A little known fact of the great king Peppy, he's directionally challenged. It's why he would make guards follow him everywhere, or keep his direction genius of a wife next to him at all times. Now that she's gone, and the guards are split up into different sectors to protect the trolls, Peppy has no idea where he's going. He runs down a split in the tunnels to a dead end, then another into a caved in section of the tunnels. The day and a half trip through the tunnels and out into the wilderness, has now taken three days, and everyone is feeling the effects.
Provisions running low, and moral running lower, the large group takes another break just twenty minutes after they had started to run again. Branch's foot has been long healed, due to the ability to not have to use it that much, but Doc sticks close by his side, making sure to brace Branch in case he trips or stumbles. The snack pack have been traveling along side the pair for two days, as their parents have found there's no better place for their children to be than with an overprotective parent figure. They sleep in a large pile together, and play the day away during the breaks between running.
"What!?" A large voice screams through the tunnels in a thunderous voice so loud the young trollings have to cover their ears.
"Oh no…" Doc sighs as he stands up.
Without an exchange, Doc offers a hand to Branch, which helps him to his feet. The two begin to walk in the direction of the shout, the snack pack following closely behind, hiding behind Doc, while passing trolls who talk amongst themselves. Creeping closer and closer to the front of the line, they see the source of the loud, and very angry voice.
A panicked purple troll holds tight to a lighter green troll with white hair, like Doc's, who's slowly but surely taking steps towards a fearful king. Doc groans and hands Branch over to the snack pack, before sprinting at full speed into the light green troll. The two collapsed on the ground before quickly getting to their feet and staring each other down.
"Ash, calm down!" Plum says as she tries once again to force the light green troll away from the dark green one.
"I won't calm down until this dork admits that he needs our help!" The light green troll yells to no one in particular. Doc sighs.
"Sire, what did you do this time?" Doc asks as he pinches the crest between his eyes.
"I'll be more than happy to tell you!" Ash screams while fighting, not hard, against Dr. Plums grip around his waist," For some reason we've let this idiotic directionally inept king of our take the lead through tunnels infested by centipedes, spiders and dung beetles, which was fine due to the presence of bug whispers among the trolls. Then through a section that was partially underwater, leaving about ten trolls sik with a mild cold, and they're still forced run away from the burgens. Then, to top off the cake with a candy cane shaped pile of ash berries, he took us through a collapsing section of tunnel, leaving one of the scouts near the back with a crippled leg from a boulder that fell on top of him. Now he's struggling in the back, hoping we get out soon, but with all the back tracking we've done I'd say we haven't gotten a mile away from bugrentown. All because he wanted to lead us, when he should have left it to the troll scouts he sent out in the first place. I mean he sent out three through a small gap when he first found these tunnels, so they know them, but only the burgens know why we let him come this far. We're running out of food, water and medical supplies, all because of his absolute incompetence when trying to find the way to go!"
Ash breathes deeply, trying to get breath in after the long rant. He looks at his brother, Spruce, hoping for some kind of sympathy from his kin. Spruce sighs, pats Ash on the shoulder, then turns to look at King Peppy, who's slack jawed at the younger doctors words. Spruce opens his mouth to speak, but words can't seem to come out. He presses his hands on his temples, trying to contain his anger for his younger brother and best friend for their petty argument.
"King Peppy's trying his best." Branch says, appearing in front of the four adults, with the snack pack behind him nodding in agreement," Sure he gets lost going to the bathroom, but it's all our faults as much as his for not putting someone near him to guide us."
"If you're so heated about this, Doctor Ash, then why didn't you, Doctor Plum, Doctor Spruce or one of those troll scouts come and help to guide him instead of letting him lead everyone?" Creek chimes in, taking the space next to Branch," Personally, I believe everyone shares blame, but it's not fair for you to be the one so up in arms about this."
"If we're so low on supplies, then how about we continue going towards the exit instead of bickering like children." Branch says, not allowing the adults to retort," Even the other adults are getting restless watching their leaders argue so heavily in front of them."
The four adults look over to the other trolls who keep glancing worriedly in different directions to avoid the line of sight of the four important trolls. The four then glace around to each other, worry now on their faces. King Peppy clears his throat, calling attention to himself, before outstretching his hand to Ash.
"Your right, Ash." King Peppy says with a smile," It was irresponsible of me to try and lead the trolls by myself. I've made everyone suffer under my want to keep them safe. You're right, I'm not good with directions, so why don't we help each other?"
