The empty pot filled up with water, taking rests of the porridge that still clung to the inside with it.

You watched it until it overflowed before turning off the tab. Maybe you should let it soak for a while. Not like you were in the mood to do dishes right now anyway.

With a small sigh, you turned around and left the kitchen, going back to your nest on the couch. Although it's been three full days since Thomas visited you, you hadn't really moved from your spot all that much.

Only for bare necessities or picking up the worksheets from school by your TV.

The schoolwork you did wasn't much of a distraction. You kept thinking back to Kanjigar's words and his expressions when he said those words.

It was like a small personal horror movie, repeating over and over in your head. Each time lowering you further down into a dark pit.

Plopping down onto the couch and staring at the halfdone homework, you decided to keep going with it. At least for a little. Once you were done with it you could...

What could you do exactly?

Watch TV until you eventually passed out? Stare at a wall until morning?

Having to suppress another long sigh, you picked up your pen and continued to solve some stupidly complex math equations. Obviously by using your phone as a calculator.

You barely functioned on a survival level at the moment, no way you were able to function on a 'Ben has three green apples, he gives Susy two, how old is René?' level of mental capacity.

During this so called distraction, you were extremely tempted to just text Thomas and ask him for the solutions several times. But decided against it.

Not much of a distraction then. And you had already leaned on the teen too much for your liking.

About an hour passed until you had finally wrestled through the last sheet and were done with all of them. Pushing the papers into a messy stack away from you, you leaned back into the couch, shrugging off the blanket to stare at the ceiling.

It was so quiet.

Strange.

Usually quiet didn't mean anything good in this household but lately, it started to have more of a calm mood to it. Probably because it's been days since your father was here.

You weren't really sure if that was even legal; that is, to leave a minor alone for such a long time. But not like you needed him to get by anyway.

In fact, him being gone had made things so much easier.

Well, not like that mattered now. After all, you had lost the reason why you wanted it to be easy to stay up late without worry.

Reaching up to massage your temples, you closed your eyes for a second.

Why was it that, no matter what you were thinking about, it always led back to him?

When you opened your eyes again, a decision had formed in your mind.

No adult around and no school tomorrow meant you could do whatever you wanted.

There was one thing which you hadn't done in a long time and were really in need of too.

Pulling yourself up from the couch, you went upstairs into your room to change clothes to something more appropriate for being outside at night.

With spring in full motion and summer already peeking around the corner, this basically meant a light sweater and cargo pants.

Easy to move in, not too cold, not too warm. Perfect for a long stroll around the city and maybe the woods. You'd have to see if you felt comfortable enough to leave civilisation when you still had rather vivid images of a certain black troll's hungry visage ghosting about your dreams. Or, well, nightmares.

Taking two steps at once down the stairs, you went to grab your phone from the living room.

You hadn't really paid it too much attention as you didn't feel like using it yet. At least, not for its social purposes.

Checking the notifications, you noticed that Jim and Toby had sent you several texts over the course of the last few days. Looks like there were some pictures included too but you couldn't access them without actually opening said chats.

For a moment, you thought about letting curiosity win but ended up fighting it back down. Probably just some 'get well soon' pictures or something.

Maybe you should tell them what you said to Thomas? They were your friends after all and they at least deserved to know why you weren't coming to school.

Your finger hovered above Jim's chat icon.

Then it moved to shut off your phone instead.

A slight tremor went through your body.

You didn't have the energy to take this step. Surely tomorrow, after you've slept, you could.

Unbeknownst to you, if you had decided to open Jim's chat, you would've seen a picture of something quite familiar.

An item you definitely never would've wanted to see in someone other than Kanjigar's hands.

You were going to be confronted with that one way or another soon enough though.

---

The breeze was nice on your skin, bringing back a light feeling of freshness to it. The subtle cold barely bothered you. By now, you even liked it, having spent so many evenings and nights outside with-...

You probably shouldn't think about that.

After all, you went outside to clear your head of just those memories.

Strolling past some residential houses, you glanced up to their windows. Most of them were still lit, and in some, you could see the silhouettes of people.

A child running after something, maybe a pet or a toy?

Two adults embracing each other.

A cat sitting on the windowsill.

Just, regular families with regular lives.

For a while you simply observed the windows while you walked but after a bit, you eventually had to tear your view away from it.

Such a strange feeling.

