"... we stowed away on a ship called the Mayflower, just a handful of us and some gnomes we brought along for companionship and nourishment. Finally, we arrived in a strange and exotic realm-"
"New Jersey," AAARRRGGHH! interjected.
"-we kept walking. Eventually, we came across a new Heartstone, and we realized we had found a new home here under Arcadia."
Darci's and Mary's eyes were wide as saucers to discover the proximity of magic to the mundane world they grew up in. Claire was snoring against AAARRRGGHH!
The girls giggled as Blinky approached with the open book. He held it out toward Claire and slammed it shut.
"Sixteen twenty!" She yelled the year in Trollish.
"Master Claire," Blinky began to lecture.
"I'm sorry." She wiped sleep from her eyes. "I've read this part before, and I still need to study for my Spanish exam later this week. And algebra. And history, and the play…"
"Don't you already know Spanish," Mary accused, her tone dripped with jealousy.
"I'm a third generation Mexican immigrant. Spanish is not my first language. And they teach "Spain" Spanish in school. It's not the same. Besides, I'm supposed to be fighting Draal later, so why aren't we training?"
Blinky held the book casually to his chest as he explained. "Before one fights, one must understand why one fights. For these precious early steps will decide whether a young Trollhunter will become Deya the deliverer," he gestured to the female troll with her sword raised in a pose of valor, "or Unkar the Unfortunate." He ended his speech with a gesture to the cowering statue. Claire sighed. A fleshbag wouldn't make a good statue at all. Their conversation was interrupted by the wailing of a troll. Her skirt of skulls and rags bustled as she waddled toward them in haste.
"Oh no," Blinky addressed her first. "Is it the Heartstone?"
"No, no," she huffed. She rest her hands on her knees when she reached them.
"Stalkling," AAARRRGGHH! guessed.
"No-"
"Is Bular in Trollmarket," Claire feared.
Irritated, the female wailed. "No! Gnome! Rogue gnome!" The trill in her voice made each syllable ring as the forge amplified her outcry.
•••
"First I couldn't find my monocle, then my collection of bed coils. Now something disappears every minute!" With the air of defeat Bagdwella, the shopkeeper, deflated onto the stool, except that in a whip of air and a giggle the stool was gone and she dropped onto the floor.
"Ah, yes," Blinky observed. He held out a hand to help her to her feet. "Gnome."
She swatted away the hand, irritated by the human custom and peeved about her circumstances. "Oh, dirty little pests." She helped herself to her feet and pulled out a sheet from a bowl on a countertop, a skeleton of another vermin attached to it. "Up until last week, the glue traps were working fine." Another sound of air rushed past and the pitch of laughter and even the corpse and trap were gone. "Fix it, Trollhunter." She batted her eyes as she implored Claire.
Claire turned to Blinky. "Me? I'm an exterminator, too?"
"The Trollhunter answers every call. And what better a call for you to train than a pint sized quarry?"
There was a strum of musical notes. The gnome used a gardening fork and string to make a proportionate instrument. He strummed away on it and trilled his voice in song.
"He's better at guitar than you," Darci pointed out to Mary.
"Is not! But he is still pretty good-"
"It's a distraction! Hold tight to your valuables," Blinky warned.
Claire folded an arm over her torso and with the other tucked a lock of hair behind her ear as she pondered. "Maybe we can lay out poison for it?"
Blinky was appalled. "Master Claire, poisoning is highly frowned upon by trolls. It's right there in A Brief Recapitulation of Troll Lore."
The girls squealed at the finish of the song and Blinky instinctively held down the flaps on his pouches with his lower hands. Everyone but the Trollhunter and her trainer scurried after the pest this way and that. "Which volume?"
"The first."
"Oh, I guess I haven't gotten to that part yet."
