"Krel! Krel! Krel! Krel! Krel," Toby called to me, running as fast as his short legs could carry him. He was clad in his usual grey sweatpants and yellow t-shirt. He also had a red corduroy tank top over the shirt. And, to my surprise, Toby was actually running. His usual pace was a casual walk, or a mild jog when he needed to be hasty. He never ran unless he had to. When he had to was if a troll or some deadly life form was chasing him, or if Coach Lawrence caught him slacking during gym class.

Steve, the blond and primitive oaf that was dating my sister, was at his heels. Even from a distance his face was red and blotchy, like he had been running for a long time. That was new. He was one of the most athletic kids in school, right alongside Aja and Seamus. He shouldn't have been that winded.

Jim Lake Jr., the Trollhunter and Toby's closest friend, was a stark contrast from the other boys. He looked perfectly fine running long sprints. I suppose running for his life almost every day may have had something to do with it.

"Krel," Toby panted, coming to a stop besides me. He was taking shallow, labored breaths and the top half of his body was bent over at the waist. "What is it," I asked, genuinely concerned. Toby was sweating, and slightly shaking. "Krel," he wheezed, shoving his cell phone into my face.  "This is so awesome...you're gonna love it..."

"I cannot understand what you're trying to show me when I cannot see it," I snapped, pushing the phone away. "Take a breath, slow down, and start from the beginning." He obeyed, sucking down huge amounts of air. After his face was no longer the color of a fresh bruise, he started speaking normally again. Well, as normally as he could. Toby was...weird, at best.

"So, you know how the Battle Of The Bands last summer was a total disaster, right," he asked, bouncing up and down, full of hyperactive energy.

"Please. Do not remind me," I shuddered, thinking of the grotesque things I had witnessed.

"Wasn't that bad," Steve mumbled. "I got kissed by a ninja-kicking angel princess."

"And I still resent you for that," I retorted. "Please, continue, Toby."

"So, Doux was texting me last night, because Archie was late coming home and he was worried. So, like the wonderful friend I am, I decided to take his mind off of it by asking him about some spells he was working on. Then, we started talking about the Diablo Maximus Burrito and asked him if he could cast a spell that made me able to eat five in one day without getting sick, and-"

"Get to the point, buttsnack," Steve snapped.

"Whoa, whoa man, relax," Toby hastily said, trying not to make Steve angry. He had a tendency to punch things close to him when he was angry. Especially people he didn't like that much, like Toby.

"Anyways, then we got talking about magic, and then we talked about some things we wished we could have redone over, and he said, 'The Battle Of The Bands, for sure.' That was when I had the most awesome idea ever..."

He stopped, the most ridiculous grin stretching across his face. I waited for him to tell us what it was, but he didn't say. We stood there, Toby smiling like a crazy person and myself just staring at him.

"Are you going to tell us what it was, or do we stand here until Señor Uhl makes us get to class," I asked him, losing my patience.

"I'm pausing for dramatic effect, man. Chill." He cleared his throat, and continued on. "We had the amazing idea to redo the Battle of The Bands!!"

"What," I exclaimed. "That's...amazing! But I can't do the whole DJ performance again. Aja...she's not here to perform with me." The memory of my sister stung. It might have been awhile since she left, but that wound hadn't quite healed yet.

"Relax, DJ Kleb," Toby smiled. "I have a different plan. Douxie has his own band, and he knows how to sing and play guitar-"

"I can do that as well," I interrupted him. "It's not like it's some incredibly special and unique talent to sing."

"Uh, yes it is," Toby shot back. "Have you never heard somebody horrible sing? Singing is a delicate art, and requires talent and years of frequent practicing." He pantomimed singing with his arms, swinging them around like he was trying to be graceful.

"Whatever," I said. Once Toby had an idea fixed in his head, there was no changing it. "Continue with what you were saying."

"Douxie knows how to perform well on stage, you're a really good DJ, Jim has the motivation to learn to play an instrument, and Steve...well, he's the only free person in our group of friends."

"We're not friends, Dumb-zalski," Steve said, his voice cracking slightly halfway through his speech.

