The Two Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia Book One: Just the Beginning

Chapter Three: Wherefore art thou my Trollhunter? Pt 1

"This is..." I breathed, and my eyes scanned the landscape.

"Yeah..." Jim replied, his grip on my waist tightened. I gasped slightly, alarming him.

"Did I hurt you? Oh god, I'm so sorry." He apologized profusely and significantly loosened his grip.

"No, no I'm fine," I responded through gritted teeth.

"No, you're not." Toby cut in, "We know you Raelynn, when you say it's fine, it's never fine." I looked to Alexa for help, but she was still staring at the trollmarket in awe.

"Woah," She exclaimed excitedly and threw her hands above her head.

I relaxed a bit seeing my little sister so happy, and I heard a soft ding from my amulet before my armor disappeared, along with my sword, which was also holding me on my feet.

"Pretty mu- woah!" Jim began to agree with Alexa, before I went toppling over, dragging him to the ground with me.

"Ah!" I squealed as I fell onto the ground, Jim falling on top of me, for maybe the sixth time in the past hour or so. He really needed to stop doing that, or I was going to have a heart attack, on top of my injured leg.

Jim helped me back up off of the ground and let me lean against him for support once more.

"This is really your home?" He asked the three trolls.

"Trollmarket's home, hearth and sanctuary for all the good trolls," Blinky replied, "This way my fleshy friends! There is much to see."

"I'd appreciate not being called fleshy, It sounds... derogatory," I whispered to Jim and he laughed out loud, Toby laughed along.

"Dang!" Toby exclaimed, "And here I thought the only thing under our town was dirt and plumbing!" Now it was my turn to laugh, I laughed so hard I had to grip my ribs because they started to ache.

As we walked further into the Trollmarket we passed by many different looking trolls, some noticed us, but gave us some dirty glances, or just plain growled at us.

Blinky had to have noticed because he motioned for Jim to bring me closer to the group, "Stay close," He commanded in a hushed voice, "Human feet have never graced the ground of trollmarket before..."

"Human?" A troll looked at us in shock as we walked past, I gave it a small, shy wave. To my surprise it waved back.

As we continued walking around the market Jim told Toby to start taking pictures of everything.

"This is crazy!" He said and I nodded enthusiastically, "Are you getting this Tobes?"

Toby started snapping pictures of the market and everything with his phone, "Oh yeah, I'm on it! Raelynn! We should get you a crystal and you can make a necklace! Oh oh! What about three necklaces, for the three of us, best friends since diaper days!" Toby said happily and I giggled.

"I dunno Tobes, I think Mr hotshot over here wouldn't wear his," I gave Jim a smirk as I poked his ribs teasingly.

He flinched away from my touch and chuckled, "Oh my, why does the princess think that? Of course I'd wear it? We're friends right? And don't poke me again, I could drop you. " The word friends struck me right in the heart, I could feel my chest tighten after he said it, even though I knew he meant it in an affectionate way. It still hurt.

I turned my attention away from Jim and didn't notice the confused and hurt look pass quickly over his face as I turned away to watch a troll that was getting a tattoo as we passed by.

Toby was still taking pictures and I giggled as he began listing off the names of each crystal or gemstone we passed, "Check it out!" he said as he ran over to a cluster of crystals, "Peridot, Topaz, Cassiterite," He gasped as he went up to another piece of stone, "Kornerupine!"