Elvenshore: 03 - Elf's Bane (14 page)

The other Elves brought over warm food and drink for the new arrivals and helped get them settled in.

Mauric was later to boast to the some of the group, "I think that the expedition went very well, due, of course, to my great leadership."

A week- long rainstorm had brought the attacks to a halt. Verian surmised that the torches were of no use during a heavy rainstorm, so the Trolls did not attack. Whatever the reason, it gave the Elves and their allies time. The two ships from the swamplands returned and were loaded and sent to Elvenshore. In a few more days the seven ships were going to be returning. They would bring with them more Dwarves and room for more refugees to escape.

"I hate just sitting here waiting
to be attacked: can we venture out and hit the enemy near the mountain?" Sarchise asked Verian on one occasion.

Verian shook his head, "Wait until you know how to fight the beasts, then if you are successful, you can bring the fight to him. I think that you underestimate
the monsters, having never fought one."

"You are probably right.
"

Verian smiled
, "I am enjoying the reprieve, having lost every battle to the Trolls that we have fought with them.  During the last week we have not lost a battle. I do not think that you will have to wait much longer, the rain clouds are thinning out. You will get your chance to fight soon enough."

A day later the whole camp turned out when seven ships arrived. Verian had the provisions ready for the return journey down on the docks before the Dwarves were unloaded. The rain had stopped during the day and he wanted to get the ships gone before that night's attack.

Sarchise was glad to see that Oswin, one of the commanders of the Dwarves, had been sent with this group of warriors. The old friends greeted each other warmly.

"
How was your journey?" Sarchise asked.

"
I didn't see much of the sea besides that part under the rail of the ship that I was leaning over," Oswin replied.

"I am glad you are here
," Sarchise said with a smile.

"I am glad you are still alive
. How has the fighting been?"

Sarchise looked at the ground and admitted, "There has not been any
. They came at us one night but the Elves had a ring of fire around the city and the Trolls could not get around it. Other than that, we are just working on the defenses and preparing shelters for ourselves and those coming after us. The Trolls don't come out while it's raining, so we have sat here for a few days."

Oswin smiled, "I am glad you are still alive."

"Thank you."

Sarchise showed the new arrivals to the shelters that they had prepared for them. They were a little damp from all of the rain, but they were comfortable enough for the hearty Dwarf warriors.

Next time Sarchise looked down at the docks all of the provisions had been loaded onto the ships and there was a line of those that were waiting to board the ships. It was a belief among most of the Elves that this would be the last chance for the refugees to leave.

Verian made his way up the hill from the docks after the last ship had left. It was starting to
grow dark and he knew it would be just a few hours before the Trolls came again. Verian came up to Darnic. "I saved all but a little over six hundred of the refugees."

"The monsters
are not touching the Human villages," Darnic observed.

Verian
was confused. He did not understand the significance of Darnic's statement.

Darnic spelled it out, "Why
could we not hide the refugees in the abandoned villages of the Humans?"

Verian thought for a minute and then asked, "How would we get them there?"

"Fast wagons. If the wagons set out right after the Trolls started back to the mountain, they could make Bon Jul in two days, traveling day and night. You could ask for volunteers for the first group. My men will monitor their movements and report right away if the Trolls attack the wagons instead of come back to here. If it works, you can send more," Darnic explained.

"As always
, your counsel is wise. I will go and ask for volunteers. I will have my men prepare the best wagons and horses for the journey. Thank you, Darnic."

Verian ran over to the refugee camp,
and spoke to those there about the plan that Darnic had come up with. After that he had his men prepare teams of horses. He was very optimistic about the possibilities of success, because the Trolls didn't follow the roads of the Humans; they preferred to head straight to the mountain cross country. Verian had a hundred volunteers and enough wagons for all of them. He would have preferred to start out with a smaller group, but so many had volunteered. They believed that they were going to die if they stayed there, so to them any option to that was worth a try.

Sarchise gathered the new arrivals around him and explained the strategy of attacking
the Trolls’ feet. All the Dwarves nodded that they understood.

The skys were clear and the stars shone brightly that night. The torches of the Trolls appeared in the distance and came nearer. The monsters stopped at the ditch where the fire had been. Detail...expression, sounds? They grabbed large handfuls of mud to put over the ditch to prevent any fire from hurting them. Then they got a bigger surprise when they came upon the deep moat filled with water.

The Dwarves and the Elves were firing arrows at them, again to no effect.
 The Trolls walked up and down trying to find a way around the moat but there wasn’t one. Finally, after about an hour one of them tried to jump it. He was able to get to the slope of the far bank, but the recent rains had made it slick and he slid down the side and into the water. The water was only waste deep to the Troll, but he was very unhappy about being in there and started to yell loud and long in deep echoing moans. The other Trolls tried to pull him out. One went half way down the bank to try and reach him, but started to slide and had to be rescued himself by two of the Trolls on top of the bank.

A
t this point the Trolls were getting frantic, with the one in the water clawing at the bank in a desperate attempt to get out. The others were in a panic. When the night was nearly over and they had to get back, they talked to each other in a language that no one else understood. It was deep throated, echoing sad sounds. The other Trolls turned and walked off. The one in the water seemed  resigned to his fate. He stood as tall as he could, leaded against the far bank and put his arms up high and just waited there until the morning sun turned him to stone.

