Toby was sprinting down the street like a madman, nearly getting hit by a car. Thankfully, the man driving the car stopped quickly enough and managed not to hit him. The driver watched in pure confusion as Toby glanced in the direction of the way he ran, and then bolted in the opposite direction.
A fiery shadow appeared coming from the direction Toby just ran away from, speeding past the car. It left three flaming spots on the hood of the car. Toby tried to run faster down the street, but he could hear the impending footsteps of whatever creature was racing behind him.
"What are you doing Tobes?" He asked himself as he ran, "Only an idiot races a creature with four legs." He tried jumping over a fence, only to have the entire fence get knocked down.
He heard a low growl from behind him and looked to see the creature that had been running after him, standing still only a few feet away. It was in the shape of a lion, but its body looked to be built of minerals and fire. Like some sort of hellfire lion or something. Toby gasped and went back up into a trash can as Jim showed up on his Vespa and I jumped out of seemingly nowhere. I pulled out my amulet to try and fight it.
"Hop on, Tobes!" Jim called for Toby who nodded and ran over to the Vespa and borderline leaped onto the back of it.
I was going to fight it off, but it hissed and spat fire at me before I could even advance or morph into my armor.
"Oh-" I gasped before it took off again after Jim and Toby. I had to sprint as fast as I could to get ahead of it before I landed a foot on the side of the Vespa.
"Adios, fire cat," Jim said as we drove away. The fire cat got closer to us as soon as the words left his mouth.
"Maybe save the jokes for when we're not about to die?" Toby begged him and I stifled a snort of amusement. Jim sped up as I held on for dear life.
"I don't think this thing was made for three people..." I pointed out as the fire cat chased after us.
"It's not." Toby shrugged, "But you're doing just fine." I looked at him with an exasperated expression and he just shut his mouth.
"I can't believe you took that stupid rock to your science class!" I exclaimed at Toby, who flinched guiltily.
"First, it's not a rock. It's volcanic slag." He corrected me, "And how was I supposed to know there was a flaming monster inside of it?"
"You bought a magic rock from a troll called Mervin the Monster Dealer." Jim pointed out, "What did you think was gonna happen, Tobes?"
Thankfully, we stopped in an alleyway where Blinky, Lyonna, and Arrrgh were waiting for us.
"Blinky, please tell me you got it," I asked him desperately.
"Of course, Mistress Raelynn." Blinky eased me, "You've lured the Luminaire right into our stratagem."
"Stra-ta-gem?" Arrrgh asked, obviously confused by the big word.
Lyonna turned towards him, "It means, brilliant trap."
We all froze when the sound of hissing sounded from the entrance of the alley. Blinky and Lyonna stood there, staring at it with expressions of pure fear on their faces.
"Master Jim," Lyonna scolded Jim, "You said this was a Luminaire... when it is obviously an Infernal Hellheeti."
The Hellheeti crept closer to us as we all grasped random bottles from different corners of the alley. We threw them with all our might at the fire cat.
"Should I punch it?" Arrrgh asked curiously.
"Yeah!" Toby encouraged him, "Let him unleash the fury!"
YOU ARE READING
The Two Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia Book One: Just the Beginning
FantasyJim and his best friends have been dragged headfirst into a world that is not their own. He and Raelynn have been chosen as this other world's protectors. But Raelynn and her sister have secrets, secrets that will have to be revealed if the team is...
