AAARRRGGHH pat Blinky on the back, rubbing circles between his shoulders as he panicked.
"I…lost…THE CHILD."
"Jim somewhere," said AAARRRGGHH. Blinky wailed in response.
"Indeed! He's somewhere within Trollmarket and I have absolutely no idea where. Oh, what cruel mercies the fates have granted me, to lose such a young thing in such a roughened place! I should never have allowed him to come down here…"
"Will find Jim," said AAARRRGGHH soothingly, although he honestly wasn't sure that it was helping. He'd been perfectly oblivious to anything happening, happy to cause mild chaos all over Trollmarket as a diversion while Blinky showed the tiny human around until Blinky came running up to him just outside the library, gasping that he had lost the whelp.
Apparently Vendel had cornered him, and to the best of Blinky's guesses, Jim was forced to exit the library to avoid being spotted. In the commotion that AAARRRGGHH had caused nearby the boy must have gotten lost.
They had traced back to the spots where Blinky took Jim, to no avail. Even AAARRRGGHH's nose had difficulty sniffing him out; with the cloak and fake horns Blinky had provided the child with, he now smelled more troll than human. After an hour of searching Blinky finally sank down on a chair on the edge of a stall, and refused to go any further without having a fit.
For all that AAARRRGGHH loved Blinky, the six-eyed troll certainly had a penchant for dramatics.
"So young…too soon…"
"Not dead," AAARRRGGHH muttered.
"How can we know? He could have fallen down a mine! He could have fallen off of a bridge, or encountered a rogue gnome. Or have been stepped on, for goodness' sake, he's certainly small enough."
They had checked the Hero's Forge first, in case Jim had wandered off in search of a sword. The Trollhunter had been practicing there, but otherwise no-one else was in the Forge or the halls and armories attached.
"Maybe we should tell Vendel," AAARRRGGHH suggested gingerly. He knew that they would get into a lot of trouble, but it was better to have another pair of eyes to continue the search, wasn't it?
Blinky sighed and hung his head.
"Yes, I suppose we should," he murmured. "Secrecy is of little importance now. If young Jim has become injured or killed because of my unwillingness to tell anyone about him, I should never forgive myself."
Blinky hopped off the chair and made for the Heartstone, AAARRRGGHH softly trudging behind him. He was a bit mystified about his companion's sudden attachment to the human whelp. Blinky had never had any particular like or dislike of children; babysitting Draal had been enough for them. On occasion he taught history and lore to the Trollmarket whelps and although he enjoyed teaching them, he didn't regard them with any more or less fondness than anybody else.
Perhaps it was the boy's human state. A complete blank slate; unknowing of any history or traditions of trollkind, the boy was the perfect pupil. AAARRRGGHH and Blinky were sometimes charged with showing prominent visitors around the market, but this was different. Everything was new to Jim, every crystal, troll, and spoken word an unknown. Nothing that Blinky could prattle on about would be anything old to Jim.
Maybe it had been finding a kindred spirit in Jim. AAARRRGGHH enjoyed being in the library, and nothing gave him more pleasure than listening to Blinky read, but he had never been a reader himself. The books were too fragile, the pages too small, for AAARRRGGHH to go to the trouble, not when he had Blinky ready and happy to read whatever he might be interested in. Nobody else really came and just read with Blinky, or talked with him about his researches. Blinky had AAARRRGGHH to chat about his interests with, but no one else.
Or maybe this wasn't about Blinky. He had told his companion, late in the night and the calm, how still that house had been, how quiet. How happy the child had been to make a new friend. How the house smelled of sleep and sadness, a paradox of diligence and neglect. AAARRRGGHH had seen the boy's face when Jim first saw him, amazed and unafraid. The child in the quiet house wanted to know about swords and motors, and made friends with monsters in his back yard. He'd enjoyed the boy's enthusiasm for the adventure down to Trollmarket and how quick Jim was to make friends with him, but although he liked Jim he didn't find him much more remarkable than any other whelp.
Witnessing a more fatherly side of Blinky emerge was interesting and amusing, and it made AAARRRGGHH curious about the young human who had brought it out. But in order to expand upon it, they first had to find the whelp.
