by Michael Dahl
“Bryce?” Dr. Hoo asked uncertainly. “Is that you?”
The boy clenched his fists. Dr. Hoo saw that he held a pocket knife in one of them.
“Doctor,” the young man repeated, his voice cold and hard. “Where is Thora?”
“Gun it, Zak!” yelled Pablo.
“I can’t see the road!” Zak cried. He flipped on the windshield wipers, but they couldn’t move the squat, sticky bodies of the countless toads.
“Just turn us around!” said Pablo.
Zak slammed the SUV into reverse. The tires squealed against the asphalt as the vehicle whipped to the side. The sickening splats of squished toads sounded from below their seats.
“Yuck,” said Louise.
The SUV raced down the road, but the view was still blocked. Zak looked out the window. Countless wet toads were slapping softly onto the asphalt.
“They’re falling from the sky!” Thora cried out.
“Hold on!” yelled Zak. He swerved the SUV back and forth. The movement rocked his passengers from side to side, but it also flipped some of the toads off the front of the vehicle.
“The turn isn’t far from here,” Pablo announced.
Five more fat toads plopped onto the windshield. Zak spun the steering wheel back and forth, jerking the SUV around violently. Louise screamed.
“Why did we bring her?” asked Zak. “We should have taken her home.”
“I don’t have a home,” whimpered Louise.
“It burned down,” explained Thora.
Zak frowned. “I’m sorry,” he said, “but she’s just a kid. She might get hurt.”
Louise pulled herself up and leaned over the front seat. “I can help,” she said. “I hit that one troll with my flare gun.” To make her point, she pulled the flare pistol from her pocket and waved it confidently in Zak’s face.
“She did save Thora,” said Pablo. “That troll might have gotten her if not for Louise.”
Zak clenched his teeth. “Okay, okay,” he said. “Just don’t let her fire that thing in here.”
Louise plopped back down next to Thora in the back seat. “I’m not a child,” Louise muttered. Thora chuckled and pulled the girl close.
“There’s the road!” yelled Pablo.
Zak gripped the wheel and made a hard left. The SUV flew off the asphalt and onto a dusty dirt road. The bumps and ruts threw several more toads off the vehicle. Only a few still managed to cling to the hood as the vehicle bounced wildly over the bumpy terrain.
Pablo pointed his shaking arm toward the front of the car. “I can see the Nye farm up ahead,” he said.
A moment later, the SUV squealed to a halt next to the old house. “That’s my parents’ car,” Zak said grimly. “What’s it doing here?”
Everyone piled out of the SUV and raced over to Zak’s parents’ car. Zak ran his fingers along the deep scratches along the sides. He looked up, dazed, at Pablo. “Trolls?” he asked.
Pablo nodded grimly.
“Over here!” came a voice from behind. A young woman jogged up to greet them. She wore dark jeans tucked into a pair of muddy boots. A black ponytail hung over the collar of her long coat.
“I’m Mara Lovecraft,” she said. “Dr. Hoo sent you all here, right?”
Thora nodded. “But I don’t know how we can help you.”
“I have a flare gun,” said Louise, holding up her weapon.
Mara glanced at the little girl with a confused look on her face.
“The doctor said you figured out where the trolls were going to attack next,” said Pablo.
Mara’s face lit up with surprise. “Orion,” she said.
Pablo squinted. “How did you know my last name?” he asked.
“Last name?” said Mara. “I don’t. I mean, I … didn’t the doctor tell you?”
Zak took a step forward. “Tell us what?” he demanded.
“I’ve been trying to call him,” Mara said, “but he isn’t answering his phone. It’s not like him to ignore my calls.”
“What was the doctor supposed to tell us?” Zak repeated.
“How you can help,” Mara said. “How all of you can help. Hurry, come with me!”
Mara led them to the rusty silo. A huge, gaping hole had been ripped in its side. Hundreds of toads and frogs were hurling themselves through the doorway and into the dark pit inside. A loud hissing sound echoed inside the silo.
