“Oh please, you don’t scare me, troll.”

I threw my head back and laughed, but inside I was quaking. I didn’t want to die! And certainly not at the hands of an ugly ogre or smelly old troll.

Oh, please, Bowen, Giulia, anyone! I prayed as I thought about running away and whether the ogre was fast enough to catch me.

I needed to distract them somehow. I reached into the pocket of my dress and felt for the small box that was in there. Drawing it out of the pocket, I flourished it before the troll.

“This is what you’re looking for, isn’t it? What will you give me in return?”

“Oho, so you’re looking to make a deal, girlie? Well, I don’t make deals with halflings.”

“You don’t know who you’re talking to, troll! My father was a powerful sorcerer!”

“I’ll take it from here, Lailah.” All of a sudden Giulia materialized at my side.

“Ah! You really need to stop doing that, Giulia. There’s nothing wrong with walking, you know.”

“Yeah, but this is so much quicker,” she grinned as she opened her spell book.