Claire felt a shift in her pocket and reached back. Her heart sank with dread. "Oh no- the amulet!" The gnome had the audacity to pause with the treasure in his hands to mock her with his laughter before he scurried again. She bolted after the giggling pest. She leapt forward and skid on her belly, but wasn't quick enough. It wiggled under a wardrobe and disappeared. AAARRRGGHH! helpfully pushed aside the furniture with a single finger, and everyone stared at the hole in the wall and the absence of any other trace of the pest.
"It would appear that the plot quite literally deepens," Blinky jested.
"Smoke him out," Darci suggested.
Claire held a hand out toward the hole. "You can't do that, we're in a cave system. You'll smoke out all of Trollmarket. Why isn't it coming back?" She kept high-fiving the air to summon the amulet.
"Dolefully, that rule only applies if you've rejected it-"
"Oh, right, I vaguely remember reading that part." She smacked her palm to her forehead as though attempting to wake her past-self up.
"Some Trollhunter you are," Bagdwella scoffed. "Claire the baby-handed."
"Master Claire, press on," Blinky encouraged. "This is not the moniker you want."
"You got a bottle that says drink me? It's not like I can fit into there."
"Hm. Currently."
AAARRRGGHH! drooped warily. "Bad idea."
"No Trollhunter has ever lost their amulet," Blinky argued defensively. "We'll need time to procure the Furgolator."
"The Furgolator?" Claire raised an eyebrow.
"Uh, don't you worry about anything, Master Claire. Tend to your studies. We'll watch over the hole. Tomorrow, you'll return refreshed to deal with this little problem."
•••
Toby cringed. With every squeak of a sneeze from the back of the room, he winced. Darci was allergic to flowers. Mary struggled as she read from her notebook held up to her face from the front of the classroom. The chalk squeaked slowly on the board. There was a terrible tension as ears listened for the clues between the speaker's nervous dictation and the squeak of the chalk. Students rated their own presentations against the reaction Mary's would elicit, and the pressure was palpable.
"... and poor Maria had a pedoso heart-"
The chalk snapped. The teachers authoritative voice boomed. "What kind of heart did Maria have, Mary Wang?" Darci betrayed her friend with a sneeze that punctuated the teacher's question. The class remained silent otherwise.
"Uh, a heavy heart, pe-do-so, or was it-"
Señor Uhl loomed over her shoulder then. "I would hope Maria didn't have a pedoso heart, because that would mean gassy. Did Maria have a gassy heart, Miss Wang?"
"Of course not, Señor Uhl," she blubbered.
"Uh-buh-bum! You were trying to say "pesado", a heavy heart. And it is with a heavy heart, Miss Wang, that you have not shown the slightest comprehension of the basic Spanish. If you cannot even complete the exam, then I have no choice but to fail you." He held out a box of tissues for her. She took one and ran out of the room wailing. Conveniently, the bell rang. Señor Uhl voiced Toby's fear. "I look forward to your presentation tomorrow, Mr. Domzalski."
"Uh, sure thing, Señor Uhl." The students left the tense atmosphere that would hang so thick the next class would feel it.
Toby trotted after Darci. "Hey! It sounds like the sneezing is slowing dow-" she cringed her face and squeaked. "I'm so sorry, I didn't know…"
"There's a lot you don't know about me, Toby." She sniffled. "You don't need flowers to ask me out."
"It's just, you yourself are such a rare flower and- wait, what?" His arms dropped limply to his sides from the utter surprise.
"Maybe we can get a milkshake. Some time when I'm not helping with Trollhunter stuff."
•••
Marco was relieved not to have been offered tea by miss Nomura today. He was already rather groggy. He patrolled the quiet hallways, grateful to keep himself awake with some movement. Outside the halo of his flashlight, the museum took on a blue monochrome accentuated by the glow of the moonlight that came in slivers through the windows on the far side of the building. In this setting everything seemed like shifting shadows in his peripheral, so he tried to ignore the unsettling movement. However, a sound made him gasp and shine the light at the statue of the Chinese guardian lion. He considered that he was imagining sounds now. He continued down the hall and blinked hard to force himself alert.