"Fine. We mutually respect each other. Focus! We have a huge shot at winning this thing if we team up!"

I thought it over a bit. Last time Arcadia hosted a Battle Of The Bands, the sun eclipsed and evil trolls started attacking Arcadia. And, to make matters worse, an Omen bot almost stole the Mothership. It wasn't a memory I wanted to revisit anytime soon. Or make another one, for that matter. But, if Toby and Douxie were doing it too...

"Fine, you win," I groaned, throwing my hands up in defeat. "But you had better be doing it as well or else I will not. No use trying to convince me to join if you won't participate."

Toby grinned, revealing more braces than teeth in his mouth. "Great! We'll see you after school for practice at my house, right?"

"Sure," I said, catching a glance of Señor Uhl making his rounds outside. "What time?"

"4:00, sharp. No later. We need all the practice time we can get."

"When is the Battle Of The Bands anyways?"

"About three weeks, maybe four," said Jim. "We're not sure yet. We'll discuss it more with Claire when we have the time."

"But, if we have that much time, then why-"

"Stop your loitering and get to class," Señor Uhl cut me off, fixing the four of us with his signature glare. That steely-eyed stare has been known to make even seniors cower in fear. His piercing blue gaze seemed to see past you and into your memories, your soul.

We scattered as soon as the words were uttered. Nobody wanted to disobey the supreme leader of the school. The last glance I got of Toby was his thumbs-up to me before disappearing into the crowd of teenagers.

**********

I wandered towards Ms. Janeth's room in a daze, thinking about my sister a bit more. I hadn't been able to get in contact with her in awhile, and I couldn't help but worry for her. Sure, it had been several parsons since she officially became queen of Akiridion-5, but it had still only been parsons, not keltons. Compared to the extremely long lifespan of an average Akiridion, she was still an amateur in the politics business.

Walking into class and setting my books on my desk, I took a seat and looked at the clock. 8:45. 15 mekrons before class started. While I waited, I took out one of my pencils and started fiddling with it. Bending the canary wood, I could see microscopic cracks forming. Releasing my pressure on it, they disappeared. I kept at this for awhile, testing how much it would bend before it started making crackling noises.

Halting the pressure and turning the pencil around, I checked for any serious damage. I didn't want to waste a perfectly good pencil, after all. A large divot in the pencil caught my attention, a ravine in the otherwise flawless wood. For some reason it bothered me, but I couldn't remember why. Then, it hit me.

Aja and I had been walking back to the Mothership a few weeks after we crashed landed. We had just left downtown Arcadia, but were still a good 10 minutes away from home. Nobody was walking on the sidewalks so far as we could see, and nobody was driving around, so we figured it was okay to go ahead and use her hoverboard. We both hopped on and started gliding home, a whole lot faster than our previous speed.

We were approaching a bend in the road, and out of nowhere a car came racing around the corner! Aja panicked, and she dove off the board towards the sidewalk. However, I was still on it. I was also resting towards the front of the board. So, when she jumped off, the board tipped forwards and threw me. The car screeched to a stop, and I ended up plastered to the front window of the vehicle.

The driver got out of the car and apologized profusely, and offered to give our parents money, but we eventually convinced him to leave us alone. When we finally got back to the ship, Aja tattled and told Varvatos, even after I told her not to. He made a few threats about skinning the driver alive and giving him a glorious death (as per usual), and Mother scanned me for any serious injuries. Nothing broken, though she said I would have quite a bruise on my back for awhile.

Later that evening, when Aja was training with the Blanks in the main part of the ship, and Varvatos was watching his game shows, I had decided to do some homework. So, I took out my math assignment and my history work, and started working. Then, my pencil broke. Not just the tip, but the whole shaft as well.

I rummaged through my bag for another one, and found that most of my pencils had snapped. The only one that hadn't been completely turned into wooden shards was one with a huge chunk missing. I complained about my pencils being snapped, when Mother appeared and scolded me, saying I should be thankful it was my pencils that were broken, and not my spine.

