Previously: Changeling!Jim finds the Amulet of Daylight and tries to turn it over to Stricklander, but it teleports back to Jim. Stricklander instructs the newly-called Trollhunter to infiltrate Trollmarket.
Bolded and italicized text is the trolls' language, translated for convenience and because Jim understands it.
"Did it talk again?"
"Hey, Tobes. No, nothing yet," Jim lied.
"Toby-Pie, dinner!"
"In a minute, Nana! I gotta go – text me if it does anything cool." Click.
Jim put his phone on the coffee table and moved to a relatively clear part of the room to try summoning the armor again.
"For the glory of Merlin, Daylight is mind to command." Nothing happened. "Hey, you said it was mine to command. I'm commanding here!" He tried incanting with more force. "For the Glory of Merlin, Daylight is Mine to Command."
The armour wrapped itself around him just in time for a strange troll to show up.
"Master Jim! We have found you!"
He yelped in alarm and recoiled from a four-armed, six-eyed troll who had just barged in the back door. For one stunned moment, he thought it was Dictatious, although the voice and tone and words were completely different from anything Dictatious would have directed at him.
"I knew it would be only a matter of time before the amulet called to us," the troll was saying.
"Called to you?" he echoed. This thing could lead trolls to him? That made sense, so trolls in need of help could find the Trollhunter, but was still a disturbing idea.
"Well, no," the intruder admitted. "Truthfully, we've been spying on you."
"Spy on you," agreed a much bigger troll with an ominous rumble of a voice.
"I am known as Blinky, and my companion here is AAARRRGGHH."
"Three Rs."
"Um … I am known as Jim … which you apparently already knew … since you've been spying on me."
He edged away, closer to the kitchen. Chef's knives made terrible weapons but they could work for intimidation, or he could grab a frying pan for something heavy and blunt. Wasn't the Trollhunter supposed to have a sword? At least these self-professed spies didn't seem aware of his true nature or his earlier conversation with Stricklander.
"You're here about this magic pocket watch thing?"
"Oh, that is no mere clockwork, Master Jim, although you do deduce correctly that it is a vessel for powerful magic!"
"Door small." The big troll looked stuck. The house shook as they tried to free themselves.
"Perhaps you should wait, my friend. This is a moment of some solemnity."
"Solemn-bury?"
"Solemnity means serious and dignified."
"Oh. Dig-goo-ni-fied." The giant troll reclaimed dignity by escaping the too-tight doorway and backing out into the yard.
The four-armed one, Blinky, turned to Jim again. "Master Jim, you have been chosen. The Amulet of Daylight challenges you to attend to the most sacred of offices!"
"Orifices?" said the big one, now waiting on the porch. "What orifices?"
"Offices," Blinky corrected AAARRRGGHH, "means responsibilities. Unbeknownst to your kind, Master Jim, there is a vast world beneath your feet; a secret civilization of trolls."
"Is that what you are?"
"You catch on fast," said Blinky proudly. "And it is now your challenge to protect all of troll-kind, for you, Master Jim, have been chosen as the Trollhunter! What say you?"
"… I need to sit down."
What would a human teenager say in response to this? It's cool but dangerous, so be excited but scared, and very curious …
"I have so many questions." Jim sank down on the couch. "Why me? What am I protecting trolls from? How do I do it? Why does it have to stay secret? What even are trolls?"
"All excellent questions." Blinky sat next to him. AAARRRGGHH moved to see them through the window. "In order, because the Amulet chose you, though we know not why; evil trolls and various monsters such as Gruesomes, goblins, rogue gnomes, or things of that nature; often, by using the Sword of Daylight, which we will train you to wield; primarily to avoid panic; and in essence, we are a race of long-lived beings formed of living stone. If you will accompany us to Heartstone Trollmarket, we can begin your training now, and give you your first glimpse of the world you will be protecting."
"Let me leave a note for my mom first. I won't tell her about trolls, if you're such a secret, but I don't want her to worry if she comes back and I'm not here."
