Here is the next chapter of my story, sorry for any typos. I wanted to thank all my reviews, favs and follows that I have received for this fanfic. As much as I have loved writing this story it is coming to the end with about one or two more chapters left. I hope you enjoy reading this chapter and reading my story! Thanks You so much..

"My name is Roselyn," the little troll replied shyly "are you Princess Poppy's daddy?"

King Peppy smiled slightly and nodded "I am," he replied turning his head to face the young troll. He noticed right away that she was grey "What happened to your colors?" he asked.

Roselyn hung her head "I'm sad," she whispered just staring at the ground.

"Why are you sad?" the king asked in a concerned tone, he did not like seeing young trolls or any trolls with their hearts broken enough to lose their colors.

"They're hurting my brother," she replied softly as a couple tears rolled down her cheeks and fell to the ground.

"Who's hurting your brother?" King Peppy asked slowly pushing himself up into a sitting position, he hated seeing her so upset.

"The queen," she replied as more tears fell down her cheeks.

"Abilene?" he questioned "Why would she do that?"

"She hates him."

King Peppy found it hard to believe that Abilene would hate anyone because she always seemed so sweet and kind hearted. Trolls were not hateful by nature yet why would a young troll make up such a thing? "Why would she hate him?" he asked trying to find out as much as he could.

"B..because," she explained "he's grey and she don't like grey trolls, she says they are not allowed anywhere. Then the green nasty troll is having so fun hurting my big brother."

"What do you mean by hurting?" he asked.

Roselyn shook her head too upset to explain what was happening to her brother. However, King Peppy could tell by her body language that whatever it was it was bad and that was why it so upsetting for a young child.

"Come here," King Peppy softly said gesturing for her to come closer which she slowly did. "Tell me everything," he told her.

Roselyn nodded before going into complete detail about what had happened, and it soon became very clear to Peppy that he had stop what Abilene was planning on doing. He could not believe that she was willing to destroy an innocent troll just because his colors were not bright like every other troll in the kingdom. King Peppy knew that a troll only turned grey when they were completely heart broken. When he lost his wife his colors faded away with her, he thought that he would never regain them again but the love from his daughter helped him to get through and he got them back.

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"You let her get away!" Spruce hissed when his sidekick returned without the young troll.

"I lost her," the troll mumbled before focusing his attention onto the injured grey troll that could hardly hold up his own weight "it wasn't my fault, she had that sneaky son of a troll teach her his sneaky ways."

Spruce's eyes narrowed as he continued to stare at his friend, the green troll could feel his anger slowly building up on the inside. "I just don't see how you could let her get away, her legs are short."

"Just because she is short that doesn't mean that she isn't not fast," the other troll suggested.

"Shut it Granite!" Spruce snapped.

As much pain that Branch was in he couldn't help but to get a small smile on his face knowing that Roselyn managed to escape. "You think it's funny?" the troll that had chased after Roselyn asked when he noticed Branch's smile.

Spruce turned his attention back on the grey troll "You must like feeling pain," he smirked before grabbing a hold of Branch's vest and pulling him forward.

"SPRUCE!" Lady Abilene voice rang from the doorway "Leave him be."

"But Auntie," Spruce whined "You said that he should be punished."

"True," she replied calmly gracefully entering the cell and walking over to her nephew "but now is not the time."

"When then?" he asked using all his strength to shove Branch back to the ground hard "You're the one that said to never show a troll like him any mercy."

Lady Abilene looked down at the trembling grey troll and as she noticed the vast number of cuts and bruises that covered him caused by her nephew and a smile crept across her thin lips. "You look like you're in a lot of pain," she said kneeling down beside Branch, she felt so powerful seeing how much this troll feared her. Her eyes scanned every dark mark on his skin until her eyes stopped on the dried blood on the side of his face. "You deserve every one of these marks," she said coldly "you know that right?"

Branch wanted to argue back but chose to agree with her instead "Yes," he whispered.

"You knew the laws, yet you chose to ignore them," she said sternly raising her hand up ready to strike "and if you think that you are in pain now just wait. This is only the beginning and you will get everything that is coming to you." She brought her hand down only to stop inches from making contact causing Branch to flinch away. Instead she stood up straight and turned back to her nephew and his friends "Get the Growl beasts ready, I am sure they are hungry."

"Growl beasts," Spruce repeated with disappointment "why them?"

"Because I said so!" she snapped "Now go!"

Spruce's two friends took off leaving their leader with his aunt "Come Spruce," she said walking towards the door "leave this pathetic troll for now."

The green troll reluctantly started to follow her out of the cell but stopped suddenly, he did not like being told what to do. Lady Abilene turned back to her nephew and glared at him until he gave in and followed her out of the cell. Once they were gone Branch looked over at the tiny hole in the wall where Roselyn hand had been earlier, he felt a deep sadness come over him knowing that he was alone. He had not felt this way since the day his mother and grandma were taken from him. Though he was happy she escaped he hated being all alone but at least she was safe. His body was sore and weak from Spruce and his friends and every breath that he took was just as painful as the last one. He tried to use all the strength that he had left to try and sit up, but his arms gave out from not being able to support his weight and he collapsed. He felt a sudden chill come over him when he thought about Abilene planned on doing with the growl beasts, Branch had never seen one in person, but his mother always told him that they were nasty creatures that loved eating trolls or anything that moved for that matter. His mother would describe them as big balls of hair with razor sharp teeth and claws. Trolls that went up against them stood little chance of surviving and the shape that he was in he would put up little to no fight, making him an easy meal. The more he thought about the beasts the more his heart sank when he realized that this must have been his family's fate after they were taken away from him.

