Chapter Text
You honestly had thought this exact situation would have gone better - way better… at least it did in your head. Maybe you just over exaggerated or under exaggerated. It wasn’t quite clear at the moment.
Currently, you had sweat that dripped down the sides of your heated face and it pooled at the end of your chin. “I messed up…” You mumbled. “Real hard.”
“You think?!”
Your e/c eyes snapped to the right and landed on the hero of the small town you lived in. And the so-called hero ended up being some kid ! You don’t even know how! Then again you don’t really know how anything thing in this town is how it is.
“I mean, did you really think lighting a branch on fire and throwing it at the goblins would work?” The kid shouted. You fought to roll your eyes, but you lost that battle.
Earlier that night…
You had decided to take the more scenic route home… which also turned out to be the longer route as well and it took you along the edge of the forest. It was dark out and very few stars filled the night sky like the previous nights.
“Jeesh. This place needs to invest in some street lighting.” You said, taking notice in the complete lack of lamp posts. You whipped out your phone from your bag and turned the flashlight on. That was much better, you thought.
You continued on with your long journey. You jumped here and there at some of the noises that came out of the forest, but thought nothing of it. You tried not to let your eyes wander over to forest, but you were so curious! For some odd reason… After all, it was just a forest - it wasn’t special in any shape or form.
Suddenly, you phone beeped aggressively.
With your brows furrowed, you gazed down at your phone. “No, no, no. No! Not now!” You yelled.
You clutched your phone and shook it. The small white box that told you your phone was on twenty percent did not disappear like you wanted it to. How far could that twenty percent get you with the flashlight on? You didn’t want to do the calculations.
“Welp. This is what I get for taking the long way home, huh?” The words came out harshly. You gripped your h/c hair before you let it go.
“‘Y’ is for yes.”
You spun around so quick at the sound of what sounded like Siri’s voice and held your hands up in defense. One hand was still wrapped around your phone, but now it guarded your face. And the other… well, let’s just say now you had a finger gun.
“‘K’ is for kill.” The voice echoed again.
“Whoever you are, person, you best stop! I’m, uh,” You stared down at your hand. “Armed!”
A whole bunch of mumbo-jumbo came next. You may have not understood it, but that didn’t make it any less terrifying.
“Look, I have like five dollars and some cents. That’ll buy you, what? A candy bar or something?”
You stood in one spot and kept spinning in circles. Eventually, glowing eyeballs peeked out of the dark forest. That’s normal, you tried to convince yourself, completely and utterly normal.
“You know what? Why don’t I just keep walking? Just keep walking Y/n…” You had backed away from the edge of the forest slowly and just took a nice, long breather.
“‘N’ is for no.” With that, little green things jumped out of the forest. Yes, green things that looked like some weird animal. One of them had a children’s toy in it’s hand… and what looked to be a mustache drawn on its face. Definitely not an animal.
“‘N’ is for no.” It repeated.
“You are so right. ‘N’ is for no. And thing is a whole ‘no’!”
You took off running. You had no idea what else to do other than that. And unfortunately for you, you also happened to run directly into the forest. You could hear the green things following closely behind you.
What can I do… what can I do… you chanted over and over again in your head until you got a bright idea.
It was getting harder to breathe as you ran harder and faster. It also got harder to keep your footing as more trees and their hidden roots became more available and invisible the deeper you went into the forest.
Eventually you did stop - you had to - and when you did, you took all the contents of your bag and dumped it onto the forest floor. You searched rapidly for the lighter that was somewhere in the pile of junk!
“Animals don’t like fire. I mean, the Jungle Book can’t be wrong about that!” You whispered. Then again, you had already decided that the green things were indeed not animals of any kind. “It’ll still work.”
The sound of leaves and twigs breaking had made you rummage harder through the junk pile. You could hear all the mumbo-jumbo and the “‘K’ is for kill” getting louder.
“Ah-HA!”
You opened the lighter and attempted to get the flame going. You got it on the first go. Now, you looked around for something to light on fire.
“Oh my God! I’m in the middle of the freaking forest and I can’t even find a stiCK?!” You cried out. Stressful laughter escaped through your lips and you stared up. As you stared up, something hit you. “... I’m surrounded by trees…”
You thumped your lighter-free hand against your forehead. “You complete idiot, Y/n! You’re surrounded by stupid trees! AgHH!!”
