Kasado looked at the tunnels, before turning to his aide, "Bring five scouts, and equip them with ten oil lamps each. They shall walk through the tunnel placing the lamps on the ground for each twenty paces that they walk; this will ensure that either our way is completely lighted once they go and return, or that something awaits us in the darkness if the scouts do not return and the oil lamp trail suddenly stops when we enter."
The aide nodded, shouting the orders to the scouts and Kamule herders.
Minutes passed. Kasado watched from where he was as the oil lamps lit up one by one along the tunnel. Soon you could see through the tunnel quite clearly. There were no visible obstacles in the tunnel as far as Kasado could see, though the length of the tunnel made it impossible to see what was at the very end of it.
Suddenly one of the scouts took a turn to the right as they were heading back towards the army, into a smaller tunnel sprouting in another direction into the mountain, despite audible protests from his companions. The other scouts also stopped and seemed to be waiting for him. After just about ten seconds, there was a loud scream from the scout further in, followed by a loud, angry roar, and then a very loud bang as something large and heavy seemed to hit stone. The other four scouts jumped in fear and quickly began running towards Kasado, not very eager to wait and see what made that sound.
They didn't need to, though, as within a few seconds, Kasado made a startled gasp as
a huge creature rushed out into the main tunnel, his momentum slamming his shoulder into the tunnel wall, but soon ran after the scouts with heavy steps. Kasado recognized the creature to be a troll; a creature he had until now only heard and read of. It was at least three metres tall, it was carrying a huge home-made club, and it seemed angry to have its home disturbed. With a loud roar, the troll struck down with his club, stopping one of the screaming scouts in his tracks as he crushed him against the floor.
"TROLL!!"one of the soldiers yelled out behind Kasado, and he saw his men starting to panic. Kasado looked around for a moment. He had to act, and he had to act now.