The Bowl of Souls: Book 01.5 - Hilt's Pride by Trevor H. Cooley Read Free Book Online Page A

back to see Beth and Yntri staring up at him. They were still standing where he had left them, which was good. If there truly was a troll behemoth nearby, he didn’t want Beth seeing it.
     
    Her reaction to the earlier troll attack had taken Hilt by surprise. Why had she been so shaken by it when before she had been so fearless? Her explanation of why the trolls had affected her didn’t make sense.  He had no reason to doubt her story, but the idea that she had gone through life near the Tinny Woods without ever being attacked by a creature was something he found difficult to fathom. Was it just odd luck or was there something else about her?
     
    Hilt reached the top of the ridge and his nose wrinkled with the rancid smell of troll that hung in the air.  He saw what Yntri Yni had already seen. The ground leveled out, then dipped slightly before rising into another rocky slope. He now had a pretty good idea where the behemoth was. Nearly every inch of ground was covered in slime trails, most of it leading from a wide cave mouth that yawned from the base of the slope ahead.
     
    Hilt drew his swords and stepped forward cautiously, ready for an attack to come at any time. For that much slime to be around there must be dozens of trolls in the area. But he didn’t see any. Where were they?
     
    He hesitated in front of the entrance. What was he doing?  Yes, the chance to see a legendary beast was hard to resist, but was it okay to leave Beth alone with Yntri when so many trolls were about? Yntri would be able to protect her just fine. He had lived for thousands of years near the troll swamps after all, and his fire arrows were quite effective. But Beth did not understand the ancient elf language and her willfulness could get them both in trouble.
     
    Hilt’s excitement was too great to be held back by doubts however, and he shook off his apprehension. He would be gone minutes at the most. He was just going to have a look at the beast.
     
    Troll slime oozed from the cave mouth like an open sore.  The behemoth had to be enormous. He wondered how far into the cave he would have to go to find it. The next question was how was he going to see? The light from outside would only illuminate so far into the interior and it would be foolhardy to attempt lighting a torch. One drip of flame in this slime and he would immolate himself.
     
    Hilt peered inside. The ceiling was high enough that he could enter without bending over. Slime squelched around his feet as he eased into the cave and he was grateful that the boots he had chosen for the journey were calf high. A bright beam of light shown in from outside, illuminating everything in its path, but at the same time making it hard to see what was outside the beam.
     
    Hilt stepped into the darkness and put the light at his back, waiting for his eyes to adjust. He listened carefully and heard bubbling along with a steady low throbbing sound. Splashes echoed out nearby. Something was coming towards him, something low to the ground. By then he could see just well enough to make out that it was a troll.
     
    It was half a troll really. Just a torso with arms and a head, yet it dragged itself through the slime towards him, its beady eyes gleaming hungrily from the sunlight at Hilt’s back. Hilt extended his right sword and watched its approach, wondering what had happened to the rest of its body. He reached into his bond with the sword and stepped towards the troll. He focused the air magic into an extension of his blade, and swung down.
     
    The precise cut cleaved the troll’s head in two and the air magic continued the cut down to its shoulder blades. The troll jittered on the floor silently and Hilt examined the stump of its lower half. The wound was ragged and torn, entrails still pouring out of it. Whatever had cut the thing in two had done so very recently. Hilt crept past it, knowing that it would heal quickly. He would have to finish his exploration fast or deal with it