Finding Home Again - A Trollhunters story

Chapter One- The Amulet

      Author's note- I hope y'all like this! I would appreciate support and feedback. 

   Douxie's foot bobbed up and down to the beat of some imaginary tune as he fiddled with the disassembled pieces and parts of Jim's amulet. Every now and then he grabbed an all-dressed potato chip from the bag Jim had put beside him on the worktable.

   With his mind immersed in homework, Jim pursed his lips and wrote more things down.

   Maybe if I write it down I'll understand it better, Jim thought exasperatedly. He couldn't wait to graduate high school. Now that he wasn't otherwise occupied by his duties, Jim had returned to school to finish his last semester of grade 12.

   I should ask Eli to tutor me. Jim loved going back to school and being a normal (as much as he possibly could be) teenage human kid that worried about small things like dates with his girlfriend, bullies, and catching up on Spanish and math. It was a fresh break from New Jersey and all of the pain and danger that came with it.

   Of course, New Jersey wasn't all horrible. Claire and Blinky had been with him, and he loved helping the Trolls settle into their new home no matter how stinky and weird it was.

   "Ugh." He grumbled. "I hate calculus." Jim looked away from his ugly math book and stared out the stained-glass window across the spacious room, which depicted a knight in gray armor holding a sword in one hand and a book in the other.

   Douxie glanced up, his hands becoming still on the large wooden table that he and Archie had moved into the quiet study. He frowned and looked at the younger boy.

   "Did you say something, Jim?"

   Jim nodded.

   "Sorry, I was kind of not listening. What did you say?"

   "I said I hate doing calculus," Jim repeated and made a no worries gesture. Douxie leaned back in his chair and ran a hand through his blue-streaked hair thoughtfully.

   "Oh, me too. Even ask Archie, I'm not the best at it."

   Archie, who was lounging comfortably in a newly-added bean-bag chair at the foot of a bookshelf near Douxie, purred. His intelligent-looking golden cat eyes snapped open behind his circular glasses. He stretched out his front paws and spoke. "I can attest to that. Hizirdoux is mostly just not fond of doing it, much like you, Jim."

   "How's that coming, Doux?" Jim chuckled, crossing his legs.

   "It's coming," The young looking master wizard replied, and popped a chip into his mouth. "Should be done in less than ten minutes." He said after swallowing.

   "Thanks a lot," Jim leaned his head to the side and returned to his work.

   Douxie grinned to himself as he continued working on the amulet. His friendship with Jim had been nonexistent at first, but was growing steadily. Jim trusted him with his life and the two of them had been in some nasty situations together. Those crappy situations had been the foundations of their friendship.

   It was a change, hanging out with Jim on a slow Thursday afternoon, but something that hadn't changed was the fact that they were working on completely different things.

   "So," Douxie started the process of reconnecting the pieces of the amulet together carefully, hands skillfully maneuvering them into place.

   Jim looked back up and made a questioning sound.

   "Do you like it? The castle, I mean," Douxie asked, stopping his task for a minute. This was the first time Jim had been in the castle (minus the time he was unconscious), so Douxie and Archie had given him a tour. Jim had technically been inside before, 900 years in the past, but only in the dungeons and throne room and a few of the large hallways.

   "Yeah. The architecture is beautiful. The throne room has changed a lot since its glory days, but I like that."

   Douxie chuckled. "Who says these aren't the glory days, Lake?" He wistfully looked at the sloping ceiling. The medieval designs and everything else in this room gave Douxie a sense of warmth and comfort and solace, reminding him of growing up under Archie and Merlin back when Merlin had been there for him. Of course, Archie had always stayed with him no matter what, which he would be forever grateful for.

   The last piece clicked into place, and Jim looked up, straight at it. 

    A soft creak sounded as the tall carved wooden door to the study swung open. Krel stood in the doorway, three of his hands wielding a wrench and some small contraptions while the other on the door. He grinned warmly at his friends and closed the door behind him. "How is it going?"

   "I've actually finished. Your help in this project," Douxie gestured to the amulet, "is much appreciated."

   Jim stood and rushed over to the table like an excited little kid, his eyes wide. Douxie and Krel watched as Jim's hand reached out and took it off the table.

   It felt familiar in his palm, but also not. It looked more modern and had a slightly greener hue to it. A little wisp of magic floated up out of it, sinking into Jim's chest. 

   Douxie saw something light up in Jim's eyes, a confident look he hadn't seen in Jim for so long, and grinned as magic flared around Jim's body, lifting the boy off his feet.

   The magical armor assembled itself around Jim and it settled on him as he sank back to his feet, staring at the gauntlets. "Whoa," He whispered, his eyes glued to his new suit of armor. Jim shifted his weight, testing the armor.

   It felt so familiar on him, a reminder of everything he'd been through as the Trollhunter, and a reminder of home. 

   "Like it?" Douxie asked, reaching over to high-five Krel. His hand confusedly searched for a hand to slap until Krel rolled his eyes and gave him a high-five. 

   "I love it!" Jim exclaimed. "But is there a sword?" Douxie glanced at Krel, who nodded.

   Douxie crossed his arms. "Of course. I even have blueprints on how it should generally look, among a lot more information. Did you try to... activate it?"

    "Mhmm." Jim hummed. He did try as if it was his old suit made of daylight, but failed to make it appear. "That's weird."

   Why would it do that? Could it just be because Jim wasn't used to controlling the powers that the suit came with? Or was it something else? Douxie knocked his knuckles on the pauldron, and bit the inside of his lip. 

   "We should give you time to get used to this amulet, Jim. Maybe tomorrow it might be different?" Douxie put a hand on his hip. Jim nodded, though he wasn't sure. That didn't seem like the answer, but if it wasn't, then there had to be something wrong with the amulet.