"To rid the grass of weed, to get

The whole root,

Thick, tangled, takes a strong mind

And desire - to make clean, make pure.

The weed, tough

As the rock it leaps against,

Unless plucked to the last

Live fiber

Will plunge up through dark again.

The weed also has the desire

To make clean,

Make pure, there against the rock."

- Lucien Stryk

.

.

Alex took advantage of her new cat supplies by bagging up a large amount of litter and hairballs and going and buying a dead cat. She realized the irony of this as she brushed hair off of the new vest she bought, but she needed an apology bribe and there was no way she was bringing one of her cats.

Getting in to see AAARRRGGHH was hard. Not only did she have to avoid Blinky, but she had to slink past Vendel as well, and for someone with eyes completely covered in cataracts he could be surprisingly perceptive. And he was pissed the fuck off at her.

Actually, everyone was pissed off at her.

Being a rather unorthodox and antisocial Trollhunter hadn't given her much of a fantastic reputation, even if she was only a few weeks into the job, but to have her slight…

Even though it wasn't slight…

…one of the most respected members of Troll society, a hero who had damn near saved both the troll and human world from being overrun by Gumm-Gumms? Yeah. Nobody liked her at the moment.

At least she could admit that she was wrong, which was why she was trying to apologize to AAARRRGGHH. It was a strategic move – she certainly couldn't gain back either trust or reputation without it – but not apologizing would harden the bitter, pinching seed of guilt that had wormed its way into her heart. She'd become good at ignoring guilt over the years, Changelings had to, but this was different. This time, she'd made a mistake.

It was…strange, but the only one who didn't seem terribly upset with her was Draal, despite the fact that she'd kicked him out. She hadn't seen him – and how did a troll that big sneak around? – but the day after the whole 'the Trollhunter made AAARRRGGHH cry' shitstorm began she found a tiny black kitten curled against the front of her door, and an old, one-eyed orange cat the same evening. Nobody else knew about her cats but Draal. Once she apologized to AAARRRGGHH, she'd have to go and find him. If only to punch him in the face one last time.

Not everyone was ostracizing her; a few of the stall-keepers seemed completely indifferent to the gossip, including a rather forward woman called Bagdwella and another who Alex liked simply because he annoyed Blinky with his eavesdropping habit. Neither of them were very bothered by the clusterfuck Alex had caused, and when Alex passed Bagdwella's stall on her way to AAARRRGGHH's quarters, the troll woman actually called for her help.

It was the same gnome problem that Blinky and AAARRRGGHH had been dealing with two days ago, and it had not gotten better. The little bastard had knocked over everything in the shop three times, stolen and rearranged everything until the shopkeeper couldn't find a single item, and would apparently steal things from customers and hoard them in a hole in the wall.

"Fix it, Trollhunter," Bagdwella said, with a pout in her lip and plead in her eye. Alex got the distinct impression that this was a woman who had asked Kanjigar the Courageous to help her get things down from a high shelf, just to watch him flex and stretch.

She had time. From her observations of AAARRRGGHH's schedule, he wouldn't go home until very, very late in the morning, when Blinky finally left his library and was persuaded to collapse upon his own bed.

Alexandra approached the stall and saw a little red blur rocket out from behind a bucket, flipping a pair of socks upside down before hiding again in the undersides of a chair. Crouching down, Alex managed only a tiny peek before the rogue gnome flew out from the wood and stole her hairband, laughing like a demented gremlin when she tried to catch it.

Bagdwella managed to cower in an overdramatic and surprisingly beseeching way, and Alexandra had to bite back her amusement. Poor Kanjigar, having to deal with this woman flirting with him. Alexandra's oversized horns and cut face probably looked a little roguish. Ladies loved a bad boy. Girl. Troll. Whatever.

"Oh, Trollhunter," Bagdwella simpered, waving a hand at her. "Do catch the little beast!"

"I'm trying," Alexandra muttered. She lashed out with all four arms when the gnome skittered past again, but only caught air. Something rustled in the front of her new vest, and before she could react, the gnome made off with her amulet.

