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The trip from Arcadia, California to the new heartstone in New Jersey was never expected to be an easy one. Between hiding from the sun, hiding from humans, and fending off the wild creatures that occasionally attacked the group, the trip was proving to be much more annoying than most originally thought.
Jim was one of the people in charge of this group, being the trollhunter and all. He led alongside Blinky, Arrrggh, and a few select trolls he delegated tasks to. Claire was there as well, of course, but she had found that without her shadow staff, many of the trolls paid no mind to her, even when she was trying to stop fights.
It had taken almost 6 weeks just to get to Utah, and it was becoming increasingly difficult to find natural landscape to hide in. They had made it to Salt Lake City, and had made the decision that they would travel through the sewers. They had done it in Arcadia plenty of times, so it couldn't be that different right?
They found very quickly that they were wrong, the layout of the city was strange to them, and the sewers were increasingly worse the further they got into the city. Jim and Blinky had to spend most of the day scouting ahead with a few other trolls to figure out the best path out of the city. Claire had suggested that she and Merlin go above ground to see the layout of the city, but Jim had nixed that idea quickly, stating Merlin would stick out like a sore thumb in his attire.
Claire had to admit that changing out of her armor was one of the best feelings at the beginning of the trip, and she had even managed to convince Merlin to change into something more comfortable and modern. They did have to steal some clothes from a donation bin in Reno to find items that fit the wizard, and their options were limited. So maybe Merlin did look a bit odd, sporting a bright blue Hawaiian style button up with neon pink hibiscus on it, and a random pair of well loved sweatpants that were a sickly shade of green. Additionally, they hadn't been able to find a pair of shoes that fit the man and he was stuck wearing his armored boots.
“Okay, well if Merlin can't go topside, can I at least go up? I'm dying for a real shower and maybe even a bed. I can go looking for a hotel and lead you guys on a direct path out of the city?” Claire had asked Jim when they had stopped for a break to eat.
Jim hesitated, glancing at Claire, “I don't know Claire. I really worry about you separating from the group. I can't protect you up there.”
Claire looked annoyed for a brief second, before returning to her sandwich. Jim understood why she was so irritated, but his own fear outweighed any other thoughts, rational or otherwise.
It was a few, very tense moments, before Claire responded, “Honestly Jim, I wasn't asking. I can't stand being down here anymore, I need to be able to see the sun and I really, really want to take a shower and sleep in a real bed. But I know you’re worried about me, so I’ll make you a deal. I'll walk with you until it's night, then you keep an eye on me while I go find a place to stay and then we can meet in a designated spot in 2 days.”
Jim, startled by Claire's plan, took a minute to think on it, and then relented.
They spent the rest of the evening planning where she would leave the tunnel, where she would stay, and where they would meet in 2 days time. Claire felt bad for feeling so giddy about being able to go to the surface, when she knew Jim wanted to as well, and wanted to be with her, but she couldn't help herself. She was only human, and she felt it every moment she was surrounded by trolls. She just needed some time to herself to refresh, and recharge.
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The time came for Claire and Jim to part ways with the other trolls. The couple made their way through the sewers that let them out near a park that was across from the motel Claire was intending to spend the next two nights at. Never did she think she would be comparing a simple motel to a five-star resort, but when she thought about warm running water, and a room with a pillow and a mattress that she got all to herself, there was no difference to be seen.
Jim guided her through the park, head on a swivel, worried about getting seen by someone even under the cover of darkness. Claire pulled him down for a kiss, which he gladly returned. They pulled apart, and he noticed Claire looking at him, a warm look in her eyes.
“What? Is there something on my face?” he asked with a toothy grin.
Claire shook her head and smiled lovingly. “No, I'm just gonna miss you. I know it's only 2 days, and I asked for this, but I’d rather be able to do it with you. Just relax, not think about magic, or evil eldritch creatures coming to murder us. Do what normal teenagers get to do, y’know?
Jim was mildly surprised, but leaned down until his forehead touched hers, and smiled back softly. “When we’re settled in New Trollmarket, I’ll make sure we get at least a week to each other. No responsibilities. We can just be teenagers, and do what normal teens get to do. Or at least as normal as we can be with one of us being a troll and the other being a mage.”
Claire giggled, before leaving a peck on Jim’s nose. “I’d like that.”
Jim watched as Claire walked across the street into the motel lobby, and waited. He could see the clerk behind the counter speaking to Claire, take cash, then hand her a key card. His gaze never left her form as he watched her walk across the lot to a room on the second floor. Once he was sure the coast was clear, he made his way back to the sewer entrance and slipped back into the void.
