Age of Lions
Chapter 6
A tale of Two Amulets and Two Lions
Marshall could hear the villagers screaming in terror from riding his amber hoverboard. If there was trouble, Jim and the others were had to be close by. Since danger had always been Team Trollhunters thing. He caught up to Leo running straight towards the chaos followed by Zelda. The young wizard watches the two soulmates with their aura shining bright white as they ran in equal speeds. Never would he imagine to see another or two Silver lions while time traveling especially meeting his own girlfriends ancestors Leo the Slayer and Zelda the Fierce. Marshall could tell where Talia got her stubbornness and short-temper from Leo's side while she inherited Zelda's tough yet sophisticated outlook on life.
"So, this Tellad-Urr you mentioned," Marshall began, turning to the lions running next to him. "Why would he dishonor his duties and disgrace the name of the Trollhunter? When it's supposed to be his job to protect both man and troll-kind?"
"Your guesses are as good as our own, sorcerer," Zelda replied, keeping pace. "Most of the calls the Trollhunter has to answer can be quite absurd to say the least. Like say. . . dealing with rogue gnomes, even if the trolls know they can handle it themselves. My thought are that Tellad-Urr feels that his training had been wasted and underaprreciated, he snapped."
"You're really gonna explain everything to this strange magic boy?" Leo snapped to his beloved.
"If he understands how dangerous this situation is, he must," Zelda turned back to Marshall. "Listen to me carefully, the Gumm-Gumms are in the midst of a civil war. Tellad-Urr is helping Gunmar by taking over Glastonbury Tor and its Trollmarket to make weapons against Orlagk."
Marshall looked ahead, seeing the village still several feet away, but steadily getting close. "Why would he help Gunmar of all people?" he asked.
"Gunmar is using the Trollhunter's bitterness to his advantage. We must stop him, Gunmar, and Orlagk before anymore humans get caught in this crossfire," she explained.
"I have some friends down there who are willing to help. Let's go!" Marshall accelerates his amber glowing hoverboard down towards the burning village of Glastonbury Tor.
Leo exchanges a look with Zelda, "Friends?"
. . . .
Villagers screamed and ran past the stunned Trollhunters: Jim, Toby, Claire, Blinky and Arrrgh as Tellad-Urr the Terrible strode into their hamlet. Jim took a step forward to this era's Trollhunter, only to be held back by four matching hands.
"Blinky, what're you doing?" Jim asked. "That's the Trollhunter. Well 'a' Trollhunter. If he's Merlin's creation in this time, then maybe he can help us get back to our own!"
"Bring me my tribute, fleshbags!" roared Tellad-Urr. "Or I shall burn down every single one of your pathetic huts and torture anyone foolish enough to look upon my blighted visage!"
"I don't know why thel call this guy 'terrible', " said Toby, as the trebling villagers began wheeling their barrows toward the scarlet figure. "He seems pretty effective to me!"
"Tellad-Urr was not terrible in skill, Tobias," Blinky explained. "He was -is- so named for his ability to strike terror in the hearts of his victims. This is all stated in a 'A Brief Recapitulation of Troll Lore', had you bothered to study it?!"
"Merlin's miscreation," Claire remembered from her reading. "Tellad-Urr was the only Trollhunter to use the Amulet for evil! Until he was defeated by Gogun the. . .something?"
"Gogun the gentle," Blinky confirmed. "Tellad-Urr's successor and one of the bravest Trollhunters to ever wield the Amulet. Even Kanjigar looked p to Gogun's noble example."
Jim looked back at Tellad-Urr, his heart torn between revulsion and creeping curiosity.
"Master Jim, you have only known the Trollhunters as allies," Blinky continued. "But Tellad-Urr is an enemy unlike any you have ever encountered. What horrible coincidence to have arrived at this exact time and place before Gogun has stopped him and restored order."
Jim looked down at the dormant Amulet in h is hand and said, "I know I haven't been a Trollhunter for long. But, so far, I haven't come across too much coincidence. . .only destiny."
