyes widen and he quickly stands up.

‘None shall pass without paying the toll’ his low pitched voice makes my entire body shake.

Geirolf sighs, ‘Can’t we just fight our way to the other side of the bridge?’.

‘Shut up, you maniac!’ I hiss, ‘We don’t want to fight anyone unless we have to’.

The troll looks down onto Geirolf, then slowly picks up his tree-sized club.

‘The toll must be paid, either in blood or in gold’.

Geirolf snickers, ‘A troll asking about a toll’ he laughs.

Sheila clears her throat, ‘Pardon my friend, great troll. How much is the toll?’.

No matter how friendly Sheila is, Geirolf is clearly pissing the troll off. The troll raises his club, ‘His head for dinner’.

The ground shakes as the tree hits the ground. A cloud of dust arises and stings in my eyes. Sheila uses her magic to blow the dust away, revealing that Geirolf’s legs have been crushed underneath the club of the troll, who is smiling. Dean sneaks up on the troll and cuts at its feet, causing the creature to fall down face-first, pulling his weapon off of Geirolf in a reflex. Sheila runs up to Geirolf and kneels beside him. A warm, soft blue glow comes out of her hands and Geirolf’s legs are slowly restored. He gets up, two large swords in hand and plunges them into the eyes of the troll.

‘Told you it would be easier’.

I’m about to slap him across the face when Dean stops me. ‘It’s not worth it, Noyala’.

Geirolf cleans his swords while Dean looks through the troll’s belongings. He reveals a large bag of gold. ‘This should be enough to get us something useful in the next town’.

Sheila reveals a map, ‘The next town we’ll encounter is Vendane, it’s not very far away, perhaps half a day’s journey’.

‘Should we rest first?’ Dean asks, ‘Or are we leaving immediately?’.

She looks up at the sky, ‘We’ll get going now, but we won’t make it before nightfall’.

The campfire gives off a gentle, warm glow. Sheila hums softly as she prepares the soup.

‘Noyala’ she says, ‘would you mind hunting in the woods for a bit? I think a rabbit would make a nice stew’.

‘Yeah, sure’ I say as I pick up my bow, ‘I’ll be right back’.

I make my way through the dense foliage, and then I’m in almost complete darkness. The soft glow of the moon gives everything a slight bluish tint. Leaves crackle underneath my feet as I slowly move forward, looking for anything to kill. I smell poop. Not far away from me are some rabbit droppings, they’re fresh. I follow the trail until I hear something in the bushes. Drawing my bow, I swiftly turn and take aim.

‘Relax’ Dean says from the shadows, ‘I’m not a rabbit’.

I sigh as I put the arrow back into my quiver.

‘What’s wrong with you? I could’ve killed you’.

‘Sheila asked me to go get some more firewood, thought it’d be a nice idea to come and say hi’.

‘I was hunting rabbit, now it’s probably long gone thanks to you’.

He smiles, ‘No it’s not’ he says as he points at a small hole in the ground, ‘It’s sleeping, good luck’.

He leaps backwards and disappears into the darkness without making a sound. Stealthy b*****d.

‘Enjoy your meal’ Sheila says as she hands me my bowl, ‘You’ve earned it’.

‘Dean helped’ I say.

Dean laughs, ‘Indeed I did, but it wouldn’t be fair to compare you to me. I can see in the dark, you can’t’.

‘He’s right’ Geirolf says, ‘but during the daytime, she can shoot off your fingertips from a hundred meters away’.

‘And then Sheila will heal you’ I say.

Sheila smiles shyly.

I cough, ‘So, who will take the first watch?’.

‘I will’ Sheila says, ‘I’m not tired yet anyway’.

Something seems off, she’s never taken the first watch before and sounds a bit strange. Whatever it is, I probably can’t convince her to talk about it right now.

‘I’ll go second’ I say as I yawn.

Dean lifts his hand, ‘Third’.

Geirolf just nods.

I grab my blankets and find a comfortable place to sleep by the fire.

‘Goodnight’ I say sleepily.

