The rolling hills and the grasslands of the Three-Suns Plains were deceptively peaceful. The three suns bathed the gold and green hills and valleys in a warm orange light. If it wasn't for the weight of the plate armor he wore, it would actually be a beautiful day. His shield, strapped to his back, scraped quietly across the back of his breast plate with each step. Even though his boots were thick soled and layered with plate scales, he knew the grass and soil beneath them was soft, warm too he imagined. A soft breeze rolled across the grassland, sending a wave through the sea of gold and green. As it caressed his face and hair with its cool air he imagined how that same breeze would feel engulfing his whole body, were he to shed the heavy plates that weighed at his shoulders and back and legs. Small pools of fresh, cool water, which he and the others of his band often stopped to drink from, dotted the landscape. The cool, spring fed water helped to offset the heat of the suns, keeping the ambient temperature quite comfortable. He ran a gloved hand over the top of a particularly tall tuft of grass and imagined her dancing barefoot, probably in a blue dress, through the fields, her long brown hair flowing behind her as she spun and smiled. It was peaceful. Deceptively peaceful.
* * * * *
Her hands shook as she took the letter from a soldier in dirty plate armor. He handed her the piece of paper with his left hand since his right was being used to support another soldier who was limping alongside him, using him to support his weight. Both men were clad in dirty, blood stained armor, neither looked her in the eye before limping away. The piece of paper too was dirty, and wrinkled, as though it had gotten wet and had been dried. She remembered his warm smile and his bright blue eyes. She remembered his promise of a new home and a new life when he came back. She had just smiled and hugged his neck. She knew the promises were meant with the best of intentions but she also knew how expensive things could be. All she wanted was for him to come home from the Plains. Come home to her.
* * * * *
They were two days from the edge of the Akateery forest, where the humans of Solteria had made their home when they came through the portals from earth. He thought of the old stories of Doral'n Trohtnon and his adventures when he came through the first portal. It had been months between when he emerged in Solteria and the others started to filter through. Alone, in an ancient forest on an alien planet Doral'n made a home. Discovered artifacts and ancient writings. Uncovered the Kenadriian tunnels and fought an ankheg single-handedly. Then, when the others began coming through portals all over the forest, it was Doral'n who tracked them down, using the artifacts he had discovered in his time alone in the forest. From his single, small shack, he built a village. Then, as more people came, he set up retrieval parties. He taught the people to survive, showed them how to live in the forests. Over the years a city grew, not through the trees, like it would have on earth, but among them. He helped establish the universities, and even opened the first restaurant in Solteria. The food wasn't the greatest when it first opened but it was a place for people to come after a hard day's work and relax with friends. Really it was a tavern but old Doral'n preferred it being called a restaurant. No one argued. His old cabin still stood on the outskirts of the city. His grandchildren lived there now. They ran the Watering Hole too, when they weren't out roaming the forest.
Just when he began to forget why they had been sent to the Plains, they found what they had feared they'd come for. Legless and half submerged in one of the pools of water were the remains of a settler. One of the Juarez brothers from the ring on his hand. They were some mean bastards, the Juarez brothers. Could give the Trohtnon boys a run for their money in a bare-knuckle brawl. The Juarez boy was all by himself. No one else in site. The Juarez brothers were attached at the hip, to find one of them off by themselves like this was not a good sign. His location was noted. The war band would circle around to retrieve his remains when they started back for the city. They pushed on towards the settlement.
They crested the hill that marked the location of the settlement and halted in their tracks, stopped cold to the last man. Every man in this band was a battle hardened warrior, they had seen some shit. Some bad shit. What they saw in that valley though, it stole the ice from their veins. Corpses littered the ground between tents, limbs were strewn about the scene, far removed from the torsos they belonged to. The one wooden structure that had been erected had its door knocked from its hinges and a large, gaping hole torn into its side. Three fingers crossed the structures threshold, nails peeled back, as though whoever those fingers belonged to had tried to claw their way out the door. The war band slowly made its way down the hill, blades in hand. What could have done this?
