Troll Encounter

Gazing upon the large troll, Lila and Taro know it’s physically impossible to take down due to their unmatched height.

“That troll has to be at least 9 feet tall.” Haruto says to himself.

All three see it keeping an eye out for anyone. Wielding a battered club, it drags it on the ground, looking menacing. Lila and Taro duck back down.

“That troll is definitely not happy the other students took his gold coins.” Taro says quietly.

“We need to be smart in getting past him, let’s think. What do trolls hate or get distracted by?” Lila responds softly.

“Lila, no. Trolls are simple creatures.” Haruto says unheard.

Haruto wiggles again, gaining Lila’s attention. She grabs him and readies another conversation.

“Telepathia.”

“Yeah Haruto?”

“I can help here. Trolls don’t have to be bothered with what they hate. We can use stealth or distractions to get one of his gold coins.” Haruto explains.

“I’m listening.” Lila leers in towards Haruto.

“There’s many ways to distract him, we can use a camouflage and throwing rocks combo, use something to hide us like the fog, or we can use a decoy.” Haruto gleefully thinks.

“Those all sound good, but I’ve never successfully been taught camouflage spells.” Lila states.

“What about that spell you used to look up other spells like a dictionary? We can use that.”

“I know what you mean Haruto, but we’re not prepared for those spells.” Lila says to Haruto eyes.

“What do you mean Lila? I’m full of hope, we can use any spell.” Haruto expresses his eyes happily.

“That’s the thing, you can handle a lot of hope, but using them on me takes a lot of my focus for the spell to work. I need proper training to do so.” Lila says disappointingly.

“Okay, we’ll tackle that later. How about something to cover us?”

“Maybe. I’ll test it out. Finis Telepathiae.”

Lila holds Haruto at the ready.

“Haruto, I know one spell. Get ready.” Lila says quietly.

Haruto focuses on being ready.

“Attrahere Particulas.” Lila says while aiming Haruto towards the fog.

Haruto glows his usual blue energy, as an orb of fog begins to form in front of the two. Taro sees this and notices what they’re trying to do.

“I see, pretty smart you two.” Taro nods in support.

As the big ball of fog forms, Lila steadies her grip on Haruto as she begins to aim it towards the troll. The troll immediately notices the massive ball of smoke, it was as big as a 20 ft boulder in circumference.

“Okay Haruto, on the count of three, stop focusing your energy.” Lila whispers.

“One…two…three!” Lila says quickly.

With the spell finished, the massive orb of fog dispersed all over the Troll’s land.

“AH! Who did that?! You’re gonna pay for getting this annoying fog in my eyes!” The troll immediately begins rubbing his eyes. Lila and Taro see the perfect moment to get their gold coin.

“Okay, Lila don’t move. I’ll get our gold coins.”Taro says.

Using his ears and instincts, he dashes towards the coins with no hesitation. Gaining a few of the coins, he dashes back as the troll keeps rubbing his eyes. Lila and Haruto couldn’t believe what they saw as Taro’s reflexes were fast.

“Got them, let’s move.” Taro tells the two.

All three immediately get out as the troll gains his eyesight back. His anger however is reaching its limit.

“I’M TIRED OF THIS! I’M HUNTING YOU ALL DOWN!” Yelled out by the troll, it can be heard for a few miles.

Lila, Taro and Haruto run as fast as they can, but the fog is making their eyes water again. Lila grips Haruto and casts their solution.

“Evaporare!”

Haruto’s glow is orange once again as the fog disappears. Lila and Taro keep running to be within safe distance from the troll. Minutes pass by without rest as Lila looks back.

“I think we’re safe for now. Let’s stop for a moment.” Lila and Taro stop to catch their breaths.

“We have to…get out of…here.” Taro says, full of exhaustion.

“Where…are…we?” Lila responds as she breathes.

“Don’t know, let’s keep going in the direction where we entered. We need to make it to the road to get back to school.”

“Sounds like a plan.” The two nod as they begin walking again.

“Oh right, here’s your gold coin.” Taro hands over two gold coins to Lila.

“Wait, why did you give me two? Don’t you need one?”

“Nah, I already got one for myself. I ended up taking three gold coins. Besides, the third is a gift to that stick you talk to. Hehe.” A joyous smile forms on Taro.

Haruto rolls his eyes after hearing the quick remark.

“I’m a wand you idiot, stop calling me a stick. It’s going to be a thing with you, isn’t it?” Haruto expresses, although unheard as always in this state.

“But, thank you for the coin Taro. It’s a dream to finally get my first treasure.” Haruto closes his eyes as he thinks of the gold coin.

Snap

The trio freezes as they look around to find out what made the noise. Nothing can be seen beyond the fog and thick trees.

“Let’s just get out of here.” Lila states.

Crack

“AAAAHH!”

POW

The yell and attack was from none other than the troll. Wearing a blindfold, it sniffs out the three of them. Lila looks around and sees Taro knocked against a tree.

“Ugh! My ribs!” Taro grips his ribs.

“Want to fight you damn monster?! Fine! Repulsio!” Taro yells out.

But to the confusion of Lila and Haruto, he doesn’t cast it with a wand, but with his fingertips. A white ball of energy cast out of his index finger as the energy aims towards the troll. Making contact with him, it pushes the troll back on his bottom.

“AGH! YOU’RE ALL GOING TO PAY FROM STEALING FROM ME!” The troll gets back up immediately.

Swinging wildly, Taro dodges as another blow as the troll keeps sniffing the air.

“Um, I need help you guys!”

Lila snaps out and tries to think of something to stop the troll once and for all.

“Um…uh…Ooh! I got it! Haruto get ready.” Haruto stops focusing on the fog spell and prepares for Lila’s idea.

“Congela!” Lila screams out.

Haruto feels something strong as his entire form shakes. His aura is now a very misty white.

“Why do I feel cold?” Haruto asks himself.

A burst of first like mist expels from Haruto and targets the troll. The burst grows and grows as the troll is stuck in place to the ground. Ice holds him in place as the extreme cold has ended the attempted attack.

“Haruto, please stop! That’s enough!” More frost expels as multiple trees and bushes are covered in ice.

“Come on focus! Think warm thoughts!” Haruto says in an attempt to calm himself.

Little by little, the spell began to dissipate. Taro looks as he sees an entire large portion of woods in front of them is now all frozen

“Whoever you have with you…certainly has a tremendous amount of…hope.” Taro shakily says.

The spell finally stops as Lila sees the effects of her spell. The frost has affected dozens of feet behind the now frozen troll.

“It was risky, but it was the only thing I could come up with on the spot. I’m sorry if I pushed you Haruto, I panicked.” Lila rubs against the side of Haruto’s eyes.

“I know Lila. It was worth it to keep everyone safe.” Haruto expresses his unheard words.

“Let’s continue walking, We should be halfway to exiting the Smoky Woods.” Taro tells Lila and Haruto while grasping his ribs.

“Thank goodness, we had enough excitement for today.” Lila speaks for herself and Haruto.

“Evaporare.” Lila says as she once again aims her best friend to the fog.

The three begin to walk away as the troll's eyes look at them, full of anger. Haruto closes his eyes in disbelief for how his first treasure task went. But all that matters is Lila proving herself to be a great sorceress.