[hr][center][h1]Between a Rock and a Hard Place[/h1]
[@Mag Lev][@Rune_Alchemist][/center][hr]

[b]"Dryad?"[/b]
The shambling hulk lumbered a few steps toward the Nara. The dark crevices it presumably used as eyes narrowed. Rubble twisted behind its face with tremendous effort. Thinking seemed to overexert the troll. Thoughts came slowly and distilled over time like crystals forming. Fortunately, some formed faster than others.
[b]"Don't know dryad. Only trolls allowed-"[/b] It started repeating itself when its granite jaw suddenly fell to the ground. In the confusion, a lizard scurried out of its mouth. The troll ground to halt, stooped forward, and, with the great care one typically displays for newborn children, placed the thin slab of rock back in proper jaw-like position. It straightened and began again. 
[b]"Only trolls allowed 'ere. Human village is beyond the river. Calls it Jhorm."[/b] Clumps of dirt pelted the ground as the troll's torso twisted westward. It raised a knobby arm covered in short, blue-green grass and ashen roots. It didn't have fingers to point with so it gestured vaguely according to some sense of direction. 
[b]"Humans is not supposed to be in the Devil's Spine. Bad things 'ere."[/b] It paused briefly and its eye sockets shuddered with the burden of thought. Small earthen spike grew from its other limb. 
[b]"Grendel eat humans."[/b] Another spike slowly raised through a patch of moss. 
[b]"Wolf eat humans."[/b] Then another. 
[b]"Human eat humans. Shadow eat human. Mist eat human."[/b] Each time it recounted an item on its mental list, another spike raised along its arm. The troll recalled a vast litany of things which ate humans.  
[b]"...Troll eat humans. But. This one likes dwarves better."[/b] It said at last, gesturing at itself with an arm no different than a spiked club.

With a sudden, preternatural quickness, the troll's body crumbled and violently rearranged itself. It was looking at the mountain peaks in the distance. Then a cascade of white plumes began stampeding down the mountainside. A crack of muffled thunder rush past the three bystanders. Then the world shuddered.  An awful keening pierced through the tidal wave of primal noise and collided with the troll. It burst apart into loamy chunks and bits of rock and littered the ground.

After the shockwave passed, a mossy head of rock rolled loose from the root of a nearby tree. A crooked line formed along one side and then cracked open. Familiar empty sockets stared wordlessly at the mountain and the gold-winged creatures flying among them. 
[b]"The scream and frozen howl... This one knows it."[/b] It spoke without a mouth, its words trembling nervously through the ground. 
[b]"Trolls leave."[/b] The fissures of its eyes abruptly fused shut and the once animated stone head went silent. 
In the foothills, the forest moved. All manner of creature were fleeing the mountains.