Twilight Trolls
Chapter One: Becoming Part One
(Trollish- bold is for when they are speaking troll)
Early morning in Arcadia, no one noticed two trolls fighting vigorously underneath the canal bridge. Kanjigar panted with labored breaths due to the pain of his half stone face while Bular laughed malignantly. "There's no where left for you to run, Trollhunter! Give me the amulet." Kanjigar continues to fight with the best of his abilities, but between the sun and Bular, Kanjigar know that this is the end of his time. Kanjigar looks down at the last beam while Bular stalks towards him. Bular laughs, "It all ends here. It's me or the sun! Either way, you are doomed." Kanjigar straightens his stature, "No, the amulet will find a champion. We will stop you and your master. I may end, but the fight will not." With those last words, Kanjigar falls back into the bright sunlight and shatters against the pavement, his whole body turned to stone. Bular roars with anger as the amulet falls out of his reach.
Claire Nuñez woke up with the cries of her younger brother Enrique and not her alarm clock. Glancing wearily at the clock, she realized that she could either sleep for another 30 mins or go comfort her brother. Sighing, Claire rolled out of bed and headed to Enrique's room. Within seconds of Claire entering the room, Enrique smiled and held out his arms begging to be picked up. Claire smiled fondly at her brother before going through the care taking motions that had become second nature to her. Diaper, clothes, feeding, burping, and finally getting ready herself.
Realizing she only had less then 20 minutes to get to school, Claire raced down to the kitchen to grab something to eat. Grabbing some bread, she quickly put 2 slices in the toaster. Racing around to make sure she had all of her school work she bumped into her mother. "Mom can you take me to school, Enrique already been taken care of and I really need a ride or I'm going to be late." Claire said as she quickly put jam on her toast after they popped up form the toaster. Ophelia Nunez sighed sadly, "Thank you for taking care of your brother, but I'm running late as well for a meeting. You are just going to have to book it on your bike sweetie. Also, your father and I will be running late tonight, but your brother will be at the sitters so you will be alone tonight. No parties, ok?" Claire chuckled at her mothers joke and quickly scarfed down her light breakfast.
Racing to the garage, Claire hopped onto her bike and began to pedal as quickly as she could. Claire was relieved that today was bright and sunny, unlike the normally gloomy and dark weather that Arcadia had. Weather in Arcadia 95% of the time never had any sun, so with this dry day Claire raced towards the canal that would shave off time of her route. With a loud whoop she pedaled hard over the lip of the canal. Claire's bike held lofted in the air for a short time until she connected back with the ground and skidded down the slope of the canal. Claire stopped at the bottom to catch her breath when she heard the earie whisper, "Claire." Her eyes quickly fell onto a pile of rubble that lay almost under the canal bridge. Walking slowly over, she jumped when she heard the voice speak louder, "Claire…. Nuñez." Claire felt a pull towards the pile, stronger then the last, and dug into the pile.
The object that called to her was quick to pull her attention. An amulet that pulsed in her hands, Claire put the object closer to her ear to listen for her name once more. BRIIING! Claire jumped and cursed quietly as the final bell rang. Unbeknownst to her, many sets of eyes were watching her as Claire raced to get to school on time.
Claire was happy that today in Mr. Strickler's class that he was allowing the students to be on the computers. Thus, allowing her to investigate the amulet that she found, but nothing was coming up. Claire's attention was drawn away with two students entering Mr. Strickler's class. "Ah, Mr. Lake and Mr. Domzalski, glad you could make it to class. Since you have missed most of my lecture, I'm sure you can tell me if you agree with Herodotus' opinion of war? If you intend to miss my class, then I expect you to study the materials." Claire might have stared a bit hard at James Lake Jr. a.k.a Jim, but she could not resist the tall, dark, and handsome teen. Mary and Darci giggling snapped her out of her trance, meaning that her staring did not go unnoticed.
