Tale of a Coin

After returning to the stead, everyone let out their bated breaths. No disasters awaited them and, with Astra’s marriage, the last thing needed to protect them for five years was in place. As they didn’t have any pressing needs, most went to pursue separate projects though, it must be said, all were for the benefit of their neighbors in some way.

Mankar was likewise occupied. He had repaired his gear and sorted through and stored the various items found or looted during their adventures. The treant wood and petrified treant wood were stored for future use. The iron mace was wrapped carefully and cached with the other iron items they had recovered. A few more gemstones were given to Mantis to keep with their supply of funds. The cursed crown was dismantled and beaten into a lump to destroy the foul enchantment upon it. Mankar finally was left with four small objects. One was a cursed lead coin carefully kept in a largish bag (it had also held the crown at one time) to keep its enchantment from harming the bearer. The other items were three chaos runes pried from the possessions of Lunars, chaos monsters and other degenerates.

Normally, he’d be at a loss on what to do but he had long since decided how to deal with these things. He carefully gathered up the items – very carefully when it came to the cursed item! – and left to visit the former village chief.

Despite not being the ‘official’ leader any more, Gnelessi still kept busy running much of the stead. Her experience and good judgment were still needed now more than ever! In a way, she and Mankar were two ends of a spear: He was the sharp point and edge, pointed at their enemies while she was the steady haft, a good fit and firm in the hand.

She sighed a tiny bit (but ONLY a tiny bit). At her age she should have retired already but with the next generation of leaders being so young, they couldn’t take on all the tasks. In addition, they would be questing for weeks at a time! How can a boat be steered if there is no one at the tiller? Still, the Chosen were not stupid and reasonably respectful. She could bear this burden longer and perhaps even see the prophecy fulfilled while she still breathed!

Mankar came in and nodded respectfully, “Priestess.”

“Warchief. You rarely visit except on work. Could it be this time you have come to socialize?”

The big man looked embarrassed but she saved him the responsibility of responding with a little laugh. “Never mind that, sit and tell me what you need.”

He sat on the floor which brought them eye level to each other. “I was looking to gift a cursed item to your friend, the troll priestess.”

She was very briefly shocked but controlled herself. “A cursed item, you say?”

“Yes. Apparently, the tusk riders and their ogre allies are spreading cursed lead coins around and I thought the priestess might wish to take offense and teach them a lesson. Or wipe them out entirely. As the only people that would normally take lead are trolls, you see my point.” He resisted the urge to spit when thought about ogres as he was inside her house.

“Hmmm, yes, I do believe she would enjoy someone suffering for such an affront.”

“From what I’m told, she could track the creator with an example of his work. So much better than hearsay!”

“I suspect so. She’s old and wise and quite vengeful.” The woman looked thoughtful, “I don’t believe she’s invited me to a feast… Ah, sorry for rambling.”

He grinned. “Don’t worry. I believe I know what trolls consider worthy of celebrating and how they celebrate.”

“Ahem, yes. She invites me as a little joke as I obviously can’t accept but my status makes the invitation reasonable. Watch what you eat there!”

“I’d be more worried what chaos-tainted meat would do to a human more than the source of the meat. But your words are well-spoken and well-taken.” He got to the main point, “Do you think they will grant a boon in exchange for this?”

The older woman pondered. “It’s not impossible… even likely. But the form of it? There’s no way to tell. I recommend taking someone with you that can fight. A woman, preferably.” She chuckled. “There are stories of men who have received ‘boons’ from them but were the wrong gender. Rather, let’s say they are former men…”

All this made sense to Mankar. Trolls respected strength! Their chief deity was female! Plus he suspected that some people didn’t know their place and angered the troll priestess. “That narrows it down to exactly one person. Ryala and I will leave as soon as we can schedule it.”

“You are in luck! They have a regularly scheduled trading stop two days from now. You won’t have to go to their caves and they are less likely to attack if you are waiting for them with the traders. Although we can be said to have a good relation with them, their ways of thinking are still alien.”

Not expecting any problems, only the two of them went to meet the trolls and traders. All the others were busy with their own projects and duties and there seemed little need for more to go. Honestly, being the two best warriors, it would truly take an extraordinary threat to challenge them!

