#if I post her with her canon skin file a police report because that’s not me I’ve been replaced

[tongues--and--teeth]

What if just this once, things worked out?

[ohmightydevviepuu]

imperfect boys. perfect ploys. (this is a song about tragedy) [5/6]

“My ‘story’ is that I left a fucked-up situation and it kind of fucked me up,” he’d said.  But it was the way he’d said it, like it hadn’t broken him.  Like it was just a fact. But Emma’s life was a story, too.  A fucked-up situation that had kind of fucked her up.  She wasn’t that kid anymore.  Confidence could be learned.  And maybe—maybe—she wasn’t broken, either. Not if she picked up the pieces.  Not if she told herself a new story.  About who she was.  About what she wanted.  Roots, family, friends, a sense of the familiar—these did not have to be fairy tales. “You owe it to yourself,” Mary Margaret said. “Happy endings always start with hope.”

–

S3 post-neverland canon divergence. 20k of no-curse renaissance.

read it on AO3

to @wistfulcynic and @thisonesatellite who sat with me while we daydreamed on a hilltop in cornwall on the summer-iest summer day england has ever seen. it took me eight months but i got there in the end.

thank you to @shireness-says for time and feedback and kindness to the IAS @spartanguard @optomisticgirl @idoltina @initiala @thejollyroger-writer @phiralovesloki for always giving me a cheer when i needed it

--

sixteen. 'a pleasant conversation'

She booked them both because she could.  Because she wanted to.

Filing a false police report.  Loitering.  Theft.  Piracy.

Three mugshots in a row after David insisted on hanging them next to hers, from when Graham had booked her.  Then it was into the cells for both of them.

“If you wanted me in handcuffs, Savior, you know you have only to ask.”  Hook’s eyes glinted with mischief and threat—promise?—that she ignored as she felt the weight of her father’s appraisal behind her. 

“Is this even legal?” Neal draped an arm through the bars.  The affected casualness overtook Emma in a wave of familiarity.  Eye-fucking from the one side and the comfort of nostalgia from the other.  Neal grinned.  Hook batted his eyelashes.

And then there was her father, watching.  Still.

“We live in a magical town ruled by an Evil Queen who doesn’t seem to like you,” Emma said, dripping false sweetness.  “But if you need to file a complaint, I’d be happy to direct you to the appropriate form.”

“Emma.”  David spoke gently.  His head tipped toward the corner.

That’s where Henry was sitting.  Totally fine.  Like it was a totally normal day and not less than a week after he had been kidnapped and then traded his heart to a demon.  In another realm.

 “Right.”  Emma imagined the candle.  Calm.  “All of this because Henry was on a boat?”  A hypothetical more than anything but all three of them spoke together to answer.

“A ship.”  Henry’s voice chimed in with Neal’s and with Hook’s.

Then Neal said, “Did you know he was there?”

“I was only trying to help,” Henry muttered.

“I know you were, kid,” Emma said.

Hook leaned against the bars.  “The boy presented himself at the docks and asked about our journey home—if anything had been damaged,” he said smoothly.  “We were undertaking an inspection of the main sheet when it occurred to Henry that no one had been apprised of his whereabouts.  Of course we wanted to correct that immediately.”  He winked at Henry in his corner, and Henry straightened in his seat.  Emma couldn’t help but smile a little.

“Did you know he was there, Em?” Every trace of casualness was gone as Neal leaned forward, as if to push the bars and walk through.

“You can’t possibly think that Hook would hurt Henry,” Emma said.

Neal shrugged.  

“No.”  Emma stepped closer to the cell.  “I know—and so do you—that Hook would never hurt your son.  I know—and so do you—that he would never hurt your mother’s grandson.”  The air left her suddenly, and she was tired.

She was tired of running from the past.

“Come on, Henry.  Let’s get out of here, okay?”

Before Henry could move, there was David’s hand on her arm.  “Hey.”  His fingers closed on her wrist and she froze; she wanted to jump out of her skin.  It was a gentle touch—a casual touch—a touch meant to soothe and to comfort.

A parental touch.

Emma looked at him, eyes wide, as he let go, slowly.  Backed away—slowly.  She wanted to say something.  Anything.  “Dad, I—”

“Hey.”  He smiled.  No pushing, no pressure.  No disappointment.  Just that megawatt Charming smile.  “It’s fine.  Henry’s fine.”  He took the keys from her.  “I get that we’re all still a little on edge after what happened.  It’s barely even been a week.”

“Six days,” Emma said.  Six days.  A lifetime.  She looked around the room—at her father with his hopeful smile and the way he watched her, and at Neal with his wounded aggravation, and at Hook.  In his new clothes.  He ran his tongue across his lips but his eyes never left hers.

Enough.

Hook nodded.  A slight movement of his head, as if he’d heard her.  She held out her hand—pictured the tumblers, the tension rake, the wrench.  Felt the warmth under her skin.  The cell locks popped and the doors opened.  “You’re right,” Emma said, speaking to her father.  “Come on, Henry.  Let’s go.”

“What about Dad?”

“Yeah, he can come with us.  The three of us can take a walk,” she said.  “And he and I will have a chance to talk.”

--

Tink was waiting for them when they returned to the camp.

It had not been what one would call a triumphant march back.  Emma didn’t speak, not a single word.  Neither did Neal, nor Killian.  He was sore in places he hadn’t known existed—sore, angry, disappointed.  His heart hurt.

Strange to think that it could, still.  Or again.

“Bae?” Tink whispered.  “Is that really you?”

“Yeah.”  Neal smiled.  It was the smile of the boy Killian had once known, now grown up.  A man. Neal held out the coconut with its lid secured by vine.  “We did it.  Let’s go.”

There was no point in delay; they set off at once.  Snippets of a murmured conversation between Emma and Neal floated around him as Killian began to walk.  There was an air of tension between Emma and her mother as David advanced ahead and fell back at intervals, trying to catch up one very determined, very skeptical fairy as she led them through the jungle.  Only his belief in Tink kept Killian calm as he heard the rush of foliage and the weight of footsteps approaching.  Regina and Rumplestiltskin pushed their way through, but he left his hand on his sword-hilt all the same.

And drew it, without thinking, as he heard Neal speak of his father’s plans.

“My father’s not here to save Henry,” Neal said.  “He’s here because of a prophecy—that Henry will be the cause of his undoing.  He came here to kill him.”

“I won’t hurt him,” the Dark One pleaded.  All of these years—centuries—and he still whinged when he could fight.  “Without me, you will fail.  I’m the most powerful amongst us.”