The horns on the lion shifted to the side, and it's moving shadow watched the human warily with glowing eyes. It then snuck along the wall toward the door.
Strickler was already there. He reviewed the inventory for the wooden crates, marking off a checklist. Bular looked around, appalled, and snarled with incredulity. "We build it here? Right under their noses? Are you a fool?"
Strickler turned about casually as he made another mark. "Haven't you heard that the best hiding place is in plain sight-" stone claws found their way around the changeling's throat. The clipboard clattered on the floor as he instinctively brought his fingers to his neck.
Bular glared at him. "Don't patronize me, impure." The last word was growled with condescension.
Strickler struggled to speak with his throat constricted. "We want the same thing, Bular. I know you don't like waiting, but it's taken some time for the changelings to acquire the remaining pieces." Bular threw him aside, eager as a child to tear into the presents stacked around them from when they were unloaded the night before. Strickler flashed his eyes angrily as he adjusted his collar.
A box was torn open and Bular examined the stone in his claws, a brick to the doorway that would free the true ruler. "My father has waited centuries. The age of Gunmar is at hand."
•••
"Remember when I told you that all TrollHunters must start small?" Blinky side stepped to reveal a large, golden contraption, designed to resemble a troll face with vertical pipes of hair.
"Still bad idea," AAARRRGGHH! warned.
"So, this is supposed to help catch the gnome, how?"
The group watched warily as the face of it divided into three panels that drew back to open in a hiss of steam. "If the gnome won't come out, our Trollhunter must go in!"
Claire took a step into the contraption and looked around at the shiny surfaces. "Do you have the manual for this thing?"
Blinky already shut the doors to the Furgolator. "No need! We often use the Furgolator to compress minerals."
Darci took up her role as voice of reason once more. "You've done this a few times on flesh and bone, right?"
"And now for the anthracite-"
"Right, Blinky?" Claire was concerned with his lack of an answer.
"Not to worry, Master Claire, we all work best under pressure."
"This better not kill me, Blinky."
The troll placed the coal and closed the compartment. The machine hummed loudly in response. And then louder. It rattled. She coughed. "Is there supposed to be this much smoke?"
"C-bomb!" Darci lunged at the door and tried to pry it open. "Mary, help!"
"Is it gonna blow?" Mary scrunched her face and turned her head away as she helped yank at the door. Blinky joined in the efforts and when the door wouldn't budge, he called to AAARRRGGHH! for his assistance. Finally smoke dispersed from the gadget, it's panels wide open.
Claire coughed as she waved away the smoke. "I'm never doing that ag- agh!" She looked straight up at the trolls and humans that towered over her.
"Awe, look how tiny she is!" Darci leaned down to look at the miniature Claire.
Mary's eyes lit up with wardrobe ideas. "I want to make her a dress of ribbons and put her on a flower!"
"We could put butterfly wings on her!"
"Girls, this is temporary! Let's get the gnome and we can play dress up later."
•••
Claire was deposited at the lip of the hole in Bagdwella's store. "I don't know how to feel about this. I couldn't catch him when I was bigger, but now-"
"Here." Mary took out her emergency sewing kit and held out a needle. It's larger size indicated that it was for leather.
Claire gripped it at the eye and gave it a swing. "This feels ridiculous. And reminds me of a lot of stories from my childhood."
"Which no one else has read and aren't going to get."
Darci handed Claire one of her mother's campaign buttons. "Look, your mom's still protecting you and doesn't even know it."
"Ha, ha."
"Onward, Master Claire, and fetch your destiny!" She took her cue and entered the tunnel. "Oh, and one more thing, and this is of dire importance: do not touch it's hat."
"Of course. It's right there in A Brief Recapitulation."
"You remembered!"
"When you brought it up, yeah." Claire smiled to herself as she recalled the story of the mouse that went down in the dungeon to rescue the radiant princess from the greedy rat, armed with a sewing needle. Perhaps now she could finally be a hero in this small quest. Her smile faded quickly when she nearly walked into a doll head dangling in the pathway. "This dude is so creepy," she muttered to herself.