Ryala was curious about the journey, of course. “The trolls will give me something you think?”

He patted the protected pouch with the cursed item. “I’m hoping to get something special and you are likely the best person to receive it.” He continued to expound as they rode their horses through the wood. “We have little need for more currency or common goods like food. A boon or treasure that only trolls can give would be best! The former can be had anywhere but the latter is truly precious. The risk is that we’ll get something completely useless or even detrimental.”

“They’d hurt us somehow? How’s that?!”

“Let’s say, for example, they offered to make you more attractive… but it’s a trolls’ sense of beauty. Do you fancy having a four more teats?”

If not for the fact they were riding, she would have stopped from shock. “Get out of here! That couldn’t happen!” She worried for a moment and asked, “Could it?”

“Best we navigate carefully.”

“Yes!” she said fervently.

The ‘marketplace’ had been in use for many years but, in the end, it was just a convenient crossroad with little else to recommend it. Every few months on a particular schedule, those interested in trade would camp here for a day or two before moving on. Since the trader present was familiar to the stead, they didn’t bother with his wares as he’d come to their home on his own. The troll trader was much more interesting, however. He was easily the shortest non-trollkin troll Mankar had ever seen but the two trolls next to him more than made up the difference. Their lead clubs made Mankar’s palm itch as he wanted to have a go at them just to see how strong they were. He glanced at Ryala and could tell by the fiery look in her eyes that she was thinking the same thing.

For the first time, Mankar thought it was a bad idea not to bring one of the non-warriors along.

He cleared his throat, “Let’s see what they have to say.”

The troll trader had an excellent grasp of tradetalk. Frankly, he was better at it than some of the nomadic tribesmen and was certainly of quicker wit than those taciturn herders! “Ah, I wasn’t expecting anyone else this time. Welcome! Our luck is boundless!” He smiled and his highly polished tusks were quite prominent even in the gloom of the fireless night.

“We actually don’t have much to trade but what we do have should be of interest to her subterranean majesty.” He opened the pouch so that the lead coin could be seen. “A scion of chaos befouled a sacred coin into a cursed object.” He went on to explain how they had come across it. “I understand she can track the creators with this token.”

The troll frowned. “Yes, I believe she may want to take action. It’s been long since we’ve quested abroad and it would be good to coat our clubs with fresh blood.” He shrugged. “Plus our runtling supply is in surplus right now. This would help trim off a few dozen usefully.”

“This has value then? Let’s trade!”

The troll tapped his largest tusk with a dagger in thought. “You trade for the pride of the trolls so you may receive something of the trolls if you wish.”

Mankar had already considered this so had an immediate answer. “The great races have the ability to function even without the oppressive light. Is this something you can teach us overworlders?”

“Ha! A bold request… but I like it!” He settled down and got serious. “Only trolls can use the greater but the lesser can be learned by anyone with ears to hear.”

“So it’s not hard?” Ryala asked curiously.

“It’s not hard and it’s very hard,” the troll said firmly.

“Will this affect her normal senses?”

“No. Not at all except to make them better.”

“Okay, let’s do that, then.” He pointed at Ryala. “She’s the one who’ll have it unless we both can.”

“Only one! This does come at a cost to me!”

“Fair enough. Do it now if that’s convenient.”

The troll grunted and pointed at her with a gnarled claw. “Take off your helmet and hold still.” After she had done so, he wrapped her eyes thoroughly with a wide but thin leather strap. If not for the fact it covered her eyes, it could be mistaken for a leather headband. “Is there any pain? Do you feel faint?”

She shook her head.

“Stay still!”

“Sorry. I feel fine!”

“Hmph. Well then.” He pulled his arms wide and then suddenly clapped them together with Ryala’s head in between!

She dropped to her knees, stunned, as her eardrums imploded! She unconsciously tried to shake her head to clear her thoughts and kill someone but her head was being tightly held. She felt his rumbled incantation but could hear nothing through her ruined ears. The troll, comparatively small as he was, kept her from moving with ease. Bit by bit, she began to be able to hear again as magic poured into her head, recreating her hearing rather than healing back to the way it was. Realizing what was going on finally, she just gritted her teeth until he was done. She could barely hear something that the troll was saying to Mankar but even if her hearing had been perfect, her ears were still blocked by his hands.

