The Plan 1

Waiting patiently, Mors watched as the troll slowly stepped down the path following the smell trail and as it crouch-walked its way over. It would have been a hilarious scene if it wasn't for that stupid thing called the will to live.

Watching the stumbling, crouching troll, Mors looked at Genn and asked quietly, "Where are we running to? And why do we have to wait for it to look at that tree? Is it too close to us?"

Still concentrating on the troll, Genn replied, "Don't worry about running; you will be walking while crouching, and secondly, it does need to look there since its back will be in our walking direction, making it a bit safer to cross."

Realizing that he would be doing the weird crouch walking, Mors felt a little strange. A mix of excitement and embarrassment crept inside his being, and he didn't like it. He really started to feel his mind change as of his awakening, as it felt quicker to come to a conclusion.

Shaking off those thoughts again, Mors waited in silence. As the troll got closer and closer, Mors tried to silence his breath as a way to try and not get caught. Being caught at this moment would probably be very bad, considering Genn dissolved back into his blob form. Initially, Genn had kept on a confident smile to maybe distract Mors from the fact that he was also scared.

Around two minutes passed as Mors's nostrils got bombarded with the stinky mess that was the trolls everything before, finally, it had reached the necessary tree. But, unfortunately, Genn had already disappeared off to somewhere as the troll came close enough that Mors could see its details.

The troll seemed to want to try and sneak up to this particular tree before swiftly swiping around to hit where Mors was initially hiding. If he was still there, Mors would have definitely been turned into some finely diced meat.

Now that Mors got a closer look, those claws the hill troll had looked really strange. It seemed disproportionately large with a few scattered scales on it. It looked like another monster's claws on this hill troll's wrists. It was a curious sight, but Mors quickly had to leave as he stumbled away from the fallen tree.

As he moved forward, Mors found a red blob illuminating a tree in the short distance. But as Mors was crouched walking, only one thing came into his mind, 'isn't that near the fog border?'

And it was indeed near the dangerous and highly warned about fog border. But there was definitely a red blob waiting for Mors right there. Ignoring his doubts about heading toward the fog, Mors quickly crouch-walked over toward his new hiding spot. It was a tall, thick tree, like the one the troll initially bumped into.

Coming close to it, and hiding in the long grass that seemed to go crazy around this tree, Mors confronted the red blob as he asked, "So what do we need to do now?"

But all he got was silence from the blob. Waiting and waiting for this softly turning blob of ghostly matter that radiated a silky crimson glow faintly on its surroundings. Mors crouched there for what seemed like forever as the minutes seemed to tick by. In the background, Mors could hear the troll knocking over smaller trees.

*Bang*

*Crack*

*Boom*

Those sounds filled his mind, and anxiety filled him as he felt like the troll was getting closer and closer to his location, like a vice that was slowly closing on his chest. But before Mors could even see the troll, the red blob finally spoke, "Ok, it should be the perfect time to do this… Old man, take a part of your cloak, maybe your hoody, and throw it toward the fog… Make sure it's a piece of cloth that has a lot of your smell on it."

Relief at the sound of Genn's voice, Mors felt a little sad to part with this cloak of his… He had grabbed it from his small home, and it was something important to him. But gritting his teeth, Mors ripped off a portion of the sleeve, as the hoody would be too much for him to part. He could live without this part of the sleeve.

Making it into a ball, he quickly tossed it into the fog, and it promptly disappeared from his sightline. Then, sighing, he quickly looked over toward the loud crashing as trees snapped as the troll wandered deeper into the woods, presumably to find its annoying slippery prey.

As the troll causes trees to crash, Genn materialized into his solid form as he told Mors, "Ok, even though that nib of the sleeve was a bit small, it should work; now for the second part of the plan, you need to avoid the monster's direct line of sight."

Whispering back, Mors asked, "What exactly do you mean by avoid its line of sight? Do I just go around this tree, avoiding it forever?"

Laughing an incredibly fake laugh, Genn responded, "No, no, no. That would be meaningless... you are just going to circle the tree until you can get a clear shot of the trail. Then you need to sneak your way across the trail."

Before Mors could continue, he heard a loud snap followed by a bang as a larger tree fell. Closing his eyes, he felt a weird pain appear out of nowhere in his shoulder. He quickly opened his eyes to look at his shoulder to find nothing but a tiny speck of bark on his shoulder. Not minding it, he tried to look out into the dark forest for the fallen tree and quickly found it near his last hiding spot.

Breathing out a warm stream of air, Mors quickly realized that the troll wasn't as close as he thought. Maybe these heightened senses are making things at the moment a lot scarier than they seemed. Like he only needed to avoid this monster. It wasn't like he had to fight the darn thing.

But seeing that the monster would eventually get closer, Mors quickly moved around the tree until he could no longer see the area the monster was in. Then slowing down his breath as much as he could, he tried to use his new heighten senses to hear if the beast was closer. Surprisingly, he could listen to it. It grunting. It thumping. It stumbling, as it slowly moved in the forest.

Even though his last hiding spot was around 30 meters away and in a windy forest, he could hear all of the troll's movements and all of its weird noises. Even though he knew his senses seemed heightened, he never thought it was this good. He hadn't heard this well for quite some time. Shaking off this excitement, Mors tried his best to follow the troll's path through the forest…

That was until Genn showed up asking, "What are you doing, old man?"

Annoyed, Mors informative responded, "I am listening to see when it gets close."

Sighing, Genn appeared directly in front of Mors before walking out into the open and running up to where the troll was. Shocked, Mors peeped his head out from behind the tree to see Genn running around, dancing in the forest by himself. Fear crept in as he feared that the troll would see Genn before Mors finally realized what Genn was pointing out.

Chipperly walking back to Mors, Genn asked, "Seeing your dulled face, I am guessing you finally remembered that I am a ghost, and the monster can't actually see me. I can go look around and stuff without alerting the monster. Also, I know you were trying to listen for the monster, but you aren't used to your new senses, so just follow what I say for a moment."

Sighing, Genn continued, "The deadliest moment for a newly awakened is the first few moments since they are unused to their strengths. So just listen for now."

Becoming slightly disheartened at Genn's statement, Mors realized he was right. His new senses were already messing with him. So as Genn disappeared, Mors decided to wait in silence. Listening to the forest's silence, interrupted by the troll knocking down small trees.

Feeling the wind cross his face towards the fog, Mors waited for about 2 minutes before Genn appeared and whispered, "Ok, the troll is just on the other side, so now slowly move toward more around the tree."

Feeling both his heart and the ground pounding, Mors moved swiftly and quietly as he avoided the troll. Slowly circling the tree, Mors finally reached a point where he could see the trail again. Relief started to dwell in him as he took steps toward the marvelous light. Moonlight, to be specific.

But taking after around 16 of those steps, he heard something snappy behind him as Genn appeared again shouting, "RUN!"