Chased by the warlocks and witches she had spied on, Violant ran through the night-dark otherworldly forest of the other march. Although, this forest wasn’t any different when compared to those in the human world, save only for the fact that the magical energy all around was many times higher than it would be outside the other march. The young lady could count herself lucky that she hadn’t yet encountered any kind of magical creature, most of which likely would be hostile to humans.

Her heartbeat throbbing in her ears, her breath laboriously entering and exiting her lungs, the girl didn’t know how long she was fleeing from the sorcerers and sorceresses already. It was likely more than an hour though. The tomboy had to thank her athletic body and high stamina for the fact that she hadn’t yet fallen into the hands of her pursuers while escaping through the completely lightless woods. She continued to bump here and there though although she had covered herself with a field of wind magic scanning her surroundings not unlike a bat’s echolocation. The major difference, however, was that the map of her surroundings got directly projected into her brain and didn’t need the detour over her ears, especially as no sound waves were directly involved. The picture she got wasn’t particularly clear though. Insofar bats still remained superior.

But even this trick for orientation in a lightless environment didn’t save Violant from being caught by surprise when the soil beneath her feet suddenly caved in and she fell down a rocky hole, hitting her head on some sharp-edged rocks in the process. Thus she lost consciousness, unable to soften her fall in any way.

When Violant opened her eyes next, she hurt all over, feeling as if she had at least bruised if not broken several of her bones and was sore everywhere else. She also had a terrible headache and was blinded by the sudden light. Apparently the night had passed without her knowing.

When the girl finally was able to lift the lids of her somewhat swollen eyes, she recoiled in horror. The first thing she got to see was nothing else but a hideous troll face. To her surprise though, the troll let out a high-pitched scream at the same time and panicky scrambled away, hiding behind the next best rock column.

After the first scare was gone, Violant took the time to observe her surroundings. She currently was inside a dripstone cave, although quite close to the entrance flooded with sunlight. She lay on a makeshift bed made from furs of various forest animals. Bones of hares, birds and other small animals of the woods were neatly piled up to a trash pile at one wall of the cave. There also were some bones of deer and wild boars, obviously broken to scoop out their marrow. A soot spot on the cave ceiling revealed that the fireplace in the center of the cave was already in use for a long time. At the moment the flames had died down though, leaving behind only the charred firewood surrounded by stones to keep the fire at bay. All signs spoke of a lasting habitation of the cave and although the inhabitant led quite the poor life it was kept as neat and clean as possible. An exclusively carnivorous diet made you wonder though.

Since nothing had happened for quite a time, the troll came out of its hiding place and slowly closed in to Violant. The way it fumbled with its hands made it appear very insecure. That was quite the bizarre sight though, because the timid character didn’t match the monstrous appearance at all. The troll was gigantic – as big as two full-grown men one upon the other – and had a black skin, not just dark as was sometimes the case with people in the deepest south but literally black like coal. The monster stood on sturdy legs and had muscular arms ending in big paws. Its big belly stuck out above the short loincloth from spotted deer fur it wore as the only piece of clothing, save for some necklaces, bracelets and anklets made from little bones, pebbles, and animal teeth. The troll’s head, as black as everything else, was completely bald. Sharp tusks protruded from the creature’s mouth and its big nose was long and crooked like a vulture’s beak. The troll’s big and round eyes were white with the exception of the pupils only, forming an interesting contrast to its skin color. Lastly, the monster had long and saggy hose-like breasts, characterizing it as a female.

“Is it you who has taken care of my injuries?” Violant asked after gathering all her courage “Thank you. I am Violant, by the way.”

The troll began to smile happily although this smile would still have been enough to scare children to tears. She fumbled with her hands even more, additionally increasing the awkwardness.

“Y-yes, Arinnefja has helped you.” the troll woman declared with a heavy, guttural accent “B-but Arinnefja didn’t find you. That she did not. V-Violant must thank Hrimnir. That you must do. He has found Violant last night, not Arinnefja. Hrimnir is out to get breakfast but will be back soon. Then you can thank him. Hrimnir is a good boy. He is Arinnefja’s little baby.”

With surprise the young lady found out that the troll who had saved her was the very same Arinnefja who should play a big role in the great troll uprising. Although she couldn’t remember how the troll genius had looked like – to be honest all of the hideous trolls looked more or less the same to her, possibly save for the fact that she was still able to distinguish their genders – but she still remembered the peculiar way of talking that was characteristic for Arinnefja, the only troll who ever had mastered the human language to such a degree. The most other trolls were able to utter in human tongue amounted to some single words and those oftentimes either unintelligible or used incorrectly.

Furthermore, Arinnefja incessantly had complained in captivity that Mansie had taken her baby from her to force her into cooperation and that she wanted it back.

By interrogating other trolls, they had learned that the troll strategist never had given birth to a child let alone being in a relationship with a male since the highly intelligent troll woman had been an outcast. Her high intellect had set her apart from her kin too much, thus resulting in her isolation prior to the uprising.

Violant personally had dismissed Arinnefja’s talk about a baby as utter nonsense aiming to invoke sympathy, leading to her urgently pushing forward the troll inventor’s execution. The fate of Arinnefja’s baby was never cleared up.

But now she found out that this baby really existed and that it went by the name of Hrimnir. The troll in front of her had no need to spout such a short-lived lie. Violant now felt bad for simply dismissing Arinnefja’s protestations in her last lifetime but she already began to think about preventing the recurrence of the great troll uprising. The most important thing for that was bringing the troll genius to her side.

All of a sudden a large shadow darkened the light falling into the cave. In the cave entrance, there stood a truly gigantic snow white wolf, large enough for the by herself already gigantic Arinnefja to easily ride on its back. The wolf dragged along a fully grown bull moose in its mouth.

“Oh, Hrimnir is back.” Arinnefja spoke with a wide doting smile “Seems like Arinnefja, Hrimnir and Violant will have moose for breakfast.”