Molly knocked ten times on the door of the Red Hat factory. Pepper stood beside her unsure of where they were. Suddenly the door slid open to reveal a tall, gangly, bald man wearing a burgundy suit and a teal scarf. He had crooked teeth and a long nose. Pepper couldn't help but wrinkle her nose at the sight of him.
He straightened up and brushed his hands off on his coat, as if it would help him look better in some way, "Oh! Ms. Molly, so glad to see you. I knew it was you at the door!" He gave her a big toothy grin, not even noticing Ms. Pepper beside her.
Molly put her hands behind her back and smiled, "Oh really?" She began swaying back and forth in a flirtatious manner. Pepper watched in confusion.
The tall man nodded, "Yes, you always knock ten times." he paused, "Also you're the only person who visits us." His face fell, but quickly perked back up, forgetting the thought.
Molly giggled and continued making goo-goo eyes with him, until Pepper elbowed her in the ribs. "Ah! Oh, yes, this is my friend Ms. Pepper. Pepper, this is my very dear, close friend, Mr. Pickles."
Mr. Pickles nodded his head down at her, "It's a pleasure to meet you!" he extended a hand to shake. Pepper was about to take it when she noticed how filthy and bandaged his hands were and quickly backed away a step. "Charmed." she said sarcastically.
He slowly pulled his hand back to his side, confused with the whole situation. "Alright then… Won't you ladies come in?" he stepped aside, gesturing for them to enter. They did so, and Pepper was the least bit surprised that the building was basically a replica of what the man she just met looked like: Filthy, tall, and unpleasant to look at. It was messy like the Trubshaw's house, but in less of a homey way. It was more dirty and obviously only men lived there.
To the left of the door was a wooden table where a large man was sitting on a stool playing an accordion. "Hello!" he greeted with a shy smile to the ladies.
Molly waved to him, "Good day, Mr. Trout. This is my new friend, Ms. Pepper." Pepper waved, praying this man was nothing like the tall one.
"What can we do you for, ladies?" Pickles tried to act smooth by leaning one hand on the table. It wobbled for a moment until Mr. Trout rolled his eyes and rested his elbow on the table to balance the weight.
Molly took a step towards Mr. Pickles, "Well, Pepper here is Winifred Portley-Rind's nanny, you see, and we can't find her anywhere because she ran away because she hates Ms. Pepper."
"Gee Thanks…" Pepper mumbled.
"Herbert told us that she and Eggs were probably with the Boxtrolls today, but he wasn't sure exactly where. I thought since you men were such great Boxtroll hunters back in the day you could help us find them, or at least find one and maybe they could tell us where Winnie is!" Moly finished.
Pickles and Trout were frozen, unsure how to process the information. Pickles cleared his throat and tugged at his scarf. "You lost me at Winifred's nanny…" Mr. Trout spoke up, Pickles nodding in agreement.
"We need you to help us find some boxtrolls." Pepper stated bluntly, crossing her arms.
The two men gave each other nervous glances. Pickles fiddled with his fingers, "Well, uh, you see we don't actually- Uh, we- we're kinda rusty in the Boxtroll catching department."
Molly took another step closer towards him, "Oh, I just figured that you knew all their hiding places and where they go around town."
Pickles raised a finger a pointed out, "Things have changed now though, they got different spots now, and-"
"But you're a smart man, and we don't have many options left!" she took his hand in both of hers and batted her big green eyes. "Will you help us? Please, Monty?"
Flustered by all the touching, eyelash batting, and sweet talking, Mr. Pickles gave in, "A-Alright then. Anything for you, Ms. Molly." A big goofy grin was stuck on his face as Molly jumped up and down and thanked him. "Oh thank you, thank you, thank you!" She then wrapped her arms around him in a big bear hug. He was shocked, but not at all angry with the gesture. He took in every moment of it he could.
Pepper shuddered in disgust at the gushy display. She looked over to Mr. Trout who seemed equally disgusted with it all. At least she wasn't the only one. "Are they like this all the time?" she asked him. He nodded, "Unfortunately."
Molly released her hug and was ready to hit the road. "Come on then, we've not a moment to lose!"
Mr. Pickles was still in a daze. He stumbled on his feet for a moment, before turning to Mr. Trout, "Are you coming with us?"
The man shook his head, "I'm busy." He lifted his accordion as his example. Honestly he didn't want to go because he didn't want to deal with Molly and Pickles' nonsense. He was working on a new song however, and that was much more important.
"Alright then, shall we?" Pickles extended his arm for Molly to take. She giggled and took it without hesitation. Pepper groaned as she followed behind them. Before leaving she looked back at Mr. Trout. "Good luck." he waved. It was both in regards to her search for Winnie and having to deal with the two lovebirds. She frowned, realizing this was quite possibly the worst day of her life.
Mr. Pickles marched them all around town to all the alleys and hiding places he and the Red Hats used to track Boxtrolls to. They used to have a map back the factory that had all the locations marked in red. They didn't have it anymore considering they didn't need it, but now it would have been helpful. Luckily he had it engraved in his brain pretty good; He remembered all the important places anyway.
