Navigating the darklands in order to find Bonely was much easier this time around. But…far more terrifying.
Seeing as how he’d been very strictly ordered not to come back.
And he was terrified that the giant troll would hold him hostage.
Still, Theo padded his way along until he found the brewery and the long slinky shape of the disguised sailor looked up at the entrance. There was no potion involved this time, and it was for that reason he was braving the magic-castor’s wrath in the first place. Theo sat up on his haunches, took a deep breath, and then pushed the door open.
Everything towered over his head, reminding him that even in a troll form he was far, far smaller than most of the inhabitants here. He dropped back to all fours and slunk inside. “Bonely?” Theo called, “I uh…sorry to be…here. Ah…I have a couple small, totally not a big deal…kinda questions.”
Bonely gazed up at the gigantic vat which housed the largest of his growing heartstones. Even with its metallic housing, the heartstone radiated health and warmth, saturating the water it soaked. Other, smaller vats did the same, but not nearly to the extent of this one.
"Ahh, this one's comin' along swell!" he said with a grin and turned to see which change of the guard had come in. What he saw was a small, turquoise changeling scampering across the floor like a ferret in trouble. And boy was he in trouble.
The caster's ears pinned back, his eyes narrowed, and he took his hand off the vat. "Keep an eye on this will yeh?" he muttered to his thrall assistant, "I got somethin' teh take care of."
Dropping to all fours, Bonely trotted over. "A'right, I'm going teh go out on a limb here 'n' guess that somethin' really bad has happened. Otherwise, I don't think yeh'd be here." He stopped and looked the slinky rust troll over and raised a stony eyebrow. "So, what'd yeh do this time?"