*Warning for suggestive themes, bloody violence, character death, and violence/injury to a child*
Chapter description in end notes.
.
.
I wouldn't mind if life left me…
Wingless
Burnt to cinders
Ripped by storm
Scattered…like weeds
Celestially wounded
Without cherry blossoms to perish with
But I would cry
With head held in my hands
If it left me…unfulfilled.
Sanober Khan
.
.
.
.
The baths were honestly becoming her favorite place, and Alex moaned when she sank into the warm, sulfuric waters. The stench of decaying flesh and gore washed off from her and away into the rest of the underground river, and she fervently scrubbed her arms and face, taking care to not aggravate her wounds but ignoring all orders to keep her bandages dry. Getting wendigo residue off was more important than not having to re-wrap her wounds. She hated that thing.
It was a good thing that the armor, once banished, reappeared whole and untouched by previous battles, or else she would have the worst time repairing it and getting the blood and muck out of its crevices.
She could only scrub her hair with one hand, since her top left shoulder had a very lovely gash in it. It was getting longer and she no longer bothered to keep it bound in a ponytail. It didn't act quite as stiff and immobile as troll hair was supposed to, but it still wasn't as tame as human hair. She wondered if she should cut it, but it was the only thing that made her feel rellay feminine; her species of troll didn't have much in the way of sexual dimorphism apart from size, and there was nothing that could be considered feminine in a human perspective. She'd gotten the gist that females of her kind were supposed to be larger and scarier, but in terms of human standards she probably looked more male than ever. Throughout four centuries, Alex had always been more aggressive of mind and action if she could get away with it, but she had never thought herself unfeminine, and the loss of it with her troll form was a bit jarring.
Bagdwella at least could boast the hips and the bust; washing in the gleaming semi-dark, Alex felt nothing but flat planes and developing muscle. Missing boobs was not something that she had anticipated when taking up her troll form for good.
But trolls had different standards of femininity and beauty, she remembered. Although her human form became uglier and uglier over the years, due to her two forms beginning to blend, the twisted scars and muscles she was accumulating in her troll body were considered attractive, which would simply have to do. After her years of manipulating and flirting her way out of sticky situations, it was an ugly truth that being attractive in at least one way afforded one more opportunities and paved easier paths.
One thing, at least, had not changed, and Alexandra laughed out loud in the cavern at the thought of sidling up to Draal and asking him to help make her feel like a woman. The poor boy would probably have no idea what she was talking about, but his father, at least, would have himself a ghostly heart attack.
Still giggling, Alex rose from the baths and left for the Forge, not bothering to don more than her trousers and belt, since wearing her vest was less a necessity than a habit.
True to his word, Blinky was waiting there for her, looking significantly more grouchy than usual and it did not take much to guess that he was still annoyed about the trick she had pulled the evening before.
"Ah, Alexandra," he said, throwing out his arms in welcome. "Our illustrious and honorable Trollhunter, returned from a dangerous but successful mission! I have no doubt that your considerable skills will hardly be challenged by today's training."
Alexandra's mood, lightened by her relaxing morning, fell immediately. Nobody heaped that much praise on somebody without planning on shitting on their day.
"You have either excelled or steadily improved in all areas except one," Blinky said, crossing his arms behind his back and pacing around the arena's edge. "So today I introduce to you your opponent: the lady Vorfrida!"
Alexandra turned to the right as a door opened, and saw a troll of Nomura's ilk jump into the arena.
Blinky, returning to his spot by the stairs, pressed the button for the arena's controls.
"May she teach you well," he said with a grin. The floor shivered beneath Alexandra's feet, and when she looked back up at Blinky there was a very ugly amusement in his eyes.
Fuck.
Alex had it made where strength and agility were needed; she had four arms to block and attack, enough upper body strength to hold her own, and flexibility to roll and maneuver however she liked. Her troll body's main detriment was that, in contrast to her sizeable upper torso and arm strength, she had itty-bitty mother-fucking weiner dog legs.
Vorfrida jumped like a cricket as the arena turned from its usual flat surface into the three-dimensional nightmare that was hidden under its floors, and Alexandra vehemently cursed under her breath.
Blinky, being a cousin of Alex's clan, knew very well that they were one of the few species of trolls that had absolutely no jumping ability. Even Draal's stumpy little legs could get him far, far into the air, and a troll like Vorfrida, who was tall, lithe, and built with legs like springs, laughably outmatched Alex.
