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Between Winters

By_Glycanthrope_

Part VII

"Hey Ash, Will you LOOK at this!"

Teddy Arbinger held up his right hand and focused on it, eyes squinting in concentration. Ashford Tanner took another look at Arbinger's palm, and once again failed to conceal his growing disinterest. For weeks, Arbinger had spent countless hours reading the Artem ignis.

"Ted, you've been reading that book ever since you grabbed it from Black Denton's hideout. I'm beginning to think that it may be getting to you."

"Curses, Ash! I swear that I almost had it..."

As reward for his performance in the action against Black Denton, Ted had been promoted prematurely to the second rank within the order of the Sabrehold Knights. He was now relieved of any sentry-duty, and with plenty of spare time on his hands he had spent every minute of it studying the Artem ignis with a diligence that unnerved Ashford, he felt that his friend had become almost obsessed with the idea of putting the arcane knowledge to use.

"Look Ted, I know that you really want to channel magic, but two facts still remain: I have never known you to channel and two: you cannot gain the ability to channel just from reading some old book. Either you've got it or you don't".

"The book only teaches you how to focus the channelling into heat - if you have the ability, damn it. - I just know that I've got it; my family has it and we have squandered its potential on nothing but parlour tricks for generations. The Order and my heritage need me to take this ability seriously, and I refuse to let them down."

"Ok, so you have relatives who channel magic, but that doesn't automatically mean that ...Sweet Odys!"

Ted Arbinger closed his fist and when he reopened it, flames sprang to life and engulfed his hand in a fiery glove.

Ted and Ashford stared in awed silence at the flaming hand. Ted turned his hand around and examined it closely from all angles.

"Doesn't that hurt?"

"No, there is no pain, it just feels really strange".

"What was that about your family channelling?"

"My uncle Elias knows how to channel fire just like this, and like the rest of the family he has never used it for anything. I mean, he can ignite the fireplace, but it doesn't burn hot enough to melt metal or forge steel so he never took it anywhere."

Arbinger smiled lovingly at his newfound ability "But I'm going to change all that, you know".

A large cockroach, startled by the bright emissions of light hurried across the floor in search of a darker hiding place. Arbinger turned around with a jolt and aimed his hand at the scuttling insect.

"Prepare to die - demon spawn!"

Flames covered his hand, then shot across the room and engulfed the cockroach. It made a faint hissing sound as it cooked and a smell of burning flesh filled the room.

Ted looked at his hand, now extinguished and unmarked. "This is fantastic. Just imagine what I could do with this".

"One thing that you can do is to get us both expelled from the Order. You know that the Order follows a strict no-channelling policy."

"And that my friend, is why we are losing our battle against the orcs. _The Orde_r is playing by the same old rules that they used two hundred years ago. Chief Musclefang may be both mean and ugly, but he's not stupid and he knows exactly what to expect from us on the battlefield. We're predictable, and that is one weakness that he can and will exploit.

So I say that if they don't play by the rules, I'll play by the book"

"Hot enough for you, orc? - POW!"

"It's roasting time, taurian - POW!"

Slowly, Arbinger turned around and pointed his hand at Ashford.

"Poooow!"

"Gods! Will you put that hand out and stop pointing at me. You know, this is probably the one reason why the Order put a stop to knights channelling magic."

"but Ash!" Arbinger looked slightly offended by the remark,

"I would never dream of using these powers for anything but good".

---

"Tell me, Mr. Tanner, what do you know about trolls?"

Ashford stood before Sir Walstan and was about to be assigned to his next mission.

"I know that they are creatures that are somehow related to goblins"

"Trolls are related to goblins in very much the same way that humans are related to elves. We can communicate, trade and interbreed with elves, but we also have our differences. The same goes for goblins and troll-kin. Goblin tribes have a structure that is familiar to us, but the structure of a troll warren is something entirely different.

A troll warren comprises one adult female known as the brood mother. She keeps an entourage of two to three adult males who are almost completely mindless drones. Then of course there is the offspring of both sexes".

"You will go on a mission to neutralise one troll warren in the vicinity of Blackhawk Meadow. Do you know anything about the troll diet?"

"No sir, I have no idea".

"They'll eat anything, as long as it is meat."

"Okay?"

"Literally!"

"You mean, like humans?"

