Unknown Location

  A cloaked figure hurried through the darken tunnels, heading to the cavern where his mistress lived. She would be pleased to hear the news of King Uther’s passing and the fact the Holy Sword still hadn’t chosen the new King. Perhaps, she would take action or not. The figure didn’t dare to presume to know how its mistress’ mind worked.

  The figure turned its attention to the cave system as it approached a fork in the road. It stopped. The cloaked head looked at the left fork, trying to find a sign. It shifted back and forth. The cloaked head turned to the right fork. Which way was it, again?

  It hated when the mistress decided to move hideouts again. In its opinion, they were hidden away and not a lot of people thought the Mistress was still alive, considering the last time she was seen among the average villager was over 300 years ago. Even then, according to its forefather, the Mistress went out in a disguise, but something happened where the Mistress lost her temper, revealing her identity and they had to destroy the village in order to protect the fact Mistress was still alive. Of course, they took slaves for various reasons.

  The figure frowned. They would have to go out and raid a village, again, soon. Their slaves were slowly dying out after a few years. It seemed like they just raided a village for fresh bodies last month, not five years ago. The figure sighed. It really wished they would find a group of people who would support the Mistress. Hopefully, after the letters the Mistress had ordered it to send out to old allies, they would get some help they need. The Mistress had informed the Figure it was time to gather up their old allies. Maybe the old allies would bring slaves with them.

  The cloaked Figure released another sigh and turned its attention to the fork. Did the right fork led to the hideout? Or was it the left? It didn’t remember. Usually, the screams of the slaves would have echoed through the rocky halls.

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  There was a loud thump coming from behind it. It spun around, the hood of the cloak fell off its head to reveal a wide of pair blue eyes, sunless skin pulled over a thin, masculine, almost skeleton face, stringy black hair, and thin lips. The thump came again and again, in a rhythmic walking of a large creature.

  His eyes ran over the area, looking for a hiding place. He spotted a large rock and hurried over as the creature approached. He darted behind it, trying to melt into the shadows. He closed his eyes and took a few deep, calming breaths. It was a moment before the creature lumbered into sight.

  It was a green troll, standing around 16 feet. It wore a loincloth around its hips, but it swayed when it walked, revealing the fact it was a male.

  The Figure’s mouth went dry. Male trolls were dangerous to be around. They were usually highly territorial of their cave and their females. However, a part of him was glad the Troll walking by him was not a female with a child. A mothering Troll was a lot more dangerous then a male troll.

  He pushed himself back against the wall, trying to appear smaller then he was. He knew from previous experience, trolls required several dozens Knights to combat them and possible a few squadrons long rang fighters. Even then, there was no guarantee in defeating Trolls.

  The troll lumbered by. The hidden figure waited for a few more heartbeats, watching as the Troll paused at the fork and turned his head back and forth. It was obviously he was looking at the rocky hallways. He reached and stretched his head before he reached to his loin cloth. He held up a piece of paper and stared at it. The piece of paper was regular sized for a human to use, but in the Troll’s hand, it looked extremely small.

  “Take the left fork to meet our mistress,” the Troll’s voice rumbled. It was deep and echoed from the rocks. The Troll looked up and headed down the left fork.

  The cloaked figure wanted to bang his head off the nearby rocks. Of course, it was the left fork. He forgotten about it because he had been so busy preparing for his mistress’ guests. He sighed. The Troll Representative had arrived. He knew it would be a matter of time before the others would arrive. He still had a lot of work to do.

  He stepped from the shadows and glanced toward the entrance. He didn’t think someone would be following the Troll. He turned away and hurried down the left fork, keeping a good distance between himself and the Troll in case the Troll figured out the cloaked figure was following him and turned to attack or try to the Cloaked figure a sneak.

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