Your Future Hasn't Been Written Yet
by K. Stonham
first released 10th August 2021
The bell over the door of GDT Arcane books chimed as the door was pushed open. Douxie looked up from behind the counter and gave a wave. "Hello, Jim! Be with you in a bit."
Turning back to his customer, Douxie resumed their conversation. "This one's got some really nice illustrations."
Eli flipped through the book. The volume in question had lots of drawings and paintings. He lingered on one that showed a black dragon glowing blue along its spine. "This might be good for our campaign," he said. He looked up, brown eyes meeting Hisirdoux's, and laughed just a little, as if ashamed of his geeky interests. "Do you think dragons really look like this?"
"Well, it's not the most accurate of books," Douxie had to admit. "But the ones that are closer to true, I'm afraid we can't stock. Import laws. But this is, as they say, good enough for government work."
The boy dithered over The Book of Dragons for a couple more seconds, then nodded to himself. "I'll take it," he said, and pushed it across the counter for Douxie to ring up.
"If you ever want it, we also have a companion volume in stock about trolls," Douxie said.
"Trolls?"
Douxie grinned. "They steal your socks."
Eli grinned back. "But only the left ones?"
"You know it."
Douxie waved at Eli as the teenager left, and mused to himself that he'd been crossing paths with so many of his future friends and allies for years, and had never guessed it.
"Well," Douxie said, stepping out from behind the counter, "good to see you again, Jim. And you must be Toby."
Green eyes widened. "Jim talked about me?"
"Jim talks about you all the time," Douxie agreed. He shifted his weight back, considered an opening salvo. "He told me you're an amateur stage magician?"
"I am!" Toby brightened.
"Show me your best trick," asked Douxie.
"Oh, watch this!" Toby grinned, smile glittering with metal. "Nothing up my sleeves, abracadabra!" With a flourish, he seemingly removed his thumb, wiggled it, then stuck it back on.
"Dismemberment. Always good with the audience. Care if I have a go?"
Jim, who had been stood back, watching the two of them, smiled. "Oh, I'd love to see this. Go on."
What, did Jim think he was going to use real magic? "Nothing up my sleeves either," Douxie said. "But... oh dear, you seem to've dropped something." He reached behind Toby's head and pulled a worn Gun Robot wallet out of thin air. He blinked at it for a moment, as if confused where it had come from, then reached for Toby's other ear. "And you seem to have something stuck in your hair." With another flourish, he produced a keyring holding half a dozen keys.
Toby was staring gape-mouthed at him. "That was so awesome!" he squealed.
Hisirdoux smiled, returning Toby's property. "It's all in the wrists, and a good deal of practice," Douxie told him. "There's a couple books in the prestidigitation section that I can recommend, if you want to give them a look."
"I," said Toby seriously, "would love nothing more."
They spent a pleasant twenty minutes talking about stage magic and flipping through the books while Jim wandered the store, flicked through a couple volumes of his own, and petted the store's cat, scratching between its shoulderblades, of course. Douxie smiled to see his familiar reduced to a puddle by something so simple.
"All right, I've got enough allowance saved up for this one," Toby said, picking what Douxie felt was the best of the books. "I'll have to come back for the others later."
"I can put them aside for you, if you'd like."
"Nah." Toby waved off the offer. "Let somebody else have them if they need 'em before Nana pays me again."
"All right." Hisirdoux worked the till. "That'll be twenty-three eighty, then."
"Wait, the book's twenty-six ninety-nine!" Toby protested.
Douxie winked. "Fellow magician's discount. Come back and let me know how you're getting on."
"Awesome, man!" Toby paid up and bundled his new book under his arm. "Jimbo, you buying anything?"
"Not today, Tobes." Jim stepped up beside his friend. "We'd probably better get going, though. Don't want to be late to practice with Mister Blinky."
"Oh, yeah, right." Toby looked a little worried to be talking in public, even so obscurely, about their Troll-related activities. "We gotta run, Douxie. Nice meeting you!"
"A pleasure meeting you, too." Douxie held the door open for the two boys and waved goodbye.
"Laying it on a bit thick, weren't you?" Archie asked from where he was now studying a book.
"Nah." Smiling, Hisirdoux watched Jim and Toby cross the street. "This is... so much better than the last time I saw him."
"Oh." As if Archie had suddenly remembered what Douxie had told him about the last time he'd seen Toby.
"Right." Douxie shoved off from where he was leaning against the doorframe, and wandered over to his familiar. "What're you reading, Arch?"
"Uhhh..." Toby stared at Draal. "Blinky, why is the troll who hates me here to teach me combat?"
Draal growled. "It has been brought to my attention," he rumbled, "that fighting you for the amulet would hardly be a fair match, and that there is neither honor nor glory in slaughtering an untrained opponent. Also," he added, almost under his breath, "I doubt you'll last long anyway, so the amulet will soon be able to choose again."
