Age of Lions
Chapter 3
Herding Cats
Marshall drove on his vespa with Talia holding on tight to him as they drive down the road leading them straight to the warehouse where the trolls lay hidden. He looked at his review mirror seeing Talia with not just concern for the troll's safety. This was something else. The young wizard apprentice had been noticing that the girl had been awfully quiet since they moved the trolls to a secure location. He wondered if it had something to do with losing Trollmarket or from what happened at the Janus Order.
Marshall made a turn into the forest down a gravel trail with his headlights showing them the old rusty building just ahead with Jim and Toby there. He drove and parked upfront and turned off his scooter.
"Took you two long enough," Toby said. "What kept yah?"
Marshall took a quick good look at the old building and seeing that it was still one piece and everything seem to be all quiet. "How bad is it that you have to drag me and everyone to this place? It doesn't look like utter chaos to me."
"Just come inside." He said. "You'll see what I- -"
"Duck!" Jim shouted, pushing Toby aside.
Jim's amulet highlighted two small spheres that landed beside them and started spewing fumes of smoke. Talia quickly transformed into her beast-form as Marshall's hand glowed getting into a defense position. But instead of a terrible threat, Steve leaped out of the woods and said, "The jig is up losers! You've just been caught –"
"By the Creepslayerz!" Eli Pepperjack finished as he jumped right next to Steve.
Talia raised an eyebrow with her jaw hanging in a dull expression by their dramatic entrance. Toby traded a confused look with Jim and Marshall, then said, "Y'know, that would've been a lot cooler if your smoke bombs actually worked."
Steve and Eli looked down, seeing how the smoke never rose above Jim and the others feet.
"You, mean, it didn't seem like we appeared out of thin air?" Eli asked adjusting his glasses.
Steve kicked away the sputtering smok bombs like they were two ting soccer balls and yelled, "I told you these were lame!"
"Maybe we can return them to the magic shop," said Eli. "My mom saved the receipt!"
Jim pointed at the unlikely duo and asked, "Are you two. . . hanging out now?"
"None of your business, Lake!" Steve said. "But do you know what our business is?"
"Making unnecessarily dramatic entrances?" guessed Toby.
"Wearing black shirts, helmets, and paints on your faces to make yourselves look cool?" Marshall teased.
"No, Newbie!" Steve snapped. "Our business is finding out what you and those . . .those Trolls have been up to all this time!"
"You did promise to answer a few thousand questions, Jim," Eli reminded him.
"You're right," Jim said. ""I owe you that. Okay, it all started when I got this Amulet-"
He paused when the warehouse's last intact window shattered above them. A little green Changeling flew out of the building and landed on his diapered rear next to Steve and Eli.
"What're you two glorks lookin' at?" barked NotEnrique as he dusted himself off.
"Maybe I should explain on the got," Jim suggested as Toby opened the warehouse door.
The stunned Creepslayerz followed Jim, Toby, Marshall, Talia, and NotEnrique inside, only for their jaws to drop in surprise. Thousands upon thousands of Trolls filled the building, hefting large wooden crates and shouting at one another in Trollspeak. Some Trolls yanked cinderblocks out of the walls to build makeshift caves. Some chased hungrily after the stray cats that lived in the warehouse. And some merely hung from the rafters, chugging foamy, sloshing mugs of glug.
"I see what you mean, Tobes," said Jim sidestepping a glug spill, "Seriously un-crispy."
"The Trolls've been like this ever since we brought them to the surface," Toby explained.
"Well what'd you expect? They lost their home." Marshall said. "It's obvious they end up having a hard time adjusting to the change."
"Start talking before I start punching, Lake," Steve said. But when Talia stepped up beside Jim. The boy cowardly screamed and covered his head waiting to expect the amazon to throttle him. He creaked his eye opened and saw her just walking up ahead through without a care. This made him confused and quite surprised. Jim too did not expect this of Talia.
"Well, anyway," Jim returning back to focus, now wading through the chaos around them. "I think you know the basics by now, but long story short: Trolls have lived in secret beneath us for thousands of years. They're usually friendly-"
"So long as you fleshbags keep yer distance," NotEnrique said.
"Although there are expections. Not to mention the seriously evil Trolls we're on the run from – the Gumm-Gumms," said Jim, his brow knitted in worry. "They're let by this maniac, Gunmar, who wants nothing less than to destroy every human and rule the world."
"Oh, and to make an ocean of blood from Jim's loved ones and turn Talia to his most powerful weapon," Toby chimed in helpfully, before Marshall slapped him behind the head. "Ow!"
"Of course, how could I forget?" Jim said with an eye roll. "Anyway, Gunmar used to be trapped in another dimension called the Darklands. Which was also where Talia was during her absence these past months. . .until a few days ago. But now that he's taken over the Troll's home, we've had to relocate them up here. Which we couldn't have done without the . . .uh, Creepslayerz? That's really what you're calling yourselves?"
"So all this time when you've been sneaking off with Dolmzaski, Nunez, and Cadden. . .?"
"Was all to help save Talia and stopping Gunmar," Marshall said, side stepping from a Troll carrying a heavy crate.
"Just like all the other Trollhunters who came before Jim. Only, lately, we haven't been doing so hot."
"Great Gronka Morka!" said a familiar voice, making Jim, Toby, Marshall and Talia turn around.
Blinky stepped out of the mas of stir-crazy Trolls, followed by his gigantic companion, Arrrgh.