"-or to be more precise, the human flesh off of the citizens of Blackhawk Meadow. They have reported the night-time disappearance of two villagers, and we have been called in to eliminate that warren."

"Do I go on this mission alone?"

"Of course not! You will travel to Blackhawk Meadow and wait there for Sir Carrington and recruit Hendrek to arrive from fort Sweetwater. Carrington will be in charge of the operation - and he is also the one to evaluate your performance."

"So it will be just the three of us against an entire warren of trolls?"

"The strategy is simple. Eliminating the brood-mother is like severing the brain from the body. When you neutralise her, the entire warren will be without a brain and it will wither. The males will wander off aimlessly and die.

"And the offspring?"

"Mr. Tanner, just perform well on this mission and I will promote you to the second rank, with all the privileges that includes."

---

Ashford Tanner arrived at the town of Blackhawk Meadow a few days later. It was a commune of some forty households, mainly farmers and ranchers. Apart from a small marketplace, Blackhawk Meadow also offered lodgings for travellers, and Ashford rented a room for a few nights while he waited for Sir Carrington and Hendrek to arrive.

The next morning, Ashford decided to scout the area to get an overview of the task at hand, and the local farmers were more than eager to point him in the direction of the troll warren.

"They've taken my sheep! - and also Mr. Cenhere and Mr. Turbert".

Ashford rode a few miles in the direction that had been pointed out, and he soon found himself surrounded by hills and forest.

Sir Walstan had not described what a troll-warren looked like and Ashford didn't know what exactly he was searching for - it could be a house, a cave, a hole in the ground? He circled the area slowly until noon, when he suddenly found himself face to face with a very unwashed troll cub.

She had the rough size and bearing of a four year old child. Her skin was greyish-green and scaly like that of a reptile. She wore a set of crudely stitched clothes made from wool and animal hide. Her hair was long and black, and someone had braided small bones and feathers into it. She was in the process of skinning a wild rabbit when she discovered Ash, and she hissed and bared her fangs as to warn him against trying to snatch the prey away from her.

"Easy, little fella, I'm not here to hurt you".

Then he hesitated; but I am, he thought. I AM here to hurt you, that's the whole point of me being here.

The troll-cub cast him a suspicious look and then disappeared into the forest. Ash tied his rouncey to a tree and followed after the cub on foot, and he soon found himself standing before an opening into a hillside cave. Several more troll cubs were outside, eying him with a combination of curiosity and suspicion.

They were all of roughly the same age and size and were similarly dressed. They hissed at Ashford and clawed the air as he approached the cave. "They are far too small to present any danger" and he carefully looked into the mouth of the cave. It was dark -too dark for human eyes, so Ash lit a torch and carefully progressed into the cave.

The depth of the cave surprised Ash; it was deep and it looked as if it had been carved out over generations. Ashford held his torch high and progressed slowly through a series of narrow passages and rooms, all carved out in the rocky hillside.

Ashford entered a small chamber that was knee-deep in filth and refuse. Here he found remains from their meals and several skulls that he identified as sheep, rabbits and deer. Much to his disgust he also found two human skulls in the pile.

"That must be the remains of Cenhere and Turbert".

He considered picking up the skulls and bringing them back to Blackhawk Meadow for a proper burial, when he noticed the soft sound of falling pebbles around him. He looked up and saw an adult male troll on a catwalk above him. The troll grinned and fingered a lever with a perverse sense of joy. The lever was connected to an array of boulders that would fall from the ledge when pulled, and crush the person below now rummaging through the pile of refuse.

"Wait! I only want to..."

The troll hesitated but kept his hand firmly on the lever and giggled in anticipation.

"I wish to speak with mother"

The troll stiffened by the sound of the word "mother" and long moments passed, but eventually the troll let go of the lever, he grunted in disappointment then waved at Ashford to follow him down the corridor. After some turns and twists, the narrow corridor opened into a large hall within the cave, and here Ashford found the brood-mother.

She was old and thin, and her uncut black hair reached almost down to her feet. She sat by a fireplace, warming her old bones and stirring in a bowl of food. Ashford prayed silently that the contents of the bowl were non-human in nature. There were two additional male trolls present that seemed to protect the brood-mother. All three males looked dim-witted, and being no stranger to a brawl against odds, Ashford made the quick estimate that he could probably take out two of the males, but not all three of them in one go.

"What does human meat want from mother?"

