Chapter 28

Not sure what the giant thing was, Creek grabbed Poppy and pulled her closer, backing away with her. He was mildly surprised to see Hefty backing up as well, trying to keep himself between Gargamel and the Trolls.

"Now, now, do you really think you can outrun me?" asked Gargamel, who then suggested to Azrael, "Or him?"

Growling low in his throat, Azrael started towards them, low to the ground.

Looking around, Creek saw they were close enough to a tree to reach with their hair. He spoke softly, "Poppy," and nodded his head towards Hefty.

Understanding, Poppy nodded in return.

Quickly, Creek launched his hair upward, grabbing the lowest branch. At the same time Poppy grabbed Hefty, pulling him closer and securing him with her hair. Before the Smurf could question it, Creek pulled the three of them upward as fast as he could, just missing being pounced by the orange beast.

"What the deuce?" exclaimed Gargamel. "How did they do that?!"

Once high enough, Creek swung them up into the branches and out of sight.

Gargamel shouted, "Azrael, get up there and get them!"

Azrael meowed and licked his paws.

"What do you mean you can't get up there, you're a cat!" seethed Gargamel.

"Cat?" Creek whispered. "That's the thing that hurt you and tried to kill Branch?"

"Yes," Poppy nodded, holding onto Hefty's arm fearfully, hair still wrapped around his middle. "It was horrible…"

Frowning, Creek moved away from them towards the edge.

"Creek," Hefty hissed. "Get back here!"

Not listening, Creek peeked over the edge.

A rock flew by Creek's head and, in his knee jerk response to jerk away from it, Creek overcompensated and fell back on the other side of the branch.

"Creek!" shouted Poppy, trying to move after him, but Hefty held her back.

Gargamel caught Creek and quickly wrapped his fingers around him to keep him from escaping, "Well, looks like it's my lucky day after all." He looked up into the tree. "Hey pink creature, want to come save you friend?"

"Don't do it Poppy," shouted Creek. "And don't you let her Smurf!"

"Quiet you," said Gargamel, squeezing his hand.

Creek shouted in pain, writhing about in his grip.

Up in the tree, Poppy struggled, crying, but Hefty wouldn't let her go, "Hefty please, please, Hefty, let go, please; Gargamel is hurting him!"

"I'm sorry Poppy," said Hefty, trying not to feel bad as Poppy cried harder and started to hit him but failed miserably.

Gargamel eased his grip, leaving Creek gasping, and looked into the tree again, "I guess it's not a day for heroics after all. Come Azrael, let's go figure out what this thing is."

Azrael meowed in reply and Hefty didn't let go of Poppy until he could no longer hear them but she only started to hit him harder.

"How could you? How could you?" Poppy sobbed. "He's no threat to you! He said he wasn't going to tell Branch! You said you didn't hate him! Why? Why did you let that monster take him?"

"Poppy," Hefty didn't fight against Poppy's repeated blows, "Gargamel is much bigger than us, there wasn't much I could do." He turned and took Poppy by the shoulders, forcing her to stop hitting him. "Listen to me; go back to my village and grab Brainy, he can pick locks. I'll meet you there."

"W-where," stammered Poppy.

"Gargamel's lair," said Hefty, "We're rescuing that jerk."

Poppy sniffled but smiled, hugging him, "Thank you Hefty. I'm sorry I doubted you."

"All things considered I can't blame you," said Hefty, hugging her back. "Though I hope someday you'll have more faith in me."

"I'll try," Poppy slowly pulled back, "And you have to admit I have some faith; I helped you woo my best friend after all." She stood, "Now let's go save our friend."

"Ah, your friend," Hefty stood.

"Our friend, don't fight it," said Poppy, grabbing Hefty and using her hair to get them back to the ground.

Laying on his back in the cage, Creek kept his arms over his torso. His ribs were possibly broken, maybe just bruised, from the giants squeeze and everything just hurt. He tried to mediate to ease the pain but the giant wouldn't stop talking and he could do little more than concentrate on softening his breathing to keep from expanding his chest too much.

"Where is Smurf Village?" Gargamel demanded again.

"For the tenth time, I don't know," Creek groaned. "I have never been there and I never want to go; I hear its quite dull."

"What are you?" Gargamel tried a different question.

"In horrid pain you brute," said Creek, wincing when the giant shook his cage.

"Tell me what you are," said Gargamel.

"Disgusted by your breath," Creek barely managed to lift his head to look at the giant thing, noting with some pleasure that the oaf actually straightened and breathed into his hand to check, wincing at it himself.

Shrugging, Gargamel loomed over the cage, "What species are you?"

"Fairy," Creek lied. "Lost my wings in a poker game."

"Bah," Gargamel smacked the cage. "I'll figure it out myself." He moved away from the cage to go look over his books, Azrael following.

Managing to move his head a bit, Creek looked at the cage door. The giant hadn't bothered to put the lock on it when he saw how much pain Creek was in, barely able to roll onto his back when he was tossed inside. If only Creek could move, he could walk right out while the giant and his beast were distracted but his head was beginning to swim and he wanted so desperately just to sleep.

"Don't you dare close your eyes," a voice harshly whispered and Creek jerked with a hiss, opening his eyes to see Branch's Smurf standing above him.

"What are you doing here?" whispered Creek.

"What do you think?" Hefty rolled his eyes as he bent down, "Rescuing you."

"No," Creek barely managed to lift an arm to swat at him, "Rather die."