Ash laughs and gently pats Plums hands, making her release him. He walks over to the king. Ash firmly grabs the king's hand, shakes it twice, before pulling him close and giving the king a hug. Peppy laughs and hugs the troll back.
"That's all you had to say, old man." Ash laughs as he releases.
"Who're you calling old?" Peppy laughs.
Ash looks over to Branch, smiling. He reaches down and rubs the gray trolls head with a large grin. He also pats Creeks head and gives a small laugh.
"Thanks for the words of encouragement, little tree." Ash says with a warm smile,' I was really losing my cool, but you brought me back to reality. You're awesome."
"Creek helped me alot too." Branch says nudging the purple troll," If he hadn't chimed in I would've stuttered and you would probably go back to fighting the king."
"Id that so?" Ash says with a large smile," Well then, you're awesome too, Creek. You're both great for helping us to make up."
"As long as we get out of these tunnels, then I'll be happy." Creek says with a laugh.
Ash walks away to Peppy's side. Peppy yells for the trolls to start again. Everyone begins to run forwards. Creek runs by Branch's side instead of Doc, who's farther up to make sure the king and the younger doctor don't get into another fight. As they run, Creek let's out a little snicker, making Branch look at him.
"What?" Branch asks, nudging Creek to make him talk.
"'Little tree'?" Creek asks with a laugh," What's that supposed to mean?"
"O...oh, um." Branch says, a small blush coming to his gray cheeks," Ash has been calling me that since I was little, because he thinks of me as part of the tree family. Spruce and Ash think of me as their little brother, so my name 'Branch' became a source of inspiration, because if you plant a branch in the ground it can grow into something as wonderful as the Troll Tree."
"That's...not what I expected for some reason." Creek says with a sheepish laugh.
"It's really a weird name, but for some reason I feel at ease when he talks to me like that." Branch says with a sad smile," It's like I still have sort of family with me, but that feeling doesn't last forever."
Creek wants to pry further into the meaning of the vague statement, but he feels in his gut that if he asks Branch won't open up to him anymore. Instead he silently nods in agreement as they run together in a tight bundle.
Everyone runs, panting almost in harmony. Someone starts to sing a motivational song, that many of the others chim into. Branch continues to run while listening, content and hopeful that they'll reach the exit soon. The song ends and everyone continues to run.
"Here comes Poppy!" A troll yells from behind.
Branch turns his head to see the small pink troll being passed up the line of trolls until it reaches Peppy. Branch lets out a small laugh, he thinks how maybe he should've been the one to keep ahold of her. Peppy stops running to look at the little princess, and Branch's heart hurts.
The loving expression, pure care in Peppy's voice, and even the care in which he holds the small child causes Branch's stomach to turn. He'll never have that, anyone who'd look at him genuinely like that is long gone. Doc and Ash, even Plum, could try their best to fake it, but when they have their own children he knows they'll only use that expression for them. These toxic thoughts take up all of Branch's brain power, he barely recognizes when Peppy breaks to running to the back. He notices at the last second, and slows to a stop, causing the snack pack to slam into his backpack, knocking him over and taking the air out of his lungs.
"Branch, why'd you stop?" Chenille says rubbing her scraped knee and looking over at her sister doing the same.
"You guys keep running ahead." Branch says as he pulls himself out of the pile," I think I dropped something a ways back. I'm going to go see if I can find it quickly."
Hesitantly, the group looks to each other, then to Branch with a worried expression. Branch smiles at the group, and they sigh, silently nodding and taking off once more as a pack forwards.
"We'll wait for you at the end!" Biggie yells back," Don't go getting hurt again."
"I won't, thanks." Branch says quietly waving at the group, before turning and focusing on the small bob of hair in the distance.
In and instant he's off to find where the king is going. He's not going to lose another important person to him, that's for sure.
When Peppy was told some trolls couldn't keep up, the only thing running through his head was that he wasn't going to lose another troll today. He puts Poppy in his hair and sprints to the back, placing whatever article of clothing on puddles for trolls to run on so they don't wet their feet and get rid of their naturally stick, due to the large cliff coming up they'd need to run up.
As he runs to the back of the line, the first pickaxe crashes through the tunnels. Large rocks fly towards running trolls, Peppy extends his hair to stop the impact. Soon another and another. The bergens had began to look for them. Time is running out, but they're so close to the exit. He reaches the end of the trolls, he picks up the purple troll who'd been crippled by a boulder earlier, and picks him up onto his back.