“That’s why we can’t trust you,” Neal said.

“If I could give you the dagger—”

“Give me the box,” Neal said.  “I don’t have to trust you if I can stop you.  Look at me—” he pointed a finger at his father “—you so much as lift a finger to perform magic and you will spend eternity in this box.  Let’s go.”

As they set off once more, Neal clutching Pandora’s box in a fist with white knuckles, Emma came along beside him.  Killian braced himself.

“We need to talk,” she said.  Her hand on his arm was the first time she’d touched him since The Kiss.

“I’ve found when a woman says that, I’m rarely in for a pleasant conversation.”

“Hook.  Killian.  He told me about what happened.  With your brother.  I know it can’t be easy to talk about—”

“Then let’s not,” he said.

“—but there has to be a way for David to leave the island.”

There it was.  He kept walking, heedless of the foliage and greenery in his face, still feeling the place where her hand had been.  “There isn’t.  The water that cured David from the poison has connected him to the island.  If he leaves, the connection is broken.  The poison will kill him.”

“What if we take some of the water with us?” She asked.  “That way, he stays connected.  He can stay alive in Storybrooke.”

“Aye, but for how long?”  Killian stopped and turned to face her.  Emma’s face was pale, her eyes wide.  He knew that face and that look and how much what he was saying would hurt her.  No matter how much he wished he had a different answer.  “Once the water runs out, the dreamshade will take his life.”

“Unless there was another cure.”  The Dark One stood casually behind them.  Killian and Emma both turned to face him and immediately he pressed his advantage.  “Oh, are you suddenly interested in what I have to say?  I thought I wasn’t to be trusted.”

“You’re not,” Emma said.  “But I’ll take my chances.”

What choice did she have, really?  What choice did any of them have?

“You’ll remember that I too was poisoned with dreamshade by a cowardly pirate.”

Killian stiffened and froze his face into a pleasant mask—a faint, painful smile.

“We know how you cured yourself,” Emma scoffed.  “David is not that selfish.”

“I’ve learned much about the poison since then,” Rumplestiltskin continued, “and I believe I could create an elixir.  Back in my shop.”

Emma said it just as Killian thought it.  “What’s your price?”  She was frozen, too, her shoulders tense.  The tension was in her voice.  Tension, fear, doubt.

“It is quite the favor—” the Dark One said, drawing out the words.  “I’d expect one of equal weight in return.”

“No.”  Neal stepped in.  “No deals, no favors.  When we get back to Storybrooke you will save David.  Because it’s the right thing to do.”

Killian’s eyebrows went up.  Instinctively he turned toward Emma—and found her looking at him, a mirror of his own surprise.  It was over so quickly he might have imagined it.  

It was a moment that felt momentous.  Neal and his father stared each other down just as Tink emerged into the clearing, David and Snow behind her.  

“We’re here,” she said simply.  “Pan’s perimeter.”

“Then it’s time,” Emma said.  She squared her shoulders.  “In and out, simple.”

Suddenly the Dark One’s hand was on Killian’s sword while he stood, watching.  A shudder rolled through him but he did not let himself react until Rumplestiltskin pulled the sword free.  Then he moved—to catch the knife David tossed at him.

“In case your good looks fail you,” he said.

“Thanks, mate,” Killian said, clutching the blade in its sheath.  Meaning it.  

The sounds of the Lost Boys’ camp drew them onward—Tink in the lead, Neal at his father’s side.  The box stayed clutched in his hand and he flinched as Regina performed the spell to silence the boys.

But they didn’t find Henry.

They only found the girl.  Wendy.  Pale—the color of her nightdress—and trembling.  And she confirmed what they were all afraid to hear:  “When Pan lives,” she said, “Henry will die.”

--

Killian took his time building up the fire.  Slow trips back and forth for firewood; deliberate, careful kindling of the flames.  

Tink watched.  Bemused.  Silent.  She waited until he’d thrown off his coat and settled his back against a log.  Waited until he’d pulled out his flask and pulled the stopper.  Waited until he lifted it to his mouth and lowered it immediately.

Being drunk when the rescue mission returned and pivoted to exit strategy would be exceedingly bad form no matter how much he wanted a drink.

That’s when she dropped down to sit next to him.  She took the flask right from his fingers and helped herself.  “I haven’t had this since you left,” she said.  A long, appreciative sigh accompanied the statement.  When he looked at her she smirked and said, “Fairies can’t get drunk.  And I like the taste.  You know that.”

“Aye,” he said, running a hand through his hair.  

“Well then.  Isn’t this a blast from the past?”  Another sip.  “You and me, drinking.  Brooding still looks good on you, you know.  Just like the old days.”

“That’s not all we did in the old days,” Killian muttered.

Tink laughed.  “Is that a proposition?”  He shrugged, uncomfortable.  She laughed again. “That’s what I thought.  It’s you and Emma, isn’t it?  Care to explain?”

“No.”

She took another sip.  Loudly.  The fire crackled around them but there was a strange stillness in the air.  A quiet.  The Lost were silent; unconscious and scattered about the camp and still under the effects of Regina’s spell.

“I’ve been watching you,” Tink said.  “I saw you go up Dead Man’s Peak.  Her father was shot, wasn’t he?  And you took him up there for the water.  Is it really a good idea for him to try and leave?  You know what happens.”

“The Dark One has agreed to formulate a potion for David.  He wants to try to go home.  Hence their current task, which you know already.  But by all means, keep asking annoying questions.”

“Bae’s father.”  She shook her head.  “You knew, didn’t you?  This entire time?  Who he was?”

“I did.”

“What was your plan there, Hook?  Use the boy against his father?”  

“You already know the answer to that.”

“Oh, no, Killian.  And he found out, didn’t he?  That’s why he was so angry.”

“As was I.”

“He was a child.”

“I’m aware.”  Killian shifted.  “I’m trying, Tink.  Henry is his son.  Henry is why I’m here.”

“You and Bae and Emma.”  She capped the flask with a laugh.  “Buck up, mate.  She doesn’t love him, you know.  Not the way they want her to.”

He knew that.  He’d seen it in her eyes when she’d chained him and left him on the beanstalk.  When he’d left her in that dungeon. 

When she’d told him who Henry’s father was.

But—“She’s made her choice,” Killian said.  And—“I thought you didn’t have any magic left.”

“Doesn’t mean I don’t notice things.  And she trusts you.  Don’t muck that up.  Be worthy.”  Tink put her hand on his shoulder.  “I believe in you.”

