Chapter 42
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
PENNY
Imust have fallen asleep in Brax’s arms as I find myself blinking my eyes open in what appears to be the early morning.
I don’t remember anything else after breaking down and him holding me, so I take a moment to sit up and look around.
Brax and Ryker are on either side of me, with Drake beside Brax and the twins on the other side of Ryker.
I look around for Silver and find him sitting on the opposite side of the fire, looking into the forest with his back to us.
I guess he’s on watch right now. I quietly stand up and head in the opposite direction to relieve myself.
As I’m finishing up, a blue butterfly flies past my face and I find myself watching it, waiting for it to stop moving so I can better assess it.
I don’t think I’ve seen one like this before.
It’s moving slowly and I carefully walk behind it, trying not to scare it, and when it finally flutters down to a low-hanging branch, I move closer to take a good look.
Just as I’m starting to bend over to see it closer, a giant foot stomps down on it, making me gasp in surprise as I fall backwards on my ass.
I look up at the giant being before me. It has to be at least nine feet tall and has green dirty skin with pointed ears and a long curving nose.
A mess of black hair falls down its back, and he’s completely naked. Holy shit, is this a fucking troll?!
He tilts his head down as he makes eye contact with me and growls.
Instead of doing something cool like growling back or grabbing a branch and stabbing him, I have the most useless girly reaction possible and scream my head off, as I try to crab walk backwards away from him.
My scream is cut off when I feel the ground vibrate, and see two more trolls appear on either side of me.
I scream again as the first one, the biggest of the three, starts to reach down to grab me. Suddenly, someone leaps over my head, landing in front of me as his sword stabs the troll’s hand.
“Silver!” I gasp in shock. Where the hell did that sword come from? I’d never seen him carrying one before. He yanks the sword and spins towards me, a determined look on his face as he reaches for me.
“Come on, Penny, get up!” I give him my hand and the second I’m up, we start running back towards camp.
“Trolls!” Silver yells as we run. He yells it over and over, and as we quickly enter the small clearing, the others are already arming themselves as they scan the trees.
“How many?” Apollo asks.
“Three that I can see.”
“Is she okay?” Indy asks.
“Yes, it didn’t touch her.”
Why are they all talking around me?
“Give her to me,” Brax commands, reaching for me, but Silver twists me away, turning us to face each other as he places his free hand on my shoulder.
“Look, Penny, trolls are very dangerous. You need to stay in the middle of us, and if we tell you to do something, you do it, got it?”
“But I want to help,” I tell him, not wanting them to put their lives at risk while I do nothing.
“Do you know how to wield a sword? A bow and arrow?”
“No, but I can throw a dagger! Right, Drake?” I ask, hoping he remembers how I took down Jarid.
“Right you are, Love.”
“Okay,” Silver says, surprising me, as he reaches into his pockets. “Everyone give Penny your extra daggers.” He pulls out two for me, as the rest pull one of two each from various places. I end up with nine daggers. Seven on the ground at my feet and two in my hands.
I’m pleased they’re giving me the opportunity to help. Even If they were all circling me for protection, swords and daggers at hand.
The first troll breaks through the trees where Silver and Brax are standing, and they immediately go on the offensive, slashing their swords at his legs.
I didn’t notice before, but he’s carrying a large club, which looks like an overgrown baseball bat.
He swings it towards both men and they move out of the way before it makes contact.
The beast is large and thick, but luckily, seems rather slow.
The other two trolls push into the clearing beside the first, giving the twins and Drake their own battle. I see blood fly from the troll’s legs, but they don’t seem to be affected by it.
I’m startled by a loud noise behind me, and turn to see two more trolls.
“Shit, where did they come from?” Ryker asks, the only man not currently battling anyone.
He can’t take on two trolls on his own. I take aim with my dagger, but Silver suddenly rushes past at the same time Ryker charges, each man taking on a troll.
I quickly glance around and see all my men battling trolls.
It seems a sixth one has appeared that Drake is now fighting.
We are completely surrounded and matched six men and six trolls.