"King Peppy, forget about me." The troll says with bitter tears in his eyes from pain and fear for the king.
"When I say no troll left behind I mean…" Peppy says as he takes off into a sprint," No troll left behind!"
He starts running up from the back, picking up any troll who's running slowly onto his back. Near the large cliff he knows he's about to face, the has a large ball of trolls on his back, all happy they're not forgotten. Then the pickaxe strikes down, catching PEppy by his underwear. He tries to run, but he can't seem to get anywhere. He sees another pickaxe start to come down in the middle of the tunnel in front of him, so he does the only reasonable thing he can think of.
He throws the ball of trolls forwards, narrowly missing the pickaxe.
As the ball rolls under the impact, some trolls spot a small bluish blur slide under them. Peppy still tired to run forwards, trying to get free of the pickaxe. The blade begins to move up, take the underwear and king with it. Peppy freezes, unsure of what's about to happen to himself and the small princess in his hair.
Suddenly, in the corner of his eye, a small small figure jumps up and slices the elastic of the underwear, whiping its hair at the king forcing him to tumble backwards over the pile of rocks where the other pickaxe had already been picked up from. The king looks up to see a burgen begin to place it's eye next to the hole.
Quickly the king covers himself in his hair, coloring it the same color as the surrounding rocks and dirt. While covered by his hair he looks around for his savior, but can't seem to see anything. 'It was probably a centipede', he tries to convince himself. Once the burgen retreats, the troll king brings his hair back and sprints at full speed towards the exit. Once he sees the light at the end of the tunnel, and hears the quiet whispers of the trolls he emerges slowly.
"When I say no troll left behind." He says with a loud shout," I mean no troll left behind!"
The trolls all cheer with elation.
"King Peppy where's princess Poppy?" A small trolling asks.
"Right here." He says with a smile, pulling the small princess out of his hair.
"No troll left behind!" Poppy says raising her hands like her father.
Everyone 'awwws' together. Peppy smiles at his daughter, who's just learned how to talk. He suddenly remembers the burgens and begins to shoo everyone forwards.
"We're safe for now, but we'll be safer when we're far from burgentown." PEppy says, making the crowd move forwards.
More reluctant to go forwards is the snack pack, who try and stay still against adults pushing them. Their eyes all fixated on the hole they'd emerged out of. There was no fork in the path on the way out, and Peppy would've noticed Branch and helped him out. The trollings all began to try and think of a reason why their friend hadn't emerged yet.
"What's wrong little one's, we need to move." Peppy says, reaching them and trying to move them forwards.
"We aren't going yet." Yuki says, forcing her hair to stick to the ground," Not until Branch comes out."
"What?" Peppy says in horror looking to the cave.
"That's right." Satin and Chenille say, sticking their loop to the ground around them.
The others follow suit, then sit on the ground with their hair covering them and camouflaging to the grass under them, so they won't get spotted. Peppy's breath can't seem to come out due to his shock.
'That blur...it couldn't be…' he thinks to himself.
Branch had discovered on the second day of running that his fall had shattered the glass in the picture frame of his whole family together. Ten pieces of broken glass made their home at the bottom of his pack. He picked one out and put it in one of his inner pockets on his favorite passed down vest from his father. It was a good thing he did.
As he ran back to the king, pickaxes started to smash into the ground around the trolls. Everyone narrowly avoids the rubble from the axes, and the large burgen fingers that pry into the holes. Branch's heart races so fast, he thinks it's stopped beating for a while. Dodgine rocks left and right, he jumps and runs past others, pushing them out of the way of projectiles.
Finally he sees the king, right in time to see the axe get his underwear. Fear and determination take over every aspect of his mind as he sprints forwards, ignoring the ache in his leg from the previous injury. A large ball of trolls appears above him, but he doesn't give it any mind. Time slows down.
The pickaxe lifts so slowly in Branch's vision, Peppy's feet are no longer on the ground. Branch jumps into the air, taking out the horribly sharp piece of glass from his pocket, slashing Peppy's underwear in mid air, while whiping his head, extending his hair and pushing the king as far away from the pickaxe as his small bodies strength could handle.
Branch lands with one leg slamming into the ground, his hand holding the glass slightly cutting his chest from impacting there, and his head face planting onto the rocky ground before rolling and hitting the wall with so much force, every ounce of air in his lungs is thrown out of his body. Everything hurts horribly, but he also has enough sense left to throw his hair over himself to quickly camouflage himself into the background.
