Everything Changes

Trolls

Ernesto thought he was dying. Like, genuinely thought that he would soon be dead. Or maybe he already was? No, he wasn't, his heart was beating too rapidly for that. Maybe it was a heart attack? No, he'd be able to feel that, and right now his body was basically numb from the pain. His legs were running on muscle memory, knowing that stopping wasn't an option.

"You alright, Ern? We're nearly at the meeting point!" Serena yelled back to him from the front seat of their tandem bike.

How she had so much energy still was beyond him.

"Cross roads....just...up ahead." He spoke between heavy breaths.

They pedalled a little bit longer, their meeting point in site. Their tribe was just within grasp, and that was enough for them to pick up the pace and speed through the last leg of their journey.

"We're here!" Serena yelled in victory, hopping of the bike and letting it drop to the floor. The pair looked around, noticing a lack of van. "Where are the Sparticles?"

A bounty hunter van could be heated behind them, still out of sight but slowly getting closer.

"This is our last stand, Serena!" Ernesto announced, setting himself in the middle of the road on wobbly legs. "We shall go down fighting!"

Tires squeaked behind them, a truth line van pulling up. It was their tribe!

Holly opened the side door for them. "What kept you? We've been hiding parked in the bushes for ages now!" She exclaimed, helping them into the van.

Ernesto's eyes went to her bump, eyes wide. He knew it had been about 2 months since they last saw each other and, wow. Their baby was getting big.

They took their seats in their van, Kim speeding off down the road on their hunt for the next sensitive and the circle of perpetual time.

"I've missed you both so much, my Chi Chi." Ernesto admitted, pulling Holly in for a kiss.

"Eww, do you mind! There's kids on board." Frankie fake gagged whilst covering her eyes.

"Well how do you think we made the baby, Frankie?" Holly asked with a laugh.

"The stork." Sadiq replied quickly, leaving no room for questioning. His sister may be 13, and may already know about that sort of stuff, but in his eyes she would always be that 8 year old girl he'd been looking after for the last 5 years.
"You done an amazing job, Serena, breaking Oryan out of the capital." He changed the subject.

"I think he's enjoying himself at the stones after all those months locked in a cell." Serena smiled.

"And we just have the final sensitive to pick up here." Ernesto added as he pointed down to the map that lay in the middle of the van.

"Where's Aris?" Serena asked, only now noticing how their tribe lacked a member. When no one answered, she directed her question instead to their tribe leader. "Sadiq?"

Holly decided to answer, knowing no one could get mad at a heavily pregnant girl. "Kylie captured him."

"What? Sadiq, how could you let this happen!" Serena yelled, still annoyed with him over before.

"It's not like I chose to let him go. Like you did with Buha." He spat back, also still bitter about things.

"What happened with Aris, Reese?" Ernesto asked the girl in a calmer manner, wanting to avoid adding anymore tension in the van.

"I don't know. Yanks, the new sensitive, and I, we had Kylie cornered. We were going to send her home, but then something broke our powers." She explained, still struggling to get her head around it all.

The van jolted to a holt.

"What's the hold up?" Sadiq shouted to Kim.

"There's trolls!" She yelled back, fear clear in her voice.

They'd heard about trolls before. Cannibals who picked off the strong one by one before capturing the weak and forcing them to watch as they burnt their friends alive. They had been fortunate to not cross paths with any, that is until now.

Whether or not there was any truth in this tale or if it was just a rumour was yet to be confirmed by the tribe. They all got out of the van to discuss their next steps.

"I still don't understand what you mean by cannibals." Frankie said the tribe. "They wouldn't really eat us, would they, Sadiq?"

"Right. It's just a rumour started to scare other kids away." He tried to reassure her, but didn't sound so sure himself.

"Well either way they have the bridge. We need to storm it." Kim piped in, not in the least bit phased by these so called 'flesh eaters'.

"No, it's too dangerous. We need to find another way around it!" Sadiq protested.

"It's the fastest way to the circle of perpetual time, and we don't have time to go the other way!" Reese added.

Serena approached Sadiq, ready to put up a fight. "Exactly. So we need. To. Storm. The. Bridge."

"Do you want to end up as troll soup?" He said, squaring up to her.

Frankie looked at her brother in fear. "But Sadiq! You said they weren't cannibals!"

"The trolls have got control of the bridge. We need to get across it." Serena said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"We need to think about how we do this!" Sadiq yelled back.

"You two! Stop fighting! God, it's like being back with my parents." Holly interrupted their squabble, unable to handle any more of their shouting.

"Ok, who votes we take the bridge!" Serena asked the tribe.

"No! There's no voting! I'm tribe leader and I say we..." He trailed off mid sentence as he looked around at his tribe, noticing that everyone had put their hands up in agreement with Serena. He stormed off, Serena hot on his heels.

The tribe stayed quiet as they listened to the distanced screams of the pair. They were inaudible, but whatever they were saying wasn't good.

"Ok, anyone fancy a game?." Ernesto asked, trying to lift the mood, only to be met with odd looks. "No, no one? Fine, what's wrong with you all." He grumbled.

Serena came back to the camp, but without Sadiq. The sadness and hurt on her face was clear.

"Where has he gone?" Frankie asked, concerned, as she looked around as if he would magically appear.

"He's just gone on a walk to clear his head. He'll be fine, you know Sadiq." She tried to reassure her. "Come on, tribe, let's hide the van and storm the bridge!"

They got to work collecting branches and leaves to help blend it into the woods, not wanting their only means of transport to be stolen.

"Do you want to talk about it, Serena?" Holly asked.

"Well I had wanted to talk about it with Sadiq, but his stupid pride got in the way." She tried to laugh it off.

"Boys, hey, they haven't got any better. They were the same in 1983!" Kim exclaimed, earning a small smile from Serena.

Frankie tentatively approached them, looking uncertain. "I'm worried about Sadiq, but I'm scared the trolls have gotten him." She finally admitted. "I know that you and Sadiq have split up-"

Serena interrupted her. "Oh Frankie, just because we've split up doesn't mean I don't care about him."

Her face lit up. "So we're going after him?"

She let out a breath. "Yes, of course we are. REESE! ERN! Come on, we're going to go save Sadiq from some trolls."