"Mr. Tarron!!" I let out a yelp, falling out of my seat. Ms. Janeth was giving me the evil eye, holding a Dry-Erase marker out in front of her. "Math class is not the time for daydreaming," she scolded me. The whole class laughed as I felt my face heat up. I mumbled a quick apology before picking myself back up and getting back in my chair. I looked around for my pencil before seeing it snapped in half on the floor where I had not-so-gracefully landed. "Kleb," I swore under my breath.

"Since you've had the audacity to go off into La La Land, why don't you come up and solve this problem," she continued, gesturing to the board with her marker. I stood up, took the marker from her, and turned my attention to the board. If the base of the cylinder is 36.7, and the length is 19, what is the cubic volume to the second decimal place?

I solved the equation with ease, handed Ms. Janeth the marker again, and went back to my desk. After that, the rest of math class was a distorted haze of parabolas and equations.

**********

Gym, in my opinion, was the worst subject in all of Academic Prison.

We had to change clothes in the disgusting locker rooms that stunk of used laundry and adolescent's sweaty armpits. Then, we had to walk back to the gym, where we were met with a short-tempered Coach Lawrence. Once we got there, we ran laps or push-ups, or whatever form of abuse he forced upon us.

The only thing that I could've called okay about physical education was the fact that my sister was usually with me. But, with her back on Akiridion-5 now, it was very bland. It didn't help that Coach Lawrence was complaining about losing his star athlete. It just made the fact that she was gone all the more painful.

When I got there today, Coach was talking to Seamus on the other end of the gym, so I figured I had about 30 seconds to talk with Toby and Jim more about the Battle Of The Bands before he noticed me. I walked over to where they were sitting, Toby bent over in half trying to touch his toes. Jim was keeping watch on Coach Lawrence, and Claire was on the other side of the gym, chatting with Mary and Darci.

"I have a few more questions concerning the Battle Of The Bands," I said in greeting. Toby grunted in response, struggling to bend over further. "When do you think it should happen? We cannot have it happen too early into the school year, because nobody will have time to participate."

"Uh huh," he said, and with a final grunt he swung himself back upright. "Honestly, we were thinking of making it, like, a series of people performing songs. No real competition, no crazy prizes, just people performing for fun."

"Wasn't that like last year's Battle Of The Bands," I asked pointedly. He opened his mouth to answer but was cut off by the sound of Coach Lawrence yelling in our direction. "Tarron! Domzalski! Lake! Less talking, more climbing! Hop to it," he gestured to the huge ropes hanging from the ceiling. I sighed, then begrudgingly got up and shuffled over to the ropes.

In Coach Lawrence's class, everybody was able to climb the 15 foot rope and ring the bell at the top. Well, everybody was supposed to, at least. The less athletic kids had more problems with it. Namely Toby and myself.

It took awhile for me to reach the top, but I finally made it after a lot of straining and sweating. The sound of the bell ringing was so satisfying to hear that I almost let go of the rope then and there. I shimmied down, and almost collapsed into a puddle when my feet touched the ground.

I hate gym class.

**********

Señor Uhl's Spanish class was my last period of the day. He was possibly the most terrifying teacher of them all. His huge form towered over anybody who entered his classroom. He spoke with a deep, commanding voice like an army general. But everybody knew, if they misused so much as an Un or Una, his punishments would be far worse--failing grades.

I made it through the class without too many problems, aside from stumbling over a few longer words. Once the final bell rang, I grabbed my bag and barreled out the door. I had to hurry because Toby would have my head if I was late to practice, no matter the excuse. With him, early was punctual, and punctual was late. And to be late...well, let's just say that I'd never wish that sort of tongue lashing upon anybody.

I ran by my locker to grab my homework from other classes, and then started the run to the Mothership. It wasn't too far away from his house, but it was still took well over 10 minutes to get there on foot by walking. I checked my watch, which read 3:40. I had about 15 minutes to grab my guitar, get to his house and get set up for practice.

I sprinted across the giant bridge that spanned the canals, cars honking at my close proximity to the road. Once I was across, I ran through my neighborhood, up the culdesac where the Mothership was grounded, and rushed inside covered in sweat. 3:48. My best time yet, but there was no time to celebrate.