Jim looked helplessly at his friend Toby, before answering, "Uh, of course. I would definitely agree with his opinions." Strickler tilted his head, "Which ones in specific?" Jim once again looked to his friend before answering, "The winning one's?" The whole class laughed at his response, and then the bell rang. Strickler quickly rattled off the homework, before telling Jim and Toby to stay. Claire walked quickly out of class with her friends. She kind of wished that she could stay around to hear what Strickler was going to say to them.
Strickler's calm façade quickly dropped into a menacing one with his eyes flashing to yellow with red slits. Jim's and Toby's reacted similarly, but Jim's was a darker blue with slits and Toby's was citrine with slits. Strickler's grin was malignant, "We had wonderful weather this morning, I wonder how Kanjigar felt about it?" Jim glared and let out an animal like growl, "You make me sick. Have some respect for the dead, even if he was your enemy. Besides, it won't matter, the amulet will find another champion. Your master is not going to come back." Toby grabbed Jim's arm, "Don't blow our cover, lets go before the humans get suspicious." Strickler chuckled, "Yes Jim, you better hurry along to gym." Jim growled once more, "This isn't over. You haven't won." The two boys left with Strickler's eyes following them. "We will see, young Atlas."
Toby walked quickly with his upset friend, "Don't let him get under your skin Jim." Jim shook his head with frustration, tears of anger welling up in his eyes. "Strickler is already under it, Toby. He shot a low blow with Kanjigar. He doesn't seem to know that the amulet has already chosen its next champion." Toby nodded voices at a sharp whisper, "How do you think Claire is going to handle this responsibility? She's only human, she has a life and now it's going to be turned upside down. Do you think that we should tell her who we are?" Jim shook his head, "I think our positions in both worlds should remain separate in her eyes. We may be able to befriend her in both forms but telling her everything may be a conflict of interest. Our human identities remain safe and we can keep an eye from a distance, and our troll ones will be able to protect her as trolls." Toby nodded, "You're the boss." Jim smiled slightly, "And you're my brother and best friend, I will always listen if you have input." Toby smiles at that as they raced into the gym locker room.
Claire was talking with her friends as Coach Lawrence was yelling at the boys when Jim came up to them, "Buenos Noches!" Claire and her friends looked at each other with faces that read 'Did he really just say that'. "You speak Spanish?" Claire asked with a little surprise. Jim began to stutter when Mary just gave up, "Come on, Claire." Claire was a little disappointed that her friend was pulling them away, but a thought popped in her head. "Do you like Shakespeare?" Jim was taken aback at the random question, "What?" Claire held back a laugh, "Shakespeare, we're having trouble getting boys to audition. You should try out." With that Claire allowed Mary and Darci to pull her away. Jim looked confused before shouting, "Hasta huevos!" Once at a safe distance away, the girls laughed at Jim's awkwardness. "Wow, I have never seen Jim so nervous. He must really like you." Claire blushed at that comment, "What? No way…. Do you really think so?" Both Mary and Darci rolled their eyes, "DUH!"
After that the day went by achingly slow, and Claire would just watch the clocks in each class tick until the final bell finally rang. She raced to her bike noticing that the glorious morning that she had faded back into Arcadias normal dark and gloomy day. Already smelling rain in the air, she began to book it home. Claire had only made it home when she threw bike into the garage and raced to her room. Like her mother said, no one was home. Once in her room she took out the amulet, tinkering with it. "Hello? Anyone in there?" She waited for a while, but the amulet did not speak. Claire rubbed her face, "Great, I'm talking to an inanimate object and I'm probably going crazy!" She kept on staring at it when she heard something crash down stairs. Claire was so spooked that she nearly sent the amulet out the window. The amulet pulsed harder and she held it against her chest, it was in rhythm with her heart.