The troll removed his hands (which were large enough to surround her entire head) revealing reddened ears that had a trickle of blood coming down from each earhole. “So, good! Now, you follow the instructions I told you and she will have the power when done.”

“Can I take this off now?” Ryala touched the leather strap.

“No no! Keep it on until you are finished. Your chief knows the details.”

“Well, okay.”

Mankar grinned, though Ryala couldn’t see this, and said, “You say this will take about a week?”

“Assuming that everyone is well dedicated to the task.”

“Oh, I don’t think we’ll have any lack of volunteers.”

Ryala got a vague feeling of foreboding at this comment but couldn’t figure out why.

The trip back wasn’t hard for her as her horse was used to following Mankar’s big mount. “Can we start the training now or do we have to go back to the stead?”

Mankar was silent for a moment. “Technically, we could start now, but it would be best if we didn’t.”

“Why?”

There was another pause. “We can get into that once we are near the village.”

“Well, I think we can into it now!” She was finding the blindfold frustrating which did not help her mood.

He sighed. “If we must. The troll destroyed and regrew your hearing to be more sensitive but that’s not the same as training this new ability.”

“Yeah, I figured that much out, thanks.”

“Trolls are a very practical race.”

“So?”

“In their opinion, pain is the best motivator. Avoiding pain will encourage you to dodge attacks you can’t see. So the members of the stead will be encouraged to hit you with sticks and throw things at you while you are being trained.”

She snorted contemptuously. “Is that all?”

“Without armor.”

“Naturally.”

“Or clothes.”

“Natu… what?!” She started to pull off the blindfold reflexively but it was strapped far too snugly to move without a knife.

“Hearing is only 90% of the training. Your sense of smell must be honed and even your sense of touch. From what he said, masters of this art can detect even the faintest breeze from an attack or the vibrations from the ground. Keep in mind that most trolls aren’t overly fond of clothes or shoes. So at least at first, we can’t \*ahem\* block your senses with unnecessary restrictions. Plus it hurts worse without clothes providing an additional incentive.”

“You knew about this!”

“I swear on the breath in body, I did NOT!”

“You’re enjoying this!”

He didn’t confirm or deny that remark as he didn’t think it would help the situation.

For eight solid days, Ryala entertained the stead by having to navigate through the stead based on instructions by Mankar in the morning. Sturdy leather clubs had been distributed to everyone… Ryala included! Everyone was told about her training and encouraged strongly to help her out. Many villagers who were victims of her ‘training’ were enthusiastically helping but anyone who was actually hit by her had to quit the fun for that particular day.

The first day, she tried to maintain her pride and at least take out one or two of her admirers. And they were numerous! She was a fine-looking woman and being unclothed did nothing to reduce her charms! But her quest was an abject failure as she couldn’t strike even a single attacker and instead spent most of the day running into things and getting pummeled by leather straps. Whether due to cowardice or other reasons, they seemed to target her from behind…

On the third day, she managed to hit her first tormenter. As she was swinging rather strongly, the resulting cry was impressive and did much to soothe her troubled soul. The next two days, she seemed to have a revelation and grew increasingly confident in her attacks, becoming much more proficient.

That’s when Mankar introduced the hard leather balls and pinecones. He was merciful in that only women were allowed to use these ranged ‘training tools’!

If it weren’t for daily healing, she would have been a bruised and bloodied mess by the end of the week but the only thing that suffered was her temper. By the eighth day, though, she was close to proficient though not as good as when she was sighted of course. Mankar cut off the strap and Ryala stood there blinking several painful seconds to let her eyes get used to vision again. In that moment, she felt a strong sympathy for the trolls and understood how they felt about the sun!

She suddenly grabbed two straps and started chasing men around the village! “You! Do you think I wouldn’t return the favor!”

One man, braver than some (though still running away) yelled, “How did you know it was us?!”

“After a week I memorized all your scents! Ai-yi-yi-yi-yi!” She let out a battle cry and, still nude, severely ‘trained’ everyone who had ‘helped’ her in the past week.

Mankar, who had predicted this outcome, just laughed and went back to some fine metalwork that was only occasionally punctuated by the screams of the aggrieved around the stead.