Author's Note: I haven't been writing as much as I should be but life got in the way a lot with familial issues and my job.
Like I said, I haven't been writing that much so you might notice some grammatical mistakes. I don't mind if you correct me, but be respectful.
I have resubmitted this since I found some grammatical mistakes plus I added some new things that will be good for the story.
Chapter 1: For Whom the Bell Tolls:
The sun shone over Bergen town; melting the snow and ice, indicating the end of winter and the beginning of the spring. As its rays hit the Troll tree, the trolls getting out of their pods. There was beautiful purple female troll with mint-green hair walked out of her pod and into a much bigger pod.
There were so many children in the pod, all sleeping under their blankets with their hair sticking out. The female troll walked in, checking up on the children to see how they were doing after the nightmarish winter they have endured.
She approached one of the children with short yellow hair and tried waking him up. "Come on, Tiny. Time to wake up." She gently shook the young troll, only to get no response. "Tiny, come on. It's time for breakfast." She took off the blanket, only to be greeted by a glassy-eyed wooden troll!
"Tiny!?" the purple female exclaimed.
"BERGEN ATTACK!" a small orange trolling with short blue hair jumped out of nowhere and onto Rosiepuff.
"Oh no!" Rosiepuff exclaimed dramatically; pretending to look like she was dying, earning some small laughs and snickers from unknown origins.
"Miss Rosie" the small trolling said in concern; looking the female troll's body.
"Haha!" the female troll grabbed/hugged; tickling him as they both laughed.
Suddenly a bunch of trollings came out of their hiding places laughing at Rosie and Tiny. "Those hide-and-seek games are really paying off." Rosie thought.
"This is serious, Rosie" Tiny said, sitting on top of the lilac troll's head. "What if I was a Bergen?"
"Don't worry, sweetie." She comforted. "Bergens are too big and we can hear them coming from a mile away. And if that's not enough to warn us, their smell would." Earning laughs from the last part.
*rumbling*
Rosiepuff heard a small rumbling sound and directed her attention to a younger yellow male glitter trolling, clutching his stomach.
"It's almost time for breakfast, so go clean yourselves up and I'll give you the signal to come out. Okay?" she explained, earning nods of agreement.
"Thank goodness! Winter is over and now we can eat normally. I can't keep lying to the orphans and telling them that the food they were eating the past month was not a troll."
After trying to escape, for the millionth time, the Keeper of trolls has decided to punish the trolls by giving them only one bag of food for the entire winter.
At first it wasn't that bad, but the food, despite it being well rationed by the Royal Record Keeper, Flicker, it was not enough to sustain them, especially since it's winter and the children got hungry too quickly. They however managed to survive by eating bark, dirt and snow which didn't really fill them at all and caused them illness. If they were lucky, some of the kinder bergens would throw them food but the poor giants only got scolded by the Keeper and his assistant, Cook, or get attacked by the guard alligators whenever they approached the cage.
Prince Peppy, now King Peppy, looked around the tree/cage to check on the Trolls. It has only been six months since he became king after his mother was eaten, despite being only 18, and they've lost quite the number of trolls this winter. This really saddened him, as he saw a group of trolls gathered around a bunch of bones that were being buried, with tears in their eyes and some shivering in fear at what they had to resort to during the winter.
It was supposed to be breakfast time, as the trolls waited patiently for their food to arrive or at least praying that the Keeper would have mercy on them and let them eat.
Rosiepuff walked/jumped along the branches to get down to get dibs on the food. She usually had the biggest rations since she was the caretaker of the trollings.
"Hello Rosiepuff." A soft female voice greeted; Rosie looked behind her to see a pink female with light purple hair, holding knitting needles; walking beside her was an older and bigger red female troll that had blue hair and a blue nose, and redhaired female fuzzling with yellow feet.
"Oh, hello Silky, Miss Heartful, Fuzzybelle." Rosie greeted the trio.
"Where you off to?"
"I'm hoping to get breakfast." The lilac troll said, gesturing to the ground.
"Ooooh. That sounds lovely. I hope they serve the food they gave us yesterday." Silky said, not realizing what she said, and it caused both her female friends to look at her in shock.
"Umm, Silky. The keeper didn't give us food yesterday." Rosie explained.
"Then what did we eat?" Silky asked, still not remembering what they ate. "All I remember it was quite delicious."
Both females looked at her, quietly with slacked jaws and still shocked expressions. "Ignore her, sweetie." The big red female said. "Sometimes, I wish the Bergens would experiment on her so she can be smarter."