“What’s with all these creatures?!” cried Zak. “There must be thousands of them!”
“The trolls — the gathool — are entering our world,” said Mara. “They are sending up their own ship from deep within the earth.”
“What kind of ship?” asked Thora.
“It’s called the bazhargak, or Dark Tower,” said Mara. “The best way to describe it is a moving castle. A huge building filled with hundreds of gathool. That’s why the reptiles and amphibians — their servants — are here. They’ve come to help the tower rise to the surface.”
A tremor shook the ground.
“It’s coming!” said Mara. “The Dark Tower’s highest point will pierce through the ground and rise up through this silo. The gathool picked this site so no one would see them arrive … until it was too late.”
Another tremor ran through the farmyard. A loud metallic shriek sounded from deep within the silo.
“Can it be stopped?” asked Pablo.
Mara shook her head weakly. “I don’t know.”
“Then why did the doctor send us here?” Zak yelled. “What’s this got to do with getting my parents back? Why isn’t Dr. Hoo here to help?!”
A harsh groan forced them all to look upward. The silo was swaying, tilting, and grinding against its cement foundation. Zak walked up next to the pit and stared deep down into the blackness. “I see it!”
The others crept closer to the edge of the pit. The wide rounded tunnel plunged straight into the heart of the earth. A few hundred feet below lay a slick green bulb. It reminded Thora of a gigantic acorn squash. Except this squash was a hundred times larger and had pale green spikes growing from the center. Slimy black tentacles waved around its sides. They were covered with red suckers that shone wetly in the dim light. It was rising quickly.
“That’s only the tip of the tower,” Mara said. “The entry gate is near the bottom. That’s where the troll army will exit. If that happens, our world is doomed.”
Suddenly, the top of the green squash split open like a pus-filled wound. A dark figure forced its way up, climbing through the slimy mass. He perched himself atop of the rising shape, his gigantic muscles tensed, preparing for battle.
“A troll!” shouted Zak. “A big one!”
“The doctor should be here,” whispered Mara.
Suddenly, a dark cloud rose from the fields and surrounded the silo like a thick, black curtain hovering in the air. Then, with alarming speed, darkness surrounded them on all sides.
Everything went black.
Flies. Countless flies.
They swarmed around the silo, circling like a tornado made of insect wings and night. Flies buzzed in their ears, crawled in their hair, and swept across their eyes.
“The flies are blocking out the light!” Mara cried. “I can’t see anything!”
“We have to stop —” Pablo began, then he gagged. He spat out a mouthful of insects. “We have to stop them!”
More tremors rocked the earth. The silo’s metal tore away from the concrete base. Louise dropped her rabbit. It disappeared into the furious swarm.
Pablo’s mind raced. Blurred thoughts came quickly. How? he thought. How can we do anything? He and Thora had come up with a plan to outrun the trolls last night. But they couldn’t run from this.
Dr. Hoo had said that the stories of the warrior constellations were real. As real as trolls, Pablo remembered. But if that’s true, then where are they now?
Pablo tried to think of a solution. He knew that sunlight would destroy a troll, but even though an afternoon sun blazed somewhere in the sky,
the curtain of flies was creating its own nighttime. They were shielding the monstrous troll at the tip of the tower from the damaging sunlight.
For some reason, Pablo recalled the starlight he saw in Zak’s eyes earlier. Zak had said Pablo’s eyes shone, too. Are we really warriors from the stars? Pablo thought. It was all jumbled up in his head. Starlight. Constellations. Magic. Science.
Pablo heard the roaring grow louder in his left ear. But the sound was different now. It was deeper, like a growl. He opened his eyes and almost screamed. Pablo had expected to see Zak standing next to him. Instead, a giant silver bear was growling wildly amidst the insect swarm!
It raised its thick, furry arm above its head. Pablo couldn’t believe his eyes as the tremendous, hairy paw swiped at the flies. With each sweep of its massive arm, hundreds of flies fell lifelessly to the ground. Not only the bear’s swipes, but its silver light also seemed to be damaging the buzzing swarm.
