I was beginning to understand that Lubus wasn’t the great warrior that I had believed. If she could bend reality with a flick of her fingers and a word from her lips, well I had thought that someone with that sort of power would be… more somehow. Lubus was rather weak, to tell the truth, she couldn’t even take the life of a monster when she had the chance. It was only a goblin for the home caves sake, they were vicious and cowardly and would do anything in their power to stab you in the back. If we hadn’t kept their numbers in check back on the island, they would have likely spread like locusts. Goblins might be small, but they had no regard for the life around them or the future. All the wildlife would be devoured if they grew to plentiful, I could attest to that myself. When I had been newly spawned, and our numbers were fewer the goblin population had been more prolific, that had been a hard time with little food to be found and the water fouled by their filth. Why we didn’t just eradicate them from the island had been a mystery to me back then, and I had asked my elder sisters that very question. Apparently, they had a home cave of their own and if you killed all of them eventually more would be spawned. So we hunted them for sport and to train our hunting skills, that decision seemed foolish now that they had found something to make them an actual threat. If the goblins were more than just monsters our treatment of them would be horrible and their attack justifiable, but goblins were monsters and if you thought of them as anything more you were a fool waiting to be taken advantage of.

I had been making sure that all the goblins were dead when I had found Lubus hesitating over one of the unconscious goblins, with a dagger over its throat. Could it be that she hadn’t killed anything up close before? She must have used her powers to hunt, her projectiles had been great at keeping the archers off me, and their broken bodies were proof enough of that. But why did she hesitate now? I could find no other explanation than that she must be incredibly inexperienced, maybe she was newly spawned even.

What did this truly change between us though? Nothing I decided, she would just need more protection, and what need did she have of physical combat? She had me for that now, she could just stand back and fling her power at our enemies. Lubus was still the key to my people's salvation, and I would sooner freeze to death before I let anything happen to her. We had been incredibly lucky that none of these monsters had similar powers as those back on the island, I had been a bit careless and just assumed that goblins on the mainland had no such powers, I would not make that same mistake again.

I went over to Lubus and grabbed the hand that held the knife as gently as I could, she wouldn’t have to do this alone, and I tried to convey this as I looked her in the eyes. I don’t know if she understood, but she nodded at me and together we brought the knife across the monster's throat, blood flowed out thick and red, and the goblin grew still and lifeless, breathing no more. I watched as Lubus came to terms with what we had done, she looked at her hands and clenched them In front of her before she stood up looking resolved. Perhaps she wasn’t so weak after all, the first time was never easy not for me, not for anyone. I wasn’t sure that this was Lubus first time, but I would have been more worried if it didn’t affect her at all, especially with the power she possessed. Yes, this was a good thing I decided as the voice shouted something from the forest that I didn’t understand.

Lubus and I sprang to attention both of us turning in the direction of the sound, a deep melodic humming came from that direction and was getting closer by the second. I placed my body in between Lubus, and whatever was coming towards us my spear and shield at the ready. Lubus mumbled something behind my back, probably trying to summon more of those glowing blue orbs she had used before. I didn’t want to take my eyes from the forest to confirm my suspicion, I was growing more worried as the thing grew closer. The humming was clear through the chatter of birds taking flight and what I assumed were small animals fleeing from the creature's path. Whatever it was must be big as I could see the tops of trees bend out of the way and snap back into place as the thing passed. The humming song grew loud, and I could make out its outline through the trees. What stepped out into the clearing could not be dreamed up by even Astrids imagination and as it squeezed its body between two trees to get out of the forest one of them suddenly snapped and fell to the side to lean against its neighbor.

The thing shrugged its massive shoulders and turned back to inspect the goblin camp. When I had guessed it was big I had not been mistaken, it hunched over slightly, but I suspected that if it stretched its back, it could see over the trees. Its skin was grey and wrinkly, with long skinny arms and hands that looked too big for its frame. It stood on two bare feet that I had no doubt could crush either Lubus or me with ease or even both of us. It might not have shoes, but its body surprise in what looked like stitched together animal furs. But the most incredible thing about it was that it had two heads on its shoulders. They were identical in every way, both with big round noses and beady perpetually squinted eyes, the only difference was that one seemed to be sleeping while the other one stopped humming its tune and scowled at the dead goblins around it. Maybe it didn’t like the sun, this was only a guess by the way it squinted its eyes and looked around as if searching for something, however it searched it didn’t seem to notice Lubus or me standing stock still in the middle of the camp.

Suddenly words appeared in my mind, words that I could somehow understand, I was a bit apprehensive, as the goblin back on the island had done something similar, but I read them all the same. Eplubus Broken Tongue has offered you a magical bond, accept/decline.

I had never done this before, so I was a bit rushed, the rumbling footsteps coming from the forest didn’t help either. When the big troll stepped out from behind the trees, I panicked a bit, finished the spell, and sent it off for Eshanai to hopefully accept. If she didn’t agree or if she didn’t understand we would both probably die. The bond would allow us to speak to each other in our minds, it was incredibly risky, but if I couldn’t tell her to stand still, we would most likely die anyway. I had planned to do this anyway, but under more controlled circumstances where the odds of failure would be next to nothing. A rushed job like this, performed under stress plus my banished to the depths stutter could mean the loss of both our minds. Luckily for both of us, Eshanai had stood still and not attacked the troll when it emerged through the forest. She seemed to be assessing the situation, and she was slightly in awe of the creature I thought judging by the slack-jawed expression on her face.

