The last room they located held many empty cages, baskets, boxes, sacks, and pots. The room was entirely empty of trolls, which was the only occurrence in the entire cave. It was far removed from the rest of the cave, so the humdrum was softer here.

  “This gives me an idea.” Virgil said quietly.

  “We’re all ears,” Sheila replied.

  “Let’s pillage this troll for supplies. Use these sacks can help us carry out more.”

  “I think I see what you’re getting at,” Alexx said, “We can actually carry fishing poles, shovels, spare clothes, camping equipment, as well as what else we find.”

  “Now, this is a plan.” Hammond smiled.

  “Why don’t we stay here a bit longer? See what he’s really hiding. I mean he hasn’t locked us in chains, yet. Or any other troll for that matter.”

  Sheila was pondering what Alexx said, “You’re right. I can’t figure out how he prevents them all from going crazy and running away.”

  “Some kind of magic?”

  “Do you not know about Natural Craefting?” Hammond said while packing a small fishing net.

  “I call it Crazy Craeft like most folks do,”

  “Natural Craefting is quite ingenious, though I can’t say I want to end up on the other side of it.”

  “Old Bones-y had his ship turned from wooden to complete metal, sails and all from what I heard.” Alexx added.

  “That story is speculative, but he did have a large collection of iron for a pirate.”

  “If you don’t reverse it somehow, the Craeft stays, and cancelling it is different for each troll.”

  “Complicated rules like that is why I hate Craefting.”

  “Healing your body doesn’t seem to bother you,” Hammond said as he pointed to the ring on Alexx’s finger. The pirate caught in hypocrisy sighed and left the argument alone.

  It took them a while to pack all the things they wanted, and all the things they actually could carry. In the end, they were satisfied collecting shovels, fishing rods, knapsacks, and some essential gear for taking long journeys. They were undisturbed the entire time, nor were they looked at when they left the room carrying all their equipment. The group was perplexed. They proceeded to walk slowly through the hallway, each looking at every reaction for some trick, but all around them the lesser trolls busily worked. They cleaned the walls and floors of dust with wooden brooms and straw brushes. Others carried things around. Virgil noticed that a few of them carried the same thing to three different places. Pretty soon the group could see that they were all just doing work to look busy. Their eyes were locked on moving forward. A few would glance at them, with looks of worry. But none of the trolls bothered them. The temptation to find this an easy spelunking trip nestled in each of their minds, no matter how much experience had taught them otherwise.

  A slow trip to the exit that felt like a couple hours led them to the exit, where they realized why no one cared about them or escaped. Though they entered the same mouth as they were leaving, the air in front of them felt like a solid wall. No indication of Craeft could explain why an invisible barrier held them within. Even as Alexx donned the mask, there were no hidden markings or crystals. Virgil gave it a fierce attack a couple times, but nothing the wall didn’t budge.

  A hand was placed on Alexx, and he turned to see a tall red troll female. She was dressed like a warrior with leather armor. She had white hair braided so it was compact and bundled behind her. A broom was in her other hands. She looked down on Alexx with a frown and upset eyes.

  “Be busy, or die.” she said. It felt like a warning instead of a threat. She walked away, pretending to clean the floor.

  Hammond put his hands together, “I think I see now. They are appearing busy to avoid his temper. If they have no purpose for him, he has no use for them. It seems he doesn’t even notice what all he needs, he just wants things, and they trick him further to avoid danger.”

  “Some of them have figured out how to escape.” Sheila said, “Let’s find them and see what they know.”

  Their search led them into the direct path of Oz, who had awoken, and was grumbling and yawning as he came out of his room. He looked down at the humans no taller than his knees, and quickly grew frustrated by the packs on their back.

  “Hey, those are mine! You’re trying to take off with my stuff!” Oz reached behind and pulled out a large paintbrush and a jar. He dipped the paintbrush sloppily into the jar, splashing a brightly colored goop onto the floor. Oz had the brush covered in the goop and quickly lunged it towards them.

  “Bad collections, bad!” The action was quick, not even Virgil had time to react. They were splashed with the sparkly orange-pink paint. The paint sizzled and disintegrated into their skin as they all began crying out in surprise. As the paint vanished, there was a silence, even the trolls stopped to look at them. Oz put his artisan tools away, satisfied with his work, and watched them closely.

