Mary drove Joey and herself back to the shelter. "I have to get back to work. I assume you can get to Gail's house safely?" Mary asked.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," he responded. "Thanks for all your help."

"It's always a pleasure to rescue animals from abusive homes." She smiled. He got out of the car and began the walk to Gail's house. His pace was fast from excitement. He was so focused on getting to Gail's house that he didn't see a figure appear in front of him. The two bumped into each other and the figure fell down.

"Oh, sorry!" Joey said as he came out of his trance. He looked down at the person and held out his hand, only to realize it was a small troll. The troll was wearing grey cargo pants, a grey shirt with a bowtie on it that was mustard colored, and a jacket that was half blue and half bright yellow. His horns were very rounded. He opened his eyes and he had one blue eye and one yellow.

"Oh, it's no problem," he laughed a little as he took Joey's hand. Joey helped him up.

"Um... Your eyes..." Joey said quietly.

"One hundred percent psionic," he explained. "I'm called Zamdri. Zamdri Zaizir." He held out his hand, which Joey shook. Wow, he's got such good manners for a troll.

"Hey, is your owner nearby?"

"Never had an owner. I'm a stray; I've lived on the streets my whole life."

"Really?" Joey asked in shock. "You're so well mannered for a stray."

"Yeah. I enjoy making the point that being a stray doesn't have to mean being ill-mannered. By the way, do you have somewhere to be? You were walking quite fast and I don't wish to hold you up from wherever you need to be." A stupid thought went through Joey's head.

"Yeah, but... Would you want to come with me to get out of the cold for a while?"

Zamdri looked surprised. "R-really? Gosh. I mean, I appreciate the offer, but most people don't want to take in a troll off the streets."

"Well, you wouldn't be the first troll. I was actually going to pick up the troll I just adopted. He was a stray too but he did have an owner. Not a good owner, which is why he ended up on the streets, but he's safe from all that now. He's pretty young though. Maybe...six years old?"

"So nearly three sweeps then?" Oh yeah. Trolls had a weird way of measuring age. "Might be nice to meet the lil' wriggler... Sure. I'll come with you."

They walked together to Gail's house, and Joey explained more about what happened on the way.

"Gosh, that's a lot to happen to a wriggler…" Zamdri said.

"Yeah, but we got him away from all of that now; that's why we're going to Gail's." They arrived at the house, and wailing could be heard faintly from inside. Joey opened the door, and Gail was holding and rocking Vognez slowly, shooshing him. Vognez was crying loudly and holding onto Gail tightly.

"Hi!" Gail said with distress. "Joey, can you help me out? I think he'll calm down more with you!"

Joey walked over and took Vognez from her, and he clinged right onto him, but his crying didn't cease. He started rubbing his horns, but Vongez refused to stop crying. "Gail, what happened?"

"I don't know; Vognez was sleeping and then he started crying out of nowhere."

"I'm really sorry, Zamdri. Like I said, he's been through a lot and-" He stopped when he saw Zamdri making a large pile of blankets and pillows. Once he finished, he took Vognez from Joey and set him down in the pile. He rested next to him and began to cuddle with him. Joey was silent in confusion, but Vognez seemed to calm down almost instantly. "Um…"

"Hey, Vognez, everything's okay. You don't have to worry about anything. You've got a good owner now and he's gonna take care of you, okay?"

Vognez sniffled and said, "Okay..." He smiled a little, this being the first time Joey ever saw him smile.

Zamdri looked over at Joey, seeing his confusion. "It's just a technique that trolls use for calming purposes."

"Oh. Well, thanks."

"It's no problem." Zamdri booped Vognez's nose, and Vognez giggled a little bit.

Joey went over to Gail. "Did you get him to eat?"

"Yeah. He was kind of surprised when I brought him his food… He didn't believe it was for him at first."

"I'm not surprised. His owner was horrible."

"Oh! Speaking of the owner, did you get him to sign the papers?"

"Yeah. Vognez won't ever have to go back to that jerk."

"That's great! What about the yellowblood? Where did he come from?"

"I just kinda bumped into him. He said he's been out on the streets for a long time, and I told him he could stay with me for a while." Joey rubbed the back of his head a little as he spoke.

"Geez, if you keep taking in trolls at this rate, you're going to have a full house."

"I know. It's just…" He sighed. "You know?"

Gail nodded. They looked back over at Vognez and Zamdri, and saw Zamdri still cuddling Vognez, who was purring happily. "Don't worry about it; I'm just joking with you."

Joey shrugged and went over to Vognez and Zamdri. "So, howsabout we go back to my home now?"

"That sounds like a lovely idea." Joey had texted Vlad about bringing home Vognez and Zamdri already, and he was more than happy to take them in. Vlad was Joey's housemate and close friend, so it made sense to run things by him.

"By the way, I do share an apartment with someone. His name is Vlad. He's nicer than me, so you don't have to worry about him hurting you."

Zamdri stood first, helping Vognez up after. Vognez walked over to Joey and held his arms out to him, obviously wanting to be carried. "Okay, up we go!" Joey carefully lifted Vognez, being especially careful with his ribs. "I'll see you later, Gail. I'll message you to keep you updated on both of them."

"Thank you, I'll talk to you later!" Gail waved and opened the door for Joey, waiting for both him and Zamdri to make it outside before closing the door.