Jim always fought like the beast he was. That's what early and prolonged exposure to gravesand did to you, really.

His fists sparked red as he swung them, and another Gumm-Gumm got turned into a pile of stone.

Nomura used her scimitars to cleanly cut through the neck of another one of the evil trolls, and kicked the stone-turned body away from herself.

More Gumm-Gumms were coming through though.

Barbara was working on closing the natural portal, Stricklander was fighting around her, keeping her free to concentrate on the task. They made a good team. Just like her and Little Gynt did.

A sharp whistle brought her back to the world (not like she stopped fighting) and she turned in the direction, narrowly avoiding a charging Gumm-Gumms blade. She nodded a thanks for the warning in Jim's direction, and beheaded the fool trying to attack her back.

Deya, they were annoying.

"Done!" Barbara suddenly announced, and Nomura watched the portal fizzle out of this plane of existence. "And now…" She charged the closest Gumm-Gumm with a yell, and punched it across the lawn. Green sparks overtook her figure and her eyes lit up as she punched a Gumm-Gumm after Gumm-Gumm, Stricklander hot on her heels.

A movement out of the corner of her eye took her attention and she yelped "Jim!" seeing as he was completely unaware of the Gumm-Gumm behind him, aiming at his neck. The whelp jumped in the air, and used Impes to change his trajectory, swiftly avoiding the attack.

"Thanks Nomura!" he yelled after her, but she was already busy fighting again.

Together they got rid of danger quite quickly, and Jim cleaned out the space with a few well-placed portals. The mission was officially a success.

The lessons were so boring when Toby knew that after they finished he'd be able to see his best friend again. Now that he thought about that, soon he'd be seeing him every day at school too. Holy heck!

He couldn't quite imagine Jim in a school setting. The boy was too gung-ho about fighting anything and anyone being in his way. Hopefully Toby wouldn't see him tearing down the blackboard in a fit of rage…

But he knew the changeling wasn't quite stupid enough to do that. He couldn't do the spell that erased memories of multiple people at the same time, so he wouldn't risk it. He knew better than anyone else how important it was to keep magic away from ordinary people. The Hunters… G-d, he shivered at the sheer thought.

But oh well, they haven't been sighted in quite some time. The chances of them being gone weren't high, but Toby could hope.

He just wanted Jim to be safe.

Was Jim being a little stupid? Maybe. But he wanted to visit his favourite, and only, uncle, while he still had the time to do so.

Now, was Jim being a little petty? Absolutely. His mother wouldn't like the idea he had. Nomura would be amused, but when wasn't she at his antics. Strickler would be… ambivalent.

And so he left the house, telling no one where he was going, and followed the familiar magic signature in an almost straight line. That's how he ended up in front of a nondescript book shop.

"'GDT Arcane Books', huh?" he mused out loud, before pushing the door open.

"Hello, how can I help youuuuuu…" came a standard greeting that promptly fizzled out into silence as one Hisirdoux Casperan looked him startled in the eye. "Jim?" he croaked out horribly, his expression portraying pure unadulterated horror. "What in Deya's name are you doing here!?"

"Nice to see you too, Hisirdoux. I just came to visit, naturally," he said, smirking, watching the other man's face metaphorically fall apart to pieces.

"Wha— But— The book— You'll—" he fumbled with his words, never settling on one sentence to finish. "Why— You're here, so— If—"

"Yes, the end of the world is nigh," he confirmed, looking around. There was an armchair a little bit to his right and he took the place in it, getting comfortable.

"Fuzzbuckets," Douxie said emphatically.

"Fuzzbuckets indeed," Jim repeated after him, idly checking his nails. "How are you doing?"

"Me? I'm doing great, peachy, once again, what are you doing here?" Douxie planted his hands firmly on the counter, as if looking for support.

"Well… the book got impatient," Jim closed his eyes and started swinging his legs back and forth. "It showed us a possibility of Bular siding with Hunters, and I doubt any of us would like that."

"Oh fuzzbuckets." Douxie's eyes went wide. "That is indeed bad." Then something hit him. "Are you here alone?"

Jim snorted, "Of course not. Eager to see Barbara?" Douxie suppressed a shiver. The changeling smirked. "She'll find out you didn't move out sooner or later, her radar skill has been getting better."

"Don't remind me…" the wizard muttered and bowed down to lay his forehead on his crossed arms.

