burn - victoria lake

Gnome Your Enemy

four — the misadventures of tiny jim

HISTORY WAS NEVER HER FAVORITE SUBJECT OF STUDY. But troll history, on the other hand, was a whole new vault of knowledge. One that Victoria was far more eager to dive into than the same old story about Columbus and the total buttsnacks most of the colonists were. So she sat atop Aaarrrgghh's head, listening intently to Blinky's tale of the history of trolls.

"For centuries, the troll and human worlds stood separated and at peace, divided by bridges that acted as doorways between our two realms. But the Gumm-Gumms wanted to devour all of mankind. They were lead by Gunmar 'the Black'. The rest of trollkind fought against him, culminating the great Battle of Killahead Bridge, the portal to Gunmar's Darklands. After many moons, good triumphed over evil, and our great Trollhunter, Deya 'the Deliverer', locked Gunmar away, exiling him to the Darklands, and sealed the Killahead Bridge with the sacred amulet. After, we tore it apart, stone by stone. We left the old world in search for peace. We stowed away on a ship called the Mayflower, just a handful of us and some gnomes we'd brought along for companionship and nourishment. Finally, we arrived in a strange and exotic realm."

"New Jersey." Aaarrrgghh rumbled.

"We kept walking. Eventually we came across a new Heartstone, and realized we had found a new home under Arcadia." Blinky finished and looked up from he had been using as a reference. Victoria clapped softly, smiling excitedly like a child who had just been told their favorite bedtime story. However, Blinky groaned and Victoria noticed Jim was sleeping.

The troll stepped forward with the book in hand. He slammed it shut in front of Jim's snoring face, startling him awake. "¡Lo siento, Señor Draal! ¡No me mates!" Victoria burst out laughing at his Spanish response.

Blinky knelt down in front of Jim, his brows furrowed in seriousness. "The training of troll history might seem like a minor duty, Master Jim, but—"

"Sorry, I pulled an all-nighter studying for my Spanish Comprehension exam and my brain is muy gooey." Jim sighed, looking from his Spanish textbook in his lap to Blinky in front of him. "I don't know. I guess I thought if I'm facing Draal in a week, my training would be a little more active." He stood up and yawned.

"You're telling me, brother." Victoria muttered, sliding off of Aaarrrgghh's moss-like hair. "I'm eager to do some training that involves jumping blades that shoot out of the ground instead of punching the life out of my generation old punching bag." She said, stretching her arms over her head.

Toby stood up and walked over to Jim and Victoria. "Yeah, like when is he going to learn Troll-kwondo? Or Rock-itsu?" He slung an arm over Jim's shoulders, dragging him down to his level as Victoria looked to Blinky in question.

"Before one fights, Toby D., one must understand why one fights. For these precious early steps will decide whether a young Trollhunter will become a Deya 'the Deliverer,'" He gestured to the statue of the great Trollhunter above the Forge.

"Or Unkar 'the Unfortunate.'" Aaarrrgghh said, pointing to the other not-so-great Trollhunter.

Victoria chuckled as Blinky gave him a incredulous look. Jim had enough,"Well, tomorrow, my Spanish exam is with Señor Uhl 'the Unforgiving.' My main concern is for my immediate future." She grimaced, remembering when she took his class during her sophomore year. She would've preferred to have taken a different foreign language course but the school was so small that they didn't have a teacher that knew French or German.

"A-ha! But, to learn what will happen in the future, one must only look to the past." Blinky said, holding up the ancient book. He dropped in onto Jim's textbook, and his arms dropped with it's weight. "I recommend A Brief Recapitulation of Troll Lore by the venerable Bedehilde. Volume one of forty-seven."