Is this Heaven? Wondered Jim when he woke up surrounded by clouds.
But the thought quickly vanished when he rolled over and found his best friend beside him, noisily chewing. Toby smiled sheepishly, offered Jim another candy bar, and said, "Nougat Nummie?"
"Dude!" Marshall shook himself in disbelief standing over him. We almost nearly got squashed and all you can think about is eating your candy?!"
"What? I eat when I'm stressed," Toby shrugged.
Jim stood up in the moors, a thick blanket of predawn fog still swirling around his feet. He saw Blinky and Arrrgh's heads poke out of the mist. The Trolls appeared just as confused. Jim cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled, "Claire!"
"Up here," called Claire's voice from above.
The rest of Team Trollhunter turned their gaze skyward as Claire descended from a closing shadow portal, the Shadow staff held firmly in her hand.
"How'd you get it back?" Asked Toby.
"I snagged my Shadow staff for the vault floor while Tellad-Urr was busy arguing with himself," explained Claire as she alighted. "That's how I was able to jump us out of there right before he flattened us. . .and this."
"Although I'm against you from using that staff despite of your condition but. . .great job Claire," Marshall praised her putting a hand on her shoulder.
"Yeah, way to go, Nunez," said Jim, tucking the silver streak behind her ear. "You're as sneaky as you are beautiful."
"Schweet!" Cheered Toby. "Now we have everything we need to head back home! Let's all click our heels together three times and say place like-"
"Shhh!" Marshall silenced him. "Listen."
A low, steady beat echoed across the moors. Blinky narrowed his six eyes to peer through the haze and said, "Those are Gumm-Gumm war drums."
Team Trollhunter watched in dread as two opposing armies convened in the foggy valley below Glastonbury Tor. Orlagk the Oppressor led one side forward, while Gunmar and Bulgar stood at the vanguard of the other Both camps came prepared for the battle, yet Gunmar's seemed the better-armed force with their weapons of burnished metal.
"Clash of the Gumm-Gumms," Arrgh said balefully.
Not that we don't appreciate your saving us in the proverbial nick of time, Claire," said Blinky. "Butt did you have to drop us right into the middle of Gunmar's historic rebellion?"
"And look who has ringside seats," Jim said.
He spotted Gogun at the edge of the battlefield, now fettered in the same types of chains that once held Toby, Blinky, and Arrg Tellad-Urr the Terrible stood beside the old River Troll, watching the two Gumm-Gumm armies collide in all-out war. The Gumm-Gumm's battle cries reverberated around the moors. Jim and the others could hear Bular's elaborate death threats and the orders barking from Orlagk's mismatched jaws.
"Well, I guess that's our cue to leave," Toby shrugged matter-of-factly.
"I. . .I can't," said Jim, surprising his friends, besides Marshall. "Believe me, nobody wants to get home more than me. But I can't just leave Gogun out there like that. If Tellad-Urr doesn't kill him, on of those Gumm-Gumms will."
"Master Jim," began Blinky, clapping his four hands along Jim's arms. "I know you-"
"Please, Blinky," Jim interceded. "No offense, but if this is another lecture about not altering the natural flow of the space-time whatever, I already know the drill."
Blinky smiled at his champion and said, "On the contrary, Trollhunter. I merely wished to repeat what a wise young man once told me: 'History is written by the victors.'"
Jim smiled back, galvanized by Blinky's words, and said, "Then let's go be victorious!"
. . .
Gogun cringed a another Gumm-Gumm collapsed before him. Tellad-Urr kicked the battered body aside, then yanked on Gogun's shackles to make him keep up. The dark Trollhunter waded through the battle on a direct path to Orlagk, dragging Gogun behind him.
"Oh, why didn't I stay under that bridge?" Gogun whined to the kittens under his smock.
"Your regrets will soon come to an end," said Tellad-Urr. "Both of ours will."
Seeing an opportunity to strike, Tellad-Urr released Gogun's chains and ran toward Orlagk. The Oppressor raised his Decimaar Blade just in time to repel his crimson enemy's Sundown Mace.
"Attacked from within and without, am I?" Orlagk snarled through his overbite. "No matter! This simply makes it easier for me to slay all my nemeses at once!"
Their weapons met again with a ringing clang. The noise startled Gogun's kittens, making his favorite scamper into the midst of the battlefield. Held in place by his heavy chains, the old Troll could only reach out and cry, "Shmorkrarg!"