He looks up to the hole where Peppy was being raised out of, to see a familiar eye looking almost directly into Branch's eyes. The eye of the burgen woman who had picked him up previously, looks around, large red vessels in her eyes for concentration, making the sight even more terrifying for the five year old.
After an eternity, she scoffs and retreats. Branch brings his hair back, just in time for him to vomit in front of him. Maybe it was the fear, maybe the impact of the wall, or the sudden absence of adrenaline in his body, but all of it was expelling itself from Branch's body with forcing retching and vomiting. After a couple minutes, until his stomach is completely empty, he shakilly stands up. The light from the hols guiding him.
The light disappears and the large eye is back again. In a flash Branch barely puts his hair around him again.
"I heard it!" The woman yells," I heard a troll! It's in here somewhere! Listen."
Branch covers his mouth and stops breathing. It becomes dead quiet. He's sure his heart is going to give him away. The eye doesn't leave for some time, waiting for the little troll to make one wrong move. His legs shake so heavily under his weight, it takes all his willpower to not fall to his knees, alerting the threat to his presence. His whole being is nothing but fear, of what'll happen to him if they see him, if today is going to be the day he'll meet his mom and dad again in the After (afterlife for trolls).
After another while, Brach feels he's turning blue from no oxygen getting into his lungs, and the burgen leaves the hole. He moves slowly, slowly taking up air into his lung, only for the eye to appear again. This happens several times, until the eye disappears and doesn't reappear for a while. Branch takes the opportunity and sprints away. He feels the ground shake, the turns his head to see and arm coming for him, a large purple hand.
Sobbing he sprints as hard as he can, far past the extent of the hand, and straight up the cliff. At the top, the hand starts coming down from a hole above him.
"No!" He screams, slashing the glass in his hand upwards, creating a nasty gash in the hand of the burgen.
He uses the opportunity to escape and run to the end of the tunnel. Tears streaking his face making the light distorted and dizzying he bursts out of the cave, only to find no trolls waiting for him. He's alone, the worst feeling he's felt in a while. It takes all he an not to scream, fearful of the purple burgen he's sure is still after him.
He sprints in the direction of a few muddy tracks he hopes are troll tracks. He keeps running, not sure of where he's going, just fueled by fear and pain. He's suddenly tackled to the ground from the back, and he can only assume it's the burgen. He screams, a guttural and blood-curdling screech.
"I don't wanna die!" He screams out, closing his eyes fiercely.
"Branch!" Peppy's voice splits the air around Branch, and he looks up with tearful eyes.
The king picks up the sobbing troll and hugs him tightly. Branch looks behind him to see the snack pack, all worried and with horrified on their faced at the sight of their friend. As the tears fall, Branch looks around further and sees the trolls of the troll tree emerging from the woods, whispering to each other as they look at the small troll shaking uncontrollably in Peppy's arms.
Another suddenly wraps his arms around Branch, and another. They squeeze him tightly, trembling to an extent Branch can feel it's separated from his own vibrations. His eyes clear to see the doctor brother hugging him tightly in place of Peppy. Ash biting his bottom lip to the point that blood is dripping down his chin, Spruce, deadeye just staring in the distance, but maintaining a death-grip on Branch's side.
Time seems to freeze for everyone, until the two brothers release their grip and Branch falls limply to the ground. A stinging pain comes from his right hand, he looks down to see his grip hasn't softened on the glass, and his own blood is pouring down his hand and arm, numbing his senses.
Before anyone can speak, Doc lifts Branch up, holding him tightly with Branch's head resting on Docs shoulder, and his legs dangling below Doc's arm. Peppy knows what Doc is trying to say, that they should continue to the location of their new home. The trolls all begin to walk as their king leads them.
To lighten the mood, the snack pack shakilly sings a travel song, which the adults take up. They sing loudly, making Branch twitch uncontrollably at the prospect the burgens can hear them. Doc turns and silences the crowd with a glare that would make burgen beg for their life.
The trolls walk until nightfall, where they make a proper camp. Large huts are constructed quickly out of leaves. Doc sets down Branch, and makes a seperate hut for the two, until Ash comes over to help and expands it so it holds three trolls. No one objects.
