Inside of his dark cave in the huge mountains Grigori was doing all he could to keep the dark staff of infinite power hidden. These warlocks were a persistent little clan of idiots that was for sure, he had to admit that much.  Getting tired of these fools, trying desperately to think. He needed to hide it somewhere the sorcerer would never find it. First he considered hiding it in the realms of the underworld, but he didn't work well with demons or  the minions. He didn't want to deal with them unless it was a last resort.

                       While his mind was on the mission, he thought it best to check and see exactly where the warlocks were. He needed to know how much time he had before they got too close. He stalled them with the injured gargoyle. He went over to his crystal ball to see where the sorcerer and his companions were now. He waited for the neon lavender fog to clear enough for him to spy on those irritating warlocks. They need to leave it be, but the Grigori knew if they were going to give up, they would have done so by now. As the smoke began to fade out more and more he could make out the warlocks. He saw that they were already climbing the very mountain where his dark cave was located.

"Son of a bitch!' Shouted the Grigori.

He had to slow them down. He couldn't let them find him, not this quickly. He considered contacting the ancient guardians, but it was too soon to call on them for help. He would need to look for another way to stall them without harm. He would defend the staff at all costs, but he didn't wish to hurt these guys unless given no choice. 

He couldn't let Stergis get the staff and give it to his mate. He was brought here to stop the warlock from fulfilling the prophecy.In a desperate moment of panic, Grigori had attempted to destroy the staff. He tried to smash it with a rock, banging it against the cavern walls it did no good. He thought for a second, the ultimate natural destroyer was fire. So he set it a flame, it didn't work. Then he tried to destroy it with magic. He was wasting his time. It seemed the staff couldn't be destroyed at least not by him.

As Gigori had been consulting his crystal ball, the warlocks were in the mountains checking behind boulders, trying to find the cave where the thief had hidden with the staff. Stergis had faith in his new friends. Even if the cave were hidden manually or magically one of the three of them would find it. They had stumbled into one of the caves, entering with caution the warlocks went in slowly, not sure if it was occupied or not. As soon as they took the third step into he cavern, a fleet of immortal bats came flying at them. Richard was luckily paying attention and grabbed the other two and shoving them to the ground as the bats flew out missing them. Richard was relieved that they hadn't become bat bait.

"Thanks brother." Daniel spoke up, then Stergis said the same thing.

The three of them walked through the cave, keeping their guard up for anymore surprises. The further they went the deeper the cave seemed to be. When they had gotten less than half way through the cave Daniel sensed something in the cave with them. He thought it was just his imagination. They were in a really dark spooky cave, that was all. The three of them walked further into the cave, following twists and winding around even deeper than before. It was like they were exploring a vast field of eternal darkness. They kept going until they rounded a corner and they were met by a pair of glowing green and yellow eyes. They backed up slowly hoping not to provoke whatever this thing was.

The creature slowly began to come out of the corner, suspisious of these men invading his home. He stepped closer into a small patch of natural light had revealed that he wasn't a beast of any kind, but a short foul smelling green troll. They had dealt with trolls before, a highly proud race. Stergis spoke to the troll first, hoping to keep things peaceful.

"Excuse me, we mean you no harm, please forgive us."

"Why are you in my cave?" The troll asked raising one eyebrow as he glared at them.

"I'm looking for a precious magical object, a staff that has been stolen from me." Stergis replied.

"I haven't got a staff, sorry to disappoint you three." The troll told them.

"What's your name?"

"They call me Sherman." They little troll told them.

"I'm Stergis, the big fellow here is Richard, and this is Daniel." He informed the short little guy.

"I haven't seen a staff around here but there are other hidden caves about ten miles up this mountain." Sherman told them with a wink. He could sense it when a person or creature was less than truthful with him. A blessing and a curse if you asked him.

The three of them thanked him for the valuable information. Then they left through the cave and started up the mountain. They had hoped these caves would hold the staff. They spent hours climbing up the treacherous mountain. They were met by bitter cold winds that most wouldn't survive. The warlocks went through it and kept climbing further and further up the dangerous rock filled mountains. After what seemed like eternity, the three warlocks had made it up the mountain. It had been a long and difficult ten mile hike.