There were loud cheers from the crowd of warriors who had witnessed it. It was the first time that one of the monsters had died, and it dispelled the
notion that the monsters were invincible.

Oswin turned to Sarchise and said, “That was the most amazing thing I have ever seen. The sheer size of the beasts, the loud sounds that they
made, and then watching one turn to stone.”

“I have never seen anything like it either,” Sarchise admitted.
He was amazed at what he had just seen.

As soon as the monsters were gone,
the ramps were lowered across the moat and fifteen wagons rolled over out. The effort to disperse the remaining refugees had begun. Twenty of Darnic’s men followed the wagons on their horses to be able to report their condition back to Vil Mawe.

Verian told all of the leaders to rest the
ir men, and then in the late afternoon, they would have another council of war. Sarchise and the Dwarves headed off to bed for some much needed sleep. They slept well into the day.

When afternoon came
, the leaders once again met. This time Oswin also joined them.

Verian started out the meeting by saying, “We cannot expect this night’s attack to go as easy for us as the last two have. After last night’s loss of a Troll
, the enemy is bound to change tactics. We cannot anticipate what the new tactic will be. We can only guess it will do with a crossing of the moat. When they are able to get across, then our casualty count is going to go way up.”

“My men will be here to help repel the monsters,” Darnic said
. “We have fought them before and managed to wound two of them enough where they did not make it back to the mountain and they died. There were ten of them last night; what we have seen in the past is when one dies, two more take his place. So I would expect there to be eleven of the beasts attacking you tonight. It is their way of discouraging you from killing them. I will say that we never had the size of army you have here. We numbered two hundred at the most, and we were easily brushed aside by the enemy.”

“The stone wall will play a role if they cross the moat,” Sarchise added, “It is just high enough to hide the Dwarves behind
; it is not tall enough for the Trolls to bother to knock down as they can easily step over it, but when they do, they will have battleaxes imbedded in their feet.”

“That is a good plan
. We can station Dwarves along the entire length of the stone wall, and the Elf warriors behind them. The Humans will be put in the center, so they can react in either direction depending on what area is threatened,” Verian said.

The group went back to their commands and started positioning troops
according to the plan that they had come up with during the meeting.

Sarchise could see a different look in the warriors
’ faces that he had seen when they first arrived. The look of apprehension was more prevalent, now that they had seen the size of the beasts. It was time to lighten the mood of the troops. He had them gather around and he announced, “The first Dwarf to cut a toe off of one of the Trolls will get to spend a night with King Cazz in the Golden City when we get back to Elvenshore.”

A cheer went up from the Dwarf warriors.

The Elves looked over; they could not even imagine what the Dwarves would be suddenly excited about in the face battle. It would only add to the mystique of the Dwarf warrior in the eyes of the Elves.

Sarchise stood next to Istuin as they watched the torches of the Trolls approach. The Trolls were later than they normally were and it soon became evident as to why. They had stopped to uproot several large trees and were dragging them along with them. Istuin finally asked, “What are they doing with the trees?”

“Building a bridge,
” came Sarchise’s short reply.

There was suddenly a very concerned look o
n
Istuin’s face, he ran down the line of archers trying to find some that had flaming arrows. There were none.

Large rocks started coming across the moat. The Trolls were throwing them at the
place they were about to cross. When the Elves and Dwarves had ducked down to avoid the rocks, the monsters put their trees across the moat and rushed across. The clubs started swinging and bodies started sailing through the air. The first Troll to step over the stone wall suddenly had several battleaxe cuts in his foot, close to the toes. The Troll let out a loud scream and pulled his foot back. Then the Troll limped back over the trees that they had placed across the moat.

The other monsters bent over and swung their clubs on the opposite side of the wall, knocking down the Dwarves in the area, before they stepped over the walls
. That didn’t stop other Dwarf warriors from rushing up and starting to chop at the enemy's feet and toes.

Booming
screams sounded when the Trolls feet got cut up and they jumped back from the attack. The night was nearing its end and soon it was time for all of the Trolls the leave and they headed back to their mountain. 

Sarchise sent out his warriors to hack through the Trolls
’ makeshift bridge and send it crashing into the water. He then went and to see how many had been hurt. He had over thirty wounded and eleven dead. Roalig was one of the wounded. He had had his legs knocked out from under him by a Troll’s club. It broke one of his legs and badly bruised the other.

When Sarchise went to visit him at the
healer's tent he asked, “How are you feeling?”

“Could have been worse, the thing barely clipped me, but there is a lot of power in those beasts, so even a clip caused a lot of injury.”

“How are the healers treating you?”

“I hate to say it but I think that their healers might be better than ours
. They have a serum they make out of tree leaves that is supposed to fight infections and a type of tree bark that helps it heal,” Roalig replied.

“Take care my friend, we will try and get you evacuated back to Elvenshore.”

 Roalig smiled  as Sarchise left.

The Dwarves were getting some
well-deserved rest so Sarchise went and joined them. They had wounded several of the Trolls and despite their losses, they were feeling good about their efforts. He didn't know if any of the creatures failed to make it to the mountain before the sun rose, but he was hoping they didn't.