The Adventure Begins

by Richard Ashley Hamilton

  “Gunmar,” AAARRRGGHH!!! growled, his eyes narrowing in anger as he touched the mural.

  “Gunmar the Black,” Blinky repeated. “Gunmar the Vicious. Gunmar the Skullcrusher. Although Bular would simply call him ‘father.’ ”

  “What’s this mean?” AAARRRGGHH!!! asked.

  “Of that, I am uncertain,” said Blinky.

  AAARRRGGHH!!! grumbled, drawing Blinky’s attention.

  “AAARRRGGHH!!!?” Blinky said. “What is it?”

  “Just thought of something,” AAARRRGGHH!!! answered. “If Bular not here . . . then where?”

  CHAPTER 9

  GLORY

  The blade plunged deeper, squirting red liquid everywhere. Jim’s face twisted in pain as some of it splashed in his eye.

  “Ow!” he said. “Stupid tomato.”

  Jim wiped his face with a kitchen towel and resumed slicing the tomato with his knife. He stacked the slices on the side of his Santoku and expertly deposited them on the three awaiting sandwiches. Albacore tuna salad on sourdough with scallions, wasabi mayo, and (secret ingredient) celery salt—tomorrow’s lunches were done and ready to be bagged.

  Wiping the blade clean, Jim spun it around his finger and flung the Santoku back into the knife block like a ninja. He’d been feeling so good since his talk with Mr. Strickler. Something about the guy’s voice just put Jim at ease. He didn’t even sweat it when Steve did his stupid “Tick-tock” thing again at lunch. Or when Jim spotted Claire and her friends steal a giggling look at him. It didn’t matter that Toby’s mouth was still numb from the novocaine, because Jim didn’t need cheering up. Even that nutso dream about those two Trolls seemed like a distant memory. For once Jim was happy with his life being ordinary.

  So of course the Amulet chose now to start glowing again. Jim saw the blue light shine from within his bag across the kitchen. Just like that, those carefree feelings drained out of Jim’s mind.

  Enough of this, Jim thought. Strickler’s right. I’ve got enough on my plate as it is. I’m taking that busted gizmo back to the canal and leaving it where I found it.

  Jim grabbed his bag and left through the back door. He could cut through the neighbor’s yard and get to the dry canal faster than going the long way around on his bike. The wind kicked up, whispering through the trees. Jim thought he heard the Amulet’s gears shift in his bag.

  Tick.

  Jim retrieved the Amulet and held it at an angle so he could read the back of it in the waning dusk light. All of a sudden the Amulet’s outer ring began to spin like a dial and the symbols etched into it started to . . . change.

  They transformed from that unfamiliar language Jim had never seen before to something that looked like Chinese or Japanese to Spanish to, finally, English. The Amulet stopped spinning, and the words “FOR THE GLORY OF MERLIN, DAYLIGHT IS MINE TO COMMAND” illuminated around its outer edge.

  Jim stared at the incantation for a moment. He felt compelled to read it, just as he had felt mysteriously compelled to pull the Amulet out of that rubble the day before.

  “For the glory of Merlin,” said Jim, “daylight is mine to command.”

  And that was the exact moment Jim Lake Jr.’s life changed forever.

  The wind howled harder than ever. All the animals in a four-block radius howled too, sensing the abrupt drop in pressure and a crackle of electricity in the air. By reading the incantation, Jim had triggered the Amulet in a way he’d never imagined possible.

  The device shuddered before producing a small sphere of light. The brilliant orb rose into the air, trailing radiance like a comet. Floating and swirling around his head, the ball of light entranced Jim . . . before sinking into his heart. Several more orbs then issued from the Amulet and followed the first through Jim’s chest.

  Rather than shriek in agony, Jim felt a wave of confidence wash over him. His body lifted into the air, buoyed three feet off the lawn by the energy within him. Still hovering, Jim watched the light then explode from his body in a form similar to fireworks—fireworks that refused to obey the laws of physics. The sparks swirled and swelled, collecting around Jim’s arms, legs, and torso. In what could only be an act of magic, sterling silver metal plates appeared between the arcing energy and closed around Jim’s limbs as if magnetized to them.