It’s Zak! Pablo realized.
Pablo called out to the bear, but his voice sounded deeper. Older. He looked down and saw huge weapons in his hands. Then he saw that his clothes had changed. An ornate metal breastplate covered his chest. A thick kilt of leather strips protected his thighs. His feet were no longer bare, either. Instead, he was wearing sandals. He was dressed like an ancient Roman warrior!
Pablo instinctively swung his weapons back and forth, spilling silver light along the arc of his weapons’ paths. Flies fell by the hundreds at each blow.
Pablo and the silver bear fought side by side, their brilliant light radiated into the swarm, burning away at its center.
Where are Thora and Louise? Pablo wondered. He turned to his right and saw two young women dressed in flowing silver robes. They resembled his two friends, but they also looked like the zodiac images in Dr. Hoo’s book.
The taller girl was trying to lift an ornate jar of gleaming light off of the ground. The jar vibrated with energy. She lifted with all her might, but couldn’t lift the jar past her waist. Her arms shook as she tried to raise it above her head.
“I can’t lift it!” Thora’s voice cried out from the woman’s lips. “It’s too heavy!”
Louise stepped forward. She reached up and braced the jar with her small, silver hand. Immediately it glowed brighter.
Up and up, Louise helped Thora lift the jar. Slowly but surely, they lifted it over Thora’s head.
Suddenly, a flood of molten silver gushed out of the jar like water out of a burst dam. Wave after wave of silver liquid spilled into the pit.
The silver liquid beat down against the rising tower. The brilliant liquid streamed impossibly from the jar without slowing. Its flow also splashed against the swarming insects, pushing them back.
The hunter and the bear kept batting at the flies. The insects fell at their sandaled or hairy feet. Thora and Louise kept the jar held high. Soon, the flood had filled most of the deep tunnel with a silvery liquid. The slimy green top of the tower sat just above the water level, like a rotten lily pad on a silver pond. It was still rising.
Pablo could see the troll at the tip of the tower. He was only a few hundred feet from the surface now. The troll braced himself against the flood, managing to hang on despite its rushing force.
But the tower continued to rise. Its black tentacles waved furiously as they pulled the tower closer and closer to the surface.
Then the earth began to tremble. This time, it wasn’t the Dark Tower that shook the ground. The women’s jar was gleaming brighter and brighter. It blazed like a small, silver-white star.
“It’s too hot!” shouted Thora.
“Don’t worry,” came Louise’s voice. “I can help.” She touched the jar with her silver hand again. The gleaming light began to flow out of the jar!
Small stars began to surge out from the jar. They filled the silo with brilliant light. One shooting star struck the troll and knocked him off the tower. The monster tumbled down, down, disappearing into the shining, silver lake.
“YES!” cried Thora.
But soaring through the flame and smoke, the evil tower still rose. Thora choked and coughed on the bitter fumes.
“Don’t stop now!” cried Louise’s voice.
The groaning in the silo grew louder. The ground shook. The insect swarm tightened its circle around the companions. But the fiery stream kept pouring from the jar, and the two warriors kept up their attack.
Thora heard a screech echo within the metal silo. It grew loud as thunder, then suddenly faded as the stampede of flies rushed away.
Something was happening to the tower. Its circle of tentacles, blackened and charred, no longer waved. The tower’s ascent was slowing down.
The four warriors gasped as the tower creaked its way up past the surface. It came to a stop as the tip of the tower scraped against the roof of the silo. At once, the starlight that had surrounded the warriors faded, and their bodies changed back to their normal forms.
Suddenly, a ball of flame formed at the tip of the tower. “Get back!” shouted Mara.
All of them dashed out of the hole in the side of the silo. A black cloud billowed upward as a massive explosion burst outward. They could feel the force of the blast against their backs.
The rusty building blazed like a torch as the roof flew off, followed by the silo in entirety. Then, with a sudden gasp of wind, a giant flame rocketed into the sky.
Pablo and the others were violently hurled to the ground.
