"For centuries, the troll and human worlds stood separate 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 led by Gunmar "the Black." The rest of trollkind fought against him, culminating in 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 exotic realm."
As Blinky was explaining the history of trollkind, Lucas was listening but struggled to stay awake, however his stepsister was snoring away.
"New Jersey." Aarrrghh added.
"We kept walking. Eventually, we came across a new Heartstone, and we realized we found a new home... under Arcadia." Blinky finished, lowering his book to look up at the three, only to see Barbara sleeping against Aarrrghh's arm.
Lucas leaned her head onto the large troll's other arm, still trying to stay awake, but seemed to enjoy listening to the interesting history lesson.
Blinky groans and approaches the sleeping woman, bringing the open book close to her face and slamming it shut, creating a loud thud that woke up the woman.
"Oh Jim, I'm sorry, I forgot to pack your lunch! Huh?"
Barbara was startled and blurted out.
The blue troll in front of her kneels down with a disappointed expression.
"The training of Troll history might seem like a minor duty, Lady Barbara, but-"
"Sorry, I stayed up all night until three in the morning working at the clinic last night and my brain is messy right now. I don't know. I guess I thought if I'm facing Draal in a week, my training would be a little more... active?" The woman spoke.
"Yeah, when is she going to learn how to fight properly?" Lucas questions, putting his arm over his stepsister's shoulders.
"Before one fights, Lucas, one must understand why one fights. For these precious early steps will decide whether a young Trollhunter will become a Deya "the Deliverer"..." Blinky points over to a statue of the first Trollhunter.
"Or Unkar "the Unfortunate."' Aarrrghh added.
The group looked over at the cowardly looking statue.
"Well, tomorrow I have another late night shift at work, so my main concern is my immediate future." The woman spoke.
"A-ha! But, to learn what will happen in the future, one must only look to the past."
Blinky hands over the book to Barbara, only for her to yelp and struggles to carry the heavy book.
"I recommend A Brief Recapitulation of Troll Lore by the venerable Behedile. Volume one of forty-seven." The blue troll spoke.
"Okay, but if I don't get to work in time, I will get in trouble and I need to provide for my son. If Jim notices something is wrong, he will find out. I'm sorry, Blinky, but the amulet chose me, and now I have two lives to keep up." Barbara replied as she carried the book, walking backwards from the group.
Suddenly, a female troll ran up to Blinky looking upset and out of breath.
Before she could speak, the blue troll got worried seeing how urgent her expression was.
"Oh, no. Is it the Heartstone?" Blinky spoke.
"No! No!" She breathed out, still panting.
"Stalking?" Aarrrghh also spoke.
"Is Bular in Troll Market?" Lucas added.
"No! Gnome! Rogue gnome!" She yelled out loud that her voice echoed throughout The Forge.
Within the shop, the female troll was complaining about a gnome problem.
"First, I couldn't find my monocle, then my collection of bed coils. Now, something disappears every minute!"
As she was about to sit on a stool, a gnome zooms past and steals the stool, causing the female troll to fall backwards.
"Ah, yes. Gnome."
Blinky stretched his hand out to her to help her up, but she slaps it away and gets up herself.
"Oh, dirty little pests. Up to last week, the glue traps were working fine." She spoke and held up the glue trap with the skeleton remains of a gnome.
Then, it got snatched up.
The female troll gasps and the gnome quickly zooms around the shop.
"Fix it, Trollhunter!" She desperately begs for Barbara's help.
"Uh, I am really sorry about that. See you need a gnome-catcher, and I'm, well, the Trollhunter, so-"
"Oh, no, Lady Barbara. The Trollhunter cannot refuse the call. And what better a call for you to train with than a pint-sized quarry?" Blinky interrupted and eased her worries.
Suddenly, a small melody was being played and the group looked over to see a gnome playing a tiny makeshift guitar and he started singing.
"He's trying to distract us! Hold tight to your valuables." Blinky warned.
"He can't be that bad. I mean he's playing a little guitar." Lucas approaches and grins as he watches the musical gnome.
