Chapter Text
Jim was eavesdropping again.
He was very curious and in the few days since he had woken up, he’d learnt two things he had to his benefit; one, he was small. He was much smaller than the other Gumm-Gumms and seemingly a lot more dexterous too, so he could squeeze into and hide in places they would never expect someone to be. It was easy for him to go unnoticed. Dictatious was the only troll that could guess where he could be hiding with any kind of accuracy. Jim was still smaller than the four-armed troll but they were the most similar in height compared to the other trolls here. Dictatious had a better idea of where Jim could fit into than others.
Two, Gunmar was never mad at him when he was discovered eavesdropping. He always reacted to it with amusement, sometimes pride. The last time Gunmar had caught him eavesdropping on him, he had just laughed and said something about ‘an inquisitive will’ and tried to bring him into the conversation-
[tried because while Gunmar didn’t care about Jim eavesdropping, it doesn’t mean Jim wasn’t embarrassed when he was caught.]
Jim was quickly deciding that he quite liked his father.
So, Jim had wriggled his way into a long forgotten crack behind Gunmar's throne and waited.
And waited.
And waited.
He had almost been about to give up and climb out when he heard voices and steps approaching.
"The boy, my lord. The others are concerned, he is still so weak."
"My Decimaar Blade has never been used like this before. A time of adjustment should be expected."
Jim tenses at the conversation. They were talking about him. He was the only person Dictatious would refer to like that. 'The boy.' He didn't mind it per say, but it did make it easier to know when he was the topic being discussed.
"And what if he remains like this? Incapable of leading your army?"
Dictatious didn't like him. Jim was rather sure of that. He was always watching him out of the corner of his eyes, always suspicious, always judgemental, always disappointed. Jim didn't like that. He didn't know what expectations Dictatious had of him but he did know he was not meeting them.
"Give him time, Dictatious. He'll prove himself."
Jim shifted in his spot slightly, to ease a cramp forming in his leg, and the metal of his armour clanked together. He winced at the sound and froze up, holding his breath as he waited to see if they heard it too. It was silent, so silent that Jim could hear his heart hammering away, until a hand clamped down on the back of his armour and dragged him out.
Jim squeaked in surprise, and he was now face to face with his father. Gunmar was holding him off of the ground in front of him, holding firmly onto the metal of his armour, and keeping him dangling there uselessly. His expression was stern and strict. Dictatious stood behind Gunmar, a little to the side, and he was also staring up at Jim. A sheepish grin stretched on Jim’s face as Gunmar set him down on his feet.
”What.. a surprise to see you here. By your throne. In the Darklands.-” Jim rambled slightly, shifting his feet in preparation to dart away.
”Jim.”
”So since we have no real reason to converse, I’ll just be.. going.” Jim turned around, taking a step away but Gunmar’s hand landed on his shoulder to keep him from fleeing. Gunmar’s hand was large, covering Jim’s shoulder entirely and down his arm slightly, but he was remarkably gentle with his son.
”Jim. Jim, look at me.” Jim gnashed his teeth together, which was a new nervous habit he’d started since waking up. He liked the sound it made in his skull. He turned around to face his father again.
”You’re going to prove yourself worthy today.” Gunmar squeezed his shoulder lightly and he looked down at Jim with a grin already proud. Dictatious’ eyes narrowed a little as he watched from a few steps away, and Jim did his best to ignore it and to not feel stifled under his stare.
”..worthy? Worthy of what?”
”Worthy of.. everything around us. Of my army. Of my blade. Of the rest of that amulet.” Gunmar picked his hand off of Jim’s shoulder to gently prod at the red glowing disk on Jim’s breastplate with a clawed finger. It sparked up under his touch, ever slightly more violently than when Jim pokes at it himself. Gunmar’s wince as the sparks touched his hide was barely perceptible.
[Of course it would burn Gunmar, it was the eclipse armour after all. Created solely for the ‘Doom of Gunmar’.]
”..how?”
"In battle, my son!," Gunmar made a wide sweeping motion towards the area that his throne sat above. He spun Jim around to face the arena with him, "In this arena today you will spill your first blood!"
"I.. can't. I don't know how to fight." Jim's sight drifted back to his father after a lap around the, currently empty, arena. His teeth gnashed together again.