The other woman was an acrobat in comparison to Alex's clumsy, heavy jumps and stumbles. She used her arms as much as she could, but the reality was that even if she had the reach to catch a ledge, she still needed to be able to jump high enough to actually grab it, and she probably looked like a really hideous little kid, trying to hop onto a too-high table.
Fucking Blinky, Alex grumbled internally, running forward and grabbing another level as it rose past her. Vorfrida, who had been allowing her to get her bearings, swung up like a lemur and kicked her in the face, nearly causing Alex to lose her grip. She swat, but the troll was already dancing across the next level, watching her with amusement.
"You're putting too much on your legs," Vorfrida said, walking along the edge of the level as it turned vertically. "You're never going to catch up that way. Use your arms as much as you can and just let your legs supplement."
Alex growled with effort but pulled herself up, pushing off her level with all six limbs. She landed on the level below rather farther than before, but the movement had pulled at the cuts on her shoulder and when she landed, she landed badly.
Blinky, being the goddamn son of the Devil, apparently was having a marvelous time watching.
"If I apologize, will you stop this," Alexandra yelled, teetering unpleasantly on the edge of a blade. Blinky raised a brow.
"Why, Master Alexandra, I quite forgave you," he said calmly. "But this is an important part of your training, and I would be remiss as an instructor if I did not allow you to learn it."
"I've learned enough, thank you," Alexandra snarled, managing to land a glancing hit on Vorfrida as she twirled past. "Are we done yet?!"
"Oh, good gracious no, we've barely started! I can't imagine why you seem to be having such difficulty."
Alexandra, lowering herself off of a ledge before Vorfrida could strike her, shot him a brief middle finger.
"You know bloody well why! We're not made for this shit!"
She couldn't see over her shoulder, but just as Vorfrida crouched down by her hands she heard the grin in Blinky's voice.
"That, Master Alexandra," he said, and she knew he was having himself a wonderful time, "is why we train."
.
.
.
.
Alexandra was allowed to collapse when she was finally able to grab Vorfrida's knee and hurl her off of the top of the Death Arena, where she landed on one leg and sprained the ankle. Alex still had to get down, but it was so much easier when she didn't have another troll trying to pin her. Vorfrida allowed Alex to help her into the healing dwell, and they parted on amiable terms. She and Blinky, however, were apparently still at odds, because once she dropped Vorfrida off he gestured for her to follow him without a single word. She paused to buy some breakfast and then hurried after him as he slid through the crowds on the way to the library.
AAARRRGGHH was already inside and happily ate the food wrapper that Alex offered him.
"Good session?" he asked, grinning at the glare Alexandra shot him. She finished off her breakfast and threw herself down on a heap of books at his side, stretching luxuriously before lounging against his thigh. AAARRRGGHH was a touchy enough troll that she could get away with it, but she knew it would probably annoy Blinky to see her getting familiar with his friend.
"Your dear companion is a sadist, you know that?"
AAARRRGGHH rumbled happily and Alex relaxed further, enjoying the unusual amount of heat he put out against her sore and tired limbs. Blinky came in a few minutes later and was, as she predicted, annoyed.
"You may need to take notes, Master Alexandra," he said, shoving a pencil and booklet into her left hands. She pulled herself into a sitting position as he scoured the bookshelves.
"I know that Vendel wished to be a part of our meetings," he said quietly, with a short glance to the doorway. "But – given the unusual nature of our situation – I felt it may be prudent to discuss what we must do about the Killahead Bridge without…erm, censure."
Alexandra was at full attention now.
"We have the bridge piece," Blinky continued, pushing a desk away from the wall and peering through the bookshelves behind it. "In which case we have little worry about the bridge actually being completed whilst we formulate a plan, however! We cannot rely upon our one advantage, especially now that Trollmarket has proven itself to be not as invulnerable as we would have hoped."
"The best course of action would be to steal the entire bridge, I should think," said Alexandra. "Or find a way to truly destroy it. I can go back to the void and ask if there's anything to be done there."
"A reasonable idea, Master Alexandra, but consider: if the bridge were able to be destroyed in any way, why was it not?"
Alex scratched her chin with her pencil, chewing the metal nub off of the end. "They could have wanted to be able to open it eventually," she said quietly. Blinky and AAARRRGGHH both looked at her in surprise. She shrugged and leaned over her notebook, staring frankly at Blinky. "There's no Trollhunting job without Gunmar and his army, is there? That's what this whole job is about. Not everybody is as noble as you, Blinky."