He and his friends then watch the last villager leave the last wheelbarrow at Tellad-Urr's crimson booted feet. The dark Trollhunter looked down upon his tribute and grimaced.
"Is this all?" he sneered in disappointment. "Is this how little you think of me?"
Tellad-Urr beckoned the Sundown Mace into his hand, its spiked ball as red as the rest of his abominable armor. The weapon then burst into flames, and he touched its lit end to a nearby thatched roof. Jim's eyes rounded in sorrow as it, and the village hut beneath it, started to burn.
"Good Gizmodious!" Blinky exclaimed. "He's loaded Lagmar the Moten's Conflaration Stone into his own infernal Amulet!"
"His Amulet," said Jim, getting an idea. "It's like the heart of any Trollhunter. Maybe Tellad-Urr 'doesn't' want to be this way. Maybe his Amulet. . .I don't know, called out to mine for help. Sorta like one of Claire's emotional anchors. Maybe 'we're' supposed to stop this."
"But what about that Gogun guy?" asked Toby. "Isn't he the one who's supposed to take down Tellad-Urr?"
"Tobias raises a point of the utmost importance," said Blinky. "While I applaud your conviction, Master Jim, we simply cannot tamper with past events. Why, even our mere presence here could serve to undo history as we know it!"
"History is written by the victors," Jim heard himself say while moving toward the fire.
The Trollhunter marched through the smooke and embers, recalling how Strickler used to recite that Winston Churchill qoute all the time in World History. Jim thought, 'Man, that seems like a lifetime ago. Back when I only had to worry about normal teenage responsibilities.'
. . . .
Marshall made it to the village as he willed his hoverboard away, seeing the devastation before him. Leo and Zelda skidded to a stop as the saw the fire torching several huts.
"That Tellad-Urr," Leo growled in disgust. "He was supposed to protect. Not burn villages to the ground, and for what? Tributes and glory?"
"We must find him and help the villagers," Zelda said before they took off into the smoke.
"Put out the fires!" Leo shouted.
Marshall watched Zelda raise her hands as she summoned a large amount of water from a nearby pond. She willed the water over the huts and poured it like rain, snugging out the fire and leaving the huts covered in scorches.
"Where did you find that trinket?!" Marshall whirled his head around to the source of the booming voice.
After which, he heard a very familiar voice, "It found me!" It was Jim's, but it was as if he was being suffocated.
"Jim? JIM!" Marshall exclaimed as he took off in the direction of the voice.
The wizard found Jim being lifted into the air b a large troll with dark red armor, clutching onto his friend's throat. The armor looked suspiciously similar to Jim's armor, yet this one looked more sinister and corrupted. Marshall believed that this was the one called Tellad-Urr the Terrible.
"You're not Trollhunter," Tellad-Urr sneered. "For there will be no more Trollhunters after me. I'll not allow Merlin's curse to afflict another-"
Jim's Amulet suddenly went haywire, its gears no longer stalled but now whirring faster than they ever had before. Both Trollhunters, old and new, watched in confusions as lambent energy drifted out of Tellad-Urr's Amulet - and poured into Jim's.
"That's why Mster Jim's Amulet malfuntioned," marveled Blinky, spellbound by the exchange. "Two Amulets cannot operate simultaneously. Merlin's magic won't be shared!"
The others remained entranced by the flow of siphoned energy, but Tellad-Urr has seen enough. He released Jim, breaking the link between the Amulets, and shouted, "Enough!"
Marshall narrowed his eyes as his magic appeared in his hands. He saw Leo and Zelda slip their masks over their faces and rushed elsewhere to ambush the evil Trollhunter.
Arrrgh, Blinky, Toby, and Claire helped Jim up. His partially recharged Amulet blinked and ticked sporadically. Tellad-Urr stalked around them in a circle, never taking his eyes off the foreign who somehow stole a fraction of his own strength.
