𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐸𝑛𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠 | Jim Lake

Blood Goblins and Exploding Factories?

"Vamplins" Toby joins in as we giggle quietly to each other.

"But they can't be here! The only place you can find white goblins is..." Claire starts as Toby and I immediately stop giggling as we realise what this means.

"The Darklands" Jim sighs as he takes a seat on a box with a defeated expression on his face.

"No way! We destroyed the bridge" Toby disagrees as I quietly walk over to Jim and lay a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"It's possible though. Draal left his post to save us. That could've been enough time for something to get out" I mumble as I start to get a bad feeling about the whole situation.

"What if that something could also be Gunmar" Jim asks but Blinky immediately starts shaking his head.

"No, no, no. We would know if he got out" Blinky shakes his head.

"How?" I hesitantly ask.

"Death would be on every doorstep, Arcadia turned to ash. We would know. These are just a few goblins. A few ferocious, insatiable, bloodthirsty-" Blinky starts as I quickly cut him off.

"Yep! We get it Blink. Goblins equal bad" I say as I look to Jim's upset face.

The boy would definitely be blaming himself as usual.

"Jim, there's something we've been meaning to ask you" Toby starts to say as i signal for him to shut up.

Definitely not the time.

"Toby!" Claire quickly cuts him off with a shake of her head.

"Okay! If these little vamplins are in Arcadia, how do we find them?" I quickly ask as I change the topic back to the goblins.

"We don't find them, they find us" Jim sighs miserably as he stands up from the box. "Once they're on your scent you can't shake 'em. They're gonna be after me"

"But you weren't the only one in there. Nomura was with you" Toby adds on.

"Nomura skipped town as soon as we got out. She's long gone" Claire disagrees.

"Well, then why aren't they here?" Toby asks as I start to look around.

"Maybe they are" I mumble but Jim shakes his head.

"No. It's because someone else was in there too" Jim says with wide eyes.

————<•>————

To say I was worried about Chompsky was an understatement. I loved the little gnome who would always sit on my shoulder and snuggle into my neck. So of course when we realised he was in danger, we all quickly made our way to Toby's house.

Claire, Jim, Toby and I went through Toby's house as Blinky and Aaarrrgghh snuck in from outside. Toby quickly distracted his granny while Blinky and Aaarrrgghh snuck past the window and then we quickly went up to Toby's room.

But when Toby opened the door, it was not a good sight. The room was completely trashed with the dollhouse door open, fallen books all over the floor and the lamp on the ground.