Once everything was ready, Blade Tusk left behind one-fifth of the hunter teams for the exchange, then set off with all the underage Trolls of the Nomen Tribe who were capable of traveling long distances.
With the river's help, the return journey took nearly half as long. In less than three days, the Troll party reached the stretch of river belonging to the Finae Tribe.
Once there, at Blade Tusk's signal, the Trolls brought out the temporary large paddles they had prepared earlier and began rowing for the riverbank with all their might.
Clearly, their boat-handling skills—something they had crammed at the last minute—were wildly unreliable. Luckily, brute force worked miracles, and they barely managed to reach the shore.
By the time they landed, though, the "fleet's" formation was a complete mess. The worst paddlers might have been rowing vertically, since they drifted several thousand meters farther downstream before finally reaching the bank.
In stark contrast to the exhausted adult Trolls were the young Trolls mixed among them. Having never experienced the hardships of steering a boat, and with most of them leaving their tribe for the first time in their lives, they were shrieking and chattering in excitement.
After reaching shore, the Trolls dragged the rafts with one hand and picked up their weapons with the other.
Some of those assigned to the "childcare" task casually tucked half-grown Troll children beneath their arms and strode toward the place where Blade Tusk had previously landed.
After quite a chaotic "battle," the party finally regrouped beneath the curious gazes of the garrison force that had come after receiving word, as well as the Finae Trolls.
Blade Tusk counted them and found that no one was missing. Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief and lead the Trolls toward Finae