Tales Of Arcadia Ficlet Collection

A Trollhunter and His Dragon

"Wow...I've never seen a book like this before." Claire commented as she shut the book close. "Where did your mom get this?"

"I don't know, probably at some yard sale or something. I can't even understand the title on the cover." Jim said with a shrug as she hands him back the book before he slips it into his locker. "I don't even think that language exists, and it's not even Trollish."

"Actually from the looks of the etchings on the cover, it's old Norse. Not sure what it says, but I think there's a translator for it on the internet somewhere. What did you bring this for?"

Ah. Jim had completely forgotten he had placed the old book in his backpack that morning after his mom had brought it upstairs from the basement, and it was already too late to get home to put it back so he'd have to keep it in his locker.

"That was accidental, but it'd save me time to take it to Blinky to show it to him." Jim admits as he opens his locker to put it away. "Toby was so happy seeing the book again, when we were little he loved playing this game inspired by the stories in the book. We loved pretending to be Viking dragon riders in search of treasure or fighting evil dragon hunters and trappers."

"Sounded like a fun game." Claire chuckles as Jim shuts the door to his locker after placing the book between his math and science textbooks.

"There were mentions of trolls in the books, ones that apparently stole and ate socks, kind of like Notenrique. Vikings in the story used to name their children weird or terrifying things to scare them away."

Claire wrinkled her nose at the memory of her fake brother scarfing down socks like they were candy. "I doubt a name like Fishlegs would scare a troll like that. But it would be interesting if the trolls in the story actually were like the ones we know."

"Only one way to find out." Jim chuckles as his phone starts to ring. He pulls it out of his pocket and mentally groans. "Bagdwella is calling... probably another gnome problem."

"Hey Jimbo! Guess what I found in-" Toby, who had approached his friends, was cut off by the loud screaming from Jim's phone as his friend tried to muffle it.

"Yep, gnome problem." Jim muttered as he ended the call. "Gotta answer the call."

"Man why does it always gotta be gnomes with this lady?" Toby groaned as he and Claire started to follow Jim to exit the school. "Also ever since Bular died we haven't had a serious call. It's always gnomes, someone needs help naming their baby something, or a marriage dispute."

"Every call is important, no matter how small it is." Jim points out as the slip through the front gates and started to walk faster down the street. "Also the naming baby thing isn't so bad, I just had to whip out my phone and look up cool sounding names with certain meanings the parents wanted."

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"So...a gnome stole a super valuable trinket from the shop and you need me to get it." Jim asked a super flustered and upset Bagdwella. "What does this even look like?"

"An old family heirloom, it's very very important!" The shopkeeper explained and huffed angrily. "After the first time I thought all the gnomes would stop but no! One had to steal this pin passed down by my great great grandmother when we used to live in the Old World! I need it back! They can take anything they want, but that pin is irreplaceable!"

"Which way did the gnome go?" Jim asked, hoping to get this job done before professor Uhl noticed he was gone.

"The old tunnels, but be careful Trollhunter! Many trolls have wandered in there and only pieces of their remains could be found outside the caves!" Bagdwella warned and bit her lip. "Or perhaps you shouldn't go, best not lose a Trollhunter so quickly after he's defeated Bular."