Then the man felt his belt disappear and he gasped, clutching onto his pants.
"Oh, no! My belt! At least he didn't take my new phone." Lucas pulls out his phone, feeling relieved.
Unfortunately, it too got stolen.
"Okay, that's it. We need to catch that gnome." He scowls.
Barbara, Lucas and Blinky were looking everywhere for the tiny thief, it zoomed past Lucas and he yelled out.
"Over there!" He pointed.
"Oh, over there!" Barbara pointed in a different direction as she saw a fast blur.
"No! Over there!" Blinky pointed out.
"Right here." Aarrrghh points up towards his head where the gnome was, who waved at the group and runs off.
Barbara tries to catch it but falls, missing the gnome.
Then it lands on a basket full of rags, laughing at her.
Blinky snuck behind the gnome and quickly snatched it.
However, he notices that it is gone and looks in the basket to see a hole with the gnome waving through it.
The gnome zooms away and the blue troll groaning with frustration.
"Oh, my beautiful sock! Catch him!" The female troll yelled out.
Barbara runs after the gnome, so close to catching it then she jumps forward and finally grabs the tiny rascal, along with Blinky and Lucas jumping on top of her.
Unfortunately, the gnome was able to free himself from Barbara's grasp, causing the three to be disappointed.
The gnome runs underneath Aarrrghhh, the large troll lifting his leg up to let the gnome run past.
Barbara tries to jump forward to catch the gnome, but again, she misses. She looks up at the gray troll, looking confused.
"Pacifist." Aarrrghh shrugs.
The woman gets up, searching for the gnome, only for a speedy blur to zoom past her, then she feels around pockets.
"Oh, no. Where's the amulet?" She questions.
On the floor she saw the gnome with her amulet, laughing at her.
"Oh, no!" Blinky exclaimed with worry.
Then the gnome ran off and hid behind a wardrobe.
Aarrrghh easily moved it with one finger and behind it was a small hole in the wall.
"Hole." He spoke.
Barbara took a peek inside the hole, but it was a little dark to see what was in there.
"Yes, it appears the plot quite literally deepens." Blinky commented.
"Come back, come back." Barbara stretches her arm into the hole, trying to get the amulet back.
"Shouldn't the amulet be coming back to me right about now?" She spoke.
"Dolefully, that rule only applies if you've rejected it. When thieved, it's another story." Blinky explained.
"If you had read A Brief Recapitulation, you would have known that." He crosses his arms.
"Some Trollhunter you are." The female troll sighs.
"Barbara "the Bum."" She insulted, then she saw Lucas poking into a sack filled with whatever, she swiped the sack away with a glare.
"Lady Barbara, press on. This is not the moniker you want." Blinky spoke.
"What else can I do? I can't fit in that hole." Barbara complained.
Blinky thought for a moment while tapping his chin..
"Hmm, currently." He mumbled.
"Bad idea." Aarrrghh spoke with worry.
"No Trollhunter has ever lost the amulet. We need time to procure the Furgolator." The blue troll spoke up, turning towards the large troll.
"Uh, the Furgolator?" Barbara questions, feeling a bit concerned.
"Oh, don't you worry about anything, Lady Barbara. Tend to your medical profession. We'll watch over the hole. Tomorrow, you'll return refreshed to deal with this, uh... little problem." Blinky chuckled.
During break, Barbara was in the lunch room of the clinic, as some of the nurses were chatting away, the red-haired woman was eating her lunch that Jim made for her, all alone, while trying to read the book Blinky gave her.
She was struggling to understand the language and all she could do was look at the illustrations.
That is when she noticed a small group of the nurses looking in her direction, she quickly shut the book close and continued eating her food, avoiding eye contact.
Barbara heard them laughing, hearing one nurse say something but it was hard to hear from a far distance.
"Dr. Lake." A nurse spoke, catching the attention of the woman.
"Oh. Vincent. I didn't see you there." Barbara smiles.