Ricky and Lucy, the blank robots who kept me company, were somewhere else in the ship. I thanked Seklos that I wouldn't have to deal with Lucy and Ricky while I was in such a crunch for time. I grabbed my guitar, which was laying against the top couch cushion, grabbed some water and was out the door again in a heartbeat. 3:49.

With a large, wooden instrument strapped to my back, it wasn't easy to run for long periods of time without getting winded. So, every few blocks or so, I would take a rest break. When I got to the road that would take me to Toby's house, I checked the time again. It was now 3:54. I immediately took off again, this time going up a gentle slope to the higher ground his house was on.

Someday, I thought to myself, I really need...to invest...in a bicycle...or...a hoverboard.

I kept on running, knowing that every minute that ticked away was another minute of getting lectured on the importance of being on time. He might be one of my closest friends, but Seklos and Gaylen he could be overbearing at times.

I made it up the ascent and could see the familiar street that lead off to his culdesac. I pushed myself to keep running before my watch chimed 4:00. It was 3:56 now. So...close, I thought to myself, still pumping my legs. Just...a little..farther.

His house came into view just as I crested the hill. By now, my shirt was soaked with sweat and I looked like I had just gotten into a fight with somebody's lawn sprinklers. I kept pushing, legs burning and chest heaving towards his house. 3:57.

I ran up the porch steps to the front door and took a few seconds to catch my breath. My lungs felt like I had just inhaled a whole window's worth of glass shards and my legs felt like overcooked noodles. I rang the doorbell, leaning on the wooden support beams for balance. I glanced down to my wrist while I waited for somebody to answer the door. 3:58. Two minutes before I was expected.

I let out a weak laugh at the impossible feat I had just accomplished. I was still laughing when the door opened and a very peeved Toby was on the other side of it. I stopped and looked at him. He glared back at me. "Uh...hello?" I said with a weak little wave, not sure what to say next. "You're late," he snapped, and with that, he grabbed my arm and pulled me inside his house.

"But I got here two minutes before you asked me to," I said while getting dragged past the lounge and through the parlor. Aaarrgghh!!!, the brutish troll who lived in his house could be heard laughing from upstairs. Probably playing Go Go Sushi or something similar.

"You still have to set up your instrument, warm up, and then we need to practice," he said angrily, hauling me towards his garage. I tripped over a stray cat food dish and let out a yelp. Ignoring me, he kicked open the door to the garage and tossed me inside.

The garage was set up pretty nicely. Most of the random clutter was pushed into piles at the edges of the room. A bunch of bean bags were set up and there was a large cooler near one Steve was occupying, who was guzzling down a large soda. Jim was inspecting some old, rusted Christmas decorations. "You're actually participating with Toby," I asked Steve incredulously.

He swallowed his mouthful of the sugary beverage and gave a slow nod. "Since Pepperjack isn't here to play with me this year, Dumb-zalski was my best bet at getting in," he explained. "I was gonna do a tribute to Aja, but I think I'd have to talk it over with you, Claire, Jim Fake and Doux before we agree on anything."

I flinched at the mention of my sister's name. Knowing Steve, he probably wanted to do some sort of absurd love ballad in honor of her. Before I could convince him otherwise, Toby burst through the door, with his arms full of a ridiculous amount of Nougat Nummies.

"Okay, I've got the snacks," he announced, before stumbling and dropping a few of the candies. I got up and took half of the ginormous pile of sweets. "Seklos and Gaylen," I gasped at their combined weight. "How many of these do you have," I asked, surveying the mountain of candy morsels in my arms. "I've been saving them up for about 7 years," he admitted, and with a grunt set them down in a heap on a workbench. I followed suit, and then went to grab my guitar.

Selecting a green beanbag, I sat down, got comfy and then started tightening the strings. Once the guitar was in tune and didn't sound like Steve's singing, I started playing a basic song to get my hands warmed up. Plucking out the melody to Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison, I felt the tension in my shoulders melt away. Humming along to the chorus, I could almost hear him singing along to the tune.

