Grendel (Part 1)

"Kalla, my friend, you spoke too soon." Lith said with a smirk "Now this is what I call interesting. No one has dared to stop us until we've almost reached our destination. Either Erlik has gone insane or he is afraid that we might discover something.

"Otherwise his goons would have never bothered us."

Most of the plant folk who were grinning at the idea of turning the unwanted guests into fertilizer flinched at those words. Their amused expressions were replaced by anger and suspicion as their gazes moved from the humans to Illum the Treantling.

"Shameless mammal! You are the one who associates himself with an undead. How dare you accuse me of being one of them?" The Treantling's outrage and words were enough to shift the tide in his favor again.

Illum tried to push Lith back, but the small human kept his relaxed stance as if the steel beam thick arms of the Treantling were just a gentle spring rain hitting a mountain.