When school was in session again, it seemed like the teachers were trying to pile on as much information as possible to them. The transfers often found themselves in the library with mountains of homework and research. Mr. Coraggio and Mrs. Underhill were relentless with essays, Mrs. Spohn was piling up the practical tests, Mr. Eichorn was quizzing them almost every class with demonstrations to test their reflexes and clearness of mind when in trouble, Ms. Danner was making them all push deeper and deeper into the cosmos to pull as much information as they could. In Astrology they were up at late hours charting stars, planetary movements, and the paths of meteors and comets. Mr. Watkins seemed to be the only lenient one with homework which the transfers partially believed it was because he wanted time to focus on helping in the defending and watching of Ethan.
It was Kai's turn to watch Ethan while Dawn and Eugene had already gone to bed and Shadoe was on safety patrol duty. The two of them were working on one of the many essays for Mrs. Underhill's class.
"Ugh, if I have to read another thing about goblins, I swear I'm going to turn into one." Kai threw his head on the book in front of him.
"Come on, we're almost done." Ethan shook him up.
"Fine." He sat back up. "It'll be interesting to see what kills us first."
"What? Studying or Teras?"
"Exactly." Kai smiled at him. "Right now I'm leaning towards the constant pop quizzes of Coraggio's." He laughed.
"No, I'm betting I'll forget which spell it is to move something to the left and end up toppling a bookcase on myself instead." Ethan joked.
"Oh come on, motion spells aren't that hard."
"I can't keep them straight! They're all too similar. Which one is overturn again?"
"Nabalkutu." Kai answered.
"I always forget the ‘l’ in that! Ugh! Why can't it just stay in my mind?" Ethan slammed his head on his book.
"Well I'm just about done. Want to call it a night?"
"I guess, let me just finish this up." Ethan began scribbling quicker and Kai began packing up their things. "Alright, done." Ethan threw his pencil down when suddenly he gasped and fell backwards in his chair.
"Ethan!" Kai rushed to grab him but Ethan began convulsing in his arms. He suddenly stopped and his eyes slowly closed until everything went black.
A flash of light came over him and Ethan found himself standing on a frozen tundra. The wind whipped around him blowing the snow in a fiercely striking blizzard. The strange part was that he couldn't feel the cold and he couldn't hear the wind blowing the snow. It appeared that everything was muted. He took a step back when he stumbled and fell through a hole in the snow. When he hit the ground he didn't feel any pain like he had expected. He stood up and could feel the crunch of snow under his feet. He looked up and saw the snow trickling in from an open gap where he had fallen. He looked around the room but it was pitch black.
"Hello!" He called and his voice echoed throughout the chamber. Flames erupted in the borders of the room, illuminating the thousands of stone statues standing in rows. However, it wasn't the thousands that made him jump; it was the one statue that lay directly in front of him. It was the Troll King Gernoch. As Ethan stumbled back an echoing laughter broke through the silence.
"Well, well," the smooth, deep voice of Teras came. "It took a while but I finally got you here." His cruel face slowly came out of the darkness and met him on the other side of Gernoch.