The sirens from Kill Bill echoed briefly in Alexandra's head, before she straightened up and sniffed.

"Finally," she hissed, focusing every thought and emotion on complete and utter rejection. "Now I can actually get back to my own life!"

The hole in the wall glowed, and there was a high-pitched screech and an ominous, ringing rattle.

"Get your shiny ass back here," Alex spat, and the amulet rocketed out of the hole, flinging itself and the grabby gnome straight into her chest. She grabbed the gnome with three hands and tucked the amulet back in her pocket with the fourth, and had to endure Bagdwella's flirts and thanks for a whole five minutes before she extracted herself.

The gnome had bitten her twice, but she squeezed threateningly and it eventually quieted down. Alexandra was already halfway back to her quarters before she realized that she wasn't actually going to feed it to her cats.

Gnomes were semi-sentient, fast, and could eat through just about anything. They were like cockroaches with hats and bad attitude. The gnome in her hands, wary but no longer frantic, stared at her distrustfully as she hurried into her rooms and gently sat it on the nest.

It bolted, but was immediately caught by an orange tabby. Alex carefully extracted it before any harm was wrought to either creature.

"I don't want to kill you," she said to the gnome, setting it again on the nest. It stayed put this time, but backed against the wall and half-covered itself with a fur blanket. It chittered at her, and pointed at the cats.

She shook her head.

"I'm not going to let them eat you," she reassured it. "What I'm going to do is offer you a job."

.

.

Trollmarket wasn't the easiest place to sneak around, but Alexandra managed to get out of the residential quarters and through the busiest places without too much trouble or dirty looks. She skirted around the Heartstone and occasionally had to pick her way through bunches of crystals or rock formations to avoid being seen, but by the time she made it to AAARRRGGHH's section of the caves only a few had spotted her, and no one that knew her personally. She was slower than she usually was, by dint of a concussion and a missing eye. Too much light and quick movement hurt her head, and – it was kind of funny, but after so long of being disoriented by four eyes, having only three was suddenly even worse. It still hurt like a motherfucker, too.

AAARRRGGHH's quarters were on the very edge of Heartstone Trollmarket, on the opposite side of the cave system from the residential areas. The stone was rougher here, the crystals dimmer, and the crowds thinner. There were occasional storage rooms and private shops, but it was a rather empty area. It was a bit of a lonely place to live, but Alexandra was grateful for its emptiness.

The troll's actual quarters were tall and open, spacious enough that someone so big wouldn't feel crowded. The enormous door wasn't locked, but it didn't need to be: there was a huge boulder tucked against the outside wall, with drag marks around its base; if AAARRRGGHH wanted privacy, all he needed to do was pull the boulder in front of the door. There were few in Trollmarket who would be able to even budge it.

The rooms were exceptionally dark. There were only a few crystal lights, and most of them were covered with cloth. Bioluminescent algae flowed in faint lines over the walls and ceiling, shaped into soft spirals and swirls. The walls also had several hangings and tapestries and one incongruous Simon and Garfunkel poster, but when Alex looked closer she noticed that they covered up cracks in the stone; she moved a tapestry aside to find an enormous fist-print imbedded the wall, cracks spiderwebbing away from the dent. A quick look affirmed that all of the decorations covered similar damage, but by the look of the lichen formed on them all the cracks were old.

A very, very small window pushed into the wall, carved through several feet through the stone. Through it Alex could see the distant glow of the heartstone, and knew that AAARRRGGHH found as much comfort in the crystal as she did.

There wasn't much in the way of personal possessions. Alex absently perused through some scrolls and books haphazardly piled in the corners; she tried reading a few letters from AAARRRGGHH's birth clan, but her Old Trollish was rusty. Though the books had the hint of Blinky around them, as did one of the woolen covers and a small stone stool, the room smelled like AAARRRGGHH and AAARRRGGHH alone.

All in all, it told the story of a troll with anger issues that he was ashamed of, who only used the room for sleeping and privacy when things overwhelmed him.

