As Eric left the village heading south he felt a slight pain in his heart. It hurt saying goodbye to his parents, but until now it hadn’t felt real. Sure he was setting off on adventure, but he didn’t really know what that meant until he went into that tavern. He didn’t want to have a scarred face or missing limbs, and now it looked like he was going up against trolls. He considered returning home. His parents would welcome him home with open arms, and would never speak another word of it, but this is what he wanted. Farm life was bland and adventure was exciting. Even if he died he’d do it giving his all.

  He walked past the carved branch fences that sat at the edge of the village. Open hills rolled through the landscape and trees grey ever thicker as the golden sun settled into the western horizon. That was when a low growl caused him to break out in a sweat despite the cool night air, and a rustling of leaves gave him a direction.

  He spun while drawing his sword. He couldn’t get the full blade out in time but he managed to hit the wolf in the snout with the hilt. Sending it reeling backwards with a squeal. If anyone were around to see that would’ve been really impressive, but alone he could only focus on how that had been a sheer stroke of luck.

  The wolf was charging him again with teeth and claws flashing. Eric sidestepped on instinct, and stabbed his sword down with both hands into the wolf’s side. Blood sprayed as the beast let out a yelp of pain before twisting and writhing on his blade. Finally Eric pulled his blade free and the wolf collapsed to the ground.

  Eric decided it was probably time to make camp. He collected some wood and used his flint and his knife to start a fire. He then cut some slabs of meat from the wolf, meat was meat after all, and began cooking it on the fire. He overcooked the meat trying to make sure any parasites were cooked out and the meat was tough, but he was roughing it. He ate what he could find. His parents gave him rations but he wanted to save the food that would keep for when he was desperate.

  He carried the wolf corps a good distance, walking under the star lit sky, to toss it far from his campsite. The not so silent forest around him left him on edge as he returned to his dying fire. He fed the fire, stoking its coals to light the fresh logs, before laying down to sleep.

  As he hoped the flames kept the predators away from him, but he still woke up to every little chitter, scratch and chirp throughout the night.

  The next few days went by without much incident as he traveled deeper into the forest, and he even managed to catch a few rabbits for dinners. As the trunks of trees grew closer together, so thickened the canopy overhead and the sunshine grew ever thinner. One night while he lay down just drifting off to sleep he was startled awake by a light scraping sound. He looked up to see eyes glowing yellow in the fire light, looking back at him. He had taken to sleeping with his sword unsheathed next to him at night, so all he had to do was raise the blade to point the sword up. Just as he did the creature pounced. As it leapt over the fire Eric saw it was a large cat. He tried to follow its trajectory to meet it with his sword but there wasn’t much need. It landed clean on top of him, skewering itself on his blade in the process. He received a few scratches along his chest and one across his face that got uncomfortably close to his eye, but the cat was already limp on his blade. He pushed the bleeding feline off of him and onto the dirt.

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  The cat's blood managed to cover his clothes and his bedroll. He fortunately had a spare set of clothes but he would have to find a stream to wash his bed. He couldn’t get back to sleep so he began cutting off slabs of meat and tossed the corpse into the trees while the meat cooked. Then he pulled some medicine from his pack to dress his wounds.

  &

  A few days later the path finally came to a break in the trees. The forest opened to a wide gorge with a long wooden bridge stretching across. As he approached the bridge he could hear the faint trickle of flowing water. He peered his head over the edge to see how deep the gorge was. It was twice as deep as his family barn was tall, with a narrow stream running through the middle. Just then a shadow whirled in front of Eric’s face, and he jumped back just as a mud brown head the size of a house chomped down on where he had just been standing. Eric scrambled back trying to get away from the troll. Its head looked like that of a weasel, but it had horns that curled around its head like a goat, and its eyes were slits. All of that on a body that dwarfed the canyon it stood in.

  “What be your business, little snack?” As the troll spoke the ground rumbled.

  “I, I, I’m on a quest… that requires me to c-cross your bridge.” Eric said shakely.

  “And what will you give me for letting you pass? I don’t see any cows or horses with you. No, I think it be more worthwhile to just eat you now than let you bargain.”

  “But that’s my quest. I’m supposed to retrieve a.. whole herd of cattle, and bring it back to the duke.” Eric quickly lied.

  “The duke!” The ground violently quaked as the troll shouted, and rocks tumbled from the canyon walls. “You bring those cows to me and I’ll pay you better than any duke could.”

  “Of course, how could a duke have anything as valuable as an esteemed troll.”

  “I am going to need a token as proof you won’t go back on our deal.” The troll said suspiciously, like someone who had been tricked before and was determined not to be tricked again.

  Eric rummaged through his pack and pulled out the piece of jerky that came with his pack. It looked like a strip of dried leather and smelled like vinegar. “This is my most prized family heirloom. It was handed down from my grandfather to my father and from my father to me. I will certainly return for it.” He was really hoping the troll was as stupid as the tales all said.

  “Hmm… this will do and I will give you payment when you deliver the cattle to me.” The troll said triumphantly. Then in a whirl of shadow it disappeared.

  With that Eric made his way across the long wooden bridge, taking frequent glances behind him afraid the troll would reappear and smash the whole bridge with him on it. When he finally made it across he let out a heavy breath, and he realized his heart was pounding in his chest. It took him several moments of forcing himself to breathe before he felt himself relax. When he did he realized he had made it past the troll.

  After his brief celebration of fist pumps and an embarrassing dance. Eric headed towards the mountains. They towered overhead casting jagged shadows over the land all around as the sun sank ever lower to the west.

  He followed a winding path leading to a pass between two mountains. As the walls of stone on both sides rose to cliffs, and several hours of walking, he finally spotted his destination. High up on the left cliff face was the mouth of a cave, that opened with stalagmites and stalactites that looked like sharp teeth, and in the light of the setting sun they shined with a red hew, as if the monstrous cave had just devoured its prey.

  Eric decided it was best to just make camp for the night rather than climb the cliff face in the dark. He didn’t have enough wood to make a fire, and he slept on the cold stone because his bedroll smelled too horrible to sleep on. He lay awake for sometime just staring at the stars overhead, he shivered slightly with the cold stone beneath him, but eventually sleep found him.