"I know you have a day off tomorrow, but unfortunately Dr. Levi called in sick and wouldn't be able to make it to perform a hip surgery that day. I was hoping you can come in and fill his place?" He asked.
Barbara felt a bit stressed out as she was hoping to spend the next day on trying to read the heavy old book.
Plus, doing surgery is already stressful enough as it is.
"Uhh, I am not sure. I already had a schedule with my family for tomorrow..." She paused for a moment.
"I know this is a bad time, but we can't reschedule the surgery. If you could make some time for it, I'm sure you could be rewarded with a day off." Vincent pleaded.
"I guess so. I'll do it." Barbara spoke.
"Thank you, Doctor. I'm sure Levi would appreciate it." The nurse smiled.
"Of course." The woman smiled back.
She just hopes nothing could go wrong tomorrow.
"We built it here? Right under their noses? Are you a fool?" Bular walks in a large room filled with scaffolding and crates.
"Haven't you heard that the best hiding place is in plain sight-"
As Mr. Strickler spoke, Bular grabbed onto his neck and lifted him to his face.
"Don't patronize me, Impure." The dark troll insulted.
"We want the same thing, Bular. I know you don't like waiting, but it's taken time for the changelings to acquire the remaining pieces." The changeling in disguise choked out.
Bular roars and lets go of him, Mr. Strickler catching his breath.
"My father has waited centuries. The Age of Gunmar is at hand." The dark troll sinisterly grins when he picks up a piece of the bridge from a crate.
Blinky walks into a small area with something tall being covered by a rag.
"Remember when I told you that all Trollhunters must start small?"
The blue troll pulls the rag down and reveals a strange contraption.
"Full disclosure, I'm a little worried how I let you talk me into this." Barbara spoke, feeling a bit unsure about this.
The contraption was activated and as the doors opened with steam shooting out of the pipes.
"Still bad idea." Aarrrghh warned with concern.
As Barbara got inside the machine, she looked confused and nervous.
"Wait a minute. So how does me going into this thing help me get a gnome out of a hole?" She asked,
Blinky closes the doors, keeping the woman inside the machine.
"If a gnome won't come out, the Trollhunter must go in." He spoke, smiling as he gently tapped the door.
"Wait, what?" Barbara leans into a small little window and looks out with worry.
"Don't worry. We often use the Furgolator to compress minerals. And now for the anthracite!" He happily exclaimed, using blacksmith tongs to pick up a mineral from Lucas' hands.
"But you've done this a few times on flesh and bone, right? Right?" The woman spoke.
"Not exactly." Blinky placed the stone into a small space that fit perfectly, activating the machine.
"But I'm not concerned." He nervously smiles.
"Well, that's because you are not the one trapped in this thing." The woman complained, the machine was rumbling and shaking.
"Nothing to worry about, Lady Barbara. We work best under pressure." The blue troll spoke up loudly, since the machine was a little noisy.
"I can't see a thing!" Barbara coughs.
"Why is there so much smoke?"
She Felt a bit overwhelmed.
The machine began creaking intensely, a beeping sound was emitted from it.
"Come on, you guys got to get her out of there!" Lucas rushes towards the machine and tries to pry the doors open.
Blinky joins in, trying to help, but the doors are shut tight.
"Don't just stand there, Aarrrghh!" He turns to the large troll and moves aside as the gray troll attempts to pry the doors open, until the pipes from the machine whistles and the doors automatically open.
Smoke immediately spilled out from inside with Barbara coughing.
The woman walks out, still unable to see from the smoke and her glasses were very foggy.
"Looks like it didn't work. Hope you have a plan B." She takes her glasses off and cleans it with her shirt, then she puts it back on.
That is when she looks up and screams from shock, stumbling back to see the group extremely large.
"On the contrary." Blinky looks down at the now shrunk Barbara.
"Woah, it's a mini Barb... A Barbie, ha!" Lucas laughs as he looks down at his stepsister, who gave him an annoyed expression with her arms crossed.
"The Furgolator functioned perfectly!" Blinky laughs as he picks her up with one hand.