‘Goodnight’ they whisper.

I wake up when something gently shakes my shoulder. It’s still dark.

‘Your turn’ Sheila says.

Her face seems better now than last night, but something still seems off.

‘Are you alright?’ I ask, gently holding her hand.

She sits down with a sigh, ‘Can’t hide anything from you, can I?’.

‘Eyes of a hunter’.

‘I was wondering. How long will our friendship last?’.

‘What do you mean?’ I ask, taken aback by the sudden doubt in her voice.

‘Earlier today you were about to slap Geirolf across the face’.

I look down in shame, ‘It’s just... Do you know why I joined this group? I came here because, as a child, I always hunted in the forest. One day I came across a creature I’d never seen, something very different from the deer and rabbits I was used to. You won’t believe it, but I saw a unicorn. It was beautiful, and I couldn’t bear the thought of just seeing deer for the rest of my life and nothing else. So I became an adventurer, I wanted to see what the world had to offer. So when I saw Geirolf wanting to kill that troll, I just couldn’t understand.’

‘He has a different background than you. I know very little about his past, but I know he’s seen more battle than we ever will. It’s in his blood to kill.’

It saddens me that I know so little about the people I call friends. ‘I suppose you’re right. Why did you join the team?’ I ask out of curiosity.

‘Both my parents were mages’ she begins, ‘so I have been trained to be a mage all my life. I never learned any real battle magic, but as you’ve probably noticed, I’m quite capable in combat. The reason I don’t know any battle magic is because my father was forced to fight in the Great Mage War, he did not return. Afterwards, my mother refused to teach me battle magic, and we focused mostly on healing spells and element manipulation.’

‘Don’t you want to know my story?’, Dean’s voice softly whispers in the darkness, it scares the ever living s**t out of me.

‘Please don’t sneak up on us like that’ Sheila says, seeming unsurprised by his presence.

‘I’m sorry, it’s kinda my thing. Anyway, want to hear it or not?’

‘Sure’ I say, ‘enlighten us.’

‘It all started when I was still little’ he says, sitting down between me and Sheila, ‘My father had been sent off to fight in the Great Mage War, but my mother couldn’t support the family on her own, so I became a pickpocket, it was the only way to get food on the table. It was scary at first, but then it became a habit. To no surprise, my mother got a letter officially declaring my father as ‘killed in action’, she was devastated. We wanted to bury him, or what was left of him, but we didn’t have enough money. I came up with the foolish plan to steal from a local gang boss, it worked, sort of. When he found out what I did, he came after me. He couldn’t find me, so he murdered my mother. When I saw what he’d done, I ran away, into the forest. I stumbled upon a cave filled with gold. After I took a single coin, I realized it was a dragon’s den, and I left.’

Dean reaches into his pocket and takes out a single golden coin, ‘I kept it, of course’.

I’m flabbergasted, I never even asked for their story when I met them. I just took my bow and followed them. And I only now hear about their lives?

‘What about Geirolf?’ I ask, ‘What’s his story?’

Dean shrugs, ‘Haven’t got a clue. All I know is that he has some kind of Viking background and he likes sharp things.’

‘Likes sharp things?’ I ask, ‘That’s the best description you could think of?’

‘I’m dead serious!’ Dean says, pretending to be insulted, ‘I asked him why he didn’t carry hammers instead of swords, he just said hammers weren’t sharp enough.’

We all have a good laugh. Surprisingly, Geirolf doesn’t wake up from all the noise.

The two of them go to sleep and I’m left behind to guard them in the cold darkness of the night.

‘Rise and Shine!’ Geirolf’s low voice rumbles through my head.

It’s day again and the fire is little more than ashes, Dean is figuring out how the map works, while holding it upside down, and Geirolf’s trying to wake up Sheila.

‘Five more minutes’ she sighs, then gets up reluctantly.

After Sheila yanks the map from Dean’s hands, he gives us all a piece of bread.

‘Eat up, we’re going to Vendane.’

We gather our things and head for the town, I just hope they’ll have something for us to do.