Chapter 4: Rising Tension.
Jeff had never seen a troll before in his life. He had seen werewolves, gnomes, and even gone hunting for a few of the weaker monsters back home with his first adoptive father. But he had never seen anything that big in his life, and it was not something he was going to argue with Ashley about running from.
Kyle bolted immediately away from the monster, and in the wrong direction of the house. Jeff ran after him and caught him by the arm. "This way, you deaf fool!" He shouted as he dragged and pushed Kyle towards Jaeger who caught Kyle and was now running away with him towards the house. Jeff turned towards Jimmy, and found that the kid was looking up at the troll in wonder and awe.
Jeff ran to the kid with the intention of picking him up when a high pitched voice shouted out across the field.
"Hi!" Nick's voice screeched across the field. "What's your name?"
Jeff turned around to stare in shock as he saw that Nick hadn't run away from the troll that had appeared behind Nick and the girls. Instead Nick had stood up and was now smiling and waving at the creature happily.
Jeff noticed that Ashley was already running towards Nick to pull him away, but the troll raised up his hands placatingly and said, "No time. Crystal say Djinn and Judge make flood. Me here to save kids."
Ashley threw Nick out of the way and ran up to the troll swinging her short sword and cutting the monsters' hand. It might have been a large cut to a man, but it was probably a scratch to the giant that pulled his arm away.
The creature reacted slowly as it looked at the cut on its hand, and apparently it took awhile for it to comprehend that Ashley did not mean to give up the children that were even now running towards the orphanage. Jeff looked towards the home and noticed that the children couldn't get inside. Mistress Mallory must have locked the door before she left, and Jeff could see Kyle trying to break it down in vain.
Jeff heard a loud crash and turned and saw that the giant had slapped Ashley into the ground with his hand. Jeff heard someone gasp nearby, and he had to agree. There was no way Ashley's ribs weren't broken.
It was then that the giant figure looked upwards for a moment, and then it looked back down and then grabbed Nick and put the child on its shoulder as it stood up. "Don't let go. It hurt."
"WOAHHH!" Nick shouted happily and apparently completely oblivious to the fact Trolls were known to eat children, or that Ashley was probably dead.
Then the monster ran for the door and all of the other children, and Jeff was thrown out of inaction.
"If ya want a kid, take me, ya troll!" Jeff shouted loudly, slipping in the accent he spoke to the Headmistress with, causing the monster to stop in its tracks. "I got meat on ma bones at leas'!"
The monster seemed to flinch at the accusation, but it also seemed to be considering Jeff's proposal of starting with him, when suddenly there was a loud distant cracking sound. It was louder than thunder, but it also gave the impression that its source was distant. The monster and everyone's gaze immediately went up towards the watery sky and they saw thin red cracks, cracks that made a spider web design, were spreading quickly across the sky directly to the north above the mountains. Jeff had time to stare at it for a few moments as he saw more cracks occur, followed by the loud cracking noises a few seconds later.
Suddenly the sky seemed to crack like glass and water began to flow inside the dome like an unstoppable waterfall.
Jeff stood motionless, despite the fact that the noise this time was enough to burst an ear-drum Jeff didn't even move to cover his ears, but the giant figure moved quickly and picked up first Jeff, and then Jimmy and added them to his shoulder. "Hold on! I save you!"
Jeff didn't argue this time as he clung to the tunic of the monster for his life. The monster ran quickly and every step threatened to throw him and the others off. Jeff reached out with one hand and wrapped his arm around Jimmy's and then grabbed back onto the monster. Nick on the other hand had one hand in the air that was waving around happily.
"Do you think the headmistress will let me keep a troll in the house!?" Nick asked Jeff as he clung to the monsters shirt.
"Shut it idgit!" Jeff shouted as the monster reached the other children that were caught between the flood and itself. Most of them had stopped running, and the troll-like man picked up and carried on his back the other children. Jaeger and Elizabeth were each holding onto one of the younger kids but even after they were all aboard there was one missing.
