Branch stepped out of his bunker, the cold winter air blowing a breeze on his face and a crispy crinckle as his feet met the frosty floor, he exhaled, causing a small cloud of cold air to appear. he yawned, and stretched his arms out, he looked around with sleepy eyes and shook himself off.

5 mins later*

he walked through the woods, heading to the lake to watch out for any accidents, he was always the one to watch out for any cracks in the ice, while the other trolls wanted to get on the ice straight away, poppy would tell them to wait untill he had checked if it was thick and stable enough, he liked the fact that she trusted him, and one time poppy even saw him keeping watch of some baby trolls on the ice, his thoughts where interupted by a low hanging branch of leaves, frost pieces got caught in his hair, as he continued his walk to the lake, where he saw poppy, possibly waiting for him to check it, her face lit up when he arrived, "hey branch!" she called, waving to him and smiling, he didnt return the smile, as much as he wanted to. She watched as he placed his hand on the ice, pressing down gently, the ice didnt break, and the water wasnt visable, he nodded "its safe, go ahead" she grinned "yay!", she slipped her foot onto the ice, and began to slip and slide around, clearly she knew what she was doing, branch shook his head and put some skates on, the ones he had stored in his backpack, and looked nervously at the icy lake, poppy looked over at him, and smiled, she skated over and asked why he looked so nervous to skate, she asked several reasons like if he was afraid of drowning or something, he shook his head, "no i cant skate-" she cut him off before he could finish his sentence, she grabbed his wrist and pulled him onto the ice, she couldn't beleive it! the troll who had lived in the woods for 20 years didnt know how to skate, she giggled as he crossed his knees together to avoid slipping and holding his arms out to the side to balance himself, poppy giggled and branch gave her a worried look, scared of falling, she tilted her head, "you really dont know how to skate?, havent you lived here for 20 years?" he gave her a flat look and nodded, "i never really saw it as usefull, so i never learned" she awwed, and he frowned, then poppy had an idea, "i can teach you!" she said gleefully, he thought about it for a second and nodded, "fine, but i am very busy during winter, so dont expect me to show up every time" he said grimly, she nodded and he added on, "and ill teach you how to check if the ice is safe" she nodded back and smiled, 'typical poppy' he thought

she grabbed his arm and began to pull him off of the ice, he took his skates off and placed them back in his little back pack, "we start tomorrow" she said, skipping off, as she left, branch smiled and walked himself home