Jim Lake Jr. arrives in the Dark Lands, and looks at his surroundings. He sees nothing, no sign of any sort of life, no sign of Enrique.  He should have known it wouldn’t be this easy, he should have known that, with his luck, he wouldn’t have found Claire’s brother so quickly.  Because he sees nothing, he sits down for a moment, trying to let everything that had happened sink in.  Aarrrggh is dead, as well as many other trolls from troll market, Walt is gone, and his mother is alone now. He really should have thought that through better before leaving, at least writing a letter before heading to what very well may be his death, as he did before when he fought Draal.  Yet, he didn’t. He had taken a flying leap headfirst into this fight, a fight which almost no one thought that he could survive.  He stands back up, deciding he’d really rather not be here any longer than strictly necessary, and begins walking. He has no idea where he is going, but leaves none the less.  He is tense, for not only is he the first human trollhunter, he is also here to try to survive the fight with Gunmar, which he is very much unprepared for. 

SWITCHING TO 1^ST PERSON POV!!!

     As I walk, I look down at my new sword.  It is black and red, but apart from the colors and incantation for activation switching, it appears to be basically the same.  I suppose, what with everything here being dark and gloomy, the darker theme to my armor will help me to blend in.  When Blinky said that the amulet was attuned to my unconsciousness needs and awareness, I didn’t expect it to be quite so extreme and detailed.  As far as I know, this camouflage could be one of the only things keeping the dark trolls and Gumm-Gumms from finding me as of yet.  I have been walking for nearly three minutes now, and I still have not seen any signs of life, however, there is an electrical feel to the air, giving it a sharp, dangerous sort of tang.  At first, I think nothing of it, but I slowly begin to notice small signs of life.  A goblin footprint here, and scales of stalklings on the ground in front of me.  Yet, I cannot see the creatures themselves.  It does not take me much longer to figure out the reason why.

     It starts as a low rumble, reminiscent of thunder, trains on a track, or even a subway roaring through a station.  The sound is familiar, but I cannot quite place it.  That’s when I see it.  Things are flying upward at a dangerous speed, before coming crashing back onto the ground.  Or rather, what’s left of it.  It appears that the rocks and boulders are not the only things flying.  No, the earth itself is flying out of place, leaving gouges, tens of feet deep, in the ground, before falling back in imperfect patterns, adding to the landscape and creating dangerous pits of loose sand. There seems to be no real rhyme or reason to the madness, and this force is jumping wherever it wishes.  It looks as if there is no known way to stop it.  I dash for cover, knowing that my only hope of survival is to get as deep into the ground as I possibly can, and hope for the best in living through this backwards, upside-down, twisted version of an earthquake.  I look around frantically.  I haven’t been trained for situations like this!!! I find no cover, and decide I may as well run like the untrained coward that I am.  Who am I kidding? Why the troll would Blinky have felt a need to train me to prepare me for this sort of situation?  It is of no consequence right now, I need to deal with the present problem.  I run at the problem head on, because that has always worked for me before, and I hope for the best.  I can see the nightmare creeping closer.  Miraculously, I have not been sucked up into the vacuum.  The noise is near deafening, and I just barely manage to avoid all of the falling rocks.  I run and dodge for a grand total of twenty three seconds longer, before everything is silent. 

    The danger has passed, for now.  The air, although it still feels and tastes dangerous, is slowly becoming slightly less electrical. I take this as a semi good sign.  Sure, the immediate danger may be gone, but what of the trolls?  They will, most likely, be coming out of hiding now.  And they will see me, standing out in the open like an idiot, practically inviting them all to attack me. 

     I know that I will have to do something.  It is likely that the first being I will meet are goblins. I cannot kill them.  Any of them.  There is a near endless supply of revenge-seeking goblins, and if I were to kill even one of them, they would hunt me down.  Not only would that end badly for me, and poor Enrique would be stuck down here forever, and my mom would be all alone, and Claire would have to deal with NotEnrique for the rest of her life, and I know she would hate that.  No, the best way to deal with them would be to avoid them altogether.  Yet, I know that I have no real other choice than to run into them at one point or another.  Already, I dread it. 

     I see my first sign of life.  A goblin.  It scuttles around on its fingertips like a demented crab, but doesn’t come closer than a few yards away from me. I continue walking, watching it form the corner of my eye.  I know that it is likely to notice my attention, but seeing how I have already noticeably glanced at it, it is too late for me to do anything about it.  It sits there, just watching my progression.  I know that I will have to fight at some point.  This seems too good to be true.  Yet, the gobbling sits there, doing nothing.  I am soon out of eyesight of it, and reluctantly move away from it.  I can only hope that it will not attack me as soon as I am unawares.  I crest a hill, then immediately back down, trying to hide.  

     There is a family of stalklings.  Sure, two of them may be a bit smaller, compared to the other two, but they are intimidating nonetheless.  After taking a second glance, I realize that the stalkling which I fought must have been fairly young as well, for it was not nearly as large as the smallest of the pack which is before me.  I try to skirt around the edge of the predators, but one of them takes off.  I try to see where it is going, but the cloud cover is low, and the troll easily blends in with its natural habitat.  I crouch lower, trying to remain unseen, but the stalkling which took off lands directly behind me, while another, previously hidden, appears on my right.  I stand still, hoping that they will miss me.