He had to pull the amulet off, dismissing the armour, in order to write. The gauntlets were flexible but they threw off his handwriting like any glove would. The note said he was spending the night at Toby's. He sent a text to Toby begging the human to cover for him with promise of a full explanation later.
Jim planned to lie his head off to Toby – and Barbara, if she caught him after all – and claim he'd been secretly meeting a girl. Maybe one from Arcadia Oaks High School's rival, Arcadia Oaks Academy, to excuse why he hadn't been bragging to the entire school about having a date. That seemed like the sort of ridiculous thing a teenage boy would sneak around for.
Or he could say he'd been trying to pull a prank but nearly been caught setting it up and had to bail. That lie had fewer details to track or refute.
Good thing I'm already accustomed to having a double life.
The entrance to Trollmarket was under the bridge where he'd found the Amulet. Jim felt and suppressed a brief pang of something he chose not to explore, that the last Trollhunter had almost made it home the previous night before being killed.
"Trolls living under a bridge. Heh. This doesn't affect the structural integrity of the bridge, does it? Cause I have to bike across that to get to school."
"I assure you the bridge is as steady as any other work of human construction."
The cavern looked almost like the Darklands until the crystal staircase lit up. Their blue glow left Jim ill at ease.
In the Darklands, most of the light sources were green, or the occasional rusty orange glow from stinger crystals. The only blue lights had come from Nyarlagroths, massive eel-like predators … and from Gunmar. Jim had rarely had the honour of being in the Underlord's presence, but he would never forget that blazing eye, or those luminous crackled markings.
The Trollhunter Amulet glowed blue as well.
At the bottom of the steps, Blinky paused, presumably for dramatic effect.
"Behold, Master Jim, and remember this moment well." Yup, dramatic effect. "You are the first human to ever lay eyes, on Heartstone Trollmarket."
It was magnificent. In the centre of everything was a massive pillar of warm orange rock that felt like it was calling to Jim. He scarcely noticed anything else at first. When he finally tore his gaze from the central crystal, he took in the rest of the place. There were buildings on and in the rocks, lit with glowing crystals of every colour, like a human city doused in neon lights.
"Crying?" said AAARRRGGHH. He patted Jim gently.
"I'm okay." Jim didn't wipe away the tears or try to suppress his feelings. "It's a natural reaction to being overwhelmed. This place, it's so – what is that?" He pointed to the orange crystal. I think I love it.
"That," said Blinky, "is the Heartstone. The life force of troll-kind, it keeps us from crumbling to stone, and provides warmth, light, and sustenance. Trollmarket is home and hearth and sanctuary. Trolls travel from afar to find comfort and remedies here. You'll find almost anything you could want in Trollmarket … and sometimes you might find what you never knew you needed."
"Whoa …"
"Indeed."
Jim wanted, unrealistically, to take the Heartstone with him when he left. He wanted to bring all the other Changelings down here so they could feel what he was feeling. He wanted to bring Barbara and Toby, in case humans could pick up on this as well.
"Wait. If humans have never been here before, how is everyone going to react to, you know, me?"
"… Just stay close." Blinky made his way into Trollmarket. Jim followed, lagging, nearly between AAARRRGGHH's arms as the giant troll moved along on all fours.
"Safe," AAARRRGGHH promised him quietly.
I'm a Changeling carrying the Trollhunter Amulet and surrounded by trolls fundamentally opposed to Gumm-Gumms. I am the opposite of safe.
"Before anyone crushes me for being here, is there a polite greeting I can use that might make them not want to kill me quite so much?"
"It is my honour to meet you," said Blinky in trollish. Jim mimicked him, hoping his accent came across as 'human child hearing new words for the first time' and not 'recent transplant from the Darklands'. "Well done, Master Jim."
"What does it mean?"
He wanted to see how much information Blinky would volunteer – a literal translation or a simple explanation that it was a greeting. Blinky gave the literal translation.
