Another mile they rode, and of a sudden, "Dara Arin," hissed Aiko, riding behind, "my tiger whispers of danger."

"Where away?"

"I cannot say," replied Aiko. "Only that peril draws near."

Arin stopped her horse-Aiko, too-the Dylvana stringing her bow and nocking an arrow. Then she took a deep breath and concentrated, and looked through the fog in her special way… and although the mist yet hampered her sight, she now seemed able to see perhaps twice as far.

Up the slot she looked, as well as behind and down, scanning the walls above as she searched. "I see nought," she whispered.

Aiko, her swords in hand, remained silent.

Still they stood long moments more.

At last Arin asked, "Does it draw nearer?"

"No, Dara."

"Then let us proceed… but at a walk."

Slowly they began moving ahead and up, nearing the crest. Aiko spurred her horse forward to ride alongside Arin.

"The peril grows," said the Ryodoan.

"Then the danger must lie to the fore," muttered Arin, concentrating on her sight.

They came to the crest and started down, still trapped between crevice-raddled vertical walls rising fifty feet or more. And grey vapor swirled about.

Now the horses and ponies began to skit and shy, as if they, too, sensed an unseen menace. And a faint stench came through the dampening mist. They rode forward a few tens of yards, and the reek grew stronger, foul to the point of gagging.

"It is at hand," hissed Aiko, but Arin still could not sight any hazard.

A pony squealed, and from behind there came a loud scrape. Arin whirled her horse 'round in time to see a monstrous form-Ruchlike but hulking and tall-lunge out from a great hole and hammer a massive fist into the neck of one of the small steeds, snapping its spine as if it were but a twig, while the other pony bleated and fled, only to be jerked up short by the rope tied to Arin's saddle.

"Troll!" shouted Arin, as something spun upward through the mist to strike the huge Ogru in the eye.

"RRRAAAAWWW!" roared the Troll in agony, and Arin's horse shied back and down, almost as if struck by a blow. And just as Aiko hurled another shiruken at the twelve-foot-high monster, her horse whirled and bolted and the bladed star merely clanged off the great Ogru's stonelike hide. Caught off balance by the sudden move, Aiko was thrown, and she struck the ground hard but managed to roll to her feet, coming up with her swords in hand. And her horse, squealing in panic, tried to escape, but the dead pony roped to the saddle acted as a massive drag and the horse could not run.

Still the Troll howled in anguish, clutching at its pierced eye and trying to pluck the weapon out. Yowling and thrashing, it lurched between Aiko and Arin.

Arin knew that Aiko's blades, keen as they were, would not cut through the creature's hide, and without a second thought, the Dylvana leapt from her own skitting horse and moved in below the towering monster and took a fixed aim. And as the Troll bellowed in agony, Arin loosed an arrow upward, the shaft to flash into the brute's gaping, yowling maw, punching through the soft inner flesh and driving up into the Ogru's brain.

"GHAAAA…!" howled the monster, and then toppled backward to land with a thunderous crash, the nearly invincible creature dead, slain by nought but a five-bladed star and a steel-tipped wooden shaft.

Her heart yet hammering, Arin nocked another arrow and surveyed the surroundings with battle-wide eyes as Aiko cautiously edged a step at a time toward the monster, her swords at the ready, the warrior moving in to make certain the creature was dead. Finally she reached the Ogru's side. After a moment, her swords yet at the ready, her flared gaze now surveying the field, she hissed, "It is dead."

"I think there are no more," declared Arin in a voice tight with tension. Even so, she did not lower her bow.

They listened long, their eyes wide and scanning, their air coming in short gasps. No other peril hove into view and all they heard was the sound of Aiko's yet frightened horse clattering at the end of the rope tied to the slain pony. Of Arin's horse and pony there was no sign, both having fled on down the pass, away from the hideous Troll.

"My tiger is silent," hissed Aiko.

Arin took a deep breath and slowly let it out and then lowered her bow. After a moment Aiko sheathed her swords and stepped to the side and picked up the wicked-bladed throwing star, the one that had bounced off the Ogru's stony hide. She turned to the Dylvana. "You should have fled, my Lady," said the yellow warrior. "We both should have fled." She gestured at the fallen Troll. "Such a Hitokui-oni cannot be defeated with ordinary weapons."

Arin glanced at the dead Ogru and then back at Aiko.

"Mayhap thou shouldst tell that to the Troll." Then Arin broke into gales of laughter as the battle tension shattered at last, Aiko joining in, covering her own giggles with both hands.

Taking a deep breath and holding it, the Ryodoan stepped to the dead Troll and bent down to retrieve the shiruken embedded in the creature's left eye.

"Take care, Aiko," warned Arin. "Troll's blood is scathing and will burn unprotected flesh."

As Aiko straightened and pulled on a pair of leather gloves, Arin fetched a canteen and handed it to the Ryodoan. "Here, wash any blood away."

Again the yellow warrior bent over the Troll and reached for the embedded shiruken. As Aiko did so, Arin's gaze widened. "Oh, Aiko, I've just had a thought: here we stand in a gloomy mist, and thou dost pluck a blinding thorn from a monster's eye. Could this be the one-eye in dark water? Have we slain our hope?"

With a thuk! the shiruken came free and Aiko, yet holding her breath against the Troll stench, straightened up, her dark eyes wide with Arin's question. Then she shook her head and turned up her hands and said, "I do not know." She looked about. "Perhaps the mist does serve as dark water, and the monster as a one-eye; yet whether or no this fits your vision, I cannot say." She washed the star blade free of grume and dried it, then slipped it back into her belt next to the other. She glanced at Arin and then turned toward the Troll. "Should I cut out the eye of the kaibutsu so that we may take it with us?"

Take these with thee, no more… Arin scrunched her face into a squint of disgust, but turned up a hand and said, "If we find a one-eyed person in Morkfjord, we can always cast this one away. -'Ware the blood."

Aiko nodded and drew her dagger and bent down, but then straightened up and said, "Which eye should we take-the pierced one or the other?"

"Oh," said Arin. She pondered a moment. "The pierced one, I deem, for it is the one which makes him a one-eye."

"But then, Dara, does not the damaged orb make the other one the true one-eye?"

"Aye, it does at that. Yet redes are things of twists and turns, and oft depend on the unusual."

Aiko nodded. "And a pierced Troll's eye is unusual?"

"Indeed," replied Arin. "For had the Ogru but blinked, thy star would not have cloven through and we would now be the ones lying dead instead of the monstrous Troll. But this one lies slain, all because of a damaged eye, and that is what makes this Ogru different from others of its Kind."

And so, Aiko began hacking out the pierced orb, and where Troll's blood struck stone, it sizzled and popped, and threads of dark smoke rose up. Meanwhile Arin retrieved the goods from the slain pony and stripped it of salvageable tack, and laded all on Aiko's still skittish horse. They washed the blood from the damaged eye and wrapped it in the cloth of an empty grain sack and tied it up in another, then slung it with the other goods. Aiko washed and dried her dagger and sheathed it back in its scabbard. And then walking and leading the horse, they started down the mountain pass, going after Arin's runaway steed and the pony tethered after.