Trolls World Tour: Forever My King

Ch.5: Torn Apart

"Thank you, your majesty!" said Coral's dad. "You always know what to do!"

"That's our harmony troll, for ya!" said Coral's mom. "She never fails to let us down!"

I flinched a bit when they said that, but I tried not to let it show. After they bowed, they dashed off in between the trees and disappeared from view.

I turned back towards the ocean and looked up at the airship. I didn't want to admit it, but it was blatantly obvious that the attackers weren't here for any of the common techno trolls.

I knew who they were really here for...and I wasn't going to let them take either of them. Not on my watch!

Except...I didn't know how to stop this attack...I felt small and powerless in the airship's shadow...

"Roxy," Highlight said. "How are we going to..."

The next couple of moments happened so fast, I barely had enough time to react.

Highlight's voice started to get quieter and quieter until I could hear nothing but the high pitched ringing noise inside my own head.

"Oh come on!" I thought. "Not now!"

I squeezed my eyes shut, put my hands on my head, and started yanking on my hair. The pain was gruesome. It felt like someone was stabbing a knife into my skull. I didn't see anything behind my eyes this time, which should've been good, but I didn't know which was better. Flashbacks and visions, or just empty, bitter darkness.

Suddenly, the ringing noise stopped just in time for me to hear a voice cry out:

"ROXY! LOOK OUT!"

I felt someone give me a hard shove, and I heard a loud clanging noise, like metal being clashed together. I landed on the soft sand an few feet away from where I was standing, nearly getting some in my mouth in the process.

When I opened my eyes, to my horror, I saw two giant, mechanical hands with their fingers caged around Highlight, trapping her inside.

I knew she wasn't their target. I was...She just pushed me out of the way...and paid the price...

"HELP!" she screamed.

"HIGHLIGHT!" I couldn't do anything else to help her. All I could do was watch as she was taken up into the airship screaming for help. Guilt washed over me as the ringing noise in my head started up again, except this time, it was more painful than before.

I closed my eyes again, fell to my knees and bit down on my bottom lip. "What are you doing to me, brain? Stop it!" I thought. The more frequently these awful headaches happened, I couldn't help but feel like they were staged.

Like something in my brain was purposely keeping me in place, so that anything could happen around me, and I'd be powerless to stop it.

As I tried to steady my breathing, I heard the faint sounds of water splashing, and my face was sprayed with cool salt water. It sounded like our enemy were pulling something heavy out of the ocean, but what?

The next thing I heard was what sounded like the crack of a whip, followed by creaking metal, and a warning siren started blaring from up in the aircraft.

When I managed to open my eyes again, I saw Maya standing only a few feet away from me. Her hair was extended outward and was wrapped firmly around the metal bars of a cage. She dug her feet into the sand to stop the cage from rising any further, and it seemed to be working...but for how long?

Then I saw who was in the cage; I actually pinched myself. I thought my mind was playing tricks on me, or I was hallucinating again...but I wasn't. What I saw was VERY real, and that made my stomach twist into a knot. One of my worst nightmares was coming true right before my very eyes.