We started walking throughout the tunnel. There was no light to be seen yet we could see where we were going. I stopped and asked, “Do you know where we’re going?”

“Yeah there is an exit just up ahead we should be there in no time.”

“Ok.” We kept walking, my eyes would glance over to him every so often to see if it was it was as awkward for him as it was for me. I didn’t know this man at all, but since he was determined to walk with me to the exit it was only fair of me to start a conversation with him. “So you seem to know about your powers quite well.”

“Yeah.”

“Well I was just wondering; do you know anything about all magic or just the magic that you’re familiar with?”

“I know about all magic, actually since we’ll be walking for a while I could tell you where magic comes from.”

‘If this is the knowledge that the wizard was talking about I should probably know as much as I can about magic so I can pass the test.’ “Sure.”

Linley took a deep breath and began telling the story, “Legend says that a man was walking along a road and found a stone lying next to the side of the road.”

I stopped walking and picked up a small stone then turned to him and said, “Like this one.”

Grabbing the stone Linley said, “Kind of, but instead of an ordinary stone like this the stone spoke to him. So Linley picked it then it started to melt across his hands.” Linley then dropped the stone onto the ground we walked a few steps more.

Just then we started to hear a rumble behind us, we sharply turned around but nothing was there so we turned back around and started walking again. The rumbling started again, only louder and when we turned around this time a giant troll stood before us made out of complete stone. “AHHHH!!!”

We both shouted as we ran away from it. But it was no use the troll was right behind us. When he caught up to us he grabbed me around my body and lifted me into the air. Quickly thinking Linley ran and grabbed hold of the troll’s arm that was holding me and held on for dear life. The troll saw Linley and flicked him off with his other hand sending him flying to a nearby wall.

As soon as Linley hit the wall he became unconscious and laid still on the ground. I would have been screaming but I was too struck with fear to be making any kind of noise. With a wide open mouth the troll brought me closer and closer to him. I wiggled as much as I could to escape but it was no use the troll’s grip was too tight around me.

Suddenly I felt almost like a jolt of energy traveling through my body and I could feel my hand glowing. I focused all of the energy into my left hand and just then the troll dropped me to the ground. It was a far drop but I was still able to move afterwards.

I ran towards Linley and started to tap his back to see if I could get a response from him. His body was still unconscious so I grabbed his arm, placed it around my shoulder and half carried him behind a big rock so that we could both hide. At least for a while. After a few minutes Linley opened his eyes and asked what had happened.

“A giant troll came to life, flicked you off of his arm and threw you against a wall.”

With a bit of a fuzzy memory Linley asked, “Weren’t you in the troll’s grasp? How did you escape?”

Being unsure how it happened myself I tried to explain it the best I could. “Ummm well I thought I was going to be eaten by the troll when energy suddenly ran through my body. Somehow I could feel my hand glow so I just made the energy I was feeling move to my hand and next thing I knew he dropped me.”

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

With a shocked expression on his face Linley said, “I’m surprised you were able to transfer energy like that, that takes years to master you must be something great.”

“Or just extremely lucky.”

Linley smirked at my answer and then asked, “Where is the troll now?”

“On the other side of this rock.”

Linley peeked his head out from behind the rock and saw the troll standing there waiting for us to come out of hiding, since there was nowhere we could go. Linley leaned against the rock and said, “Okay so here’s the plan, you see his right shoulder?”

I leaned over Linley, pushing my upper body up against his, and peeked out at the troll. On top of the trolls right shoulder was a small patch of grass. When I leaned behind the rock again Linley had a red face as if he was embarrassed that a strange woman was pressed against him. “Okay so what’s the plan?”

“One of us has to get to his shoulder and use our power to burn the grass, that’s the only way to defeat it.” Pausing for a bit Linley then said, “Since you don’t have a handle on your power yet I shall be the one to burn his shoulder.”

“What do you mean I don’t have a handle on my power yet? I was able to use an experienced technique wasn’t I?”

“Yes but that isn’t the point. You may know how to transfer energy throughout your body but there is much more to our power than that.”

I sat crossed legged on the ground and folded my arms in anger. “Then what do you expect me to do then?”

Linley held his hand in front of me and said, “Just sit tight I’ll be back for you as soon as I’m finished with the troll.” Then he jumped from behind the rock and ran up to the troll. The troll didn’t think much of it and grabbed him around his body.

I watched silently as Linley was being brought closer and closer to the troll’s open mouth. I wanted to scream out but I did not want to troll to get me too.

Linley’s head jerked back and his entire body went stiff, just then I saw a dim light coming from between the troll’s fingers. The troll loosened his grip on Linley and he was able to escape. He lifted himself out with between the troll’s fingers and ran up his arm towards his right shoulder. The troll took his free hand and brushed Linley off of his shoulder. Thinking Linley was off of his body the troll began to move and look around for me. Little did he know Linley let go of the troll and was now climbing on his back towards his right shoulder. When the troll slowly passed me I saw Linley and yelled “GOOOOO!!!!!”

The troll heard me and quickly turned around, Linley almost lost his grip but managed to hold on. As soon as the troll saw me I was petrified with fear. I curled up in the ball and trembled in fear.

Just then Linley was on top of the troll's shoulder, the troll was too focused on me to even feel Linley. Linley raised his glowing hand and touched the troll's exposed shoulder. The troll screamed, as if it was in tremendous pain, and it caused the dirt above us to come crashing down. Linley jumped off of the troll's shoulder and ran towards me. He grabbed my hand and pulled me with him; as he kept running at full speed. The crashing had finally stopped, but due to the amount of dirt that fell we had to find a new way out of the tunnel.