At the other end of the tunnel, she pressed up against the wall and peered around the corner. The gnome was engaged in a one sided conversation with his deceased comrade at a table setting that used the amulet as a table top. He attempted to share the Nougat Nummy that had been previously used as bait, but his skeletal friend lost his head over it- which rolled over in Claire's direction. The live one grumbled angrily at her intrusion. "It's okay! I like chocolate, too. You seem kinda lonely, do you want some compa-"
There was a clatter and squeals audible from where the trolls and humans listened for progress, all too high pitched for it to be clear whether the voices belonged to the girl or the gnome. "That doesn't sound favorable," Blinky observed. Darci put a hand over her eyes at the sound of shattering.
Claire put to good use the training she'd picked up from the time her parents enrolled her in fencing. The gnome had a hold of the campaign button and blocked her strikes. "Blinky. Says. I have to. Kill you," she said between strokes. "I'm sure. We can. Talk-" The gnome turned the button like a frisbee and chucked it with speed enough for it to slice like a saw. She rolled to the side to avoid it. The gnome dashed in a second to a higher landing and made his battle cry as he descended on her like a wrestler. She rolled aside, and then dropped the needle to grapple him. He squirmed. He got loose. So did his hat…
"Oh my gosh. I touched his hat, I touched his hat-"
The little creature pat at the bone-colored horn that was now exposed and wailed. He huffed, and doubled down to charge like a bull at her. She brandished the hat like a matador. He charged and missed. She took advantage of the distance created by his momentum and ran for the amulet. She miscalculated his speed, however. He grabbed her by the legs and tripped her. She reached desperately for the amulet. She wriggled like a worm to complete the distance. "For the glory of Merlin, Daylight is mine to command!" It responded to her touch and reduced it's size to match hers. It flew to her chest and the gnome crawled away fearfully. A clatter of metal as it assembled reduced the gnome to a whimper.
The girls were concerned by the silence. Darci turned to Blinky. "Isn't she supposed to come out?"
Mary wailed. "She's dead!"
Finally they saw the gnome marching along, a bony horn in place of its hat. Behind it was Claire, sewing needle in hand to prod the prisoner along until she could return it to Mary, wearing the hat as a victor. "She summoned the armor and caught the gnome! Well played, Master Claire!"
"He just needed to be picked on by someone his own size." Claire returned the hat to the gnome and Darci quickly sacked the prisoner. "Now, when is this shrinking stuff supposed to wear off?"
Blinky waved a hand dismissively. "Don't worry. Sleep it off, by morning you'll be good as new."
•••
Nomura shuffled around with the precious package in hand as she waited to be picked up. The sky glowed golden in the late evening twilight, the sun dipped partly behind the mountains.
The brown sedan pulled up to the curb of the museum. She exhaled before she let herself in the passenger's seat. "Did you need to check it," she asked the driver with a tone of condescension.
"I trust you."
"You know that's not true." Strickler snorted with laughter at his own joke with her retort. She couldn't help but chuckle herself.
He sighed. He was in need of a good laugh. "Don't bother making tea tonight, either."
She regarded him with a look of incredulity.
"I've thought of a long term solution to our problem with the museum security. Bular intends to supervise the project more closely, so I'll make him a peace offering."
Nomura pouted at the passing scenery. That brute would get in the way more than anything. He didn't understand how meticulous the changelings were in order to keep secrets. When she came to work earlier that day she'd discovered the troll got a head start on busting open packages. If it wasn't done in a certain order, how else would they maintain the whereabouts of all the pieces? "How are you going to keep the security company from intervening when they notice Marco isn't clocking in?"
"The same way we usually do. He'll continue to clock in. Remotely." She understood his explanation to mean that a phantom would clock him in from within their headquarters. The Janus Order was like a spider in that respect. With a gentle touch on this strand or that, the Order conducted the web of communication like an orchestra. "It should go without saying you're not going to want to go to the museum this evening."
