Fifteen year old Jason runs through the woods as fast as he can. Jacob to his left and Sarah to his right.

“He’s catching up to us!”, Jason yells to his two friends.

“I told you not to take the quest, but you never listen to me!”, yells Sarah as the thunderous footsteps of the giant troll crushes trees.

“Guys! Now is not the time!”, Jacob yells to them.

The trio runs and hops over fallen tree trunks.

The troll grabs a tree trunk and swings it at the trio crushing trees during its swing.

The trio ducks as the trunk goes over their heads. They are one mile from the town of Magra.

“We can’t let that thing get close to Magra!”, Jason yells, “How many arrows do you have left Sarah?”

“Uh…..”, Sarah looks back at her quiver, “Five!”

“Great. That’s not enough. Ryan, remember that move that we made up where we launch one of us into the air!?”, Jason yells to Ryan.

“Yeah. Where are you going with this?!”, Ryan yells to Jason.

“Well. I want you to launch me up in the air!”, Jason yells.

“Are you crazy!?”, Sarah and Ryan yell in unison.

“Maybe just a little!”, Jason yells back.

“No, no, no, no, no, no!”, Ryan yells back.

“Ryan! Now!”, Jason yells.

Jason moves diagonally toward Ryan. Ryan looks surprised as Jason jumps toward him. Ryan quickly puts his hands out as Jason lands on them. Ryan pushes up launching Jason in the air. Jason flies twenty feet in the air. He takes out his two daggers in mid-air and then digs them into the trolls shoulders.

The troll screams out of frustration, not pain because the daggers barely penetrated the troll’s thick hide. The troll tries to grab at Jason.

“Guys! This didn’t go as planned! Think of something!”, Jason yells.

They are within three thousand feet from Magra.

“Ryan! Give me your rope!”, Sarah yells.

“Why!?”, Ryan yells.

“Just do it!”, Sarah yells.

Ryan fumbles through his sack and grabs the rope, then tosses it to Sarah. Sarah grabs the rope and ties it to one of her arrows. She aims at a tree while running and shoots the arrow with her bow. The arrow sticks in the tree. She grabs another arrow quickly and ties the rope around it. She aims at another tree and shoots. The arrow is slammed into the tree.

The troll is to worried about Jason to realize the rope twenty feet in front of him. It’s foot gets caught in the rope causing it to trip. The trees snap at the weight of the troll coming closer to the trolls head and Jason!

Jason jumps from the troll’s back as the massive tree trunks slam against the trolls head crushing cheek bones. The troll falls disoriented and severely hurt.

Jason is twenty feet from solid earth. The only thing protecting his body is a thin plate of armor. Jason braces for impact.

BAM!

Jason lands with a thud causing the air to be knocked out of him. His back is bruised. He sits up slowly holding his back. He stands and walks over to his friends who are staring at the five foot head of the troll that is bleeding. Jason climbs onto it’s back and retrieves his daggers. He slides them back into their twin holsters. He slides down.

“So…..What now?”, Ryan asks breaking the silence.

“We kill it. Like the quest said”, Ryan answers.

He takes out the sword that his mom gave him. He holds it uneasy as if it doesn’t suit him. He holds it over the now sobbing troll’s head. A tear rolls down Jason’s face as the troll’s eye stares into his. There is a pause. Jason puts down his sword not injuring the troll. The troll’s eyes soften.

“I can’t do it”, Jason says looking at the troll.

“Well its your quest. You have to”, Sarah says.

“Look at him. He didn’t want to harm us or anybody. He was minding his own business. it’s the kids fault for stumbling into his cave. He’s territorial”, Jason answers.

“So what do you want to do? Just leave it here?”, Sarah asks.

“No. We got to help it. Get the rope off of it’s feet”, Jason answers.

“I’m not going near that thing”, Sarah says.

“Fine”, Jason turns his attention to the troll, “Hey, were going to get those ropes off of you okay. Don’t worry.”

The troll nods it’s head in agreement.

