"If things ever get really bad, a powerful Seer can always summon Death for assistance. But it comes at a price…"

-Blaise Zabini

Chapter 20: Fearless Trust In God

Crucifix in one hand, wand in the other, we were sneaking off the castle grounds. "We have to hurry you guys!" I panted when we finally came up on the lake, "She's been out here a while now."

"Tell me again why we're helping any of those Huffle-jerks," Daphne huffed, clearly out of breath. "They don't even like you!"

"Daphne please!" I needed to think! I looked to my right, and then to my left. Was West always to the right? How does east and west work? "Which way is west?!"

Dean looked around before picking up a stick and walking up to the edge of the Black Lake. To the East turned into the Azure lake and to the west, it turned into the Deep Lake. Further north is the Opal Canal. Collectively, it's known as the Great Lake. The territories were mainly divided by the occupying creatures. From what I knew, the Mermaids, the Sea Jackals, and a giant squid occupied the Black Lake. I was disappointed to hear that mermaids, or Merpeople really, weren't like Disney Princess Ariel. They hate witches, wizards, and regular people even more.

"OrbiDEN," Dean muttered, tapping the tip of his wand to the forked end of the stick. "Seamus has been really obsessed with wilderness survival magic lately." Dean set the stick in the lake water. "Says it's important for real men to learn these things. Guess it came in handy huh." The stick spun around in the water a few times, bobbed back and forth, and then settled to the right. "That's our west."

I couldn't help but awe at Dean. He was more than a boy that kicked books. He was really…impressive. "That was amazing, Dean!"

Instead of shying away at the attention, he leaned into it with a smirk. "I try. I try."

Daphne snorted. "If you two are done fawning over each other, we should get going after Leanne?"

I didn't know what fawning meant but she was right. We needed to get moving. "You're right. Let's go!" And we were off on a run again.

"Not so fast!" Daphne begged, "Are you half-were or something?!"

I slowed down to a more reasonable speed where Dean and Daphne could keep up. I suppose it was a little difficult to run along this crisp dewy grass in our dress shoes. And I suppose it was important to keep a manageable pace. We had quite a way to go. The Great Lake is large.

The march was silent for a long time. A couple shivers ran up my spine as we skirted the edge of the forbidden forest, coming around the bend. For a long while, there was nothing but the crunch of frozen blades of grass beneath our feet, the accidental kick of a rock, and a large breath from one of the two behind me. The ground became rocky, less beaten, and less traveled. We were now on the other side of the forbidden forest entry and could no longer see the school. The tall trees blocked the view of our safety net. It made us feel like we were really out here now. We were really on our own. There was no one to spot us and turn us around now. The only thing visible behind us was the small sliver of beach where we began. The stick was far behind us.

I wonder how Leanne felt when she walked this far. Was there that same feeling for her of 'No going back now'? Did it steel her nerves or make her waver? Did she even come this far?

"Look," Daphne pointed. Ahead was a patch of very soft and muddy earth. In it were footprints. Small foot prints. They were Leanne's! They had to be! So, she had continued on. "Uh, oh. That isn't good." The closer we got, you could see a small smattering of smooth rocks in the mud. One had a shiny red smear on it.

"You're right," Dean frowned. "That's fresh blood."

I looked between my two friends. "Well? What's wrong?" I gestured toward the rock. "It just looks like a little scrape."

Dean shook his head. "You don't understand, Mary. Trolls are blood thirsty."

Daphne nodded in agreement. "If the troll she has come to encounter, has ever tasted human flesh, there's no way it's going to be able to ignore the smell of her blood. It's going to want to devour her."

I paled at this new information before marching at an even faster pace. "C'mon. We have to hurry. We have to hurry and save Leanne." Cedric's words of ritual sacrifice kept ringing in my ears. Why couldn't we just slaughter a goat? He couldn't be serious. You can't just murder children at a school. You can't just do that. You can't.

"If there's anything left to save," Daphne mumbled before receiving a sharp elbow from Dean. I pretended not to hear that. The blood on that rock wasn't even dry yet. She couldn't be too far ahead of us.

