The briefing and getting everyone on horseback took longer than they would have liked and by the time they exited Onakadi, Eric and Ramiro were throughly frustrated with the others. Ramiro because of how long everything was taking. Eric was still salty about not being allowed to discuss the business arrangement with the clan. The royal staff that was assisting them was sure Regina and Eric were about to fight the entire trip. Mira and Alexis, on the other hand, were impressed with how much better Regina and Eric were getting along. The elvish training had clearly helped.

The party road out of the city with Eric in the lead and Ramiro at the rear. Within just a few minutes they were in a forest so thick they couldn't even see the walls of Onakadi behind them. Thankfully the road was well maintained and the tree cover allowed for a shady ride. It didn't take long for them to lapse into a companionable silence.

Alexis's thoughts turned to processing the last few months. Even ignoring the whole 'transported to a new world' aspect, her life had changed. No longer was she just working boring minimum wage jobs trying to get by. She now knew how to fight with a number of weapons and with her fists. She knew how to take care of the horse she was riding. And most amazingly, she could even do a bit of magic.

So why wasn’t she happy? New world. Infinite possibilities. But she couldn’t stop herself from asking why. Why had they all been brought here. She’d learned that most Migrant Spirits or Twiceborn or whatever you wanted to call it were just brought from their world to here without warning. But her whole group got to speak to gods. And it was a negotiation. Any of them could have said no and stayed on Earth. But the gods granted them boons of all sorts to get them to agree to come. That had to have taken a lot of power.

Were the gods really just trying to improve their image? Was it just a massive PR campaign? That didn’t sit right with Alexis. And why wasn’t anyone else questioning it? From the updates they were getting from her dad as well as Liam, everyone was just going right along with the path set in front of them with no questions.

The horse started fidgeting and Alexis realized her whole body had tensed up while she was thinking about this. She took a couple deep breaths and tried to relax.

She was the youngest one in her group but no one treated her any differently. Sometimes she wished they would. She wished someone would comfort her and let her know it was going to be okay. “I guess I’ll just have to comfort myself, then” she thought. “Alright Alexis, dad said to play the hand you’ve been dealt and I’ve been dealt the opportunity to get stronger than ever. According to Khatar, in time I could even become a god myself. Just focus on getting strong enough to protect everyone and do what I can to help others along the way.” With her new plan in mind, Alexis was able to let the last of the stress seep from her body. As it did so, the thought hit her… what if everyone else had the same plan? Had she been stressing over something everyone else had already figured out? Were they not saying anything because they didn’t want the gods to know their feelings on it?

She looked ahead for Regina so she could go complain to her but saw that Eric had stopped and was signaling for everyone else to do the same. Edging her horse to the side she couldn’t see anything. She road ahead and caught part of a conversation.

“I’m just saying we need to be careful. Those tracks belong to something we don’t want to fight,” Eric said his voice defensive.

“So then why did you stop us?” Regina questioned harshly. “We should keep going and get away from it!”

By this point Mira and Ramiro had ridden up from the rear and Mira, as is her nature, immediately tried to play peacemaker. “I’m sure Eric has a reason, Regina. Let’s hear him out.”

“Yeah, his reason is he just wanted to brag about how he can track things. Ever since he started raising his skill that’s all I hear. Look babe, there’s a wolf track. See that spot on the tree that was a deer.”

With a hurt expression on his face, Eric took a deep breath and prepared to explain. Seeing this Regina continued complaining, talking right over what Eric was trying to say.

Ramiro road his horse over to Eric and they moved about ten feet away. Regina continued complaining to Mira and Alexis. Not a minute later Ramiro handed his reins to Eric and hopped off his horse and in moments was gone from sight.

Seeing this Regina finally stopped her rant and looked back to Eric. It was obvious from his body language that he was on alert. Alexis climbed off her horse, walked over to Eric and asked, “What is it.”

“You saw that, right. She’s always treating me like that. What did I do to deserve…”

“Stop.” Alexis said curtly, cutting him off. “What left the tracks you saw?”

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Surprised at Alexis’s directness, Eric paused for a moment but before he could answer Ramiro reappeared in their midsts. He motioned for everyone to get closer and in a low but hard voice, “about 60 yards ahead there’s a level 10 forest troll waiting on the left side of the road. I don’t see any way we’ll be able to go around him with our horses. So we either leave them here and walk the rest of this trip or we have to kill a troll.”

“We could turn around,” Eric suggested quietly.

“Coward,” Regina snapped as she climbed off her horse. With a thought, she triggered her clothing preset to equip her armor. “I’m in the mood to kill something. Besides, there’s five of us and one of it.”

Ramiro glared daggers at Regina, “Be quiet. If we’re going to fight it we want to surprise it. We don’t need you drawing it’s attention just because you’re in a mood. Now, do you even know what a forest troll is? Do you know anything about fighting them?”

