Robateli slid down the wall he had been sitting against and came to lay on the ground. His body lurched and convulsed. He spoke, but the words were unintelligible. His eyes fluttered as the fit seemed to subside. The body would still twitch, and muscles would activate, tensing arbitrarily it seemed. Eroan moved his friend’s side, a tinge of panic in his voice.
“Robateli!?, Robateli!?”
He said, as he went to shake the troll slightly. As soon as his hand got close however, he pulled it away as if shocked. He looked back at his friend in shock and horror. This was not just a simple toxin. He rubbed his hands together, as he cradled the shocked hand in the other before returning his hands, this time higher, above Robateli. Eroan closed his eyes and concentrated. Focusing on identifying the cause. No answer came to his mind other than a dark presence, but he could not understand it further than that. Eroan lowered his hands to his side to catch him as he leaned back on the ground, looking up at the weaved roof. Thoughts raced through his mind, but he could not pinpoint any one solution. He needed help. Eroan stood and moved to the doorway, he looked back at his friend on the ground for a moment before pushing out into the rain. Only a few paces from the hovel he stopped and summoned his staff. Gripping it in both hands in front of him he focused on detection, hoping to sense another mage within range. Dimly, he sensed something. He could not tell if it was a friendly force or not, but Eroan was desperate. Someone in this area might know how to treat this. He focused again, but this time he poured that focus into a single word. “Help”, and with that he struck the staff on the ground at his feet. A white beam of light shot up into the sky before exploding like a soundless firework. Anyone within 20 miles would see the light, or at least that is what Eroan hoped. Now there was nothing he could do but wait and hope while trying to tend to his friend. Eroan took his staff and pointed it firmly in the four cardinal directions. A nearly translucent ribbon produced from the head of the staff and flying into the darkness. With this spell cast, he felt safe enough to re-enter the space with Robateli. He reentered the hovel and tried with renewed vigor to help. With a damp cloth he worked through the next hour wiping Robateli’s brow and trying to drip water into his mouth.
Time continued to pass, and as Eroan stayed by his friends’ side, Robateli’s condition only seemed to worsen. His convulsions increased in frequency and severity, and his body was becoming much paler. He whimpered un-characteristically of the strong rugged creature that he was as whatever this was seemed to take him down deeper.
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With a surprise Eroan stood up swiftly and exited the hovel. Summoning his staff once more as he stepped into the wet exterior. The rain continued to fall as it had for the majority of the day, but in the darkness the drops make it difficult to discern the exact position of what had crossed the line of his alarm spell that he had cast earlier. A pale red glow of light came from the small fire inside the hovel, but more light was needed. Eroan raised his staff in one hand like a torch, and from the crystallin tip a bright light filled the area around with light. Now bathed in light, Eroan could make out what had tripped his alarm spell. A deep mahogany red colored panther came into view. It looked at Eroan with a hauntingly intelligent glare. It stood motionless in the light, observing the thing before it as if calculating its next movements. It lowered its head as if to bow and began to approach slowly in a circular motion.
“You have some intelligence about you I can see that. Please leave here if you might understand, I mean you no harm and did not intend to enter your domain. My friend is ill and is in need of aid. I have no quarrel with you great panther.”
Eroan said loud enough so his voice would carry over the several dozen paces between the two. The Panther circled the small clearing in which the hovel was located, and Eroan stepped in kind staying opposite of the creature. They danced like this for what felt to Eroan like a minute. Before they had nearly swapped starting positions. A strong breeze moved across the clearing, and the panther lifted its head into the breeze taking in several breaths. Its eyes, hesitant, moved from Eroan to the hovel, then back to Eroan. Then it moved its entire head to face the hovel, then back to Eroan. The creatures’ eyes widened in a rather puzzling look. For a moment, at least to Eroan, it appeared almost as if the creature was surprised before he realized that he had made a grave error. He had put the panther between himself and Robateli unintentionally. He wouldn’t be able to reach Robateli if the Panther moved toward the hovel without outright attacking the creature, something he did not wish to do if he could avoid it.
It was Eroan’s eyes that widened next, however. The creature began to run toward Eroan half-heartedly. Its grace and power seemingly melting away. No, that was incorrect Eroan thought. It was not the grace and power that was melting away, the entire creature was melting away. Within several strides the panther had changed from its reddish brown furred feline form to what appeared to be a like a small, furred frog, then in another few paces the fur was gone. Replaced with blotchy green mucus covered skin. Bulging horizontal eyes and hide covered jerkin.
The now frog shaped man before him was within several arms lengths from Eroan. It croaked in a gravely but high-pitched voice.
“You brought a troll into these lands!???”