Troll Hunters

by Michael Dahl

  The others followed him. Louise began to whimper. Thora put her arm around the little girl.

  “What’s over there?” asked Pablo, pointing past the field.

  “That field is straight east of this house,” said the doctor. “It runs parallel to County Road One.”

  “That’s back toward the Tooker house,” Pablo said. “And the accident where everything started.”

  “Precisely,” said Doctor Hoo. “You see, according to the old survey maps of Zion Falls, there’s a deep well over there. It’s likely the trolls used it as an entry point to the surface, as well as the tunnels in the old quarry.”

  “I know that well!” said Pablo. “It’s on the land next to ours. We were always told to stay far away from it.”

  “Why did they need an entry point?” asked Zak. “I mean, what do they want? Why are they here?”

  “They want to take back the surface world,” said the doctor. “Thousands of years ago, their kind dominated humans. They raised us like livestock.”

  “Like cows?” asked Pablo.

  “More like hamburger,” Dr. Hoo said. “Those creatures out there are hungry. They have traveled from far underground and they need food. Us.”

  “Something’s moving out there!” said Thora. She pointed toward the line of trees at the edge of the field. Tall shadows swayed beneath the motionless branches.

  Pablo looked out at the field and the trees and the sky. He saw something that reminded him of science class. They had been studying astronomy, which is one reason he and Thora and Bryce were watching the meteor shower that night. Their teacher had been talking about the planet Earth and how it was a part of a larger solar system. Solar. The ring of light.

  “That’s it — the moon!” Pablo blurted out. “That’s how we can defeat the trolls. Not in seven hours, but right now!”

  Everyone stared confusedly at Pablo. Just as Pablo was about to explain, the house shook more fiercely than before. Windows broke. Shelves toppled. Something made a loud crash at the bottom of the staircase.

  “I have to slow them down,” said the doctor, moving away from the window.

  “Where are you going?” asked Zak.

  As the doctor stopped at the door, his cape swirled around him like a robe. Once more, Pablo was sure he saw a third arm held closely to the doctor’s side. “No matter what happens,” Dr. Hoo commanded. “Do not open this door.”

  “But, Doctor, I figured it out,” said Pablo. “We can use the moon to —”

  “I repeat, stay right here,” said Dr. Hoo. “And do not open this door under any circumstances!” He gave Pablo a quick, knowing look, and then shut the door behind him. They heard a sharp metallic click as the door sealed shut.

  “Did he just lock us in?” said Zak. “I think he just locked us in.”

  A steady bluish-white light poured out from the keyhole and the space beneath the door. It blazed brighter and brighter, as if a searchlight were on the other side.

  Another crashing sound rose up from below. Louise started to cry. Thora grabbed her and ran to the center of the room.

  “Thora,” said Pablo, “remember what Mr. Thomas was talking about in science class last month?”

  Thora was busily checking her flare gun to see if it was loaded. “What?” she said.

  “The moon!” Pablo repeated. “It doesn’t produce its own light. The moon only glows because of —”

  “Reflected sunlight!” Thora exclaimed, remembering. “Do you think it will work?”

  “If the fairy tales are real,” Pablo said.

  “First, we have to get them away from the trees,” said Pablo.

  “What are you two talking about?” asked Zak.

  The octagonal room stopped shaking. The crashing sounds from below also stopped.

  “The moon,” said Thora. “The full moon is coming up.”

  “Yeah, so?” said Zak.

  “So, that’s sunlight,” said Pablo. “Sunlight kills trolls. Or turns them into meteoric rock,” Thora said. “Or whatever.”

  Zak stared at the yellow moon that was rising above the tops of the distant trees. “That’s brilliant!” he said. “Better than anything the doc came up with, anyway.”

  That’s not true, Thora thought. Dr. Hoo did mention there was a full moon. But —

  Thora’s thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door. Everyone froze.

  “Let me in,” said a familiar voice.

  “Dr. Hoo, is that you?” asked Pablo.

