Father and Son

Chapter 5

Jim crawled through the air vents of the large business building complex, motioning Claire and Toby to follow once he checked ahead. Finding the spot that he hoped was right, Jim kicked out the panel beneath him and dropped into the room below- only to find himself in a small office room full of shocked scientists. Dictatious sat behind a glass wall on one side of the room, his eyes covered with bandages.

The trollhunters dropped in and dispatched the scientists, taking care to simply knock them out instead of killing them. Dictatious could hear the noise of the fight, and he backed away from the glass as Toby shattered it. "Dictatious, do you know where Blinky and Aargh are?" Claire asked, helping the troll navigate the piles of broken glass. "Nice to see you too. I know that my brother is being held with two children but not where, and I know that Aargh is close by, down a hallway I believe."

Jim thanked him but then paused, adding, "What did they do to your face?" Dictatious scratched at the bandages and frowned. "I'm not sure, but my eyes itch horribly. Even so I believe that is not our biggest problem at the moment, yes?" Shaking off the brief hesitation, Jim took off, opening every door in his path. "Blinky? Blinky?! Can you hear me? Aargh? Anyone?"

Banging from the other side of a door drew Jim to the end of the hallway, where Toby used his warhammer to smash the door in. Aargh charged through the hole, panicked until he realized that it was his friends and not scientists. "Too many humans... big guns. Shot Blinky and took him away, I couldn't stop them."

Aargh looked crushed, and Claire patted his arm consolingly. "We think he's still alive, being kept with a couple of whelps somewhere. Don't worry, we'll find him! And everyone else." Aargh nodded, then began to sniff the air, charging away down the hall to the right, left, right... countless turns after turns after turns to follow Blinky's scent. "He's close. Follow me."