As the Heartstone loomed nearer AAARRRGGHH worried about Vendel's reaction. Surely he'd bar Jim from Trollmarket, and he'd probably forbid Blinky to visit him.
AAARRRGGHH had been friends with Blinky for centuries. He was the kind of troll who preferred to skip asking permission and also forgo begging for forgiveness, if he could get away with it. Blinky could get hurt or seen, again, if he tried to visit the whelp, especially if he did it secretly. AAARRRGGHH would support Blinky in whatever he tried to do, and he did not want things to get to a point where Blinky felt that he needed to do things without telling anyone. Vendel had been correct in his statement that their six-eyed friend got into more trouble than the Trollhunter.
As Blinky muttered to himself on the way to the Heartstone, AAARRRGGHH tried to think up convincing arguments to make Vendel see that rejecting Jim was a bad idea. The boy had already seen Trollmarket and its people, first of all. The damage had been done, so barring him wouldn't do much good. Not to mention that banning the child would upset Blinky's sudden parental emotions, and he'd been even more difficult for Vendel to deal with. Vendel was a practical troll; even if he didn't agree with a decision, if it was truly for the best, then he would support it.
AAARRRGGHH and Blinky made it to the bridge to the Heartstone just before being stopped by the Trollhunter. Kanjigar, donned in his armor, smiled at them.
"Just the trolls I was hoping to see," he said. "Blinky, AAARRRGGHH – I need you to come with me for a moment."
Blinky emerged from his thoughts and startled.
"Master Kanjigar! Ah…well. We were just on our way to see Vendel but perhaps you would be more of use. We have need to call upon you."
Kanjigar, oddly enough, looked more amused than concerned.
"Let us speak in a more private place," he said, turning around and heading away from the Heartstone.
"I have something you may like to see."
Blinky looked up at AAARRRGGHH, but he could only shrug. Kanjigar led them through the market and into the Hero's Forge, and that's when the smell of human hit AAARRRGGHH.
"Jim," he whispered to Blinky. His friend nodded and began to say something, but stopped, taking in a large breath.
Not only human. Blood.
"Master Jim!"
All three trolls sprinted across the narrow bridge and over the arena, following Kanjigar into one of the darkened antechambers. There, the tiny human was sitting in the middle of the floor, a sword the size of his body lying several feet away. AAARRRGGHH saw a smear of red blood on its edge and Jim's hand clamped over his thigh before Blinky nearly threw himself at the child. Kanjigar followed closely after.
"Master Jim, what have you done to yourself! Here, we must stop the bleeding, perhaps we need a transfusion – your mother is a doctor, is she not? We'll take you to her immediately – "
"It was foolish for someone as young as yourself to even consider using one of these weapons – "
"What were you thinking, I told you that you were too young and too fragile to be allowed a sword. How can we know that you haven't damaged yourself too severely? Surely this is far too much blood for a human so tiny to lose - "
"Blinkous, it's not that deep, we'll wrap it up and – "
"How could you have left him here, of all places? Alone!"
The boy latched onto Blinky as if he'd never seen a friendly face, but AAARRRGGHH could see that his friend's concerned fuss wasn't helping the boy. Jim looked scared, both of his injury and the sudden yelling, and Blinky and Kanjigar's brash words just made his crying worse, even though he clung to the troll.
AAARRRGGHH muscled his way between Kanjigar and Blinky and pried the boy off of Blinky's arm, holding him close against his chest, with his hand acting as a barrier.
"Yelling not helping," he said to Blinky. Understanding and regret flashed in his and Kanjigar's eyes and AAARRRGGHH trudged out of the room.
He did not want to be holding this child. He had not smelled human blood, fresh and hot, in centuries. He did not. Want. To be holding. This. Child.
Jim buried his face in his chest and cried silently as they plodded through Trollmarket. Blinky and Kanjigar's furious but quieted fight on either side of him distracted him from the scent of unpleasant memories.
"How could you have left him there by himself! He's but a child!"
"How could you have brought him to our home? You know the dangers of exposure! Your invitation could haverisked the lives of everyone in Trollmarket – "
"Do not lecture me in irresponsibility when YOU are the one who left a child known to wander off BY HIMSELF in an armory!"