"That's a horrible thing to say about your friend, Hearty!"
"What!? It's true." Miss Heartful countered. "It's not like these hide-and-seek skills that we're teaching the children will come in handy. The bergens know most of our tricks and there is nowhere to hide in this freaking tree!" she held out her hands in the air to gesture to their home. "Besides, she's lucky that they'd experiment on her, since they rarely eat the experimented trolls." She looked over at a big pod that housed the fuzzlings, a few glitter trolls and a bunch of weird-looking trolls that were subjected to a lot of physical and mental trauma.
DING! DING! DING!
All the trolls looked wide-eyed with horror! They knew that bell ringing all too well. It was not the Trollstice bell, but it was still terrible if not more.
"Oh no! He's coming!" King Peppy exclaimed. "Quick! Everyone, to your places! Try making it look there is a lot of us and we shall be spared!"
"You heard the King! Move it!" a green troll with yellow hair that had gray strands, indicating he is of older age, ordered, while scrambling along with them only to stop near another male troll who was making a 'dirt troll'. "Come on use more hair on that dummy, Ben!"
"Yes, Mr. Flicker!" the troll replied.
The trolls all scrambled to the front of the tree. Some used their hair to make a clone, while others used twigs and dirt with fallen hair to make a small troll look-a-like.
All of the trolls were now assembled, with the female trolls displaying their eggs in their hair.
King Peppy ran to the front of the trolls with a yellow male glitter troll with a lighter shade of yellow for hair, wearing a white lab coat and eyeglasses, on his heels.
"My king, I'm pleased to announce that this year we've got a lot of offspring." The glitter troll said.
"Glad to hear that, Sunny." Peppy said trying to be optimistic, but the look of disappointment on his face gave him away.
"Zsa Zsa and I had triplets." Sunny said, looking down, like Peppy, he was trying to hide his sadness. "Too bad I won't enjoy them for long."
"Hello." Rosiepuff greeted as she stood behind the king.
"Hello Rosiepuff. Are the children safe?" Peppy asked.
"They're fine. Their hiding skills are actually getting better, their reflexes are sharper and they're learning the knock codes quite well." Rosiepuff commented.
The Trolls' cage had opened to reveal a hulking figure with an apathic expression on its yellow eyes, looking at the trolls who were trying to hide but knew that if they did, they will be killed. The figure was known as The Keeper of Trolls by the Bergens, but by the Trolls he was known as the Monster, the worst Bergen of all.
The Keeper walked around the cage with a younger female Bergen who carried the trolls' food and two monstrous-looking alligators following him, as he checked his clipboard.
The Keeper stopped in front of a couple, who were holding hands for emotional support. One was an orange female with blue hair while the other was brown male glitter troll with beige hair. The Bergen checked his clipboard and then looked at the two with a disappointed expression.
"Marmalade!" Peppy whispered in concern to Sunny, in shock. "Sunny, why didn't you give them one of your eggs!?" he whispered again, but this time with a little frustration.
"I would have." Sunny whispered back, still looking at the poor couple. "They didn't tell me. I don't think they told anyone. We could've made them a fake one!"
Keeper looked at her, as if telepathically telling her what would happen now, and then grabbed her, forcefully.
"No! No! Please! We've tried, I swear we tried! Nuts help me!" the orange female yelled; reaching for her husband.
The brown glitter troll grabbed her with his hair, which angered the Bergen. "We really did, but we couldn't have any trollings." Nuts cried out only for his hair to be cut and kicked away by the Keeper.
"Please! Spare her! We'll be successful next time! Please!" Nuts pleaded in pain, as he reached his hand, as if he could grab his wife.
The Keeper shut the door of the cage behind him, still holding the pleading Marmalade in his hand, and Nuts looking traumatize.
Ding!
As if on cue, a bunch of gentle dings were heard from the trolls' flower bracelets, signaling that it was hug time. A few saddened trolls went over to the traumatized Nuts and hugged him, gently, as did all the trolls started to hug each other despite the look of horror on their faces.
Peppy looked highly concerned to hug anyone. Using his hair, he skillfully climbed the tree to see where that monster was taking the poor female. Upon reaching the top branch, he saw it! Keeper taking Marmalade to that place. He knew that she will come back but at a cost; all the female trolls who were taken there, came back traumatized and psychologically damaged.
"King Peppy." The orange king looked down to see Sunny on the branch beneath him. "What's the plan now?"