The tiny woman was still in shock and looked down at her hands, wondering how the heck did she allow herself to get in this mess.
Then, she was plopped into the hole's entrance.
"Real subtle. "We've got to start small. Deal with the little problem." This is a huge problem! I can't be shrunk! I have a surgery procedure to do tomorrow." Barbara complained.
"You have a gnome to catch. Now, onward, Lady Barbara, and fetch your destiny!" Blinky exclaimed proudly.
Lucas managed to find a sharp pencil and a pin as a sword and shield.
"Your sword and shield, my liege." The man spoke in a fancy accent and handed the woman the pencil and pin, who took it and stabbed his palm with the sharp end of the long item.
Lucas yelps and quickly draws his hand back.
Barbara sighs and turns around towards the dark entrance, she climbs in, only to slip and slide further into the hole.
"Oh, one last thing to know when dealing with a gnome, Lady Barbara, and this is of dire importance: Do not touch its hat." Blinky explained into the hole.
"Of course. It's right there in A Brief Recapitulation." She annoyingly replied as she walked in the dark tunnel, swiping away a strand of rope that hung from the ceiling.
"You remember!" Blinky happily exclaimed.
"Of course not! Nothing in this world makes sense-AHH!" Barbara screams when she turns to see a creepy head of a doll.
"Uh, this is one creepy little gnome."
She walks around the head, having an unnerving feeling the more she keeps walking.
That is when she heard laughter, meaning she was close.
When she slowly approaches the opening, she peeks over to see the gnome chatting with a skeleton of a gnome, while messing around with Lucas' phone and lastly she sees her amulet being used like a table.
"Aren't you a big fella now?" She whispered to herself.
The gnome was arguing with skeleton remains and Barbara was figuring out how she could get to retrieve the amulet.
"I've got to get that amulet back." The woman mumbled.
When the gnome was distracted with the phone, Barbara quietly sneaked up, until the gnome pushed a random button and out of nowhere, the woman's phone rang.
Barbara yelps when she gets caught and the gnome growls at her.
She drops her pencil and it rolls away, showing that she was no threat.
"It's okay, it's okay. No one has to get hurt, if you cooperate and hand me that amulet back-"
Before she could even finish speaking, the gnome snarls and pounces onto her.
She grunts when the gnome attacks her, though she uses the pin to shield herself, managing to throw the gnome down and gets up to run towards her pencil sword.
As she grabs her weapon and points it at the angry gnome, however it wouldn't save her as the gnome used his sharp teeth like pencil sharpener cutting it down short.
Barbara looks at the now short pencil with a shocked expression.
The gnome laughed at her predicament, but Barbara instinctively threw the pencil at him.
Outside the hole, Lucas was anxiously peaking into the dark hole, worried for his stepsister as all he could hear was fighting and glass breaking.
"That doesn't sound favorable." Blinky worriedly spoke.
"I'm sure she's alright...Barbara has been through worse." Lucas nervously replied.
Within the hole Barbara lost sight of gnome for the moment and thought it was her chance to go after the amulet.
Suddenly, in the corner of her eye she saw the gnome jump towards her, but she quickly moved out of the way and the gnome landed on the ground.
That is when she grabs a holds onto it.
"Gotcha!" The woman yelled.
Unfortunately, the gnome managed to slip away and Barbara saw how she had the red pointy hat in her hand.
She gasps and turns to see the hatless gnome, who reveals to have a strange unicorn horn on top of his head.
He noticed his hat in the woman's hands and got extremely angry and began to charge at her.
Barbara dodges the gnome and he crashes into a pile of junk, he gets up and is even angrier than before.
The woman looks over to see her amulet nearby, then looks back at the gnome, who was charging at her.
She runs after the amulet, but the gnome stops her from reaching it as he grabs her legs and she falls down, inches away from the amulet.
"For the glory of.. Merlin, Daylight is mine to command!" Barbara yelled out, finally grabbing onto the amulet.
The amulet activates and it shrunk to her size and soon she was covered in armor.