We continued on long after the glow of twilight had faded. Weird sounds of growling and something like collective chattering teeth emanated from the nearby forest. If you listened closely enough, you could even hear…music?

"Lumos," I whispered, the others following suit. Our three wands lit the way. My instincts cried that these lights on our small inexperienced and frightened faces may attract the wrong attention, but we were close. We were now skirting the Deep Lake and coming up on the west bank. Smoke rose from a large collection of boulders ahead. They glowed red like a campfire had been lit. Loud, unintelligible voices reached us.

Dean tapped us each on the shoulder, holding a finger to his lips, letting us know it was no longer safe to speak. He lowered his wand and extinguished the light. Daphne and I took his queue. A part of me was incredibly impressed again. If Gryffindor had any special crowning ceremony and Dean needed me as an advisor, I'd gladly sign up. He was kinglier than I right now in how he thought ahead, so we did not draw the attention of the trolls.

Daphne, equally as impressive, made sure I looked to her before she lifted her robes and demonstrated taking very high, exaggerated footsteps. This was to avoid accidentally kicking any rocks and alerting what we were now sure were trolls occupying the tall rocks of the Deep Lake's west bank.

As we crept up onto one particular rock, we could get a clear view of the clearing inside.

There was a small fire. Over it, a large wolf skewered in a long spear rested skinned, cooked, and missing stomach. Two large and grey giants, one slender and toned, and one with rolls of stretched greenish fat rolling over its joints, sat fighting over what could only be a single bite of meat between the two of them.

"Knock it off," croaked a third troll. She was a much older woman, stout and only one or two heads taller than myself, held a straw and mud doll in her hand and stared at it intensely. It reminded me of what I expected to see at the castle. Some sort of voodoo doll maybe?

The two older males immediately paused, the skinnier one winning the fight. The fat one leaned onto his belly, reaching his hand into the fire as if he felt nothing, and tearing away more wolf meat. I jerked back around the side of the boulder, almost sure it had seen me. Daphne's brow was furrowed and one foot stuck out as if she expected to have to run at a moment's notice. Dean kept looking around though I doubted he could see anything in this darkness. The only glow of light came from this troll campfire and it didn't extend very far due to the cover of rocks.

When I heard what I was sure was the scrape of tough troll skin belly leaning back again, I ventured another peak. They were preoccupied again. Where was Leanne? Leanne? My eyes widened like saucers. They settled on a barely conscious Leanne. Her head rolled back and forth on the large rock she rested against. Two vines twined around her head, gagging her mouth and making a complete mess of her hair. A large patch of that hair was missing. Blood dripped from her scalp and there were tiny gravelly rocks stuck to the blood on her face.

I couldn't hold back the gasp, when I noticed her leg. She was bound by thick vines around her shoulders and torso. But her leg…it was broken and pointing in a completely unnatural direction. Several sets of vicious bite marks riddled the limb. Vines seemed to be all that held her leg together. Crumpled soft leaves and caked mud all red were packed into the bites beneath the vines. It looked mangled, as if she'd been attacked by a savage animal. But it was clear no animal had done this to her.

It was trolls.

I made to duck behind my rock again while I formulated some sort of rescue that wouldn't result in all our legs being chewed up. As I moved to come back around, my eyes locked with small old female troll.

I'd been spotted.

Possibly trolls were like dinosaurs? If I didn't move, maybe she wouldn't see me?

"Boys," A low frog-like voice croaked. A large grin spread across the old troll's wide face. "We have company!"

Dean and Daphne froze at the loud growling laughs that echoed in the dark as the mongrels got to their feet. "What are you doing?" I shouted. "Run!"

You didn't have to tell Daphne twice. She took off down the lake, Dean and I following closely behind.

As the ground vibrated beneath our feet I pulled out my wand and took a peak over my shoulder. "Lumos!"