* * * * *
She unfolded the piece of paper, tears filling her eyes. He had sent her many letters before, from all over. Her friends told her she was mad, bound for heartbreak, falling in love with a traveling soldier in a war band. Too young for him they told her, too young to be waiting for the love of a traveling soldier. 'It's beautiful out here. Rolling hills, wide open prairies. You'd love it. I know how you wish you could see the sky more. How you feel trapped. Standing on top of these hills, you can see forever and it feels like you can just reach up and touch the clouds. I saw you yesterday, when we first hit the prairies. You were dancing in the grass, the sun on your face. That blue dress that I like. I can't wait to see you that happy in person. When I get back, I'm gonna leave the band. Gonna build you a house out here. I have some money put away, money I didn't tell you about. I wanted it to be a surprise but I just can't wait to tell you.
I wish I could tell you in person but it could be awhile before I get back so… surprise. Even the nights out here are bright enough to write. I've never seen the moon so big, and the stars. There are thousands of them, shimmering like diamonds. For a moment I thought I'd never seen anything so beautiful, then I thought of you. Who knows, maybe the ink will soak up enough magic from the moon and stars to find you mine when I get home. I can't wait to find out. Hopefully you're as excited about our future as I am. P.S., The boys say hi. Love, Alex.' The ink shimmered in a ray of midday sunlight that filtered through the branches and leaves of the canopy. Tears rolled from her cheeks as she read his name over and over. His smile, his bright blue eyes. A bloody, smudged thumb print on the bottom of the page told her that she would never see them again.
* * * * *
As they searched the ruined camp, in the waning light of the late afternoon suns, for survivors they knew they would never find, Alex couldn't shake the feeling that they were being watched. He sheathed his sword in favor of his water skin. He took only a sip. As he scanned the hellscape that was the remnants of the settlement, his eyes drifted up the gentle slope of a nearby hill. A strange dark spot on the side of the hill drew his gaze. It was almost invisible in the shadow cast by the sinking suns. It was a hole. The size of a child. As his eyes adjusted to what he was seeing, he could just make out the outline of a diminutive creature, just inside the threshold. His adrenaline surged, the word fell from his lips like a stone, "Troll!" The sound of swords sliding from sheathes was drowned out by the blood chilling wail that slid from the troll as it charged out of the hole and down the hillside. Though they stood no more than four feet at the shoulder when they stood straight up, their heavily muscled frame and the long claws that tipped their fingers betrayed their lethality. Their heads were disproportionately large for their small stocky frames. At first, researchers thought it housed a large brain, that provided a yet unobserved intelligence. They couldn't have been more wrong. It wasn't long before soldiers found out the hard way that their disproportionately sized heads actually contained massive jaw muscles. At least that was the conclusion that was drawn when one bit clean through plate armor and ripped out half a man's rib cage.
When the troll made it halfway down the hillside, the horror of what really happened to this settlement was made quite clear to all present as trolls began pouring from the hole in the side of the hill and charging down the hillside. It was a well known fact that trolls lived in troupes, but one of this size had never been seen before. How many were there? Fifty? A hundred? They blanketed the hillside like ants stirred from a nest. The three archers posted on the hilltop began launching arrows into the writhing mass. As the first troll reached the outskirts of the settlement one of the shield-bearers cleaved its head nigh in two. The five shield-bearers formed a wall while the spear-men took up positions behind them skewering the trolls as they collided with the shields. Arrows sprouted from the heads and chests of those that tried to flank the formation. Alex moved to a flanking position to draw some of the diminutive creatures to one side to relieve the pressure on the formation. A troll leaped through the air. Alex used his shield to flip the flying creature over his shoulder then buried his axe in the head of another charging troll. Using his axe as leverage Alex brought his raised shield down on the head of a third troll. Pulling his axe free of the troll skull it rested in he threw it sidelong at the troll behind him, burying the head of his axe in the beasts chest. He drew the sword from his side and lopped off the head of yet another charging troll.
One troll managed to hook its powerful claws around the outside of the shield of one of the shield-bearers on the edge of the formation and ripped it from his grip. As his shield flew through the air another troll grabbed his ankles and yanked his legs out from under him. He hacked and slashed at the beasts as he was dragged, screaming, into the swarm. Alex dared not imagine what was happening to the shield-bearer as his screams were cut off with a wet gurgle. The missing shield-bearer left three of the spear-men exposed. One managed to rotate into the formation but the other two were pounced on by a number of trolls. The beasts powerful claws easily tore through their leather armor while massive jaws severed limbs and tore chunks from their bellies. Their screams were haunting.