Jim glared. That was not what they'd talked about.
"That is yet to be seen!" Blinky snapped back.
"Agreed," said Draal, and charged at Toby, who barely got his armor summoned in time.
Standing by Blinky and Aaarrrgghh, Jim watched for a few minutes, wincing periodically, and barely able to restrain himself from calling out advice.
"Master Jim," Blinky said to him, quietly enough that the two figures, one chasing the other up, down, and around the Forge, would not be able to hear, "I thought perhaps you might use Master Toby's training time to peruse my library and see if you can find anything of worth. And then, after his training for today is done, you and Aaarrrgghh, or perhaps Draal, might make use of the Forge."
"While you teach Toby in the library?" Jim gave his mentor a smile. "That would be great! Thanks, Blinky."
Walking through Trollmarket was full of something that Jim could only label nostalgia. He could name every troll, saw them right where they should be, gnomes running around underfoot, the heartstone glowing brightly and giving everything life-
He was so distracted taking it all in the way it should be that he ran into someone's back.
"Sorry-" he apologized, as Vendel turned around.
"And where are you off to, young human?" the Elder demanded.
"Blinky told me to go wait in his library," Jim replied.
"Oh, and you know where that is, do you?"
"Yes, sir."
"And he expects a human to just sit there, surrounded by all our knowledge and some priceless artifacts, and not get yourself into trouble?" Vendel scoffed. "I think not. I will come with you, to make sure you get there and stay out of trouble once you are there."
"Okay..."
Jim racked his brain, trying to think of innocuous conversation as they walked on. "I understand why you don't like humans, but is there something specific I've done wrong?"
Vendel sniffed. "You came into Trollmarket along with the new Trollhunter. Having one human in our midst is bad enough, but two?" His expression left no doubt as to his disdain. "Furthermore, you have no idea what caused my dislike of humans, so do not presume to speak to me on how I should feel about your species."
"Well, Arthur was a jerk, but you're right that I don't know about things before that," Jim said without thinking. Then he froze, missing a step even as Vendel turned to look at him.
"And how do you know about Arthur?" Vendel asked, deceptively mild. "From what I've heard, your human histories paint him as a hero."
"I... have a friend who's a wizard," Jim said, desperately trying to cover for his big mouth and stupid, stupid words.
"A wizard." Vendel's tone was sarcastic.
"Yes, a wizard!" Jim shot back, anger suddenly flaring up. "Like it's so unreasonable that there's any of them still alive."
"Not unreasonable that there are any alive," Vendel replied, "but unreasonable that they would paint Arthur in anything but a sympathetic light. They are humans too, after all."
"And from what I heard, they were getting killed by his knights, too," Jim said, resuming walking. "And by just about any human who's found them out since. So I don't really think they're on our side either."
Vendel said nothing, and they walked on in silence for a moment. "I must admit," Vendel finally said, "I'm somewhat surprised that you know a wizard. The Trollhunter did not know that magic even existed, and the two of you seem to be the best of friends."
"Yeah, well, just because I found out he's a wizard doesn't mean Toby knows. Outing people is not cool, right?" Jim cast a sidelong look at Vendel. "And in the case of witches and wizards, getting outed tends to mean getting killed."
Once they reached Blinkous' library, Vendel took a seat on a stool and did his best to fade into the background as he watched Jim. There was something odd about the young human, something teasing at the very edge of Vendel's mind, and he wasn't sure what it was. But he hadn't been the leader of his people for so long without learning patience, and how to sit and wait.
Jim restlessly wandered the library, casting glances now and again at Vendel. Eventually he began consulting Blinkous' appallingly large collection of books. Vendel doubted he would be able to read any of them; to his knowledge, there were no tomes among them which were written in any human languages. Though he did admit that many of the portraits and diagrams might be fascinating even to one who could not read the words around them.
Eventually Jim found a volume that made him pause and open it. He took the book to one of the chairs Blinkous had tucked into odd corners, and sat. Both the chair and the book dwarfed the human, but somehow the sight didn't seem as incongruous as Vendel had expected.
The boy started to read, finger hovering over the page and drifting along. Once in a while he mouthed a word.
The book was written in Trollish.
There was no way the boy should be able to read Trollish.
Now Vendel knew what his subconscious had been trying to tell him.
Author's Note: I love How To Train Your Dragon. The first two movies, at least. I have... issues... with the third. So originally it was going to be a cameo of Hiccup buying The Book of Dragons, but then I realized who was more likely to patronize a shop specializing in arcane books than Eli? That still may be an illustration of Toothless he's looking at, though. ^_^ And, really, I had to have Toby and Douxie bond over stage magic. I only regret that I couldn't work in a reference to Lad Of Fortune. And, oops, Jim's future-earned knowledge gets him into trouble. (Probably not for the last time, either.)