"…Su…ccinct, but not wholy accurate," said Blinky slowly, hands wavering over a pile of crumbling scrolls. "The Trollhunter 'job' predates Gunmar's reign; it was appointed as a way to battle the Gumm-Gumms, who were ruled by Orlagk the Oppressor at the time. Even with Gunmar dead, the title of Trollhunter would still be used for the warrior most capable of protecting both worlds, for even after Gunmar's death there will still be danger, still be threats, do you see?"
Alex nibbled on her pencil and nodded. "And destroying the Killahead Bridge will not destroy the cracks between our dimension and the Darklands; things will always be able to get through."
"And just like Orlagk, when one leader falls, another will rise in his place."
So much for the easy way out.
Alexandra lay back down on her pile of books, playing with the amulet in one hand.
"Then all we can do is try to prevent the inevitable for as long as possible," she murmured, "and reduce Gunmar's armies as much as we can."
"Indeed. You said that you had a tentative alliance with the Changeling you spoke with, did you not?"
Alex huffed; Stricklander only allied himself for however long he felt it necessary, and breaking promises was like snapping a string of spider silk to a Changeling.
"For the gaggletack and Anstramonstrum crystal only. I merely gave them something to think about."
"An unusual gesture," Blinky said, quietly and with a hint of question.
Alexandra stayed silent, staring up at the carved ceiling as she thought.
This might not even end with me, she contemplated. She could die the next day, or a century from now. Gunmar's defeat may come at the hand of the next Trollhunter, or never at all. She was merely the next name in a long list, the pen hovering in place for when the time came to cross her off and write the new name down.
I have a lot to do if I'm going to get anything done.
"I don't want to alienate an entire people," she said again, listening absently as Blinky sorted through books in the very back of the room. "They didn't choose their ways; they didn't choose which side they were taken in to. It wouldn't be right for me to protect the troll and human worlds if I did not also protect those in between the two."
"One would think that the Changelings have already chosen their sides," said Blinky delicately. "As changeable as they may be, they have chosen Gunmar."
"They're brainwashed into a cult of violence and subjugation," Alexandra said heavily. "They can break from that. We've already heard one story of it."
Behind Alex, AAARRRGGHH rumbled uneasily. Blinky paused from his search to glance at his friend, before resuming his perusal of the bowels of his library.
"Blinky, what the hell are you even looking for," Alex said, raising her head just enough to look at him over the top of her chest. Blinky shoved a pile of books to a different area of floor and started to dig through them.
"I am looking for information on the bridge, Master Alexandra," he said, finally coming up with a heavy blue volume. "And first-hand accounts are always the best. Especially when written by yours truly!"
Blinky set the book down with a THUD; the spine crackled and dust rose from the pages as he opened the tome. AAARRRGGHH had to duck his head to sneeze and Alex blinked dust from her eyes as she rose and sat at the table.
"How long as it been since that book's been used?"
"A few centuries, at least," Blinky said distractedly, searching through the delicate pages. "I haven't needed this sort of information since I got wind of a conspiracy two hundred and, oh, perhaps forty years…ago…"
He trailed off, looking at the table with distant eyes. Alex was about to ask what was wrong when he SNAPPED the book shut, releasing another cloud of itching dust.
"Blinky what the fuck," Alexandra coughed, waving a hand in front of her face. AAARRRGGHH sneezed mightily.
AAARRRGGHH sneezed.
He sneezed.
Trolls couldn't sneeze.
But AAARRRGGHH sneezed.
They didn't have a gaggletack in the room and hadn't AAARRRGGHH been tested already? He'd held the thing, tested other trolls with it – there was no way…
Blinky set down the book and hunched over, placing two hands against his stomach.
"Excuse me, dear friends," he said in a pinched voice, "but my stomach seems to be giving me grief. I shall return in just a few minutes!"
And then he left, abandoning Alexandra with a huge troll who could sneeze. Alexandra slowly edged around the table, carefully opening the book again and looking through it.
"I hope you didn't eat whatever got him," she murmured, trying to stall for time while Blinky hopefully fetched a gaggletack. AAARRRGGHH rumbled in response, knuckling through the crowded library to look at the book.
"Bridge," he said thickly. "Not again."
"It won't happen again," Alex assured, still not certain if she were talking to AAARRRGGHH or a Changeling. "We won't let it happen."
