"Yes. Troll not dead yet though. Go! Fight! Win! Try not die again!"

In the distance there's another guttural roar. 

"Right." She's going to kill that thing for killing her, that seems the most productive use of her time right now. 

She draws her axe, and makes for the wall. 

When she makes it there, the troll is bleeding in dozens of places, blue blood staining the earth. Half of her old body is on the ground, pressed into the dirt, purple fur tossed around. The guards are taking potshots from behind the wall and slowly whittling it down.  

As she watches, the guard captain draws his bow and fires it directly into the troll's right eye. 

It reaches, up, presses its meaty palm to its eye, and seems confused for a long moment...

Then slumps forward, its body slamming into the wall with a reverberation that shakes the whole palisade, and falls. 

It tries to push itself up, but more shots slam into it from the wall above. 

It tries to drag itself away - but there's no more strength in its limbs. 

Its face falls into the dirt, and it dies. 

Serves the damn thing right. 

... God, that's really half of her body there on the ground. 

She needs to puke. 

She manages to stumble off the wall and find an out of the way corner to retch into. 

All her porridge from this morning comes up, and then some.

That spice tastes a lot worse on the way up than on the way down. 

The guard captain descends the wall, and claps Hibiscus on the shoulder wordlessly. 

He nods. Then he takes a step away and makes a formal bow. 

She guesses everyone here already has a first time they died in combat. 

She manages a shaky smile, and presses her hand to her heart. 

The guard captain points towards the center of the town.

Right, she should go tell Aria the good news.

The fire is still roaring in the center of town when she returns.

Aria looks to the guard captain with a smile, and speaks.

They exchange words for a few minutes, then the guard captain excuses himself. 

"Captain Skadri say you very brave. He say will burn old body. No need you look."

"Good, that's... good." 

She exhales. 

"I died."

"But you still here."

Hibiscus laughs. "Guess I am."

"We go get wood now. Need more, replace wood spent to keep you alive." 

Hibiscus takes a shaky breath. 

"Okay." 

And out to the woods they go, accompanied once more by a pair of guards.