Beginning Anew

Brothers and sisters

After wading through New York traffic, the rest of the trip to New Jersey went smoothly. They arrived at their destination just before dawn. As the sky began to lighten into gray morning, Walter and Barbara slipped out of the van, Walter wearing his cloak, a brown bag slung over his shoulder containing the cradle stone and a few other things.

Claire, as promised, waited for them in an alley. The moment the girl saw them her face lit up and she ran to give Barbara a hug. When she turned to Walter, she hesitated, finally settling on offering him her hand, which Walter accepted, shaking it as they exchanged a few words.

Together, the three sneaked through the dirty alleyway, arriving at an entrance to the sewers. The went in, but they didn't get very far before Claire withdrew a glowing horngozzle and drew an arching door on the wall with the magical stone. The concrete barrier dissolved, opening up into a big tunnel that went farther underground.

Walter glanced around. The tunnel looked freshly-made, recently dug by trolls.

"It's a bit of a way down from here," Claire said. "I suppose you both know how it is. Trolls like to live pretty deep underground, plus the Heartstone is fairly far down to begin with."

True enough, the tunnel wound further and further downwards. Even walking as quickly as Barbara's excited pace took them, it was still quite a while before the tunnel finally opened up into a massive underground cave.

Everywhere they looked new constructions were going up, using all kinds of strange things that looked like everyday trash.

From what they could see, the trolls had an "anything goes" mentality when choosing their building supplies: old tv's used as blocks for the foundation, broken refrigerators stacked on top of each other to construct pillars, and holed tarps used as walls.

Everywhere, trolls were milling about working on their construction projects. There were large piles of unused items stacked and sorted according to what they were. There was a mound of blenders and another heap consisting of broken laptops. Seeing the trolls' junk horde made Walter realize humans threw away an awful lot.

"This cave connects to an underground river. Right over there," Claire said, indicating a swiftly moving stream at the other end of the cavern. "Everything you see here are things the trolls fished up from the river. From some of the stuff I've seen pulled out of there, I think it might connect to the Hudson."

Walter wrinkled his face in disgust but just as he was about to make a comment, a shout rang out through the entire cave.

"MOM!"

Barbara gasped, looking down to see a blue-skinned troll running toward her.

"Jim!" She rushed to meet her son and cried with joy as Jim threw his arms around her in a massive hug. He lifted her off her feet as she let out an elated laugh, returning his hug. Tears fell down her face as her son set her down. She gasped, out of breath from the excitment.

"Jim!" she sniffed as she took his face in her hands. "Have you been doing okay? Did you make sure to eat? Sleep?" she asked. "How's your wound? Is it doing okay? You're looking pale. Is this normal for you now?" She studied his face with her doctor's eye, peering at him from different angles.

"Mom, I'm fine," Jim assured. "How about you? Did you remember to eat properly?" he asked looking at her with questioning eyes. "You didn't get hurt out there did you? Or get into trouble?"

Barbara laughed at the questions. "No, I'm fine." She smiled, then dried her tears with the back of her hand.

Standing a respectable distance away, Walter observed the exchange between mother and son and allowed himself a smile. He hefted the weight of his bag, feeling the cradle stone bump up against him.