"Still new at Trollhunting," he said.
"Don't worry, big guy," Alex replied, smirking at him as she summoned her sword and leaned on it. "I've got myself covered."
AAARRRGGHH…looked her up and down.
"See that," he said, with the hint of a smile. Alexandra didn't stumble, but it was a very near miss.
What. What?
AAARRRGGHH didn't flirt, which was exactly why Alex had avoided flirting with him for the most part, since it would garner neither amusement nor favor. There was no reason to waste time flirting with someone if it wasn't going to get her anywhere. And AAARRRGGHH did not look at her with interest. It was like a fucking glitch in the Matrix.
Blinky came back through the doorway with three arms full of food, the fourth hidden behind his back.
"Nothing like a bout of bad stomach to make one hungry again," he said with a nervous laugh. "AAARRRGGHH, my fine fellow? A spot of breakfast?"
He pressed a number of metal scraps and plastics into AAARRRGGHH's arms, and when the larger troll happily began eating Blinky drew forth his hidden arm and gently tapped AAARRRGGHH with the gaggletack.
Nothing happened, and AAARRRGGHH didn't seem to notice. Blinky slipped the totem into a pocket and made his way to the table, setting down the rest of his bounties and looking at Alex with confusion. She shrugged. Whatever was going on, it wasn't Changelings.
As they pored over the book, the softest breeze of breath over the top of her head made her shiver. She braced her hands on the table and leaned over the book, which was open to a depiction of various trolls who had died in the battle.
"You ask our formal Trollhunters for ideas," Blinky said, getting them back on track, "while I study this account. There is, I know, much that I have willed forgotten about that battle."
Alexandra took the dismissal for what it was, knowing that Blinky would want to examine AAARRRGGHH by himself. It occurred to her as she gathered half the foodstuffs and headed back to Draal's room that Blinky probably would not want an audience when he went over the Battle of Killahead with his companion. By all accounts it was an exceedingly unpleasant fight, with immense casualties on both sides. The battle was a particularly significant one for Alexandra's two trainers, since AAARRRGGHH switched sides during that fight and Blinky lost his brother. An audience for their reminiscing would not be welcome.
Before going to the Forge there were a few things she wanted to get from Kanjigar's quarters and from Draal himself, who had probably been present at the battle or heard accounts from his father. Shifting the purloined junk in her arms, her thoughts of Draal turned darker and angry.
If Draal was acting funny too, she'd fucking slam him. The one person in her life that she currently trusted, enough to Change in front of him, enough to talk with him, enough to just be - if that was gone, if that was ruined…
The door opened when she kicked it, cats scattering everywhere. Sheset the food down on the desk, knocking over the various books and items Draal had acquired and placed there.
The larger troll, eating his own breakfast in bed, startled as Alex stomped up to him and grabbed him by the shoulder, making him stumble as she pulled him close.
"Trollhunter, what – "
She almost asked him if he wanted to fuck her, but found her self at a loss for words. He truly looked so surprised, staring at her as she huffed in his face.
They stood there for a moment, breathing in the other's presence, until Alex watched his eyes and saw nothing but confusion.
She let go of his shoulder and backed off.
"Um. Is there something wrong - ?"
"No," she said, backing away another step. "Not with you. But – "
She stopped, trying to find the words. Working with someone wasn't usually her deal.
But Draal knew everything. Everything. And she knew – if it came down to it – that she would be willing to take chances with him.
It was a Changeling rule to trust no one.
Screw it.
"Have you noticed Blinky or AAARRRGGHH acting strangely? At all?"
He considered it for a moment and slowly nodded.
"Perhaps a little. Do you believe they may be hiding something from us?"
A cat rubbed up against her leg and she sat down on the nest, scratching behind its ears with one hand.
"I don't think so," she murmured. "They're just strange. Do you know AAARRRGGHH tried to flirt with me just now?"
Draal's brown furrowed.
"That is…"
"Extremely unlike him, I know. He nearly charged me for flirting with Blinky one time. I don't know what's going on. I don't like that."
"Maybe we should check on the bridge piece, just in case," said Draal; Alex turned to him so fast her neck cracked.
"You think they're working for Bular?"
"I don't know what to think," Draal said loudly, waving his hands through the air. "But it could not hurt to check. And I believe that they are perhaps suspicious of you, Alexandra."
The use of her actual name was what startled her the most, and she felt herself still.
