Elfquest #19

Plot

The Wolfriders fight through to the palace gate.

Most of the Go-Backs and the Wolfriders adults have gone into the caves to defeat Guttlekraw, leaving Redlance, the wolves, and a few Go-Backs to defend the den.

The Ice-Trolls are downwind of the wolves, and use Ekuar's brother, a fellow rockshaper captured and tortured by the Trolls, to open an entrance to the den. Suntop senses his kin but cannot understand his sending-feelings in time to warn Redlance.

The trolls invade with great initial ferocity, killing a Go-Back, and advancing deep into the den. But Redlance's powers of treeshaping overtake him. Overcome with paternal instincts, Redlance enters into his Hydian form, and the wooden fixtures of the den begin to grow thorns and choke the Trolls.

Somehow, though improbably, Redlance and the wolves have luck and a brutal attack from the trolls is withstood where the elves were weakest.