Barbara glares at the gnome with her hands on her hips.
The gnome backs off and realizes how much trouble he was in.
Lucas heard only silence and grew even more worried.
"Uhh, why did everything become quiet? Did she.." The man mumbled.
"No, let us not hope for that." Blinky quickly replied, his many hands fidgeting.
As they waited with tension, they heard something coming out of the hole.
The hatless gnome approaches and Barbara behind him with her sword out, while holding onto his hat.
The group cheered and clapped for her triumph.
"You summoned the armor and caught the gnome! Well played, Lady Barbara!" Blinky claps.
"Thank you, thank you. I don't want to forget the little people." Barbara spoke up, then she tapped the gnome to get down.
"Expedient and good-humored." Blinky chuckled.
"Oh, my hero!" The female troll cheered.
Once she gets out of the hole, she tosses the hat to the ground and the gnome grabs it, only to be snatched up in a sack by Lucas.
"And what about me? When is this gonna wear off?" The armored woman pointed to herself.
"Don't worry. Sleep it off. By morning, you'll be good as new. And how you have earned it! Barbara "the Gnome Slayer"!" The blue troll proudly cheered.
"Such a shame, the little guy was pretty talented." Lucas glances at the sack with a sad expression.
"But he did take my phone. So I'm not so forgiving." He muttered.
"About your phone, I think it's still in there. I can get it for you." Barbara pointed towards the hole.
"Oh good." The man felt relief.
Blinky picks Barbara up and gently places her on top of a crate.
The woman quietly gasped when she was lifted up from the ground, seeing how careful the blue troll was with her.
"All that is left is for you to take care of it."
"Wait, what? Take care of it?" Barbara was confused.
"Rule number two." Aarrrghh reminded me.
""Always finish the fight."" Barbara spoke to herself, remembering one of the three rules.
"Exactly, Lady Barbara." Blinky smiles.
However, the woman didn't feel so sure she could kill anyone, let alone a trouble-making gnome.
Back at home, Barbara was on her bed, still tiny and feeling anxious.
"Who am I kidding, I can't kill this thing. Sure he tried to kill me, but I am not a killer. None of us are." The woman sighs.
Lucas, who was sitting on the edge of her bed, looked at his stepsister, then his expression dropped.
"I am."
Barbara looked up at him, with a surprised expression.
"You are?"
The man was fidgeting with his now retrieved phone and frowns.
"One night, I was driving home from late night grocery shopping for my family. I got a text from a friend and I was stupid enough to drive while texting." Lucas explained, feeling ashamed of himself for breaking the law.
"I was texting back and didn't notice something crossing the road, when I did, it was too late and I felt a bump. I stopped the car and got out to check if I hit someone, but to my relief it wasn't a person. However, my relief faded and I realized I hit a cat."
As he continued speaking, Barbara saw how upset he looked.
"What was worse, is that it wasn't just any cat, but my neighbor's cat. An old lady named Dalia, and she loved her cats. The next day she talked to everyone around the neighborhood if anyone had seen her cat, and I didn't have the heart to tell her." Lucas looks down at the floor.
"Oh, that's.. Awful." Barbara mumbled.
"To this day, I still feel bad for not saying anything. Like I just murdered a poor innocent animal and never admitted fault." Lucas felt very guilty.
"Maybe one day, you can tell her. Sure, she might be upset, but she could at least have closure." Barbara suggested.
Lucas thought for a moment, then he looked up and nodded.
"Yeah.. I should." He spoke.
"Well, I'm feeling exhausted, I should get some sleep. We'll figure out what to do with this gnome tomorrow, when things get back to normal." The woman yawns.
"What about the surgery tomorrow?" Lucas spoke.
"Good night, Luke." Barbara fell asleep.
Lucas sighs and gets up from the bed and picks up the sack, looking inside to see the sleeping gnome, then closes it.
"By morning rise, the dark deed will be done and my soul will be damned."
The man heads to the kitchen and turns the sink's garbage disposal with the water running.
He gulps as he lowers the sack down the sink.