…

What was this feeling?

A cold dizziness that seemed to shake your brain, bits and pieces of a distant memory, the burning pain on your cheek, the noises of bones breaking.

Crack after snap. Slow and steady.

You couldn't see and it was hard to breathe.

What was this weirdly familiar feeling?

Then a voice called out and stopped the breaking of bones immediately.

"Release the girl, Bular!"

The voice was new and yet known at the same time. Like someone you met before spoke through a distorted megaphone.

Ohhh, dang, your head hurt.

It was still dark all around you but you now were aware of the cool feeling of earth on your face.

You were laying on your stomach but one of your legs was held up by something, or someone.

The deep voice of the black troll sounded from just behind your head. He must be the one holding your ankle and dragging you over the ground.

"You cannot command me, impure," he growled at the new voice and you suddenly realized that the reason of the darkness was that your eyes were still shut.

That's right. You had been knocked unconscious after being found by the gumm-gumm prince.

How long had it been since then?

The ground below you still felt like the grass of your backyard so probably not that long.

More importantly. Who was this new voice?

Carefully cracking open the eye that was closer to the ground to avoid being noticed too soon, you took a look around as best as possible from your position.
Looked like you really were still in your backyard, albeit very close to the fence.

It was already dark but you saw Bular's black feet with the small claws at one edge of your vision and thinner, green feet at the other.
They didn't appear very human. Must be another troll.

His body looked a lot thinner than the usual broad ones you were used to from Kanjigar and Bular and for the first time, you realized that trolls weren't as similar to each other as you thought they'd be.
Just like humans, they came in more than one shape and color.

But that was besides the point right now.

Where did that one come from? And who was he? Friend or foe?

He seemed to be trying to persuade Bular into freeing you while you were spying around but you were still a bit too dizzy to actually comprehend what was being said.

Bular's voice answered in a growl like he so often seemed to do and he didn't sound very pleased either.

Sounded like they were fighting.

Your eye closed itself again as you laid there and slowly began to regain your focus and senses.

Your entire face hurt. Probably because Bular punched you right into it.
There seemed to be warm blood running down from your nose as well but it didn't feel broken.

The grip around your ankle tightened, drawing a low groan of pain from you, which made both trolls look your direction.

"Ugh, the fleshbag's not dead after all," you heard the trollish prince say behind you before the other troll spoke up, his voice sounding strict and somewhat tense.
"And she won't be any time soon. Her father would not rest until he finds the one responsible for her disappearance."

What? How would a troll know your father? Aside from what he had said probably being wrong but still. It was weird.

Cracking open both eyes since they already knew that you were awake, you tried to lift your head but received a load of pain from your neck and everything above.

In that moment, Bular's grip on your leg was weakened for whatever reason you didn't know and you could feel a hand with thin but strong fingers grab you by your shoulder and pull you up.

With a small yelp, you were freed from the distracted Bular and thrown behind the other troll rather roughly, landing on your butt with a wince.

The world spun for a long moment and then slowed down to come to a halt, enabling you to regain your wonky balance.
Rubbing your bum, you glanced up to the trolls and took a moment to asses the situation.

You sat in your backyard, moonlight falling down onto the dry grass, some signs of a struggle here and there.
Before you stood a tall green troll with blades around his neck like a large collar, horns that looped back elegantly along with sleek grey hair and his slim back facing to you, covered by a long brown cloak.
He must've been the one that pulled you away into safety.

And before that green one loomed Bular, glaring down at the smaller troll with a conflicted but very much pissed off expression.
You had no idea what was happening but it didn't look good.

It felt like they were about to start a western styled shootout with how tense the atmosphere was.

At least you weren't in the middle of it anymore.

"Now leave, you brute," said the slender troll as he sneered at Bular with an annoyed voice, nearly spitting out the words towards the much taller and stronger looking troll.

Why didn't Bular just punch him away too? There must be some kind of connection between them that kept him from doing just that.
They definitely had some kind of history with each other.

By the looks of it, a not very pleasant one.

The gumm-gumm grumbled and let out a frustrated roar, slamming his hands into the earth and leaving deep dents in it. He was pacing left and right now, seeming to be quite agitated. He probably didn't like it when his sought after prey was declared off limits to him by another.

The green troll let out a low hiss like sound, pointing a finger at him threateningly.
"Just imagine what happens when the humans trace your steps," he told him and stood straight up, most likely to put more weight onto his words, "HE would not be pleased to find the place brimming with human military."