"We have to get out of here." Peppy replied, still looking at the place that Marmalade was taken to. "Spread the word, Sunny. Meeting at midnight in the Royal pod."
"Yes, Your Highness"
Midnight:
Upon midnight's arrival, Rosiepuff carefully got out of the orphanage, after putting the younglings to sleep, to meet two trolls. The trio carefully snuck about, using their hair to camouflage themselves; making their way towards the royal pod.
The royal pod was the biggest, big enough to hold in quite the number of trolls and was located in the farthest branch of the Troll Tree. There the three trolls stopped with Rosiepuff crouching on the branch and knocked as if he was signaling someone.
There were so many trolls in the pod; talking amongst themselves while Peppy is trying to get their attention, while Fuzzybelle kept a lookout with a kazoo in her 'mouth'.
"Alright everyone! Quiet!" Peppy ordered but no one seemed to notice. "Please, everyone! We need to get organized!" and still no response.
"PIPE DOWN!" a male voice yelled in demand, banging on the table which caught their attention. "You will show respect to your king!"
"Thank you, Flicker…" King Peppy said only to be interrupted by the green troll. "Why back during Queen Pippi's rule, we never wasted time with unnecessary chitchat! I…"
"Flicker!" Peppy yelled, grabbing Flicker's attention, "Thank you." as Peppy looked at both him and the other trolls, as if telling the older male that they heard him.
"Right!" The record keeper said; grinning in embarrassment, turning around to leave. "Carry on."
"Okay. I know our last escape attempt was… a bit of a fiasco." The orange king started; struggling to find the right words.
"A fiasco!? THAT WAS THE WORST ONE YET!" Hearty yelled.
"I KNOW! I know! But Sunny might have a solution." He then got away from the table to allow the yellow glitter troll to present his solution which was under a white blanket.
"Well, we did try digging but that didn't work since it took too much time and the bergens noticed us, so, our new plan is to fly out!" Sunny said the last part somewhat enthusiastically; making the other trolls look at him confusedly.
The yellow troll took the blanket off to show off a catapult. "This is us." He pointed to a troll doll that he made of wood. "Then wind it up and let it GO!"
Swing! Crash! Chomp!
Causing the troll doll to fly into the royal pod's wall and out of the Troll cage. All of them looked dumbfounded until they heard the alligators chomping which caused them to panic a little.
"Nice work, Sunny. You just invented Troll takeout." Hearty said sarcastically.
"Oookaayy…Anyone else has a plan? I'm pretty much open to any suggestions." Peppy announced as a cacophony of incoherent ideas erupted.
"We could make ourselves look sick!" a male troll suggested/yelled.
"We could cut the cage's bars!" a female suggested as she jumped onto the male's head.
"We could fly out!" Silky said with a grin still not realizing what has happened.
Suddenly an orange-haired fuzzling started to gurgle angrily and using his hair to mime weird gestures, which shocked the trolls whose faces were that of pure shock and horror.
"As much as I love that plan, Fluffrey. What do you think a thousand trolls can do against a thousand bergens?" Peppy asked, causing the orange haired fuzzling to gurgle grumpily. "Language!" Peppy scolded.
"Come on, everyone! Think!" Peppy exclaimed. "There must be something we haven't tried and the bergens don't know about.
"Well, we haven't tried not trying to escape." Heartful said sarcastically almost apathic.
"That might work." Silky seconded, stupidly.
"But what about Johnny?" the Troll King said, quietly; shocking many of the trolls and making them looked sadly and shamefully at him, while others tried hiding their shame by looking away but still clutched their stomachs. "Eunice, Bark, Leafy, Rainer, Sugar and all the others! How many trolls can we lose in just one winter?"
"Maybe if we didn't try escaping for the billionth time, the Keeper wouldn't've punished us like that and we'd still have everyone." Miss Heartful proclaimed almost unfeeling, but deep inside, she was hurt and sad.
"They would've died anyway" All the trolls shifted their gaze to a purple female troll. "Come next Trollstice, we'll all be honorary guests at the Bergen's feast" the purple troll looked down sadly.
"Oooh! That sounds lovely!" the pink female troll exclaimed, happily, prompting a facepalm from Miss Heartful.
"Silky you're so stupid." The big red troll grumbled under breath. "Come now, Rosiepuff, you know they won't eat you now, you still have to take care of the orphans and they know that you are too valuable." Heartful said, remembering her time as the caretaker.