  Hammond was the first to feel funny. His insides began to hurt like a bad meal. Everything began to itch, and everything around him was growing bigger.

  “You guys are all growing!” he said in shock, but no one else agreed. They all looked down at him as their heads kept rising. He kept scratching everywhere, but his skin felt like sandpaper. Eventually all stopped growing, and he stopped itching so bad. He felt heavy, and as he walked over to touch Virgil’s boot, he noticed his hand had drastically changed. Hammond looked all over and noticed how dark his skin color changed to brown, and hardened like wood. His clothes were painted on, and his weapon became a stick.

  “Hammond you’re…” But Sheila stopped and held her head, something about her seemed to change too. Hammond was trying to comfort her, and she lifted off the ground. Alexx thought he was lifting her up, but he was barely lifting a finger. Sheila was rising off the ground and into the air. Alexx then began complaining about how cold it became. He tried to help Sheila, but his teeth chattered, and his limbs were shaking. Hammond didn’t feel cold. He looked around at Virgil and Sheila -now floating higher than their heads and reaching for Virgil- and they weren’t complaining about the cold. Hammond looked as Alexx cried out, and he tried walking away, but moved slowly, until he wasn’t moving anymore, and ice formed over his entire body. In mere seconds, he became a solid ice sculpture.

  “What is going on?” Hammond cried out, his voice higher than he remembered. Oz burst into an outrageous laughter. He slapped his knees, and grabbed everyone into his hands. Everyone was squished together, trying to breathe while their bodies were being punctured one way or another. Hammond didn’t feel any pain, but if he could he would be screaming for how his limbs were bending backwards to accommodate his position. He also was in the darkest part of Oz’s grip, so he couldn’t see anything. Hammond could hear Sheila telling them all to hang, while she clung to Alexx. Her hands were slipping and growing cold to the touch of her husband, but she kept a tight grip.

  A short trip turned out to end in a room they had not explored, barred with thick iron bars. The room was mostly empty, save for some trolls floating around the ceiling, and a giant hole in the ground. The hole had other trolls at the bottom, the group could see they were also wooden toy figures, and solid frozen statues. Oz tossed them all down. Sheila held on to Hammond and managed to float down with him. Her weight contributed to his descent being slow. Virgil caught Hammond on the way down, but hit the ground on his back with nothing to catch him. Hammond again felt nothing as he bounced off of Virgil to the ground. He looked as Virgil tried to recover from the fall, rolling to his side and groaning.

  “Why’d you do that? I can’t feel anything in this form!”

  “Now you tell me…” Virgil growled.

  Hammond got up without thinking how it worked, and grabbed Virgil’s hand to lift him up. But his size was not strong enough to do anything of that sort.

  “What are you doing?” Virgil asked.

  “Trying to help you up!” Hammond squealed as he pulled. He felt no strain in muscles, but he also could not pull Virgil up off the ground.

  “This would be so much easier if I wasn’t a toy!” he cried.

  “Just let me lay here,” Virgil sighed, “I’ll feel better in a minute. Where’s the others?”

  Hammond looked around, but his vantage was too low to see them at first. He eventually spotted Sheila holding on to the Alexx sculpture within shouting distance.

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  “Sheila!” Hammond’s high pitch voice called out but didn’t reach Sheila over the chatter of the other trolls turned into toys. There were other sculptures of trolls caught by Oz, most of them intact. The other trolls were interested in Sheila, having lowered the fall of Alexx by hanging on to him. Some were already asking her to carry them up with her so they could escape. Sheila wasn’t engaged in speaking to them. She looked around for Hammond and Virgil until she could see them. That was around the time Virgil managed to get back to his feet, and carry Hammond with him on his shoulder. Even though he was upset, Oz did not take his belongings back. The crew did not feel as desperate as things could have been in this situation. Virgil attached a rope to Sheila and anchored her to Alexx. As she adjusted to her new predicament, Hammond took the time to examine himself, Alexx, and Sheila. Virgil attempted to climb out of the hole, while having a group of toy trolls cheer him on. Sheila talked to any of the toy trolls who would talk to them. The time passed as Virgil did not succeed at escaping, and Hammond had put together some ideas. He called Virgil to them.

  “Your dragon form should cancel out any Craeft.” said Hammond.