"A day off. I could use one of those. And your pet?"
"Vacations for everybody."
•••
"We're at Darci's studying for our Spanish exam. Mary already failed hers, so Darci and I are trying to cram while we help Mary with her remedial assignment." Claire leaned into the mic on all fours so her voice didn't disclose how tiny she was.
Her mother's voice answered from the cell on speaker. "As long as you're studying. Can they give you a ride home after rehearsal?"
"No problem, Mrs. Nuñez," Darci answered.
"Don't stay up too late, Claire. Love you."
"Love you, too." Claire used the flat of her palm to disconnect the call. She exhaled and fell flat on her back, a tiny doll on the bed spread. Darci's comforter was a dull green, but the soft velvet of the fabric made up for it's lack in pattern.
"So… what are you going to do with it?" Darci looked sorrowfully at the bag that squirmed, rolled and flopped on the bed between them.
"What am I going to do with it? What am I going to do with my mom! I'm going to be toast of this doesn't wear off fast!"
"How far is the river? Maybe we could go old school like they did back in the day with puppies and kittens they didn't want. You know, like in that movie-"
"What is wrong with you, Mary?"
"What! It's not a kitten, despite how attached you think you are to it, and rule number two, it's got to sleep with the fishes. Or maybe, if you combine all three rules and fearfully kick it hard enough-"
"Mary, thank you for your input, but I'd like a moment to quietly contemplate the fact that this will be the first of a lifetime of kills for me."
Darci considered. "Well…. What if we… took care of it, took care of it. You know. Like a bipedal cat."
"I can't have cats," Claire responded quickly.
Mary speculated, "what is your attachment to this thing?"
"Doesn't Toby have cats?"
Claire's eyes grew wide with realization and she sat up. "Darci, you've got it. Thank you for so generously offering to request of Toby his services to the TrollHunters."
"Plural?" Mary cut off Darci before she could retract her statement.
"Girls, you know I'm not going to be able to do this without you. I have presentations coming up, a rehearsal to attend, a duel with a dude whose name includes "the deadly" in the title, and another troll still stalking me, leaving me only daylight hours to do everything, and my mom's schedule for me is more strict than that!"
"I'm not taking your place against Draal," Darci apologized. "But. I think I can persuade Toby to, what did you say, offer his services to the TrollHunters."
"While you're at it, think you could get him a Nougat Nummy? I owe him one."
"Not in the same trip. I'm not taking this to the store." She pointed at the bag.
•••
"We should have gone to my house. I have some doll dresses that might actually fit you. We could have dressed you like royalty!"
Darci leaned over Mary as she sewed by hand. "I don't know what you're complaining about. These are going to be so cute."
"Help me make outfits." Mary grabbed a handful of fabric scraps and dropped them in Darci's lap.
"I can only crochet, sort of."
Claire tucked the dish towel into a shoe box for her bed that night. "Hey. We could draw a cross on the lid and pretend I'm a vampire sleeping in a coffin."
"Quit being goth and try this on." They propped the lid up on the shoe box to grant her privacy. When she was done, Claire leapt aside like a ballerina and twirled in her ribbon dress.
Darci found a butterfly hair clip to attach to Claire's back, and Mary found a binder with flower patterns on front to use as a backdrop. "You look fabulous!"
They laughed and snapped photos of tiny Claire modelling Mary's handiwork.
Darci stopped to giggle at a text. "Hey, are you cool with me sending a picture to Toby? Since he knows anyway?"
"Um, nah, this'll be a just us girls' thing."
"What are you texting Toby?"
"I need to ask him about the gnome-"
Mary bizarrely sniffed at Darci. "Are you two dating or something?"
"Maybe?"
"Maybe." Mary's tone was doubtful. "Did he ask you out or what?"
"I told him maybe we could go out for a milkshake or something."
"That's a good idea," Claire encouraged.
"No, fairy Claire. He's supposed to ask /her/ out."
"He tried. He got me flowers."
