☽✧𝐂𝐲𝐧𝐞𝐟𝐢𝐧✧☽ ᵃ ᵗᵃˡᵉˢ ᵒᶠ ᵃʳᶜᵃᵈⁱᵃ ᶠᵃⁿᶠⁱᶜᵗⁱᵒⁿ(𝐓𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐀𝐫𝐜𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐚 𝐱 𝐎𝐂) ᵇᵒᵒᵏ ¹/⁶

⁂🜚✪𝐀𝐝𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐓𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠✪🜚⁂

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We all stared longingly inside the glass.
"Check that baby out." Toby sighed.
Jim exhaled "Vespa 300 GTS Super. Singe-cylinder catalyzed four-stoke Quasar engine. Hmm..."
"She's gorgeous." I smiled.
Inside the glass on a rotating pedestal was a red, 300 GTS Super Vespa.
The ruby metal glinted in the sunlight.
"Can you imagine me going down the road on that?" Jim asked. "Wind whipping through my hair, Claire holding tight to my back..."
Jim closed his eyes, dreaming of the possibility.
"Me, cruising in the side car next to ya." Toby grinned making me snicker and cover my mouth.
Jim looked at Toby funny, causing me to break out in hysterical giggles.
"Oh. You imagined you and Claire alone, didn't you?" Toby realised.
My laughs got more uncontrolled as Jim stared at Toby.
"Hey!" Toby elbowed me in the ribs, I stopped for a second then continued laughing "It wasn't that funny." Toby frowned. But I knew he was just joking.
"I— I'm so— I'm sorry!" I gasped, fighting for breath and wiping the few tears that had come out of my eyes.
I stood up straight and cleared my throat "It was the way he was staring at you." I snickered.
"What are the chances of your mom getting you one for your birthday?" I then asked Jim.
"Only..." Jim considered for a moment "Slight worse than me winning the lottery and buying it myself."
"How much you got saved?" Toby asked.
"Only 328 bucks and 32 cents." Jim murmured.
"You could've bought that practice fruit." I scoffed.
"Enough with the practice fruit!" Jim whined.
"And by the time I have enough, these things will drive themselves." Jim muttered sadly.
I then saw a glimpse of something in the window.
I gasped " Did you see that?" I pointed to the top of a building.
I saw a green creature carrying...a bundle of sheets across a telephone pole.
"Its a goblin!" Jim cried, pointing to the goblin.
"What?" Toby hadn't been paying attention, but ran after me and Jim anyway.
I heard the cooing of a baby.
"It's a goblin with a baby!" I shouted.
"Come on, guys! It's just a bird!" Toby panted.
I heard the sinister sound of a goblin laughing as our trio turned into an alleyway.
We had reached a dead end.
I leaned down and picked up a toy rabbit that had been discarded on the concrete.
"Chill out, guys! This trollhunting and wizardry is making you two hallucinate!" Toby gasped for breath, limping up to me and Jim as we staring at the stuffed animal, examining it. "I mean, what would a goblin want with a baby?" Toby huffed.
"I don't know..." I sighed.
"But we're gonna find out." Jim confirmed, looking to the top of the alleyway.

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We were now in Trollmarket, more specifically, the cliff edge of The Heros forge.
Jim struggled up the cliff side, being held up by a thin rope, nothing else.
"Let me get this straight." Jim grunted, then jumped to the side as fire was shot out of the rocks, with a scream.
"They steal babies..." Jim continued "So they can replace them, with changelings."
"Precisely, Master Jim." Blinky called down to Jim as he ascended the jagged rocks.
I was making a stone levitate up and down in front of my vision, thankfully, Blinky hadn't noticed and yelled at me yet.
"Uh, allegedly steal." Toby pointed out "I just saw a bird."
"I saw it." I confirmed.
"And, in order for a changeling to maintain its appearance in our world," Blinky added, shouting this time "no harm must come to the human child in theirs."
"I assure you," Blinky mentioned "There is no safer place for a baby to be than the bowels of the DarkLands nursery."
"Well, it hardly sounds friendly." I sighed, letting the floating stone drop to the floor. "It's not like, Sunshine and ducklings, happy rainbow, tricking streams and flowers nursery is it?"
Aaarrrgghh chuckled.
"Whoa!" Hold on there." Toby piped up "Okay, suppose they did take the baby to the Darklands. Isn't that where Gunmar is trying to escape from?" Feeding Aaarrrgghh VHS'.
"The doorway to his realm is sealed for now, but it doesn't exonerate the cracks that inevitably form over time." Blinky frowned. "Cracks that allow small things to pass." Blinky pinched his fingers together.
"Small, like babies and goblins."Aaarrrgghh explained.
"So, if we can find out whose baby was stolen, we'll find a changeling in its place, right?" Jim called up to us.
Jim had to jump from one part of the cliff to another because fire blasted out everywhere he stood.
"And one we have the changeling," Jim strained "we'll have the proof to finally convince Vendel—"
Jim the slipped and plunged down.
Aaarrrgghh wasn't holding the rope tight enough because it slipped through his fingers.
"Jim!" I yelled, and out of instinct, dived for the rope, falling off the cliff myself.
I caught the rope but continued to tumble until my ankle was grabbed by...Toby!
"Gotcha!" I yelled.
Aaarrrgghh pulled Toby up, which pulled me and Jim up along with him.
I scrambled back onto solid floor as soon as it was in sight.
"I told you I'd fall." Jim huffed, as Aaarrrgghh dangled him in the air.
"You fell because you knew you could." Blinky explained, matter of factly. "What if you're endangered and we aren't there?"
"Next time," Blinky continued "We'll climb sans the safety line."
"We'll?" Jim questioned, eyebrows raised as he was lowered into the ground.
"The only lesson we learned here today is that, with this many changelings, Arcadia is far more dangerous than previously thought, for all three of you." Blinky explained "As Jim has Draal now to protect his home, Tobias, you will now have Aaarrrgghh to protect yours."
"Really? For real?" Toby grinned "We're gonna be roomies? Yeah! High-five, big guy!"
Aaarrrgghh dropped Jim as he attempted the high-five.
I stood on the rope before it could drop any further and heaved Jim up.
"Wait, wait, wait." I paused "What do I do?" I asked.
"There is unfortunately, not another troll to spare, but you live in between Tobias and Master Jim, so you will have contact if something goes wrong." Blinky told me.
"Ohhh okay." I sighed "I thought I was going to be left with nothing for a second."
I pulled Jim up over the edge and dropped him on the floor, not on purpose.
"Ouch." Jim groaned, rubbing his nose.
"Sorry..." I whispered.