"Tellad-Urr the Terrible, formerly, Tellad-Urr the Triumphant!" Blinky addressed the dark Trollhunter. "We outnumber you five-to-one!"
"Is that so?" Tellad-Urr said before tapping the hijacked device on his chest.
The Amulet flushed with pink light in response and four mor Tellad-Urrs sprang into spontaneous existence beside the original. The identical savages rushed Team Trollhunters
"Looks like he's got the Aspectus Stone, too." Jim wheezed. "I hate that thing."
Two Tellad-Urr duplicates tackled Blinky and Arrrgh, while two more snared Toby and Claire. This left Jim to face off alone against the first Tellad-Urr. Without armor, Jim felt practically naked under the dark Trollhunter's withering glare.
"You may clame to be from tomorrow," Tellad-Urr said. "But you die today."
Just before Tellad-Urr the Terrible swung his Sundown Mace. . . a magical amber blast hit the dark Trollhunter directly in the face, causing him to stagger sideways. He roared as he clutched his burning cheek. Jim looked to the side and found his saviour.
Marshall Cadden, his hands bursting with his magic energy, and glaring at Tellad-Urr with glowing yellow eyes.
"Marshall! Finally!" Toby laughed in huge relief before he smirked the duplicate ceasing him. "You're so over dude!"
Tellad-Urr shook off his pain and glared at the wizrd standing a few feet away from him. "So, a Trollhunter before me and now a puny wizard?!" He roared in anger. "Is there no end to my deserved tribute?"
A roar was hears as Leo suddenly launched himself from the ground like a gopher digging a tunnel and tackled onto Tellad-Urr's head. The dark Trollhunter snarled as he tried to reach for the Silver Lion.
"Tellad-Urr you've disgraced your duties, betrayed your purpose, and let yourself be bound to Gunma'rs control!" Leo raised his hand high in the air. His leather fingerless glove revealed his human pigment skin as it starts to grow gray fur, his nails grew long and sharp like claws, "May these 'Scars' decide of whatever best fate and punishment has in store for your death!" Leo slashed right across Tellad-Urr's face. Leaving him a four-finger scratch that cut a deep layer onto his stone skin causing him to scream in agony. Leo jumped right off and did a backflip, landed on his two feet smirking as he looked up at the evil Trollhunter.
Blinky and the others gasped, just before the dark Trollhunter accidentally slashed at one of his own duplicates with his mace, unintentionally freeing Claire.
Marshall rushed up to Jim and Claire, "Sorry, that I took so long. You guys okay?"
However, through the agonizing pain, Tellad-Urr brought up his mace again and swung it towards Jim. Jim's twitching Amulet went bonkers and spewed out what little energy it had taken from the other. Blue light gathered in front of Jim's heart and solidified into the metal chest plate a split second before the mace struck it - just like it had once done during Jim's first battle with Bular. As before, the collision of enchanted weapon and enchanted armor sent Jim rocketing high into the night sky.
Leo and Zelda gasped in awe at what they have just witnessed: a human boy summoning Trollhunter Armor as he flew out of the ransacked village.
"Jim!" Claire and Marshall shouted.
Blinky and Arrrgh struggled against the carbon-copy of Tellad-Urr's, but to no avail. Suddenly reinvigorated with rage, Claire willed her staff to open a small portal and said, "Don't worry, we'll catch him!" Marshall nodded and hopped into the blackhole.
"Wait! Don't!" Leo exclaimed as he impulsively leapt into the portal, leaving Zelda behind with Blinky, Arrrgh, and Toby.
This caught Claire off guard, leaving her speechless that this supposed stranger had just jumped right into her own portal.
Admiring the Shadow Staff's abilities, Tellad-Urr tore it from Claire's hand, then tossed her into the shrinking portal. The last thing Claire saw was the dark Trollhunter's face-now screwed into a mask of absolute rancor - before the opening closed and her body hurtled aimlessly into unyielding darkness.