Chapter four:
It was one month after Branch had given up his memories to the mist that the raiders returned to the Mist islands, but they did so under the flag of peace. Branch made his way to the coast to meet with the raiders and as this was a formal occasion the Mist King dressed for it. The king wore a high necked silver top open at the front in a v shape, the tight sleeves had v shapes onto the back of his hands, he wore matching silver trousers and over this was a blue shimmering long robe, it went all the way to the floor flowing out behind him in a long train, it had long belled sleeves to his ankles, it was neatly fastened with hidden fasteners and then at his waist was a wide silver and shimmering blue sash belt hanging from which was his sword. The King carefully placed his circlet onto his head, he then turned to his nine body guards and said to them. "I don't look ridiculous, do I?"
Blizzard shook his head at his King and friend. "No Branch you look very regal just as you should for this meeting."
The blue troll took a deep breath, the nine body guards formed up around Branch, then together they left the tent which had been set up for him to go down to the beach to meet the envoy of the raider trolls. As the Mist King walked onto the beach he noticed that one of them was the red troll he had confronted in the village where he had lived and with him were three more older male trolls. Branch was aware that the mist beast had appeared next to his side and he walked towards the raiders with, his guards, the six councillors and the Mist beast with him. They watched the blue troll walking towards them with wide eyes, one of the older male trolls stepped forward this troll had an orange body and yellow hair. This troll bowed politely to Branch, the Mist King returned this gesture with a bow of his own head and then spoke to this orange troll. "I am King Branch of the Mist islands. You have come here under the flag of peace what do you want here?"
"I am Chief Fire dance, King of the Mist first we give you our humble apologies for the way our sailors treated your lands, we had no knowledge the goods they brought back from the islands had been taken and not traded for as we had been told. We have had severe words with all those involved and they have been punished as our law dictates they should be."
"I see, how was the truth discovered if I may ask."
The orange troll gestured to the red troll who Branch had seen before. "Flare confessed the truth, his encounter with you convinced him it was what he should do."
"I am glad to know that the truth has been brought out into the open at last. If you wish my forgiveness for what your people did I cannot give it, your forgiveness would have to come from my people and I would not give it without their blessing."
Fire dance felt admiration for this younger troll, this was clearly not only a wise troll but also not a troll to be crossed as he would defend his people from all harm. "I understand Branch King of the Mist, the fact you have even be willing to meet with us is far more than we expected from those who had been treated so badly by our people."
"We have no wish for war with any other trolls but trust between our people maybe some time in coming Chief of the raiders."
"That I understand King of the Mist. The raisers, is that what your people call us?" The blue King gave him a nod and the Chief of the raiders then addressed Branch again. "We call ourselves the people of the Ice Islands."
Branch gave him a nod and then said to the older troll. "The Ice Island trolls, this shall be recorded so that we know from this point forth how your people wish to be referred to. I have no wish to sound disrespectful to you or your people but it would be best for all I think if you and your people left our land. After I have spoken to my people I shall send a message bird to you so that we can begin to discuss matters between our peoples."
"We take no offence King Branch, we shall go as you suggest, I shall wait for your message bird and I look forward to a better relationship between our two peoples." With this said the Fire dance bowed again to Branch who once more returned this gesture, the Chief gathered up his people and returned with them to their ships.
The Mist King staid standing on the beach watching the ice island trolls leave, with his guards, councillors and the Mist beast beside him and Branch only turned back from the beach to return to his tent in the camp which had been made not far from the beach once he was very sure that the ice island trolls would not return to their land. Once he was back at his tent Branch did not remove the very formal robes, he settled instead on the chair within and let out a sigh before turning his gaze onto the councillors. "We must get the word out to my people. I truly wish to know their thoughts on making peace with the Ice Island trolls, make it clear to my subjects that these are the raiders and that I wish to know their thoughts on this unexpected offer of peace."
"Yes sire." The councillors said together and then left the tent to go and do as their King had told them too.