"Awe! He's so sweet." Little Claire beamed.
Mary took Claire by the arms to model her in a new position. "Okay, fine. Toby earned cool points with me, too."
•••
Claire stretched languidly in bed. Her hands brushed against silk flowers and she pet them absentmindedly. Her eyes grew wide. She sat upright. She was in the shoebox. The six o'clock alarm went off and Claire could see Darci's arm reach over the edge of her bed to shut it off. Mary rolled over in her sheets on the floor. "Girls! Wake up!" They groggily rolled around and moaned and groaned. "Wake up! Something's wrong!"
Mary finally sat up and blinked at her. "What are you talking about, fairy Claire? ...oh."
"I can't go to school like this!"
Darci rubbed her eyes. "Guess you're calling in sick. C'mon, your attendance is almost perfect, except for that one day you skipped."
"My mom found out last time."
"Know which teacher snitched on you?" Mary started to unpack her outfit.
Claire combed back a lock behind her ear. "I think she only found out after I spoke to Mr. Strickler the next day."
"Then kiss up to him. Do something teacher's pet-y. You're good at that."
Darci picked out her outfit as she spoke. "You could use a day off. Catch up on sleep. Study. Practice your lines. Mary and I will deliver the gnome-" Mary cleared her throat loudly- "I'll deliver the gnome to Toby after class. Everything's going to be fine."
•••
Mary leaned toward Darci as she spoke. She had to carry both of their books since Darci needed to make room in her bag for the prisoner. "Since when did you get a hamster cage?"
"Please don't ask. It was a dark time in my life." Darci sighed. "Poor thing never saw it coming." She cradled her back pack to make the ride smoother. Outcries informed her when she failed.
"Are you seriously going to bring it to class?"
"Josie got away with bringing her teacup Chihuahua to school for three days in her purse. I'm sure I can manage one."
"With a tiny person that can play guitar?"
"I'll just… sit in the back…"
They hushed their voices as they stepped into class and took their seats. That palpable tension seemed to have lingered from the day before. Toby was called up to give his presentation. Darci flashed him a thumbs up and he beamed. Her bag chirped. It chirped again. It chattered. She nudged her bag with her heel and the noise stopped. Then she heard the inflections like it was trying to challenge her. She kicked a little harder and Señor Uhl glanced at her. She smiled. He turned his attention back to Toby, who continued his presentation about the differences between Mexican and Spanish cuisine. Her backpack chattered louder and several sets of eyes turned to her, including the teacher's.
"Wow, what a great presentation, it's making my stomach rumble," she narrated as she jostled her bag. She looked imploring at Toby who understood the cue. He raised his voice and tried to borrow from what he learned from acting for the play to keep the class's attention on himself. Mary glanced back to her with concern in her eyes and they shrugged at each other. Darci unzipped the bag and sharp teeth snapped together repeatedly from behind the bars of the hamster cage. She took a sandwich from the outer pocket and opened the cage just enough to feed the food through. She slammed it shut immediately following.
The gnome shredded the sandwich as a threat to what he would do to her. He blinked, and the rate at which he clicked his teeth slowed. He yawned and fell over. Instead of his usual babble, he snored.
•••
Claire read through the AP history book, specifically about the battle of Thermopylae. "A local Greek told Xerxes about an alternate route. Using that, the Persians flanked Leonidas- that's it! Thank you, AP history!" She threw a fist up in the air and it threw her off balance and caused her to fall back on the bedspread. She looked up at her enlarged hand and screamed. Her left ear suddenly grew and she grabbed it with the smaller hand before that, too, enlarged. She squirmed and wailed at the strange sensations before she fell to the floor.
