Daylight gleamed in Toby's hand. The boy could feel the sword almost communicating with him. As if it were a tiny bit sentient. He'd never held a sword in his life, not unless you counted the plastic one he'd once used at the renaissance fayre when he was five. That'd been the first time him and Jim had attended something together since he'd moved into the house over the road from him. His mind was plunged back in time, as if for a moment, time had stopped. He could almost feel the heat from that day.
The sun is hot, the air is humid. Barbara Lake has just picked up an excitable Toby and is driving him and her son to Arcadia's annual renaissance fayre. It's the first time she's taken Jim out since his dad had left and they'd had to move into the new house. Both boys are dressed in play armour. She looks into the rear view mirror and sees Toby enthusiastically chatting to Jim in the back seat. It makes her happy to see her son smiling for the first time in a while. Toby and Jim sit chatting about where they're going to go at the ren fayre. When they arrive, the boys beg Barbara to let them visit the sword stand. They're too young to fight with the adults, but she pays for them both to fight with plastic swords in the kids' duelling tournament.
Jim is a little shy but Toby screams a battle cry and runs at him. Jim panics and jumps out the way, falling over and hitting his face on the wooden boundary pole. He gets a deep cut just below his left eye. He cried a lot and they had to leave, but Barbara took them both for ice cream after they'd been to the hospital. Toby vowed to Jim he'd never let him get hurt again.
That was the day they'd properly become friends and how Jim got the scar under his eye.
Toby looked down, he could still make out the scar from that day amongst the others. He decided he wasn't going to let his best friend get hurt, not on his watch. Never again. He couldn't explain why he felt so natural having this sword in his hands.
Time began to speed back to normal again, the fear in Jim's eyes was there, the shock from everyone was prominent. Bular roared loudly, striking the sword with his own and it shattered on impact. Jim couldn't believe his eyes, Daylight had never done that with him.
Toby jolted upon this but was still way too in shock and awe to properly process how genuinely bizarre this situation was.
Bular raised pulled back, taking his foot off Jim which gave the teenager an opportunity to try and strike. The troll prince simply smashed Jim into a nearby tree with such force, that his body snapped the tree in half. The wood splintered and became lodged in Jim's side. He attempted to activate his abilities as Dhiren as mentioned, trigger his troll transformation, but the long shaft of wood protruding from his side seemed to be preventing that. A rush of dizziness hit Lake as he tried to stand upright. He instead slumped to the ground, Claire running over to check on him.
Toby saw this and something snapped within him. Some form of rage bubbled inside causing him to stop dead in his tracks and scream at the retreating troll. No one hurt his Jim.
"FACE ME YOU COWARD!" He shrieked through the trees, Bular taking notice and stopping to regard the wielder of Daylight.
"You dare challenge me?" Bular growled in response, his pupils narrowed.
"Y-yeah. I challenge you." Domzalski stammered.
Rise Tobias, the Trollhunter. Rise and become.
The voice of the old man ricocheted through his mind. This was his moment. His fingers tightened on the hilt on the sword. It felt like he was meant for this.
"Okay Toby, you've got this." He exhaled deeply and raised Daylight above his head.
Bular charged at the boy, lifting a single clawed hand in an attempt to tear him open. Toby let out a yell and swung the sword down onto the troll's arm, the impact sending a flurry of blue sparks fizzling through the air. It felt strangely exhilarating.
"Yield fleshbag! A pathetic lump of flesh such as yourself has no right to wield a weapon forged for troll hands!" Bular spat, attempting to conceal his slight fear, "You seem rather fond of the skinny one over there...if you won't yield by request, perhaps you'll yield if I snap its brittle little body in half?"
Claire yelped in fear, pushing herself closer into Jim, as the boy continued to try and wrangle the branch from his side. AAARRRGGHH!!! and Blinky had merely been spectating in disbelief, Blinky toying with taking this opportunity to run away in the name of self preservation. Instead, something clicked within the troll's head. He had a strange sense of déja vu, but overwhelmingly felt a kinship with the boy currently injured. With all three of these young humans. All of them, despite not completely knowing what was going on, weren't willing to give up the fight. Blinky decided he wouldn't either.
"Fair Claire, pardon my intrusion, but I believe James may benefit from my strength and yours to shift this branch from his wound?" Blinky ran over to ask.
"If we remove it he'll bleed out!" Claire threw her arms up.
"It's fine...Claire...I gotta...help...Tobes..." Jim persisted.
"Aww, look, it's trying to help!" Bular chided, enjoying the rage from Toby.
Bular roared once again and charged past Domzalski, screaming about how he was going to tear Jim into little pieces and feat on his bones. Something snapped within Toby. His eyes started glowing a bright cerulean to match the sword, now engulfing him in a lurid blue aura. He launched forwards, swinging the blade behind him.
"DON'T YOU DARE HURT HIM!" Tobias bellowed, running to Bular and slamming him in the chest with an inhuman level of strength. Another flashback came to him, filling his eyes with hot tears of fury.
Toby sits alone, looking out at the rain. It's falling at a steady pace and the gentle rhythm of the sound makes him happy. A moment of calm amidst the chaos of his life. Jim walks in, towelling his hair dry from his ride home. He sees Toby sitting on the porch and smiles softly.
Jim sits beside Toby, who seems to be shivering a little from the cold. The two boys huddle together for warmth. After some tiny of watching the rainfall, Jim plants a light kiss upon Toby's cheek and blushes deeply, before running inside his house feeling embarrassed. Toby sits there, also blushing as red as his sweater vest, his hand gently placed where Jim had kissed him.
Bular wheezed a little, cowering back from the boy who was hovering inches off the ground. Toby went for the troll prince again, plunging Daylight deep into his exposed belly. Bular shrieked, his body slowly beginning to turn to stone.
"You'll...pay...for...this...puny...runt..." Bular's voice strained as he slowly began to freeze in place.
Toby collapsed to the floor, exhausted, too tired to process what he'd just done, or really just about anything that'd happened in the last 48 hours.
Jim managed with the help of Blinky and AAARRRGGHH!!! to yank the tree branch out of his side, much to Claire's panic. To her surprise, he was fine, standing up with nothing more than a wince.
"Jim strong!" AAARRRGGHH!!! chortled.
Jim laughed it off and raised his hand to the gaping wound on his side. As if by instinct, he guided his palm over it and the flesh began to mend itself with a green shimmer. Like Toby, Jim was also too exhausted to process that right now.
Shit, Tobes!
He ran to where his best friend lay, knackered and cradled him in his arms.
"Tobes? You okay? Please be okay!"
"Jimbo, I'm fine..." Toby coughed.
He leant into Jim's bicep and smiled weakly. Lake echoed his smile, placing a hand on his friend's cheek tenderly.
"Are you hurt at all? I'm so sorry this is all my fault..." He placed his forehead on Toby's.
Toby reached a finger to wipe the tears of relief from Jim's eyes, "It's okay Jim, I understand why you blame yourself but I don't blame you for not saying anything. And just some light scrapes."
Jim pulled Toby in closer, enveloping them both in a green glow, healing the light scratches on Toby's face.
"I promise Tobes, nothing bad is gonna happen to you...I'm strong enough to protect you now."
Claire stood up, her expression looking bemused, "So, now we've got through whatever that was, could someone please tell me what the fuck I just witnessed?!"
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For Whom The Bell Tolls (Trollhunters continuation/Evil Jim AU)
Fanfiction"Time unfolds differently, like a flower. The Trollhunter will know what to do." James Lake Jr. is close to losing his mind. Nearly being driven mad by repeatedly resetting the timelines to save his friends, to save Toby from an inevitable fate. N...
