Into the Shadows of Arcadia

Mudslinging

A female voice whispered all around Jim who was surrounded by his reflections in dark purple colored gems. Jim slowly stepped around each large crystal, watching his surroundings as his armor had already phased onto his body.

"Gunmar.."

The voice said hauntingly. Jim twisting and turning as he looked at his three silhouettes of himself in the crystals.

"Gunmar the Black."

The female voice echoed as it continued to speak, a large roar met Jim making his only instinct to don his sword.

"Gunmar the Vicious. Gunmar the Skullcrusher."

Reflections of Gunmar had appeared in the gems as well, before a larger version of Gunmar appeared behind Jim, his one eye standing out as the voice sounded possessed as it screamed.

"Gunmar! Your Sire! Your Father, you can't escape you are his."

Panicked, Jim let out a scream, falling and landing on his back into the smokey floor which turned into Gunmar's vibrant eye. Soon, the eye became nothing but Jim's bedroom floor as he fell off his bed, woken from his nightmare. His eyes flashing yellow. Jim rubbed the sore spot on his head, letting out a sigh of relief. Before standing back up and dropping into his bed, the blanket falling over him as he hid beneath it. 

The next day at school in the gym, band music played in the background as a person in a mole costume danced behind Coach Lawrence as he listened to the students who cheered.

"Give me an A!"

Coach called out to the crowd, the mole jumping in the background, doing poses to the letters. The students repeated.

"A!"

"Give me an R!"

"R!"

"Give me a C!"

"C!"

"This is taking way too long. Give me an "adia"!"

The student cheers died down some confusing chatter here and there.

"What's that spell? . . . Arcadia! Go Moles! Go, Moles... I have a few announcements-"

In the crowd, Jim and Toby sat near the top, Jim explaining what he saw in his dream to Toby but his friend's focus was on something else other than Jim's story, his eyes were a clear concept that he was very interested in whatever he was staring at.

"And his eye is glowing. And then, the dream just keeps reminding me that I'm completely way out of my league. Right? Tobes."

Of course he left out the part about the bloodline. And all that because the less toby knew about the father thing.

"Who is that masked mole? You ever wonder?"

"You didn't hear a word I said just then, did you?"

"Sure, I did. You had no problems sneaking into the Darklands when it was to save Claire's brother, but now that Kanjigar says you've got to face Gunmar, you're having nightmares about him and are freaking out that you're way out of your league. I can multi-task, Jimbo."

"It's Bill Aronstein."

"Bill moved to Wisconsin. This is someone else's artistry. Someone with feminine wiles."

"What? What feminine wiles? How do you even know that it's a girl under there?"

"Uh, trust me, dude. I know women, and that is all woman under there?"

During their little dance, Toby felt as though he made a connection with the mole until they fell into Coach Lawrence who groaned in annoyance. The students laughing.