"What do you mean?"
"Blinkous came in here not long ago, asking for the gaggletack I had taken from him. He looked so unnerved, I guessed that he was after you with it."
Alexandra shook her head, staring unseeing at the floor.
"No," she said softly, "he was after AAARRRGGHH. We both thought he…was a little bit off…"
"Oh," said Draal slowly. "Then I made a mistake in giving him a false gaggletack?"
Alex looked up at Draal sharply. "What?"
"The gnome living in your bathroom was in possession of one, I had to trade one of my belts for it. I assume it was the one you used to trick Blinky before?"
Alexandra nodded but did not otherwise respond. The gaggletack didn't work on AAARRRGGHH because it was a fake, but would the real one have worked anyway? It was AAARRRGGHH. AAARRRGGHH had held the real thing, used it – there was no damn way.
This is so damn messed up.
"I can't process this right now. Let's just go and ask them."
Draal looked down at the half-finished breakfast in his lap.
"Now?"
"Yes, now," Alex said, donning her armor and pulling him out of bed. "We need to confront them directly, while he's still being weird."
"I would not expect a direct approach to be a Changeling's way."
"It's not," Alexandra replied, pulling him out of the room and through the quiet hallways. "Which is why direct confrontation is the best way to do it, otherwise we'll keep going in circles and circles of lies and secrecy."
Draal muttered something like you are the expert, his words muffled by the last bite of breakfast he'd shoved into his mouth.
Yes, I damn well am.
When they arrived at the library they found it missing one occupant. Blinky looked up from the book he was studying and smiled grimly at them.
"Draal; good to see you recovered. Master Alexandra I hope you do not mind, but AAARRRGGHH excused himself several minutes into our recounting of the battle; the memory of it became rather overwhelming. I quite understand the feeling."
Alexandra nodded, but gave Draal a gentle nudge to the abdomen. He briefly touched a hand to her arm and then left, heading off toward AAARRRGGHH's rooms to investigate himself.
Alexandra settled back down in the library, gathering up the notebook and half-eaten pencil she'd left behind.
"Before we continue with our plans on the bridge, I'd really like to discuss some further security measures. The Isarnan community gave me a few ideas about runes and charms. They didn't have much in the way of physical protections, but nothing dark or Fae could enter through the spells they had placed around the Heartstone."
"It is certainly worth the research," Blinky said, "but I would hesitate to up security much further. The economics of Trollmarket depend on its travelers and pilgrims, and already we have bottlenecked entrances.
"I'm not asking for pat-downs and interrogations; I'm just asking if there are any charms or spells for that sort of thing. There's no such thing as being too cautious," Alexandra said, and her eyes pointedly lifted to the bookshelf where hid the stolen piece of Killahead Bridge.
Blinky followed her gaze and softly trailed his fingers across the shelves, pressing aside the books until he uncovered the little wood and iron box. The piece of stone within clunked against the sides.
"There are several protection spells that can be made with the Heartstone itself, or pieces of it like the horngazels. Those would be best, in exchange for imported charms or homemade totems. A protective spell for Heartstone Trollmarket should come from the heartstone itself."
His stony fingers scraped softly against the bridge piece as he lifted it out of the box, turning it this way and that to examine the carved lines on one side. Apparently satisfied, Blinky put the stone back in its box, handing it to Alexandra when she gestured for it.
"Are we quite sure that its safe here," she murmured, lightly clawing the wooden sides of the container. It opened.
The box was spelled against Changelings.
"Nobody has stolen from this library since its beginning, and it will remain that way. My library is completely open and accessible, making thievery unnecessary. More to the point, nobody knows the bridge piece is even here to steal."
"I still think we should move it somewhere else, somewhere not so public," Alexandra said, handing him the box to replace as she internally panicked. The stone was secure but somebody had replaced the box. "Perhaps some protective runes as well. For this and the entrances and exits."
Blinky had a mischievous glint in his eye as he played with the box and then put it back on the shelf.
"Well," he rumbled quietly. "It's a moot point by now. Every horngazel has been recovered, and our security is tighter than ever."
"True," Alex said, reaching past him to cover the box in its hiding space, very aware of the open door behind them. "But we should research just in case. I would rather not have to worry about Bular himself invading Trollmarket, on top of everything else."
Blinky turned around and crossed his arms, glancing at her sideways.
"You don't believe you're overworking yourself, do you? Do not think that I haven't noticed your lack of care toward your own wellbeing."