Killian turned to face her.  “I’m trying, Tink,” he repeated.  He blew out a long breath.  He opened his mouth to speak again—

—and felt the ground heave beneath them.

Tink dropped the flask into his lap as they both struggled to stand up.  There was an instant of near-total darkness that dissipated with another great heave.

A thud echoed from the bushes as David Nolan stumbled back into the camp, clutching a water skin against his body.  Behind him strode Snow White, an arrow nocked.

“What just happened?” David asked.

Killian looked at Tink.  “Nothing good,” he said.

--

No diner.  Not this time.

This wasn’t that kind of conversation, the ‘dinner and a floor show’ conversation that everyone at Granny’s would be watching and waiting for—the dwarves, Ruby, Tink.  Mary Margaret.

This needed to be just for the two of them.  No performance.  Just truth.

But here—now—this moment, it was the three of them. They walked along the shoreline by the harbor.  The sun was setting behind them.  Henry was too big to hold hands but Emma kept him close, touching, her hand on his shoulder.  Neal walked on the other side, their son in between, and it was a Moment.  A Moment worth having.

She and Neal had never been ‘holding hands in a mall’ kinds of people.  She was not—by nature, or by nurture—a casual touch kind of person.  But there was something Emma had noticed since they’d come back from Neverland.

It did something to her magic, to feel the comfort and warmth of physical touch.  Of affection.

So she was working on it.  She was trying.

She tightened her grip on Henry’s shoulder for a second before she let go, watching him kick at the rocks along the beach. He had a small, contented smile on his face that turned wider when Emma suggested he get back to Regina’s.  “She’ll be waiting for you,” Emma said.

“It’s lasagne tonight,” Henry said.  He was an eleven-year-old boy and he could not contain his excitement at the thought of that much food.  He wrapped his arms around her waist and Emma hugged him back, hard.  “Bye, mom.  See you later.”

His hesitation as he turned toward Neal was—almost—imperceptible, but Henry was a hugger and Neal was family and in the end that seemed to be enough.  Neal ruffled his hair for a second before Henry pulled away and peeled off in pursuit of warmer, tomato-sauced pastures.  “Bye, dad.”

“See you, kid,” Emma called.  She pointed toward the picnic table overlooking the beach and then jammed her hands into her pockets against the wind.  The table looked like it had been there since before the curse and according to Mary Margaret it was where the dwarves liked to eat their lunch.  Or maybe that was over now that the daily diner matinee was on the menu, Emma wasn’t sure, but what she was thinking of was the familiarity in Mary Margaret’s voice.  Memories of realms past, no doubt.

Of course, Mary Margaret had also been at the diner every day this week.  Not just for her 7:15 AM coffee date but to keep an eye on Emma.  On Emma and Neal.  Because Snow White just wanted her daughter to get her happy ending.  With Neal.

Every night at dinner was a dance.  A game.  question and answer.  Cat and mouse.  Like everything Emma was already doing wasn’t enough—not fast enough, not hopeful enough.  Snow White so loved her Prince Charming that she had been willing to condemn herself to an eternity away from her family but Emma was the one letting the side down by taking her time when it came to Neal.

It had been less than a week, for fuck’s sake.

But if it was a game, then she could win.  Emma was determined to win.

Emma had waited her entire life to meet her mother, but she really missed her friend.

The picnic table bench shifted and groaned as Neal swung his leg over the wood and faced her.  From where they sat, the gently bobbing masts of the Jolly Roger were impossible to miss.

“How?” she said, finally.  “How did you end up there?  You’ve never told me that story.  The real one.”  Shut up in his cave, away from the world, looking at the drawings he had made to give himself a sense of home—had he cried out in the dark, Lost?  After everything Hook had done for him?  Had done to him?

Emma hadn’t even known he could draw until she’d seen the scratches etched into the walls.  Seen the expression on Hook’s face and heard the break in his voice when he’d spoken of Baelfire and his love for art, for drawing, that he’d gotten from his mother.  The sadness in his voice when he’d boasted of Baelfire’s skills at celestial navigation.  

How did the story end?

They hadn’t talked about it, her and Neal.  Not about this or any of the other things; the way she had cried in the night, swallowing her tears and her screams within the cinder blocks and bars of her prison cell.  Emma wasn’t a child anymore, ready to be swayed by a story.  She wanted the truth.

“Wendy,” he said.  “I went there because of Wendy.  Because of her brothers.  When I left my father, I didn’t go straight to Neverland.  I ended up in this realm.  In London.  Wendy, she—” he sighed “—she found me.  The Darlings took me in—gave me a home—until one night, the Shadow turned up.  I went there so they wouldn’t have to.”  He didn’t look at her as he said it.  There was him and his voice and the pain in his words as they both stared at the harbor and the ship that rolled with the incoming tide and made everything else in the harbor look small.

Emma felt herself smile.  Just the corner of her mouth as she blinked back a tear.  It was such a Henry thing to do, after all.  He would approve, she knew.  

So did she.

“And how long were you with—um, on the Jolly Roger?”

“I don’t know.”  Neal ran his hand through his hair.  “A while?  Time in Neverland, you know—”

“I know,” she said.

“And Hook, they way he acted.  Like he wanted me there.  Like he cared.  My mom had left.  She’d died.  And my dad was—” he blew out a breath, struggling.  Because his dad was.  “So I wanted to be there too.  But he was just using me.  It was all a lie.  I was just some pawn in his game against my father.”

“Yeah,” Emma said.  “Hook, he does that, doesn’t he?”

“I was a fucked-up kid.  And he was—I don’t know.”  Neal shook his head.  “I don’t know.”

“He loved her.  You should know that.  It was one of the first things he told me.”  She laughed a little.  “One of the first true things he told me.  And then, after, when we thought you were dead, when I told him who you were, that you were Henry’s father—”   The look on his face when she’d said it—everything stripped away except grief.  Sadness.  Regret.

“You said he left.  You asked him for help and he left.”

“He did.  He walked right out of the diner and onto that ship and was halfway out of the harbor.”

“But he came back,” Neal said.  “He came back because of me.”  Everything stripped away except grief.  Sadness.  Regret.    “Hook—Killian—asked me to stay.  Begged me.  And I’ve always wondered, you know?  If he meant it.  I guess he did.”

“But you left,” Emma said.  It wasn’t a question.  That was just what Neal did.  What he does.  He leaves.  He’d left.  “Do you miss it?”

Their eyes met.