As night takes up the sky, everyone goes into their respective huts. Silence fills the hut with the Tree brothers. Doc silently coaxes the glass out of Branch's hand, opening it slowly. Once Branch's hand is opened, Ash takes out the glass, and a large gash, still filling up with blood remains. Doc shakes, keeping tears in his eyes as he applies the gauze and bandages to the small hand.
"Branch." Ash says quietly, cutting the silence like a knife," What did you see?"
Branch looks to Ash, who's never referred to him as 'Branch' for years, and begins to tremble at his memory, flashing in his head. He starts to shake, his eyes fading to a cold glare like the one he had when they tackled him.
"Little tree…" Ash says soft, gently brushing some hair out of Branch's face.
"I'm sorry." Spruce says, shocking Ash.
"For what?" Ash asks.
"I just...I'm supposed to be there." Spruce says," I'm supposed to be Branch's adoptive father. I know I am, but when you and Pep were fighting it took me back, so I focused on you guys. Then when Peppy left, I thought I had to take control as a second-in-command. I didn't even think about Branch." Tears fall from Spruce's cold eyes and he slutches the bandages in his hand.
"Bro...it's not your fault." Ash says gently patting Spruces shoulder.
"Ash." Spruce says in a chilling tone," Branch has been through so much, I know he has. I've been there to watch him go through it. Every since Rosiepuff left us, I've been trying to watch over him from afar, but he's gone through so much pain I couldn't do anything about. He loved Joy, almost as much as he loved Rosiepuff, and to have the blow of losing her hit him so hard…"
"Spruce…"
"He's a child!" Spruce yells tears flowing down his face," I should be protecting him from this cowpatty laid path he's on. I should've followed him, gone in his place, even been by his side when he first went into the tunnel, but I haven't done any of that. I haven't been acting like a guardian, and in the week I've wanted to keep him safe he's faced more life threatening situations than when he was under either of those women's protection. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry Branch, I'm sorry."
Spruce breaks, only repeating the words sorry as he collapses into Branch's lap. Branch snaps back into reality. He looks down at the dark green troll, and gasps in fear. The color slowly starts to drain from Spruces body, the sparkles leaving his hair and his color turning so dark it's almost black. Ash gasps in shock as well.
"Doc!" Branch says squeezing Sprunce's head," Please...don't."
"Branch." Sprunce whispers.
"I went off on my own accord. I didn't tell anyone. The only reason I got hurt was because I defended myself." Branch says quickly," You have your own duties. I understand, it's the same with Peppy. I'm not expecting you to watch me twenty four seven."
"I should've stopped you." Spruce sobs.
"I saved Peppy." Branch says matter of factly, completely changing the mood of the hut.
"You what now?" Ash asks.
"I used the glass to cut his underwear and free him from a burgen pickaxe." Branch says with a breath, convincing himself that's what he actually did," I wanted to save my king and princess. I didn't get caught by a burgen, but it scared the daylights out of me. I got hurt for the sake of our kingdom, isn't that something to be proud of?"
Silence creeps in again. Without warning, Spruce jumps up and hugs Branch, color slowly returning to his body. Ash laughs as the troll hops around with the boy in his arms swinging him every which way.
"That's the best thing to be proud of." Spruce says, pulling away to look Branch in the eyes," More and more and more and more, I see you growing into a perfect picture of those before you. I know, I absolutely know that you're going to go far. You'll be an adventurer."
"A doctor." Ash laughs standing and jumping with his brother.
"A builder!"
"A survivor!"
"The right hand to the most important trolls in the kingdom."
"You may even be king." Ash says jokingly.
All the trolls laugh, falling onto the ground on the soft bed of moss. Branch, be the king? They'd never even thought of such a thing, but the idea was certainly hilarious to think about. Spruce lays Branch in between Ash and himself. They all smile.
"So, I'm guessing you fought off twenty burgens in order to keep Peppy safe, eh?" Ash says jokingly nudging Branch.
"Only twenty, I think it has to at least have been forty!" Sprunce chimes in.
"You're both wrong." Branch says.
"Oh?" the brothers say in unison.
"It was one hundred!" Branch shouts with glee.
"How could we have thought otherwise?" Spruce laughs.
Branch tells tall tales of the terrifying adventure in the caves until the three fall asleep. The brothers tightly squeeze the boy between them, creating a protective barrier so Branch can rest easy. As his eyes get weighed down from the stress of the day, Branch looks at the two who turned his fear into a happy story and can't help but feel that he's loved.
He's always been loved.