As Mors moved from past the tree, Genn decided to check to see if the monster would return to the fog. If luck allowed it, the hill troll would just return the monster side of the fog. It would be pretty nice to have this happen, but it wasn't essential to survive. They could probably last long enough for the replacement party to arrive with the backup plan.
As he followed the troll deeper into the fog, he eventually found the mysterious fog wall. The one thing that separated the monsters and humans all around the world was this gloomy deadly-looking fog wall. But those who know of action find it calming since it blocks constant monster hordes and other horrible things.
Following the troll, Genn watched as it continued through the fog, seeming to not even notice a barrier in the first place. Well, technically, there was no barrier since it was a monster returning to its side… if it was human, there would have been a problem. Eventually, the fog began to part as the monster practically passed the barrier into the local monster woods.
But as the gates fully parted, the wind kicked up a mighty swirl that stopped the troll in its place, nose sniffling. Something new had gotten its interest… something more than what was in the fog as it quickly snapped its head back toward the trail. Realizing something was wrong, Genn quickly flew toward Mors.
Arriving quite quickly at the sneaking old man, Genn promptly shouted out, "RUN!" as snapping echoed in the background.
Shocked slightly, Mors quickly stopped being sneaky as he tried his best to dash forward while looking behind him. As he peered back, he caught a glimpse of something purple in the background. Fearing what was to happen next, Mors tried to calm down and use this situation he was in.
Remembering that this troll seemed to be on the unintelligible side of life and super strong, Mors looked for more weaknesses he had seen. Then he remembered how the troll seemed to be unable to slow down once it got up to speed. Thinking for a moment more, Mors decided to put a crazy plan into motion.
Standing up fully, Mors moved in such a way that would expose his location to the troll while running up to the trail. After a moment, he heard some *Thump* *Thud-Thump* *THUD-THUMP*, which was his queue to get out of the way as he quickly leaned to the side. Still dashing up to the trail in a longer path, Mors got to watch as the troll, wailing in regret, launched itself up the trail side.
Trying not to laugh, Mors stayed focused as he quickly climbed up the short incline to the top of the trail. As he reached the top, he found a sizeable troll-shaped hole in one of the bushes. Chuckling slightly, Mors called out, "Genn! What now?"
Then appearing beside Mors again and sighing, Genn quickly asked, "Is this really how you want to play this? Stop masking fear with fake confidence… It doesn't look good on you. Now quickly find a bush that isn't occupied."
Mors sighed as back there, he did take a risk… On paper, what he just did seem simple, but planning the running path of a troll really was risky. If the troll was slower, it might have been able to slow down, or if it wasn't afraid of hurting itself, it could have just slipped on the ground to slow down. Many things could have happened in that circumstance, but Mors decided to take this chance since if it was successful, he would have these precious seconds.
Shaking off the gripping fear in the center of his chest, Mors quickly found a bush to dive into. Taking a moment of free time to take a breath, he closed his eyes for a second to rest them. They felt slightly heavy as the adrenaline began to wear out. The constant swing between high action and relaxing time was causing his body to riot. Figuring that it was only around nineish minutes before he could get help, he opened his eyes with a fire inside of them.
But opening his eyes, he found a red blob. But strangely, this blob was different from the blob that Genn resided in. This one seemed to not be cloudy and a brilliant deep crimson red. He never really noticed how hazy Genns body was until he saw this blob. It was like a blob of water hanging in the air, as it was crystal clear and highly crimson.
Looking at the blob in shock, Mors didn't even have the time to react as it quickly popped out of his bush. Popping his head out of his lovely new bush only to find the glowing blood ball hovering over another set of bushes. Thinking for a moment that maybe this was still Genn telling him where to go, Mors decided to quickly hop bushes to these lovely welcoming bushes.
As he was traveling across the short grass, he found that the bush the monster crashed into was an old hiding spot. The one he had right before the beast came face to face with the weird green sap tree. As he looked out at the forest, it really seemed relatively peaceful, with the slow change in the wind and the delicate leaves. But it was anything but quiet, as this was only the calm before the storm.
So catching his awed breath, Mors quickly dived into the bushes and promptly searched for the blob that had just disappeared. Shuffling around the bush, and ignoring the troll's groans, for a solid few moments, Mors finally came across something he had never felt before.
Even though he was in front of a physical plant, it gave him the feeling of death. Something most of the corpses he buries don't provide. Like a whiff of the dead slowly spreading around this weird little decaying herb. It wasn't even that big… but Mors's brain was telling him that this thing was dangerous.
And before it was the little pure blood blob, just hovering loosely as it slowly changed shapes. Hoping it would change into a human form since this ghost definitely wasn't Genn, he watched with bated breath. But his disappointment was immeasurable as it transformed into a model of the herb before him and showed what seemed like a way to remove the herb from the ground.
Confused, Mors asked, "Why do I need this herb?"
And before the magical blood blob could answer, Genn appeared again with a surprised expression. Genn looked at the new lump for a moment before nodding before this new blob disappeared again. Looking confused at Genn, Mors asked, "What was that?"
Deciding to be more informative, Genn replied, "That was one of the more powerful ghosts. Well, not really powerful, just more knowledgeable than a lot of us. Don't worry about him. Also, this herb is a nice addition to your little escape. All you need to know for now is that when it combines with that green sap, it reacts badly. So it will provide a perfect chance to hide more and pass more time."
Feeling good about it, Mors was about to quickly grab it before Genn quickly intermitted, saying, "Old man, you can get so caught up in the moment, we only need one leaf, and you have to do it carefully."
Listening to Genn, Mors carefully and slightly swiftly plucked a small black leaf from the weird death herb before looking at Genn again. But as he looked at Genn, Mors swore he saw a terrified expression, but it was clearly a neutral expression the moment he noticed. Confused, he decided to put this as a weird 'I am scared about this, but I need to look confident' moment.
Genn realizing that Mors was waiting for more instructions, quickly hopped out of the bush to check on the ignored troll. Only to find it standing up again, picking up a large tree. Not a tree branch, just a solid small tree that was lying on the ground. Returning to the interior of the bush to a waiting Mors, Genn quickly said, "look out there…."
So, peeking his head just enough to see out of the bushes, Mors found the irritated troll just standing there menacingly. Covered in thick green sap, holding a large tree, breathing aggressively. Then raising the tree over its head, it quickly started to vent all of its rages through the tree into the ground.
Or, in simple terms, it had a tantrum. Destroying the entire bush around it as it swung its tree around. The crashing and snapping were almost deafening at this point. Small parts of the tree quickly broke off as they flew into the woods around it. All while under the analyzing eyes of Mors as he watched out for something that he could use.