Back in Arcadia Oaks, nothing has really changed. Allexis thinks to herself as the taxi is driving through the streets of her old hometown. I wonder how mom and Jim are doing since I left.

It had been a few years since she left home for university, only ever making contact with her family through phone calls, video calls and texts, but it still had her missing them terribly. She had already finished this semester and the upcoming one would be her last before she graduated with a simple AA degree, but she wanted to at least come back home after her mother's recent phone call that concerned her baby brother.

"He's been acting so strange lately, getting into fights, crashing a Vespa, breaking into a museum, I don't even know what's going on with him! He won't even tell me what's going on if I ask him what's wrong!" Her mother had said in their last conversation. "I feel like I'm at the end of my rope here with him, I don't know what to do!"

It sounded like Jim was going through some problems, but it was weird that he was even getting into trouble like this in the first place. But if he wouldn't even talk to their mom about what was going on, why would he talk with her?

"Here's your stop miss." The taxi driver says, jolting Allexis from her thoughts as he stopped the car on the sidewalk next to her home.

"Thank you so much." She says as she climbs out of the car to go grab her things from the trunk, just three suitcases, a backpack and her purse. Once the driver had left and she moved her stuff to the front porch, Allexis knocked, hoping that either of her family members were home. The second that she stopped knocking, the door swung open to reveal her mother.

"Sweetheart you're here! Oh I wasn't expecting you here until later!" Barbara gushes as she pulls her daughter into a hug. "You've gotten so tall too! What have they been feeding you in San Francisco?"

"Anything that's not Jim's cooking." Allexis laughs. "I do think I gained some pounds though."

"Well I'm sure your brother's cooking and some morning jogging sessions will fix that, come in, Jim's at school and I had the day off so I'll help you with your stuff."

The two women made a few trips from the porch to the second floor where the bedrooms were located with the suitcases, thankfully with no problem. It felt weird to Allexis to be back in her old room, the whole thing felt bare save for the empty bed, the desk and the faded sticky notes covering the wall in front of the desk.

"Yikes, even my dorm when it was empty was decorated better." She mutters as she drops her backpack on the bare mattress. "I think I'm gonna make a few trips to the comic store or a few online purchases to brighten this up."

"Yeah, you never really posted anything on the walls after you decided you were too old for the princess and mermaids decor." Barbara agrees with a sigh as she joins her. "You were so focused on studying you didn't want any distractions, I was so worried when you went off to university. Really thought you would burn yourself out studying over there, but you really surprised me when you gave me a tour of your room after a month of staying there."

"Well I got hobbies now outside of studying, and got into stuff that I never dreamed of finding interest in. So I'm a bit less boring now."

"Aw sweetheart, you were never boring, you were just so hyper focused on studying to get into a good school so you can help me out. But look at what I did, I finished my degree while you were away and now I'm a doctor and you're studying to be a world history teacher like the one you looked up to in high school."

"As I told you before, I was doing it for you and my brother." Allexis sighs as she leans against her mother so the two could hug. "At least now I know financially you're doing okay. But academically Jim needs some help if he wants to get into a good college."

"Oh trust me, he could really use your help right now. Both with school and...I don't even know what he's going through right now and I'm worried."

Before Allexis could respond, she heard the faint sound of the front door opening and slamming shut before hearing a loud "I'm home mom!" from Jim. She grins and motions for her mother to stay quiet before creeping out of the room and towards the stairs. She could hear her little brother in the kitchen chatting with someone on the phone as she came down the stairs and creeped into the living room. Jim had his back to her, still engrossed in his phone call, not even noticing her at all.

"No Tobes, doing that is a terrible idea, and yes I know doing this play and my duties is gonna be a problem but what can I do?" The teen says as he's trying to get sandwich ingredients out of the fridge with one hand. "Plus with Dra-"

"AAAAH!" Allexis yells as she grabs her brother from behind, earning a loud yell as he drops his phone, a packet of cheese and a bottle of mustard onto the floor. "You seriously gotta work on paying attention baby brother!"

"Allexis!" Jim exclaims, his terrified expression melting into an excited one as he is released and turns to pull her into a hug. "Oh my gosh I thought you weren't gonna come until the summer!"

"I recently finished my spring semester, figured I'd come and visit!" Allexis laughs as she hugs him back. "Dang you really hit a growth spurt! You're almost as tall as me, you little bean!"

"Hey I'm a growing boy, mom says I'm not done growing yet!" Jim laughs. "So you're staying for the summer?"

"Yeah! Also gonna be looking for a temporary job here since I can't exactly do much tutoring back at uni, so you probably won't see me at home so much."

"Well that's fine, at least you can help me and Toby with homework, especially Spanish."

"Uhl giving you a hard time?"

"Unfortunately."

"Alright so your sister is home, so are you, maybe we should go out to celebrate!" They hear their mom say as she is coming down the stairs and grabbing her purse. "Who wants milkshakes and burgers, my treat before I gotta run to work?"

---

Draal wasn't expecting so much noise in the Trollhunter's home today, and he was not expecting someone who definitely was not the Trollhunter, his mother or his friend to be in the house either. The young warrior kept calling her "Allexis" and his mother referred to her as "sweetheart" or "your sister", so she must have been a part of their family. How odd, the young hunter never mentioned an older sibling before, so this was new information for him.