Was this... envy?

A heavy sigh left your lips and you ruffled through your (h/c) hair.

You had been strolling about your neighborhood for a good amount of time. Perhaps going into the city would be better.

Changing direction slightly, you went off the main streets to take a little dirt path between some trees that would lead you to the bridge crossing over the canal and to the city. By now, the sun had set fully and the street lamps were turned on. They didn't reach into the side alleys though.

It was a familiar path, one you had often run down with Jim and Toby as kids, pretending it was the way to some magial castle. Or a secret escape route from the villain's mansion.

A light smile ghosted across your face.

You had almost forgot about that.

Looking up from the ground to peer through the leaves and into the dark blue sky, you thought back to your early childhood while watching the few stray stars already visible.

They were hazy and distant memories, most were too blurry to clearly remember them, and yet still so warm and comforting. It was more like you remembered the feeling of those moments, rather than the moment itself.

Delving deep on your way down memory-lane, you didn't hear the slowly approaching shouting and heavy footsteps behind you.

Only when you felt a familiar vibration run through the ground that immediately brought your thoughts to your backyard and the blue troll, did you also hear voices calling something far behind you.

It sounded like there were several people coming your way but the vibration told you of the presence of trolls as well. And more than just one at that.

Could one of them be Kanjigar?

The small spark of hope had you turned around in an instant, but no one was visible yet. You could clearly make out words now though, albeit them being somewhat far away still.

"-the incantation?" an unfamiliar voice shouted, clearly out of breath.

To your surprise, it was Jim's voice that answered.

"I've been incanting the crap out of it and it's not working!"

You heard him yell, and by now, you could also hear the sound of a rusty bicycle. They were getting closer. Fast.

Your thoughts raced. Should you hide? Run? Confront them? It sounded like trouble was at their heels.

What if Bular was hunting your friend?

"Just focus and incant, dude!"

Tobias' voice answered to Jim right around the corner but you didn't have time to think about that anymore when the source of all this ruckus came into view.

The first one visible was a troll you hadn't seen before, he was shorter and had many eyes, which were all focused on the dark-haired teen riding a bike next to him. Behind the two was yet another unknown troll, much bigger and with a green pelt, carrying Toby on his back.

You realized you were still standing smack in the middle of the path a tad too late and Jim saw you, his expression immediately exploding into panic.

"(Y/n)! RUN!!" he screamed, not slowing down as the whole group sped toward you.

A single glance behind the big troll was enough to tell you that your hunch had been right.

Bular was chasing them.

So without much thought about it, you simply turned and started sprinting down the path toward the canal.

Even with a headstart, you were soon running next to Jim, who kept looking behind him, to you and occasionally to the front, and the other troll. Being in a panic and all, you didn't see his large orange nose twitch as a look of recognition flashed through all six of his eyes, firmly set on you.

Adrenaline pushed through your body, unlocking the survival instinct that allowed you to keep pace with the group despite being on foot.

"What are you doing here??" you heard Toby ask from behind, causing you to look back at him.

You wanted to answer something but your attention got caught on an all too familiar blue glow in Jim's hand when you turned your head.

For a second, it was as though time stopped.

That was the amulet.

Kanjigar's amulet.

Why did Jim have it? Didn't Kanji say that the amulet would always be with him for as long as he was... alive?

Your eyes snapped back to the black prince, roaring obscenities.

The realization came suddenly. So suddenly that you barely noticed your own body doing a 180°.

You heard several shocked shouts from your friends and vaguely noticed dodging a grey troll's hand as it attempted to pick you up but you didn't pay it any mind.

Every muscle in your body, every single fiber, was aflame with one thing. The desire, the need to harm.

All of it directed at the gumm-gumm charging toward you at full speed.

You saw his ugly visage, distorting first in surprise and then in a wicked grin.

His deep voice spoke, "so we meet again, fleshy pet! No Kanjigar to safe you this time. I made sure of that!"

The words strung up your insides.

Forget only wanting to harm. You were way past that boundary of morals.

By now, you had both sprinted toward the other fast enough to collide in just mere seconds.

But just as Bular reared back a clawed hand to slam you away, did you duck below his swipe, slipping up close to him.

Close enough that he could've easily torn your face off if he hadn't been busy being shellshocked at your aggressive approach.