"Hey, Blink. Hey, Wingman," greeted Toby, fist-bumping all four of Blinky's hands, then Arrrgh's two massive paws.
Eli tentatively touched the runes etched along Arrrgh's powerful arms, and whispered, "Whoa . . . stone for skin. And it's warm!"
"Tickles," giggled Arrrgh.
"So, how's your first day on the job, oh fearless Troll leader?" Toby asked Blinky.
"Heavy is the head that wears the crown, Tobias," answered the six-eyed Troll. "We've been sorting through all the crates of Troll artifact RotGut could carry. But getting a warefhouse full of Trolls to follow orders is like. . .what's the human expression? Ah yes-herding cats!"
"Cats?" asked a passing Troll, licking his lips in anticipation. "Where?"
"Not now, Plagsnork!" griped Blinky before going back to massaging his temples. "It pains me to admit it, but I'll never be the leader Vendel was. Or Rundle, and Kilfred before him."
"Ah, you'll do great, Blink," Jim said. "After all, you've been a great teacher to me."
Speaking of teachers, Jim had wanted to tell Blinky and Talia about his recent run-in with Strickler. But now Jim figured the news could wait, seeing his six-eyed friend so harried by his new duties and Talia still looking down. After all, the Trollhunter knew all too well what it felt like to be overwhelmed by responsibility.
"Penny for your thoughts, Romeo," cam a new, somewhat tired, voice.
Jim roused back to the present and saw Claire Nunez leaning against her Shadow Staff like a crutch. She smiled, her eyes sparkling despite the dark, puffy bags under them.
He hugged her and said, "So, what'd your parents think of you new hairdo?"
Jim ran his fingers through a bone-white lock of Claire's otherwise black hair.
The streak had always been dyed blue. . .until she transported half of Trollmarket's population to Arcadia with her Shadow Staff. The strain of such a feat had some how bleached her hair from blue to white, although Jim thought Claire looked great in any color.
"Haven't shown them yet," Claire yawned. "I've just been hanging out here at Troll-a-palooza until I get my strength back from that shadow-jump."
"But that was hours ago," Jim said. "Maybe my mom should give you a checkup-"
A booming crash interrupted Jim. Two distracted Trolls had collided and dropped the heavy crates they were carrying. The scattering Troll goods across the warehouse floor – as well as a nest of stowaway Gnomes. The sight of their pointy red hats whipped the Trolls into a brand-new frenzy, causing them overturn more crates and demolish more of the warehouse. When a couple of the Gnomes skittered under Steve's shirt, he shrieked, "Ew! Ew! Ew! Get 'em off, Eli!"
Eli tried to cat the squirrely critters- only to grab their hats, exposing huge horns underneath. NotEnrique roared with more laughter, while Jim and Team Trollhunters attempted to corral the Gnomes and quell the panic spreading across the warehouse.
Despite from all of the loss and depression Talia is dealing with. She knew that she had to get her head in the game. She tried to catch the scurrying Gnome, but then felt a ripping pain from her scalp, "Ye-OWWW!" She spotted the second Gnome making a raspberry face with a handful strands of her hair. Seriously?! They are doing that?! As if getting a haircut from the Darklands was bad enough.
In the confusion, the Creepslayerz backed into a teetering stack of RotGut's crates and accidently toppled them. An oddly shaped Troll contraption tumbled out of one of the boxes and smashed against the concrete floor.
"A Kairosect!" Jim said, recognizing the damaged device. "Guys, we can use this to pause time and put these pointy little Gnome genies back into their bottle!"
"A splendid strategy, Master Jim!" hollered Blinky , holding four wriggling Gnomes in each of his hands. "Although its effects last only forty-three minutes and nine seconds- and I seriously question whether that's long enough to put an end to this magnitude of madness!"
The Trollhunter bent over to retrieve the Kairosect. But before he could touch it, an arc of green electricity jumped out of its cracked casing. Jim recoiled his hand as more and more strange energy currents sparked from the Kairosect's exposed inner workings.
"Uh, I don't think it's supposed to to that," Toby said.
Jim pushed Steve and Eli clear of the expanding energy's radius making them accidently knock over Talia and said, "We need to contain this, this-whatever it is-before it spreads to the rest of the warehouse!"
"One shadow portal, coming up!" Claire replied as she raised her staff and generated a black hole above the malfunctioning mechanism
But the Kairosect's seeping energies mingled unpredictably with the Shadow Staff's magic, causing the portal to enlarge and spread around Team Trollhunters. The Trolls in the warehouse took cover behind more clusters of crates, but Jim stood fast. Over the roar of the wind rushing into the vacuum, he shouted, "Claire! Can you shut it down?"
"I'm trying! Claire said through gritted teeth. "But the Shadow Staff isn't responding!"
"I've said it before and I'll say it again- Great Gronka Morka!" cried Blinky as the cyclonic portal swept him into the air.
"Blink!" Marshall shouted reaching out to him. He quickly concentrated using his magic to help his feet stick to the ground like magnets. He raised up his hands releasing the flow of his energy waving his hand to cast a spell upon the portal, "Sigillum atque pers- -but then was knocked the incoming screaming Toby being sucked in making lose focus and his hold on the ground. "Wingman!" Arrrgh called after him, too, disappeared into the dark tornado, followed by Claire.
I guess dinner with Mom's gonna have to wait a bit longer, thought Jim before he leaped headfirst into the same black vortex that consumed his friends.