The formation was losing ground, being forced back into the settlement, bullied by the onslaught of ravenous trolls. Alex's attention was drawn back to the hole in the hillside. Trolls traveled in troupes. Where there were mature trolls, whelps would be nearby. Alex sprinted back to the archers on the hilltop. Even in full plate, he was fast. "Give me the stone!" he barked at one of the archers as he sliced the straps holding his plate armor to his body. The center archer grunted as he tossed a small leather pouch to Alex. He caught it and shed the final pieces of his armor. He knelt next to his breast plate and produced a weathered piece of paper. Closing his eyes he pictured her in his mind one last time. "Albrun," the center archer loosed his arrow and looked over his shoulder at Alex, "give this to her for me." Alex held out the sheet of paper to a confused looking Albrun. It wasn't until he held the letter in his hand that he realized what was happening. The stone. Albrun looked at the hole in the hillside then back at Alex. "Alex, you can't..." He started, but Alex simply held up a hand to silence his friend. "Make sure that gets to her," was all he said.
Albrun looked down at the formation. They were losing ground. The trolls had started slicing at the shield-bearers ankles in an attempt to bring them down. Somehow they were still on their feet. He saw Alex flanking to the west, sweeping wide around the battle. He had already made it to the base of the hill. It was easy to forget how fast Alex was when he was clad in plate holding a shield. No one would ever forget again though, not after Albrun told his story. Albrun thought about how sad Ryhan, the youngest of the Trohtnon boys, would be to hear his stone had killed Alex but how proud he'd be of how Alex was about to save the war band. The "stone" was a chunk of metal that Ryhan had gotten from a clan of giants in the mountains on the eastern border of the forest. It amplified magic. Ryhan had carved runes into the stone that would draw magic from the earth around it, and when it drew in too much, the stone would explode, releasing the amplified energy. Alex's plan was brilliant, Albrun just wished there was another way.
Alex let out an exerted yell as he started up the hillside, as much to draw the attention of the trolls as from exertion. It worked. The trolls peeled away from the formation and flooded toward the hillside. Alex would never make it to the young ones that were no doubt deep beneath the hillside, but the trolls didn't know that. Stone in hand, Alex sprinted for the hole. He had to crouch to make his way through the tunnel the trolls had excavated. Even at this slower pace it would take a moment for the trolls to reach him. Those that weren't killed by the explosion would be too busy clearing the caved-in tunnel to care about the escaping war band. He could hear them behind him now, their claws digging into the dirt of the tunnel. Her image filled his mind. Her long, brown hair. Her deep, hazel eyes. Her perfect smile. Claws digging into his calves jarred her image from his mind. He hit the ground hard, sending the stone bouncing across the dirt floor of the tunnel. When it came to a rest it illuminated. Dim at first, the light grew as the stone collected magic from the earth. Alex turned and swung at the beast clawing at his ankles. The troll caught his fist in its mouth, clamping down like a vice. Alex recoiled instinctively. His arm came back, his hand did not. Blood, spewing from his bleeding stump, covered his face as he was swarmed.
The war band was limping down the back side of the hill, putting as much distance between them and the settlement as they could as fast as they could, when the explosion rocked the ground beneath them. A single tear rolled down Albrun's cheek as he looked at the letter in his hand. The time to mourn his fallen brothers would come, but for now, he folded the letter and tucked it safely in his tunic. The trek back to the city was a long one, and now that the war band was far away from the lost settlement, fatigue took them. They stopped to rest, though none would sleep, not with thoughts of that battle and all that was lost there so fresh in their minds. Albrun took Alex's letter from this tunic and read it. Tears rolled down his cheek as the words echoed in his mind. When he looked up, all eyes were on him. He read the letter aloud. There wasn't a dry eye to be found among the battle hardened warriors. The moon had risen and the stars shone with their magical light. A cool breeze blew across the plains caressing the tear soaked faces of the war band. It was peaceful. Deceptively peaceful.