She closed her mouth in surprise suddenly, and I guessed my message had arrived, and I begged silently to whoever was listening that the troll hadn’t seen that small movement. To my relief and slight apprehension, I could feel the bond taking hold. It was as if cold fingers spread through my head and I was suddenly aware of another mind in my vicinity. It was not like I could read her mind but her feelings and surface thoughts were available to me and right now Eshanai was extremely determined. I could actually feel where she was and I marveled at the new sense of her in my mind. That had gone better than I had hoped, most of the cases I had read about involved at best some pain and at worst, well no need to think about that now, I just needed to figure out how to direct my thoughts towards Eshanai.

What had gone better than you thought?

The bond. I answered the voice in my head absentmindedly.

Oh, so it was you who did this. It’s amazing, I can finally speak to you and understand you Lubus. Before I realized what was happening, Eshanai began turning towards me.

STOP MOVING! My mental voice commanded frantically. Trolls have lousy eyesight during the day, so if we just remain still, it will probably not notice us and move on. I explained and to my relief, Eshanai stopped moving entirely, her mental reply came a second later.

Can you not shout directly into my mind, please? This may be amazing, but I have no way of ‘plugging my ears’ when you are directly in my head.

Sorry, I answered.

It’s okay, so that thing’s a troll huh. I’ve never seen anything like it, are they common here on the mainland?

No, not really. They usually live up in the mountains, away from civilization. I have no idea what this one’s doing here.

Strange, so what do you know about them?

Not much, just that they don’t really like sunlight and something about not waking the second head for whatever reason. Suddenly I noticed that I wasn’t stuttering, but Eshanai’s next words tempered my elation.

Well, I hope it leaves soon, we don’t have much light left by the looks of things. Eshanai observed, and I wanted to smack my hand against my face. I had completely forgotten, the sun setting had been the whole reason for hurrying to catch up to the goblins. Now that I was paying attention, it seemed to have been growing darker, and the trees were making long shadows on the ground. The sun was behind us to the east on its way to the horizon, that was likely the only reason the troll hadn’t seen us, the sun must have blinded it.

Tense moments went by as we stood as still as statues watching the troll in increasing frustration as it inspected the dead goblins like a child playing with toy soldiers, it threw them to the ground in apparent frustration and sat down, not unlike a sulking child, the sleeping head rocked from side to side listlessly. The impact shook the ground, and I nearly lost my balance, but Eshanai’s tail supported me, and I righted myself with relief.

That was a close one, thanks Eshanai.

No worries, but I grow tired of waiting for this thing to leave. I had to agree with her and with the sun setting the chances of our discovery grew by the moment.

It hasn’t noticed us so far, maybe we can slip away into the sunset. But slowly. Eshanai didn’t object, and as slowly as possible we backed away into the woods. As if in mockery of my previous words I stepped on a branch and it snapped under my foot. The troll eyes landed on us, and it jumped to its feet and clapped its hands in glee.

“Humies, humies, brother wakie wakie. Spell these morsels so we can have something to bring the dungeon.” The right head said and poked the sleeping head with an oversized finger. The other head opened its eyes slowly and looked at us blearily.

“Fine brother, but you are going to have to explain what happened to the goblins, I’m going back to sleep.” Before it closed its eyes again two magical green bolts shot out of its eyes and hit Eshanai and me in our backs as we tried to make a run for it. My muscles stopped listening to me and I fell to the ground completely unable to move. Eshanai fell beside me a moment later equally as paralyzed.

Heavy footsteps could be heard behind us, and a surprisingly gentle hand was wrapped around Eshanai and me both. The troll walked back the way it had come and started humming that strange song again.

I guess I know how my prey feels when I paralyze them with my venom, this is not a fun experience. What should we do now Lubus? Eshanai asked, she was as calm and collected as ever and I calmed my racing thoughts to think about the problem. I could try to break the spell, but that would take time. I could think of nothing better to do, so I mentally commanded my mana to flood all my muscles. I tried to move my fingers, and to my surprize, they twitched slightly and hope flooded through me. I did not want to be offered to some dungeon as a tribute.

I think I can break the spell, but it will take me a while. Just give me some time, ok, It was all I could offer her at the moment, but I felt Eshanai's acceptance as she resigned herself to wait. The sun had set fully as the troll carried us through the woods and I continued to flood my muscles with magic to drive out the foreign mana. Eventually, it brought us to a large cave opening in the side of a mountain. I wasn’t sure which direction we had been carried in, but the only mountains close to Yhester were the northern ridge, but we couldn’t have traveled that far in less than a night, could we?

The troll brought us inside, the halls were enormous so that the troll could walk upright. This dungeon only had one floor, so hopefully, it was a new and inexperienced one. We came to the last room in the caves, and a glowing red crystal hovered in the middle. I had regained the use of my legs by this point, so as the troll set both of us down and started to speak I threw myself towards the red gem. As my forehead smashed against it, pain lanced through my body and everything turned red, then black.