"What, aren't you eager to see your little sister?" Jim teased, and earned himself an annoyed look. "What, dear uncle, you can't sever the ties you have with us."

"I would just rather keep out of the mess," Douxie said defensively, and rose from his weird position. "Let's change the subject, how is your education going?" He started moving around, dusting the shelves from the layer of dust that had settled on them.

"Great, great, not much progress in terms of new spells, but I finally managed to pass The Tests without a scratch," Jim answered honestly, tilting his head to the side in thought. "What's it to you?"

"Just expressing my interest in my nephew, what's wrong with that?" Douxie's voice wavered in the middle of the sentence. He was lying. Jim however had no incentive to call him out, so he decided to just see how the conversation would play out.

"Nothing, nothing… How's it going with Zoe?" he asked. Douxie immediately straightened out like a pole and turned around towards him.

"How do you know about her!?" He looked like a deer in headlights.

"The book of Ga-Huel might not know all, but it certainly knows how many kids you'll have in the future." He went back to checking his nails.

"That's it," Douxie murmured. "That's it," he repeated more evenly, "Get out of my shop."

"Is it really yours?" Jim wondered aloud, disregarding the strongly worded suggestion.

"Out!" Douxie didn't look as much furious as flustered. Still, Jim smirked, waved, and went.

"Where have you been?" Nomura asked him when he dropped home.

"Nowhere, where's Barbara?" he asked instead.

Nomura squinted at him and grimaced. "At the hospital, she got the job. They need her to sign some paperwork and she can start."

"Great, I'm going to nap." And nap he did. After all he had to be at his full strength when going into the Trollmarket.

Unsurprisingly Steve and his goons cornered Eli the moment they got out of class. Which… perfect, juuuuuust great. He had a feeling the little stunt Jim did would put him in even more trouble.

"So tell me, who was that?" Steve sneered, leaning over Eli like a snake over a mouse that had nowhere to run.

"Who was what?" he tried, and received a rough shove for his trouble.

"That idiot who took you away in the morning, who was that?" Steve repeated himself and lightly punched him in the arm. It still hurt.

"That was, uh, Jim."

"Who is Jim?" Steve was getting more angry and Eli didn't know how to lessen it.

"He's a… friend?"

"You don't have friends you fucking nerd, you only keep close with that pig, and not even that close," Steve narrowed his eyes and grabbed him by the shoulders.

"Don't call Toby a pig, it's mean," he murmured. He knew it would just get him in more trouble, but he couldn't stand the derogatory term thrown at his friend. Besides, Toby did a good job losing weight in recent years. The nickname just… stuck.

"I will call that pork whatever I want. Now answer me, who is Jim? Did you pay him to help you? Is he your bodyguard?" It wasn't that funny but Steve and his goons laughed, and Eli chuckled out of reflex. This turned out to be a wrong decision. "Shut up!" Steve punched him with a left hook, and his glasses fell to the side with a sound of cracking glass. Oh no. He couldn't afford to get another with his prescription, he couldn't… He felt his eyes watering, more from the knowledge than from the pain of getting punched.

"Oh look, the little baby is crying, boo-hoo," Tyler—he thought that was his name at least—taunted.

"I'm— I'm not crying—" He was, but he didn't want to admit it.

"Oh sure you aren't, just like the sun isn't shining. Now will you answer my question or do I need to roughen you up a little first?"

"Jim's a…" He didn't know what to say there. He was pretty sure Jim made it impossible to say anything about magic, or anything supernatural, so he couldn't say that. Not that it would help much if he said it. "Jim is Toby's friend," he said instead, "He just moved in, I don't know anymore."

"Then why did he help you?" Steve grabbed him by the shirt. "Did you ask him? Or is chivalry not dead?" He and his goons laughed again. Eli stomped his reflexive stress-induced giggles.

"I— I didn't, he just did that on his own," he said truthfully. Steve didn't look pleased to say the least. "I'm telling the truth!"

Suddenly they heard footsteps, heels clanking on the floor, and Steve's eyes widened. "Scram," he said. And when Eli didn't react, he yelled, "I said scram!"

And so Eli grabbed his glasses from the floor and ran.

His legs took him to Toby's house. He looked up at the familiar building, and was about to knock, when something lightly hit him on the back of his head.