“Every day,” he said.  “And I’ve been running ever since.”

“And now?  What are you doing now, Neal?”  

“I’m looking for Tallahassee,” he said.  “I care about you, Em.  I always will.  And I want you to be happy.”

“We were happy.  Once,” Emma said.  “But what if this isn’t that?  I’ve been to Tallahassee, you know.  I went there after I got out of prison.  After I gave up our son.”

“I can’t ever take that back, can I?  I can’t ever make that better.”

“You left,” she said simply.

“I still want you to be happy,” he said.  He looked out at the harbor.  At the ship.  “Even if it isn’t with me.”

Emma reached out.  Took his hand—squeezed it tightly—and retreated into her pockets.  Neal smiled and stood up.  “I’m gonna head out,” he said.  “Lunch tomorrow?”

Emma tilted her head.  “Seriously?”

“I’m kidding,” he said.  “Saturday, then.  With Henry?”

“Yeah.  You know, Neal—” he turned back to face her “—we still have Henry.  What if Henry is our Tallahassee?”

“Then I’d call that one hell of a happy ending,” he said with another smile.

--

She walked back to the loft and walked in to an ambush—an ambush in the shape of a real-life Disney princess, a brown-haired blur who wrapped herself around Emma, squeezing too tightly.  Green eyes shone like mirrors of her own and—like her own—they glistened suspiciously.

The hug was an attack.  Her senses definitely took it as one, recoiling—

“I’m so sorry,” Mary Margaret said.

—and then something happened, a release, as Emma dissolved into the hug.

“Gosh, Emma, I’m so sorry,” Mary Margaret said again.  “We didn’t—” she looked at David “—I didn’t know.  I didn’t understand.  I didn’t—I just.  Didn’t.”  

Immediately Emma’s defenses went back up.  She removed herself from the hug and took two very large steps back until she felt the edge of the kitchen island cutting into her spine.  “Um.  I don’t know what—I don’t understand.  What are you talking about?”  Mary Margaret and David were standing together.  David’s hand on Mary Margaret’s shoulder.  Mary Margaret’s hand on David’s.  One unit.

Watching.

“Neal came by,” Mary Margaret said.  “To, um, talk.”

“Oh.”  She’d been sitting where he’d left her, watching the masts of the Jolly Roger.  Listening to the waves.  Listening to her heart.  There was so much noise in her head these days.  Grumpy shouting in the diner.  Neal’s laughter.  I’m never gonna stop fighting for you.The crashing of the bridge as it built itself in the Echo Cave.  The howling in the Dark Hollow.  When I win your heart, Emma…it will be because you want me.  Hook’s screams.  The cries of the Lost.  The quiet crackle of a fire.

Her mother’s voice, whispering in her mind.

You owe it to yourself.  Happy endings always start with hope.

That’s why she was doing all of this, wasn’t it?  Her mother’s voice.  Snow White—her expectations, her assumptions.  But standing there in the loft—her parents’ loft, her home—what she felt was a buzzing in her fingertips.  It wasn’t magic.  It was a kind of—nervous anticipation.

Hope.

Because this—all of this—had been a long time coming.

“Emma.”  It was the softness in her mother’s voice that might be her undoing.  “Where was Henry born?”

“Are you sure?  You’ll never be able to not know, after.”

Mary Margaret nodded.

“He was born in a prison maternity ward.  That’s where I spent eleven months after Neal left me to take his fall.”

Her mother’s eyes were shut.  It was resignation, Emma thought, not refusal.  Just like the map.  “You never told us,” Mary Margaret said.  “You never told me.”

“Why would I tell you?” Emma said.  “I didn’t want you to know.”

“I’m your mother.”  It was a whisper.

“And you used to be my friend,” Emma said.  “My friend, who used to listen to me.  Who trusted me to know what I want.  If I had told her that seeing Neal broke my heart—” Emma sniffed “—but you told me I needed to give it another chance.  You told me that I didn’t need to be an orphan anymore and then you—even though it meant losing me all over again.  But Neal—”

The sound she made was not pleasant, but Emma couldn’t help it.  She was laughing.  The buzzing in her fingertips, it was a little less hope and a little more magic and emotion but it was past time they did this.  And she wasn’t going to apologize for her feelings.  Not this time.  If what they had was unique and special then just this once it could also be honest.  She could be honest.  Emma was tired of being a stranger to her parents.

She wanted to come home.

“Neal left me because Pinocchio told him to and I spent eleven months in jail.  He’s known all this time—eleven years—who I was.  But he never came back for me.”

“He was afraid of you.  Of the curse,” Mary Margaret said.  “He knew what it meant, didn’t he?  He was afraid of his father. I’m sorry, Emma.  I didn’t understand before.  I didn’t want to.  I shouldn’t have pushed you where you didn’t want to go.  I should have listened.  Emma—“

She was ready for the hug this time.  Welcomed it.

“—I owe you an apology.  What I said in the Echo Cave—”

“It was the truth,” Emma said.  “And it was the right thing to do.  That’s what heroes do, isn’t it?  We saved Neal that day.  We saved Henry’s father.  I’m glad he told you the truth.  Mom.  I just—if he told you all of that, why are you asking me?  What changed?”

That was when David spoke up, stepping forward so that he had an arm around each of them.  “After Neal left, I told her about Hook.”

“What about Hook?”  The sudden smile on Mary Margaret’s face made her suspicious.

David chuckled.  “Fine, about you and Hook.  That you’re together.”

“That we’re—”

“You look at him the way I look at your mother.  Did you think I wouldn’t notice?”

Yes.

That was exactly what she’d thought.  In fact—that had been the plan.

[magic-and-moonlit-wings]

‘Angor Reborn’ synopsis and reactions

I’m glad I managed to get this before 3Below premiered. I mean, I’ve said before how I don’t think the novels mesh well with the show canon, but I still like knowing what’s been written. 

Long post, lots of spoilers, so I’m putting in a ‘Read More’. I’ve bolded some useful world-building stuff.

Prologue: 

As a previous post attests, I am upset that the writer decided to have Angor’s deal with Morgana take place post-Killahead. Sure, Morgana’s definitely already against Merlin by then, and sure, it means we get some Trollhunters between Deya and Kanjigar, but it throws off a bunch of other concepts I had regarding the show’s timeline. 

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. I mean, this is the same author who has Bular aged at over 5200 years old. 