  The weight of the now-fused metal brought Jim back down to earth, and he found himself cocooned in what appeared to be a way-oversized suit of armor—too big for Jim, but just right for a Troll. Then, as if the armor could read Jim’s mind, it contracted, shrinking down to his smaller proportions. The resizing sent more of that electric blue light coursing along the engravings in the armor. The zigzagging lines of energy all converged over Jim’s heart, where the Amulet now rested, embedded in the armored breastplate.

  Jim looked down at his transformed body, curling his fingers inside their new gauntlets. It all felt so real against his skin. This wasn’t a prank. This wasn’t a dream. This was happening. As this realization rushed into Jim’s mind, he felt like he should say something special—something important—to commemorate this occasion.

  “This is so cool!” Jim shouted in joy. Well, that would have to do for now.

  He struck a pose, standing akimbo like a superhero, feeling the armor glide smoothly with his every movement. But the Amulet wasn’t done yet.

  Five more spheres of light sprang from its inner workings and coalesced in Jim’s right hand. A shock wave of energy expanded outward from his palm, and a marvelously large sword manifested out of thin air. Jim tried holding its hilt with two hands, but the heft of the shimmering blade brought it down to the ground. The Daylight sword was simply too heavy for Jim to lift. Jim sighed with disappointment.

  But as with the armor, the weapon reduced and conformed to Jim’s measurements. He raised Daylight again, ethereal mist cascading off its razor-sharp edges. Now, this was a blade Jim could handle!

  Drawing upon his vast kitchen knife skills—and all the cool swordplay moves he and Tobes had seen in Gun Robot parts 1 through 4—Jim swung Daylight across the darkening night air. He heard its keen edges shear through the atmosphere, tasted the residual energy still glimmering around its bejeweled guard, felt the balance of the blade in his hand.

  This, thought Jim. This is that “something more” I’ve always wanted.

  He wielded Daylight like a warrior, slicing and slashing. Preparing for a truly mighty strike, Jim brought the sword far behind his back . . . and accidentally sank it into one of the boulders decorating his backyard.

  He tugged at Daylight. It didn’t budge.

  Jim tried two hands. No luck.

  He stood on the boulder and pulled with his entire body, trying to gain leverage. And it worked! Only for the sword to then sink into another boulder behind him.

  “Aw, come on!” Jim yelled.

  As he pulled on Daylight, Jim thought of the old stories about the Sword in the Stone that his mom used to read to him as a boy. Didn’t King Arthur have a wizard friend? Wasn’t his name Merlin? Could that Merlin and the one written on the Amulet be the same?

  • • •

  Less than a mile away Walter Strickler walked the length of the dry canal, his loafers echoing along its drab gray walls. He stopped at what was left of Kanjigar’s remains, now scattered across the canal as if kicked aside by a petulant child. Strickler knew Bular was behind him before he even smelled the evil Troll’s rancid breath.

  “It’s been taken,” Strickler said. “You failed. You let it go. Your father will be displeased.”

  Bular roared into Strickler’s ear, his eyes burning in the night like two hot coals. He had spent the last day and night searching Arcadia Oaks for the Amulet, clinging to the shadows and stopping only long enough to snack on the humans unfortunate enough to spot him. The last thing the son of Gunmar needed right now was a lecture from this Impure.

  “Whoever holds the Amulet of Merlin,” growled Bular, “I shall destroy him, just as I have done with every single one of them.”
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br />   “Worry not, you brute.” Strickler smirked. “I know where to find it.”

  Strickler’s eyes then shone in the night as brightly as Bular’s.

  “I believe the Amulet has found its champion,” he added, his pupils as red as blood.

  CHAPTER 10

  THE SWORD IN THE STONE

  Once Jim had finally freed Daylight from the second stone, he spent the rest of the night testing out his new weapon and armor. When his arms got tired from swinging and chopping at the air, he found that he could magnetically affix the sword onto his back. It didn’t take too long for Jim to feel energized again and go back to his practice with a smile. He kept going like this beyond midnight and into the early morning, stopping only when the sun came up. Jim hadn’t slept a wink all night, but it didn’t matter. He’d never felt so awake in his whole life.

