Branch POV

I pace up and down the tree branch that my pod hangs off of. I look at my watch. Finally! It's time.

It's been two whole days since Poppy told me the (supposedly) good news. Two days! We haven't done anything. That's 26 hours of wasted time that the council could have used to make peace with the Bergens easier. Today, King Peppy has finally gotten himself together and organized the first meeting. I've been waiting for almost an hour with nothing to do. I would have gone earlier, but I didn't want to be the only one there, and since trolls tend to be late, I probably would have been. I stop pacing and start heading towards the trunk of the tree; towards the new room that the King asked the tree to make for us.

[I call him King because I'm not sure what else it would be. Lord, maybe? Just to be clear, Poppy is queen, but Peppy is helping her with various little things.]

I have no idea who the other trolls are, but I can only hope they're as prepared to get to work as I am. I walk through the tunnels in the tree (Poppy thinks she's the only one who knows about these) following the directions she delivered, and in about ten minutes, I arrive. I swing out and onto the leaf that's the welcome mat, and enter the room.

The room is filled with about fifty various trolls, some that I know. The woman whose birthday, wedding, and spouse's funeral I ruined is here, and her eyes say that she hasn't forgotten. If looks could kill, I'd be a zombie ghost. I wave nervously. She starts walking towards me, and I gulp. Just in time, King Peppy clears his throat, standing on top of a chair. "Welcome, all of you! Do any of you know why I've called you here?" He asks the crowd. "To party?" A bright orange troll guesses. "No..." the King says. Murmurs ripple through the air. No doubt, none of these trolls have ever gone anywhere for a reason other than partying, preparing to party, or something basically necessary.

"You are here because Queen Poppy is having a little trouble." "Oh, no! Wait – we're throwing a party to make her feel better, right?" A green troll guesses. "No! You will be taking on some of her work, either temporarily or permanently." King Peppy is starting to look a little frustrated now. "Oh! Are we going to plan the Bergen party for her?" The orange troll asks. These trolls are starting to get to me now, and I'm not even the one that has to tell them what they're doing. King Peppy gives up. "Branch, tell them what they're doing."

Great. "Me, your Honor?" I ask, hoping that there's another Branch in the room. There isn't; there's no other Branch in the whole kingdom, but it never hurts to hope. "Yes, you. Tell them why they're here and what they'll be doing." I stand up on a chair at the back of the room. Everyone turns around to look at me. "Well, what I've been told is that we're here to take over the legislative part of Poppy's work." "Legislative? What does that mean?" A more elderly troll asks. I sigh heavily. "Legislative means dealing with laws and enforcement of laws. In this case, we'll be working with King Gristle to make new laws about how the Bergens should treat us, and they'll make new laws about how we should treat them. Hopefully, if all goes well, the laws will help us get along peacefully."

I see five hands raised in the air. "Yes?" I ask. "What's a law?" "What's enforcement?" "Who's King Gristle?" "Why do we need this?" "Don't we and the Bergens already get along?" Like I said, trolls are idiots. I try to control myself and fail miserably. I scream. Quite literally. I let out the loudest yell I can, shaking the whole floor. "What is wrong with you? Didn't you ever learn anything besides singing, dancing, hugging, and scrapbooking?!" Silence fills the room. I realize that I'm asking them a ridiculous question. "N-n-no?" A timid troll ventures.

I sigh for the fortieth time this week. Yes, I keep track. I heard that if you sigh any more than a hundred times a month, you're a very annoying person. I'm trying to change. "I apologize for my outburst. I shouldn't have yelled. It's not your fault that you never learned anything useful. Now, what was the first question again?" "What's a law?"

Over the next two hours, I proceed to teach the trolls everything I know about legislation, and by the end of the session, we've made decent progress. They know the answers to the questions they asked, and some trolls have actually started on first drafts of possible laws. They're pretty quick learners, I've gotta give them that. King Peppy dismisses the meeting and everyone bustles out the door. I linger a little bit longer.

I approach the king with something that's been on my mind for a while. "King Peppy?" "Yes, son?" I try not to think too much about the last word. He probably calls all the trolls that. "Why were these specific trolls picked to be on the council?" He laughs, a chuckle building up to almost a roar rolling out as he leans on his cane. "They… they were picked for the smallest things. Good calligraphy to write the laws, a great team spirit to encourage cooperation: Poppy was sure that those qualities would make the best possible team."

I stand there with my mouth hanging open. "Wait… so… but… none of them knew anything about law? None of them were even required to know anything about what they were doing?" "Nope!" he proclaims, still chuckling. I smile. That's just like Poppy. Picking near-random people to form a team and hoping everything would work out okay. "Thank you, King Peppy!" "Goodbye, son! Have a great day!" Again, I ignore that word.

I head to the village center at the bottom of the tree to get something to eat. Maybe a blueberry jam sandwich? I haven't had one of those in ages. Actually, I haven't had one in twenty and a half years. I wait in line for the cart and think about Poppy. I haven't seen her in a while; usually she comes by every day. It's almost like she's been avoiding me. Probably not. I bet she's just busy.

I pay for the sandwich and feel a hand on my shoulder. I turn around and come face to face with King Peppy. "Son…" he wheezes. He must have run the whole way down the tree. Immediately I feel guilty for not helping him. "Have you… heard… about Poppy?" "What about Poppy?" I ask slowly. "I'm not sure if she wanted me to tell you, but I'm worried about her." "Why?" "She… she turned gray again yesterday."

I choke on my sandwich. Literally. I inhale a part of the bread and it gets lodged in my throat. I start to panic. I try to cough it out but I lose all the air I had left. I clutch my throat and try to breathe, but the air can't get to my lungs. I always thought I would die in a Bergen's mouth, not from something as easily avoided as choking. "Son!" I hear King Peppy shout. Many long seconds go by as I try desperately to pull air into my burning lungs. I'm more terrified than I've ever been. "Is he choking?" "Get some help!" I hear in the background. I fall off of the picnic bench. Everything sounds fuzzy and I can't see anything. Air, I think as everything goes black.


Author's Notes:

Sorry for the cliffhanger. At this very moment, I am working on Chapter 4 and should have it up within a few days. Feel free to leave criticism if you want. Thanks for reading, I hope you like it!