Chosen

babysitters' troubles

The next day, you, Blinky and Toby found yourselves at the bridge leading to the main part of the Hero's Forge, watching Jim struggle to not fall into the bottomless pit below you. Luckily, he was secured with a rope held by AAARRRGGHH. It might not have been the safest of options, but Blinky had planned out Jim's Trollhunter curriculum and insisted on it being followed.

"Let me get this straight," Jim begun, but was interrupted by a burst of flame coming from the orange stone he was clinging to. "Hoo!" he huffed as he barely dodged it. He quickly grabbed hold of the stone and continued stuggling his way up. "They steal babies.." he continued, grunting as he climbed, "so they can replace them.." he grunted again as he moved further up, "with changelings?" "Precisely, master Jim," Blinky called back to him from the top of the bridge. Jim reached a ledge and took a small break there. "Uh, allegedly steal. I just saw a bird," Toby said, being very skeptical about this whole situation. Before he and Jim had arrived at Trollmarket, Jim'd told that he'd seen a goblin carry a baby across some electrical lines in front of a moped shop. And, as mentioned before, Toby was very skeptical about this. He'd said that all this Trollhunting buisness had made Jim 'hallucinate'. You, on the other hand, believed Jim's theory to the fullest.

"Changelings are very real, Tobias. You remember your dentist. This is how it all begins. Goblins steal babies, the changeling babies grow up in our world and become evil dentists," you said, sat right between him and AAARRRGGHH. "And, in order for a changeling to maintain it's appearance in our world, no harm must come to the human child in theirs," Blinky added as Toby reached into his backpack and pulled out a VHS. "I assure you, there is no safer place for a baby to be than the bowels of the Darklands nursery," Blinky called to Jim as Toby fed AAARRRGGHH the VHS. Another bust of flame shot out from the wall Jim was leaning on. "Well, that's good to know!" he replied as he slowly moved along the wall of the tiny ledge, barely large enough for him to keep his feet on. 

"Whoa! hold on, there," Toby exclaimed. "Okay, suppose they did take the baby to the Darklands," he fed AAARRRGGHH another VHS, "isn't that where Gunmar is trying to escape from?" "The doorway to his realm is sealed for now, but it doesn't exonerate the cracks that inevitably form over time," Blinky replied, turning to Toby. You looked up to AAARRRGGHH and saw an uncomfortable expression on his face. "Cracks that allow small things to pass," Blinky finished. "Small, like babies and goblins," AAARRRGGHH carefully explained, turning to you and Toby.

"So, if we can find out whose baby was stolen, we'll find the changeling in its place, right?" Jim asked as he rounded an edge of stone, the ledge soon to be ending. The sound of gears turning made Jim gasp for he knew what was coming. Yet again, fire shot out from the wall behind him on his left and right. He quickly jumped far onto another rock as fire burst out from behind him. "And once we have the changeling," he grunted as he struggled to climb the smoother piece of rock he found himself on, "we'll have the proof to finally convince Vendel-" He screamed as he slipped the piece of rock and begun falling. "Jim!" you and Toby exclaimed as the rope slipped from AAARRRGGHH's hand. "No!" he gasped.

On instinct you dove after the rope with Toby behind you. You caught it mid-air, Toby caught your feet and AAARRRGGHH caught his. "Got him!" AAARRRGGHH triumphantly said while Blinky looked at the whole scene in shock. You sighed in relief as the giant troll began hoisting you up. "Jim, what have we said about trying to climb slippery, upside-down pieces of stone?" you said as AAARRRGGHH placed you back on the bridge.

"I told you I'd fall," he angrily spoke to Blinky, still hanging by the rope in AAARRRGGHH's hands. It looked quite funny. "You fell because you knew you could," Blinky countered. "What if you were endangered and we aren't there? Next time, we'll climb sans the safety line," he spoke as he nonchalantly walked right past Jim. "We'll?" Jim asked, still a bit angry. "The only lesson learned here today is that, with this many changelings, Arcadia is far more dangerous that previously thought, for the three of you," he said. "As Jim has Draal now to protect his home, and Y/n already live amongst us, Tobias, you will now have AAARRRGGHH to protect yours," he smiled as Jim still hung from the rope with his arms crossed. A smile that made Toby's cheeks even larger grew on his face. "Really? For real? We're gonna be roomies? Yeah! High-five, big guy!" Toby exclaimed as he reached in for a high-five, clearly bursting with joy. Obliviously, AAARRRGGHH let go of the rope to meet Toby's hand only to drop Jim back into a fall. He screamed but luckily, you were able to grab the rope and hook your feet onto a piece of stone, stopping what would have come next. "Deya! A little help here?" you grunted only to recieve a sheepish smile from AAARRRGGHH.