Branch stood there was a lot going around in his mind, feeling the need to relax a little after this meeting, he brought out one of his hand harps, he settled back down and then started to play. The body guards were well aware of their King and friends habit of playing music whenever he needed to relax and therefore were unsurprised when he started to play. The nine male trolls smiled at each other, Branch was a very talented musician, they very much liked to hear him playing his instruments and the nine of them also enjoyed it when Branch would sing as he had a wonderful voice. They were well aware that there was pain in their King's past, they also knew from the oracle of the mist that Branch had used the mist to burry those memories and the guards knew that Silver was aware of this fact because she could sense the change in their King. The nine body guards therefore didn't ask about Branch's past, instead they tried to encourage him to move forwards into the future and to think about giving his heart to another troll.
So far Branch had not found a troll that he wished to have a romantic relationship with, the King was unsure as to why this was the case, but every so often he would get this strange feeling that there was somewhere he should be and someone who needed him. The blue troll had no idea why he would feel this way but Branch did his best to try and push this feeling to one side so that he could try to find the one to share his life with, the King hoped that someday he would find the troll he could at last give his heart to and spend the rest of his life with. At the moment though the situation with the Ice island trolls was one Branch needed to deal with before he even thought about finding a wife to rule the Mist trolls beside him.
After this meeting the King made his way back to the castle, while he did this the news of the wishes of the Ice island trolls to make peace with them was spread to the people of the Mist islands. There was lots of heated debating amongst the trolls, lots of differing views, Branch had listened to all of his people and they were grateful towards their King for his consideration of their views in this important matter. It was clear that the Mist island people didn't want a war with Ice island trolls but there was a lot of distrust towards them after actions both of which Branch understood. In the end the Mist King had suggested that for now he would simply start to communicate with the Chief of the Ice island trolls through letters and then depending how this went then they could organise a meeting with these other trolls at this point. This idea from the blue troll was accepted by those he ruled, they felt this was a good compromise and would allow them all time to adjust to the fact that the Ice island trolls wanted to make peace with them after all this time.
It was a week after this that Branch was called with urgency to see the oracle of the mist, when he arrived in her rooms in the castle it was clear to the King that she was having a vision. As soon as he came in the room, Silver looked right at him, with eyes that didn't seem to see him at all and then she started to speak to him. "King of the Mist you shall be called, the Queen of the Bright trolls will need your healing skills and you must go to her. Branch my King and friend here in this tree of bright colour you will find your lost heart and soul as well as a love which last all of your life and into the world beyond." Silver blinked as she came back to herself, the oracle wavered slightly on her feet, Branch was quickly at her side supporting her and helping Silver into a nearby chair.
"I thank you for your words oracle of the mist. I now know that I need to be ready for." Silver smiled at her King grateful that seeing her have a vision had not made Branch afraid of her and that instead the blue troll was clearly glad of her vision as he could now be ready for what was to come.
Far away back at the troll tree Poppy was now at her worst, she lay in Branch's bed within his pod, the troll Queen didn't wake she just seemed to sleep and none of the snack pack or the healers of the troll tree could understand what had happened nine months after Branch had left them behind, but they all knew it must have been terrible to send Poppy into this strange comatose state in which she didn't appear to deteriorate but just sleep. At the this ten month mark the snack pack where now half way through looking through the archives, little did any of them know that today would be the day thing would change. It was Biggie who spotted it, a slender blue book high on a shelf, very carefully the large troll brought it down from the top of the shelf. He looked at it, there didn't seem to be anything special about this book, it was just an old book covered in dust, however the large blue troll remembered the old saying about not judging a book by its cover. Biggie carefully brought the slender book over to one of the tables in the archive, he placed it down on the table, before gently opening the cover of the book and reading the title of it on the first page. The blue troll froze, then read the words on the page before him again, before raising his voice and calling out. "Hey! I think I have something here!"
Quickly the rest of the snack pack and Moss made their way over to Biggie, Suki looked at him and said to the blue troll. "What have you found Biggie?"