Your right hand shot forward, grabbing onto one of his horns as you kicked off the ground, stepped onto his knee and used your forward momentum, his own speed and the horn as an anchor point to fling yourself above him in one fluid motion.

Your left hand tightened around a rock you hadn't even realized you'd picked up and you heard your own voice bellowing while you swung your arm down.

"Bastard!!"

Then the rock found its way into Bular's left eye with all the strength you could muster, drawing a loud yelp from the usually so tough gumm-gumm.

Sparks flew when the two stone-like surfaces collided and you felt part of his skin break under the force.

You didn't have much time to feel satisfied by your successful move however when your body lost its altitude and crashed into the dirt a few feet away from Bular, who had stopped running to hold his face and yell something in Trollspeak you didn't know. Didn't sound pleasant though.

Finally, your mind caught up to what your body had done.

Never had you experienced such an extreme tunnelvision before. It was almost like being possessed.

You were painfully aware of the cuts in your left hand, where the rock dug itself into your skin from clutching it so hard, and also the simple fact that you should probably start running again.

As quickly as you could and while Bular was still busy wailing over the pain you caused him, you sprung up and turned tail.

Did you seriously just do that?

You couldn't fully believe it.

As you were sprinting down the path, you eventually spotted Jim standing at the edge of the canal.

His face lit up once he saw you. The relief to see you in one piece clearly visible even from such a distance. But it quickly switched back to dread when he looked behind you.

You didn't need to wonder as to why. The loud cursing of Bular gave away that he had given chase once more.

"Below the bridge, (Y/n)!" Jim yelled toward you, waving his arms frantically.

Ok, but what was he doing? It didn't look like he planned to flee himself.

What about the amulet? Surely he couldn't be...

With no time to think about it, you focused back on not dying. You felt a rush of air go past your back and saw movement from the corner of your eye.

Bular nearly got you.

With one last effort, you sped up and practically flew over the edge of the canal, past Jim and way too far away from the concrete.

"Fuckfuckfuckfu-umph!" you managed out as you hit the solid slope, rolling down to the bottom rather roughly.

Once you were stopped by the floor, you felt a pair of large stonehands wrap around your arms and pull you to the side.

Just in time to look up and witness what looked like a magical explosion. Blue light lit up the dark for a moment, a bright comet of sorts flying through the air.

Only when that 'comet' hit the ground did you see that it was actually Jim. Wearing the trollhunter's armour. It was smaller now to fit his human body. But you'd never mistake that beautiful craftsmanship.

You couldn't tear your eyes away from him.

Bular's roar from above snapped you out of your trance.

There was a deep gash across his left eye now, spilling -to your surprise- red blood over half his face. The eye itself still glowed viscously though so it looked like you hadn't aimed well enough.

He still looked pissed. Big time.

"Uuhhhhh... Nope," you heard Jim from afar as he decided to choose life and came running toward you and the others.

Soon enough, he was cut off by the gumm-gumm prince, spluttering his stinky salvia all over him with a roar.

The six-eyed troll to your left raised two of his hands up to his mouth to yell, "use your sword, Master Jim!"

Master? Since when..?

Bular didn't seem to be very patient as he build himself up in front of your thin friend and threatened to drink Jim's blood out of a goblet made from his skull.

At least his threats stayed creative.

Neither of the trolls really seemed to get through to him though. Only when Toby raised his voice did it look like the teen gained some confidence.

"Cut him like a meatloaf, Jim!" was what he yelled.

You looked over to the chubby boy, a quizzical expression on your face, but decided not to say anything. Not like you didn't just go up against Bular with nothing but a rock. A sword surely would be more effective. Even if he was untrained.

Luckily, it looked like it would at least be enough to keep Jim from losing his head as Bular started his assault again.

Restless, you looked to the other troll, only now noticing that he had four arms in total.

"Shouldn't we do something to help?" you asked, causing the troll to shortly glance your way.

"Yes, of course," he said, motioning toward the bigger troll, who headed for the wall that supported this end of the bridge, "we must work quickly! Open the portal!"

Then he reached inside a pouch and pulled out an orange glowing crystal with a handle attached. You hadn't seen one in person yet but that looked suspiciously like-

"The horngazel!" said the six-eyed troll, confirming your hunch and flinging it to the bigger troll.

