Teauria readied the last of her equipment. This was it. She was finally going on an adventure.
Well, she was delivering the mail.
But it sounded enough like an adventure to her. After all, she had never left the valley before. Lately, with all the troll attacks, no one left the valley much. The village was mostly simple farmers and craftsmen, along with their children, and no one fancied making the journey along the river, through the wilderness, and worst of all through the old mine tunnel that led out to the coast.
Normally, couriers or traveling merchants would make their way through, experienced travelers that could handle themselves in the wilds. It had been weeks though, then months now. The monsters were getting worse, there was no denying it. The man she had rescued, who now lay recovering in her farmhouse, tended by her neighbors; he had been quite lucky to survive. She would have to keep her wits about her.
To that end she had brought one companion- her faithful hound. The animal was not the largest, but still bore enough claw and fang to make a difference- so she hoped.
The farmer and the hound made their way out past the furthest bounds of the village and along the well worn trail that led from the village. Only one road linked their tiny hamlet with the outside world; and the only way across the peaks was through an abandoned mine tunnel, long since given over to trolls and worse.
The farmer didn’t consider, at the time, how strange it was then that the stranger had come to her farm with the letter. No one could possibly end up in their village by accident.
The miles rolled along, and the pair fell into an easy pace. The sky was blue with tufts of cottony clouds drifting across, the forests beyond were verdant carpets of soaring pines, the meadows around them blinding green dotted through with constellations of wildflowers.
At length, they passed more and more trees, until finally they were undeniably within the forest. It was much darker here, with a kind of hush. Suddenly the tales of troll attacks came back to Teauria; she reached to make sure her simple short sword was ready to draw if needed, and kept her eyes open, scanning the forest from side to side as they made their way.
She should also have been looking up though. Suddenly, at a peaceful stretch where the forest had bee noticeably quieter than normal, lean forms leaped down the branches above. Some landed in front of them, others behind. The pair were trapped.
They were goblins, Teauria quickly realized. Okay, she knew in her head that she could best a goblin in combat, but it was only something known by guesswork and theorizing. The idea had never been tested.
It was being tested now.