"Where's Rachel?" Elizabeth shouted suddenly as the kids and the troll searched around. She was nowhere to be seen. "We can't leave her here!"
The troll glanced around and tried to find her, while everyone was shouting for her as the water continued to flow down and through the mountains.
"Aren't we forgetting grumpy?" Nick asked as he pointed at Ashley's body that had been knocked to the ground by the creature, and everyone froze as they stared at her.
The troll took one last look around for Rachel, and then he broke out into a run with the eleven children on his back and he picked up Ashley in his hands and then ran towards Dragon Peak. But there was no way they'd make it in time. Dragon's Peak was simply too far away.
Jeff turned north towards the approaching water and saw that it had not yet passed over the last of the mountains. Jeff began to think that there was still some hope that the deluge would stop and flow slower through the mountains, but that hope was dashed as he saw walls of water flow like an open torrent through the mountain passes in giant waves that merged together. As Jeff watched he knew that the torrent would put all previous tidal waves and floods to shame. The mountains were far way, and the water would recede in strength in the miles between them and here, but already Jeff could tell that there would be nothing left of Canaan, maybe nothing left of their entire continent if the waterfall continued.
Just as Jeff realized that they had no hope of reaching safety; suddenly the monster stopped as the crystal in Ashley's hand began to glow brighter.
"Crystal?" The creature asked in surprise, but of all the people present he was possibly the least surprised to hear one of the divine crystals speaking through Ashley's smaller version.
'A piece of me. Enough that I can teleport all of you if you get high enough.' High enough? But Dragon's Peak was too far away.
"What if we just climb a tree, would that be high enough?!" Kyle asked, which gave Jeff an idea.
"The ol' Red Woods!" Jeff said pointing towards the forest. It was close enough, they might be able to make it if the giant was fast enough-
The giant was fast apparently, as it proved so when it suddenly threw itself into the woods at a frightening pace. Nick was thrown back almost immediately and it was Kyle that ended up catching him. Nick held on as best he could and righted himself while being flung around. The children kept their heads down as they began to get cuts and scrapes from just holding on. Kyle began to tremble uncontrollably, and he was not the only one.
The Red Woods were far away, but at this speed they might make it and they didn't have any other choice. Jeff didn't know how long they had to hold on, but as he clung to the giant it felt like every second was an eternity. Jeff could swear he could hear the sound of rushing water coming to bear down on them and he held his breath waiting for the torrent to arrive.
When the creature finally arrived at the first Red Wood it could find it immediately began to climb it, flying higher and higher up the tree first thirty feet, then sixty, then a hundred. Jeff looked to the north and noticed the waterfall had stopped, but as they got higher into the tree Jeff saw the tidal wave had already reached the forest and it was crushing everything in it. The trees were pulled from their roots instantly in some cases and were swept away. Even if the torrent had not been taller than the redwood, the sheer force was going to topple the giant tree just as it was doing to the others right now.
The troll reached the top of the tree and had no where else to go. All they could see was a tidal wave that was going to destroy their village and kill everyone they knew. A bright glow surrounded them, and Jeff felt the sense as if he was going somewhere else soon, but also that he was not going anywhere.
'You must get higher! I can almost take you!'
"We can't get any higher!" Kyle yelled at the crystal, and then screamed as the troll began to brush the children off of his shoulders and into his hand that held Ashley. The kids landed roughly and piled on top of one another, holding on to each other to not fall off. It was only a second later that Jeff felt the troll bend down and then leap into the air. As they soared into the air the troll first lowered his hand and then his powerful throw sent all of the children flying even higher into the sky. Jeff turned his head around and watched helplessly as several children vanished, and he couldn't even see others that must have already left. But the last thing he saw was the troll falling back down to the Earth, the only one of them that looked as if he was not going anywhere but down.