I watch in horror, noting that their blades don’t seem to be weakening them much. Just angering them as if they are pesky mosquito bites. But these beasts were clearly not as intelligent as humans, they didn’t even wear clothes. So we had to be able to out smart them.
What resources did we have to aid us? I scan our supplies and the men and realize it’s them.
My men and I are our greatest assets. We have been through so much together already, nothing has stopped us so far, and these trolls weren’t about to stop us either.
Every time an obstacle comes up, one or more of my men have helped me overcome it, so with all six of them here, each having their own strengths, I know that if we work together, we can take down these trolls.
“Apollo! Use your magic, drown the bastards!” He glances at me in surprise before a determined look crosses his face.
He turns back to the troll he’s been fighting and drops his sword, holding both palms up as water shoots from them and encircles the beast’s head.
The troll struggles and tries to pull the water off, but his fingers just move through it.
After about two minutes, it drops to its knees before falling flat on its face, dead.
It worked really well, but it’s too slow.
And when the other trolls see their fallen comrade, they seem to get angry and ramp up their fighting.
Drake is a trained killer, he should be able to take these guys out, right?
And when I watch him fighting the troll, I realize the problem is that he can’t get close enough to make a killing blow.
it seems like he’s trying to get to its head but it’s too tall for him to reach.
We need to bring them down to their knees.
“Brax, we need to distract them, you need to roar at them, like you did the snowprowler!” I yell in his direction. “Then Ry and Indy, grab the rope and try to trip it up. When it gets to the ground, Drake can finish it off.”
“On it!” Ry yells, running quickly to grab a rope as Brax starts to roar in the face of a troll.
“Apollo, I’ll try to take down ones you’re drowning with a dagger to the head, and Silver, you watch everyone’s back.” I make eye contact with Silver, who gives me a serious look before nodding.
Apollo is already drowning the next troll he and Indy had been fighting, so I grab my first dagger and hurl it right at its neck. It sinks in deep and the troll takes two seconds before it drops. It flails around on the ground for another ten seconds before it stills.
I glance over and see Ry and Indy wrapping rope around the legs of two trolls who were standing close to each other. When they try to yank back nothing happens so I glance at Apollo and ask, “Can you give them a nudge?”
He nods his head, then sends a stream of water into their backs.
They try to step forward to steady themselves, but their legs hit the rope and they drop to their stomachs.
Drake is on them in an instant, making quick work of slitting their throats, and darting away before they even realize what’s happened.
As Ryker and Indy try to pull the rope free from the dying trolls, I turn back to Apollo as he takes down the next one, I grab my dagger, and aim for its head this time. I’m relieved when I make my shot and it falls to its knees before slumping over to the side.
I scan around us and see there’s only two trolls left, Brax already roaring at one of them as Indy and Ryker tie up his feet.
Apollo makes quick work of drowning the last one, but its movements are too erratic for me to hit it.
So I watch, adrenaline pumping through me, as it slowly falls to its knees, trying to tear at the water it’s drowning in.
I glance over and see Drake has slit the neck of the other troll right beside the one Apollo is holding, and it, too, falls to the ground, dead. My men cheer, giving each other hugs and high fives.
I let out a deep breath and move to a large rock to sit down, feeling the adrenaline crash coming on strong now that we aren’t in danger anymore. That was far too close for comfort.
Ryker starts moving towards me, with the others right behind, everyone full of smiles. “Penny, we did it! You did it! I’m so pr—”
He cuts himself off at the same time two arms band around me and yank me backwards to my feet as I scream in fright.
“Now, now, nobody make any sudden moves.” I don’t recognize the man’s voice who is holding me, but I do feel the dagger pressed to my neck.
“Seriously, dude? What the fuck?” I ask, feeling annoyed at once again being attacked by someone.
The dagger digs in a little, making me hiss and I see my men all try to take a step towards me, but the man halts them in his tracks with his next words. “Take one more step and I’ll kill her.”
“What do you want?” Indy asks through gritted teeth, his fists clenched at his sides.
“I want your coins. I know you have a lot of them, I want to see you put them all into one bag then hand it over.”