A Sense of Belonging

Chapter 4

Blinky had stopped trying to free himself from the ropes- not because he had given up, but because he had a plan. Thinking of what Vendel would have done in this situation, (besides not getting captured in the first place) Blinky had thought of ways to trick Dictatious and keep the free trolls safe from his evil brother and Gunmar. If he could convince Dictatious that he would lead him to the camp, he could instead lead him as far as he could in the opposite direction. Eyeing the sun slowly starting to peek over the horizon, Blinky hoped that his ruse would work.

*Back at Camp*

"It's been hours, I'm sure he didn't mean to be gone this long. But we've searched everywhere, I just don't know what to do." Jim explained, worry evident in his voice. "This just isn't like him." He paced, his armor clanking with every step. Jim had put it on when he first started the search, and since he was stressed it wouldn't come off. "I'm going out one more time. Maybe I'll find some sort of clue this time around."

Jim wandered through the forest, having split up from his friends to cover more ground. As glad as Jim was that his friends wanted to help, he was glad to be alone for a little while. The forest air was fresh and soothing on Jim's frazzled nerves, and the thick bed of pine needles crunched softly under his feet. Jim could see how his friend why his blue friend had wanted to take a break here; it made problems feel so distant. This brief peace was spoiled when Jim saw the sun peeking over the horizon, replaced by a spark of panic. He had to find Blinky before the sun was up! Jogging into a clearing, Jim suddenly stopped.

This clearing was one of the few spots in the woods where the ground was not covered in pine needles, leaves, or underbrush. Instead it sported thin patches of grass- and large spots of torn earth. Jim kneeled beside one of the spots and saw the large print of a troll, but he was alarmed to see that it wasn't Blinky's. It was much bigger and appeared to be wearing some sort of iron shoe. A soldier?

Tracing the prints, Jim followed them to the edge of the surrounding woods, where he saw that the soldier had been accompanying someone- and dragging someone else as well. A rope, discarded towards the center of the clearing with two spikes, showed that someone had been tied down here, possibly for quite some time. Ripped grass and overturned soil showed their efforts to escape, along with what looked like one of the soldier's teeth. Jim felt a rush of pride for his mentor, and desperately prayed that he would find him alive.

Tracing a trail from the soldier revealed the original trap and another escape attempt, but not anything Jim could really use. He backtracked to the clearing and started searching amongst the surrounding trees. Finally Jim found a huge clue- a tree on the far side of the clearing had a gouge mark in it at around the height of Blinky's head, as if he had used his horn to dig into its bark. Seeing more on trees farther ahead, Jim followed the trail.