"This book, I didn't think much of it at first but then remembered the old saying about not judging books by their covers, so I brought it over here to see what it was about and well…" The blue troll gestured down at the open book at this point.
Suki moved to stand next to him and looked down at the book and her eyes went wide. "Oh…Oh my…"
"Suki what is it?" Smidge asked with equal parts excitement and aggravation.
The DJ then read the title of the book out to the other trolls. "The rites of the Mist islands." As she announced this title to the others there were lots of excited murmuring from all of them.
As the noise died down Moss spoke up. "Sounds like a book to try reading, it might be able to help us find Branch and bring him back to us all. I will read the book to see if it can help while you all search for anything else that might help us."
The younger trolls all gave the elder nods of agreement, they went back to looking through the archive, meanwhile Moss settled down on one of the chairs in the archive and started to read the book. The old troll found the book hard going because it was hand written as well as in old formal language but he was at least making his way through the book. Every time Moss found something he thought might be useful the green troll made notes on it for him to go over later and the old troll had to admit that he found this old book extremely interesting. After spending a month reading this book Moss was coming to the end of the book, it was then that the old troll found something relating to the King of the Mist, the green troll read what was written on the pages before him and then read it all over again. The old troll looked up from the book, Moss's eyes were wide and his mouth was open in a perfect o of shock. The green troll shook himself out of his surprise and then raised his voice to call the snack pack. "I found something!"
They all came dashing out of the shelves of the archives and towards the old troll, there was hope in their eyes as they came towards him. "What did you find?!" Guy Diamond asked him with excitement.
Moss looked round at them and then said. "It appears to be a way to get in touch with the Mist rulers…It's a spell. It requires a few things…" The old troll lifted the book to and then began to read out to them the words written there. "The moon at its fullest body is the night to make this spell, you will need a round silver bowl, water the purest that can be found, you will need three stones, a sky stone, a water stone and a mist stone. Sit within a circle of trolls, make sure that the water of the bowl can reflect the stars and the moon, two trolls must sit with the bowl one to hold it and one to speak the words of this spell as the ritual is performed. Place within the bowl the sky stone then say the first part of the spell, after this put into the bowl the water stone and say the second part of the spell, then lastly place into the bowl the mist stone and as the final words of the spell are spoke pour the water into the bowl. Once the words are spoken the ruler of the mist will answer your call so be ready with your words, be warned the monarch of the mist will not be pleased if you summon them to you with no need."
"By the troll tree we did it…I can't believe we did it." Suki said with a small relived chuckle.
Smidge spoke next. "Do you think we can find all the things will we need for the spell?"
"I think so…" Moss said thoughtfully. "I have a large round silver bowl it's a family heirloom…But I'm willing to put it towards this summoning. The pure water, well thankfully there is plenty of that not far from Bergan town so that should be difficult for us to get hold of. The stones are going to be more difficult the best thing we can do is talk to the Bergan's and see if they can help us find them…mist stones are very rare…"
Suki took control at this time saying. "Right then let's go and talk to King Gristle and Queen Bridget, they have both been worried about Poppy and have been wanting to help her if they could."
"I shall stay behind here and make sure I have everything written down correctly." Moss told the younger trolls.
They all gave him a nod before they set out towards the castle, thanks to the installation of the troll railway they made their way to the castle quickly. When they arrived at the castle the guards were more than happy to help to help them find the King and Queen. When Bridget and Gristle noticed them with the two guards they instantly stood and came over to them it was the Bergan Queen who addressed them first. "Any news?"
The DJ answered her. "Yes, we have found a spell which should summon the Mist ruler, who as we all know is Branch, we just have to remember if this works that Branch will have no memory of any of us. We came to see you because the spell requires some things that we need in order to make it work items that we trolls simply don't have."
"What are they?" Gristle asked them as eager to help them as his wife was.
"A water stone, a sky stone and a mist stone." Suki told him.