"What, you're watching me, Blinky?" Alex flirted half-heartedly, just to bother him.
Instead of grimacing as he usually did, Blinky smiled.
"As your trainer, naturally," he said. "Your eyesight may be impaired but I assure you that my eyes miss nothing."
What the fuck, what the fuck? Blinky too?!
Alex called his bluff and turned into him, using her height to stare him down.
"I could name a few things," she said, deciding to test this odd mood further. To her immense shock Blinky pushed himself off of the bookshelf and moved to her front, pressing her backward until leather book-spines dug into her shoulder-blades. He didn't touch her, just barely, but he leaned close enough that she could feel the warmth of his body, and chills ran down her back.
I'll kill him if I have to.
"Then you underestimate the weight of my glare," Blinky said at length, four eyes locked on hers while the other two roamed excessively. Two upper arms rose to grasp against the shelves, blocking her in. Despite being quite taller than him Alex was extremely unnerved by the unexpected change in demeanor. His abrupt shift made him suddenly unpredictable. Her body felt too-warm and chilled at the same time. Her breath shallowed and quickened, and the back of her neck prickled.
He would be easier to kill if he wasn't expecting it, and Alex found herself responding on automatic.
"Perhaps I like it," she purred, and smiled down at him. "But we still have work to do."
"It can wait," he said.
One hand landed on her hip-bone and she slammed her fist underneath Blinky's chin, lifting him off of the ground.
But the troll who landed was not the one she punched. His body shivered, and then Changed.
Bular crouched from where Blinky landed, and loomed over her like an immense shadow.
He gingerly licked the lip Alex had bloodied; her back and her limbs shivered with cold terror. "You have a heavy fist for one so light-handed," he said.
"What the fuck are you?"
Not-Bular grinned, picking himself up with deadly grace.
"I am not surprised to find that you don't know me," he said, an odd Germanic tinge to Bular's hostile timbre. "We have been unable to locate you, after all."
The Janus Order.
He's from the Janus Order!
"I wouldn't expect some idiotic Changelings to have good record-keeping," Alex muttered, wildly looking around the room for something to help her. If she summoned the armor now he would attack immediately. She had to keep him talking, had to find a way to get him down with minimal damage. Someone who could Change at random could destroy half of Trollmarket if set loose.
"But then I recalled something from a very long time ago," Not-Bular continued, very slowly beginning to advance across the room. He looked so alien, so utterly out of place in the warm, crowded library. And there was nothing to use as a weapon. She couldn't armor up, she was getting backed into a corner. Armor or no armor, she couldn't fight him like this.
"I remembered a little Changeling who always stayed in the back of the meeting, ja? She took her assignments and left, never spoke. I never saw her monströs form, but I remember those eyes, always looking for a way out."
"Sorry to disappoint you, but this old friend of yours ain't me," Alex muttered, scooting as slowly as she could around the end of a table. They were nearing the side wall, and she was running out of space. Her heart thudded at a strange quick pace to her achingly slow feet.
Not-Bular gave a dark, throaty laugh.
"No, you see," he said, and he started to grin at her. "This freund of mine died many years ago. We always check. But I started to do a little digging and fortunately for me, I have several contacts in the Eastern coastline, and found the hospital records for the day my dear freund died."
If Alexandra's breathing got any shallower, she would pass out; her claws dug into the table in front of her but her legs were shaking so much it hardly mattered. Black was seeping into the edges of her eyes and her chest felt too tight, too tight to breathe and she couldn't move and he kept looming over her, he kept talking and talking and talking and talking about this –
"Cardiopulmonary resuscitation," Not-Bular said, taking his time to feel the words on his tongue. "Only just beginning to become widespread, but I think it served you well, did it not, Verity?"
Alexandra lost her grip on the table and went down, feeling as if she were swimming through deep water. The armor materialized around her body the moment Not-Bular's fist hit her side, and although she went flying she at least didn't die. The jarring pain forced her into some of her senses; her whole body shook and she still couldn't breathe, but at least her shaking hands could hold a sword. Not-Bular advanced as Alexandra tumbled to the ground but she rolled toward him and slashed with sword and claw, catching him on the legs and underarms before she scrambled to her feet and fucking booked it. He roared in fury and stomped after her, narrowly missing her with a giant fist that instead smashed a shelf of books into pieces. Loose leaves and pages flurried around the room and Alexandra got a solid hit to his face in the mess and confusion and Not-Bular went down.