"Funny, I once knew a cat named Shmorkrarg," said Jim as he scooped up the helpless kitten and returned her to her rightful owner. "Although I hear that's a pretty common name."
"Kim!" Said Gogun. "I am as happy to see you as I am furious we met in the first place!"
"I'll take that as a 'thank you,'" joked Jim.
He set about picking the Gogun's shackles with more of Toby's dental wire, unaware of the two Gumm-Gumm soldiers sneaking up behind him. Before Gogun could warn him, Toby's Warhammer smacked one of the Gumm-Gumm's with his Warhammer and Marshall's gravity spell pushed the other away.
"Thanks, guys," Jim said, still fiddling with the locks.
"What're time-traveling friends for?" Toby asked, then hurtled his Warhammer.
The enchanted mallet flew across the battlefield and connected the face of another Gumm-Gumm that had been choking Blinky. The six-eyed Troll gave Toby four grateful thumbs up, then tossed the unconscious soldier into one of the many shadow portals summoned by Claire. She projected her next black hole in front of Arrrgh, who galloped into it. An instant later, he emerged out of the matching portal behind enemy lines. Arrrgh sweated away warring Gumm-Gumms in droves, knocking them right out of their helmets. He then cocked his fist and struck at another soldier-only to pull his punch at the last second.
Arrrgh's runes faded as he stared the young Kruger's in front of him. It was like looking into a mirror. The lung Troll's horns were stubbier and his shoulders were barely covered in mossy green fur, yet Arrrgh recognized the face, for it was his own.
'You look. . .like me," said the teen Arrrgh enforce he decked his grown-up self.
The two Arrrghs grappled across the moors, tumbling right past Tellad-Urr and Orlagk. The dark Trollhunter swung his Sundown Mace at the snuggle-toothed Gumm-Gumm and said, "You should've killed me while you had the chance, Oppressor!"
"You were too pathetic to be put out of your misery, Trollhunter!" Snarled Orlagk.
The mace clipped him on its return swing, and Orlagk felt his Decimaar Blade fade. He looked up, uneven jaws algae, as his crimson combatant loomed over him. Tellad-Urr the Terrible relished the moment. He raised the Sundown Mace over his one horn, ready to deliver a final, crushing blow to Orlagk, when a peculiar sight arrested the dark Trollhunter's attention.
Past the fog, through the acrid smoke of war he saw that human boy- the one with the look-alike Amulet, the one who had somehow cheated death yet again-freeing the old Troll. Forgetting Orlagk for the moment, Tellad-Urr stomped past the Gumm-Gumms that attacked each other around him and yelled, "You!"
Marshall when using his magic to fight the other Gumm-Gumms noticed the dark Trollhunter targeting straight towards Jim, "Jim! Look out!"
As Jim pulled the last chain off Gogun just before the dark Trollhunter lifted him bodily off the field of battle. Marshall was about to help Jim, but he raised his hand and stopped him before he could do so and looked him straight in the eye telling him to trust him. Tellad-Urr's ruined face quivering in fur, he pulledJim close and asked, "Why? Why do you persist in doing the wizard's bidding? Why endanger yourself time and again for those too weak to defend themselves."
"It's the right thing to do," said Jim. "I. . .I never needed an Amulet to tell me that."
Tellad-Urr the Terrible stared at Jim, his emotions clearly in conflict beneath that weary, abused face. He tightened his hold around Jim's neck and mentally bid the claws on his free hand to grow even sharper. Marshall couldn't take much more of the suspense watching his own friend about to be killed. He was about to take action- but Tellad-Urr dug his claws into his armor where the amulet was embedded instead. He screamed in pain as he removed the device from his body his armor and sun-down mace vanished. He then released Jim, opened the Amulet, and removed the red gem given to him by Gunmar.
Marshall rushed over to assist Jim back on his feet, they turned to Tellad-Urr as his body revealed numerous lacing scars it had acquired in his years of service. Jim's eyes watered in empathy, as Marshall gazed upon the one-horned troll with remorse. "Tellad-Urr-"
Clearly, this was a Trollhunter who had suffered in his tour of duty. With a deep, shuddering breath, Tellad-Urr dropped the gemstone onto the battlefield and ground it to a red, sparkling dust under his heel.
"Merlin, forgive me. . .," whispered the formerly dark Trollhunter.
No sooner had the prayer left his lips than two matching swords sank into his back. Jim, Gogun, and Marshall watched a look of long-awaited relief spread across Tellad-Urr's face before his body hit the ground- and revealed Bular behind it.