He turned around, expecting… he didn't know what he was expecting. Maybe Steve to have followed him to taunt him. What he found was nothing. Or rather nothing on the street, when he looked up he saw Toby-shaped orange blur in a window of a house opposite to his, waving at him.

"Oi, Eli, come here!" He was cheerful and loud and it brought a smile to Eli's face.

"What are you doing there? That's not your house?" he yelled across the street. Toby laughed.

"No, but it's Jim's! Come in!" He then disappeared from the window, presumably to go greet him at the door. Eli shrugged, this might as well have happened.

He directed his steps towards the house and gently knocked on the door, so Toby would hear him but hopefully no one else that might have been in the house.

His luck ran out it seemed however, as someone who definitely wasn't Toby opened the door.

"Yes?" the woman asked in a very unpleasant tone of voice.

"Um, I…" Thankfully he was saved from the conversation as Toby ran down the stairs.

"Hi Eli!"

"Hi Toby."

"That your friend?" the woman asked Toby, and he nodded vigorously. "Okay." She turned around and left further into the house.

"Why are you still standing there, come in!" Toby came up to him and stopped. "Oh no… Eli, where are your glasses? What happened?" The boy reached out and gently squeezed his arm, while Eli averted his gaze. "Let's get you inside."

Eli followed him up the stairs and into a room, where he saw Jim, in his troll form, splayed on a bed. He appeared to be asleep, and Eli wondered what exactly was Toby doing in his room. At least he thought that was Jim's room. It was… pretty bare aside from some colourful stones on the shelves.

Toby collapsed on the bed next to Jim and poked him a few times, earning a swat from the troll. "Jimbo, it's important," he said seriously. "You need to fix Eli's glasses."

Jim was, to say, unmoved by Toby's request.

"Jim, I'm going to destroy the UV protective lining on your window." That got the troll's attention as he opened one eye and glared at Toby.

"You wouldn't dare."

"I would and I will if you don't get up now," Toby threatened, "And you know it's hard to replace it."

"Fine, fine, I'm getting up, where's the fire…" he murmured, disgruntled, and then his eyes fell on Eli. He froze and blinked slowly. "Oh, hi Eli," he said somehow timidly. "Your glasses?" He extended his stony hand towards them.

Hesitantly Eli gave them to him. There wasn't really much else he could do to destroy them further aside from straight up crushing the frames. Somehow he didn't find the image unfitting. Jim certainly proved his strength the previous evening.

But Jim didn't destroy them further, just turned back into human, murmured something, tracing the cracks in the glass with his finger, and they disappeared, filled with magic.

"Here," Jim handed them back, "Should be, ah, as good as new."

"Thank you." Eli placed them on the bridge of his nose and blinked a few times to adjust. They really were as good as new, perfectly clean too. "How did you do that?"

"Sarcio," he said the word clearer, "A mending spell that works only on inanimate objects." He paused for a good half a minute and they all stayed in awkward silence, before he spoke again. "Do you want a tissue?"

"Wh— Oh. Yeah." He honestly forgot he'd been crying.

Jim extended his hand. It glowed red, and suddenly a box of tissues flew right towards it. Telekinesis? What couldn't he do?

"Here," he shuffled off the bed to give Eli a tissue. "I, um…" his brows furrowed, he looked troubled. "Are you hungry?" he eventually said, and it was Eli's turn to appear confused.

"Uh, I guess I could eat?"

"Okay, I can make lunch. Any preferences?"

"Uh… sandwiches are fine?"

That's how they ended up downstairs, in the kitchen. The lady from earlier was lounging on a sofa, reading some book, and only gave them a sparing glance as they shuffled by.

Eli expected Jim to just take out bread and some ingredients and let him be, but instead the boy turned to a food processor. Eli tilted his head in confusion.

"Just let him do his magic," Toby whispered conspiratorially.

Jim opened up a small portal and took out garlic out of it, then opened another and took out two little jars of what appeared to be anchovy. He continued opening up portals and putting up things on the counter until there was an array of ingredients. He made quick work of peeling the garlic, and put it in the food processor alongside anchovy, chile flakes, olives, capers and basil. Once they were being ground into paste he slowly added oil and vinegar to the mix. Jim then put the paste in a bowl, and took the baguette to expertly cut it in half lengthwise, then sliced it into smaller pieces.

Eli watched, trying to keep his salivating in check. He supposed if sandwiches were ever to be gourmet this would be it.