"I can't believe you Trolls!" Peppy said disbelievingly as he walked staring at all the trolls who had a look of discouragement plastered on their faces. "You would rather live here and allow the bergens to do God knows what, than put in a few hours of hard labor."
"It's a living." The dimwitted Silky said.
"No, it's not!" Rosiepuff exclaimed, scaring the pink troll. "Why wouldn't you fight to the end?" The trolls looked wide-eyed at the usually calm female caretaker as she walked around; looking at everybody.
"If Trollstice is not enough of a motivation to get you to work then what about the experiments these monsters put us through!?" gesturing to the group of fuzzlings and the glitter trolls who looked scared as they remembered the horrible stories their parents and grandparents told them about their origins. One of the female glitter trolls mumbled something in a completely different language, but it was obviously traumatic.
"And the forced 'multiplication' they do when there aren't many of us to go around!?" gesturing to Marmalade, who was cradled in Nuts' arms with tears in her eyes.
Rosiepuff then looked at a couple and quietly said; "Is this the world you want your children to be hatched in?" the couple held their egg tightly, while staring at her.
"You know." All the trolls shifted their gaze back at the king. "The problem is the cage isn't out there. It's in here." Pointing to his head. "In your heads. My mother used to tell me stories of how trolls used to live." The young king's eyes turned dreamy as he pulled a very old and somewhat worn-out scrapbook with a picture of a forest that contained many different trolls, and continued. "We used to live in a place called a forest with many other trolls. We sang, we danced and lived freely for ourselves. Just imagine a place with wide open spaces and so many beautiful trees where we can rebuild our troll society, singing and dancing with our families and friends, feeling the grass between our toes and swimming in a river." The river's picture seemed to fascinate Rosiepuff.
"But who'd feed us?" an old female troll asked in concern.
"We feed ourselves." Answered the teenage king.
"Where's the town?" a male troll asked, confusedly; staring at the picture of the forest.
"There is no town."
"Then where do the Bergens live?" Silky asked while knitting.
"Oh, come on." Rosiepuff giggled at Silky. "Don't you guys see? Out there, there is no cage, no troll count, no Bergens, no guard alligators and no fences to keep us in! We can go anywhere we please and see everything!" All the trolls looked dreamily as Rosie narrated, as if trying to imagine their lives outside of this cage.
"In all my life I've never heard such a fantastic LOAD OF CUPCAKES!" Miss Heartful shouted somewhat angrily; causing everyone to gasp and bringing them back to reality.
"Hearty!" Silky said in shock of her older friend's language, even Rosie was shocked by it.
"Face the facts! The chances of us all successfully escaping this place alive are a million to one" Heartful said staring at Rosiepuff.
The purple troll however stared back, smiled and said; "Then there's still a chance." Upon saying what she wanted to say, Rosie left; leaving the trolls with a shocked yet confused looks on their faces.
"That troll has got to be the most determined fool I've ever met" Sunny whispered to Peppy.
"Yes... Thank goodness for that. I don't know if I can motivate this hopeless bunch alone." The young king whispered back, earning a nod from the yellow troll. They knew the only two ways to motivate these trolls, is through singing or by finding an adequate escape plan.
As Rosie exited the royal pod, she floated down along the tree, using her hair. Upon landing near the roots, with the smile she gave Heartful, still plastered on her face, she stares off into the cage's bars and...
*Sob!**Cry*
"Oh! Who am I kidding!?" the purple troll questioned herself, bawling her eyes out; hiding her face in her stubby hands.
"Neither Peppy nor I can motivate these bunch of hopeless…" Rosie grumbled approaching the cage bars, hitting it with all her might only to bring back her hand into her chest; cradling it in pain while seething.
*SNARL*
A monstrous figure slammed onto the cage's bars. It was Rudolf, accompanied by Brutus, the Keeper's guard alligators who have a taste for trolls as well.
The two alligators looked at Rosiepuff with a horrifying gaze, showing her their beastly teeth; telling her that the only escape was to be eaten by a Bergen or by them.
"Hahaha" a male voice laughed.
She rolled her eyes; knowing who was laughing. She turned around to see… them! The cowardly gang, which consisted of a flirtatious blue male troll with dark purple hair, named Birch, a sleepy orange male funk troll, named Stevie, who came to the Troll Tree 10 years ago and was trapped with them ever since, Weensy, the tiny teal female troll with yellow hair and a big masculine voice. The group was known as 'the Cowards' by the other trolls; as they always have kept themselves hidden during Trollstice, led by Herb, an old male lime green troll with graying purple hair.