The Bergan king looked thoughtful and then said. "Well the water stone and sky stone I know the local jewellers will carry…The mist stone though may be harder…I think there might be one in the castle volt but I'd have to check. I tell you what Bridget can take you to the town jeweller to get the first two stones while I see if I can at least see if there is a mist stone on the list of items stored in the volt."
"Thank you." Suki said to him gratefully.
The snack pack left moved themselves from the guard to shoulders Bridget's shoulders and one the Bergan Queen was happy that they were all safely on her shoulders she set off out of the castle and into the town to the jewellers shop in Bergan town. As Bridget entered the shop the owner smiled at her widely, he watched as she settled the trolls onto the counter and then the Bergan Queen then addressed him. "We need a small water stone and a small sky stone, they are for the trolls so they need to be the smallest ones you have."
"Of course your majesty." He said before he slipped into his back room, the jeweller came back a few moments later with a tray with stones on them, some were sky blue and others were a deep sapphire blue and both shades instantly reminded the trolls of Branch's colouring. Before the trolls could tell him that these stones were too far big for them he held up two small bags and then spoke to the snack pack. "This are all the chippings from the sky and water stones I have been working for jewellery, these chippings are often too small for my use but they might be right for you. The green pouch has the sky stone chips in, the blue one has the sky stone chips in them, I keep them separate because my little girl likes to see if she can turn the chips into beads and she likes to know which stone is which, but any way I am sure she would not begrudge you taking some of each of them." Once he had finished speaking the jeweller carefully tipped the contents of the green pouch into one tray and the blue pouch into the other tray.
Suki clambered into the tray containing the water stones she picked out three likely looking pieces of stone, she popped these into her hair and then climbed back out of the tray. The DJ walked from this first tray to the second, she again climbed into this second tray, Suki picked out another three pieces of water stone and also placed these into her hair. The orange haired troll clambered back out of the tray, Suki smiled up at the jeweller and then said to him gratefully. "Thank you so much for your help."
"You are welcome, I am glad I could help you."
The trolls once more climbed onto Bridget who took them back to the castle, they found Gristle in his study going through a large book as they entered the room the Bergan King looked up from the book and smiled at Bridget. His eyes fell on the trolls, Gristles smile grew and he then spoke to the snack pack. "I have some good news, there is a mist stone in the castle volt. I'm not sure how easy it is going to be to find it but there is one."
"Can we start looking for it now?" Biggie asked eagerly.
Gristle gave him a nod. "I don't see why not, I'll get some of the guards to help us too."
So it was that Bridget, Gristle and the Bergan guards made their way into the castle volt and together they started to look for the mist stone. It was in fact one of the guards who found the stone, he held it up the light and called out gleefully to the others. "I found it!"
They came together in the middle of the volt, the trolls stared at the stone in his hand, it was huge to them, it was a grey stone which seemed to have white swirling patterns which looked just like mist scrolling across its surface. "It's beautiful but far too big." Smidge said softly.
Gristle looked at the stone and then said to the trolls. "Then we break it." The trolls gasped surprised that the Bergan King was willing to do this in order to help them, but Gristle was already looking for something to break the stone with and the guards followed his lead. Soon the Bergans had found several different implements to try breaking the stone with, they set to work on the mist stone and after several attempts they finally broke it. Bridget placed the trolls down around the broken stone and together they located three pieces which were just the right size for them. Suki turned grateful eyes onto the King and Queen of the Bergans and said to them with happiness in her voice. "Thank you, both of you so much."
"If it will bright Branch back and help Poppy then that's all that matters." Bridget assured them.
The trolls hugged her fingers, they climbed back onto the Bergan Queen who walked them out of the castle and back to the troll train.
The snack pack quickly got back to the troll tree, they hastily made their way to the archive, Moss was sitting there waiting for them and looked at them hopefully. "We have all three stones!" Biggie told him excitedly.
"Good, I've got the words of the spell written down and I have discovered that the next full moon is in three days."