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Poppy had finally found object that she hopped was small enough to fit into the lock, she held her breath as slowly brought it up to the lock and when it fit perfectly she let out a sigh of relief. She jiggled the object around in the lock until she heard it click… "Yes!" she breathed happily but her happiness quickly faded when she saw that she was not the one who unlocked the door.

"What do you want?" she asked through gritted teeth and stepping as far away from the door as possible.

Spruce smiled as he entered her room "So a little birdy told me that you don't like to be around me and that you prefer the company of that freaky outcast."

"Yeah, so what if I do?" Poppy replied folding her arms across her chest.

"How long have been sneaking around behind our backs?" he asked as his eye began to twitch "Do you like him?"

"That is none of your concern!" she spat back.

"Ah..hello," he replied taking a hold of her hand and squeezing it tightly "your hand is promised to me remember? So technically it this my concern."

Poppy game him the dirtiest look "I will never marry you!" she hissed trying to pull her hand away but Spruce just held on "Even if you were the last troll on the planet."

The green troll tried to act like her words did not bother him "I am ignoring what you said because of how upset you are right now." He then brought his free hand up to try to caress her cheek, but she moved out of the way just in time. With his hand that close to her face she noticed that his knuckles were bruising up. "Why do you like that monster over me?" he asked in a demanding tone.

"He's not that one who is a monster," she whispered back trying her best to hide her quivering lip and the tears that slowly slid down her cheeks. She knew why Spruce's knuckles were bruised the way that they were, and it upset her.

Spruce squeezed Poppy's hand even tighter causing her to cry out in pain "You're angry and you need time, but don't you worry my love, it will all be over soon."

Poppy finally managed to free herself from Spruce's grasp and she took as many steps away from as she could. The very thought of him made her feel sick, this troll and her step-mother were crazy. "I can't wait until tomorrow when your grey friend goes up against the growl beasts." He said with smirk "And he's in no condition protect himself for very long."

"Growl beasts?" Poppy repeated.

"Yep," he replied happily "and they are hungry, it's been awhile since they had a tasty treat."

"I'm not going to let that happen!" she snapped "I will find a way to stop you!"

Spruce just laughed it off "And how are you planning on doing that?"

"When my father hears about this…." She began saying but Spruce cut her off "Your father is too weak to even get out of bed thanks to my Aunt Abilene and her special formula that she has been giving him for years."

"Your aunt?" Poppy asked in total surprise "Wait, she's been keeping my father sick all this time?"

"Well, yeah." Spruce shrugged "I mean why else hasn't Dr. Plum been able to find a cure for him."

Before Poppy could stop herself, she had used her hair to wrap around Spruce's neck. "ENOUGH!" Abilene shouted as she grabbed the young princess and shoved her back.

"Don't touch me!" Poppy snapped "You've been poisoning my father all these years."

"I hate for you to find out this way Poppet, but I had to do what was necessary to get my revenge." Lady Abilene said calm sweet tone.

"Revenge for what?" Poppy asked glaring up at her step-mother.

"Well," the older troll said just as calm even tone "it all started years ago when I was about your age or maybe a little older. Dahlia my supposedly best friend had suffered a great loss and lost her colors, I tried everything to make her happy but nothing and she remained that awful grey color." Lady Abilene paused a moment before continuing with her story "It was no secret that I had the biggest crush on Prince Peppy and I told Dahlia about my feelings. She encouraged me to go talk to him and I did but to my surprise he seemed more interested in her instead of me. I had to watch their relationship grow and grow until one day she regained her colors and Prince Peppy asked her to marry him. She was living the life I wanted and when it was announced that our new princess was born I used that as my opportunity to get what I always knew what was mine. I pretended to be her friend all the while slowly adding things to her tea."

Poppy could not believe what she was hearing, Lady Abilene was the reason she no longer had a mother. "You poisoned my mother?" she whispered "What about all the times I drank tea with you? Were you poisoning me as well?"

Lady Abilene shook her head "I would never do that to you, but your father should never had fallen in love with a grey troll over me."

"So that why you don't like grey trolls?" Poppy asked feeling her anger and sadness beginning to overwhelm her. "Because of that reason?"

"NO!" Abilene snapped "I hate grey trolls because they are unpredictable and will stab you in the back if given the chance."

"Branch isn't like that!" Poppy snapped "He's good and kind hearted and he doesn't deserve to die."

"Oh, but he does deserve to die," she replied with a nod "you see he knew the laws and he broke them. And now he will pay dearly for what he has done."

Poppy opened her mouth to say something, but she could not find the right words to say. In a way what was happening to Branch was her fault because she insisted on being his friend even after he warned. She should have listened to him about her step-mother. She just couldn't lose him he meant so much to her. With Poppy deep in thought Abilene and Spruce left her locked in her room until tomorrow when they would get her to force to watch her friend be destroyed in front of her eyes…

Meanwhile Roselyn watched as King Peppy tried his best to regain the strength he needed to even stand up..."Please," she said in her head...