Large beasts were gaining on us. Their ear flopped around like a dog's. The old troll woman rode on the shoulder of the heavier troll while the slender one took large leaps. Leanne dangled from the larger one's grasp, wailing. I could out run it maybe. When I looked to Daphne who Dean and I had easily caught up with, I realized she wouldn't.

I stopped and turned around. It was time to see if there was anything to Dean's crucifix theory. "Verdimillious!" I shouted with my wand in the air. Green sparks flew up and lit the area. I put on my crucifix and held it out for the trolls to see. They slowed to a jog and stopped before me

"More babes!" The slender troll clapped. His large hands clapped together in excitement that boomed over me. It created its own breeze that ruffled my tangled uncombed hair. "Maah Maah! Cann'e eat this'sun?"

Dean was back. He tried to pull me behind him, but I dug in my feet. I only had one cross and anyway, this was my idea. What kind of Queen would I be if I couldn't protect my friends? "What is this?" the old woman chuckled. She slid down the arm of the meaty monster. "Little witch has heard of the great troll weakness. Oooh not the crucifix." Spittle flew out of her mouth as she laughed and her companions laughed as well. My eyes found Leanne who was awake and alert. The skin that showed on half her face was pale and covered in a thin sheen of sweat.

As the old thing waddled closer to me, my hand began to shake. I was terrified. What was I doing out here? What was any of this? Why would Helga send someone, anyone, to do something like Maxwell to confront monsters like these? And even him. Did he have so little regard for Leanne's life that he allowed her to come out here alone?

Now I know why his boxed salamander face stretched into that wide grin when he told me where Leanne had been off to. Now I truly understood the wild look in Cedric's eyes and the desperation in his voice when he searched for me.

These trolls were the part of the magic world that I wasn't ready for yet. This must be what dark magic looked like.

Dean squeezed my shoulder, either in reassurance or fear, I couldn't tell. But it brought me back to the present. "I-I-." My voice wavered. Steady, Mary. Steady. "I am here to make a deal." Daphne stood a few paces behind us, I imagine wand ready. Did she know of any spells to knock out a troll? I certainly didn't in this moment. Every spell circled the edges of my grasp. I couldn't reach anything and pull it down and out of my mouth. I feel like even my wand felt the danger we were in. It hummed in my grasp, ready for me to even think of anything useful.

"A deal?!" She laughed again. The larger trolls seemed to echo the smaller one's moods. It laughed, they laughed. It scoffed, they scoffed. It frowned, they frowned. They all seemed so in tuned with each other. "You have nothing I want false Crusader." Her small but strong hand reached up and grabbed my necklace. With a strong yank, my face was pulled inches from its own. Jagged teeth snarled. Its breath smelled like old pennies and road kill. "We already have one babe. We trade her. We only need the one."

I whimpered when it's clawed hand left the crucifix and grabbed hold of my face. I could feel the strength in that tiny hand. It could break my jaw. It would break my jaw. "T-the Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear?" I didn't know where the thought came from to recite a Psalm but that seemed to loosen the hold momentarily. "The Lord is the defense of my life. Whom shall I dread?"

Her hand jerked back, jagged nails catching against my skin and drawing blood. The old troll took an entire step away from me, but the smirk never left its face. "So, you memorized a few lines of the Bible? Clever little witch, but I am not convinced."

It was shaken. I could tell. Something in me like an intuition could read its emotions through its golden eyes. There seemed to be a sort of intelligence that was missing from the gray milky gaze of her larger companions. "When evildoers came upon me to devour my flesh, my adversaries and my enemies, they stumbled and fell."

"Shut up!" The greenish troll howled. His fist holding Leanne came down and smashed into the ground. The bruised side of her face made an audible thud against the earth and she looked to be unconscious, if the impact hadn't killed her.

The small troll held its hand up to halt the oncoming tantrum, with the doll dangling from a string wrapped around its wrist. The other hand waved its claws back and forth before its nose. It reminded me of the way Mama smelled wine. "A Magi," it finally whispered. "A genuine Magi." I glanced at Dean, but he shrugged.