I do like the thing about Angor having a menagerie of animals, which he loved, and having to trade away his animals and pieces of his boat - reduced to a raft by the time we see it - for supplies and information to track Morgana down. The dove he sacrificed to summon her was his last animal, and particularly dear to him, which was why he still had the bird in the first place. I also liked the bit about Angor being “legendary among his tribe for his calm, even temper.” Once he becomes an assassin, he looks back and describes his past self as “a humble gamekeeper”. It’s wild contrast to the troll we see in the show, showing how scarred he is internally.

Angor thought sacrificing his pet dove should have been enough for Morgana, since he had literally nothing else to offer ... except his stone flesh, which was not (as implied with the show) a premeditated decision.

We don’t actually see any of Angor’s fights with Trollhunters, just a summary that he traveled the globe, doing Morgana’s bidding, and the only times he didn’t hear her voice in the back of his mind was while portalling through the Shadow Realm.

The temple in India where Angor was imprisoned was named “the Temple of the Pale One” by the locals in reference to Merlin living there. He’s the one who chained Angor up and trapped him under rubble when Angor tried to trap Merlin in the Shadow Realm in hopes that would get Morgana to end his curse. (Merlin can sense Angor is cursed but doesn’t seem to care.) 

This obviously means Merlin had to have lied about going to sleep right after trapping Morgana in the Heartstone, but I’m not going to call that a plot hole because I can believe Merlin would lie about that.

Chapter 1:

Jim has a nightmare about an old man trapping him in a glass bottle and then dumping him into a giant blender. Then he wakes up underwater.

He’s not in the potion, he’s at the bottom of Lake Arcadia Oaks, which he recognizes once he’s on the surface because he and Toby used to go camping there. 

Jim takes off his armour to swim for the surface - which is nice, implying the armour being stuck in the show really was because he was panicking and not because it can’t come off. After he drops the amulet, it flies out of the lake and into the air, and he grabs it as it passes him; it drops him in shallower water.

It is established the Trollhunter team knows the Eternal Night is going to be a perpetual eclipse rather than some kind of damage to the sun itself or an adjustment of Earth’s rotation to have perma-night on one side and perma-day on the other.

Jim’s memory is messed up and he can’t remember that his mom isn’t missing anymore or what Merlin’s declaration that the potion will make Jim “both Troll and Hunter” means.

Jim finds and saves a wolf pup that had its legs tangled in some old fishing line. Its reaction to a human is more like I would expect of a dog than a wild wolf, but okay. Jim decides to name it Sir Barks-a-Lot.

The clouds part and the full moon is exposed. Jim doubles over in pain. He sees someone, or possibly two someones, approaching.

Chapter 2: 

Everyone but Merlin is freaking out over Jim being gone. Barbara threatens the wizard. Strickler, consulting the Book of Ga-huel, agrees that Barbara does indeed have the knowledge and skill to break bones. 

Claire tries to use the Shadow Staff to find Jim. It fails. (Then one would think it wouldn’t come as a surprise to her in the show when it fails again.)

“But how could you be so reckless?” Strickler asked. “How could you expose him to something this unpredictable?”

“That’s a bit like the cauldron calling the kettle black, isn’t it, Changeling?” Merlin said.

... Dude. If you are literally comparing something you did to something that someone you openly scorn has done, this does not make you look good.

Barbara drags Merlin out of the bathroom by his beard, insisting he do something to help them find Jim. 

Strickler starts trying to contact Nomura, Claire goes into the Shadow Realm to see if cutting off outside input will help her lock onto Jim’s signal, and Toby jumps out the bathroom window and uses his Warhammer to fly for “aerial surveillance”, wishing Blinky and AAARRRGGHH were there. 

Blinky and AAARRRGGHH are fleeing Usurna’s forces. AAARRRGGHH catches a spear that was about to hit Blinky and throws it back at the troll who threw it. They escape, temporarily, by jumping over a ‘fire bog’ ... Do I spy a Princess Bride reference? They take shelter in a cave and find some possibly-enchanted pools of water. Blinky describes himself as “royally cheesed off” at the events of the past week.

Chapter 3:

Jim awakes to a bonfire. He has been found by a River Troll and a Garden Troll, who recognize him as a human. The Garden Troll wants to keep Jim as a pet. Jim interrupts what he thinks is a fight between the two and is told that they are, in fact, in love, and “it’s our courtship dance!” 

Jim goes off on a mental tangent about how pretty and wonderful Claire is. He wishes he could be holding her hand, and notices that his hand is surprisingly hairy. (This is probably the hand that got covered by the gauntlet, since the hand that lost a finger didn’t seem to have hair on it at all, or his transformation isn’t over yet.)

The troll couples’ parents show up and try to forcibly separate them. When it becomes a fight, Jim summons the armour of Daylight. He collapses in pain. The wolf is whining and barking. Some of the River and Garden Trolls start attacking Jim as well. Jim roars at them.

Chapter 4:

Angor is awed and discomforted to be physically in Morgana’s presence for the first time. Morgana and Gunmar have a subtle power struggle. 

Gunmar possesses three Stalklings with the Decimaar Blade, to track down and kill Jim and his allies. Gunmar sends Angor to let the Stalklings out on the surface, taunting him about how Angor used to keep animals. 

Angor wonders if Morgana might reward him if he were to kill Gunmar. 

At the entrance to Trollmarket (implied to be the one in the canals), once he’s let the Stalklings out, Angor thinks he catches the Trollhunter’s scent, and leaves with the intent to track and kill him.

Chapter 5: 

Jim tries to talk down the Garden and River Trolls, but his words are garbled because his teeth have changed. They get over their surprise and attack him again. Jim wins the fight and demands the star-crossed lovers be released. 

Ronagog and Junipra, the Romeo-and-Juliet references, are allowed by their families to be together, but at the cost of each being banished from their tribe.

Jim gets a look at his reflection in the water. He’s got tusks, though he calls them fangs, and shaggier hair. His skin isn’t totally blue yet, but it’s bluish in a way he isn’t quite sure is a trick of the light. No mention of horns, so he probably hasn’t grown them yet. His armour feels too tight, and resizes for his new height and bulk.

Jim has an existential crisis about what his transformation will mean for his relationships with his mom, his friends, and his girlfriend. His angsty rambling about making decisions before thinking them through, and not knowing where you belong anymore, and how maybe sometimes it’s better to separate from someone before you hurt them, convinces the troll couple to break up. Jim is left alone with the wolf cub.

A thunderstorm is rolling in. There is a flash of lightning and Angor Rot appears.

Chapter 6: 

Gnome Chompsky and Not Enrique question Fragwa about the missing Trollhunter. Chompsky is the ‘bad cop’. 

