Chapter Text
Blinky supposed that in retrospect, it could have gone worse.
The screaming, however, was getting to him.
Changelings in Arcadia was something that Blinky hoped beyond all else was a false assumption, but he could not deny what Jim and Tobias saw, or what they thought they saw. With Bular’s presence it made sense, as did a few odd moments and conversations that he recalled from Kanjigar’s Trollhunting days.
A Changeling in Arcadia was a monumental disaster. Changelings were master spies, patient and clever, able to take on new roles without a moment’s hesitation. Adept mimics, they excelled at blending in with whatever environment or crowd they had been assigned, and their collective ambition often put them in roles of power. Never absolute power, mind; that came with too much danger and suspicion. But an advisor here, a trusted companion there, and they had the ears of those who they could manipulate into their nefarious schemes. A Changeling among humans was a horrible misfortune.
A Changeling in Trollmarket itself? Nothing else but a catastrophe.
The eye of Rot peered curiously at Jim and Toby when Blinky mentioned they were suspicious of Changelings, and it hit Blinky that he had never suspected either of the boys to be one. It simply was unfathomable. Changelings had not been seen or heard of for centuries, and even he – as mired in conspiracies as he was – had not considered that frightful option.
It seemed highly unlikely, given the boys’ ages, but Blinky supposed that they would find out for sure in a minute or two anyway.
RotGut’s emporium, thankfully, held the appropriate totem with which to unveil a Changeling, and Blinky was quite glad when the arguing trolls saw fit to give them their totem. The gaggletack rocketed out of the drawer in RotGut’s door and smacked Tobias in the forehead, felling the poor boy like a sack of rocks.
“It hurts!”
Jim bent to pick it up –
“It’s a…”
- and the gaggletack flashed with blue, sparkling violently with a crack of magic.
Blinky would later recount that he handled the situation with calm and poise, despite the bruises on his back that he obtained from leaping backwards with a yelp and falling against RotGut’s door.
And the little blue troll in Jim’s place, still crouching to pick up the gaggletack, screamed.
Actually, everybody screamed, but the Jim-troll screamed loudest and longest. Blinky watched with utter shock as he scrambled with his arms and legs, feeling the horns upon his head and the teeth protruding from his lip, screaming all the while.
AAARRRGGHH picked up the whelp and pressed a hand against his face before the screams could even evolve into actual words, and he carried the struggling troll back out into the market, heading for his personal quarters.
Tobias and Blinky were left behind, both still on the ground in various states of shock.
“We must go after them,” Blinky muttered, rising to his feet and pulling Toby up with one arm.
“Ohmygosh, ohmygosh, ohmygosh,” the boy was mumbling, tripping after Blinky with a despairing moan.
“I did not know he could do that! Did you know he could do that? Does this mean Jim’s a Changeling? What happened to the real Jim?!”
“That is precisely what I mean to find out! Now hurry up!”
Blinky lead Toby down an empty corridor, past rooms meant for storage and utilities. AAARRRGGHH’s personal quarters were in an uninhabited sector, a choice he had made upon arriving in Heartstone Trollmarket. Even centuries later, when his temperament had evened and his fear of accidentally hurting someone in a rage had lessened, he still kept his solitary quarters, though they were rarely used.
They met no one on the way, and when they arrived the large boulder that AAARRRGGHH used as a door had been shifted aside. Panicked gasping could be heard from within the room.
Blinky and Tobias entered to find the Jim-troll pacing wildly around the room, his head in his hands. There were only four fingers, Blinky noticed.
“Ahem, er. Master Jim?”
“What the fuck?!” Jim yelled, throwing his arms in the air. “What, what did that thing do to me? Is it permanent? Is-is this going to stick, because I can’t go home to my mom like this, she’ll freak! Why did the horseshoe turn me into a troll?! I can’t be a troll, I can barely make it to class as it is! You can fix this, right? It’ll wear off, like the Furgulator thing, right?”
Blinky was at a loss. Tobias seemed perfectly content to pounce on Jim and poke at his every feature, but Blinky could not shake the enormous feeling of dread.
Jim was a Changeling.
Jim was a Changeling, and he was the Trollhunter.
The Trollhunter was a Changeling.
The Trollhunter, who was Jim, was a Changeling who, by his own admission, had had no idea of his true nature.
There was no conceivable way for Blinky to explain this.
AAARRRGGHH’s bright eyes glimmered in a corner. Stalking over to him, Blinky accepted the warm arm across his shoulders and watched as Jim proceeded to have a fit. Everything he noticed deepened his alarm; the grey-blue tint of his skin, the broader expansion of his chest, the curved horns on either side of his skull.
Toby was shoving his hands into Jim’s mouth, examining his enlarged teeth, when Blinky noticed the boy getting ready to have a panic attack. Honestly, Blinky rather felt like having one himself, but…
…even with the fangs and the skin and the horns…
…it was clear that the little troll was still Jim, and Jim was worth putting aside his feelings for.
Blinky walked away from the corner and pulled the boy into a hug, feeling with all four arms how hard the boy was tremoring. Whether Jim had known about this change or not, the poor child was terrified, and Blinky could no more ignore it than stab himself in the eye.
“We will figure this out, Master Jim,” he murmured, softly patting the boy on the back. “If you can change one way, you can change the other. We will get you back to your usual form.”
Jim buried his face in his shoulder; Blinky only realized then how much his height had changed. Poor Tobias, who was patting Jim’s arm, looked even more miniscule than normal.
“C’mon, Jimbo, it’s okay,” he said. “You know, even if you are a Changeling, we’re still besties! This doesn’t have to change anything, Jim!”
Blinky begged to differ – this changed everything – but Jim was sobbing into his shoulder now and bringing up the repercussions of being a Changeling among trolls would not be the most comforting idea.
The room rumbled slightly as AAARRRGGHH trudged over to them. He sniffed at Jim’s limp hand, nudged his face between him and Blinky, nearly lifting the teen off of the ground. His face turned into a frown as he deliberated.
“Mmm. Changeling,” he growled. That settled the matter. Blinky, through all his scholarly pursuits, had not nearly the experience with Changelings that AAARRRGGHH did, and if his companion recognized Jim’s scent as such then that was the end of the matter.
Blinky pressed on Jim’s shoulders until he sank down on AAARRRGGHH’s nest of blankets and skins, Tobias joining him at his side.
“Think of it this way, Jim-my-man,” he said, his voice tenuously light and cheerful. “Now you don’t have to complain about reaching the top shelves anymore.”
To Blinky’s gratefulness Jim smiled and gave a watery laugh.
“Oh, god,” he whispered, staring into his hands. “What am I going to tell my mom?”