Alexandra had nothing to do but wait, so she collapsed on the enormous nest and watched the algae glow. It was very quiet here, away from the buzz of the market. There was some source of water around, if the muffled rushing was any indication. Probably one of the underground aquifers or rivers.

She practiced her apologies to the dark room, memorizing them until she didn't falter. It would be unpleasant; AAARRRGGHH, she knew, was just as perceptive as Blinky was, and he had a knack for seeing through deception. If she wanted this to get this right, she needed to open up, because there was more riding on this apology than just her relationship with her trainers. A tiny headache was building behind her eyes, and she tiredly rubbed the heel of a palm over her sliced face. She wondered how the injury would translate to her human form.

It was a damn lonely room.

.

.

Blinky and Vendel's concerns were comforting, but after a while AAARRRGGHH found their hovering tiresome. He didn't lose his temper often; he could probably count the number of times on Blinky's hands, over the course of four hundred years.

The pain of the memories, the horror of the panic attacks and flashbacks would never leave him, but he had become an expert in reining in his temper and wrestling the memories back, and it slightly needled at him that his friends were so concerned. Granted, he hadn't lost it at someone in a few centuries, and certainly not to someone he could have considered and acquaintance, but…

His room was the best place for solitude in Trollmarket, simply because nobody went there. Blinky had visited a few times early on, until AAARRRGGHH made it clear that he needed a private space. Everyone respected that, and left him alone. He didn't want them to hear the cries, or the roars, or the screams, or see the fist-prints in the wall.

Blinky, he knew, realized the difficulties he sometimes had in wrestling with his past, but he respected that AAARRRGGHH could handle it.

He returned to his quarters with the faint scent of blood and cat, smells he was quickly learning to associate with Alexandra. The scent got stronger the closer he got, and he realized…

Pungent, spicy cat urine, sweet, soft dead flesh and fur…

The itch of a medicinal salve, the metallic tang of blood and healing crystal tissue…

Cloth and leather, new…

…That the Trollhunter was in his quarters.

AAARRRGGHH entered the door with a quiet huff. The scent of her was everywhere; over the walls, the floor, the letters in the corner.

Snoop.

Spy.

Sneak.

"I came to apologize," Alexandra said, her arms full of cat and her mouth full of lies.

AAARRRGGHH had the impulse to shove her out of the door, but he clenched his fists and nudged Blinky's stool over to her, standing by the door. She didn't sit, but she put her briberies down.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly. To her credit, she sounded genuine. "I should never have gone off at you like that. I took things too personally. I realize that there is a bigger picture that I am only a small part of but I – "
"You should go," AAARRRGGHH rumbled, moving aside and gesturing to the door. He knew that she felt bad, but he had no need for apologies, especially contrived ones. She was apologizing to get back into his and Blinky's good graces, and it was an insincerity he had no patience for.

The Trollhunter looked completely derailed. He wondered if she noticed she was rubbing her dead eye. She swayed in the spot for a moment, looking like she couldn't decide what to do.

"What do you want me to say?"

AAARRRGGHH shook his head.

"Don't need lies," he said. "You should go."

"I shouldn't have gotten angry at you like that – "
"Everyone gets angry," AAARRRGGHH replied shortly.

"Yes, but I – "
"Not angry at me."
"No," she said, taking a step toward him. Her face flashed with something that wasn't a lie, and AAARRRGGHH slowly dropped his gesturing hand.

"You didn't…none of it was your fault," Alexandra said, and AAARRRGGHH saw something about the words break her suddenly. Her eyes widened, her fingers hovering over the damaged one, and she looked at the floor but didn't see it.

"None of it was your fault," she whispered, and he knew it wasn't about the fight.

"I didn't think about that, and I took things personally. I never wanted to be a part of this and that battle really scared me."

The Trollhunter sighed and, after a very long moment of hesitation, sat on the stool AAARRRGGHH had shoved at her, playing with her lower hands.

"And then there was you, and after everything…who you had been…that kind of acceptance I had not expected. I thought they liked you because you were a warrior. Because you fought for them, not just because…they forgave you."