Fragwa is about to tell them something when the Creepslayerz show up and throw a dwärkstone into the goblin’s mouth. Claire, Toby, and Strickler show up, Claire and Toby in armour, to confirm Eli and Steve were indeed asked to help instead of stumbling onto the scene by accident. 

Stalklings attack and grab Claire and Toby. Strickler transforms and flies after them.

Chapter 7: 

Angor taunts Jim about Draal. 

Angor compares what Merlin did to Jim with what Morgana did to Angor. Jim does not have a good counter-argument to the parallels, although he does deny them. During the fight, Jim’s horns begin to grow out. His hearing, sense of smell, and sight are all enhanced, as are his reflexes. 

Jim taunts Angor about the assassin being defeated by Merlin, despite no hint in the show or previous novels or earlier chapters that Jim would know about that.

Angor says once he kills Jim, he’ll move on to Jim’s loved ones, specifically threatening Barbara. Jim responds with primal rage. In the subsequent attack, the pixie cage and a container of Grave Sand that Angor was carrying are shattered. The pixies can’t get through Jim’s helmet, and he covers Sir Barks' nose, mouth and ears. Apparently the wolf cub does not bite him for this. 

The pixies leave, carrying off the Grave Sand. Angor also disappears. Jim chases Angor. 

Chaper 8:

Detective Scott’s first name is Louis.

A man in the police station is ranting about seeing creatures/people with lots of arms and glowing skin who fell from the sky but could now be disguised as humans.

Barbara is filing a missing person report on Jim. Merlin is with her, wearing an old band T-shirt (Papa Skull Live In Concert ‘92), parachute pants, high top sneakers, a porkpie hat, and sunglasses; some of James Senior’s old clothes, rather than his armour. Detective Scott points out that, statistically, most kidnappees are abducted by someone they knew. Barbara denies that it could’ve been James Senior, since he never even came back to get his stuff after walking out.

Nomura is outside the police station, watching in amusement as Barbara drags Merlin around. Nomura is upset about being attacked on her first day back at her human ‘day job’ - she likes working at the museum - and is mourning for Draal. She’s keeping her distance from the Trollhunter team for now, despite getting Strickler’s texts that Jim is missing, because Nomura is bad at sharing feelings.

Strickler stabs the Stalkling not carrying a human. His knife, which looks more like stone than metal to me, acts as a lightning rod and the Stalkling is zapped and disintegrated, even though the two Stalklings carrying humans in metal armour have not been zapped and the Stalkling Jim killed with a lightning strike only turned to stone, not dust. The shockwave knocks Strickler back. The other two Stalklings are startled into dropping Claire and Toby.

Chapter 9:

Jim chases Angor to Arcadia Oaks Dam. He switches to the Eclipse Armour for better stealth. He is relieved to have a fight to focus on, rather than dwelling on how his loved ones will react to his transformation.

Jim sees a hunched figure through the fog, identifies it as Angor Rot, cannot identify if Angor is alive or dead, and throws his sword at the figure, which shatters on impact. Jim literally does a happy dance. It was a trap. Jim is grabbed by a golem.

The golem is made of wood. The wolf cub bites it, which buys Jim time to summon his glaives. After they beat the golem and destroy the totem (called a fetish, referring to the archaic definition ‘a charm imbued with magical powers’), Sir Barks pees on the pile of sticks.

Angor nearly drowns Jim inside a Water Golem. Sir Barks nearly gets hit by a thrown knife and runs away. 

The Eclipse Armour fades out. Angor takes the amulet. Jim snaps the totem animating the golem with his bare hands. Angor steals the Triumbric Stones, and presumably his eye but that isn’t mentioned in the narrative, and tosses the amulet over the waterfall. Angor knees Jim in the crotch and is about to stab him when Jim throws himself over the waterfall instead.

Chapter 10:

Claire summons her Shadow Staff, which flies to them and carries Toby’s Warhammer as well, saving them both from falling to their deaths. Toby chooses to fly back while Claire portals to the alley they were snatched out of. 

Steve and Eli are hiding in the dumpster, which Steve excuses by claiming they were searching for Jim in there. Strickler and Toby show up. Strickler warns that Gunmar may have been watching through the Stalklings’ eyes.

Barbara and Merlin show up because Toby texted Barbara where they were. Merlin calls Eli “the inadequate one” even as he agrees with something Eli said. They agree they should take a break and eat.

The pixies show up. Eli recognizes them from the time Angor Rot set them loose on the school. Everyone blocks their ears and noses with packing peanuts from a box by the dumpster. The pixies begin huffing Grave Sand. Literally. “Huffing” is the word the book uses to describe it. 

The Grave Sand appears to be inducing a Zen state in the pixies. 

“Sounds like the medication they give hyperactive kids,” added Steve. “Lotsa people think it calms ‘em down, but it’s actually a stimulant to improve concentration. Uh, I mean, so I’ve heard other people who are not me say ...”

Unfortunately the Grave Sand also amplifies the pixies’ abilities so they can show people their fears without literally getting into their heads. 

Chapter 11:

Jim has been washed downriver to the Arcadia canal system. Sir Barks-a-Lot has followed him, tracking his scent. The wolf cub pulls him out of the water. Jim is unconscious. His skin is bluer than before. 

Sir Barks-a-Lot sees the amulet in the water nearby and brings it to Jim, dropping it on his chest and howling. The amulet zaps Jim. Jim wakes up. It is implied he was dead - “The Trollhunter gasped alive, his eyes wide with amazement, his blood pumping again” - but that could just be exaggeration of how people seem to come to life when regaining consciousness.

Jim, carrying the wolf cub, climbs out of the canal. He dislikes the sound of traffic and wonders if he belongs “in the wild with other animals” now. 

Jim looks into the water and imagines seeing the faces of the people he’d be leaving behind if he abandoned civilization - wow, you can tell this kid is sixteen, he seriously thinks this is a feasible thing to do on impulse - until Blinky and AAARRRGGHH’s reflections appear, and do not fade, and start talking to him. 

The cave they are hiding in holds ‘the Plunder Pools’. Over generations, various trolls hid treasures in the deep wells to keep anyone from stealing them, and the buildup of magical artifacts in particular has imbued the water with magical properties. Blinky and AAARRRGGHH can see Jim, but the image is very blurry, explaining why they don’t know he’s a troll when they return. 

