Rage

"One more time!" Bular barked, watching with a grim look as the younglings pounced on each other. Well, at least two of them immediately went to duel with their short practice swords, while three others just circled each other. Skonek's whelp let out his roar as usual, but still didn't dare to do more. This made Bular angry. His father had charged him with training the next generation of warriors, and what did he get? The weakest of the weak and hesitant! How was he supposed to work with them and make them ready to fight in the coming war?

A deep-seated growl rose in his throat, but just as he was about to yell at the three cowards to finally fight, he heard quick footsteps behind him. Bular would have recognized the light tread immediately anywhere and with a roll of his eyes, he wondered what she wanted now. Even still a whelp like the younglings before him, she got on his nerves like a full-grown volcano troll!

But she apparently wanted nothing from him; she simply ran past. Bular's eyes widened slightly when he saw two crescent-shaped daggers in her hands. Then she jumped off the ledge where Bular was supervising the training and silently pounced on the three beginners who were still circling each other. Skonek's whelp was the first one she swept off his feet, spinning her body in the air and wrapping her daggers around his horns. Her momentum alone was enough to send him face-first into the dust and silence his senseless roar. She herself deftly rolled and jumped back to her feet, immediately turning to face her other two opponents. At the same time she had an alert look and her ears twitched incessantly. That told him that she hadn't forgotten the two duelists. Whether he wanted to or not, an appreciative little smile twisted Bular's mouth, and he leaned forward a little to curiously survey the further course of events. But the other two youngsters had been so thrown off by her sudden appearance that they merely stared at her.

"Come on," she growled angrily, apparently intending to lure them out of their stupor. "Do you really not dare attack a femme?" She grinned with a mocking glint in her eye.

"A femme? You? You're nothing more than a straight hatched puppy!" one of them retorted, but still didn't dare attack.

"Absolutely pathetic! Useless!" Bular growled furiously. He was about to jump down there and snatch their swords! What good had all the training, all the showing of the finesses of the various weapons been if they didn't have the will to fight now? They would only serve as cannon fodder if they eventually made it into the ranks of his father's fighters.

But then Bular saw the two duelists, the only ones so far to show the potential to continue training, nod silently at each other and then simultaneously target the new opponent. But, as he had suspected, she was prepared for it. When the taller of the two younglings thrust at her back with his sword, she simply dropped herself to the ground, causing him to trip over her. The second one just managed to dodge the tripping, but by then she had already catapulted herself up from the ground and wrapped her legs around him like a snake. This left her hands free and she held her daggers against his throat as well as his neck.

"Surrender," she whispered not-so-quietly into his furiously twitching ear, but that's when he roared and tried to throw her off.

"I'm not surrendering to a puppy half my size and-"

"ENOUGH!"

The roar of Gunmar resounded from the walls of the cave, and startled, Bular turned to his father.

"You want to call yourselves warriors? My daughter here is the only one in whom I can detect the will to fight! The way you ridiculously softly clash your swords, any fleshbag babe could take them from you! You do nothing but talk and carry your senseless pride in front of you. Do you really think that fleshbags will negotiate with you? Your heads will be off before you can wish that femme there in your midst had defended your back."

His father's terrifying roar already went through the marrow of his stony bones, and Bular saw with satisfaction that the incompetent younglings were all cowering and trembling on the ground. Only she, now kneeling, dared to turn her gaze to Gunmar.

"Come to me, daughter," Bular heard his father say and saw a smile steal onto her face. "You too, my son."

Then he turned and walked away, and Bular hurried to follow him. Since Gunmar was on another, higher, ledge, she had caught up with him sooner than he had caught up with his father. She kept up with his fast steps without any problems, he had to admit. And she accepted her role as second-born without grumbling, always walking two steps sideways behind him. But he knew that this was only a charade for his father.

"You dare to take father away from his duties just to distinguish yourself in front of him? You are far from becoming a warrior one day, Fionnghuala! It's only been ten summers since you hatched."

"Maybe so, big brother. And yet I just defeated the others there, didn't I? And that's just from watching you explain things to them. Imagine what I can accomplish if you teach me? I won't always be a puppy, as you all disparagingly call me. Someday I'll be a warrior and fight by your side for father when he conquers the upper world for us!"

Bular snorted snidely at her words. "You should run to your mother and have your disheveled mane combed out."

"And she will." The two of them were interrupted by their father, as he came out of a side arm of the passageway. "But from now on she will also be taught by General Aaarrrgghh. I will not let this will to fight go unused."