  “Oz found old dragon scales,” Sheila added, “And that’s how some of them get out. They’ve lost some because the trolls take them and never come back. But there are three who return, because they have family here.”

  “Where are those trolls?” Virgil asked.

  “No one else knows,” replied Sheila, “They know they have some place in the walls so Oz can’t find them.”

  “Why wouldn’t they just take their family with them?”

  “I’ve got no info on that.” Sheila sighed.

  “Look,” Hammond called their attention to Alexx’s frozen state, “The mask is frozen. Whatever Craeft keeps the mask from being affected by Senkazital isn’t the same as dragon scales.”

  “I think the sooner you transform, Virgil, the sooner we can all escape.” Hammond said.

  “I haven’t figured it out yet.” Virgil revealed.

  “Maybe there’s something to it in the catalyst. Let me have a look.” Hammond got down from Alexx, and proceeded to examine the writing on Virgil. Virgil removed his shirt and sat down through Hammond’s inspection.

  “This writing is sloppy,” Hammond guessed, “Very quickly done, but still ordered correctly.”

  “Three hours is ‘quickly’?” replied Virgil.

  Hammond chuckled, “Yes, the amount of direction and control they had to insert. It’s no wonder these brutes didn’t take the rest of your body.”

  “There were multiple,” Virgil said, his eyes glazed from reminiscing that night.

  “Yes,” agreed Hammond, “The inscription shows multiple writing patterns. The pain had to be awful, Mr. Sorek.”

  “I survived. Did you find anything?”

  “I have studied Craefting for a few years, but forbidden catalyst’s are not available at anyone’s local library. But taking what I do know, leaves a few spots where I can speculate. Direction, control, power, form, all of that has to be there. But then…”

  “What is it?”

  “There are… spoken commands? I think that’s what these are, because Senkazital’s name is here.”

  “Senkazital is how you summon it?”

  “The inscription is ‘Senkazital summons dragon’. But he wasn’t there when they made this, correct?”

  Hammond watched for any change as Virgil explained that Marcus mentioned waiting, but something happened and he transformed when he wasn’t supposed to. He remembered still being in control, and the feeling of power was so immense he thought his body would explode. And he killed Marcus in the process of getting used to his new form. That was when the Kagral fought to kill him. Virgil struggled against them, but he was losing.

  “And that was when one of the other captured jumped in and took an attack that would have killed me.”

  “Did you know him?” asked Sheila.

  “He tried talking to me the whole time we were imprisoned. He somehow knew I was the Sorek, though I never met him. He didn’t seem bothered by being captured, though he definitely didn’t want to stay. He gave his food away and starved most of the time. And just before he died he said ‘you don’t owe me anything’.”

  Hammond and Sheila were silent, their faces showing how puzzled they were by this story. Hammond broke the silence to get back on track.

  “This may sound crazy but- I think I can help you control the dragon.”

  “How?” asked Virgil.

  “If I can get my hands on some tools, I can rewrite the part that Senkazital has control over.”

  “What do you need?”

  “Ahoy!” from above came a familiar sounding voice. Everyone, including the toy trolls, looked up. A small Bacoot with more Bacoots around him waved to them.

  “Looks like y'all can use sum help!” Silas said happily.

  “What made you come around?” Sheila asked.

  “I’m an old feller’ stubborn an’ set in ma ways. Ain’t got time fer all dese fightin’ with folk. Alexx dun did me pretty wrong, but he came to git me frum this place. Y’all got me thinkin’ I ort ta turn tha cheek. He mebbe selfish, but don’ giv me a right ta ack tha same. Gotta treet folks tha way ya wanna be treet’d.”

  “He talks like the guy who was with me,” Virgil added.

  They communicated a way out. They released Sheila into the air holding her end of the rope. She floated upside down until Silas and his followers took hold. They grabbed the rope and began making themselves an anchor. They moved Sheila all the way to the iron door where she took hold, and the Bacoots all lended their strength to holding the rope. One by one, the troll toys ascended the rope and escaped the hole. They were cheerful and dancing on their release, but they stayed within the door, as if waiting for Virgil and the others. As Virgil took the rear, the hole was empty save for the frozen sculptures. Silas tried to control his laughter when he learned Alexx was one of them.