  “Of course it is,” came the reply. “Don’t worry, the trolls are gone now. I was able to scare them away for good.”

  “Finally, some good news,” said Zak. He stepped toward the door.

  “No!” Thora yelled at Zak. Then she lowered her voice to a whisper. “It’s a trick.”

  “Thora, just let me in,” repeated the voice. “Now.”

  “But you told us not to open it,” she answered.

  They heard the doctor chuckle. “So I did,” the voice said. “But it’s all over now. The creatures have moved outside.”

  Thora shook her head. “The real doctor would use his key,” she whispered. She remembered the troll back in the forest clearing and how it had sung to her — it had spoken using Louise’s voice.

  “Did you find Louise out there?” Thora asked.

  “But she’s right —” Zak began.

  Thora grabbed his arm and squeezed it. Then she turned to look at Louise and put her finger to her lips.

  “Did you, Doctor?” Thora repeated. “Did you find Louise?”

  There was a pause.

  Then the doctor chuckled softly. “Yes, Thora, I did,” he said. “She’s standing right here with me.”

  “Let me in,” came a little girl’s voice. “I’m scared.”

  Louise began to shake. She clutched Thora’s leg with both her arms.

  “I don’t like it out here,” came the false voice again. “Please let me inside, Thora. Please, open the door.”

  Zak aimed his flare gun at the door. “Now what do we do?” he whispered.

  “It’s coming,” said the fake girl’s voice, this time more loudly. “Thora, it’s coming closer. Don’t let it get us! Let me in!”

  The real Louise pulled away from Thora. She ran to the door and pounded on it. “Get away from us, you monster!” Louise screamed.

  A tremendous roar rattled the door on its frame. Then a deep, angry voice roared out. “You will be my dinner, you little brats!”

  Louise screamed and ran back to Thora.

  Zak walked over to a broken window and looked down. “So we need to get those monsters out in the field under the moon,” he said. “If I can get down from up here, I could run out there and make them follow me.”

  “We’ll need some rope,” agreed Pablo.

  Thora, Zak, and Pablo raced through the room, searching through shelves and drawers and piles of cardboard boxes. All of them were rifling through the room, desperate to find something useful.

  “Up there!” Louise cried out. Coils and coils of rope hung from hooks, attached to the ceiling.

  The boys yanked down all of the rope and tied two lengths of it together. Then they threw the free ends out the east and the south windows. Pablo and Zak climbed up on the sills, preparing to rappel down the smooth rock walls.

  “I can run too, you know,” said Thora.

  “Someone has to watch the kid,” said Zak, pointing at Louise. He looked out the window, but just as he was starting to lean out, he collapsed to the floor. Pablo and Thora ran to him.

  “I … I can’t stand,” Zak said.

  Pablo pulled him into a chair. “It must be the shock,” said Pablo. “It finally caught up to you.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Thora.

  “Zack was in a car accident earlier this evening,” Pablo explained. “And his parents vanished.”

  “Are you going to be all right, Zak?” Thora said worriedly.

  Zak bent over, his face in his hands
. “This can’t be happening to me,” he muttered.

  “Zak can’t make the sprint to the field,” Pablo explained.

  Thora bent down and whispered to Louise, “You have to look after him for us, okay?”

  The little girl nodded. “I want a flare gun,” she whispered back. Thora smiled.

  Zak groaned into his hands. “Watch him,” Thora repeated to Louise.

  Thora and Pablo returned to the windows, gripped the ropes, and swung their legs over the ledge.

  “Be careful,” Louise whispered.

  “You too,” said Pablo.

  They began to descend. Below them, the house’s windows blazed with bluish-white light. Quickly, the two climbers shimmied down the ropes.

  Dr. Hoo had said the library room was five stories above the ground. It felt much higher to Pablo. The outside walls of the octagonal tower were made of smooth stone blocks. Because their windows faced different directions, Pablo and Thora couldn’t always see one another as they descended to the ground. But Pablo heard Thora grunting and breathing hard just like he was.

  Then, just as Pablo was lowering himself past a window, the light from within disappeared. The window’s glass was gone, and curtains fluttered toward him.