Jim does not bring up his transformation, but their conversation gives Jim new resolve to go back and protect his friends - especially when the talk ends abruptly, with Blinky and AAARRRGGHH discovered and captured. But first Jim has to get the Triumbric Stones back from Angor. 

He spots a brochure for the museum in the various debris in the canal and gets an idea, or possibly is reminded of his past success in the Second Battle of Killahead even if that was ultimately a temporary victory.

Chapter 12:

The pixies’ fear inducing power affects everyone present.

Claire is in the Shadow Realm, calling out for Jim. Her staff can’t open a portal. She’s stuck there forever.

Toby remembers visiting his parents graves with Nana and Jim when he was six, which then time-cuts to the present except Nana and Jim are both gone. He backs into Jim’s tombstone.

Strickler proposes to Barbara, who reveals she is a Changeling too and she was also lying about having feelings for him, except in her case it never stopped being a lie.

Not Enrique is stuck in a pet carrier. Original Enrique blows a raspberry at him. The Nuñez family is leaving Not Enrique at an orphanage. He begs them for a second chance, to prove he can be good and deserve their love. None of them speak to him. Javier wonders if ‘returning’ him to the orphanage is alright; Ophelia dismissively says she can rewrite the law, and anyway, who would ever adopt him? Claire says nothing. (This one kind of cheeses me off because I had a plan involving Not Enrique and a cat carrier for Becoming The Mask and now that scene is going to look like a book reference even though it wasn’t meant to be one.)

Gnome Chompsky is cradling Sally-Go-Back, the doll irreparably damaged, in the ruins of the smashed dollhouse.

Eli’s mother informs him there was a news report, saying all the paranormal things he’s been investigating were a hoax. Mrs Pepperjack says Eli was the only one to ever fall for it, but now that it’s over he can stop pretending to be important and go back to being a perpetual understudy in the drama club. Eli screams. 

Steve is in Arcadia Oaks High School. He thinks he hears Eli scream from inside a locker but doesn’t investigate - he’s chasing after his father. Steve finally collapses in exhaustion, begging his father to come back, promising to score more points in the next game and make him proud.

Barbara seems to be unaffected by the pixies - I guess maybe her worst fear is Jim being missing, which is already true? We don’t see Merlin’s fear but he tells Barbara that dolls have haunted his nightmares for centuries.

“Not just any dolls!” Merlin exclaimed hoarsely. “Little porcelain girl dolls, with their chipped faces, strange eyes, and horrible little voices that repeat the word ‘papa’ -”

“PAPA!” Steve shrieked randomly behind Barbara.

“Always ‘papa’ ... until the end of time!” Merlin finished.

“This ... explains a lot,” Barbara said as she released the wizard and watched him collapse on the alley floor.

Chapter 13:

Jim climbs onto the museum. Narration comments that the alley where everyone but Barbara is suffering pixie-power is only a block away. Jim jokes that he needs to stop breaking into the museum. College AU writers, make a note: There is, apparently, an ‘Arcadia U’ - probably a community college but maybe a university like the name implies? Seriously, what size is this town?

Jim carefully extracts a bunch of mineral samples from their cases without setting off the alarms, and starts cleaving them with his talons. The minerals in question are vivianite, amethyst, fire opal, wulfenite, peacock coal, and obsidian. I don’t offhand know any trivia about these beyond obsidian being volcanic glass historically used for knives because it has such a sharp edge, and amethyst being the birthstone for February. 

Jim asks Vendel’s spirit to guide his hand in the stone cleaving. He remembers what Vendel said about cleaving stones to unlock their powers and wonders if cutting away ties to the human world with unlock new powers in Jim.

There are six slots in the back of the amulet, so Jim fills them all here. The amulet’s incantation changes to, “For the pursuit of Angor, Moonlight is mine to command”. The lights out of the amulet are black and white and the armour is two-tone grey. 

Jim and Sir Barks are nearly caught by museum security, but the Moonlight Armour adjusts Jim’s boots to have something like jogging stilts, which, combined with his new troll strength, allow him to jump out of the skylight they came in through while carrying the wolf.

Chapter 14:

Barbara reminds herself she knows how to treat fever dreams, telling herself to forget the supernatural element and just deal with the pixie hallucinations like she would that. They also remind her of virtual reality - apparently the hospital where she works uses VR to help anxiety patients? The more worldbuilding is done, the more Arcadia sounds like a big city rather than a small town.

Barbara took a college semester abroad and studied painting in Rome.

Barbara traps one of the pixies in the Grave Sand container until it eats all the Grave Sand, then moves it to the densest part of the pixie swarm. When it explodes, it sets off a chain reaction and kills off all the other pixies. She likens this to an antivirus. 

Merlin expresses amazement that a “mere mortal woman”, his exact words, could defeat the pixies when he, “the world’s mightiest wizard”, again his exact words, couldn’t. Claire, Toby, Not Enrique, and Chompsky immediately call him out on talking down to her.

Dialogue between Barbara and Strickler confirms my theory that Barbara’s already dealing with her worst fear and that’s why the pixies didn’t affect her. (Although, really, they could’ve just shown her Jim’s dead body or something - I guess if you get cerebral about it, ‘not knowing’ is scarier than having closure?)

More Stalklings show up.

Chapter 15: 

Angor paints his face with mud. “This was tradition. This was ritual. This was what hunters of old did before they claimed their final kill”. It is implied he does not expect to survive fighting Jim but could be interpreted to mean he intends to ‘retire’ after winning.

Jim uses Sir Barks for misdirection and successfully gets the jump on Angor.

In addition to ‘spring stilts’, Jim can summon a longbow and arrows, his shield can adapt to armour a companion (in this case, Sir Barks-a-Lot), and swap out the stilts for cleats which let him grip any terrain, even letting him climb a tree at a run. 

Angor, outnumbered once his golems are destroyed, retreats. Jim and Sir Barks-a-Lot give chase.

Angor has captured Ronagog and Junipra (the Romeo and Juliet parallels from earlier) in a stasis trap. He sets himself up so that if Jim shoots him down with a bow and arrow, the shot will also go through the two harmless, helpless trolls.

Chapter 16: 

Gunmar speaks through the Stalklings. Toby calls Claire ‘Claire-bear’ while suggesting she make a portal for them to escape through. She can’t - she’s emotionally exhausted after pixie exposure. Gunmar laughs. 

Barbara tells Gunmar to “put a cork in it!” and throws a trash can lid at one of the Stalklings, making it choke and giving the humans, Changelings, and gnome an opening to run.