Without wasting time, he hit the crystal onto the stonewall and drew a large arch across. A glowing line followed before the bulky troll punched the middle of the soon-to-be door, causing it to break and dissolve into blue light.

You were momentarily distracted from the fight by the gorgeous display of what you could only assume was magic.

Kanjigar had told you how they worked but you didn't expect them to be this pretty.

Tobias shared your train of thought apparently because you heard a low 'wow' from his direction.

Then you turned back to where Bular and Jim were still in a stalemate.

"Hurry up, Jim!" you called, waving to get his attention and pointing at the portal. You knew it wouldn't stay open for very long.

"Master Jim!," the short troll joined in, also waving two of his four arms, "Master Jim, come on!"

"I'm a little busy here!" the teen responded, just barely dodging Bular's double swords. Your head flashed back to the moment you first saw him on that road in the forest. When he had crashed your bike.

"He'll follow, go, go," said the four-armed troll as he ushered you and Toby through the portal, breaking you out from your recollection of the past.

A tingling sensation went over your skin, like walking through a curtain of water. Just, without getting wet. And with the water somehow being on your insides.

The bigger troll was already on the other side, holding the horngazel and looking worried.

You watched from the portal as Jim used the distraction of his sword being flung away to come sprinting toward you.

But the edges of the portal were already beginning to close.

"Jim, faster! It's closing!" you called, stretching your arm out to try and grab the boy before the wall would shut completely. Toby was urging him on but you couldn't hear him clearly over the noise of stone and magic rebuilding itself.

Jim also reached out, desperately trying to take your helping hand.

Just a split second before he could grab onto you, you felt your arm get repelled by the portal, back onto your side as the wall shut completely.

You didn't waste even a fraction of a moment to snatch the horngazel from the bigger troll's hand and slam it onto the wall, drawing a just big enough oval to jab your arm through and loop it around Jim's waist.

You expected armour but felt his regular shirt instead when you yanked him through with Toby's help.

Just in time it appeared because you caught the sight of Bular's fist before the portal closed again.

Falling back from the wall and into a heap with Toby below and Jim on top of you, you somehow managed to untangle yourself and get on both feet again.

All three of you were panting like crazy, trying to digest what just happened.

You didn't want to admit it but you didn't need nearly as long as the other two. Probably because that wasn't your first run-in with Bular. You were getting used to the feeling of immediate dread in the face of death.

Jim didn't look nearly as calm though.

"We nearly.. We nearly-" he panted, frantically looking between himself and his two human friends. His eyes lingered just a moment longer on you.

"He-.. Almost-"

His attempt to express his fear was interrupted by the short troll, who looked about as fit as a fiddle for someone who just narrowly escaped a gruesome demise.

"He almost what, Master Jim? Speak clearly."

And speak clearly he did.

"He almost killed us!"

"'Almost'! A very important word," answered the troll with a carefree wave of one of his pointers, "a life of 'almost' is a life of 'never'."

You couldn't help but gape at those words. Or rather, the featherlight way he said them. How in the world was he this relaxed?

A moment of somewhat frustrated silence from Jim passed and then he spun around to face you.

"(Y/n)," he said your name, coming up to you while the two trolls went a bit further into the cave, "are you ok? I- ah, I'm sure you have many questions. Well, I texted you about it some but there was this amulet that said my name and then-"

You put your uninjured hand on his shoulder, stopping his nervous ramble.

"You can tell me about it later, alright? I think we should focus on our current situation first," you diverted the topic. You couldn't tell him that you already knew. Probably a lot more than he actually.

Tobias joined the brief talk, looking up to you.

"Nice to have you in on this, ey?" he asked, probably attempting to ease the tension.

You simply nodded.

It all went so fast.

Only now did you have the time to take in your surroundings.

The portal had transported you into a cave of sorts. But it wasn't dark at all. There was a subtle cyan luminescence.

The large troll, who had been watching you cautiously, moved up and lowered his big head slightly to speak: "Come," he said, "follow Blinky."

Blinky must be the six-eyed troll then. How fitting.

"Of course, yes," Jim agreed as he threw you one last look of concern before going deeper into the cave.

Just a few steps further in, you saw Blinky at the edge of what looked like a steep drop into the dark.

"Why'd the armor suddenly shut off?" your lanky friend asked the troll, sounding confused.

"Master Jim, you are the first human to posses an amulet crafted for trolls," Blinky told him as he took a step into the air and.. stepped on a crystal?, "It's to be expected its behavior will be... unexpected."

