On the Way to the Garden

Cape May

(A/N: I'm using towns from New Jersey as the chapter titles along with pictures from those places cause why the hell not)

The water was still, Claire noted as she kept watch. Jim and the rest of the trolls were sleeping, leaving her to be the only one who could stand guard over camp. Jim had tried to join her in her quest, but was not curled up in a cave near Blinky, his long black hair, falling over his eyes. Merlin had long since vanished, he had made his way to the new Hearthstone to set up shop for them. They were lucky to have made it to Arizona without freaking people out. Blinky had insisted on leading them through Las Vegas for reasons unknown to Jim and Claire's discouragement but lead them through the Grand Canyon for "safety" although Blinky himself admitted that it would be fascinating to see such an ancient history. Now, they were camped at the bottom, Claire desperately trying to get a signal so she could contact her parents and Barbara to let them know they were alright.

Claire looked at the burning afternoon sun. Hikers were walking by pointing out different things in the rocks, guides were talking about history, and damn did Claire need shorts. Her armor was heavy and it made her sweaty. She had a few pairs of clean clothes, but it was near impossible to get new ones. She checked her phone again. Yes! A connection. Claire quickly texted her parents that she and Jim were alright, no, they were not canoodling and that they were in the Grand Canyon before sending a similar message to Barbara to let her know that Jim was fine, he had eaten 5 socks from her bag the day before, the armor had finally shut off and he had a large hoodie and sweatpants for when they went into town. Claire stifled a laugh as Jim opened one eye and smirked before standing up and stretching. "Morning Claire." He yawned, coming to join her in the shadows. "It's not morning, it's nearly 3 o'clock. You've been sleeping for 9 hours." "It felt good." Jim said, cuddling up against her. "Whatcha doin'?" "Sending messages to my parents, your mom and I'm to get a connection so we can FaceTime Toby and Aaarrrggghhh!." Jim beamed and planted a kiss on her cheek, leaving a tiny scratch behind. "Sorry." Jim said, backing away. "It's fine. I've been trying all day and only got a signal for 10 minutes and of course it's gone. Aren't we leaving tonight?" Jim nodded. "Yeah. We'll follow the river North and then jump out." Claire blinked at him. "Jim, I'm not a Troll. I can't jump like you can." Jim smiled. "I know. You can be on my back."