You ran over to the closest tree and yanked at one of its branches. The green things had shown up to your party right now and raised the panic level. You yanked harder on the branch as the things closed in around you.
“‘K’ is for kill.”
“No, no. I think ‘K’ is for, like, kindness or something!”
“‘N’ is for no.”
The branch didn’t break off the tree and didn’t seem like it was going to in time. So, you shut the lighter and turned around to face the green things.
The little mustache one stared at you with its glowing eyes and smirked evilly.
Just right before one of those things pounced on you, it was sliced in half. Your e/c eyes widened in horror as it just exploded into green slime.
“Y/n, what are you doing out here?”
Your gaze locked onto one of the underclassmen that went to your school. Jim Lake. You knew him from Senor Uhl’s class and you tutored him every once in awhile for spanish. And now here he was killing all the green things out in the middle of the forest.
“What am I - what am I doing here? What are you doing here, kid?” You questioned. “And is that the costume you wore in that school play?!”
“It isn’t a costume!” He exclaimed and continued to hack every green thing like it was nothing.
He started saying something else, but you zoned out and went back at yanking that one branch. You wanted to help Jim.
After a few more hard tugs the branch came flying off. “Finally!” You once more took your lighter and got the flame going. You held the lighter up to the wood. “C’mon, baby! Just start a fire.” Within a few seconds, the branch caught on fire.
You closed the lighter and dropped it to the ground enable to hold the branch in both hands. “Back gremlins! Back!”
The green creatures - and Jim - noticed the branch on fire in your possession and stopped immediately. You had to admit you felt a bit accomplished.
“Y/n!” Jim looked at you, then at the branch in your hands with a look of concern.
“Kid!” You said in the same tone.
You waved the branch back and forth through the air. The green things didn’t appear to be intimidated by your fire any more. “Don’t any of you come any closer. I have this, and I will use it!”
“Use it?!” Jim’s eyes grew large at your remark.
The trollhunter felt no safety with you in the moment. You weren’t acting like you did at school and that’s what scared him a bit.
“You can’t use fire!”
“Watch me.”
Back to the present....
And that’s how you started the fire. Not the smartest thing you’ve ever done.
“You know, kid, I thought my branch it would have landed on at least one gremlin. I didn’t think it would miss one entirely!” You hissed through your clenched jaw.
Jim let out a long, frustrated sigh.
“Don’t do that! Just,” You grabbed a fist full of dirt off the forest floor and threw it onto the growing fire, “Help me put this out.”
After you had threw the branch, the green creatures had scattered which just left you and Jim in the middle of the forest with the fire. You didn’t mind that the things left, in fact you were completely content with them leaving!
“This is why you don’t play with fire, Y/n.” You heard Jim grumble.
You ignored Jim for the rest of the duration of time it took to put the fire out. And by the time the two of you put it out, your whole body was sore from all the leg and arm workouts you did. “You know, kid, you got a lot of explaining to do.”
The younger boy eyed you. “What? I think I deserve to know what those things were and why you showed up in costume.”
“It isn’t a costume.” He repeated his words from earlier.
“And I didn’t start a fire…”
Jim rolled his eyes at your sarcastic reply. His armour really wasn’t a costume, but Jim didn’t really want to start that fight with you… not after he witnessed you start a fire and scare the goblins off.
“I’ll explain everything to you tomorrow. At lunch.”
“Uh, I’m serving lunch detention with Uhl tomorrow.”
Detention? Since when did you get detention, Jim thought to himself. Another long, painful sigh left Jim and you noticed how his face twisted in irritation. “But I could always skip and just go the day after or something.”
A small smile fell upon your lips and you shrugged your aching shoulders. “But if we meet up tomorrow, we are going off campus to eat. Just so you know.”
“That’s… fine.” Jim shook his head. “Meet me at the bike racks, okay?”
“I gotcha, kid.”
A silence filled the air between you and Jim. “Can you, um, help me find my bag then… I don’t know… walk me home or something? I mean, those gremlins might come back for me.”
You smoothed you h/l hair back and looked at Jim expectedly. “I don’t feel like dying tonight, you know?”
“In all honesty, I actually know.” Jim huffed out hot air.
“That’s a bit sad.”
“Let’s just find your bag and get you home.” Jim swung his sword behind him and took off to the right. You quickly followed after him.