"What's so funny, Birch?" Rosiepuff made her way towards the group with her hands on her hips.
"You!" the blue troll replied. "You guys really think you can escape this place? The bergens know all your tricks, besides wouldn't it be easier if you just left from that hole." He then gestured to a hole under the bars.
"The alligators would rip me apart before I can make it out of Bergen Town. Besides, I am not leaving everyone here." Rosie replied, determinedly.
"Hey! We do need more females in our group and you're a cutie. If you want, I might be able to let ya in our hiding spot." Birch said, flirtatiously, as he puts his arm around Rosiepuff's shoulders, only for her to get his arm off.
"You're adorable but I'd rather be eaten. At least that would be swifter."
"That can be arranged. The bergens will just eat you next year." The masculine voiced female said. "Or experiment on you." She then touched her throat which had a stitched-up scar.
"Come on! I know things are bleak, but there is a better place out there just waiting for us all. We just need to work together to find it." Rosiepuff tried to encourage them.
"Don't be stupid!" a deep male voice said. All the trolls looked towards the direction of the voice, even the normally sleepy Stevie. There approached an older, lime green troll with graying dark purple hair. Herb, the only one who survived being taken and even managed to return to the Troll Tree, was the one who hid these trolls, but he never reveals anything to the other trolls in fear of overcrowding his hiding spot. "Don't be giving these idiots any false hopes, young lady, if you know what's good for you." The older troll said condescendingly; giving her an almost threatening look.
Rosie frowned at the older male, but it wasn't long until that frown turned into a smile. She turned to the other Cowards and said; "You should've come to this meeting. Peppy showed us how the trolls of old used to live with other trolls; living so freely." She gestured to the sleepy Stevie.
"That's…not how…we*yawn*tell it." Stevie said, drowsily while still being apathic.
"Like I'm gonna listen to a guy who claimed that he came from an advanced society and yet he can't escape this place?" the lilac troll countered. "You are the worst out of all of them. You claim that you're so smart and yet you barely move! Why don't you at least try escaping? Isn't this place bad enough to get you moving? Don't you remember what they did to your sister!"
"I don't… wanna… suffer the… same fate." Stevie replied while yawning; seemingly not listening what she said.
"And what about you!?" she then stared at Herb, who still glared at her. "Why won't you help!? You actually witnessed what happened in that kitchen and yet you still refuse to help?" The angry glare on Herb's face slowly turned into that of hatred. "You saw what they did to your wife and yet you just hide!"
This angered the older troll, using his hair, he grabbed Rosie by the neck, then slammed her onto the ground a couple of times and brought her face to face with him. He continued to strangle her and glaring at her with so much malice.
"Dad!" Herb looked at Birch, who looked terrified. "Don't do anything you'll regret." The troll said trying to calm the older troll.
"Listen to me you piece of dirt!" he started with a low angry voice, only for it to be raised significantly. "Never forget this! We are dead the moment we were born here! You are dead! I am dead! Peppy is dead! Even the children you are caring for are dead!"
He threw her away, still glaring at her and then turned around to 'the Cowards'. "Come on. Let's get out of here." They all followed their leader; still looking shocked.
"If… we are..*cough* dead. Why… are you still hiding?" Rosiepuff coughed out which was heard by the lime green troll, but decided to ignore her.
The lilac female was still lying on the ground, coughing, sobbing and looking up at the starry sky with her bruised eyes; praying. "Heaven help us."
She then noticed an unusually slow shooting star, but it was suddenly getting closer.
closer…
Closer...
Closer…
"WAAAAAHHHH!" a male voice was heard screaming.
*CRASH!*
Author's Note:
Yes, I did end this chapter on a cliffhanger. I might continue if you comment. I just want see how it does with readers.
I might change the rating but I not exactly sure. I really wanted to make this fanfiction dark and gory, but I also have some comedic elements for it so I might make it a little dark but not too much, just a few scenes.
This story will contain an OC of mine.
I got inspired by Chicken Run (My favorite stopmotion animated movie of all time alongside the Corpse Bride), Secret of NIMH, Padak: Swimming to the Sea and Promised Neverland (I don't really like that anime but it has an okay concept and characters).
There are some references to Trolls: The beat goes on, if you can find it.
I actually have a theory for the fuzzlings and glitter trolls, that they're not naturally born but the bergens experimented on them to make more trolls and, unfortunately, it altered their genes greatly.