He? Who was he? Sounded like someone important.

Bular gave another of his growls, this time sounding quite frustrated and, to your pleasant surprise, he actually listened and left, even if he did threateningly glare at the green troll and growled out a 'you will pay later for this' at him before leaping away into the woods, his deep red eyes drilling into you from the shadows one last time until he turned and was out of sight.

His frustration was clear when a few trees shook and fell deeper in the forest a few moments after, some birds that had slept in them flying up into the night sky with loudly chirped protest.

Only then did the thin troll turn around and shortly glance at you, something in his yellow eyes looking oddly familiar.
He frowned and turned around again as if to hide his face from you.
"Get lost, girl."

You blinked and got up from the ground, swaying a bit on your still wobbly feet. He had saved you from getting eaten alive, just like Kanjigar had all those nights ago.

Oh, that's right! Kanjigar!
You remembered Bular's words and hoped again that he was alright and on his way here.
Looking at the green troll's head, or rather the back of it, you could see white stripes lining his greyish slicked back hair and a pair of pointy ears.

"Thank you…" you mumbled and looked at his curved horns curiously.

The green troll seemed uncomfortable as he nodded curtly, hesitated and then sprinted away into the night, probably to follow Bular and make sure he stayed away.

Standing in the middle of your now messed up backyard, you sighed and looked up into the dark starry sky. The fear from before had been replaced with a strangely calm feeling of tranquility.
Perhaps because you were too tired to care and had been punched in the face by a huge ass troll prince. It couldn't get worse than that for today… right?

Looking back on that evening, you weren't able to remember for just how much time exactly you had stood there.
Perhaps about an hour? You didn't know but you assumed so.

It was only when the noise of footsteps echoed through the air that you were pulled back into reality again. At first, you immediately felt the urge to hide, fearing Bular might've changed his mind and returned to murder you after all.

But the soft blue glow of Daylight that came into view relaxed you immensely.

Soon enough, there was the blue trollhunter, standing behind the fence and looking quite troubled as he climbed over it, he didn't seem to notice any signs of the short fight yet, too busy staring at his own feet.

"I apologize for being late tonight, (Y/n)," he said and let the sword in his hand disappear in a cloud of blue mist, "I thought I had a trail but it turned out to be nothing."

Only now did he look up.

Your nose was still bleeding from the punch, by now covering your entire lower face with fresh red, your clothes dirty and partially a bit torn and there were signs of claws digging into the earth alongside the two dents before him.
He froze for a second and in the next he was by your side, his large fingers gently cupping around your disheveled frame as he looked you up and down with wide eyes of worry.

"By Deya, what happened to you?" he sounded genuinely worried, as you slumped in his hands, exhaustion and the sudden feeling of safety taking over.

It was funny to see the trollhunter act so fatherly when he always tried to keep a certain distance to you. Quite obvious that it hadn't worked how he planned it to.

You used your sleeve to wipe away the blood from your chin but ended up only smearing more of it across your face.

"Bular was her-" you couldn't even finished your sentence as Kanjigar interrupted you. Realization must've come to him.
"It was a trap! He lured me away," said the yellow-eyed troll with an anger filled voice before halting and looking around hastily, "where is he now?"

"Kanji, I don't know. There was this green troll dude that talked him out of it and made him leave. I don't know…"

Your head rolled to the side a bit, resting itself onto the blue hunter's thumb as if it were a pillow. A pretty hard pillow but warm and reassuring nonetheless.

He looked like he wanted to ask more but it was obvious that you weren't in any condition to be answering his questions right now so he kept back and instead held you carefully close to him, growing quiet again.

The calming smell of wet earth and stone filled your nose as he held you a bit clumsily -probably not knowing how to handle an injured human, or any human in general- and you felt his pleasant warmth spread through your body, relaxing muscle and mind alike.

"Can I sleep?" you asked him after a moment, a quiet yawn slipping from your lips.

"Yes, (Y/n). You can."

"Alright. Thanks, Kanji…"

---

When you awoke to the sound of an alarm blaring, you were laying on your own bed, your blanket covering you, and for a second you thought you just had a bad dream the night before.
It was when you got up, got dressed and went into the bathroom to prepare for the new school day, that you looked into the mirror and nearly screeched out loud.

