All the Little Songbirds, All the Silent Trees

The cu-sith snarled, and this time it did bark, once. The vibrations hit all three humans. Tove shivered and Beck's knees went weak, but it could have been much worse.

Aeron staggered to the side, then shouted another spell at the top of his lungs -- not that he could hear himself -- trying again.

The cu-sith went down on its knees, and Tove shouted something else. Vines erupted from the ground, wrapping around the beast's paws. The house struggled, and it opened its mouth and barked again. Beck sank to the ground, trembling.

Aeron started forward nearer the commotion, hitting it with another burst of magic in an attempt to make it close its mouth. They were getting there.

The hound yelped and recoiled, struggling in vain to get free. It barked a third time, and Beck went still. Tove's vision blacked out for a second and she swayed dizzily. The deafening had worked but she felt shaky, she wasn't sure she could perform another spell.

Aeron threw up, feeling ill from the top of his head to the soles of his feet. Fuck this monster. He shakily forced himself to straighten his back muttered another spell, this time getting vines of his own around the cu-sith's neck and pinning it to the ground.

The cu-sith let out a strangled moan, lashing its tail in frustration.
The ground beneath it stirred.
Tove steadied herself against a tree, trying to make her way forward.

Aeron waved, trying to get her attention and see if she was okay. He didn't have any idea at all how he was supposed to ask the troll to crush the cu-sith if they couldn't hear. This hadn't been the plan.

She turned, about to say something, when the three boulders beside the grass hump shot upward and the hill opened. A wide, rocky mouth full of square teeth bent forward and suddenly the cu-sith was gone, and the mouth was a hill again, albeit grinding rather noisily. Two of the rocks had slid back to reveal a pair of bright brown eyes, which gazed inquisitively at the three humans.

"Thank you!" Aeron shouted too-loud, still unable to hear himself or anything else.

Tove waved the spell away, and the waterfall roar returned.
"Ohur tow lohud," the troll rumbled in a deep, slow voice. "Oy ken yuh, now naid tow beller."
Beck was still out cold on the ground.

“Sorry!” He was still too loud but shook himself now that he could hear, clearing his throat and repeating at an appropriate tone, “sorry.”

Tove took a shaky step forward.
"Yow likkluns ur messin' sommut fearce," the troll said, shifting so her head was raised above the ground. The hillock itself made up only the top of it, which was covered in grass and moss. Beneath that hung rootlike hair covered in dirt. Her face was craggy and wrinkled, colored like the top of a tree fungus but very kind. She had a long, loose-skinned neck beneath that and it appeared that the rest of her body was nestled into a deep, wide burrow. "Bayuh will?"

“What?” He rubbed his face, feeling dazed.

"She asked if we're alright," Tove told him, coughing. "Yes, marm." She straightened, leaning on her staff. "Thank you. We needed some help."
"Sor oy hurrd." Unna nodded her shaggy head. "Cu-sith's nort tuh torsle wid." She shifted again and a long, knobbly hand wavered out of the burrow, pointing a spindly finger at Beck. "Be thissun will? They's slaypin lung'n ord."