"You do. You just need to rediscover what you are capable of." Jim looked back towards the arena, watching silently for a few drawn out moments. There weren’t many other trolls around, just a handful of Gumm-Gumms milling about without much purpose and without much attention given to the conversation taking place by the throne. He’d never fought anyone before, at least not that he remembered. Gunmar had never even taught him how to.
The seconds stretched on for longer before Jim’s gaze went back to his father.
”What do you mean the rest of that amulet? There’s more of it?-” Gunmar straightened up where he stood almost immediately at those words from Jim, taking in a sharp breath, and he tensed slightly. He didn’t answer, only yelled back at the troll behind him.
”Dictatious! Gather my army and get someone to fetch the impure from the cells!”
.
.
.
Jim was feeling terrified. He didn't know how to fight and now here he was, in the middle of the arena waiting for his opponent to be brought out. Eyes watched him from every angle as Gumm-Gumms crowded the sidelines but he wasn’t surprised by that. Jim had learnt that the other trolls here loved fights. Watching, participating, and anything, even against each other. It seemed to be a favourable pastime for them, and Jim could see why. He’d watched a couple spars between the soldiers in the army from the throne next to his father over the last few days and it was thrilling. And the rest of the Gumm-Gumms would find no fight more thrilling than Gunmar’s new son battling.
Although Jim was most aware of the eyes on him from the throne. Gunmar was watching him closely and Jim felt a crushing dread at the idea of letting him down. In losing this fight in front of him. In front of all of them. His teeth gnashed together again, almost biting off the tip of his tongue.
The quiet murmurings of the crowd ceased as someone was dragged in. His opponent. The trolls pulling her along tossed her into the arena before fading into the rest of the crowd bordering the ring. Another troll close behind threw a pair of scimitars near her and they clattered against the ground beside her.
He didn't recognise her but she just felt familiar. He'd also never seen a troll that looked like her in the Darklands before. With that vibrant pink, maybe magenta, skin and lack of horns, she was certainly.. different from the others here.
The air was quiet and tense with anticipation from the crowd as his opponent got to her feet. She swiped up both the scimitars in her hands as she stood. Jim gnashed his teeth together again. His father hadn't even given him a weapon, only the advice that 'he would find it when he needed'.
He for sure felt like he needed it now.
His opponent wasted no time with introductions once she was on her feet, lunging towards him with the scimitars swinging towards him. He raised his arms at the last moment and the blades bounced off of the vambraces of his armour but the force of the hit made him stumble back. He'd barely regained stable footing by the time she was on him again.
Their fight continued on like that. Jim blocking, dodging, and ducking and his opponent ruthless and unrelenting. Jim got better at keeping stable and keeping out of the way of her blades with each second, quicker and quicker on his feet, although he still wished he had some sort of weapon of his own. The gathered crowd burst out with cheers or yells with each move, each strike or miss, but Gunmar remained silent.
His opponent leaped at him. He cowered, his hand and arm moving to block his head as he turned his face away with his eyes squeezed shut.
But no impact came.
The sound of metal on metal, and the Gumm-Gumms falling silent, reached his ears before he opened his eyes. She was close, but the scimitars were blocked from reaching him with a wide blade he now held in his hand. Everything grew still and quiet. His opponent's glowing green eyes widened and she appeared startled- off guard.
Jim shifted his feet and shoved against the sword blade, pushing his opponent away and off balance with where her own weapons were pressed against his sword. The crowd roared with his name and Jim had never felt such a high.
His opponent lowered her blades and her shoulders fell, just slightly, and her posture wasn't as defensive. Her eyes were still shocked, but there was some concern there that Jim couldn't understand.
"Young Gynt? What.. what has he done to you?"
But now Jim was the one who lunged for the next attack.
She was disarmed, metaphorically, for long enough that Jim's blade managed to slice her skin. She turned at the last moment so it wasn't as severe of a hit he was aiming for, but the long cut down her arm still drew her blood up to the surface and she gritted her teeth against the pain. The roles in their battle had shifted and she sensed it.
She had barely a second, maybe less, before having to block another swipe of Jim's sword. Their blades clashed together, metal screeching against each other as Jim continued to push his sword against the blades of her scimitars. She came face to face with him.
”This is not who you are!” His opponent pushed back and his blade slid off of the scimitars with how she swung the force. He readjusted quickly to swipe towards her again, his sword slicing through the air just a hair away from her abdomen since she managed to twist away from the attack.
”It is! I am Jim. Son of the Skullcrusher!” Jim attacked again. She had to block and was pushed back by the force of the hit. She tried pleading.
