Clay sat at his kitchen table, eating his breakfast. It had been two weeks now since his training began, and he had become quite accustomed to his specter step ability. His other skills had come along nicely too, he was able to last for several minutes in sparring matches against Valerie now, though he had yet to win one, and his marksmanship had improved considerably.
Clay had also gotten to know the team that was investigating the disappearance of Uriana, and he checked in daily, though they never had anything new to tell him. Ciera’s disappearance was also being investigated, though that too had made little progress in the past two weeks.
She’s probably dead you know. Or will be if you continue to do nothing.
“Shut the hell up” Clay spat at the entity in his head “We’ve had this conversation before, I don’t even know where to begin. If trained investigators can’t find her, how the hell am I supposed to?”
Clay had told himself this fact over and over again, but it still didn’t help with how helpless he felt in the face of his family slowly being torn apart. If nothing else, he was determined to become strong enough to keep his brother and parents safe.
Clay powered on his TV and flipped over to the news. They were reporting about a series of troll raids on smaller communities near the Appalachian mountain range. “Trolls huh?” His dad asked while walking into the kitchen to fix his breakfast. “They usually don’t leave the mountains, never mind attack human towns. Do they have a death wish or something?”
“Not sure, but my team and I are having our first deployment to investigate and support the local police in whatever is going on. Which reminds me, I probably won’t be home for a few days.”
“Well stay safe out there. Wouldn’t want ya to become troll food.” his dad responded.
“Yeah I’ll be careful” Clay said as he ate his food. “Any word on how Rose is doing?” His dad shook his head “She hasn’t been to work in a couple of days, and her friends haven’t seen or heard from her. I think she took it pretty badly when she heard about Uriana, hopefully she's just taking some time away from everyone to come to terms with it.” His father said.
Clay looked up from his food, observing his father staring blankly into his cup of coffee. “Don’t worry dad we will find her. We will find both of them.”
…
Sometime later Clay found himself in the back of a truck, his department outfit on and a pistol strapped to his thigh. “You scared rookie?” The man seated next to him asked. “Not a chance Paul, glad to be out of that stuffy office, and your terrible training classes” Clay retorted. On either side of him sat Paul and Phil, otherwise known as Big P and Little P, they were the best marksmen on the team and both armed with rifles. In front of him sat the team's support mage, Lauren, who was busy assembling her mana crystals into her staff. Lauren specialized in barrier magic and was capable of healing and utility spells. To her left and right sat Valerie and Cedric, both battle mages and, of course, the leaders of the team. To Valerie's left sat Daniel, he was not a normal member of the team, instead, he was an investigator and also a translator who could speak Jotnar, the language most trolls spoke.
“We’re almost there” Cedric announced “when we arrive we will be meeting up with local law enforcement to begin investigations. Current orders are to avoid engaging the Trolls unless necessary, so far there have been no reports of attacks on humans, so we want to try to keep this peaceful.”
Clay climbed out of the truck, stretching out the stiffness in his legs from the long drive. “Gentlemen, welcome to Asheville” A man approached them, shaking Cedric's hand. “I’m the detective in charge of this matter. Glad to have you folks out here to help out.”
“So what can you tell us about the situation?” Cedric asked. The detective sighed “Not much that wasn’t in the report, unfortunately. They usually attack at night, they’ve mostly been stealing food from stores and houses on the outskirts of town.”
Daniel approached the two “If I may, the Trolls have been peaceful for decades now, and have always respected the previous treaties. What's changed?”
The detective shrugged “No idea, they're just big dumb trolls, did we really expect them to respect agreements like that?”
Daniel frowned “You should give them a little more credit.” The detective just shook his head “Maybe the dwarves up on Mount Mitchell are doing things that are stirring things up, I don’t know, all I know is that they’re no longer respecting our agreements.”
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Multiple patrol cars pulled up to them, and a dozen local officers, armed with various pistols and rifles gathered around. Daniel grabbed Cedric, pulling him to the side “I’m a little worried these guys are going to be too gung-ho about this. This is a tense situation and if a troll thinks it's being threatened, it will attack.” Cedric nodded “I understand, I’ll speak with the detective.”
Cedric approached the group “I want to make sure we’re all on the same page, this is just an investigation, we want to locate the troll camp and then let Daniel here negotiate with them. Lethal force is only acceptable if attacked first.” The detective nodded “Don’t worry, we’re all professionals.”