Jim continued to work. He cut saucisson and cucumber into thin slices, spread the paste over the bread, and layered the slices over it. He then seasoned the entire thing with pepper.

"Voilà," Jim said softly, pushing the plate with sandwiches towards Eli and Toby. "I hope you'll like it." He grinned, perhaps for the first time since Eli had arrived in his house. "And if not we can throw them at Nomura."

"In your death, kid," the woman said, shooting him a glare.

Ignoring the exchange Eli grabbed a sandwich and took a bite out of it. It was good. Like seriously good. A small smile bloomed on his face at the taste, and he took another bite.

"Good?" Jim asked, eyes hopeful.

"Very," Eli hurried to say despite his mouth being full. Something in Jim's expression just begged for a fast answer. He swallowed hastily and added on, "It's really good. I've never eaten anchovy before."

"Really? I suppose it's not that popular…"

The conversation stopped for a moment as all three of them enjoyed the sandwiches. When they were done Jim rinsed the plate in the sink and put it on the dryer, then doing the same with the food processor's bowl.

Eli mostly watched awkwardly, not knowing what to do. Toby appeared much more at ease.

"Feeling better?" Jim asked quietly, and Eli blanched. He… did. He practically forgot that anything happened at all earlier.

"Yeah, thank you."

"No need to thank me," Jim waved him down, "I did bare minimum."

"You call that a bare minimum?" Eli chuckled out of disbelief. "Do you know how much glasses cost in this economy? And you gave me food too."

Jim just shrugged, smiling at him sheepishly.

"Okay lovebirds, let's go play some games before Jim has to go," Toby smacked Eli on the back, and he pretended that was the reason he choked on his spit, not the nickname.

"Go where?" he asked, desperately trying to hide his red-tinted cheeks as he coughed.

"You okay?" Toby asked, no real worry lacing his tone.

"Peachy," he coughed out. "Where is Jim going?"

"Oh, to the Trollmarket," Jim was the one who answered him, coming up to him and massaging slow circles onto his back as he coughed. Eli's face got impossibly redder. "Before you ask, it's a place where most trolls in Arcadia live."

Eli straightened himself and tried to get rid of residual embarrassment. "Huh, that's cool."

"If I get permission I could show you around," Jim said, motioning for their group to move up the stairs.

"Permission from who?" Now his voice was mostly steady.

"Vendel—the leader of the Heartstone Trollmarket," Jim intoned seriously. "He's one of the oldest trolls in Arcadia, the wisest too. If he says you're welcome in there, no one can tell you no." Then he looked back at him with a devilish grin. "Or we could sneak you in."

"Let's not break any more rules Jimbo," Toby sighed. Any more? Eli wanted to ask about it, he wanted to ask about it so bad, but the conversation moved on before he could.

"Vendel is an old goat who can be very grumpy at times, but he also genuinely likes me, so there's a chance he'll let you in."

"Can you ask for an appeal to let me in?" Toby asked, annoyed.

"After you stole that hammer? No way Tobes."

"I didn't steal it, it magically attached itself to me with its curse, those are two very different things."

As they bickered Jim crouched in front of his bed and took out a gaming console from under it.

"Potato potahto, Vendel sees no difference." He connected the console to a power outlet and took out a few game boxes from the bookshelves. "Okay, what are we playing?"

"Gun Robot: Rebirth!" Toby immediately yelled. Jim looked at Eli, who shrugged.

"I don't mind that."

"Cool, because I do." What?

"He sucks at this game," Toby said in a theatrical whisper. "Like sucks sucks."

"Well, I have only two controllers anyway, I wanna see which one of you is better." Jim put the cartridge into the console, and then got comfortable on the bed, lying on his stomach.

Eli looked at him, then at Toby, and shrugged again. This might as well happen, alright.

What followed was an epic game between two nerds who deeply enjoyed Gun Robot and knew all the special combos and moves. They were going neck to neck, evenly matched.

The game ended in a draw.

When they turned around to see what opinion Jim had on that, they found him deep asleep.

It was finally evening, and so Jim could go ask Vendel about stuff.

He kinda mourned the fact that he managed to fall asleep while watching Eli and Toby play. He himself couldn't ever beat his best friend so seeing him evenly matched with someone was a rarity he wished to enjoy.

He got too comfortable though, and that was his undoing.

Well, no point crying over spilt milk. With a deep breath he opened up a portal straight to the old goat's study.