Some early stars shone softly in the light blue and pink skies above while the moon showed herself as a pale circle near the horizon.
A few stray clouds floated before her.
The gentle breeze made the leaves rustle around the clearing that you currently sat on and the soft earth beneath your body was cool and dry, soothing for your tired muscles.
Both legs outstretched on the ground, you had your left arm resting on your right one carefully while your thick jacket was draped over your shoulders to keep you warm.

It would seem like a peaceful and normal scene to you if it weren't for the large creature resting next to you.
He was, as you had just been informed of, a troll.
The trollhunter, to be precise.
His explanation of the existence of trolls, gnomes and other mythical creatures parallel to the human world was still circling in your head repeatedly.
Despite having the bulky troll sitting right by your side with the amulet he had shown you earlier in hand, it was still much to take in.
Especially right after having been attacked, chased and nearly killed by Bular, the black gumm-gumm prince with the twin swords and some serious mouth odor problems.

Lifting your head, you glanced up to the troll, whose name you now knew to be Kanjigar, and looked at his thoughtful and troubled expression.
It was the first time you saw him without the silver armor on so the sight of his rough skin that was covered in what seemed to be trollish tattoos was quite interesting. The surface looked like some kind of ore or rock but moved similar to regular skin, making you curious about what it actually felt like.
You didn't dare to touch it though. That would be weird.

The blue troll had taken about half an hour to tell you the gist of everything necessary but you were pretty sure that he most likely left a lot of things out that he didn't want you to know.
So far, he told you who he and the rest of his kind were, what his job was, a bit about some pact for trolls that forbids them to eat humans -the part where you finally relaxed for good- and about trolls living beneath your very feet while gumm-gumms -evil trolls that still ate humans- were banished to a far away place.
He hadn't addressed Bular any further than his name and the fact that he was the prince of those gumm-gumms.

Right now, you were waiting for him to continue on that but he hadn't said anything for a while already.
You thought he needed time to think about how he was going to explain that to you so you had waited patiently.

It also gave you time to think about all this yourself.

So, you really weren't crazy.
That first meeting in the woods really had happened after all.
Whether it was fate or coincidence that guided you together again was still unclear now.
As you were deep within your own thoughts, looking at an empty spot somewhere on the ground, you began to sort through what Kanjigar had told you and it slowly started to settle in your mind.

Wow. This was kind of cool actually.
Just think about all those insane things that you always believed to be fiction. Some of these existed for real and some hadn't even been that far from you your whole life.

It nearly made up for the loss of your trusted motorcycle. Although you still didn't know if it was totally damaged and done for or just looked really bad and would be fine after a bit of work.
Letting a soft sigh from your lips, you leaned your head back and stared into the pastel colored sky above.

"Oh, yeah," you suddenly said and looked back down to the troll, making him look your way too, "thank you."

He blinked in what seemed to be surprise as you caught him off guard with those simple words.
You received a curt nod in response before he heaved a sigh himself and got up from the ground.
While he looked at you, you thought you saw a hint of sadness in his yellow eyes.

You followed his action and soon stood next to him, a bit confused about the lack of any further explanation.

His voice was less soft than it had been before as he spoke to you now.
"Your shoulder is hurt, is it not?"
He must've noticed how you held your left arm and only used your right one.
Casting your eyes to the side, you didn't say anything but your silence was enough of an answer.
"I believe you need treatment. Let us go back to the road."

Now it was your turn to nod in answer.
The muscular troll moved toward the woods, walking slowly so you could easily follow him and the glow of his amulet.

As you were walking a bit behind the trollhunter, admiring the shape of his back and how he moved between the narrow trees so easily without getting stuck somewhere, you caught yourself wishing to stay by his side and see all those things he hinted at for yourself.
You certainly couldn't just go back to the mainly regular routine of teenage life.
But he didn't look like he was planning to involve you any further than you needed to be. Maybe to keep you safe, maybe to avoid having you in the way of his job or maybe both.
It was hard to tell with this troll.

The way back to the street felt a lot shorter than when you had sprinted the other direction with Bular on your heels and you soon stood by the edge of the woods, near to where your bike still laid on the asphalt and emitted some ugly black smoke from its broken engines.
The sight stung in your heart but at least you didn't end up with the same fate.

Just as you were about to step onto the road again, did Kanjigar hold you back gently. He had also stopped and was now kneeling before you to be able to better speak to your smaller form.
"Listen, …" he paused, looking at you with a questioning expression, and you realized you hadn't told him your name yet.

"(Y/n)."

"… Listen, (Y/n)," he said your name slowly, as if he was trying out an unfamiliar word for the first time, "Don't go outside when the sun isn't shining anymore. It's too dangerous with Bular still roaming around freely."

You furrowed your brows at him, a bit upset that he was telling you what to do, especially with your circumstances, but understanding why he told you this at the same time.