Cedric turned back to the team, looking a bit doubtful at the detective's words. “Alright team, we will be splitting up, Lauren and Little P with me, Valerie will take Big P and Clay. We will check in every 15 minutes. Let's get to it then.”
…
Clay followed behind Valerie and Big P, his hand at his holster in case they were ambushed. They slowly made their way through the forest, checking behind trees and in bushes, in case a troll lay in wait. “Tracks” Big P whispered to Valerie “I count at least three of them.” Valerie radioed their discovery to Cedric. “Copy that” Cedric responded, “Keep me updated.”
The trio followed the tracks deeper into the forest. After about a half-mile they came out into a small clearing, remains of animals and food were scattered around a sloppily built campsite, but they couldn’t see any trolls in the area. Valerie was reaching to radio in again when suddenly gunshots ranged out from elsewhere in the forest. “Cedric is everything all right” Valerie asked.
“Yes, that wasn’t us, we’re heading towards gunshots, you do so as well” Cedric responded. The trio rushed in the direction they heard the shots from and were the first to arrive on the scene. Three detectives lay on the ground, along with two trolls riddled with gunshot wounds. “This one’s alive,” Valerie announced, feeling the detective's neck for a pulse. “This one too,” Big P said. Clay knelt by the third detective, reaching for his neck. “I don’t feel a pulse,” Clay said. Valerie reached for her radio “Three men down, including one fatality.”
Big P dropped his gun as he knelt next to the detective to check his injuries. Suddenly something crashed through the bushes, swinging for Big P and sending him flying into a nearby tree. “Oh shit!” Clay shouted as the troll turned to him, raising its hand to strike. As its fists came down Clay specter stepped behind the troll, the arm passing through where Clay had just stood and slamming onto the ground violently.
So this was a troll, Clay had never seen one before now, and its monstrous size and strength were no joke. Clay reached for his sidearm, but hesitated, remembering their orders to avoid killing them if possible. “How the hell do I go about subduing you then,” Clay thought to himself as the troll turned to face him. In his peripheral, he saw Valerie race forward, a spell forming in the palm of her hand. She aimed it for the troll's feet and suddenly a wave of frost engulfed it, forming into solid ice and rooting the troll to the ground.
A roar filled the air as the troll slammed its fist against the ice, knocking huge chunks of it off. The ice wouldn’t hold it long. Thinking quickly Clay specter stepped behind the troll again, then combing his specter's energy into a small leap, he could climb up onto the back of the troll. Grabbing either side of its head, he began pouring his energy into the creature. It roared in response, as blue lines extended from Clay's hands across the troll's gray skin. Clay could feel the immense energy and stamina of the troll, and he focused on trying to extract it. Clay felt invigorated as the troll's life force flowed into him, it strangely felt as if his own strength and stamina were increasing. At the same time, he could feel that the energy was quickly diminishing from the troll, and Clay knew he had to stop or he would kill it. Before he could leap off the troll, a hand suddenly up and grabbed Clay by the arm “Oh” was all Clay could say as the troll pulled him off its back, throwing him to the ground.
Despite being drained of most of its energy, the troll was still able to go on the attack. Looking above him, a monstrous fist rocketed down towards Clay. Just before it could strike him, it suddenly bounced off as if it had hit an invisible wall.
“Made it just in time” he heard Cedric announce. “I’ve finished my barrier spell around the troll,” Lauren said as the troll tried punching its way through the transparent cube it was now trapped inside.
“Well done, please tend to the wounded now” Cedric responded as he approached Clay, helping him back to his feet. “Good job not dying kid,” Cedric said with a smirk “Would’ve been pretty embarrassing to die on your first mission.”
Clay assisted Lauren with tending to the injured detectives, while Daniel approached the troll and began speaking with it. “Well?” Asked Cedric a few minutes later.
“Well, for one, he's pissed that we killed the other two trolls” Daniel responded “but what's weird is the story he's giving me. Apparently, his tribe was forced from their village by Orcs.” Cedric gave him a puzzled look “Orcs? But there are no Orc settlements for thousands of miles.” Daniel shrugged “That's what I told him. He says that their village was attacked during the night and burned to the ground. He also said they’re being led by a monster, that it killed their best warriors with just its bare hands. After their village was destroyed, the survivors fled the mountains, the troll attacks were just them scavenging for food.”
A sudden rustling came from nearby, the group grabbing for their weapons in response. They had no way to know how many troll survivors were out in the woods. Clay and Valerie crept closer to the woodline, Big P following closely behind. Suddenly a pair of dwarves emerged from the forest, sprinting towards them.