Chapter II

I came to, desperately hoping that I was waking up in my bed, and that the past events were simply a dream. No such luck. I was standing on rocky terrain, weapon still in hand. The surrounding area was foggy. I looked around for my friends. Eli was right next to me, and the others were sitting down in a gathering of trees about twenty yards away. We walked towards them.

"Oh, nice of you two to drop in… Took you long enough." Brett saw us approaching and spoke up – his voice was predictably sarcastic. His eyes went wide with surprise when he saw our "preparations".

"Yeah, smartass, after seeing Wolfzilla, we kinda wanted to head in here with something more than our fists. You should be happy we came prepared," Eli shot back.

"You two look like you're about to head into 'Nam!" Jayson now, commenting on our outfits. 'Nam was a long-standing joke that he always teased me about – a bad experience on Airsoft field years back.

"Don't start that again," I warned.

There was a long silence. We were all here, but we were utterly clueless.

"Well, I'm pretty sure we're not all dreaming, so what now?" Libby asked, speaking out to the entire group of us.

"I'd like to find out what this place is… and how to get back, if we can," Kelsey replied.

"I'm good with that," I agreed.

Jayson stood up, "Sounds good," he said.

Eli spoke up, "Alright, me and Jon packed some supplies. Water, food – the works. I guess we should head in that direction," he turned and pointed behind the two of us – large shapes were barely recognizable through the fog – I could've swore they looked like structures, but I wasn't sure.

Everyone agreed, and after a few seconds, we were all moving – a group of completely bewildered, confused, and clueless teenagers in an unknown land. It still hadn't hit us yet – in my heart, I was still desperately hoping this was all a dream. I tried to think rationally, but couldn't. There was no coming to terms with this. Until we saw them – Loki's trolls.

One look at them and you knew that they weren't any creature of Earth. They're about the same height as an average man, some taller, some shorter. Their skin is gray and rough, and very tough – like that of a rhino. They have a hump at the top of their back, and no neck – their crude, misshapen head protrudes directly forward from the hump, so from behind they look headless. They have a very muscular physique – you could tell their raw power just by looking at them. Not to mention, these trolls were armed.

We spotted a group of them hauling what seemed to be a chained group of people – people like us, into the castle. They were about forty yards in front of us, and were turned in the other direction. They didn't see us. As soon as we spotted them, however, Eli let out a harsh whisper for everyone to drop to the ground and remain still. I knew the drill and complied, reaching for my pistol. Our de facto leader was kneeling to my right, his rifle raised to his shoulder, steadied and aimed in the direction of the group. The others were behind us, crouched low, waiting for the all clear while watching the trolls with fear and grim fascination.

"What the hell are those things?" Jayson muttered the question quietly.

"They look like… trolls," Kelsey replied slowly.

I nodded in agreement, but never took my eyes off the creatures. They moved off, into the castle which was now much closer, and after a few seconds, we were alone once again in the fog.

"Whatever they were, they didn't look friendly," Eli commented.

"Did you notice their prisoners?" I asked the group.

"Yeah, how could we miss them? I mean, those troll things were kinda distracting, but…" That was Brett's sarcasm at work again.

"That's not what I mean. Did you notice how they looked? They were wearing T-shirts, blue jeans, and I could've swore I saw a couple of 'em wearing tennis shoes."

That got their attention.

"So there are more people like us here?" Libby asked hopefully.

"That would be my guess. If there are, we might want to start thinking about how we go about rescuing them," I didn't know what I was talking about, but it seemed like the right thing to do.

Brett obviously didn't agree, "Hell no! You saw those things! I am not gonna walk into that creepy old castle filled with trolls just to try and save a few people that might be like us."

I shrugged. "It's not up to me."

We looked at each other, and then to Eli, who seemed to have taken on the role of leader.

"How 'bout it, Delta?" I asked him.

"Uh-uh. Don't lay this one on me."

Kelsey interrupted, "Fine, we'll take a vote. All those in favor of going in and trying to get those people out?"

Kelsey raised her hand, followed by Libby and Jayson. It was down to me, Brett, and Eli. I knew Brett wouldn't vote… so I looked to Eli, and we both knew what we had to do.

"OK," he said.

"OK," I agreed.

Eli stood up, and checked his weapon. "No man left behind, Semper Fi – all that good stuff. Let's go get this thing done…"

Brett groaned, "You've got to be kidding me…"

The search and rescue mission was underway.