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Claire spent the next 16 hours in bliss. She took a hot shower, scrubbing herself of the grime, and weariness of the last few weeks. Feeling clean again, she was made painfully aware of her stomach grumbling. She figured that if she was splurging for a hotel, she could get something delivered and promptly called in an order to the Italian place a few streets over that did delivery. She scarfed down the meal within 10 minutes of its arrival and promptly fell asleep in what was likely the softest bed she had slept on in well over a month.
When she finally woke, it was well into the next day. She realized shortly after waking, just how long she had been asleep, having missed a few check-in calls, and many texts, from Jim. Her stomach also reminded her how long she had slept. Her sole motivation for leaving the bed was a meal. She shot off a quick apology text to Jim, explaining she had been sleeping, and that she was going out in search of food, and would send a route shortly.
She half expected an immediate response but quickly forgot about it as she changed clothes. By the time she returned to the room 2 hours later, she was starting to worry. She managed to rationalize her worries, thinking that it's very likely Jim was in a place with no signal. It wouldn't be unusual, since he was in the sewers, and reception was spotty to start. By that evening, there was still nothing, but she told herself that his phone had probably died.
Despite her anxiety, she fell asleep rather quickly but dreamt of nothing. And the next morning, with still no response from Jim, she felt the pit in her stomach grow. She collected her things, returned the key cards, and began making her way to the meet up location she had send Jim the day prior. She had about an hour to grab food and catch a ride to a large nature park across the city, and hike out to the meeting spot.
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Claire had been waiting at the designated spot for an hour, and was officially panicking. She had called and texted Jim what felt like a million times, and received nothing. Glancing around, she snuck up to the sewer entrance, took a calming breath, and crept in. She began walking further in, hoping to hear some sort of noise indicating their very large group. Trolls weren't well known for being very quiet, even while on their secretive journey.
Claire had mapped out the intended route to escape the city the day before and sent it to Jim. She hoped that while Jim wasn't responding, maybe he had gotten the route, and just intended on leaving the trolls to back track for her. She walked for half an hour, eerie noises of the sewers the only other noise besides her quiet footsteps. With no other choice Claire kept walking, at her pace she should reach the exit they chose that crept out into the mountains within two hours.
By the time she had arrived at the exit she truly was panicking. She didn't know what was going on. There had been no response from Jim at all. She had attempted to even call Blinky on his cheap burner that had gotten for him for emergencies, but the call rang through. Claire sat under a tree, thinking of what to do next. She could wait here, and hope that they were just running behind, or she could back track two and a half hours or further to see if something had happened. Then a worrying thought crossed her mind, maybe they had left her behind?
The thought was shoved aside, but it quickly returned as she stood up and began pacing. ‘There was no way Jim had left her behind right?’ She thought, her hands twisting together with her nerves. ‘No, there's no way, he isn’t like that, and not even Merlin could convince him to leave me behind… At least not without telling me.’
Claire stopped pacing and turned back to the sewer entrance that she had walked out of a few minutes' prior. She thought for a moment before picking her bag up from under the tree and racing back in.
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*The day before*
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Jim was starting to worry. Claire hadn't responded to the first two check in calls that he had made, and she hadn't even seen the text messages that he had sent her either. The worry in his gut was creeping up, and he began contemplating having the trolls take a break while he backtracked to check on her. But before he could ask if anyone wanted a break, he felt his phone buzz. It was a text from Claire saying, “Sorry, I guess I slept pretty late, just woke up, getting food, then will send a route:)”
Jim sighed with relief and noticed Blinky walk over. “Everything alright Master Jim?”
“Yeah, Claire finally responded. Guess she just needed a lot of sleep. She says she’ll send us the route to the exit in a little while. Should we break while we wait?” Jim asked, looking over his shoulder. He noticed a few of the trolls further in the back, were dragging their legs, some even dragging their arms and tails. Blinky nodded and they split to start telling others to rest, that they would be out of the city soon. Jim had sat down and rested for about an hour, when he pulled out his phone again. He noticed at the top it said “No signal” and told Blinky he was going to walk back to find some. As he walked, he felt his phone buzz once again, and saw it was the route from Claire, but realized his phone was back to no signal.
With a growl of frustration, he typed up a text, trying to let Claire know he had limited signal but he got her message with the route and hoped that it would send if he got reception again. Jim made his way back to the group, letting the trolls he passed know they would be leaving again soon and to get ready. Jim ran into ARRGGH and together they walked towards the front of the group and found Blinky speaking with Merlin.
