Chapter Text
It had been two days since Jim started walking to New Jersey. Without having to lead the entirety of Trollmarket, it was much faster than Jim expected.
Truth be told, he was kind of enjoying his time abroad.
A swallow flew overhead before landing cheerily on his shoulder, chirping brightly.
“You don’t seem too terrified.” Jim said, gently petting it. “You going to New Jersey too?” He joked, before the swallow flew away.
Jim hadn’t met anybody yet, and he was hoping to find some kind of cave to sleep in for a while.
He hadn’t slept since he left. While he didn’t feel too tired–the perks of constantly staying up late and devouring coffee, which he used to hate–he knew his body needed rest.
He yawned and started to run, enjoying the fresh breeze rolling across his face. He had felt so restrained, back in Arcadia. Out here, he could run as fast as he wanted.
Soon, he was moving at a pace even people like AAARRRGGHH would consider fast. The reason?
The amulet was helping. Even when he had the armor off, he had enhanced speed, durability, stamina, and strength.
He was basically superhuman.
Then again, most of the people in Arcadia were superhuman. He chuckled and sped up even more.
He walked straight into a peaceful grove. The grass was literally greener here.
Jim blinked–he smelled magic. A more humanoid troll wearing a japanese straw hat–a kasa, sat in the sunlight, completely unaffected. His eye–yes, eye –locked onto Jim, who waved awkwardly.
“Hello.” The one eyed troll said. “I am Ren. May I have the honor of knowing your name?”
“Um… Jim.” Jim said. “Most trolls I’ve met are usually more secretive around humans.”
“Most humans I’ve met mistake me for a Japanese tourist, due to the spell here.”
“How are you in the sunlight? I thought only stalklings or changelings could be in the sunlight.”
“I am a special type of troll, native to Japan.” Ren replied. Jim noticed he didn’t have an accent, though. “We are unlike our American cousins, in the fact that we are passive.”
“I swear you look familiar.” Jim said. For his first encounter with a troll, it wasn’t going too badly.
“I have appeared on a wikipedia page, when I was younger. Humans call me a yokai.” Ren said.
“Wait a minute–you said you’re passive, but you have a katana.” Jim pointed at the weapon in Ren’s lap.
“Truly, your observation skills miss nothing.” Ren said wryly, standing up. “Yes, I have a sword. We are passive, not pacifists.” He whipped it out in half a second flat. Jim watched it with awe.
There was golden light flowing off the blade.
“Wow, I guess you learn something new everyday.”
“Where are you traveling?” Ren asked curiously, stowing away his sword.
“New Jersey. There’s a Heartstone there, and I want to see it.” Jim said.
“There’s one in Arcadia.” Ren replied, “I was unfortunately rejected ten years ago, so I have just been wandering. I did not know there was one in New Jersey, however.”
“You want to come with me?” Jim found himself saying. He missed talking to people.
Ren looked surprised. “Hmm… sure. I need a place to settle down, anyway.”
As they continued moving, Jim asked, “Why were you rejected from Trollmarket?”
“Our kind is disrespected, because we never took part in the Gumm-Gumm wars. My cave was frequently vandalized.” Ren explained. “Eventually, I lost my temper and harmed one of the vandals with Ogonto, my blade. Kanjigar the Courageous was biased against me, considering the vandal I harmed was his son, Draal the Deadly.”
Jim choked, nearly tripping. “W-wow.” He said. “So, you never took part in the Gumm-Gumm wars because…”
“For one, they were in England.” Ren chuckled, “And two, we were merciful towards Gumm-Gumm soldiers.”
“Really?”
“They were mind controlled by Gunmar the Black, in case you forgot.” Ren said. “My turn, how do you know about the troll world? Are you a changeling?” He asked mildly, without the suspicion Jim was used to when trolls suspected him.
“No, I was a friend of the new Trollhunter, Toby Domzalski.”
“New Trollhunter?”
Turns out, Ren didn’t know a new Trollhunter had come. He was walking all over America while they were fighting.
The next few days passed quickly, considering Ren was faster than Jim, and Jim could run faster than a car at full speed.
Ogonto, Ren’s blade, was capable of cutting nearly anything, and Ren had often used it to cut down branches in his path.
They would run all day and night, before Jim had to sleep for a few hours, or down an energy drink.
“Your eyes have dark circles under them.” Ren noted when they stopped, one day. “You should sleep more. We will be in New Jersey in a few days.”
From California to New Jersey, in a week and a half. Jim shook his head. “I’m fine. Don’t let me slow you down.” He said.
“I enjoy a more leisurely pace, anyway.” Ren said. “You should catch your rest here. I want to carve, anyway.”
“You carve?” Jim said, sleepily leaning against a tree.
“With my tanto. It’s a practice of my kind, to carve out our dead to remember them. I frequently leave them behind, in lakes.” Ren jumped ten feet in the air and yanked down on a large branch, before landing gracefully back down on the ground. With the branch in hand, he threw it up before slicing it into multiple pieces.