  A heavy hand as large as a tree trunk reached out through the window. Its seven fingers opened and shut like a metal trap.

  Pablo pushed himself away from the smooth wall. He swung away from the hand, his body spinning on the rope. As he neared a window on the other side, its glass shattered. Another hand, as large as the first, twisted outward, hunting for prey.

  Pablo’s momentum propelled him directly toward the hand. He loosened his grip on the rope so he’d slide down faster. Ten feet beneath the grasping claws, he tightened his grasp. The rope burned like fire as he came to a stop.

  Pablo looked up at the angry hand above him as it clawed through the air. It pulled itself back inside the window. Then, just as Thora dropped down, the hand shot out again. Its rough fingers grabbed her legs.

  “Thora!” Pablo yelled. “Help!”

  Pablo tried to climb back up, but his palms were bloody from their slide down the rope. It felt as if a knife had sliced into his hands.

  “Move, Thora!” he shouted.

  Thora kicked at the huge hand as it pulled her toward the window. A creature hissed from inside the house. Then, a deep blackness yawned open from within the window. The troll was opening its mouth!

  Pablo suddenly remembered his flare gun. He tugged it from his belt. But just as he was about to fire, he heard a fizzing sound come from above him.

  A flare hit the troll’s hand and exploded. Its blaze lit up the darkness like a tiny white sun. The stinking breath of the monster struck Pablo’s face as its scream burst through the window. The hand writhed in pain and released the Thora’s legs.

  The two climbers looked up. A small white face was staring down at them from the library window. Louise waved at them, a flare gun in her other hand.

  Then Zak’s face appeared. “I tried to stop her,” he shouted.

  Pablo hurried down the rope. The pain in his hands was almost unbearable, so he had to pinch his feet together to support his body’s weight. Slowly, he lowered himself like an inchworm toward the ground until his bare feet hung only a few yards from the earth.

  Suddenly, a huge crash shook the entire house. A troll burst through the wall and onto the ground.

  “Run!” Zak shouted from the window.

  Pablo fell to the grass in a crouch. Thora landed a few feet away. They both leaped up and raced away from the doctor’s tower.

  Up in the library, Zak grabbed the flare pistol from Louise, reloaded it, and shot. A flare rocketed toward the troll and exploded on the ground in front of it. The sudden light stunned the creature. It covered its eyes and fell to its side as Pablo and Thora ran toward the field.

  Thanks for the head start, Zak, thought Thora.

  But in moments, Thora heard the monster roaring furiously behind them again. Then she heard the same noise coming from her right.

  The creature’s companions! Thora realized. They’re all chasing us now!

  Without saying a word, Thora pointed toward the wall of trees that separated them from the field. Pablo nodded. They both swung off to their left, and the trolls followed them.

  Two of the monsters were larger than the rest. Because of their size, they needed fewer strides to cover more ground. Their enormous feet thudded closer and closer to Thora and Pablo. And behind them came the third troll from the house. All of them were gaining speed, and all of them were hungry. If Thora and Pablo didn’t pick up speed, the trolls would soon overtake them.

  Thora gritted her teeth and sucked in the air. She forced herself not to look back at the trolls. Instead, she concentrated on her breathing. She thought about track practice at school, and listened to the thumping of her feet against the soft forest ground. She thought of her brother Bryce, who always watched her race from the sidelines and cheered for her. She breathed deeper. Her lungs pulled in more and more air.

  Then she noticed two especially large trees up ahead. The tall elms were directly in front of her. They stood only a few feet apart, and beyond them was the open field. Thora blocked out every sound, every sight, every thought. She didn’t even remember that Pablo was running right behind her.

  All she thought about was those trees. They were the finish line. Her goal. She ran faster and faster, pushing all of her strength into her legs and her pumping arms. Her breath and the thudding of her feet joined in a single rhythm.

  Watch me, Bryce, she thought. Watch me win.