“Hey, Claire sent the route to the mountains, so we should get going. It looks like it might take us about 12 hours to walk there.” Jim announced to the group as he arrived. Merlin grumbled something under his breath before gesturing for Jim and Blinky to lead the way. The first 5 hours of the walk were uneventful, mostly just grumbling from the trolls, complaints about being tired, and about being hungry, and asking for more breaks.
At the beginning of the journey, Jim had asked Blinky how often they needed to stop for breaks, and Blinky confessed that the trolls could walk for 24 hours straight if they needed to, but Jim quickly found that the frequent stops they had been doing for Merlin and Claire, and to break for the day in a safe area, had made many of the trolls on this journey quick to ask for breaks, even when they didn't need one, simply because they were bored of walking.
Jim was about to mumble a complaint to ARRRGGH who was on his right, when he heard a loud noise, and noticed ARRRGGH’s ear twitching toward it too. Jim grabbed his sword from his back. It might not have been Daylight, but it was still just as fierce in his hands. The group behind him came to a halt, and ARRRGGH and Merlin stepped up behind him to investigate. Merlin, who had been illuminating some of the sewer for the journey, shot a flash of light down the tunnel towards where the noise had come from.
At the end of the tunnel, stood a large beast made of rock. It took notice of the three of them, and made a guttural sound, not unlike a growl, but wetter and more gargled. Jim tensed for a moment, before shooting down the sewer tunnel towards the stone beast. He had dealt with these creatures before. Golems, similar to the ones Angor Rot had summoned, but these were natural creations. Small bits of magic, embedded in a rock, or a log, that would build up into large golems if left undisturbed for long enough. They weren't usually in tunnels in a major city, and were usually found in natural caves, or forests where there wasn't much civilization nearby to bother. Jim didn't waste much time thinking about why it had been there, or how it was out of place, simply rushing in and striking it down. Unlike Angor’s golems, these cores could be located anywhere in the body, rather than the center. It took a few swings of Jim's sword to uncover the golems core and for Jim to lunge forwards and grasp it in his hand and crush it.
Jim panted lightly as Merlin and Blinky came over to inspect the debris. Jim watched as Merlin bent down and picked up the rubble of the crushed core. He mused for a moment, rubbing it between his fingers, and then, without hesitation, licked it. Jim cringed and looked at Blinky who seemed to share his sentiment.
“It would seem that something is afoot here. This golem is of natural creation, yet exists where it shouldn’t.” Merlin stated as he stood up. “We should keep moving, but be on guard.”
Jim nodded in agreement, but before the group could continue further, he heard a shout from the other end of the tunnel, and then more and more cries of distress rang out, and Jim bolted through the crowd. With nearly a hundred trolls crowding the sewer, it was much easier said than done but being slimmer and shorter had its perks. He reached the other end of the group, and noticed four more golems had appeared, and one was noticeably larger than the others. Jim took a swing at the nearest one who had been cornering a round and stout troll. One slice with the sword revealed that the core was located in the back of the neck, and Jim's next strike was carefully calculated to slice clean through it. The golem crumbled, but Jim didn't have the time to check on the troll who was trembling against the wall, as another of the golems came up behind him and caught him across the side with a well-timed swing of its arm.
Jim grunted and was tossed aside, smashing into another one of the golems, this one made of something considerably harder than the first two he had taken down. He rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding the foot of the golem coming down on his head. As he stood, he took account of his surroundings, seeing the troll that had been cornered had managed to get up and run to the group.
“Go! Get back! I’ll distract them, get out of here!” Jim roared to the group of trolls, they all scrambled back, trying to push their way past each other. Jim hoped that they didn't get lost in the sewers, knowing full well it would be a disaster if they had to stop to search the maze of tunnels for them later.
Jim was pulled from his thoughts again as one of the golems took another swipe at him. This time Jim jumped aside, dodging and taking note of the three remaining golems in front of him. The one that had caught him unaware before looked to be mostly rocks and twigs, the other small one next to it, made of much the same, thought more twig than rock. The third golem was the largest, and it looked hard. Jim rolled his shoulders to relieve some of the ache from where he had crashed into it; it certainly felt hard. The rocky one trundled forward, the twiggy one following close behind it, but strangely the hard looking one simply stood, and seemed to watch. Jim didn't waste time, swinging at the rock golem first, cutting its arm off, then turning to ‘Twiggy’ as he dubbed it, and slicing at its legs. ‘Rocky’ reattached its arm, and attempted to swing both toward Jim, but he quickly countered and stabbed his sword through the center and swiped. He must’ve been lucky, as his sword caught the core on the way, and ‘Rocky’ crumbled to the ground.