  Of course, Jim couldn’t cook or attend school in this armor, so he struggled a bit with how to remove it. Piece by piece? Was there an enchanted zipper somewhere? He took out the Amulet and studied it. On an impulse he turned the dial, and he was immediately back in his own clothes. It was incredible. Jim simply had to share this with someone. And he knew just the guy. . . .

  After cooking and bagging three medianoche sandwiches in record time, Jim paid a visit to the dentist’s office before heading to school.

  “Don’t go in there,” warned Gloria, the dental assistant. “He’s with a patient.”

  But for Jim, news like this couldn’t wait. He opened the door to the procedure room and, sure enough, found Toby about to undergo day two of his orthodontic “tune-up.”

  “Tobes,” said Jim breathlessly.

  “Hey, Jim,” Toby replied, but it came out a little garbled with the dentist’s finger stuck in his mouth.

  “Tobes! Tobes, Tobes, Tobes, Tobes!” Jim repeated. “I have got to talk to you!”

  “Uh, Imma ittle uthy ight ow,” said Toby from his reclined position in the dentist’s chair.

  “What?” Jim asked.

  “He says he’s a little busy right now,” said Doctor Muelas, translating for his patient, before jamming some spacers between Toby’s molars.

  “Oh God, it hurts,” Toby groaned.

  That, Jim understood. But he pressed on, saying, “Okay, remember that thing we found the other day? In the canal. The thing with the gem and stuff? It works! It works like crazy!”

  “Is ant ate an?” Toby gurgled.

  “What?” Jim asked again.

  “He says, ‘This can’t wait, man?’ ” translated Doctor Muelas.

  “I’ve already waited until morning,” said Jim. “Who goes to the dentist two days in a row?”

  Toby said a few more words, but the whir of the dentist’s drill drowned them out.

  “ ‘I want to get these braces off before I’m thirty,’ ” Doctor Muelas translated once again. “ ‘It’s like my mouth is a city engineering project.’ ”

  “How much longer is this going to take?” Jim asked.

  Eight hours later the two returned to Jim’s house. And for once Jim actually wanted the distraction of classes, even if it meant risking a run-in with Steve. Anything would have been better than sitting in a dentist’s waiting room all day with a secret this big.

  “Okay, Tobes,” Jim began. “You are never going to believe this.”

  “My mouth still feels a little sore,” Toby said, rubbing his jaw.

  As Toby searched the refrigerator for something cold to hold against his teeth, Jim grabbed the Amulet from his bag.

  “Check this out,” said Jim, getting ready to read the incantation, when . . .

  “Do you have any aspirin?” Toby asked, killing the mood.

  “Tobes, pay attention,” Jim sighed.

  But that would be impossible for Toby. He had found a box of frozen pizza. The aroma of pepperoni and mushrooms made Toby forget about his pain and whatever Jim was up to.

  “For the glory of Merlin,” Jim read from the Amulet. “Daylight is mine to co—”

  A kitchen timer went off, interrupting Jim once more. He looked from the Amulet to Toby, who pulled the cooked pizza from the microwave.

  “Go on,” Toby said, before taking a bite.

  “It worked last night,” Jim said, not getting it.

  He had read the magic words, so where was the armor? Maybe all of Toby’s distractions were annoying the Amulet as much as Jim? Taking a deep breath, Jim cleared his mind and relaxed his body. As if on cue, the Amulet floated out of his hand and expelled fresh bolts of energy. Other objects around the kitchen also began to levitate—including Toby’s slice of pizza.

  “Holy champignon!” Toby exclaimed.

  Toby watched his best friend rise into the air. In a flash, the suit of armor formed around Jim’s body, fitting like a glove. Daylight remained on Jim’s back as he had left it at sunrise.

  “How cool is that?” said Jim, still amazed by the transformation.

  “Whaaaaaaaaaat?” gasped Toby in disbelief. “Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!”

  Tobes ran over to Jim and touched his armor. Its surface still tingled with magic. It felt a little electric, like being shocked when you shook someone’s hand.

  “So cool! So cool! So cool!” he kept repeating. “Dude, you know what this means, right? You have a sacred responsibility here.”

  “That’s what they said!” blurted Jim.

  “You have to use these new powers for the benefit of all mankind,” said Toby between bites of pizza. “You have to use this to kick Steve’s butt.”

  Jim’s jaw dropped in disappointment.