The brood-mother interrupted his thoughts in vaguely recognisable humanoid common.

"I only wish to talk to you"

"Human meat is brave, but my children are very hungry. First we talk, then we eat."

"I found your refuse pile, you have eaten humans"

"Humans eat animals, so do we."

"There is no use in denying, I found human skulls back there"

"Humans are animals! Tasty, tasty animals"

"Maybe so, but humans are animals that fight back! And if you do not change your diet, humans will come from fort Jaansworth and fort Sweetwater, and the humans will destroy you, your warren and your children".

The brood mother pondered Ashford's words for an eternity while she silently stirred the bubbling stew and stared into the fire.

"Then go and tell your tribe that we will not hunt humans again."

Ashford released a sigh of relief.

"Let the human meat go", the brood-mother instructed the males, and Ashford was free to leave the troll warren. The troll cubs followed him closely on his way out, and he could feel them probing his clothes and armour while they chittered among themselves.

Once outside in the midday sunlight, Ashford drew another sigh of relief. He had handled the situation without bloodshed or further losses, and he was very pleased with himself as he rode back to Blackhawk Meadow. Now he could report to Carrington and Hendrek that an agreement had been reached, he would get a favourable recommendation and finally advance into the next rank of knighthood.

---

Carrington and Hendrek arrived early the next day, and when they met with Ashford to resolve the situation, Carrington was anything but pleased with Ashford's impromptu visit to the warren.

"Your orders were simply to wait for us before taking any action. Then you violated a direct order and went up there ALONE?"

"I figured that if I went by myself, I would propose less of a threat than the three of us together, and that's why they let me speak to the brood-mother"

"So you waltzed in there, had a friendly chat with the enemy who promised to behave from now on, and now you propose that we call off the attack?"

Carrington fumed and sent an evil look towards Hendrek, who used both hands to muffle a fit of laughter; the situation was absurd in the extreme.

"Mr. Tanner, we are not here to parlay and eat rabbit stew with the enemy. We are here to neutralise them! These creatures are murderers.

Tell me Mr. Tanner, Did or did you not find human remains within that warren?"

"I did, I found two human skulls between the sheep bones. I assumed that they were those of Cenhere and Turbert."

Carrington suddenly looked very tired. He rubbed his eyes with both hands, and then massaged his temples as trying to solve a riddle that made no sense.

"So, technically that would make them cannibalistic murderers, wouldn't it?"

"I guess, in a way, but..."

"Mr. Tanner, if this had been a camp of human bandits. How would we resolve the situation?"

"We would probably apply the no-prisoners practice of the Order"

"Indeed, just like you did when you handled the Black Denton situation. Now, let's just imagine that the killings had been carried out by a pack of feral wolves, then what would apply?"

"The same"

"Now recruit Tanner, can you give me one good reason why we should grant these creatures special privileges that you would not grant to neither human nor beast?"

"no Sir"

"Well in that case, I suggest that you get on your mount and carry out your sworn duty as a Sabrehold knight. Do remember, that everything that you do, will go on the report - and that includes dining with the enemy!".

"Sir, I Can't"

"Recruit Tanner, are you refusing to follow a direct order?"

"I don't know, Sir"

"Well I do, and I don't think that you have what it takes to become a knight. I'm sorry that it turned out this way Tanner, but Hendrek and I have a job to do".

And with these parting words, Carrington and Hendrek left Ashford behind in a flurry of hooves and a sinking sensation of having just ruined his chance of becoming a knight.

Ashford mounted his rouncey and rode slowly along the river. Maybe it was not too late to turn around and join the others. He realised that he would become the butt of jokes for years to come, but at least he would save his future within the Order. Then it dawned upon him in a sudden terrible flash: he had forgotten to warn Carrington of the boulder trap. He spurred his mount and rode in the direction of the troll warren in a state of breathless panic.

Ashford was greeted by the aftermath of a short but brutal skirmish; several troll-cubs lay dead outside the cave and the destriers that Carrington and Hendrek had ridden were nowhere to be seen. "Something has gone wrong and the mounts have bolted in panic", the thoughts raced through Ashford's mind as he made his way through the now familiar cave tunnels.

As soon as he reached the refuse room, he could tell that the boulder trap had been released. Rocks of all sized almost filled the room and Ashford saw that the trap had claimed a victim. He recognised the lower half of recruit Hendrek, while the upper half was beyond recognition. Carrington was nowhere to be seen, and Ashton assumed that the knight had moved onwards into the cave system.