His father rose in his stead.
Gunmar… was terrifying. An immense shadow of power and stone, pulsing with energy and rage, but in the split-second after the moment of sheer panic Alexandra felt only anger.
How dare this asshole invade her home, impersonate the people she was actually trying to trust, bring up ALL HER SHIT and then try and attack her with the scariest troll imaginable? What a fucking dick!
It took two seconds for her to remind herself that although he looked like Gunmar, he wasn't actually Gunmar, because although he fought with strength and stolen agility, he didn't have Gunmar's skill and Alexandra still could wound him, and he bled like any other troll.
Not-Gunmar fell back when she sliced open his chest, and he turned into Draal.
"Trollhunter!" he said, reaching to her with pleading eyes. "Please! You can't hurt me, can you?"
His accent wasn't quite right – hah! that's why! – and Alex snarled as she pounced on him.
"YOU WANT TO BET?" she roared, smashing two fists into his fake blue face. She'd dealt with this shit with the wendigo, no thank you, she was not going to deal with it again! Not-Draal tried to slap her away but her claws dug deep into his face, deep into his eyes and his cheeks and he screamed in pain, finally kneeing her in the abdomen and sending her to smack against the ceiling. She came down swinging her sword, and half of a horn was loped off as he ran.
Her fingers burned with energy, melting the stone beneath her claws before she pushed up off of the ground and followed him.
He may have been able to blend in, but his wounds remained on whatever body he took, and Alexandra followed the blood on the ground, splashed against the stalls and the crystals and the trolls he ran into.
Several of the market-goers shouted in alarm at the sight of the Trollhunter fiercely pursuing a bleeding, panicked Draal, but Alexandra ignored the angry yells, jumping on top of a pile of broken televisions. She drove herself forward too forcefully to pay heed to the unstable surfaces beneath her feet, and leapt from the top of the pile, landing on top of Not-Draal's back hard enough to bruise her unarmored joints. They went down in a graceless heap but Not-Draal still had Draal's strength, and Alexandra was yanked up as the Changeling scrambled to his feet, Alex still grasping his dorsal crystals. Her shin banged painfully into a fallen tv and she was heavily battered for the first few feet as he ran, but his crystal protrusions offered excellent handholds and she pulled herself up and over his head, grabbing his horns on the way down and throwing him forward into a market stall.
He Changed, and Not-Vendel got up and backhanded her.
One of the trolls in the growing crowd helped brush debris away from Alexandra and it turned her attention briefly to the public watching them. Her breath came in coarse, wet gasps as her chest ached with old forgotten pains; the cries of the crowd seemed to come as if through water to her.
"The Trollhunter is attacking Vendel!"
"No, you fool, didn't you see him change? It's some sort of trick – "
"It's a Changeling," Alex yelled, slashing at Not-Vendel with her sword and two broken poles from the stall. The trolls gasped in horror and yelled in anger, but Alex didn't have time to listen. Not-Vendel charged her way, throwing his arms around her torso even as she stabbed him in the shoulder, and they hit the ground hard, two fists nearly the size of her face pounding against her head. She bit one as it landed in her teeth and shoved him away, gouging a line across his chest with a broken pole. Not-Vendel stumbled away from her when she tried to claw him again, and this time when he turned, he turned into a human child.
Alexandra paused with her arm raised, even as her eye swelled and her ribs ached; she knew it wasn't a child, she knew it was a trick, but her sword arm took on a heavier weight than she had ever held before. The tearful, crying not-child jumped of the way just before the sword came down on his head, and then shrank into a troll-child, sobbing and whimpering at her with fear. The crowd watching the fight began to murmur harder, several of them speaking with alarm.
Could she kill something that looked like a kid?! In front of all these people? Would they understand?!
The Changeling knew he had found her weakness, and shrank down once more, although the Change this time seemed harder for him. He was now nothing more than a tiny human baby, naked and blood-streaked on the dirty stone floor. Alexandra's anger grew, but her sword arm shivered. She was seeing things that she didn't want to remember, and her anger and disgust was only barely enough to push it back.
Please don't make me kill a baby. I can't do this fucking job.
The baby hiccupped and began to cry, looking fearfully at the trolls surrounding it. One of the crowd started forward to pick it up.
"Don't touch it!" Alex yelled, halting the troll in his tracks. "It's still a Changeling. It's still dangerous."