The snack pack told King Peppy of their discovery, he had been thrilled by what they had found out and had insisted that he be involved in some way and they had told him he could sit in the circle round the bowl with those who would not be holding the bowl or speaking the spell, this inclusion by them in what was to happen had pleased the King. It had been decided since it was his family heirloom that Moss would hold the silver bowl and Suki would speak the words of the spell, with this decided the old green troll made sure to carefully teach the DJ the words of the spell. The other members of the snack pack with the help of Bergan guards had left Bergan town that very day to get the pure water for the spell and had returned the day after with it.
On the night of the full moon the troll tree and Bergan town was in complete silence, they all knew that the spell was going to be cast tonight, they were all hoping that it would work and that Branch would be returned to them. They all knew that if the spell worked that the blue troll would lack his memory but still they held onto hope that at least Branch would be returned to them and that maybe this would help Poppy in some way.
Peppy, and the snack pack had gathered together in a clearing not far from the troll tree but as the directions of the spell had dictated with nothing to block the bowls view of the stars. Moss sat in the clearing holding the bowl, the jug of clear pure water sat by the bowl, Suki sat with the shards of stone on the ground next to her and around her in a circle sat the six other members of the snack pack and Peppy. Moss looked round at them all, he then turned his gaze onto Suki and then said to her. "Are you ready?"
"Yes…I know the spell and I know what I need to ask the King to do."
Moss gave her a nod. "Good, now place the water stone in first and say the first part, the sky stone goes next followed by the second part of the spell and then lastly the mist stone and the third part of the spell."
Suki took a deep breath, she placed the sky stone into the bottom of the bowl and spoke the words. "You who are descended of the one born of the love of the Sky god here to this place we summon you for aid as we need it with all urgency." The DJ took the water stone, she placed this into the bowl then said the next part of the spell. "You who are descended of the one born of the love of the Sea goddess here to this place we summon you, we wish you here with us for our hearts are in pain and we need your aid to heal that pain." Very carefully Suki placed the mist stone into the bowl and spoke the last part of the spell and as she spoke Moss poured the water into the bowl. "Ruler of the Mist, you who tames the mist beat, you control the mist, you with the wings of sky blue and sapphire blue here to this place we summon you, our souls cry out for your assistance come to us now ruler of the Mist." As Suki spoke the last words mist boiled up out of the bowl, it spiralled upwards, then fell back and before them hanging in the air head bowed forward, eyes closed and his two tone wings curled round him was Branch.
Slowly his head came up, his eyes opened and the wings also opened up each side of him to reveal his new strange clothing, mist curled round and off of him in ornate swirls. The Mist King looked around at them all and then addressed the trolls gathered in the clearing before him in a commanding voice. "You have summoned me, what do you wish of me?"
Suki quickly shook herself out of her shock and found her voice. "Great King of the Mist, our Queen Poppy is greatly ill we seek you in hopes that you may be able to heal her."
Branch looked into her eyes for a long moment, the DJ was sure that he was looking into her soul and then gave her a nod. "I have expected a call for assistance, I shall come to aid your Queen as my skill is to heal. Stay here were you are I shall come in but a few moments." The mist washed back up and the King vanished from sight.
The trolls waited quietly, then a few moments later, more mist filled the clearing, out of it stepped the winged blue troll, on one shoulder he carried a large bag, behind him was the great Mist beast and nine other trolls who were clearly guards. Branch smiled at them all. "I am King Branch, these are my nine body guards. I am afraid I cannot go any were without them which I am sure you all understand. Do not be worried by the Mist beast it will harm no one unless they harm me first, in fact I can make it a little easier on you all…" Branch turned towards the beast, he held a hand out towards it, the beast stepped forward, it lowered its head into his hand and then vanished into the blue troll. "There that's should make things less threatening for all involved. Now if you will show me to your Queen I shall see what I can do for her." Quickly the trolls left the clearing, guiding the blue troll and his nine guards into the troll tree to the blue pod in which Poppy was. As they made their way to the pod the snack pack, Moss and King Peppy introduced themselves to the mist trolls who were with them.