"Where's Claire," I heard Steve ask Jim. 
"She couldn't make it," I heard him say. "She said she had a mound of homework to get through, but I really think she just doesn't want to participate. I guess she doesn't want a repeat of last year's Battle Of The Bands."

A flat note shattered my fantasy, bringing me back down to reality. I gave an exasperated sigh as I tightened the flat string and strummed to make sure everything was in working order. "Hey, where is Douxie anyways," I heard Steve ask Toby while I was fiddling with the knobs. I looked up to see their conversation. "He wasn't at school all day today. I wonder if everything is okay with him," I wondered aloud.

"I'll call him. Maybe he just forgot about the meeting today," said Toby uncertainly, pulling out his cell phone. He dialed in the number and put the phone to his ear. After seven empty rings he put it down. "It went straight to voicemail," he said. "I'll try GDT Arcane Books." That one went to voicemail as well. He called his cell eight more times. Every time he didn't pick up.

"We should open the garage. That way we can see if he comes," I offered. The others agreed and Toby raised the giant door with a metallic screech that rattled my ears. The sun was gently kissing the horizon, turning the sky a peachy-pink color. We waited and waited and waited for hours. No sign of him. Eventually, it was time for Steve and I to leave. Jim was sleeping over tonight.

I slung the guitar over my shoulder and turned towards the door that lead into the house. Steve was already inside with Jim, Toby and his Nana, saying goodbye and making a schedule. I was about to head inside when I heard somebody shouting from a distance.

I jogged over to the garage door and poked my head outside. By now, it was nightfall, and the only way I could see was by the light of the streetlamps. I headed outside, and searched around for the source of the voice. After a little while, I assumed it was just somebody calling their kid inside.

I turned around to head back in when I hear a very clear, "Oi! Help me out here, would you?" I whipped around and saw Douxie running towards me at full speed, cradling something in the crook of his left arm. I ran out to meet him and was about to bombard him with questions when my sights landed on Archie.

He was a total mess. His coat was covered in dirt and matted with blood, his glasses were missing and his left arm was bent at a funny angle. He was mewling in pain and shuddering, mumbling gibberish like "Here...creature..wolf...danger...death..doom," and other incoherent sentences like that.

"What happened to him," I asked in alarm. Douxie gave me a look that said, Not now, and kept running to the house. I ran with him, into the garage and through the house into the lounge where Nancy Domzalski, Toby's Nana, was sitting on the couch and Toby and Steve were just saying goodbye. "Douxie," Toby asked in disbelief when he crashed inside. "Where have you been?! We were waiting for hours for you to show up, and-"

"With all due respect I think that we have much more pressing concerns at hand right now," he interrupted him, gesturing with his free hand to Archie. "He needs medical attention, and fast. I can't treat him with magic until I know what's wrong so we'll need to set up a small clinic for him here."

"Oh dear! Poor little kitty," Nancy cooed, clasping her hands together. "He'll be much better after a nice saucer of warm milk."

Ignoring her, Toby ran upstairs to grab the sheets off his bed, Steve ran into the garage for some extension cords, Jim went to grab his pillow from Toby's room, and Douxie and I went to clear a section of the kitchen counter off. We left Archie in the care of Nancy, where she was coddling him with lots of kisses and hugs, which he never would have tolerated if he were feeling alright.

After the kitchen was set up, Douxie retrieved his familiar from Nancy, and laid him on his back on the kitchen counter. He looked a lot worse in the light. The skin on his neck was swollen and most likely bruised, his leg was really bent out of shape, and his usually navy fur was tinted red in places.

Douxie grabbed a washcloth and a bowl of warm water, and started washing the blood and dirt from his fur. Archie tensed a bit when the cloth passed over his leg and his neck, but otherwise he seemed okay with being scrubbed. We left him to dry for awhile, brought Douxie over to the lounge, Toby shooed away his Nana, and Steve started demanding answers.

"Okay, start talking," he snapped at Douxie. "You ditched us! I had to put up with Dumb-Zalski and Jim Fake Jr. for four hours! You'd better have a good excuse or I'm gonna put a ditch in your face!"