The five of them crawled quickly away from the fire, coughing and spitting out insects.
A hot wind swept over their sweat-stained faces. The orange and gold inferno blazed in their eyes. For a few moments, they all stared at the remains of the rusty tower.
Thora slowly stood. “Did we stop it?” she asked.
Pablo walked over to touch the silver fluid that had filled the pit. It had solidified into a hard metallic element and felt cold to the touch. “Nothing’s coming through here anymore!” he said excitedly.
Mara nodded and smiled. “Yes,” she said. “The bazhargak has been stopped. The trolls will not be able to enter our world from here.”
Zak fell into a sitting position upon the ground. “Did that really just happen?” he said to no one in particular.
“Yep!” Louise said cheerily. She walked over to him and held out her hand. “You turned into a grizzly bear and scared away the big bad wolf.”
Zak grinned. He took Louise’s hand and stood, making sure to pretend the much smaller girl was helping him get to his feet. “You did pretty well yourself, kid,” he told Louise.
“Really?” Louise asked, her eyes bright. “Did I really help?”
Thora smiled at Louise. “Really,” she said, nodding her head.
Zak mussed up Louise’s hair. “How’s it feel to be a hero, kid?” he teased.
Louise smiled and giggled.
Pablo suddenly hooted, clapping Zak on the back. “That was awesome, man!” Pablo said. “I still can’t believe you turned into a bear!”
“Speak for yourself,” Zak said. “The way you were swinging those weapons, you looked like a Roman gladiator, or something.”
Pablo laughed. Then he pointed at Thora proudly. “And what about her jar?” he said.
Zak smiled. “Yeah, that was pretty sweet, too,” he admitted.
As Thora beamed with pride, Pablo noticed a glint of light flickering in her eyes. Then, for a moment, her eyes met Pablo’s. She looked away and began to blush. Pablo shuffled his feet and stared at the ground.
Louise leaped between them, then started jumping up and down excitedly. “And the silver dress I wore!” she cried. “It was so pretty.”
Zak just laughed. “You looked like … like …”
“Like Libra,” finished Pablo. “Louise is Libra. She holds the scales, balancing the sides. She turns the tide.”
Louise smiled.
Mara nodded her head. “Without Louise’s power of balance,” she said, “your other powers would not have been enough
. Like individual stars in one constellation, each of you played an important part in this victory.”
Mara stepped closer to stand between the four young heroes. “And I have a feeling you’ll all play an important role in the battle to come.”
The four companions were silent as they weighed the meaning of Mara’s words. After a moment, Thora broke the silence. “You looked like Orion, Pablo,” she said. “Like your last name.”
Orion. O’Ryan. That’s what Mara said to me earlier, thought Pablo. She recognized me as Orion, the hunter.
“Maybe Dr. Hoo was right,” Pablo said. “Maybe we are the heroes from the stars!”
“We should go tell Dr. Hoo all about what happened,” Thora suggested.
Mara smiled. “That’s a great idea.”
“And Dr. Hoo will know what we should do next,” Mara added.
And with that, they all piled into the SUV and drove toward Dr. Hoo’s house.
The SUV bounced along the rutted driveway. Its headlights waved up and down with each bump. Its horn honked cheerfully as they arrived outside Dr. Hoo’s house. The shadows were shorter now, and more light seemed to shine through the trees.
Mara and the young heroes leaped out of the SUV. For a brief moment, they watched the tip of the fiery tower blaze in the distance like a bright orange finger pointing skyward. Black smoke billowed from the tip and merged with the gray clouds overhead.
They rushed to the door and hurried inside. They were excited to share the good news with Dr. Hoo.
“Doctor!” Mara yelled. “The kids have done it! Where are you?”
They ran through the entire house yelling for the doctor, but their cries went unanswered. Their footsteps echoed through the halls as they rushed toward the library.
Thora peeked around the corner of the door, fully expecting to see Dr. Hoo at the desk studying ancient tomes or astronomical texts. Instead, the room lay dark and silent. At that moment, their lively voices dwindled into silence.