•••
There was a gentle knock at the door. Mr. Strickler sighed. There was too much that needed to be done, and somehow these papers still needed to be graded within the timeframe. "Come in." His suppressed the instinct to regard his student with the surprise he felt. "Ms. Nuñez? You missed class-"
"I know, I'm sorry Mr. Strickler." She went up to his desk and placed a large apple as a peace offering. "I had a small problem and couldn't make it to school, so I was studying instead. And I was wondering, what made the Persian Immortals so intimidating? Their weapons weren't strong…"
"No, but they were lightweight, and so a soldier could carry all the weapons he needed." He was quick with his answer and gave away his passion for history, holding up an index as he continued his spontaneous lecture. "But their true strength was psychological warfare. They were called the Immortals because their army was always exactly 10000 soldiers. If a soldier was killed, he was replaced, so the number never dwindled. They would also research their opponent's vulnerabilities. For instance, when they fought against the Egyptians in 525 B.C., they knew that the Egyptians worshipped cats, and painted cats onto their shields as a jab at their deity and a challenge to their religion."
"Huh. Thanks, Mr. Strickler. I think that's exactly what I needed to hear." She flashed her innocent smile and departed.
Mr. Strickler sighed and rest his head on his palm. He considered that he should keep his dagger on this side of the book case. He glanced at the apple. At least he didn't have to pick up dinner.
•••
Toby looked into Darci's backpack as they huddled backstage. Below the metal bars snoozed the gnome. "Turkey puts him to sleep," Darci explained. She absentmindedly rubbed her stomach in hunger from her missed lunch.
"Same here. Awe, he looks so cute!"
"He likes to play music. Here's his guitar. He also has a thing for shiny things, Nougat Nummies, and what else…"
"What's his name?"
"I can't name him or else I'll get attached." She didn't realize it was too late.
"I've got it! Gnome Chompski."
"Chompski! That fits him perfectly." She looked affectionately through the bars at the sleeping prisoner.
"What are you guys doing?" Claire approached the others.
Mary leapt up. "You're not pixie sized anymore!" She shut her mouth when Eli glanced inquisitively over, fists still raised mid-celebration. "Mind your business." She waited for Eli to be out of earshot once more. "How do you feel?"
"I think some things switched sides, but at least I finally got some sleep. Did the gnome get "taken care of"?"
"I'm on it," Toby saluted.
"Thanks, TP."
"TP?"
"Toby pie." He deflated. Wasn't that also the acronym for toilet paper?
•••
Strickler pulled up to the parking lot and checked to see whose call he dismissed while driving. A text came in.
J: there's something headed to the museum through the sewers!
J: it's big and black and has horns and swords. It looks like one of the trolls from the books.
Strickler deduced that Bular was probably waiting for him already, and considered that the boy was still alive.
S: did he see you?
J: no
S: go home
J: what about you? and Nomura?
S: we have a meeting. Go home.
Strickler joked to himself about what being a concerned father might feel like and then immediately dismissed the thought. He took with him his dinner, the apple the Trollhunter gave him earlier, along with the crate that he had just picked up.
He allowed himself into the museum and strolled into the blocked off exhibit. The moonlight shone through the skylight onto the structure with the tarps drawn over it's two mounds. A shadow snarled behind him as it paced. "You're late."
"And you're impatient. I was waiting for another package to arrive." Bular snatched from him the wooden crate and Strickler caught the apple he'd balanced on top. The brute tore off the lid and removed the stone inside. He slammed the rest of the box to the ground and it splintered from the force. Bular drew back the tarp and held up the stone. It elevated from his claw. It began to glow. It spun in the air and attached itself to the rest of the structure, which glowed in greeting to the new addition.
"Killahead will soon be complete. Our man from Germany will be arriving with new pieces soon," Strickler explained.
"And my father will know freedom and glory!" Bular momentarily lost himself in his enthusiasm, and the both of them were surprised by the stuttering of the security guard.
"Hey, what are you doing in here- oh!" Marco stared momentarily with a look of horror at the breathing nightmare that had kept sleep at bay for him. The glitch in the camera footage was real, and larger than he realized. He ran.
Bular snarled back at Strickler. "You were followed?"
"Of course not," Strickler polished the apple. "I brought you a midnight snack."
Bular smirked, appeased, and took his time to chase down his prey.