Chapter Text
Jim had been lying in his bed, staring up at his ceiling for about three hours now.
He found it difficult to sleep sometimes. Worries for the future or memories of his past gnawed at his mind as he tossed and turned in bed, keeping him from sleeping.
It didn’t happen every night, just enough for him to have developed a routine for how to deal with it.
Counting sheep had never worked for him, and he didn’t see the point in wasting his time wallowing in his thoughts.
With a sigh, Jim rolled out of bed and grabbed a pair of shoes. He slid on a thin jacket that had been draped over the back of his desk chair and leaned forward to open the window.
Slowly, still in socks, he climbed on top of his desk and slid through the gap, being careful not to make any noise.
The cool night breeze sent a shiver down his spine as he sat down on the roof tiles. He zipped up his jacket a little tighter before putting on his shoes and began to slide forward.
Keeping a firm grip on the roof’s edge, he slowly lowered himself down and then let go, landing on the grass below with a soft thump.
Jim sent one last look to his mother’s bedroom window before hopping over the fence and walking into the woods. The serene atmosphere of the forest always helped calm his thoughts, and tonight was no different.
The path before him was a familiar one; he had walked it often with Toby when they were kids. The two of them would start running around the brush, looking for sticks to get into pretend sword fights with. Toby was usually better at finding ones with the right shape and had started amassing a collection he had kept in his backyard.
Over the years, his interests had shifted from sword-sticks to rocks and minerals, but he had never thrown away his collection, instead moving it to a large carton he now kept in the basement. Jim smiled at the thought of his best friend; he couldn’t think of a better person to grow up with.
He looked back on his childhood memories fondly, for the most part. Arcadia really wasn’t a bad place to grow up in. The town wasn’t rural by any means, but it did have a fair bit of greenery surrounding it, and he had always enjoyed spending his days in nature, even if he had less time for it the older he got.
Out here, Jim could let his thoughts wander more freely without them getting too pervasive. The woods had something calming to them.
He used to be afraid of them during nighttime, the shadows seemingly stretching farther than they should, the darkness between the trees hiding potential dangers.
Somewhere along the line, he had lost that fear.
During his time spent as a half-troll on his journey to New Jersey, he had gotten used to sleeping during the day and wandering the night to avoid sunlight.
He supposed that the comfort in darkness he had developed then carried over into now, though he wished he still had his night vision. Despite his eyes adjusting to the darkness fairly quickly, he still found it difficult to see the path before him, almost tripping on loose rocks or protruding roots that littered the forest floor.
He didn’t feel very tired right now, but Jim knew his lack of sleep would catch up with him later today. Hopefully, he wouldn’t fall asleep during class again.
A little creek further down the path came into view. It was one that Toby and he would catch frogs in during the summertime. They had tried fishing too but unsurprisingly hadn’t managed to catch anything with the string haphazardly tied to sticks that they called their DIY fishing rods.
Hopping from one stepping stone to the next, Jim made it across the creek and continued on.
The path he was walking would loop back around to his street eventually, and Jim started to quicken his pace when he glimpsed the already slightly brightening sky between the branches.
If his mother came to check on him in the morning, only to find his bed empty and the window open, he was sure to get an earful about sneaking out.
She had always warned him about the dangers of walking home alone during the dark. Jim was confident in his ability to defend himself, but it wasn’t like he could tell her about the 3 years of combat training he had under his belt.
His house could be seen in the distance now, the first rays of sunlight tinting the sky behind it a soft purple. No lights were on in the house, so his mother must still be asleep. Carefully and quietly, he hopped the fence to the backyard again and let himself in through the back door.
Making his way up the stairs, Jim sighed and mentally prepared himself for another perfectly regular day in Arcadia.
It had been over two weeks since he arrived back in the past, and Jim was getting a little restless. There was an itching in his bones that he couldn’t quite determine the source of.
During these past weeks, he had tried to live his life normally, while keeping an eye out for any magic or troll-related occurrences and nudging people in the right direction.
On the human side, things were going rather well.
Despite how boring most of it was, Jim found himself enjoying being at school again. Without the additional responsibility of being the Trollhunter, he had more time to spend with his friends after class, and he wasn’t hanging back on his academics.
Rehearsals were going great as well. Since he could still remember most of his lines, Jim didn’t have to do much studying for the play, and he had managed to thoroughly impress Ms. Janeth with how quickly he was getting comfortable in the role of Romeo.
Jim was also happy to be able to spend so much time with Claire, and the two of them had gotten to talking quite a bit in between scenes.
Though it was still a little strange for him, pretending that he knew nothing about her, it was also nice being able to properly get to know her without any of the road bumps and shenanigans that had made it difficult the first time around.
Strickler had joined him and his mom for dinner about a week ago. Jim had, as promised, used a new recipe he had developed, and both Barbara and Strickler had seemed to like it. From what he was able to gather from eavesdropping on the two, they were getting along rather well.
Jim tried to keep an eye on his teacher while he was at school, trying to glean any information on what he was up to at the moment, with expectedly middling success.