"I wasn't to know that he would try to play with the weapons – "
"If you recall, you had to pull more than one dagger out of your own son's mouth before he was out of diapers! Surely 'sharp things plus unsupervised children equals danger' is not an unfamiliar notion to you!"
They lost Kanjigar before reaching the staircase, as Bagdwella called out to him and simpered about needing his help. The stern look he gave them very clearly conveyed that they would be talking about this later.
AAARRRGGHH had to stop, just at the top of the crystal staircase, and he handed Jim to Blinky before he dropped might drop child in the middle of a panic attack. He shuffled away from the two and turned into the corner, smooshing his face into the wall. He took a deep breath, closing his eyes against the feel of the cold stone, rough against his nose and forehead. His fists were clenched and he hadn't realized; he spent a minute making his shoulders, arms, and hands relax.
"Is…is AAARRRGGHH okay?"
"AAARRRGGHH is a very complex troll, young Jim, and occasionally there are moments where he prefers to be alone."
He knew his tattoos weren't glowing. He wasn't angry; he wasn't hungry – if he had been, he would have left immediately. The smell of human blood hadn't brought back memories of the taste, as he had been scared it would, but the fear, the screams and the helplessness and the pain, not from them but from him. Even Gunmar's generals faced his violent and capricious temper daily, not to mention blows and beatings from other Gumm-Gumms. He had once been as small and as scared as Jim, trapped without help in an unknown place filled with monsters.
He made a vague noise in the back of his throat and Blinky plodded up behind him, knowing that he was ready for company. Three hands of stone-flesh and two of warm skin pat his back, and his shivers subsided. Remembered aches and agonies faded.
He turned back and found Jim's watery blue eyes watching him.
"You okay? I-I'm sorry I scared you."
The child's misunderstanding placed a coal of warmth in his heart, and he smiled.
"Not scared anymore," he rumbled. Maybe Blinky had a point in being fond of this kid.
A quick peek out of the portal told them that sunrise was little more than an hour away. With any luck, they would get the child back home with minimal fuss.
Jim looked like he was trying to fall asleep, but AAARRRGGHH knew that his leg was paining him. Though the bleeding had stopped, it still was a concerning wound, and they went as fast as they could without jostling the child or been seen.
"I am sorry that your first visit had to end so badly, young Jim," Blinky murmured, wrapping the boy in three arms as he took point. "It was never my intention for you to get lost, and I certainly would never have wished you harmed."
"'S'alright," Jim said quietly. The tears had tried into salty-smelling tracks down his face.
"Does this mean I can't come back again?"
AAARRRGGHH looked at the child in surprise. After getting lost, after getting hurt, he still wanted to come back? He'd thought that Draal had been the most stubborn child in existence, but maybe it was a general trait.
Blinky sighed, peering around the fence of someone's backyard.
"Perhaps it was a mistake," he said. "I did not take proper care of you, and neglected to think of the possibility of you coming to harm. Trollmarket is a dangerous place for you, and I should not have brought you down."
Jim started to struggle.
"No!" he said, looking up at Blinky with wide eyes. "But I didn't get to see everything! And Kanjigar was really nice, and I had a lot of fun!"
"Young Jim, you are currently bleeding all over my arms. This adventure was not a success."
Jim crossed his arms, staring silently in front of them. Blinky stopped suddenly and AAARRRGGHH bumped into his back.
"Master Jim, what in Deya's name is this?"
The tiny hand not clamped around the wound on his thigh was holding a thick crescent of iron, which smelled of dormant magic.
"K-Kanijigar said to hold on to it for him," the boy murmured. Blinky took the gaggletack from the child's hand and glanced up at AAARRRGGHH. They had not even considered suspecting they boy to be a Changeling.
"I suppose he was only being cautious," Blinky sighed, tucking the totem into his pocket.
They turned a corner and were suddenly blinded by red and blue lights. Quickly they retreated behind a line of bushes.
There were human police cars in front of Jim's house, their sirens quieted but the lights flooding the boy's street. The inside of the house was lit, and AAARRRGGHH saw through a window a tall woman with red hair talking to two men in dark uniforms.
