On the way to the Capital, we had supplemented our provisions with what little we could find, mostly half-starved birds. Walking across ash and ashen water, one would think our hard bread would run thin quickly. The Prince of Death had promised food from his table, suitable to the living. He did provide.
Clams the size of greatshields could be occasionally found in the shallows. They were icons of the Prince, and they tried to flee on spindly legs which resembled deathroot. Their gullets were full of half-digested bones, and their meat tasted of carrion. It was foul, but it was plentiful. The Prince had spoken true.
There was no telling the hour in that place beneath the earth. Light and time seemed frozen, refracted through the lingering smoke of the burned Erdtree. We slept shortly several times. I cannot remember now.
Eventually, the roots of another petrified tree came into sight. No mere child of the Erdtree, this one sought to match it. So this was the so-called Haligtree… or what was left of it.
The four of us tensed at once. My bodyguard had the ears of a hound. My captain had fought in the height of the Shattering. Our guide was a master of stealth. I was not normally so aware, but this was a sound I knew in my bones.
We all leapt away and looked upward. A few paces in front of us, a dune exploded. A stone bolt as tall as myself pieced through to the earth beneath.
"There!" the captain pointed with his spear.
A troll stood crouched on the roots, greatbow at the ready. It had been a warning shot. Most thought nothing of trolls. Degenerate giantspawn. The decadent whelps of the Golden Order knew not what had degenerated.
The giants were monsters. Unbreakable, capable of moving mountains, cunning, and possessed of the Flame of Ruin. Trolls could be bested by mere heroes, so of course they were "degenerate". The Order kept their slaves repressed and uneducated not because they were stupid, but because the trolls would overthrow them in the absence of a demigod. And here was one who could carefully follow our movements.
We could not approach; we could not flee. It had us pinned unless someone wanted to play decoy. But were there more archers lying in wait?