Age of the Amulet

by Richard Ashley Hamilton

  “Thanks!” called the fleeing Gogun without breaking his stride.

  “Maybe we found the wrong Gogun after all,” Jim muttered before raising his supercharged Amulet. “For the glory of Merlin, Daylight is mine to command!”

  Bular shielded his eyes from the supernova. When the rapturous waves of light and heat faded, the son of Gunmar lowered his arms and encountered something he had never before seen.

  Jim stood transformed before Bular. His armor, normally silver, now shone a blinding white, as if composed of solid light. The Shield and Sword of Starlight manifested in Jim’s hand, and his horned helmet concealed his true, human identity beneath its lambent faceplate.

  “What manner of being are you?” barked Bular incredulously.

  “I’m the Trollhunter,” answered Jim. “And one day, I’ll be the last thing you ever see.”

  “Big talk from such a small Troll,” said Bular, drawing his blades from their crossed scabbards. “I may fall in battle one day—but not this day!”

  Bular lunged at the white knight, only to be slammed off-course by a far larger Gumm-Gumm. Both Jim and Bular looked up and saw Orlagk the Oppressor between them, reforming the Decimaar Blade in his claw. Drool dripped from his tangled teeth as he said, “We shall see about that, traitor. Your mutinous father’s too busy fighting off my legions to come to your aid.”

  Orlagk then pointed his jagged weapon at Jim, adding, “And you will join Tellad-Urr in the unmarked grave of forgotten fools!”

  With that Orlagk slashed his Decimaar Blade at Jim—who deflected with his Shield of Starlight—and then struck at Bular in the same fluid motion. Bular blocked with one of his swords while stabbing at the Trollhunter with its mate.

  “Holy sheesh-kabobs!” said Jim, finding himself stuck in a three-way fight to the death. “If anyone else from the future can hear me, I could sure use some backup right about now!”

  AAARRRGGHH!!! would’ve been all too happy to help—if his teenaged self wasn’t busy punching him in the skull. Rolling away from the next falling fist, AAARRRGGHH!!! grabbed one of the Gumm-Gumm helmets abandoned on the battlefield and fit it over his head.

  “Why you look like me?” demanded the teenaged Krubera.

  “Umm . . . no I don’t,” said AAARRRGGHH!!!, his voice muffled under the helmet.

  Teen AAARRRGGHH!!! rammed into adult AAARRRGGHH!!!, and they traded blows again. The war raging around them paled in comparison to their slobber-knocker of a fight. Their identical runes glowing with identical fury, the two Krubera tussled in an even match—until the grown-up AAARRRGGHH!!! trapped his teen self in a bear hug.

  “Calm down,” AAARRRGGHH!!! said through his helmet.

  “Gumm-Gumms never surrender!” the struggling teen AAARRRGGHH!!! grunted.

  “You not Gumm-Gumm,” AAARRRGGHH!!! said. “Not if you not want to be.”

  The gentle giant squeezed harder and felt his younger self finally go lax. The older Krubera eased his teenaged body onto the moors and said, “You cross that bridge . . . one day.”

  AAARRRGGHH!!! then removed the helmet, crushed it underfoot, and reentered the fray. He charged toward Blinky, Toby, and Claire, who still fought in the midst of the civil war. And beyond them, one illuminating figure fended off the dual attacks of two Gumm-Gumms.

  “I think I liked it better . . . when you were fighting . . . each other!” panted Jim, dodging Orlagk and swiping at Bular.

  “Who said we stopped?” asked Orlagk.

  The Oppressor clobbered Bular with the butt of his Decimaar Blade, and Jim watched the dazed brute collapse onto his knees. A troop of Orlagk’s soldiers arrived, placed a sack over Bular’s head, and dragged him away by his arms.

  “Save that one for ransom,” ordered Orlagk. “We’ll use him to force Gunmar’s surrender, then hang father and son with the same noose.”

  Jim didn’t know why he hadn’t thought about it before—perhaps it was because he hadn’t slept a wink since arriving in this era—but hearing Orlagk say Gunmar’s name reminded the Trollhunter of his time in the Darklands. Of someone he met there, who saved his life even as she sacrificed her own for the sake of revenge. Jim remained mindful of Blinky’s warnings about altering the course of history. And yet, when presented with the chance to save one life, if not thousands of lives, how could he do nothing?

