Blue Moon Rising

Chapter 9: Wherefore Art Thou Trollhunter (I)

Disclaimer: Don't own Trollhunters or any of its characters. 

Everyday life felt different after meeting her son again.

Barbara leaned against the grocery cart. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she scanned her checklist, her mind drifting elsewhere.

Sleep continued to evade her. She knew she was putting too much time into her search for Jim. The internet yielded little apart from something relating to Arthurian legends—but considering she googled "boy with glowing armor and sword"—that wasn't much of a surprise. It felt as if she was back to square one again. She couldn't talk with the police; they would think she was crazy (well, crazier than normal).

In the end, the only option left was to drive around town and hope she found him again.

And that—well—that brought her even more questions than answers.

It was a disaster. The night before, three gravely injured construction workers were brought into the emergency room, all clearly in the throes of delirium, screaming about a strange monster in the open sewer trench off Delancy Street.

A giant bear, one shuddered. No, another remarked, it looked like a bull, with large horns, but it walked on two feet. The fourth man in their group did not make it out. Last Barbara heard, authorities had yet to recover his body.

What was even more bizarre was what happened this morning; the three men were switched to a private hospital without notice, effective immediately. Barbara asked around her floor, but no one knew why or where the men had gone, only that their families requested it.

Curiouser and curiouser.

And then there was the destruction itself. Barbara only saw pictures on the news. The reporter called it an earthquake, but Barbara wasn't so sure. How come no one else felt it? What about the aftershocks?

What really sealed the last nail into the coffin was on one of her rides searching for Jim, which was sometime after sundown.

Barbara found an entire clearing of trees destroyed. Bears weren't that large, and earthquakes certainly couldn't put giant claw marks into wood.

Something weird was happening in Arcadia, though she didn't know what, and the fact that no one was doing anything about it troubled Barbara.

Her son and the strange happenings around town couldn't merely be a coincidence. What sort of danger was her son involved in? Why was he back in Arcadia now of all times? These were the questions that preoccupied her waking moments.

She yawned into her hand, eyes half-lidded. Unconsciously, Barbara began to listen to the people around her.

"Five dollars for how many avocados? Apoco? Pinches ladrones! I knew we should have gone to the store across town."

"Papi."

"And five dollars for Jamaica juice is plain ridículo."

"Seriously, Papi, this kid's armor was insane. I swear, it looked like it glowed in the dark. The amulet part especially. He even had this crazy cool sword. It was incredible!"

"Oh, that's nice, Claire."

Barbara froze in the middle of the aisle, nearly dropping her purse. Her heart caught in her throat. Carefully, she picked up jars of marinana sauce, pretending to compare them, all the while spying on the speakers on the other side.