"And are these your attendings?" It waved a lazy finger the general direction of Dean and Daphne.

The three of us shared a look. "Yes," I nodded slowly. "These are my Advisors. I'm sorry. Magi?"

She licked the blood from her fingers and eyes widened in shock. "Seer," she whispered in awe, eyes fixed to my face.

"Maah Maah?" The fat one hobbled forward but the older female, Maah Maah, dropped to her knees and pressed her forehead to the dirt.

"Bow! Bow down children!" Begrudgingly, the larger trolls went to their knees and bowed. We had to back away to make room for their large bowing torsos.

When the big one bowed over Leanne, his wide amphibian like lips peeled back around jagged teeth, and his pinkish grey tongue peaked out to lap at the dried blood on Leanne's face. She whimpered in response but didn't seem to come to. "Leave her alone!" I cried. The troll, suddenly aware of the attention on himself, closed his mouth but did not relinquish his hold on Leanne's broken body. Her leg still sat at an impossible angle underneath her.

Maah Maah turned her head to one of her sons and let out something between a yell and a bark before pressing her face to the dirt again. "Forgive us, little Magi. We did not know you were a Seer."

I made to speak, to ask her what that had to do with anything, but Daphne clapped a hand over my mouth. "You speak to me, troll," she huffed with narrowed eyes. "Do not dare to address her directly." The troll did not look pleased but did not argue. I was confused but Daphne gave me a quick wink. "We have come for the girl, and ask that you leave this place, back to your home, wherever that may be."

The troll sat up but remained on her knees. "Please! We cannot!" It pleaded. "Days ago, my youngest child walked away from our home in the middle of the night. But he is barely out of cloths. He would never just leave. He was taken by someone of your kind." She growled out that last bit and lowered her gaze. "I haven't the chance to teach him to defend his mind yet. He was vulnerable. And so, he was taken from our home and hasn't returned. We have tracked him this far. He was taken along this lake." She grasped the straw doll between her hands. "This is his birth token. Made from Earth and placenta." Daphne made a gagging sound just then. What's a placenta? "I can feel him through it. He is alive, and he is not far. We intend to make a deal," she held a hand out toward Leanne. "One of your babes, for my own."

So that was why they were here? She was just a mother looking for her child. I glanced down to Leanne. What they had done to her. This wouldn't have happened if her child wasn't missing. There was sincerity in her gaze, but they were still monsters. I could not ignore that either. Daphne shrugged. "There is no proof that your child didn't just wander off-"

"Trolls do not leave the hills!" She snapped. "We keep to ourselves. To our territory. We do not enjoy being this close to those filthy cheating Fae or you deceitful humans. But I go nowhere without my son." And that was final for her.

"So," I began, ignoring the sharp look from Daphne. "If we can find your son, you will leave this place?"

She perked up, looking to me with hope in her melty face. "Yes. We will gladly depart."

"Then we will find him," I agreed with a frown. "But we will not go anywhere without Leanne."

Maah Maah's eyes narrowed. "How do we know you will keep your word if we give away our upper hand. The babe has value to you?"

Daphne spoke on my behalf again. "Not particularly. But she is dying and your…son…clearly cannot keep his tongue in his mouth. It would be nothing greater than a death sentence, should we leave her here, without proper medical attention, in your care. We cannot just look the other way." Daphne grit her teeth together. "We will find your family. But we will leave here with the girl."

Maah Maah opened and closed her mouth several times. "We are the Seeress's friendly companion," she seemed to recite, "We cannot disobey if this is truly what the little Magi wishes." Her eyes found my own and I nodded in affirmation. "But heed my word. You wish not to break a deal with a Troll. We are Swallower of the Heaven-wheel. We will rain death on all that you love."

(Lidia- I hope you liked my trolls! Some troll resource info was pulled from Wikipedia. I tried to keep the descriptions as close to the troll depicted in the first movie as possible. The next chapter will surround the familiar incident when the troll that was let into Hogwarts during the Great Feast on Halloween night attacked the golden trio. Thank you for reading!)