"Look, Poppy is on her way here with Brainy so either you shut up and get with the program now or she's going to put herself in danger for you," whispered Hefty. "So, what is it going to be?"

Creek sighed, "I hate you."

"I'm taking that as a 'rescue me' hatred," Hefty lifted Creek up at carefully as he could.

Creek hissed, clutching Hefty's shoulder in spite of himself.

"Sorry," Hefty truly sounded apologetic. "I'll have you out of here soon."

Stepping out of the cage was easy but climbing down the table was hard and awkward. Several times, Creek would hiss and clutch onto Hefty, trying not to shout out in pain. A couple times tears would form in the corners of the Trolls eyes but he refused to cry.

They were almost out when the cat door squeaked, getting Azrael's attention.

"Oh Smurf," Hefty cursed and forced their way out of the cat door, hearing Azrael hiss from inside as he broke into a run.

His entire body clenching, Creek fought against the urge to pass out and looked ahead of them. He spotted the bridge he got an idea. An idea he really hated but it was probably their best bet to get out of this.

"Smurf," Creek spoke a loud as he could through the pain, "Don't go over the bridge. Hold on tight and jump off to the side of it."

"What?!" Hefty barely glanced at him to concentrate on running.

"Just do it," Creek seethed.

"Fine but if this is a murder-suicide, I'm haunting your ghost," shouted Hefty.

"That doesn't even make sense you nitwit," mumbled Creek.

Hefty got a running jump off the cliff next to the bridge, shouting even though he knew it was coming.

Creek stretched out his hair, grabbing onto the bridge as far forward as he could. He winced at Hefty's weight holding onto him but swung them both forward and over to the other side of the cliff, giving them a great distance advantage over Azrael.

Unfortunately, the landing was a bit rough, even though Hefty curled up and took most of the hit when they collided with the ground.

"Hefty!" Clumsy ran towards them.

"That was amazing," gushed Brainy.

"Hefty, are you alright?" asked Smurfette.

"Creek, speak to me," pleaded Poppy.

"Hello," Creek weakly coughed out.

Hefty got to his feet, picking Creek up again as he stood. "Run back, we got a head start on Azrael but he's still coming and Monty might not be far behind either!"

There was movement but Creek's head was swimming too much to focus anymore. He slumped against Hefty and passed out from the pain.

When Creek woke up he was in bed but not his bed. He was still in pain but it was much milder and his torso was bandaged up.

"You're awake," commented Hefty, closing his book.

"You can read," murmured Creek.

Hefty rolled his eyes, "I'm letting that one pass since I want to thank you."

"No, you're confused, you saved my life, I should be thanking you," said Creek.

"You saved both of us with that trick at the bridge," said Hefty, "But that's not I wanted to thank you for. I wanted to thank you for not telling Gargamel where to find our village."

"Nothing to tell, I've never been," said Creek, pausing to look around, "Until now I suppose."

"Yes, but you knew how to get here, Poppy told you and you were waiting outside the entrance," commented Hefty.

Tilting his head, Creek managed a half shrug, and closed his eyes again, "I'm an excellent liar; years of practice."

Making an acknowledging noise, Hefty fiddled with his book, "Can I ask you a personal question?"

"Yes, but I don't promise an answer," said Creek, keeping his eyes closed.

"Why aren't you gray?" asked Hefty.

At first the question didn't make sense, then Creek's fuzzy brain reminded him that the Smurf knew all about Creek's feelings for Branch and the misery associated with them. He kept his eyes closed as he answered, "Happiness is a state of mind. Meditation, yoga; they're great ways to trick oneself into feeling like you're more balanced then you are. And though my affection is unrequited I do have things that make me happy, such as Poppy; regular ball of good karma and positivity she is."

There was movement and suddenly there was a weight on the bed next to Creek, arms wrapping to gently hug his arm. Really, he should have looked around more before open his mouth but he was so tired.

"Hello Poppy," murmured Creek.

"I'm so sorry Creek," sniffled Poppy.

"Nothing to apologize for love, I'll be fine," Creek turned his head and kissed her forehead without opening his eyes. "Do you mind if I go back to sleep? I can't seem to stay focused right now."

Creek could feel Poppy shake her head, "You sleep Creek, I'll be right here."

Sighing, Creek was vaguely aware of Poppy sitting up and starting to stroke over his hair as he fell back asleep.

Poppy used one hand to wipe at her eyes and kept stroking Creek's hair with the other, "I'm not sure what we're going to do."

Setting his book to the side, Hefty rested his head on his hand, "Me neither."

"I had no clue Creek felt this way," sighed Poppy. "I'm such a bad friend."

"No one had a clue, Poppy, you can't blame yourself," said Hefty.

"Watch me," spat Poppy, then took in a deep breath, "Sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you. I'm just really frustrated right now."

Hefty nodded in understanding but continued on, "We can't tell Branch. Creek doesn't want Branch to know and it would just make things awkward between them if we did."

"I hate that you're making sense," pouted Poppy. "I don't want to start shoving random Trolls at Creek but I don't know what to do to help him move pass this. And, really, I think Creek already tried that with all the Trolls he's dated."

"Maybe this is something we just need to let take the natural course?' asked Hefty.

"Nope, keep thinking," Poppy insisted.

Hefty sighed and thought but his thoughts were distracted by a familiar sound only he could hear. Not even Poppy responded when Hefty could hear it clear as day.

Branch was singing.