”Think of your friends, Trollhunter! Of your mother!” Metal clanked against metal as her words didn’t hit their mark but his sword still struck hers.
”I am thinking of my father!”
Jim’s fighting grew more skilled, barbarous and violent against her as the fight continued and he found his footing. More and more slashes of vibrant blood appeared on her skin and Jim gained more and more ground in the arena. The gathered Gumm-Gumms became louder and more rambunctious with each injury Gunmar’s son inflicted on the impure.
Gunmar’s pride swelled and Dictatious noticed, he was standing right next to where the warlord sat on his throne after all, watching his new son take to brutality like a duck to water. Much like his firstborn. Gunmar was still watching the fight with the same scrutiny as before but now there was more fondness in his actions and his usual ‘displeased-with-everything-in-general’ expression cracked with a proud grin. A grin that grew when the impure’s scream rang through the arena.
The impure- Nomura, Gunmar believed her name was- wretched and twisted around at the sudden pain but Jim just drove his sword further into her flesh, the sound of innards squelching as they’re punctured and crunching of bones as the Eclipse Blade forced its way through them. The blade, slick with blood, pierced out her back. Jim wrenched it out, twisting the sword as he did, and the impure crumpled to the ground.
She coughed, hacking up some blood of hers that splattered over the dark ground. She clutched at the fresh wound in her flesh, her own hands staining with her blood running from the wound. She might have tried to apply pressure- keep the blood in, give it a chance to clot- but it was useless. A wound like that is fatal, even if not inflicted by the blade of a Trollhunter. If she spoke any final, dying words, they didn't reach Gunmar's ears before light faded from her eyes. She became oh so still laying there before the body began to disintegrate into dust at his son’s feet. Jim just stood there for a few silent moments, chest heaving with heavy breaths, just staring down at the impure’s now dusted body. Then the army erupted with cheers.
Jim’s head snapped up, gaze immediately honing in on the throne and Gunmar sitting atop it. Gunmar stood, causing the crowd to cease their cheers. Every eye in the audience fell onto Gunmar
”Today is one to remember. A cause of celebration. The Trollhunter, my son, today has become one of us!” The army cried out cheers and roars again, some of the Gumm-Gumms breaking into celebratory brawls in the crowd. Gunmar gestured for Jim to approach and he did, rather eagerly as the boy practically bounded up the steps to be in front of him.
Someone had handed Jim a cloth and he was wiping off his sword by the time he reached his father, but Gunmar still pulled him into his arms regardless of if that Eclipse sword was the only thing capable of ever injuring him.
”I am so proud of you, my son. You will achieve greatness beyond any of our expectations.” Jim practically preened under the praise, even when Gunmar picked him up with his feet lifting off of the floor only a little bit so he could squeeze his son against his chest affectionately. The boy himself was grinning brightly, and clinging back on to Gunmar.
”Ah! I did it! I actually did it, padre!” The boy looked up at him with a toothy grin as Gunmar set him back on his feet. His eyes were sparkling with the straggling thrill and rush from a first kill, and Gunmar was pleased to see it. Pleased to see that Jim was taking to death like the Skullcrusher himself despite the boy’s human origins.
The army began to dissipate, most towards the tunnels that lead deeper into the rocks and probably some of the larger caverns they’d etched out as Gunmar had promised a ‘celebration’ in honor of his son’s first kill, and they weren’t exactly patient. Some brief small skirmishes did break out between the trolls, out of the electric buzz in the air and excitement. Fighting was their life, their blood, their way. It was only natural for it to take place in exhilarating occasions too. Gunmar led his son with the direction of the crowd, watching as the boy took congratulations and praise from the soldiers with ease.
Although, Jim fell silent for a while as he walked alongside his father. A contemplative expression on his face that looked like he was thinking about something.
"Padre.. padre," Jim muttered before looking up at his father, "Why did I say that?" Dictatious, in his usual spot of just a step behind Gunmar, jumped in and spoke.
"It's one of the human languages. Means 'father', I believe." Jim nodded slightly, just processing the information easily and accepting it before speaking again after a few seconds.
"Hm. How did I know that?"
Gunmar paused, the grin slipping slightly, so did Dictatious. But only for a moment before Gunmar recovered.
"Because you are greater than any of us thought, my son. You will one day lead this army to freedom none of us have dreamt of."
"But for today, we will celebrate. Celebrate your first kill. Celebrate you becoming one of us."