He found Carrington by the mouth of the main chamber. He had propped himself up against the wall and was bleeding profoundly from a gash to the stomach.

"Water!"

Ashford knelt down and offered the wounded knight his leather canteen. It was obvious that Carrington was rapidly bleeding out, and he drank greedily.

"There were three of them, like you said. I thought that I could take them on without Hendrek, but the last one got me good".

Carrington pointed weakly to a dead male troll by the entrance. Then his eyes grew cold and suspicious,

"W... why didn't you tell us about the trap?"

Death did not have the patience to wait for Sir Carrington to hear the answer, and the knight went limp in Ashford's arms. Ashford closed the dead knight's eyes and laid the body onto the floor. He picked up Sir Carrington's sword and put the hilt into the knight's hands, so that the sword rested on his chest. Slowly Ashford got to his feet and headed for the main cave, where he found the brood mother. She was on her knees and had curled up into a small, compact figure. It looked as if she was clutching something close. She turned around and looked at Ashford,

"My children?"

Ashford tried, but found that his throat had clenched up, and he could not say a single word.

"You killed my child, but we kept our promise. We did not hunt for human meat".

Ashford now realised that the brood-mother was clutching one of her dead offspring.

"It wasn't meant to end this way", Ashford tried to explain, but his voice felt high-pitched and thick.

Slowly, the brood-mother laid her dead child on the cold floor. She looked at Ashford for a moment, then her eyes narrowed and she flung herself at him with a howl so full of grief and hatred for all things humankind that Ashford stood paralysed for several seconds. He found himself unable to move as the brood-mother lunged at him and clawed him with her fingers. Still in a daze he saw the brood-mother pick up the heavy bowl of stew from the fire and she was about to fling the boiling contents in his face, when he snapped out of paralysis and thrust the entire length of his sword deep into her abdomen. The brood-mother let out a prolonged scream then collapsed on the floor,

and all went quiet.

Ashford staggered back through the tunnels, limply dragging his sword behind him. He met no resistance on his way out, but he could hear the scuttling sound of troll-cubs hiding from him. He mounted his rouncey and rode back to Blackhawk Meadow, where he was greeted by the mayor of the town.

"So, how did it go?"

"They're dead"

"The trolls?"

"Dead"

"Where are the other two knights? Carrington and Hendrek."

"Dead! They are all dead! The males, the offspring, Hendrek, Carrington. I put a sword through the brood-mother myself, now are you happy?"

"You didn't happen to bring her head back - just for verification, you know?"

"You go and collect the damn head yourself!"

"I guess that Sir Carrington is in no situation to file a report now, but instead I shall do so myself. I'll write to Sir Walston and explain that you suffered casualties, but that they have one fine knight to be proud of."

"Shove your report!"

The mayor patted Ashford comforting on the shoulder.

"I know that the loss must be hard on you, but feel free to stay in Blackhawk Meadow ...while I write".

Ashford mounted his horse and rode slowly along the river. Now what? He had earned his letter of recommendation, but Carrington was right: he did not have what it took to be a knight. All he knew was how to hurt, whether he wanted to or not.

He stopped by the river and let the horse drink. The setting sun shattered into thousands of glowing embers reflecting in the water, and as he watched the fireflies dance and the waterlilies lazily drag the stream along, the water itself seemed to beckon him to come closer, to enter its cool embrace and drift gently downstream like a fallen leaf, then sink at some point

and be done with it all.

He was brought back to the present by a rustling noise in the trees behind him. He drew his sword and turned around to see what had caused it.

It was a very dirty troll girl.

"I remember; you were the one with the rabbit. You've been following me?"

The troll girl shrugged.

"You don't have anywhere to go, do you?"

The troll girl shook her head

"I guess that makes two of us."

The troll girl kept staring at him in silence. Eventually Ashford let out a long sigh and chuckled to himself in disbelief.

"You know I really messed this whole thing up, and I thought that I would just go back to drifting a bit, fighting too hard and drinking too much

-Now I can't even do that right."

Ashford nodded to the trollkin who climbed onto the rouncey, and seated herself behind Ashford. She wrapped her thin arms around him for warmth and comfort, and together they left everything behind and rode headlong into the uncertain future.

---

To be continued