Nomura struggled against the two Gumm-Gumm soldiers dragging her back to her cell. She could hear the person in the next cell trying to escape. The pink trolless collapsed panting into her cell, defeated.
"Are you alright over there?" Nomura would recognize that English accent anywhere.
She struggled to her feet andd peaked threw a hole in the wall between the two cells.
"Hello."
"Nomura!"
She was honestly surprised that Stricklander sounded so happy.
"You're still alive!"
"Only just."
After a beat of silence she heard the scraping again.
"Are you trying to escape?"
"Of course I am," Stricklander called over, " I have a wife and son to get home to. Not to mention the rest of our family."
"Our family?"
Stricklander chuckled, "Yes, Nomura. Our family."
"And, let's just say you manage to dig threw solid rock and cut down two dozen Gumm-Gumm gaurds, how do you think you'll get out of the Dark Lands? Killahead was destroyed again."
"I'm not quite sure," His reply was flippantly confident, "I'll figure it out once I get us out of this dungeon. And as for getting out of the Dark Lands, we have family and friends back home who are problebly trying to rebuild Killahead and get us back. Even if it is just to kick my ass for coming here alone."
"Us?"
"Of course! Do you have any idea how happy Otto and the children are going to be to know your alive?! Barbara and Lenora may take a little warming up, though..."
Nomura leaned against the wall between them, "I'm pretty sure Little Gynt will problebly side with his mother, Strickler."
"He wont. You should have seen how he cried when Otto told us you had been sucked in here. He almost missed the play!"
Nomura hung her head. She had been excited to see her nephew perform.
"Was he good?"
She could hear Stricklander's smile, "He was amazing. Barbara cried."
LLB
The siblings were sitting back to back against the wall between their cells. It had been a couple days since they had been reunited and Strickler was catching her up on everything she had missed.
"I still find it hard to believe that you came into the Dark Lands alone."
Strickler sighed, "There was no way I was letting any of the children come; Blinky's not a fighter; Arrrgh was sick; and, in the end, there was no way I was putting Otto, Lenora, or Barbara in this kind of danger."
Nomura looked up at the hole in the wall when his voice cracked. She let the silence that followed hang for just a moment.
"You left th-"
"Don't! Please. I-I don't want to think about how they both screamed."
Nomura hung her head. After a moment she stood and stuck her hand threw the hole, feeling arouund for her brother. He took the offered hand.
"We'll get home, Nono," he promised, "I don't know how yet but we will."
LLB
Nomura watched as a her nephew and sister-in-law embraced Walter. The older changling clung to his son and showered his wife with kisses.
"Barbaric."
Nomura looked towards the voice and saw Draal standing beside her.
"Absolutely."
She looked back over at her brother and his family.
"I should go."
Nomura turned away but didn't make it two feet before she had to stop.
"Nomura!" Otto captured her in a tight embrace, "You're alive!"
Two more bodies slammed into her, "Tanta Nono!"
Otto grabbed her face, "Get down here!"
He kissed her forehead. (1) Nomura was frozen with shock. A fourth body slammed into her back, hands fisting around the front of her dress.
"I told you they would be happy to see you," Walter called.
Nomura stood stiff as a board.
"I-I have to go."
Toby and Mary let go and looked up at her sadly. Otto put an arm aroound each of his children. The fourth person tightened their grip.
"Please don't go, Aunt Nono," Jim mumbled into her back.
Nomura turned and held him at arm's length, "How can you even look at me?? After what I did to you? And to you're friend."
"I know you regret it," Jim replied, "Your gave me my inhaler. And I saw the look on your face when you found out about Aunt Dwella's baby. It may be small, cold, and dark but you still have a heart."
Nomura chuckled as tears pricked her eyes, "But I almost got you all killed! And just because I was mad that your father lied to me."
"We already had this discussion, Nono!" Walter shouted.
"This is a choice for Little Gynt!" Nomura shouted back.
"And I chose to forgive you," Jim hugged her once again, "Don't fight me on it. You still have to earn my trust back, anyway."
Nomura laughed, "alright. But I do have to go. I have to try and find a place to stay. I doubt I still have an apartment after three months of not paying the rent."
"You vvill stay vviz us," Otto declared, "You can stay in ze guest room untill you find a new apartment. But vve may have some problems if it takes more zen a few monz."
Nomura gave her brother a skeptical smile, "And what does Lenora have to say about this?"
"Mama won't throw you out, if that's what your worried about," Mary assured her.
"Yeah! Though, she may put a cap on how long you can stay..." Toby added.
"Alright! Alright! I cave!"
"JA!" Toby and Mary cheered and tackled her, getting tangled in arms.
Extra arms because Toby changed forms in his excitement.
"Help! I'm being squished by little Scaarbachs!"
Jim laughed and joined in the mess.
"That wasn't an invitation to join in, Little Gynt!"
Despite her complaints, Nomura hadn't been this happy in years.
LLB
Nomura watched while Claire opened the portal to Trollmarket.
"I've never actually gone in this way," she told the kids.
"Then you've never seen the veiw," Jim led the way.
Nomura shifted forms as Jim and Toby did and they all decended the blue crystal steps. She stepped stopped for only a moment when her eyes fell on Trollmarket. The subterranean city shone and glittered with all the different crystals and gemstones.
Nomura continued to follow her niece and nephews down to the city. She looked around at everything she could see.
"It doesn't seem to have changed all that much," she noted.
Suddenly she bumped into someone.
"Sorry! I wasn-wasn-Bular!"