Your face was covered in now dried blood, making it look as if you had cut someone open and shoved your nose into their internal organs to let all of their blood spray over you.
The morbid sight reminded you that the events, which you had thought to be a dream just a few seconds ago, were actually reality.

You rubbed your face carefully with a sigh and then began to clean off the rust colored blood.
Underneath the layer of brownish red were a bunch of ugly bruises that looked like you ran full speed and face first into a brick wall.

Well, not that far from the truth. Just that the brick wall had run into you, so to say.

Heaving another small sigh, you thought about leaving it like that but then remembered that it probably wouldn't appear as welcoming to go into school looking like you got into a street fight right on the first day.
So you took a small box that you barely ever used and started to apply the right color of foundation to your face before adding a bit of darker, natural colors to make it look casual.
Although you nearly never used make-up due to having no reason to, that didn't mean you were completely clueless on how to use it properly.

Looking at the result, you were quite satisfied with it for it appeared to be your natural (s/c) skin tone, the bruises covered up well without making you look like a clown that had splashed his face with paint.

Once more sighing, you left the bathroom to go get breakfast.
You couldn't stop thinking about what happened yesterday night though.
That green troll had felt so familiar and yet you were certain you'd never seen him before.
Was that even possible? Maybe you'd just dreamed of a random green troll sometime and confused him with that one?
Shaking your head lightly, you let out a long yawn before grabbing your cup of (f/d) to drink it alongside the cereal you had taken out and prepared while thinking.

And did that mean Bular wouldn't be chasing you any longer now? He wouldn't have left you alive, if the new mythical creature hadn't appeared so maybe that meant he'd stop coming after you?
It would only make sense.

Wouldn't it?

Yeah, probably.

Feeling a weight lift from your chest that you hadn't even noticed being there, you suddenly felt a lot more relaxed than you had the past few weeks.
Now it was time for a bit of normality in your life again. Enough nearly getting killed for a while.

Grabbing your school-bag and leaving the property on your bicycle, since your actual bike was still in repair, you pedaled down the street to head for the canals, meeting Jim and Toby on the way there.

Neither of them ever seemed to suspect anything of what had been happening to you lately and it was probably better that way.
Who knew what they'd think of you when they found out you were being taught a mythical language by a mythical creature after nearly not-so-mythically being murdered?

Oh, well. Enough myths, time for some wonderful school, understanding teachers, friendly classmates and interesting lessons at the amazing place known as Arcadia Oaks Highschool.

…

On second thought, could Bular maybe come by real quick to bite your head off?

---

It wasn't supposed to happen. He told him to only take the humans that no one would miss and yet he didn't listen.

Of course he wouldn't. He should've known he wouldn't.

Now they had the mess.

Alerted authorities, big search parties, nervous citizens and a desperate but very much capable husband.

The worst part was the child though.

The poor thing had been there when it happened, unseen due to its small body. Hidden behind the car wreck, out of sight but still within earshot.

It must've heard everything.

He knew all too well what it was like to be caught up in a battlefield and have to witness comrades be slaughtered in the most gruesome ways but the sight of the frightened child still made him feel bad.
It was still so young, so innocent and untainted when he had first seen it.
Now it was crying, covered in not just its own blood and dirt, cowering on the ground, its small hands pressed onto it's ears, probably trying to block out the sounds it had heard but it would never again be able to unhear. Those horrific noises of bones breaking over and over.

If he hadn't left him without supervision, this would've never happened. It was his fault and he knew that.
Seeing the injured child made him want to take responsibility for it but he also knew that it still had a father who would take care of it.

Had he known that the father too, was more broken than he appeared to be at that time, perhaps he would've changed his mind and taken the child in to raise and protect it by himself.

But he didn't know that back then -he still didn't know it to this day- and all he did was watch over the child from a distance as it grew older, watching it push away friends and its own happiness, watching it grow bitter with the trauma, watching it grow more mature than a child its age should be.

And he only observed.

Keeping possible harm away from it as time crept on and the child had turned into a young teen. It was convenient for him when it was placed in his care alongside a few others for he now had the chance to support it even better.

And yet it also pained him, seeing this changed child's behavior and blaming himself for the mistakes that were made years ago.

So he treated the child fairly and just but taught it carefully and used every opportunity to let it know they could confide in him.

It was the only thing he could do to make up for those terrible mistakes from the past.

Those mistakes that had caused all of the mess that was now beginning to show again.

He now questioned if he had made the right decision.