Jim spun around and came face to face with the hard looking one. Being this close, Jim could tell that it was made of some kind of uncut gemstone, translucent in some spots, rough cuts in others. Jim jumped back and was met with ‘Twiggy.’ It grabbed Jim by the horn and swung him around into the wall. A loud crack could be heard, and Jim slumped to the floor dizzy and disoriented. The rough cut golem approached, lifted him by the horns and seemed to gaze into him. These golems had no face, no eyes or mouths, but Jim still felt like it was gazing at him, almost judging.
A bright light came from his right and crashed through Twiggy, and into the arm of the rough golem. It dropped him at the same time Twiggy came crumbling apart, and the remaining golem turned its attention to the source of the light. Merlin stood, another spell dancing above him ready to fire. It almost appeared as if the golem was thinking of its options, when it turned and began walking away. Jim tried to get up to reach his sword, but he froze when he heard what Merlin said.
“Go back to your master, golem, and tell them Merlin is with this group, and so long as I am, you will have no such luck on another attack as this.” Jim watched the golem turn toward Merlin, before it turned again and walked into the darkness. Blinky was at his side within moments, fretting over him. ARRRGGH came over, helped Jim stand and held him steady while he tried to shake the blackness from his vision.
“What was that?” Jim questioned the wizard.
Merlin sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, and ground out “It would seem that someone is bothered with us. I'm unsure at the moment if this is simply because of our location and we’re in someone's territory, or if this is a bigger issue someone has taken with me and is attacking the group as collateral.”
Jim didn't know what to say to that. What issue would someone have with Merlin? Besides his own personal issues he has with the man, Jim wasn't sure of anyone else who was still alive that had beef with Merlin. “Look, let's just break here for a while, we need to regroup, and make sure no one got lost, and tend to anyone that might’ve gotten injured.” Jim said, but the exhaustion within him was hard to hide. ARRRGGH guided Jim to the wall and sat him down, “Jim stay here. Rest. ARRRGGH go find trolls.”
Blinky nodded beside his mossy friend, “Yes ARRRGGH is right. You’ve been wounded and should rest. We will tend to the lost and injured and allow the others to rest. Merlin, please watch over your champion while we attend to these duties?”
Merlin grumbled but nodded his head and waved the two trolls away. Jim watched as they walked into the others and disappeared into the sea of trolls. He turned his attention to Merlin who had knelt in front of him and had swirled some kind of magic spell into his hand. Jim, startled, attempted to jump up and to the side, but only managed a pitiful crumble onto his right side as his vision swam for a moment. Merlin tutted, “Calm down boy. I'm simply going to allow you to rest and recover quicker, you'll be sleeping for a while but when you awaken, you'll be healed.”
And before Jim could protest further, his vision filled with green light, then blackness as his consciousness left him.
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*Present*
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Claire had been walking down the sewer tunnel for nearly an hour when she finally heard murmurs. Voices! She could hear the distinctive clink of stone feet on the concrete ground and hoped that they were trolls in the group, and not local trolls. As the voices and the steps came closer, Claire also began noticing a faint green light. It was Merlin! Relief flooded her body as she ran forward to greet them.
“AH!! Fair Claire! We were beginning to worry! We knew we were running far behind schedule, and we didn't know where we might meet you.” Blinky had been the first to see her and run forward to meet her.
“What happened? I've been texting and calling Jim like crazy. I even called you!” Claire questioned, relief and annoyance mixing in her tone.
“We were ambushed by golems. Someone controlling them, intending to cause inconvenience at best it seems.” Merlin said, stepping forward next to Blinky.
Blinky looked offended, one of his hands coming to his chest and one coming up to his mouth. A scoff escaped him, and he ground out, “I would hardly call 6 wounded and an incapacitated trollhunter an inconvenience.”
Claire’s anxiety returned to full force at his sentence. “What do you mean an incapacitated trollhunter?”
That’s when she noticed a blue figure peaking over ARRRGGHS back. She rushed forward and took note of him. Jim looked fine, even if he was unconscious. She attempted to shake him awake and was furious when Merlin's hand grabbed her shoulder to stop her.
“James is under a spell; he will simply be asleep until he recovers. My spell will allow his body to heal while he sleeps. He will be fully recovered before nightfall, so fear not.”
Claire took a breath, glared at Merlin, and turned to Blinky.
“Well then, should we get going? The edge of the route is back this way. It should be clear” Claire said with a gesture towards the way she had come.