The large black troll turned when he felt her touch him. His deap brown eyes widened. Bular reached up and pulled the headphones off his ears, smiling.
"Nomura? Oh! Right! The Trollhunter and Lady Trollunter mentioned you had escaped! I'm a little surprised you got out unscathed."
Nomura's jaw dropped. There is no way this troll was the Gumm-Gumm prince and she had feared for centuries. Bular laughed.
You should see your face!
Nomura's eyes followed the court of his headphones down to what looks like a boom box.
"Do you like it?" Bular asked, "The young Trollhunters made it for me. And Otto made the tapes."(2)(3)
"Sweet Bun," Bagdwella stepped out from the shop, "Are you talking someone's horns of about your new to-"
Nomura swallowed thickly as she and Bagdwella's eyes met. Bagdwella's baby bump was more prominent and was like salt ind the wound that was Nomura's guilt. Bagdwella stepped behind Bular, eyes never leaving Nomura. Bular wrapped one arm around her shoulders and his tail around her waist.
"I doubt the Trollhunter would let her into Trollmarket if he thought she was a threat. And you know the Lady Trollhunter wouldn't."
'Now is probably a REALLY bad time to mention that Barbara won't let me into her house and Lenora's only letting me sleep in her's because Otto and the kids begged her...' Nomura thought.
She knew what she had to do. That didn't mean she had to like it.
"I'm sorry. I was angry at my brother and I took it out on other people. That led to me endangering you and your whelp. Not to mention my own nephew. I won't ask for your forgiveness or your trust. I don't deserve it. But I do hope you know that I am sorry."(4)
The words felt odd on her tung. Like off brand soda. Apologies were a new practice for her. They just weren't something changlings did.
Bagdwella stayed where she was but she looked up at Bular. The giant troll scooped his mate into his arms and looked down at Nomura.
"You're right. We can't forgive you," he said.
"Not yet," Bagdwella added.
Bular smiled at Bagdwella before continuing, "For now, stay away from my mate. Stay away from our whelp. And just remember, I can still kick your ass."
"Tanta Nono," Mary approached, "We were wondering where you had gone. Papa and Onkel Walt said to stay with us. Hi, Tanta Dwella. Hi, Onkel Bular. Hi, Baby Baglar."
"Hello, Mary," Bagdwella waved, one hand over her belly.
"I will never get used to you calling me that."(5)
Mary grinned and dragged Nomura away. Not that Nomura was resisting.
LLB
Once they had finally arrived in the Hero's Forge the first thing Nomura saw was Jim, Toby, and Claire sparing. Then, on the moving equipment behind them, was Walt, Barbara, and Otto sparing. Mary let go of Nomura's hand and joined her friends, water flying every which way. Nomura watched it all happen, wondering why she had to be there.
"Nomura?"
She turned and saw Draal approaching.
"Draal."
"..."
"..."
"So... You're back from the Dark Lands."
"Yup...You...still living with my brother?"
"Yeah. Sometimes. I spend a lot of time here. In Trollmarket that is! Not, not just in the Forge."
"Oh... That's...That's nice."
"..."
"..."
"Do...um...Would-Would you like to get glug some time? With me?"
Nomura starred at him.
"I could...you know...fill you in on what you missed..."
Nomura continued to starre, "Does...does Friday work?"
"Yeah..."
"Ok..."
Draal edged away. Nomura turned her attention back to the Young Trollhunters.
LLB
"Tanta Nono's got a date! Tanta Nono's got a date!" Toby and Mary sang as they danced around the living room.
"First of all, it's not a date. Second, what are you two? Five?"
"I have bee sitting on TEN YEARS of pent up Dramura shipping!" Mary squealed, "Let me have a little fun!"
Nomura groaned, "We are not getting back together. I promised myself that decades ago."
"I've seen De Nial," Lenora called from the dinning room where she was grading tests, "It looks better in Egypt, Nomura."
"Please stay out of this, Lenora."
"I shan't."
LLB
Nomura shifted forms as she made her way down the crystal steps to Trollmarket. Mary and Lenora had designed the black dress to look good on both her human body and her troll body. Then they guilt tripped her into wearing it tonight. Now, her heart beat wildly in her chest.
"This is not a date. It's not a date. Just two old friends getting a drink and catching up. Absolutely not a date."
'So why are you so nervous?'
"Shut up, inner me."
She finally made it to the pub in Trollmarket and looked around for Draal. He was sitting at a table in the corner. Taking a deap breath, Nomura made her way over.
LLB
Otto opened one eye when he heard the front door close.
"You vvere out later zen I expected."
Nomura froze in the archway. Otto didn't straighten up from where he sat on the sofa, his feet on the coffe table, Lenora's feet in his lap, the telli playing the main menu of X-Men. Lenora was still asleep.
"I'm an adult. I can stay out as late as I want," Nomura defended, heading to her room.
Otto opened his other eye, "You're a bad influence on my Bärchen und my Prinzessin."
Lenora shifted, "Otto?"
"Go back to sleep, Zaubermaus. Our eldest is home now," he rubbed her feet gently.
"I heard that," Nomura hissed.
LLB
German translations:
Bärchen- Little Bear
Prinzessin- Princess
Zaubermaus- Magic Mouse
1) How I greet my little brother (six year age gap) after a long time apart.
2) Nomura.exe has stopped working.
3) The kids (Jim, Toby, Mary, and Claire) are the Young Trollhunters. They take care of small problems like goblins and gnomes.
4) Who are you and what have you done with Nomura!?
5) Was there to much Baglar?