Alexandra was too composed to cry. She was an accomplished liar and pretender, something that worried Blinky to no end, but AAARRRGGHH, having dealt with Bular, Gunmar, and every Gumm-Gumm and Changeling in the Darklands, was better at detecting the differences between someone who was posturing and someone who was telling the truth. Alexandra looked like someone who had to painfully wrench the truth out of her heart, so entrenched was she in her little cocoon of lies. She nearly shook with the effort it took to open up to him, and he saw how much she both craved that openness and feared it. He knew it well.

"But I shouldn't have taken that out on you," she continued. He looked up at her eyes, but she still couldn't read his face.

"You didn't deserve me treating you like that. No one deserves that. I judged you for a past you didn't have a choice in, instead of judging you by the choices you made to fix it."

Alexandra growled to herself, aggressively rubbing her eye.

"I've always…my family has always been treated differently." she muttered bitterly. "The kind of acceptance you found here…I was…jealous of that."

There was something that she was carefully not telling him, but he couldn't be angry at her for it. There were things he didn't tell Blinky, although he was sure that his friend knew anyway. But some things were too painful to voice. He could describe the screams, he could speak about the fear, but never could he admit that he missed the taste.

Whatever had made her go off at him hurt. He knew the kind of pain that made someone get angry at others. And although her words had cut him, had made him lose himself for a moment, he couldn't truly be hateful to her. Somehow, she was hurting as well.

AAARRRGGHH's eyes looked at her hands, and she slowly stowed them in her pockets, as if hoping he wouldn't notice the extra fingers. Her top pair had four, as was normal. The bottom had five…?

"I should go," the Trollhunter said quietly. "We both have things to do."

AAARRRGGHH shook his head, distracted. Alexandra got off of the stool and stood for a moment, before donning the composure AAARRRGGHH was used to her wearing. It was like she had never broken down.

She tried to move forward, but he blocked her, softly knuckling over to the briberies she had brought. The soft scent of fur clung to his fingers as he picked up the cat and swallowed it whole. He hoped that she understood that she was forgiven.

Alexandra watched him with wide eyes as he ate the rest of the bribes, and then nodded. She left without saying another word, but turned slightly and smiled before closing the door.

He could have sworn her eyes glowed for a second. It may have been the light from the Heartstone.

But AAARRRGGHH couldn't tear his mind away from those hands.

He knew that she was unusual-looking but he'd never given her much examination. But if he looked – truly looked – at her…

The horns – unnaturally curled and jagged…

The teeth, too long, too sharp…

The human-like hands, and the glow of the eyes…

The extra height, the extra bulk, yet she was more easily injured than any other troll he knew…

The mark of the Darklands was written over her entire being.

She wasn't a Gumm-Gumm. She was too small for that, relatively unscarred and unmarked, no warrior's tattoos. Gunmar liked his fighters big and wild.

That left only one other option.

Far down the hall, Alexandra sneezed.

.

.

.

.

A/N: I headcanon AAARRRGGHH as a fan of hippie music, especially Bob Marley and Simon and Garfunkel and The Beatles. Things that are soft and cheerful. Alex had her hippie days, but she preferred stuff like Steppenwolf and the Who and Jimi Hendrix.

The return of Gnome Chompsky was…unexpected. It just came out today and I have no idea where it came from, but he'll be useful in the next chapter. Bagdwella is fun; she's sharp and threatening, but I headcanon that she often goes to Blinky and AAARRRGGHH to help her around, if only because she likes the attention. Kanjigar, being (probably) a good-looking troll, would have gotten the brunt of her affections.

I loved writing from AAARRRGGHH's perspective, and I hope I did him well. It's canon, in the books at least, that he's not so much unintelligent as wrought with communication difficulties. I highly doubt that Gunmar would have put an idiot in charge of his armies. AAARRRGGHH is emotionally perceptive and empathetic, and though he doesn't vocalize very well it's clear that there's not just an empty head amid all that hair. He has no trouble processing, it's just getting what's in his head out into words that is the difficulty.

This was actually split in to two, because I don't like having more than two perspectives in one chapter.