  “Orlagk, there’s something you need to know about Gunmar,” Jim started to say. “Something that affects you and your d—”

  Orlagk suddenly hammered the shimmering Trollhunter with his horns, knocking the wind out of him. Jim fell to the trampled field of heather. He struggled to remain conscious, watching his luminous Starlight Armor evaporate and the borrowed energy leave his Amulet.

  “A human Trollhunter?” Orlagk cackled at Jim’s exposed form. “That, I did not foresee.”

  “Or this,” said an old voice before a gleaming fist came out of nowhere and broke Orlagk’s already deformed jaw.

  Jim’s vision cleared just in time to see Orlagk drop. He then looked to the champion who defeated the Oppressor with a single punch—although Jim had to rub his eyes to make sure he wasn’t hallucinating from a concussion.

  “No way . . . ,” said Jim, his disbelieving eyes almost as wide as his smile.

  Gogun smiled back awkwardly, his frail body now clad in the Daylight Armor of the Trollhunter. Tapping the Amulet he inherited from Tellad-Urr, Gogun said, “I suppose I needed to earn this before I could get it to work. Sorry I ran away.”

  “Which time?” asked Jim as Gogun helped him to his feet. “Just kidding. That’s all river water under the footbridge now.”

  AAARRRGGHH!!!, Blinky, Toby, and Claire rushed up at once, pleasantly surprised to see Gogun wearing the silver vestments of the Trollhunter.

  “Great Gron—” Blinky began before catching himself. “That is to say—oh me, oh my.”

  Orlagk stirred awake. He reformed his Decimaar Blade and took a step toward Gogun.

  “You want to dance?” the Trollhunter asked, standing his ground just as Jim and his time-tossed friends stood beside him. “Let’s dance.”

  Easily outnumbered and clearly humiliated, Orlagk the Oppressor turned tail and ran away. The scattered remnants of both Gumm-Gumm armies soon followed suit, retreating into the dark corners of the moors.

  As day broke above them, Claire cast a shadow over their group, protecting Blinky, AAARRRGGHH!!!, and Gogun from the sunlight. They stood in silence over Tellad-Urr’s still body, paying their respects to a hero who had fallen in more ways than one. And although he could no longer see it, the one-horned, one-time Trollhunter finally found peace under the red skies of his first—and last—sunrise.

  • • •

  “I believe everything’s in order,” said Blinky, examining the Kairosect in his four hands. “If only there was a way to replicate the distressed condition of the other Kairosect.”

  Toby took the time-altering device from Blinky and intentionally dropped it on the ground. The Kairosect cracked open, its innards now sparking with arcs of green electricity.

  “That works,” grumbled AAARRRGGHH!!! behind them. “Nice one, Wingman.”

  “It’s a gift,” Toby said with a humble shrug.

  The three of them one last look at Glastonbury Tor Trollmarket around them. The purple Heartstone pulsed brighter than before from the cavern ceiling, and the many freed Trolls gave Blinky appreciative waves as they returned to their homes. A few feet away, the newly-minted Trollhunter shook Claire’s hand and then Jim’s.

  “Take care of yourself, Gogun,” said Claire.

  “You do the same,” Gogun replied, handing her a bunch of leafy green shoots. “Some succor root for your journey home.”

  Claire hugged the old Troll, then rejoined Toby, Blinky, and AAARRRGGHH!!!

  “So how does it feel to be the Trollhunter after all, Gogun?” asked Jim.

  “Eh, it’s . . . not terrible,” Gogun conceded. “As a matter of fact, I’ve got an urge to perform some
form of victory dance. Unless that sort of thing is now forbidden?”

  “That’s up to you,” said Jim. “Your world’s experienced enough heaviness lately. Maybe it’s time for a role model who isn’t like other Trolls. One with more of a . . . gentle touch.”

  “Hmm, Gogun the Gentle,” said the old Troll, trying out the title. “I like it.”

  “Goodbye, Gogun the Gentle,” Jim called as he took his place next to his friends.

  “Farewell, Trollhunter of tomorrow,” replied Gogun, his hand over his Amulet in salute.

  Claire pointed her staff at the glitching Kairosect, then yelled, “Clonk-donk!”

