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This was a land of blackened earth andsensation of peril overruled even the sunniest of skies The landscape climbed and dropped continually, and the crest of each rise, mounted in hopes of an end to the place by any traveler here, brought only despair andscenes

The brave Riders of Nes lines of fires and drive the monsters of the hostile land far from the borders of their town The season was late and several weeks had passed since the last burning, but even now the low dells lay heavy with sreat fires still shimmered in the air around the thickest of the charred piles of wood

Bruenor had led his friends into the Trollmoors in stubborn defiance of the riders, and was deterh to Silveryan to doubt the decision The place demanded a constant state of alertness, and each copse of burned-out trees they passed s bearing an uncoy ground beneath their feet suddenly became a deep pit of mud, and only the quick reactions of a nearby co out how deep any of the pits actually were

A continual breeze blew across the round and cool bogs, and carrying an odor more foul than the sly familiar to Drizzt Do’Urden - the stench of trolls

This was their domain, and all the rumors about the Everhed away in the comfort of The Fuzzy Quarterstaff, could not have prepared them for the reality that suddenly descended upon them when they entered the place

Bruenor had estimated that their party could clear thepace That first day, they actually covered the necessary distance, but the dwarf had not foreseen the continual backtracking they would have to do to avoid the bogs While they had marched for more than twenty miles that day, they were less than ten from where they started into the moors

Still, they encountered no trolls, nor any other kind of fiend, and they set their cauise of quiet optiuard?" Bruenor asked Drizzt, aware that the Drow alone had the heightened senses they would need to survive the night

Drizzt nodded "The night through," he replied, and Bruenor didn’t argue The dwarf knew that none of theuard, or not

Darkness caar couldn’t see their own hands if they held them inches from their faces With the blackness ca footsteps closed in all about the and rolled in around the trunks of the leafless trees The wind did not increase, but the intensity of its foul stench did, and it carried now the groans of the tormented spirits of the ear," Drizzt whispered to his friends

"What do ye see, then?" Bruenor asked softly

"Nothing directly," came the reply "But I feel the Weabout us"

"My legs ache," cois "And et ar "The elf’s right We’ll carry ye if we !"

Drizzt took the lead, and at times he had to hold Bruenor’s hand behind hiar in the rear, to keep his co from the path he had picked

They could all sense the dark shapesaround the the host gathering about them, Drizzt alone understood just how precarious their position was, and he pulled his friends as fast as he could

Luck ith thehostly silver blanket, and revealing to all the friends the pressing danger Noith the move forers stretching out to snag at thearthe trolls aside with great sweeps of Aegis-fang, while the drow concentrated on keeping theht direction

For hours they ran, and still the trolls cas of exhaustion, past the ache, and then the nue of the certain horrible death that would befall the their bodies’ cries of defeat Even Regis, too fat and soft, and with legs too short for the road, reater speeds

Drizzt understood the futility of their course Wulfgar’s hammer invariably slowed, and they all stuht had uarantee an end to the pursuit How many miles could they run? When would they turn down a path that ended in a botto, with a hundred trolls at their backs?

Drizzt changed his strategy No longer seeking only to flee, he began looking for a defensible piece of ground He spied a sh perhaps, with a steep, alle A solitary sapling grew up its face He pointed the place out to Wulfgar, who understood the plan immediately and veered in Two trolls looe, charged to ain and again, and the other three companions were able to slip behind the barbarian and ar spun away and rushed to join them, the stubborn trolls close in pursuit and now joined by a long line of their wretched kin

Surprisingly niis scah, not built for such cliled for every inch

"Help him!" Drizzt, his back to the tree and sciet up! I shall hold theasps, and a line of bright blood was etched across his forehead He stumbled into the tree and started up behind the dwarf Roots pulled away under their coht, and they seeis was able to clasp Bruenor’s hand and help hiar, with the way clear before him, moved to join them With their own immediate safety assured, they looked back in concern for their friend

Drizzt battled three of the ar considered dropping back fro at the drow’s side, but Drizzt, periodically looking back over his shoulder to check his friends’ progress, noted the barbarian’s hesitation and read his ar had to pause and consider the source of the command His trust of, and respect for, Drizzt overcarudgingly pulled hiis and Bruenor on the small plateau

Trollsout at hi him to break away and join them, but knew that the monsters had already slipped in behind to cut off his retreat

A sht in his eyes flared

He rushed into the main host of trolls, away from the unattainable mound and his horrified friends

The three companions had little time to dwell on the drow’s fortunes, however, for they soon found themselves assailed fro to get at them

Each friend stood to defend his own side Luckily, the climb up the back of the mound proved even steeper, at soet at the a troll frohty hammer But before he could even catch his breath, another had taken its place

Regis, slapping with his little th on fingers, elbows, even heads as the trolls edged in closer, but he could not dislodge the clutching monsters from their perch Invariably, as each one crested the ar or Bruenor had to twist away froht and swat the beast away

They knew that the first tile stroke, they would find a troll up and ready beside them on the top of the mound

Disaster struck after only a few is as yet another monster pulled its torso over the top The dwarf’s axe cut in cleanly

Too cleanly It sliced into the troll’s neck and drove right through, beheading the beast But though the head flew frois fell back, too horrified to react

"Wulfgar!" Bruenor cried out

The barbarian spun, not slowing long enough to gape at the headless foe, and sla it froar’s side, another troll had crawled more than halfway over the crest And behind the the helpless halfling

They didn’t knohere to start Thedown into the throng below to die as a true warrior by killing as many of his enemies as he could, and also so that he would not have to watch as his two friends were torn to pieces

But suddenly, the troll above the halfling struggled with its balance, as though sos buckled and then it fell backward into the night

Drizzt Do’Urden pulled his blade fro’s calf as it went over hi his feet right beside the startled halfling His cloak strea in many places

But he still wore his smile, and the fire in his lavender eyes told his friends that he was far fro dwarf and barbarian and hacked at the next troll, quickly dispatching it froh he knew as he rushed back to Regis that no ansould be forth-co e over his enemies Trolls were twice his size, and those behind the ones he fought had no idea that he was coe to the beasts - the stab wounds he drove in as he passed would quickly heal, and the liained hi horde and circle out into the darkness Once free in the black night, he had picked his path back to the h the distracted trolls with the saility alone had saved hiot to the base, for he virtually ran up thetroll, too quickly for the surprised rasp him

The defense of the ar’s pounding ha a side, the cliis stayed in thein to help his friends whenever a troll got too close to gaining a hold

Still the trolls ca with every minute The friends understood clearly the inevitable outcoathering of ive theed in si back their latest opponents to search for the solution

Except for Regis

It happened al arm, severed by one of Drizzt’s blades, crawled into the center of their defenses Regis, utterly revolted, whacked at the thing wildly with his ling and grabbing at the little weapon "It won’t die! Someone hit it! Someone cut it! Someone burn it!"

The other three were too busy to react to the halfling’s desperate pleas, but Regis’s last stateht an idea into his own head He ju it down for a moment while he fu hands could hardly strike the stone, but the tiniest spark did its killing work The troll arnited and crackled into a crisp ball Not about to is scooped up the fiery limb and ran over to Bruenor He held back the dwarf’s axe, telling Bruenor to let his latest opponent get above the line of the ridge

When the troll hoisted itself up, Regis put the fire in its face The head virtually exploded into flaony, the troll dropped fro fire to its own companions