"I'm going to search the homes for a clue. I think we should all split up to search to make it faster. We need a clue to where they were taken. I don't even know where or how to start figuring it out," Drake complained.

Mike and Chad nodded in agreement, then headed off in a different direction. Renn and Ruby headed off, also trying to find evidence of what had taken place. Drake watched them go before heading to his area to search.

Their father did the same, each going in a different direction. Drake's father, Drake Sr, headed toward the inn.

Drake entered the closest home and scoured the place, looking for anything that would tell him what happened to the town. He didn't find anything. There was no sign that anything was amiss except that the home was empty.

He continued to the next home with the same results. There was nothing to find. The homes were left if the people inside had vanished, leaving everything as it was. There was no sign of a struggle, nothing out of place; they just vanished.

It took hours to get from one house to the next, searching for any sign of the townsfolk. Drake's eyes kept wandering to the sky. It was still dark out. He noticed that the street lights still had their flame, casting shadows in the street. He wondered if it was magical or if there was some kind of automated system. He wasn't sure. He didn't know if there was anything that could do that in the dimension. He could only think of magic. He didn't know.

If it was neither, then they were all taken at night after the lamps had been lit. He needed to find out.

As he walked toward another home, he remembered his system could link him to people. He decided to try it out and see if it would help him in any way. "System, identify a link between Nelly and the location where she was taken."

There were a few moments before the system responded. The soft voice floated through his head.

{Unable to form link. Not enough information available}

He tried phrasing his request differently, trying to give the system more information. It didn't work. It kept giving him the same answer.

{Unable to form a link. Not enough information available}

Drake decided to head to Nana's house, hoping he could find something that the system might want.

When he reached the home where Nana raised the two children, he scanned the home. "System, scan the area for a link to those that live inside this house. Notify when a link is found." He told the system while he rushed up the steps and into the house.

Drake walked through the house, going into each room. He opened drawers and looked under beds. He wanted to find a brush or comb that might still have hair trapped in the bristles. Hoping that might help. He didn't know.

It didn't matter where he went inside the home; the system didn't respond. There was no way to form a link. It was either that, or he didn't ask it correctly. He found that if requests weren't worded in a certain way, the system wouldn't help him or couldn't help him with the request.

Nelly's room was empty; there was no clue pointing to what had happened to her. It was the same with Nana's room. However, when he entered Tod's, he did find something, but didn't know what to make of it.

When he went into Tod's room, it was the last room to look in; he found a piece of paper on the floor. It had a drop of blood on it, and it had a single word. He held it in shaky hands as he read the word.

"Goblins," The note read. It was written with a charcoal stick in a rushed, messy handwriting that looked like a child had written it. His gut told him that Tod had left it for him to find. Nelly was too young to think of something like that, so it was left to Tod to leave a clue. He smiled. Tod had left him a clue to find where everyone went. He hoped, anyway. For all he knew, he was learning how to write the word. It was the blood hat he worried about.

With the note still in his hand, he rushed out of the house and went to stand in front of the tavern to wait for his friends or his father. They needed to know, but they were searching the other shops and homes.

He let them continue searching in case they found something else. He hoped they found something else. The more clues, the better. He knew they were running out of time. It was late at night, knowing that it would already be light out soon, he worried that it was taking too long to figure out where the townspeople had been taken.

The town's lamps lit the streets, the light flickering as the flames moved in their glass casing. The light made it easy to read the parchment. He looked up at the sky; it was still dark.

After only moments, Mike, Chad, and then his familiars arrived. Their fathers were still searching. Drake showed his friends the note.

"I wonder whose blood is that?" Mike stated quietly, pointing to the drop of blood on the parchment.

"It was in Tod's room. I think it was his." Drake responded. His eyes kept wandering, looking for their fathers. They had not yet arrived. He wanted to go find the people. He wanted to know if goblins were in the dimension and where they lived.

Mike handed the parchment back to Drake as they waited. Drake and his friends stayed silent as they waited for their fathers.

Drake communicated with Protector, asking him if anyone had crossed the ravine, explaining the missing townspeople. Protector had told him that no one had passed.

Switching to communicate with Ruby, he asked her to check with her hive to see if anyone had passed that way. He wanted to know if the townspeople were taken in that direction.

Ruby's eyes glowed brightly as she communicated with her hive. It took several minutes before she confirmed that the only ones that passed were a small group of bandits. There was no other traffic on the road.

Drake's father came toward them; he had a paper grasped in his hand. At the same time, Chad and Mike's fathers came toward them as well; they had finished their search.

As one, they stood in front of the tavern. Drake immediately stretched out his hand toward his father, holding the note from Tod.

Drake Sr did the same, handing his son the parchment he was holding. "I found this stated," his voice strained.

"I found this in Tod's room," Drake countered, handing his father the note he found with the drop of blood. He took the paper his father was handing him at the same time. It was a trade of clues.

Drake looked at the paper he was handed while his father looked at Tod's note.

The note read: "We are at Dragon Head Mountain. The gargoyles took us."

The message appeared to be written in Mary's handwriting, but something in Drake's gut told him that it had been tampered with.

Drake Sr looked at the note that Drake had handed him. It was the single word with a drop of blood. His face paled at the blood. "Either we can split up or go to Dragon Head Mountain first, then Goblin Island."

Drake shook his head. "The system says to do it together; we need to find which one really took the people of this town. We can't waste time checking one place, then moving on to the next, hoping to find them. My instinct tells me that one of these clues has been tampered with. I don't want to take chances. I want to know where we need to go and not guess."

"Then what do you want to do?" Drake Sr asked. He knew the situation was dire. Drake was right; someone could have planted a false lead. The problem was, which one was it?

Their cohorts stood watching, waiting for a decision to be made. This was between the dimension master and the dimension master heir. They didn't know what to do either, so they all remained quiet, not talking, and just listened to the conversation, and waited to do what they needed to do.

Drake began to pace in front of the tavern while everyone watched silently. It was clear that Drake was thinking, trying to figure out what to do next. His mind wandered to the note his father found. His gut told him that it had been tampered with. The more he thought about it, he knew it had been. He just had to figure out how to see the truth.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.