Regina lowered her voice but didn’t back down, “No I don’t. Maybe there’s a bridge nearby that he lives under.” With that Regina turned and started walking in the direction of the troll.

“And she calls me stupid,” Eric muttered just loud enough for Alexis to hear. He then motioned for Mira to climb down and took reins to all the horses and tied them to some trees off to the side of the road. After that he looked to Ramiro, “Let her draw its attention and then you and I come in from behind it?”

“As good of a plan as any. Alexis, you’re going to take some hard hits. Mira, stay in the trees just try to heal from a distance.”

Alexis and Mira hurried after her mom while Eric and Ramiro went to flank the troll.

About the time they laid eyes on Regina again, she was standing in the road yelling insults at the troll that was very poorly camouflaged in the brush on the side of the road. Seeing that his ruse wasn’t going to work, and, if he spoke elvish, common, English, or Spanish, he was likely offended by some of the things Regina was saying, the troll stood and let out a roar.

Before them stood an eight foot tall, dark green, bipedal creature that was more muscular than any human could ever be. “We’re fighting the incredible hulk. Lovely.” Alexis muttered as she continued to take in the creature before them. It had furs draped over itself, a club in one hand and, what Alexis at first thought was an odd knife but was actually just a sword made to look small by his massive hand. And it was definitely a he as the furs did not fully cover him. Tearing her eyes away from the beast before fear could set in, Alexis looked back to Regina, who had finally stopped yelling. On her face was the very obvious realization that she fucked up.

Whispering to Mira, Alexis instructed, “Take cover behind a tree. I’m going to go save mom.”

Before Mira could even say anything Alexis equipped her armor, sword and shield and started sprinting in the direction of the forest troll, who was now slowly walking toward Regina.

Regina, on the other hand, didn’t move a step. She just continued to just stare blankly at the troll, greatsword still being held in a limp hand. Until, that is, the troll was within range. Then the attack came swift and brutal as Regina swung the sword in an upward slash across the troll’s left thigh and across his stomach. As the momentum of the swing turned Regina, she leaned into it while sliding her rear foot behind her allowing her to quickly spin and slash the arm of the troll, causing it to drop the sword in it’s left hand.

About that time, Alexis reached the two of them and jumped at the troll’s chest, activating her [Shield Bash] skill just before she hit. Alexis’s momentum plus that of the skill was transfered into the troll that was now rapidly back pedaling, trying to keep his balance.

Alexis landed where the troll had been standing and looked over to Regina. Before she could say anything, Regina spoke, “I know, I messed up. Y’all can judge me if we survive.” With that Regina charged the troll, greatsword held like a lance.

Before Regina reached the forest troll an arrow flew down from a nearby tree embedding itself in the troll’s neck. Alexis saw a single spurt of blood arc out, showing that the arrow pierced an artery. But the second spurt was maybe half as much. The third barely cleared the troll’s shoulder. There was no fourth. Alexis got a bad feeling as she realized that it had just healed from what should have been a life threatening wound in less than three seconds.

Refocusing on the battle she saw that Regina had stabbed her greatsword into the beast's gut. Unfortunately she was taking too long to remove it and a fist the size of her head was coming down. Alexis moved forward to re-engage with the troll but she wasn’t fast enough as his punch knocked Regina to the ground. If it wasn’t for Regina’s cry of pain Alexis would have thought she was dead. Before she could do anything a golden light covered Regina as Mira healed her. The troll saw this as well and raised his foot to stomp on Regina. Eyes locked on Regina, he didn’t see Alexis approaching until after she’d already put another hole in his midsection. Alexis used her shield to push the troll back as she pulled her sword out and stabbed again.

Regina quickly regained her feet and ran up to grab her own sword, still sticking out of the troll. When she pulled, the sound of skin tearing could be heard, as the troll had already healed around the sword. The troll let out a roar from the pain, Ramiro having appeared behind it with a short sword in each hand and used his [Cross Cut] skill, leaving two cuts across the back of one of the troll’s knees before vanishing again. Alexis continued to stab and push on the troll. Ramiro reappeared, this time to the side where he jammed a dagger in the troll’s ribs before vanishing again. Alexis saw more arrows piercing it. But none of their attacks seemed to be doing anything but angering it.

The troll swung a massive backhand out, trying to sweep away Alexis and Regina both. Alexis saw it coming and raised her shield as she activated another skill, [Stand Fast]. Instantly she felt her stamina surge through her body and she felt far more ‘solid’ than normal. When the troll’s attack hit her shield, it jarred her so hard she expected some teeth to fall out. She was also moved back three feet. But she stopped the blow from hitting Regina and her.

“Back up!” yelled Eric from somewhere to their left.