As he said this, a natural stairway of giant crystals lit up all the way down into the dark. It was almost like watching a lightshow.

"This way, Masters. This way."

The blue-haired troll guided you to the first step, visibly enjoying the amazement on your faces.

"Whoa!" Toby made behind you as he hopped down the glowing crystals.

You didn't say anything, instead you took a few bigger steps and caught up to Blinky. Without a word, you held out the horngazel you had borrowed from his big companion.

He took it, then looked you up and down carefully. All of his six eyes scanning over your battered form.

"Ah, yes," he said, smiling slightly, "our newest surprise addition. You sure have a death wish, don't you?"

You blinked at him, "huh?"

He made a motion with the horngazel, waving it around as he elaborated further.

"Running toward Bular the Vicious instead of away from him is not a common trait you'd find in trolls. Much less humans, might I add."

Storing away the orange crystal-key, Blinky leaned slightly forward as if to inspect a rare specimen of some kind of insect or bird.

"I have yet to determine whether it's bravery, stupidity or both."

Unable to respond properly, you only shrugged.

How were you supposed to tell him that the only reason you went after Bular was because you were out for revenge for Kanjigar?

"Are you sure we're safe in here?" Jim spoke up after a while of climbing down the large steps. For your human bodies, they were quite a bit bigger gaps. Especially out of Toby's view.

"Indeed! The incantation forbids entry to Heartstone Trollmarket by gumm-gumms, such as Bular, for they are the most fearsome of trolls."

Blinky answered Jim's question, obviously proud of his hometown's heavy security.

"Gumm-gumms?" repeated Jim, probably wondering why such a silly sounding word was used; to which the grey troll -whose name you had yet to learn- said, "Scary ones."

The fact that you were safe now didn't seem to want to stick with your thin friend, seeing how he sped up and went in front of the short troll.

"Ok, wait, wait," he said, looking a mix of doubt- and hopeful, "So, Bular can't get in here, right? Into Heartstone Trollmarket?"

"No, Master Jim," replied the patient Blinky before he reached up, put his hands on the boy's shoulders and turned him around to face toward the front.

You lifted up your head as well now, having been staring at the glowing stairwell beneath you for a while. For some reason the glassy structure of it looked familiar. Even though you'd never been here before.

Three 'wow's and 'whoa's came from you and your two friends as you took in the sight before you.

A gigantic cave that stretched out far to both sides and even further to the back laid before your eyes. The size alone was impressive but there was a lot more to take in.
Numerous little windows scattered allover the walls, from way down low to up high; wooden houses, stalls and other buildings were built onto the stone in addition to the inbuilt spaces, cluttering the whole ground and most certainly being worthy of the name 'Trollmarket'.

Colorful patches of gems and stones decorated the walls, there were some statues of creatures you'd only ever seen in fiction before.

Not to mention the amount of trolls that were going about their daily businesses here. You knew trolls were diverse but not that diverse. So many different shapes, sizes and colors. Even some with additional limbs and extravagant horns.

The biggest part however, was the enormous crystal that illuminated the whole area with a warm orange light and throned far above everything. That must be the Heartstone then.

So this is... was Kanjigar's home?

"This is the world you are bound to protect," declared Blinky with a grand gesture of all of his hands,

"This is Heartstone Trollmarket!"

-----
-----

Hey, peaches!

I know I'm long overdue buuut double chapter!! ... Sorry;;

It finally happened. Daddy Kanji has departed ún ù Idk about you but I'll miss him dearly.

On a happier note, I finally found a future path for me (for the next three years at least)! I'll be studying game design, hooray!

I'm not sure yet how that will affect my freetime but I'll keep writing as much as I'll be able to. At this point half a year has become my regular update pace tho πv π Idk how I managed one chapter per week when I first started this fic lolol

Me and my family all got sick with the dreaded plague at the start of August and I'm honestly not fully recovered yet? I still get fevers occasionally.

But enough about me!

Thank you for all the support you've given me over the years (or days if you're new!)... Wow this story's been here for a while already, huh?

Also thank you all for way over 2K votes and so many nice/funny comments! It's always wonderful to see you interact with my silly imagination!

I hope you'll continue to enjoy this story alongside me and everyone else ^-^

Until next time~

-Jade