  “Really?” Jim said, shaking his head. “I show you a glowing sword and a suit of armor that can only be magic, and that’s how you respond?”

  “Seriously! It’s butt-kicking time,” Toby said, before launching into some made-up karate moves. Around the fifth jump kick, he paused.

  “Wait,” said Toby. “Who’s ‘they’?”

  The back door promptly swung open, and in walked Blinky with a friendly laugh.

  “Master Jim!” said the Troll, trying his hardest to sound upbeat. After what he had seen in Bular’s lair last night—and Jim’s fainting spell the night before—Blinky knew this would be a tricky conversation. Especially once Jim’s friend started screaming.

  “What—what—what is that?” Toby stammered. “I’m calling 911!”

  AAARRRGGHH!!!’s head then leaned into the open doorway, making Toby scream again.

  “No, Animal Control!” Toby decided as he ducked behind the kitchen island and started dialing on his cell.

  AAARRRGGHH!!! shoved his way inside Jim’s house, his powerfully wide shoulders splintering the doorjamb on the way through. He looked at Blinky.

  “Door small,” AAARRRGGHH!!! said with a sheepish smile.

  “Monsters at my best friend’s house!” Toby shouted into his cell. “I need you to send a squad! Make that the National Guard!”

  Jim and the Trolls watched as Toby lowered his phone in defeat and said, “Animal Control hung up on me.”

  “You told your friend about us?” Blinky asked Jim.

  “Um, is that a problem?” said Jim.

  “Master Jim, we Trolls have gone to great lengths to keep our existence secret from your kind, lest there be panic,” Blinky explained.

  AAARRRGGHH!!! peeked behind the kitchen island, surprising Toby. The Troll gently picked up the boy and inspected him like a new toy, poking his belly. Toby screamed again.

  “Like that,” Blinky added.

  AAARRRGGHH!!! lowered Toby onto the counter. Rifling through the kitchen drawers, Toby grabbed a soup ladle and swung it around like a hammer to shoo away the Troll.

  “This is my best friend, Toby D.,” said Jim to Blinky and AAARRRGGHH!!!.

  Blinky smiled warmly, dodging the ladle and telling Toby, “Your friend is the Trollhunter. His noble obligation is protective.”

  “You mean, like a superhero?” Toby asked, lowering the ladle.
“Oh, can I be his sidekick? With a cool superhero name like Deathblade or Snipersnake?”

  “Just wait,” said Jim. “Who would I be protecting?”

  “Us,” grumbled AAARRRGGHH!!!.

  “And mankind,” Blinky added. “From bad Trolls. As well as Goblins, Gruesomes, and the occasional rogue Gnome. The mantle of Trollhunter is a sacred responsibility. One which has never been passed to a human before. This is a momentous occasion.”

  Just as Blinky’s words sank in, Jim jolted at a horn honking. He peeked out the window and saw his mom’s car pull into the driveway.

  “Oh, it’s my mother!” Jim exclaimed.

  How was Jim going to explain to her why he was wearing armor and chatting with two Trolls instead of doing his homework?

  CHAPTER 11

  FLUSHED AWAY

  “Upstairs! Quick!” ordered Jim, hurrying Toby, Blinky, and AAARRRGGHH!!! up the staircase to the second floor.

  AAARRRGGHH!!!’s incredibly strong backside accidentally knocked the banister off-kilter. But he was able to move it back into place and stomp upstairs before Barbara opened the front door.

  “Jim, it’s me,” she said, hearing a very loud thud come from upstairs.

  Jim, Toby, and the Trolls all huddled nervously in the bathroom. With so many bodies crowded among the sink, tub, and toilet, it was a pretty tight fit. Jim wriggled, trying to get more comfortable.

  “She’s not supposed to be home until midnight!” said Jim in an agitated whisper.

  Toby was pressed against AAARRRGGHH!!!. The large Troll sniffed Toby’s hair and sighed in delight.

  “Mmm. You smell like cat,” said AAARRRGGHH!!!, a little too loud for Jim’s liking.

  “My nana has a Siamese,” said Toby.

  “Tasty,” AAARRRGGHH!!! replied, licking his lips.

  The group flinched when they heard Barbara speak from the other side of the bathroom door. Jim tried turning the lock, then remembered that it had been broken for weeks.