  At the tree line, the first troll reached out a spiky arm. Thora ducked her head just as a stony claw smashed right through a thick-trunked tree. The impact was so close that Thora felt the splinters brush against her cheeks. But she just pumped her legs even harder.

  Then she was in the field. “Keep running, Thora!” Pablo was the one screaming behind her, but Thora’s ears heard Bryce, urging her onward.

  Thora stared across the field. The moon was rising. She saw moonlight shining on a wire fence at the far end. That fence became her finish line.

  Her shoes thudded against the packed dirt of the field. Waist-high grass, hollow as straws, brushed against her calves. The thudding of her feet grew louder. The ground trembled with each step. It was the trolls — they were still following her. Their massive legs pounded like tree trunks smashing into the earth.

  She didn’t dare turn to look. A backward glance would slow her down. Thora’s track coach had always told her to keep staring straight ahead when she ran. Set a goal, run toward it. That’s all she had to do. Just one thing in the world. Breathe and run. Breathe and run. A few hundred times. That’s all. Thora heard another yell behind her. She recognized Pablo’s voice this time, but she didn’t understand what he was saying. She kept her focus on the wire fence shining in the moonlight.

  The fence seemed to glitter. Thora took in deeper breaths. She lowered her head and happened to glance at her feet.

  Why are my shoes all white? Thora thought. I know I put on dark ones this morning.

  The ground looked different, too. The field was white with light. The light was so intense, it was like she was running on snow. Then the light grew brighter. All color and shadow drained away. Whiteness engulfed her like a blizzard. Am I about to pass out? Thora thought. Or my eyes are playing tricks on me. Maybe I’m not getting enough oxygen.

  Her feet thudded with each step. Her heart beat even faster. Her eyes were almost blinded by the light. A hand brushed against her hair, trailing behind her like a dark flag. She stifled a scream, and pumped her arms harder. She brushed sweat out of her eyes. She looked at the field below her. Every blade of grass, every clump of dirt shimmered in the moonlight. Or reflected sunlight, as Pablo had said.

  The heavy pounding behind her had stopped. But Thora didn’t turn back. She kept racing toward the wire fence.

  “Thora!” Pablo yelled.
He was in trouble. Thora had to help him.

  She slowed and quickly looked behind her. She didn’t see Pablo or the trolls. Just three massive mounds of smoldering rock rested in the middle of the field. How had she missed them?

  Thora bent over, resting her hands on her knees. The she heard a rough, scrambling sound. She looked up. Someone appeared from behind the rocky mound nearest her. It was Pablo, and he was grinning.

  “You did it!” Pablo shouted, pointing at the rocks.

  “Huh?” Thora said. She stared hard at the mounds of rock. They resembled grotesque bodies. Chunks that looked like legs and arms and shoulders rested at the sides. And all three had twisted, monstrous heads.

  Thora couldn’t speak. She could only stare, wide-eyed, at the petrified trolls.

  “You led them into the moonlight, and they turned to stone!” said Pablo. “It worked! It really worked!”

  Thora fell in a heap on the ground, smiling. Her legs felt like they were on fire. Her eyes burned from her own salty sweat. Her chest heaved with each breath, but she didn’t care. She was too happy to care.

  Pablo sat in the field next to Thora, quietly waiting for her to catch her breath after their desperate race with the trolls. He gazed up at the sky. The full moon sailed serenely overhead, oblivious to the fact that it had saved their lives. The meteor shower was over, but for some reason, the stars seemed to glow with an added brilliance.

  “We just lived through a fairy tale,” Pablo finally said.

  Thora nodded. “But this isn’t the happy ending,” she said.

  “No, not yet,” Pablo said. He knew they still had to find Bryce, and Zak’s parents, and take Louise back to her father. They had to find out what had happened to Doctor Hoo, too. And Pablo still had questions about the centaur he had seen back in the clearing, and about the third arm he had glimpsed beneath the doctor’s cape. Not to mention the strange light that had seemed to extend outward from Thora as she ran through the field.

  But all that could wait. Right now, here in this moment, Pablo felt hopeful.