Putting his large hand onto your right shoulder as though he was telling a child about what it means to be a good person or something of the sort, the yellow-eyed troll looked straight into your (e/c) eyes.

"You're not the only one I need to keep safe so understand that this is for your own good."

Even though you could feel the warmth of his skin through your jacket, you felt as though he was trying to be cold with you.
But you were much too overwhelmed at this point to argue with him so you just nodded meekly and let out a tired breath into the cool air.

You could sense him relax as he let go of your shoulder slowly and stepped back from you to let you return to the street.
Unsure of what to do next, you simply walked to where your helmet was, picked it up and then walked to your motorcycle.
You should probably call an ambulance for yourself.
Taking out your phone, which had miraculously survived this whole ordeal, you dialed the number of the hospital.
As you were waiting to be connected -unsure if you even could be so far out in the woods- you looked back to where Kanjigar had been but spotted neither his blue skin or his large horns anywhere.
He must've already left again. Perhaps to pursue Bular's trail?

While thinking about what he was doing now, the beeping of your phone was replaced by the voice of a polite lady, asking what the hospital could do for you.
You simply told her that you crashed with your bike after a huge boar had ran into you while driving and that you just woke up from being unconscious again.
Once you had confirmed to her that you weren't fatally injured -at least, as far as you could tell- and told her your exact whereabouts, she informed you that an ambulance was on its way to pick you up.
For safety measures, you had to stay on the call and keep talking to her though.

You didn't want to at first but when you felt the pulsating pain in your left shoulder grow stronger, you were kind of glad to have a distraction.

---

The ride to the hospital was rather uneventful and soon enough, you found yourself laying in a bed with a light green curtain separating you from other patients, your left arm in a sling and bandages over some cuts that you hadn't even noticed until the nurse told you about them.
They must've been inflicted when you crashed into the bushes and ran through the forest.

Your protective clothing was packed into a bag and you were allowed to wash and clean yourself without a nurse's help.

Since you didn't seem to have any internal injures, aside from a light concussion, you were now left in peace to rest and recover.
Only a nurse peeked in sometimes to bring you new water and make sure you were still alright.

You didn't know how long you had been here for you fell asleep after a while of thinking about everything and letting it sink into your head properly.

It must've been a whole night of sleep since you reopened your eyes to see that faint sunlight shone through the blinds of the window to your right, throwing yellowish stripes onto the white sheets and floor.
For a while, you just laid there and took everything in again. It was a lot after all but you thought you had pretty much worked through it by now.
So you got up, still a bit wobbly, and made your way towards the bathroom.
Once that business was done and you returned to your bed, you found a tray with some breakfast by the table.
Only now did you feel how hungry you actually were. All that action and exhaustion had kept you from getting dinner after all so now you were quite content with having breakfast.
Although it didn't taste all that good, it was still free food so you didn't complain much.

A few minutes later you placed the now empty tray back onto the table, moved to lay under the thin blanket again and sighed as you relaxed and got comfortable.
It was kind of boring already.
There wasn't much to do in the nearly empty room and you had already thought so much about everything that a headache had appeared.
Perhaps a little bit of napping would be good now?
Nah, you had just woken up.

As you thought about what you could be doing to keep yourself entertained, a nurse entered the room and looked around the curtain.
She seemed a bit taken aback to see you awake but smiled anyway.
"Good morning. A doctor will soon come and talk to you. Do you need anything until then?"

Shaking your head, you told her no and she left again.
At least now you had something to look forward to.

---

'Soon' was a rather vague way of predicting the arrival of a hospital's doctor as you saw now.
It had already been about two hours since that nurse came in and there hadn't been a sign of any doctor nearby at all.
Well, who could blame them.
There was way too little staff with way too many patients. It must surely be an exhausting job to do nearly every day.
You wondered why anyone would voluntarily sign up for that.

Humming in thought as you tucked at the hem of your blanket out of boredom, you listened for any sounds outside the pale curtains that separated you from the rest of the room.
Whether it had been instinct or luck was a mystery but at just that moment, the doorhandle clicked and the many voices and hurried footsteps in the hallway flooded your ears momentarily before being muffled again, indicating that someone had entered the room.
The green cloth was pulled back and a young red-haired woman came into view.

Oh, right.
Jim's mother worked here.

That little detail had slipped your mind completely.

"Good morning, Miss (L/n)," said the blue-eyed doctor professionally, going through a few papers that she had in hand, "How are you feeling? Any problematics that occurred during the night?"

Either she didn't remember you well enough or she was really focused on her job.

"No, nothing. I feel fine aside from a headache and my shoulder," you told her while watching her pull up a stool and sit down by your bed's side.

It was a bit weird for you since you've known her since you were little and now she treated you like just another patient.
You probably wouldn't admit it, not even to yourself, but you felt something in your chest tighten at that.