The marketplace was not as densely packed as some human shopping malls, but it was well populated, and even hiding under AAARRRGGHH, Jim attracted attention.
"Was that a human?"
"What's a fleshbag doing here?"
It was only a matter of time before someone confronted them.
"WHAT IS THIS?" The speaker was a blue troll, with impressive horns and crystalline spikes and a nose ring. The crowd parted for him. He leapt and crashed down right in front of AAARRRGGHH and Jim. "Human feet have never sullied the ground of Trollmarket before! Who is this fleshbag?"
"Ah – Draal – um, believe it or not, this human is … how do I put this … our new Trollhunter!" Blinky tried to say it confidently but quailed under the combined stares of their audience. Jim could relate.
"He can't be the Trollhunter!" snapped the spiky one. "He's not a TROLL!" He slammed his fists down where Jim had been a fraction of a second before.
Well, technically, I kind of am, Jim might have said if he actually wanted to die.
"Amulet chose," AAARRRGGHH insisted. "Show them." He pushed Jim forward a little, but still loomed protectively.
Jim raised the amulet. The spiky troll tried to snatch it from him.
"For the glory of Merlin, Daylight is mine to command!" he said quickly. He'd have to say it quickly if he was going to use this thing in fights.
The armor glowed into existence. Every troll in the audience gasped.
"A human protecting us?" One troll actually fainted.
"Bushigal!" swore the spiky one. "I," he sneered at Jim, "am Draal! Son of Kanjigar! And the Amulet's rightful heir!"
He grabbed Jim – weighted down by armour, Jim didn't dodge fast enough this time – and tried to pull the Amulet off. There was a flash of blue light and Jim and Draal were repelled from one another. AAARRRGGHH caught Jim.
"Amulet chose."
"We'll see what Vendel has to say about this," Draal growled.
"Feel free to fetch him." Blinky hastily started herding Jim and AAARRRGGHH away. "In the meantime, lots of Trollhunter business to be done. Draal, wonderful to see you, as always."
Sure, Jim knew already, but the trolls had neglected to inform him of his predecessor or his predecessor's death.
"Who is Kanjigar and what happened to him?" he hissed to AAARRRGGHH.
"Last Trollhunter. Was felled."
"Uh …"
"Means killed," said AAARRRGGHH sadly.
"Unfortunately true," said Blinky. "Kanjigar the Courageous was slain in battle against the last Gumm-Gumm left in this realm – Bular, son of Gunmar."
They didn't know that he knew who that was, but Jim didn't ask.
"Merlin's Amulet selects the next Trollhunter upon the death of the previous," Blinky continued. "I am sorry, Master Jim. I know this must be overwhelming for you. But despite Draal's or anyone else's attempts to take the amulet from you, this sacred obligation is now yours until death."
"I think I'm gonna need some time to process all that." He hid behind a mask of numb shock while he decided what a realistic reaction should be. "And that Draal guy, he was the last Trollhunter's son?"
"Yes. Draal has spent his life training, seeking to be worthy of the Amulet, and to succeed his father."
"This must feel like a total slap in the face to him," said Jim slowly, following Blinky down a narrower passage with semi-reflective walls. "First he loses his dad, and then he loses his dream job to someone totally inexperienced. I've never even fought anyone before!"
"In your entire life?"
"All fifteen years of it, yeah." He had fought plenty while still in the Darklands. There wasn't a lot else to do. But his human guise was very placid and peaceable. He'd only trained his other body for combat.
"Then there's no time like the present to begin learning!" Blinky decided.
The cavern opened up before them.
"Welcome, young Trollhunter, to the Hero's Forge!"
Up next: We see what Vendel has to say about this.
Considering the trouble AAARRRGGHH had getting through Jim's door the second night, it doesn't make sense to me that he and Blinky could've been hiding in Jim's basement the first night without Jim noticing them coming in. I suppose they could've tracked his scent to the house and were waiting for him before he got home from school or something, but for the sake of this story, I'm just skipping that whole issue.