  A black hole opened and mingled with the buzzing temporal energies. One by one, it swept up Toby, Blinky, AAARRRGGHH!!!, Claire, and, finally, Jim. As the portal closed around him, Jim waved one last time. Gogun held up Shmorkrarg and wiggled her paw with his hand, making it look like the kitten was waving back.

  “Later, Shmorkie,” said Jim before his body left the Dark Ages and crossed into the infinite uncertainty of the Shadow Realm.

  EPILOGUE

  ONE FOR THE HISTORY BOOKS . . .

  Microwaved burritos never tasted this good to Jim.

  He and the rest of Team Trollhunters had made it back to the present famished and exhausted. After all, they’d been stuck in the Dark Ages for days—even though it seemed to the rest of the world that they were only gone for hours.

  The Trolls in the warehouse, having just returned there via Strickler’s secret path, rejoiced at the sight of their Trollhunter and his friends. They hailed Blinky as their leader and cheered even louder when Claire’s portal sucked up Kilfred and his four followers.

  As they were shooed back to the past, Kilfred—who had been left rather traumatized by his visit to Arcadia—decided two things: One, he was cutting humans from his diet and going full-on vegetarian forthwith. And two, he was retiring from advising Trolls on how to live their lives.

  Once again the cosmic balance had been restored, and the warehouse Trolls handed out mugs of glug to toast this fact—even if they didn’t fully understand the space-time mechanics behind it. The members of Team Trollhunters, however, weren’t feeling up to a party at the moment.

  Blinky remembered how his older brother, Dictatious, had been so kind during their childhood, only to turn so sinister later in life. The six-eyed Troll wondered if he’d ever be able to forgive his misguided sibling, given the chance.

  AAARRRGGHH!!! found himself similarly lost in thought, despite the rowdy Troll celebration around him. He knew his younger self would eventually break from the Gumm-Gumms at the Battle of Killahead Bridge and join the side of good. Yet AAARRRGGHH!!! now wondered if he was truly free of their tainted influence or if he would one day be counted among the Gumm-Gumms’ ranks again. The gentle giant assumed only time would tell.

  Toby also bowed out of the Troll festivities uncharacteristically early so he could hightail it to his orthodontist. He figured Dr. Muelas would need to replace the dental wire ahora if Toby wanted to have his braces off sometime this century.

  Claire left the warehouse not too long after Toby to make a doctor’s appointment of her own. She decided to take Jim’s advice and schedule a physical with Dr. Lake. Claire’s cough had worsened, and Gogun’s succor root wasn’t of much help now. The plant had mysteriously withered and died as she and her teammates traveled through the Shadow Realm on their way home. Claire could have sworn she saw a woman’s hand reach out of the darkness and graze the medicinal herbs with her fingernail. But that was probably just Claire’s fever playing tricks on her brain. . . .

  Which left Jim. He excused himself from the warehouse with a yawn and rode his Vespa down sunlit Main Street, stopping only once to ogle at the blackened skeleton of Alex’s Arcade. Parking in his garage, Jim ran into the kitchen ready to whip up that polenta, mushroom, and kale feast he’d been itching to cook for ages—literally. But as soon as he tied on his apron, a wave of exhaustion hit Jim harder than Orlagk’s head-butt.

  Fortunately, his mom also came home a minute later, after having been called back to the hospital for an emergency night shift. Barbara nuked two burritos in the microwave, and she and Jim ate them right there on the kitchen island. Mother and son were too tired to talk. They merely chewed in silence, enjoying the presence of each other’s company nonetheless.

  It was probably the greatest dinner/breakfast Jim Lake Jr. ever ate.

  • • •

  Eli’s empty stomach grumbled, which only sounded louder in his current location inside of a high school locker. Steve yelled from the next locker over, pounding his fist on the metal wall between them. The racket caught the attention of Detective Scott, who opened both lockers and stepped aside as the Creepslayerz fell out.

  The police had arrived at Arcadia Oaks High School after receiving several noise complaints—and after putting out the last of the fires on Main Street. Detective Scott and his fellow officers listened to Steve Palchuk’s convincing testimony about the previous night. Between theatrical sobs, Steve said that he and Eli had been studying late at night in the school library when a roving gang of punks from Arcadia Oaks Academy broke in.