That was the last thing Jim saw before he fell asleep.
“Jim.” Toby said, leaning against a bit of rubble.
“Toby… no, you can’t die!” Jim panicked.
“Jim… did we win?” Toby croaked out. There was so much blood.
God, why was there so much blood?
“We–we did.” Jim sobbed. “Please, Tobes, I can’t lose you again.”
“We did it…” Toby said. “Jim, please… don’t go back. Don’t torture yourself. Please .”
“I can’t lose you.” Jim repeated, crying over Toby’s prone form. “Not again. I’ll save them all, again. I can’t live without Claire, or Blinky, or AAARRRGGHH. Never again.”
“Jim, you have to let go…” Toby said.
“Never.” Jim snapped.
Toby looked depressed. “This isn’t the second try, is it? You’ve done this more than twice.”
Jim started sobbing again. “Forty-seven. I–I’ll save you, I’ll make this right.”
Toby weakly gripped Jim’s arm as he prepared to restart time again. “Don’t save me, save them. ”
Jim nodded. “O-of course.”
“I did it, though.” Toby said, his gaze fixed on the stars he could not see. “I became.”
“And for what?” Jim said softly. “We became, so many times, and it always ended the same way.”
Toby didn’t respond. His eyes were empty.
Jim lurched upwards, gasping for breath. Sweat poured out of his body like a bucket, and he started hyperventilating.
He shivered, trying to calm down. Ren wasn’t anywhere near him–
Ren dropped to the ground, staring concernedly at Jim. “Do you wish to talk?” He said simply.
Jim jerked up with a gasp. Ren was above him. He shook his head. “L-lets just continue moving.” He stuttered.
“Jim-”
“I’m all good!” Jim forced false cheer into his voice, standing up quickly as he stumbled forward, Ren sidestepping before he collided.
“ Jim. ” Ren said emphatically.
“Just a nightmare.” Jim said reassuringly.
Ren looked troubled, but allowed Jim to continue moving.
They met the newest member of their group a day later.
The night was falling when Jim literally collided with someone in the dark.
“Umph!” He tripped, landing in a sprawl on top of the person, who pushed him off.
“Maybe I should wear bright orange, instead of green.” The person looked like she was straight out of a Lord of the Rings movie. She had a dark green cloak, with a bow attached to her back, along with being red with two horns curling behind her.
“Changeling?” Ren asked, nonchalantly revealing his sword by pushing it lightly out of his sheathe.
“Halfie.” The troll said. “Name’s Iveline, but you should call me Ivy.”
“Ren.”
“I’m Jim,” Jim introduced himself. “‘Halfie…? Like, Half troll, half human?”
Ivy nodded. “Yes. Kind of sucks. My skin is softer than most trolls’, but I’m still blue, so I don’t blend in very well.” She continued thoughtfully, “Are you a changeling? Or just some human that stumbled into our world?”
“Erm, the latter.” Jim said. “You guys really didn’t react to me being a human like I thought.”
Ivy shrugged. “I hang out more with humans than trolls.” She explained.
“We are heading to a Heartstone in New Jersey.” Ren said, “Do you wish to come with us?”
“That would be nice. I can’t live without a Heartstone, so…”
“Oh, were you also rejected by Trollmarket?” Jim asked, his face twisting up in disgust.
Why had he never heard of these outcasts that got flatly rejected from Arcadia?
Feelings of guilt wormed up to his throat as his fists clenched nearly hard enough to draw blood.
These people seemed alright… So why were they outcasts…? “How many other trolls have been kicked out of Trollmarket because of circumstances like this?” Jim asked irritably.
They began to sprint, and Jim noticed Ivy was more… jogging?
She seemed just as fast as Ren, if not faster.
“How are you two so fast?” Jim panted, forgetting his earlier question.
“Ogonto makes me faster.” Ren answered, cutting a random tree into dust instead of running around it.
“Magic cloak.” Ivy said dryly.
“Um… interesting?”
How did Ivy get a magic cloak?
The days passed quickly, after that. Jim still didn’t get any service for three days, so he couldn’t call his mom to tell her he was probably not going to show up for Toby’s birthday.
To be fair, he assumed even if he did show, it would get so awkward he would leave a second later, so…
A week later, they were in New Jersey.
“That was a little slower than I expected.” Ivy admitted, fingering her bow like she expected to be attacked.
Jim choked. “Ivy–it usually takes months to travel from California to NJ. We arrived in a week and a half!”
“Just over a half, actually.” Ren said, smiling innocently. They waited till the shadows grew long before they went to the entrance that Jim remembered.
“This place is a little bigger than I was expecting.” Ivy said, her voice echoing.
“It’s smaller than Trollmarket, but it's pretty big.” Ren agreed.
“Welcome to Outcast Colony, I guess.”