Jim wriggled and Blinky put him down, clamping a hand over Jim's should to keep him from rocketing off.
"My mom's in trouble," the boy protested. Blinky shook his head.
"It is more likely that she noticed your absence and notified the authorities. Master Jim, we cannot go further."
Jim looked between Blinky and the illuminated house, fear and worry coming off of him in waves.
"B-but what if she's really mad at me? What if the police take me away, w-what if she gets in trouble for losing me – "
Blinky's hand shook as he threw a questioning, determined glance at AAARRRGGHH. He knew what his friend was asking, and he nodded his assent.
"The time of secrecy is over, I'm afraid," said Blinky quietly. "Go to your mother, have your wound treated, and when you return home…we will be there."
"What? Really? I can tell my mom about Trollmarket?"
Blinky nodded. He knelt in front of Jim, putting another bloodied hand on the boy's shoulder.
"I cannot expect a child to keep so much a secret from his guardian, especially when he has been hurt. I doubt that your mother will believe you until she meets us, in any case, and will be unwilling to share what you have told her. When we meet, we will discuss what has happened and what should be best. I…"
He turned to the house. Through the window, Jim's mother looked like she was crying. Someone had put a blanket over her shoulders.
"If she decides that we not continue our friendship, we shall have to respect that. But do not worry about that now, young master Jim. Now, allow her to treat you, and we will finish with this when you are well again."
"But Blinky…"
"Go," said AAARRRGGHH gently, shuffling forward until he was beside his friend. "Don't worry."
They snuck around the backs of the houses until they came between Jim's house and the one next to it. Jim had to lean against his fence to walk, but he limped away from them with a determined look on his tiny face.
"I'll see you tomorrow, right?"
Blinky nodded.
"As soon as you are back," he said. Jim gave him a pained smile and wobbled away. AAARRRGGHH and Blinky retreated into the edge of the sparse woods.
Within a minute there was a commotion, and the sound of a woman's sobbing. They couldn't hear what was being said, but they could hear Jim crying again, and the sound wrenched at AAARRRGGHH's chest.
As they walked side-by-side back to Trollmarket, it occurred to AAARRRGGHH that they had not warned the boy against telling the human police about Trollmarket.
.
.
.
.
A/N: And here Jim's three Disaster Dads. Vendel is Less-Disastrous Grandpa, and Draal gets to be Disaster Big Brother. All the family for this poor kid. But seriously, these idiots.
Blinky wasn't immediately Spider Bookworm Dad as soon as he met Jim and I like that. He had, more or less, only slightly more than complete indifference about whether or not Bular ate the kid, and I think that he wasn't expecting much. Here's this skinny teenage human, how much of a chance does he have? There's no point in getting emotionally attached. He is remarkably unconcerned about Jim's physical wellbeing the first few times they meet, most likely because he's expecting the kid to get killed soon anyway. I like that he's still trying his best to train him, tries to be kind and motivate him, and shows deference to his teenage human schedules and problems. It's only on the fifth episode that we see him start to show concern, and by the sixth he's actually personally attached to this idiot. Then we get the birthday episode and he goes from Dad Friend to Dad in .3 seconds flat.
I'm not quite sure what Jim's reluctance was about the Brief Recapitulation of Troll Lore. He's got a huge, stuffed bookshelf in his room, and he's reluctant to read a book about troll fighting styles and history? With cool illustrations?
Kanjigar is totally going to be one of Jimbo's numerous troll dads, but let's remember that he's actually a pretty crappy father. Whether or not he's actually a really good guy, he's shady AF, deliberately vague and unhelpful, tricksy, and a terrible dad. Bular and Gunmar had a better father-and-son relationship than Kanjigar and Draal did, and they were in different dimensions!
I want to thank Shadowlit and Umi_Tatsuky for their advice about kids and what they're kind of stupid about. Bby Jimbo would definitely try out a sword, and if he freaks out about getting injured when he's a teenager, he sure would as a child.
Half of me wants to warn about Stranger Danger and the other half is excited about Jim and his troll dads. We know that Blinky and AAARRRGGHH and everybody are actually good people, but still. And seriously, kids. Don't go off with strange people who say that they'll take you to magical places.