Merlin calls Eli “the bespectacled, socially-awkward one”. Steve calls Merlin “fuzz face” and tells him to lay off Eli.

Claire, Toby and Chompsky temporarily pin one of the Stalklings. Barbara offers praise and encouragement.

Strickler, Merlin, and Not Enrique fight the other Stalkling. Strickler offers Merlin the chance to deliver the killing blow. Merlin explodes the Stalkling, not caring that Not Enrique was in the line of fire and barely dodged. 

The pinned Stalkling gets loose and attacks Steve and Eli. Barbara shields them. The Stalkling falls ... zapped by Detective Scott’s Taser.

Claire wishes they could take the fight to Gunmar. Eli reveals he captured some of the surviving pixies and was planning to keep them as evidence of Arcadia’s supernatural activity, but he’ll sacrifice them for the good of the world. 

Merlin actually offers praise ... right before erasing Eli’s, Steve’s and Detective Scott’s memories of that evening’s events. Like the terrible, terrible, arrogant, selfish, terrible person he is. But at least it didn’t leave open the plothole of Detective Scott knowing about trolls in the books but not the show, so it’s only rage-inducing for the character’s actions, not for the writer’s slip-ups.

Chapter 17: 

Angor wants Jim to kill the innocents in order to kill Angor so that Jim will (metaphorically) sacrifice his soul and Angor won’t be the only one. Jim, instead, breaks the stasis trap. 

The subsequent “What kind of troll are you?!” “I’m not a troll. Or at least, not one like you.” exchange reminds me of the Disney confrontation between Tarzan and Clayton where Clayton tries to goad Tarzan into shooting him. (”Go ahead, shoot me. Be a man.” “Not a man like you!”) I’m also a sucker for the “I didn’t miss” trope.

Jim gives Angor this weird speech about almost feeling sorry for him and how Angor tried and failed to take Jim’s humanity away - no, kiddo, that was Merlin that did that - and how he thinks Angor always regretted giving up his soul. Okay, that part’s true, but there’s still no explanation for how Jim knew that. Everything the characters know about Angor in the show suggests Angor and Morgana are the only ones who know Angor didn’t give up his soul on purpose. 

Now freed of the stasis trap, the two trolls group-hug Jim and Sir Barks, and renew their relationship.

Angor’s dialogue when trying to stab Jim - “Now there’s enough troll in you for me to turn to stone!” - implies Creeper’s Sun is a troll-only toxin, even though it’s also seen turning trees and a metal shackle to stone in the show.

Jim claims that, although bad things do happen that no one asks for or expects, everything bad that’s happened to Angor since trading his soul away was a direct result of Angor’s own actions. He pins Angor to a tree with an arrow through the wrist and refuses to kill him. Somehow this wins him Angor’s respect. 

Angor acknowledges Jim as the better troll and hunter, and then escapes using a smoke bomb, but leaves behind the Triumbric Stones. (And possibly his eye? That never gets mentioned at all in this novel.)

Epilogue:

Draal and Kanigar watch Junipra and Ronagog’s wedding from the Void. The couple exchange nose rings, which were fashioned out of Moonlight’s arrows, implying an expectation that these won’t just vanish when Jim dispels the armour. 

Draal asks about his parents’ wedding. Kanjigar says he and Draal’s mother, Ballustra, had a more traditional wedding: a trial-by-combat cage match followed by reciting their vows. He then goes on to reminisce about Draal’s infancy, embarrassing his son.

Claire portals the last Stalkling, blindfolded, into Trollmarket. It knocks over a bunch of Gumm-Gumms and coughs up the pixies. 

A pixie goes in through Gunmar’s gouged-out eye socket. He sees Bular, as reanimated-but-still-crumbling stone, blaming Gunmar for Bular’s death and saying that if Bular, a warrior in his prime, could be beaten by a human Trollhunter, what chance does old half-blind Gunmar have against a whole Trollhunter team?

In the swamp, Usurna reveals she plans to take over herself eventually, and is only biding her time allying with Gunmar. AAARRRGGHH notes she treats trolls like pawns and she agrees. In the Void, Kanjigar notes that the other Krubera are starting to turn against her, and if Blinky and AAARRRGGHH can keep her talking, Usurna will be taken care of soon enough. 

The Void’s viewing window shifts focus to the Arcadia canals. Nomura is confronting Angor Rot over killing Draal. She wonders, rhetorically, how many of those he’s killed he actually remembers, and which of the deaths he’s caused haunt him most. Coincidentally, a dove coos just after she says this, which freaks Angor out. Seeing his panic, Nomura decides to walk away and let him suffer rather than killing him. She presumably meets and fights some Gumm-Gumms between then and when she shows up at Jim’s house, because there is no mention of her shoulder being dislocated.

Draal is extremely touched Nomura wanted to avenge him. It is Kanjigar’s turn to feel embarrassed and flustered when Draal caresses the ‘window’ between the Void and the living world and tells Nomura, “Never change, my Changeling.”

Jim is back by the lake. It’s sunrise; it would seem he spends the day walking, under the cover of the trees, and gets home after dark the next night, somehow without ever getting any sunlight exposure? He takes off the Moonlight armour, which also dissipates Sir Barks-a-Lot’s armour (and maybe Ronagog’s and Junipra’s wedding rings but they aren’t in the scene so we don’t know). 

Jim swaps out the ‘on loan’ museum crystals for “the gems from Angor Rot’s pouch, including the Triumbric Stones”, which implies he does have Angor’s eye again but that’s left unclear, and opening the possibility there’s one or two other stones in the pouch that might come into play in a later novel. 

A mother wolf and three more cubs are nearby. Jim sends Sir Barks-a-Lot back to his family. I expect they will “see each other again someday”, because that animal acted way more like a well-trained dog than a young and wild wolf, but on the other hand that’s animals in fiction for you.

Jim plans to stick to the safety of the shadows while walking back to town, presumably to avoid being seen since he isn’t supposed to know he’s vulnerable to sunlight yet.

Kanjigar expresses confidence Jim will be able to save the world.

In Conclusion: 

Angor Reborn still jars against animated canon in several places but is not as much of a mess as some of the other novels. There are a number of bits and pieces worth keeping.

[jansegers]

Simple English Word List

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China, March and May made this list because china, march and may are on it and I didn't want to decide in favor of the common noun or the proper noun; all other proper nouns have been omitted (even the ten other months that met the criterium of appearing more then 6 times). #SimpleWikipedia #SimpleEnglish #wordlist #English #words #level1540 #Inli #nimi #selo1540