"You have a contusion in your left shoulder and a light concussion, which both heals with enough rest and time, so you won't need to stay here any longer. Don't do any heavy exercise in the next four weeks and drink lots of water to help your body heal."
At that, she looked up from the papers and locked eyes with you. Dark blue meeting (e/c).
"I'm only here because I want to make sure you're actually alright, (Y/n)."

Ok, that caught you off guard.
Looking at Barbara with a visibly confused and surprised expression, you felt the light tightness in your chest ease.
She did remember you, she just wanted to get the job-part done first.

As you stared at her, Barbara suddenly chuckled softly and shook her head as though she were mocking being disappointed and yet her voice sounded very much amused.
"What? You thought I'd forget my son's childhood friend? I've known you since you still wore diapers, (Y/n)."

You could feel your face heat at that comment.
Man, this was embarrassing as hell.

The slender woman had to laugh a bit more at your befuddled expression before she cleared her throat and smiled at you instead.

"Jim told me you started talking with him and Toby again. I'm glad you're finally reopening yourself after what happened, (Y/n)."

"Not like that was my choice," you mumbled to yourself quietly but instead said aloud for Barbara to hear: "Yeah, so am I."
Accompanied with a small smile, that half-lie sounded quite believable. Probably because it was more of a truth than you would've liked to show.

The pretty woman pushed up the glasses on her nose, suddenly looking a bit uncomfortable as she averted her eyes from you.
"I know it's been nearly ten years now but I'm still really sorry, (Y/n). Everything was so chaotic back then and I never even found the time to visit you after that either.
So, I know it's much too late, but you have my heartfelt condolences…"

You knew what she was talking about but you didn't answer her. Instead, you looked down at your hands, which had taken a tight hold of the blanket involuntarily, and remained silent.
Why did she have to remind you of that?
Not like you weren't thinking about it every single day already.

Barbara put her hand onto your arm in a comforting manner before reluctantly pulling back.
"I'm sorry," she softly repeated again and then got up from the stool, "on a different topic: I called your father yesterday night and this morning but he isn't picking up. Do you know anything about that?"

Your hands relaxed again and you looked back up to her, a blank expression on your face.
For a moment you thought about it and then remembered.

"Yeah, he's on another work field trip or something. Said he'll be back next week."

"I see," said Barbara with a small hum as she put her hand to her chin in a thoughtful fashion, "if you want to, you could eat dinner with us this evening? My shift will be over after noon and I'm sure Jim would be happy to have you with us too."

Her offer came out of the blue for you since you hadn't expected her to be so, well, motherly with you. It felt kinda nice but at the same time it felt strange.

"If you're ok with it," you answered, your fingers intertwining into each other on their own. Denying the young mother was near impossible and you knew that Jim was a great cook so despite being anxious about it, you didn't refuse.
If she had asked the same thing two weeks ago, you probably would've refused though.

Things just changed with all that had happened in the past few rather insane days.

The young redhead smiled at you and adjusted her glasses once more. "I wouldn't have invited you otherwise. Gather your belongings. I'll lead you to the exit, alright?"

With a nod, you moved out of bed, grabbed the bag that held all of your motorcycle gear in it and followed the older woman out of the room, only wearing jeans, a (c/o/c) T-shirt and the biking boots that almost reached up to your knees.

A thought shot through your head and you halted at a corner of the hallway, nurses walking past you and a patient on crutches wobbling by near the other wall.
"Barbara?"
She turned and looked at you expectantly.
"What happened with my bike?"

She kept looking at you a bit before rummaging through the papers in her hands quickly. "I knew I forgot something!" said the woman with a scolding tune to herself and then pulled out what seemed to be a letter.
"This was supposed to go to your father but since he isn't home I'll give it to you directly."

Taking the envelope, you looked at it and briefly skimmed over the cover. 'Nestor's mechanics' was imprinted on the back. You knew the place and had visited it occasionally if you ever needed something for your motorcycle so getting a letter from them must mean that's where your bike was right now.
Hopefully being repaired.

"Alright, thanks," you said and stuffed the letter into the bag, which you had to put down before to take the letter due to only being able to use one arm.

Then the two of you continued on your way and about a minute later, you were standing by the side of the street. Barbara was already returning to the hospital to continue her job while you waved after her with your good arm.

The sun fell on your face warmly and it seemed as though the cold weather from yesterday was gone again and replaced by the usual heat that reigned here in California.
A light wind brushed some of your (h/c) to the side, messing it up a bit while cooling your skin.

Turning on your heel, you faced into the direction of your house and after a moment of waiting, began to walk towards it.

You thought back to everything again and wondered how things that hadn't changed in ten years suddenly shifted within a few days.

Whether that was a good thing or not was up to you to decide.
But you couldn't make that decision right now.
After all, you were only at the beginning of a literal otherworldly adventure.

One that would rewrite your understanding of reality forever.