All in all, things seemed to be mostly unfolding as he had planned.
But one thing wasn’t right.
Toby hadn’t told Jim about finding the amulet yet. He’d been convinced that his best friend wouldn’t be able to keep a secret that big from him.
When the boys met up again, the day after Jim had directed Toby to the canals, he asked his friend if he’d found anything interesting on his way home.
Toby’s eyes lit up, and he started excitedly telling Jim about this very peculiar pile of rocks he had found at the bottom of the canal as they made their way to Spanish class.
“I’m telling you, Jimbo. It was the weirdest thing. A huge pile of rocks, all the same kind, mind you, just lying there, out in the open.”
Toby, ever the geology enthusiast, had immediately started investigating the scene.
“Some of them were shaped strangely, with unnatural ridges and patterns. One of the stones looked kind of like an eye or something, so I figured it had maybe been a statue that broke apart, even if the type of rock didn’t look like the kind statues are commonly made out of,” he began rambling while Jim just nodded along.
“But who dumps a whole pile of broken statue pieces out like that? And how did they manage to break it that thoroughly? That thing was demolished, man.”
He started miming smashing something with a big hammer for emphasis, and Jim couldn’t hold back a snicker at the sight.
“I’m telling you”, Toby continued as they walked through the door. “Someone from the museum accidentally damaged one of the rare pieces in a new collection and tried to cover it up.” They sat down at their desks right as the bell rang, and Senior Uhl entered the room, cutting off the rest of Toby’s speculation.
At the time, Jim had chalked up the lack of amulet talk to Toby simply not wanting to tell him about it yet.
But now he was wondering if Toby even had the amulet. It had been taken by someone, Jim knew that for sure, since he had checked whether or not it was still there on his way home that first day after his audition. It had been fairly dark by then, and Jim had done his best to try and stay stealthy as he made his way to the canal.
He’d been mildly surprised to see that Kanjigar’s body had been missing, all of his pieces having seemingly already been moved, no doubt by the Trolls of Trollmarket.
Satisfied, Jim had begun waiting for Toby to eventually confide in him and looked for any signs that his training had begun, which had yet to happen.
His friend wasn’t acting in any way that would be unusual for him. He showed up at Jim’s house every morning, they would drive to school, spend most of their day there, and then drive home again together, except on the days that Jim had rehearsals. And on weekends, they would hang out at either Jim’s or Toby’s place.
His best friend didn’t look stressed or nervous or like he was hiding something, and it became increasingly clear to Jim that unless Toby was one impressive actor with the most insane time management skills Jim had ever seen, he was not the Trollhunter.
And that made Jim very nervous.
Because if Toby wasn’t the Trollhunter and Jim wasn’t, the only other option that Jim was aware of was Draal.
His first glimpse at a world where Draal was the Trollhunter had not been a pleasant one, and if his old friend really had taken on the mantle, Jim would want to at least try to warn him of the upcoming danger.
Sneaking into Trollmarket wasn’t too difficult; he’d done it before, after all.
He wasn’t all too happy to be spending another night anywhere but in his bed, sleeping, but this couldn’t wait.
He managed to hitch a ride in the back of an unsuspecting troll’s cart, keeping still and silent, watching as the smooth wall of the bridge rematerialized behind him. Careful not to be spotted, he quickly slipped between stands and crates and behind the rocky backs of turned away trolls to slowly make his way further in.
Jim caught a glimpse of bright, warm light as he darted from one hiding spot to the next and stopped for a moment to peek at the source of it. Seeing the Heartstone in all its glory again filled him with warmth.
He remembered the devastation of Trollmarket's residents, seeing it destroyed. The grief and helplessness many of them must have felt, losing their home, their whole livelihood.
Jim would do anything in his power to prevent that from happening again. Trollmarket might not be perfect, but it was very much worth protecting.
He was ripped from his thoughts by the crate next to him suddenly being lifted and scrambled into a nearby corner in a panic, praying that he hadn’t been seen.
The troll’s attention seemed to be preoccupied with something else, talking with someone Jim couldn’t see in a low, gruff voice.
Jim took the opportunity to quickly crawl toward the stone wall behind the nearest stand and slip into a narrow tunnel in the cold, damp rock.
The close call had sent his heart running a mile a minute, but he managed to get to the Hero’s Forge without another incident.
He had expected to have to wait there a while to find Draal, but the spiked troll was already there, looking up at the rows of fallen Trollhunters, among which now stood his father. Draal’s hands were balled into fists and he looked to be saying something, but from his vantage point Jim could not make out the words. A small smile formed on his lips as he looked at his friend. He started moving closer, careful to stay in the shadows and gaps along the wall.
Another voice joined Draal’s and the blue troll turned his head to face the newcomer. Jim held still so that the quiet crunch of his footsteps didn’t alert them and slightly craned his neck to get a better look.
The sight of Vendel was a welcome one. The elder troll was walking to stand beside Draal, crystalline staff clinking across the floor.
“Draal. I thought I might find you here.”