  Taking over the next part of their rehearsed alibi, Eli claimed that the Academy kids—still angry about losing the regional soccer championship—shoved him and Steve into the lockers, then vandalized the high school. After Detective Scott thanked the boys for their help and sent them home, the Creepslayerz privately shared another one of their special handshakes.

  In the days that it took the city to repair their school, Steve and Eli kept tabs on the three Changelings they had encountered. They documented Strickler now taking meetings with Jim whenever Dr. Barbara Lake was away.

  The Creepslayerz also spied NotEnrique taking dozens of “Vote Nuñez” lawn signs from his adoptive family’s home to the Troll warehouse. The little green imp and Blinky cast warding spells over each sign and staked them across town to keep the Gumm-Gumms from ever finding the Troll hideout. Apparently, NotEnrique had gotten the idea after reading Eli’s Monsters & Mazes playbook.

  Steve and Eli also paid regular visits to the history museum. They told each other it was because they didn’t trust Ms. Nomura—who had resumed her old job as a docent in the European antiquities wing after a long sabbatical—although it might have had more to do with the fact that the Creepslayerz were also teenaged boys. Of course, Steve and Eli would have no way of knowing this part but, one day, Nomura noticed something in the museum that she hadn’t before. The Changeling had been restoring a tapestry, which depicted an epic battle from the Dark Ages, when she saw an odd detail stitched into the fabric. It was the small figure of a knight battling two gruesome monsters, his armor as white as a star.

  • • •

  Orlagk the Oppressor cursed the white knight as he staggered back to his army’s camp, but the words came out as gibberish through his busted jaw. The besieged Gumm-Gumm king had expected a hero’s welcome from his soldiers. Instead, he found only Gunmar and Bular, dark ambition apparent in their leering stares.

  In his weakened condition, Orlagk was no match for the traitorous father and son. He only managed to remove one of Gunmar’s eyes before the howling-mad usurper removed Orlagk’s head.

  Bular kneeled before his father, and the new ruler of the Gumm-Gumms summoned the Decimaar Blade into his own twisted claw. Although Gunmar the Black’s remaining eye did not see it at the time, his sword’s pale glow fell upon a hidden witness to the betrayal.

  From the shadows, a Gumm-Gumm named Skarlagk vowed to avenge her slain father, her young heart now hardened with scorn.

  • • •

  Gogun and Tellad-Urr saw this defining moment and many more from the Void. All Merlin’s champions appeared in this strange afterlife following their final battles, although Gogun was the only Trollhunter to pass in his sleep—gently—from extreme old age. Since his arrival into this murky realm, Gogun had become friends with Tellad-Urr, the pair
bonding over shared experiences with their human successor, Jim.

  Gogun and Tellad-Urr’s souls turned to another of the Void’s scrying windows, which granted them a glimpse of the current Trollhunter training in his basement under Strickler’s watchful yellow eyes.

  “This bodes ill for the human child,” Tellad-Urr the Terrible said, watching Jim take pointers from his Changeling tutor. “I know all too well the temptations of the dark path. This Impure may lead him onto it with his lies.”

  “I wouldn’t be so sure of that,” argued Gogun the Gentle. “Kim has a stout heart. It gave him strength even when the Amulet wouldn’t. His very humanity shall serve as the compass to guide him through the deadliest trial he’ll ever endure.”

  The two ghostly Trollhunters then faced a third scrying window. This one revealed a total solar eclipse, with the entire surface world in flames beneath the blackened firmament.

  “The Eternal Night,” spoke Tellad-Urr. “The end of all things.”

  “Perhaps,” said Gogun’s spirit, smiling at the thought of the human Trollhunter who had already brought light to another dark age. “Or perhaps it’s the start of a new adventure. . . .”

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  RICHARD ASHLEY HAMILTON is best known for his storytelling across DreamWorks Animation’s How to Train Your Dragon franchise, having written for the Emmynominated DreamWorks Dragons: Race to the Edge on Netflix and the official DreamWorks Dragons expanded universe bible. In his heart, Richard remains a lifelong comic book fan and has written and developed numerous titles, including DreamWorks Trollhunters: The Secret History of Trollkind (with Marc Guggenheim) for Dark Horse Comics and his original series Scoop for Insight Editions. Richard lives in Silver Lake, California, with his wife and their two sons.

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