Walking down slowly to the main floor, Claire saw that nothing was disturbed and continued slowly down to her basement. Nothing caught her eye until a large blue figure with four arms and six eyes jumped out from the shadows, "Master Claire!" Claire let out a shrill scream while backing quickly away only to bump into another much larger creature. With another shrill scream, Claire reached for the nearest weapon she could find which happened to be an old golf club that belonged to her father. "Who are you? What are you? And why are you in my basement?" Claire asked pointing the golf club at both creatures. "Master Claire, you have been chosen." The blue one said while his friend plucked the golf club from Claire's hand with ease before eating it. Claire watched in bewilderment and fear at the action, and the larger one noticed. "Blinky, she look scared." He said to his friend and picked the small female up by the back of her shirt. The now dubbed Blinky nodded, "Uh, Aaarrrgghh, my good fellow, would you mind? This is a moment of some solemnity." Aaarrrgghh looked confused, "Hmm? "Solemnity"?" Blinky had not trouble explaining it further for his friend, "It means serious and dignified." Aaarrrgghh nodded, "Hmm. "Dig-oo-nified."
Claire chuckled nervously at their banter, "Great, can you put me down please?" Aaarrrgghh nodded and placed her down. Blinky nodded, "Now, where was I?" Aaarrrggh responded, "Master Claire, found you." Blinky groaned, "Yes. Thank you. Master Claire, you have been chosen. The Amulet of Daylight challenges you to ascend to the most sacred of offices." Aaarrrgghh once again questioned his friends word, "Orifices? What orifices?" Blinky once again defined the word, "Offices. It means responsibility. Unbeknownst to your kind, there is a secret world, a vast civilization of trolls lurking beneath your very feet, hidden from view." Claire grabbed her head like she was trying to keep this information from flying out of her head, "T-tr-trolls?" Blinky nodded, "Yes, trolls. And it is now your charge to protect them. For you, Master Claire, are the Trollhunter. This honor is yours to accept." All of this was to much for Claire to process and the world went black. Both trolls hovered over her prone form. Blinky looked to Aaarrrgghh, "Was that a yes."
Jim and Toby were quick to go to the woods and transform into their Troll forms. Jim was the most human looking one. The most defining aspects that Jim had as a troll was his dark blue rock skin, wild black hair that framed his face and neck like a mane, two long black horns coming from the front top of his skull with its tips pointing towards his black, long spaded tale, and four fingered hand. Toby's form was a lot like Aaarrrgghhs. Toby's form had pale orange rock skin with a red orange mane, and smaller stub like horns. Toby only came up to Jim's shoulder. The only thing that Jim and Toby had in common was that they both had small tusk protruding over their upper lip. Toby looked at Jim, "Ready, Atlas?" Atlas grinned, "Whenever you are Hercules. I think we should move quickly though, I have a bad feeling that Blinky and Aaarrrgghh have already made this whole situation worse."
Atlas was praying to Deya that he was wrong, but sadly came to the realization that he was absolutely correct. Aaarrrgghh was poking at Claire's prone form while Blinky was poking at the amulet. Atlas rubbed his face, "What have you done?" The elder trolls looked up with surprise, clearly not hearing the younger trolls come in. Blinky held his hands up in surrender, "Atlas, this was not our fault." Aaarrrgghh though was quick to point a finger at his friend, "His fault." Atlas grabbed the amulet from Blinky's hand and then scooped up Claire bridal style. "I am going to put her in her bed, and then we are leaving. I knew that Herc and I should have approached her first. Herc, can you get them out of here without them destroying anything." Hercules gave a salute before Atlas left the dark basement.
Finding Claire's bedroom was easy. Atlas quickly examined Claire's head to make sure that she didn't hurt herself before making sure that she was comfortably tucked into the bed. Atlas rubbed his temple with frustration, he didn't know what to do. Then Atlas's eyes fell onto an open note book on Claire's desk. Atlas scribbled a quick note before ripping out the page, folding it, and then tucking it into Claire's hand with the amulet. Atlas hoped that the not would be enough and allow for him and the other trolls to prepare how to explain this to her. All he knew was that Draal was not going to be happy… at all. With one last glance, Atlas escaped out of the window and back into the woods.