I suppose the young human is going to ask if I can extend my protection to her, since she is a part of his household. The troll thinks to himself as he starts rifling through a cardboard box in search of something to snack on. He didn't want to creep into the house while the new human was awake and scurrying around. I suppose I have no choice, but does she have to be so lou-

The door to the basement swung open and he looks up in time to see a human he had never seen before descend the stairs. She seemed taller than the young hunter, sporting short wavy hair and a pair of those things on her face the hunter had called "glasses" as she squinted into the dark. Draal held still as she peered into the basement and decided to try and move, hoping she wouldn't hear or notice him. At least until he felt his foot bump into a box.

"Damn raccoons." He hears her mutter loudly before it sounded like she left the basement.

The troll lets out a sigh of relief he had been holding in, until he hears the sound of something running down the stairs and feels something smack his head. Draal yells in pain as he gets smacked in the face as he stumbled back and nearly bumped into the boiler before tripping over something and falling onto his back. The small light overhead suddenly flashes on before an unfamiliar face appears over his, not looking happy at all.

"Well now I know why the basement is a mess now." The human girl mutters loudly as Draal tries to sit up. "JIM! GET YOUR SCRAWNY BUTT DOWN HERE NOW! And you! What the heck are you and what are you doing in my mom's basement?"

"I live here." Draal retorts as he sits up, eying the broom the human held warily. "The Trollhunter is allowing me to live in his home."

"The troll what now? JIM! I'M NOT REPEATING MYSELF!"

He could hear the muffled sound of footsteps coming down the stairs before the young Trollhunter appeared at the top of the steps. "Hey AL, what's- oh no."

"Explain whatever the heck this thing is and what it's doing in our basement!" The human yells, shoving her broom into Draal's face again. "Now!"

For once, the young warrior seemed lost for words, looking at Draal for help.

"Don't look at me, I have no reasonable excuse to give." The troll says with a shrug.

"Oh boy...umm...how do I explain this..." The young human says as he walks down the steps. "Uh sis...this is...Draal. Draal, this is my sister Allexis. He is a...troll."

"Well that is one weird looking troll, but explain to me why it's in the basement and claims you're letting it stay here." The older human says, still keeping her weapon pointed at Draal.

"He...well...shoot I'm gonna have to explain everything aren't I?"

"Obviously!"

The young hunter explained everything to his sister, from the amulet, to the trolls, Bular, and everything that happened. The entire time Draal watched her expression go from angry and annoyed to horrified and worried until her brother finished explaining everything.

"Okay let me get this whole thing straight, you were chosen by some magical amulet to defend an ancient race of trolls and are the first human to be given this task when it's been just trolls, trolls, trolls. And right now there's an evil troll who is out to get you and the other night you actually almost died on your birthday of all days because said troll sent some creepy creature after you?" The sister says and shakes her head. "Jim, is this why mom has been worrying so much? Why you have been getting into so much trouble that she had to ask me to come out here the moment my spring semester was over?"

"Umm, yeah and I can't really tell mom - yet." The young hunter says and shook his head. "Please Allexis, I'm begging you to not tell mom about this. I want to keep her safe, I was planning on not telling you either for your safety, but...well this happened and I can't think of an excuse to why I have a troll in the basement that you're gonna believe."

"Well now I know the source of the problem, and now I feel the need to be involved with this."

"I suppose we need to tell Blinky don't we?" Draal asks as he pushes the broom from his face and stands up. "Otherwise, how will you explain why a random human is accompanying you everywhere."

"That's right little brother, since mom asked me to keep an eye on you, that means I'm coming with you." The sister said with a grin. "So you can't get rid of me that easily."

"Oh boy, Vendel and Blinky are gonna have a field day with this." The hunter mutters. "Uh stay here, I need to make a call, try not to murder each other in the meantime."

"No promises."

"Okay I'm not sure if my brother gave you any rules for living here, so I'm going to give you some. One, clean up after yourself, if you're gonna live here rent free you might as well keep this place tidy." The sister says once her brother is out of the basement, turning to Draal with a frown.

"I don't clean messes." The troll responds and snorts. "I make them, not clean them."

"Then you better start learning to clean them."

The broom is shoved in his face again and Draal is now tempted to just break it. This annoying flesh bag was ordering him around and he was not liking it. He straightens up, making himself look taller as he towers over the human and looks down at her with a glare. Most trolls would have balked and shrunk away in fear, but this human just returns the glare and crossed her arms over her chest, not even backing down.

"Okay good news! Blinky took the news well...sort of but he and Aaaarrggh are excited to meet - what are you two doing?" The two stop glaring at each other to see the young Trollhunter on the steps looking at them in confusion.

"Establishing dominance." The sister responds. "Our big blue visitor refuses to clean up after himself."

"Uh yeah, he doesn't really clean up messes."

"Yeah no shit! Look at all this coal on the floor, it's a miracle no one has slipped!"

"Okay how about we deal with this later in the morning, the others are outside and want to see you." The hunter says as he hurried down the steps and grabbed his sister to drag her back up them.

As she turns to look back at him, Draal made a "watching you motion" at her before she stuck her tongue out and raised a fist up before raising a single finger at him. The gesture made no sense to him, but the younger fleshbag was appalled when he looked back to see what his sister was doing before pulling her to the door and quickly shutting it behind him. Drall snorts in annoyance and shook his head before walking back to his sleeping area. Clean up, as if. There was no way he would let a mere human like that tell him what to do. Sure he let the Trollhunter give orders but he never demanded him to do anything like his sister had. He had only known her for less than an hour and already disliked her very much, and he just knew that was going to grow the longer they were around each other. Deya give him patience...