If You Trust Me - An Onward Fan-Novel

◊ Chapter 22 ◊

Previously on Onward...

The Manticore regales the origins of the S.S. Medallion to the hungry crowd of customers at her Tavern, and to Ian and Barley—who are itching to get a lead as to where Gedeon might be hiding. She reveals that the talisman was forged together at the brink of magic fading away by three gremlin wizards who wanted nothing more than for magic to stay and the ultimate power to shapeshift.

◊◊◊

◊ To Grasp a Gremlin ◊

The Manticore led the boys over to a large map displayed on one of the tavern's stone walls. It depicted the western side of the United Realms—which included New Mushroomton. The mighty beast pointed towards a vast mountain range due east.

"Nowadays, Dangarnon is an unmarked shanty village located right outside the Untold Caverns, which is just east from here—beyond the mountain range," she explained, drawing her finger around each location. "It's as poor and full of shady gremlins, old abandoned hangars, and scraps as it was in the old days. If this Gedeon rogue of yours has that S.S. Medallion, he's bound to have taken it there with him."

"And...if he hasn't?" Ian asked nervously.

"Then I don't know what to tell you."

The younger Lightfoot furrowed his brows as he began to think deeply about this. All of this.

"Depending on who you ask, Dangarnon is either paradise or a place of woe," Corey added. "Hardly gets any sun there, which is why the area is just perfect for gremlins."

"But of course! For their main weakness is the dreaded sunlight!" Barley said excitedly.

"Exactly! I mean, put a gremlin in the sun for a whole afternoon, and they'll have a very high fever for almost a week!"

The Manticore and Barley shared a laugh over this all while a pensive Ian continued to be lost in thought as he'd now placed a hand on his chin. He then remembered his notebook and the items he wrote down during the mighty beast's story, and decided to get it out and look through that as well.

"Now while sunlight is their biggest weakness," Corey continued, "water is their biggest strength. If you place even a droplet of water on a gremlin, they will instantly duplicate! A gremlin can make their own savage army simply by taking a dive in the river, which Dangarnon also happens to have by the way, and yet another reason why the town is ideal for a barbaric species like them to live."

Ian nodded at the beast's words as his eyes focused solely on the pages of his writing. He just so happened to have both sun and water facts jotted down in his notes from his research with Barley the other day.

"But know this, boys," the Manticore then said gravely, causing the younger elf to gaze up at her attentively. "As long as Gedeon has that medallion around his neck and is transformed into another creature, he cannot be weakened by light nor create more of himself with water. Only if you're a gremlin can you truly do such a thing."

Of all these things, Ian knew one thing for sure—that gremlins, and Gedeon himself, were much more complicated and dangerous than he ever thought they could be. He knew now exactly what he had to do for the good of himself and everyone around him.

Just then, the tavern's head chef popped out from the kitchen's double doors with sweat running down her face. "Oh, Manticore! We've got dishes for tables three, fourteen, seventeen, and twenty-one, and no one to take 'em out! Could you give us a hand?"

Corey's eyes widened. As willing as she was to give her favorite customers the information they sought, she was still tavern manager after all.

"Oh, yes, of course!" she said to the troll. "Be right there!" As the head chef then returned to the kitchen, the beast turned back to where the Lightfoot brothers were standing. "Sorry, boys, but that's all the time I've got for right now. This tavern seriously can't run itself!"