From the corner of his eye, Bular could see her eyes widen and a wide smile parting her lips. Forgetting the sibling hierarchy, she took three steps forward, making herself taller than she was with a straight back and shoulders pulled back.

"I will make you proud of me, Father!"

"My general will not make it easy for you. So train hard and don't disappoint me. It would be a shame if you didn't stand by my side one day. And you, my son, must be tougher with your recruits. Get them a knight of this puny king and throw him into the arena with them. Maybe that will ignite their hunger for battle."

"Yes, Father," Bular replied. And he really liked the idea. But he would take the five of them into the forest, too. That would be a good exercise for them and separate the wheat from the chaff, as the fleshbags sometimes used to say.

Nodding, Gunmar turned and walked away. As Bular's sister hastened after his father, he snorted scornfully. His sister wanted to make Gunmar proud of herself? Ha, little Fio would never outrank him. And his father was already proud of him. He was the firstborn, Bular the Butcher, who had the honorable and important task of training the new troops so that the war would be crowned with success.

Enraged, Bular rammed his clenched fist against the bridge abutment. He had been so sure that this night he would get a little closer to his goal of freeing his father from the Darklands. And now the Amulet was gone. How was he supposed to advance Gunmar's war when nothing ever went the way it was supposed to! And to make matters worse, this impure dared to mock him!

"It's been taken. You failed. You let it go. Your father will be displeased."

"Don't taunt me, Impure. I held out until the last moment before the sun reached me, but the Amulet hadn't risen to choose a new trollhunter like it always did. That's why I wasn't able to snatch it out of the air," he snarled.

Stricklander took this information in with a frown, but that didn't help Bular now. The Amulet was gone, and he doubted it was in Heartstone Trollmarket. Even before the sun had set he had lain in wait inside the shadows of the trees again within sight of the stony remains, and no one, man, mouse, or troll had approached the dead Kanjigar.

"Maybe you damaged it in battle and that's why it couldn't determine another trollhunter. Well, be that as it may, it can't have disappeared into thin air. It's also quite possible that a canal worker was here for the stones and found and took it with him. But if it did find a new champion during the day, we should think about how to lure the new Trollhunter out of hiding. Whoever it is, he probably won't have much combat experience yet, so you can steal the Amulet in the fight with him this time."

With a casual movement, Stricklander dropped the stone he had picked up from the pile and patted off any dust on his hand with his other palm.

"The last pieces have been located and their transport here has already been organized. After centuries of searching, we will finally have the bridge ready in a few weeks, and with the Amulet in our possession, nothing will stand in the way of Gunmar's release!"

Bular nodded with a deep growl. It was only a matter of time now. But at the same time, he would love to tear out Stricklander's wings and horns as punishment for presuming to think that he held the reins here. But that would not go on for much longer. As soon as his father was free, he would show that changeling which position he would take in the new world order. Unless he would enjoy him as a snack. He could already feel saliva gathering around his tusks at the thought...

But with enormous effort Bular held himself back. For Stricklander was the head of the local Janus Order, and as much as it annoyed him, Bular didn't have as many changelings at his disposal as he would have liked. Devouring Stricklander now wouldn't only jeopardize the operation, it might set it back by years. For rarely were there changelings who were also suited to act as leaders of their international troops and interact with Bular as intermediaries.

"Gather the goblins. They shall lure that new Trollhunter out tomorrow at sunset and lead him to me. And then," Bular twisted his mouth into a sardonic smirk, "the Amulet will be mine."

Without waiting for the impure's reply - for what other reply could there be to his command than to perform it? - Bular turned and disappeared with mighty leaps into the forest.

Do you see that, little Fio? Instead of having to deal with this Stricklander, you should be by my side now. But no, you had to let the fleshbags catch you even before father could fight the puny king. So much for being a warrior, ha!

And as much as Bular hated to admit it, he would much rather have his sister by his side right now than the impures. Because at least she also had been of Gunmar's stone. And that's why he couldn't forgive her for letting the humans outsmart and snatch her, just when she had gotten out of her whelp phase and had matured into a passable sparring partner for him!

"Whoever holds the Amulet of Merlin now, I shall destroy him just as I have done with every single one of his champions," Bular snarled and banished the thoughts of the past. He all alone would free his father and, together with him, usher in the eternal night!

But first his stomach demanded attention. Holding his nose into the wind, it didn't take long for him to smell the scent of unthinking humans wandering in the woods. His last meal had been spoiled by Kanjigar. But this night he would eat his fill.

With a smug grunt, he picked up the human's trail and began his hunt.