It's a fucking baby
She couldn't sweat like a human could, not in this form, but her skin felt cold and prickly, too tight around her forehead and neck and collar.
The not-baby screamed and its form shivered as Alex's shaking sword missed the chest and hit the arm, almost slicing the tiny limb right off. Light wavered from the Changeling as it struggled with its form, shifting rapidly like some Lovecraftian demon, fleeing from her in the skin of a middle-aged man, an elderly woman, a rotund male troll.
Blinky – the real Blinky – only just cleared the edge of the crowd when the Changeling pounced on him, partially changing again into Bular as he knocked down the troll and tore at his pockets. Blinky yelped in horror as he hit at the Changeling but the damn thing was already running again, the yellow glow of a horngazel in his hand. Alex ran past Blinky without giving an explanation, leaving him bloody and shocked on the floor.
Blood splashed from the Changeling's ruined arm as he scrambled through Trollmarket and Alex knew she had to stay on her feet, knew she had to follow, knew she had to either kill him or see him driven out. But he knew. He knew her.
The quaking Changeling was fast despite his injuries, and when he reached the crystal staircase Alexandra nearly screamed in rage, hurtling herself after him. He could hop up the crystals easier than she could and she was sorely tempted to just Change then and there for the advantage of her longer human legs, and screw everybody else; she wanted this bastard dead! A smear of blood made her slip down, aggravating her banged shin again as she landed two crystals down.
She hauled herself up with her arms and launched back up the staircase, hearing gasps of pain and desperation echo across the stone. The Changeling was partially finished with his portal when Alex threw her sword into his back, piercing the hipbone and upper buttock. He went down with a yell and Alex went down with him, bodily tackling him even as he fell. His features expanded, distorted, shifted between a human man's and her own scarred blue face, and half-formed claws raked at her exposed chin and hands even as her own fingers dug into his skin and burned him with the stench of scorched copper and stone.
He went down slow, and he went down ugly, screaming bloody murder the entire time until Alexandra's ears rang with a dozen agonized voices, and when he finally stopped moving she could do no more than fall off of his body and shake to pieces on the floor.
.
.
.
.
Description: Blinky has Alexandra undergo a grueling training session to both train her to jump on her stubby little legs and in revenge for the prank she played at the end of the last chapter. She and her trainers discuss what to do about the bridge situation and Alexandra is later perplexed and concerned when Blinky and AAARRRGGHH occasionally act out of character, both of them acting flirtatious toward her. She confronts Draal, who is the same as ever, and they set out to find what had Blinky and AAARRRGGHH acting so strange. This comes to a head when Alex corners Blinky and he reveals himself to be a Changeling who can shift into many different forms, fighting Alexandra under the guise of Bular, Gunmar, Draal, and Vendel in efforts to shake her. They fight until he turns himself into a child, stunning Alex into hesitation. She kills him just on the edge of Trollmarket and collapses under the strain of her memories of the Darklands and her younger years. Sorry, Otto.
Bitch do y'all know how difficult it is to write Blinky and AAARRRGGHH out of character and flirting? Without cringing? It's awful.
Otto didn't impersonate Draal simply because he couldn't convincingly imitate Draal's accent. His polymorph trick gives him the voice, but he's got to do the accents and personal inflections on his own. He also had more time to watch Blinky and AAARRRGGHH interact and was able to mimic them well enough to not raise suspicion with each other, but Alexandra – being either around and about Trollmarket or off killing a monster, was a bit of an unknown, and when she came back teasing and flirting and being herself, he interpreted that she and those two had more of an intimate friendship than they really do. I'm a little sorry to have killed him off, but Alex needs to both embrace and destroy her own fears and darknesses, and Otto was a representation of a good few of those. Prepare for angst in the next chapter.
I took a lot of this from the chapter in the Trollhunters book where Jim has to kill a Changeling that looks and sounds exactly like a human infant. It was a short but emotionally challenging scene to read, and I hope that this chapter wrenched a few hearts and guts as well.
So there's what happened, folks. Alex – then Verity – was killed in an accident in the late 1960's. Her death immediately meant the death of her familiar, but Alex herself was revived by the hospital staff. Her familiar was dead, but she was not, and since she 'died' in her human body she kept it – her familiar never left the Darklands, after all (it was eaten, actually). I hc that Changelings stay human-looking if they die like that, otherwise we'd have strange stories about people suddenly turning into monsters upon their deaths.