  Sheila addressed the troll toys. “Which one of you is in charge?”

  “We troll leaders. I Oy-ya!” said the large one with the metal ring stick.

  “I am Oy-ana,” said a slender troll, with a pleasant smile.

  “I am Oy-sto,” said the old female troll.

  “Oy-ster,” said a short, but stout troll.

  “Me, Oy-me,” said a troll with large ears.

  “Nice to meet you all,” Sheila replied, while Virgil and Hammond waved, “What are you guys going to do?.”

  “Oz is a menace! He stole us, take us from families, he also take our families, he kill some of us, and make us do whatever he wants! We want him to die!”

  “The feeling is mutual, although we do not bear the same grudge, we think it best if he wasn’t a problem in the future.” replied Sheila.

  “How many times have you all tried?” asked Virgil.

  “We try five times.” Oy-ya said, “And each time, champion has died. Different champion each time.”

  “How strong is he?”

  “Oz can lift anything!”

  “And speed?”

  “He catch spear and arrows with his hand!”

  “Can human catch spear and arrows with hand?”

  “Uh… no.” Sheila replied.

  “Then Oz faster than human.” said Oy-sho.

  “Maybe human not kill Oz.” said Oy-me.

  “By myself I could not, but we should make a plan to all fight him together.” Sheila said.

  “All fight at same time?”

  “Can we do that?”

  “Of course you can do that! Have you never thought of that before?” Alexx shouted.

  “Trolls will all die!”

  “You are more powerful in numbers.” Sheila replied.

  “Then who lead all trolls?” Oy-sho asked.

  Suddenly the leaders and champions erupted into an argument over who should lead it. High-pitched voices were raised quickly, and punches were nearly thrown when Sheila silenced them all.

  “I’m going to lead us all.”

  “What makes little human think she can lead trolls? She think she stronger?”

  “I am stronger. Because I am not a toy.”

  “Where human champion?”

  “Right here,” Sheila pointed to Virgil, the only non-toy, non-floating being in the room.

  “Then we attack Oz in the morning?”

  “No, not that soon. We need to lure him away from his tools, and weapons, and into a room where we can set a trap. If this is going to work, we need to catch him by surprise. He won’t expect everyone to attack him, but if we can trap him before that, we’ll stand a better chance.”

  Oy-sto shook her head slowly, “The tiny human woman has made good ideas. We shall accept your leadership.”

  We should wrap this meeting so we can make preparations.”

  “Very well,” Oy-ya stood up and turned around to the other trolls, “Today, Oz dies!”

  The cheers were short, for the work during the night began immediately. With Sheila at the helm, she headed the trolls without wasting a single moment. The toy trolls convinced many of the unaffected trolls looking to help out. At her command, the most knowledgeable trolls acquired tools and materials. The strongest were sent to carry everything in as little a load as possible.

  Silas and Virgil set off looking for Craefting tools. Passing through the doorways with barriers was simple for Virgil. He carried on where Silas couldn’t and found himself venturing to rooms he hadn’t seen before. One hallway obscured from view in Oz’s workshop led to another room that needed no lighting. Within this precious room of Oz’s cave, he found more than what he bargained for. Not only did gold illuminate the dark room, but gems, precious vases, statues, jewelry, weapons, armor, scrolls, and chests cluttered the area. It was all in a mess, finding any order was the same as finding a clean pigsty. This fact did not stop the trolls, however, so Virgil acted quickly to make sure he found adequate equipment before it was taken.

  Right away he found clothing, and armor suited for them all. But further inside, he found an old red pirate captain’s jacket. He humored himself into grabbing it for Alexx. He found pouches filled with knives, grabbing plenty for himself when he came upon a peculiar looking chest. The lock was cylindrical, and had notches on it. It was composed of multiple parts that could move freely.

  Virgil looked over the lock, and noticed something odd. He continued fumbling the keyway around and finally noticed a pattern.

  “All the correct parts were dented.” Virgil said to no one.

  A faint glow grew as the lid opened up. Inside the glow came from a crudely built knife. The blade was an unrefined chunk of metal, hardly a common shape. The handle, however, was perfect. Beyond perfect, Virgil had never seen such craftsmanship before.

  “Where was this made?” he wondered aloud. He stuffed it in his boot and carried on looking for Craefting tools.