"Calm down, Steve," I said, grabbing his upper arm. He glared at me and I dropped it like a hot coal. "Take it easy on him. His familiar just got seriously injured by Seklos knows what, he was missing for almost the whole day today, so he has to have some sort of reason!" I looked at him pointedly. "Right?"

He gave a slow nod in response. "It's a long story, and I still don't have all the details, but I can share what I know for certain."

"So, spill it already," Toby said. "We don't have all night!" Douxie cleared his throat, sat up straighter in the sofa, and began to tell the tale.

"So, two night ago Archie was out on patrol. He does this once a week, every week, and he's supposed to look for suspicious behavior. He decided to spend some time exploring the woods more this particular night in case any suspicious people were making some sort of shelter in there.

So, he went in, and he was really tense and on edge. The woods weren't acting like they usually do so he was kind of freaked out. Then, he came across this gorgeous meadow that's covered in moonlight and has an extremely heavy aura of magic about it. He saw a cave at the other end of it, and he thought that there might be somebody holing up in there. So, he approached the cave, and right before he can go inside, he was attacked. I'm not sure what got to him, but-"

A loud groan of pain coming from the kitchen interrupted his story. In a flash, Douxie was up and making a mad dash for the parlor. We all rushed after him to see how the feline was doing, and we sagged with relief. Archie was sitting upright, kind of in a daze, but awake. "Wh-where am I..." he asked, his words slurred a bit. "All I remember is...coming back to the bookstore...and then..."

Shushing him, Douxie continued to explain what had happened afterwards, this time with Archie listening in. "When you got back to the store, I had been up since you left, worried sick. It was past 1:00 am, and you'd been gone for about five hours. So, when you came back, I was ecstatic for a span of about two seconds until I saw all your injuries.

All I could get out of you was a few jumbled words like 'Wolf...danger...death..creature...magic', along with others. It made no sense to me. Now that you're feeling a bit better, we need you to tell us exactly what you saw in that meadow. Can you do that?"

Archie nodded, and tried to rise to his back paws, hissing when his front left paw bumped into anything. Once he finally rose to his full height of about 1.5 feet, he stumbled around a bit before finally getting his bearings. He leaned on a tall porcelain cookie jar for support, coughed a bit, and then spoke in a raspy voice.

"I think...I think I saw..."

He didn't finish because he launched into a violent coughing fit then. Once it died down a bit, he tried to speak again, but before he could start he started coughing again. It went on like this for about five or so minutes, until Steve finally snapped and lost his patience.

"Just spit it out, already," he yelled.
"I think...I saw a..Ventil," Archie gasped, sucking down a lot of air after finally getting it out. At that, Douxie froze, like he'd been slapped. I looked to Toby and Jim for answers but they just shrugged. They didn't know what Douxie was talking about either.

He started pacing around the kitchen, mumbling incoherent words to himself, occasionally flicking his indigo-tipped bangs out of his eyes. Steve, Toby, Jim and I silently voted with our eyes as to who would ask him what the heck he was talking about. I lost the staring contest, so I tentatively approached him and tapped him on the shoulder.

He spun around as soon as I touched him with a wild look in his eyes. I jumped back at his demented look and stuttered, "Why are you acting so nervous over a word?"

He promptly ignored me, picked up Archie, and headed for the door. Toby and Jim lunged to intercept him, throwing themselves in front of the door. "Wait, wait wait wait, wait," Steve said, running ahead of Douxie and hauling both Toby and Jim roughly to their feet by their upper arms. "Why would a ventilation system be a bad thing," he asked.

Douxie, again, ignored him and threw open the door. Before he could leave, Steve grabbed him by the back of his hoodie and hauled him back inside. "We need an explanation, dude," he said, and Douxie gave him an award-worthy glare. Probably because when he grabbed him he almost dropped Archie in the process.

He walked back to the door, turned the knob, and paused with the door halfway open. "Because if Archie saw what he thought he saw then Arcadia Oaks is doomed," he answered. And with a final nod of farewell, he slammed the door shut behind him.