Jason runs to the trolls feet and slams the sword down on the rope tangling the troll’s feet.

The troll now noticing his feet are free slams his foot against Jason’s chest plate making him fly into a tree trunk. He falls off the tree to the ground unconscious.

“Ah crap!”, Sarah says looking at Jason.

The troll stares at Ryan and Sarah with anger. Its mouth swings freely due to the broken bones.

“Any bright ideas now”, Ryan says to Sarah staring at her with hope.

“I was hoping you had one”, Sarah answers Ryan cracking a fake smile.

The troll lifts his arms and slams them down cracking the earth and sending a tremor knocking Sarah and Ryan to their backs. It quickly lifts its left leg up and slams it down in the area where Ryan is. Ryan quickly rolls out of the way/ but the shockwave lifts him off the ground ten feet in the air. The troll swats Ryan in mid air sending him flying through the air. He screams then slams against a massive tree breaking his nose and denting his chest plate bruising his ribs.

*




*




*

Jason, while knocked out, is having flashbacks of fifteen years ago. He remembers opening his eyes for the first time. He remembers staring at a man who quickly held him and gazed into his eyes. He remembers the love oozing off of the kiss from this man. He remembers the panic when the man heard the roar of Rio’s army approaching. Anger surges through Jason realizing he has no idea who this is. He wants to know who he is. A part of him wants to know more. His anger is about to burst. He remembers letting the troll live and seeing the love in its eyes…its understanding. Then in a blink of an eye everything changed from love to hate. The troll slammed him…hurt him. His anger is unleashed! He awakens.

*




*




*

“AHHHHHHHH!!!!!”, Jason yells as he awakens, his anger boiling.

He stands up and runs at the goliath.

The troll quickly turns its attention from Sarah to Jason.

Jason charges the beast grabbing his twin daggers. The troll prepares to kill Jason. It slams both fists together slamming Jason in between. The troll keeps both hands slammed shut and gives a broken smile at his work.

Sarah can not believe what she just witnessed. Her mouth stays open and tears start falling from her face as she realizes that the boy she’s known for her whole life is dead.

SHHHHHH!

A burning noise comes from the trolls hands. The trolls expression is one of terror as its hands burn melting bones. The troll roars in pain. Its hands turn bright red rather than its normal green skin tone. The trolls hands seem to melt.

BOOM!

The trolls hands explode! Only the joints of its wrists remain. Blood and liquefied bone shoots everywhere. The troll screams in pain.

There in the middle of the trolls bloody mess is Jason, completely unharmed. His eyes seem to be glowing red with rage. He walks to the troll which is now backing up in terror.

Jason turns his head toward Sarah revealing his face which looks like its on fire, “Sarah throw me your bow and two arrows…Now!!!”

Sarah hesitates, then throws what Jason asked.

Jason prepares one arrow and shoot it extremely fast. The arrow goes through the trolls massive eyeball. The troll roars in pain. Jason prepares the last arrow and shoots it at the troll’s other eyeball. The troll now is blind. It falls to its back. Jason climbs up its legs then its torso and finally to its head. He takes both daggers and shoves them into the trolls eye sockets lodging them into the trolls brain. The trolls seizes breathing. Jason walks back down to the earth. He walks over to Sarah giving her bow back. The redness in Jason’s face seems to die down.

“What?…..What did you….How did you?”, Sarah mumbles.

“I don’t know”, Jason says, “Where is Ryan?”

Sarah points in the direction staring at Jason. Jason walks away from her. Sarah stares at the back of Jason’s head as he walks.

Jason unstraps his dented chest plate. He throws it on the ground. He sees Ryan lying there with blood trickling down the side of his mouth. He knees down beside him and takes off Ryan’s chest plate. He picks up Ryan and walks back to Sarah.

“Why didn’t you help him?”, Jason says walking past her.

Sarah just stares not saying a word.

The journey to Magra takes thirty minutes. Jason never loses his pace carrying Ryan. Something inside of him has been freed. Something dark and uncontrollable has been unleashed….and its only the beginning.