With a low growl, Draal fixed his eyes back onto his father.
“What do you want, Vendel?”
The elder troll let out a sigh.
“Draal, I know you’re angry. I am too, but I told you, it’s too dangerous.”
He tried to lay a hand on the younger troll’s shoulder, but Draal jerked away, walking a few paces, fists still at his sides.
Jim shifted slightly against the stone. Danger? What are they talking about?
After pacing around for a few moments, Draal suddenly whipped around to yell at Vendel.
“What do you expect me to do? Just sit around and wait?
The amulet was mine to inherit, my honor, my burden to bear.”
Jim’s eyebrows furrowed. With the way Draal was talking, it didn’t sound like he was in possession of the amulet, his worry increasing at the confirmation of what he had suspected.
“The butcher took my father and my destiny away from me in one day and you expect me to do nothing?!”
Draal looked furious, nostrils flaring. Jim hadn’t seen him this angry in a long time.
Vendel, however, seemed unphased.
“Do nothing? No, young troll, quite the contrary. If Bular has the amulet, he knows we are without a Trollhunter to protect us. It is only a matter of time before he tries something.”
He paused for a second, milky eyes roaming over the statues along the wall.
“This is the calm before the storm, boy. By the gods’ will, Heartstone Trollmarket shall hold, but we must prepare for the possibility of an attack.
“Take some time to grieve your father, gather your wits. Then we prepare.”
Draal’s anger slowly transformed into grim determination at Vendel’s words, and he gave his elder a curt nod, before sparing one last glance up and walking toward the arched exit out of the Forge.
Eyes following Draal, Jim pressed his body further back into the shadows. His foot caught on some loose pebbles, which were now rolling across the floor, the sound carrying far through the open chamber.
Vendel’s ears perked up and his gaze snapped to look in the direction Jim was hiding.
Quietly cursing his shoes, Jim stayed as still as he could for a few moments, until Vendel seemed to lose suspicion, turning away and following behind Draal. Letting out a relieved sigh, Jim squeezed through the tunnel back the way he came, hitching another ride out of Trollmarket.
It was still pitch black outside when he got out and started walking in the direction of his house. Jim’s heart was pounding as he processed what he just heard. Draal wasn’t the Trollhunter, or, he at least wasn’t in the possession of the amulet.
They assumed Bular had it, which meant that someone had to have searched Kanjigar’s body before Trollmarket could. Given how close it was, Jim assumed that Draal would’ve gotten to Kanjigar as soon as the sun set.
Could Bular have beat them to it? Maybe, but it was unlikely. Which left only one possibility.
“Strickler.” Jim cursed under his breath. He could’ve kicked himself for not thinking about it sooner.
He had just assumed that Toby had gotten to the amulet first, but there was a whole school day where it had lain unattended in the canal.
Enough time for his teacher to pick it up during his lunch break. Nomura also could’ve gotten to it, though he wasn’t going to risk confronting her before talking to Strickler, who, in any case, would know something about it.
Jim was standing in his backyard now, climbing up to his still open window like he usually did. He needed to do something about this in the morning. The plan had gone to shit, Bular was most likely already in the process of rebuilding Killahead bridge and this time he already had the amulet.
They might not know they’d need it to open the bridge yet, but they would find that out soon enough.
Sitting on his bed, head in his hands, Jim tried to think of what he should do next. Maybe it was time to have a talk with his history teacher.
School the next day was…weird.
Strickler was late to class today, something that had never happened in the history of-… forever, probably.
Instead of the usual, expected lesson plan, they got another pop quiz.
The second one in two weeks.
Toby next to him groaned into his hands. Jim shared his sentiment.
While the students wrote down their answers, their teacher seemed distracted, eyes fixed on a point somewhere in the middle distance as if he was getting lost in thought. He looked more tired than usual too.
If he wasn’t looking for any “off” behavior, Jim probably wouldn’t have thought much of it, but as it was, Jim was sure his suspicions would turn out to be true.
With Killahead well into being built, the changeling probably had quite a lot on his plate and Bular wasn’t a patient boss. Hopefully that would make it easier for Jim to convince him to help get the amulet.
He had to get it back not only to prevent Killahead from being opened, but to get it to the next Trollhunter.
They needed Daylight if they wanted to have a chance against Bular.
His mind partially somewhere else, Jim looked at the clock: Only five minutes left.
Quietly cursing under his breath, Jim tried to write down as much as he could before the timer went off. He was still writing his name on the paper when the student behind him tapped his shoulder to hand over the stack of papers from the back.
He took them and begrudgingly put his on top, handing it over to the front.
After he convinced Strickler he should really mention toning it down on the pop quizzes.
It was getting a little excessive, especially for this time in the school year.
The bell rang soon after and Jim did his best to rush out of the classroom, telling Toby not to wait and that he would join him outside in a few minutes.
His teacher had disappeared as soon as the ringing started and Jim hoped that he would be able to find him in his office.
Doing his best to dodge the teachers telling students to go outside during break, he managed to quietly make his way to Strickler’s office and knocked on the door.