An hour later and it seemed like they were still making no progress. Not a single Boxtroll was anywhere to be seen in town, which was unusual considering they come out all the time nowadays. Mr. Pickles scratched his noggin and thought aloud, "Don't make no sense. We haven't seen a single one anywhere. Where could they all be?" Molly hung onto his arm, much to his surprise. "I don't know, but we better hurry it up, we've only got an hour before Winnie needs to be home." She walked over to Ms. Pepper who was rubbing her templed away from the group. "Do you have any ideas, Ms. Pepper?"
She shrugged, "Don't look at me, I don't even know what a Boxtroll looks like."
"They're small and they wear little boxes." Pickles informed her.
She rolled eyes and snapped, "Ah, yes, so helpful. Thank you, Mr. Pickles. You have been nothing but helpful today!"
The man stood up straight and tall and smiled. "Oh, you're welcome!" he replied. Pepper groaned, "I was being sarcastic!"
"Oh… Alright then." he slumped his shoulders, rethinking what Pepper said. Molly sighed, hating seeing this all unfold, "Stop this, come on! We just have to keep trying, they're around here somewhere."
Pepper faced Molly holding up her hands in defense mode, "No! You're wrong! There are no troll creatures and i'm not going to find Winnie in time!" she sighed, and continued her eyes on the cobblestone. "I'm tired of running around on this goose chase… I'm just going to go back to the house and tell Portley-Rind what happened. Maybe i'll get lucky. Probably not, but…" she trailed. One last sigh of failure, and she dragged her feet along the sidewalk as she left the two alone in the alley and made her way back up to the top of Cheesebridge.
As she walked along, she heard something shuffling in a trash can nearby. She stopped and watched it shake and rumble. Suddenly a creature popped out of the top victoriously holding up a rusty, bent trowel in it's grubby little hands. The creature was a pasty grey-blue color with pointed ears and wore a square box. She gasped as she watched the small troll jump out of the garbage and run along the street.
She quickly picked up her skirt and chased after it, "Wait! You there! Stop! I need to ask you something!" The boxtroll didn't seem to notice her chasing it as it continued around corners and through different alleyways. It eventually tucked into a sewer entrance, leaving the round, barred door ajar. Pepper stopped, out of breath as she stared into the dark sewer She hesitated and then began to crawl inside.
The deeper she crawled into the sewer the smellier and darker it got. She held her nose as she crawled with one hand. It was tough to do though, her dress kept getting caught on sticky things and loose bricks. She was stuck in one particular brick really good, and she had to use two hands to pull it out. She gave a tug, but nothing happened; One more tug, still stuck. One last big tug, and it came loose and sent her falling backwards. She expected to land on the bricks, but instead kept tumbling down, as if the tunnel had ended and she never even noticed. She rolled down the sewer and ended up slipping and sliding down what seemed to be dirt. She screamed as she slid out of control down into a deep hole and onto a makeshift conveyor belt. She finally landed face first in the dust.
She sat up and coughed, spitting the dirt out of her mouth. Her head spun as she looked around her surroundings. It was like a book, like she just fell down the rabbit hole into Wonderland. Only this wonderland was a cave full of mechanics and a lettuce garden, with more of those Boxtroll creatures of all shapes and sizes staring at her from afar.
As she recomposed herself, she noticed a small table where Winnie, a brunette boy, and two boxtrolls were sitting and sipping tea. Her eyes narrowed on Winnie, "YOU!" She stood up and brushed herself off.
Winnie gasped, teacup still in hand, "How did you find me?!"
Pepper waved her hand at the girl, "That's not important, what's important is that I did it! I found you and now you are to come straight home with me!"
Winnie put down her cup and stood up in defense, "But Ms. Pepper-"
"When I tell your father about this-" Pepper interrupted.
"You can't!" The girl pleaded.
"I must! Tis' my job." She crossed her arms and stuck up her nose; Her mind was made up. Something pulled at her skirt, and she noticed the little creature she chased down there looking up at her with its big eyes. She stepped back in hesitation, the boxtroll shrinking into its box a bit. It poked its head back out and its ears perked up. He tried speaking to her in his boxtrollese. "Wh-What are they doing?" She looked to Winnie for help.
"They like you!" the boy spoke up with a smile. He stood beside Winnie and laughed. The young girl's face grew a small smile as she watched the display.
Pepper was unsure what to do, "Shoo! Shoo!" she said as she waved her arms at it. The boxtroll mocked her movements. "Ahh, why is it doing that?"
The boy clarified, "That's his name, Shoe!"
Pepper looked up and into the distance. "How ironic." Shoe pulled out the trowel from his box and held it out for her. The lady hesitantly took the rusty thing, "Oh, uh… Thank you." Shoe then proceeded to nuzzle against her and purr much like a cat. She slowly knelt down, put the trowel in her apron pocket, and put her hand on his head. She noticed more of the Boxtrolls gravitating towards her. Another one wearing a million spectacles took her free hand and put it on its bare head. She couldn't help but smile at the creatures, and mumble to herself, "Lord Portley-Rind is worried about you hanging around with these kittens?"
The boy nudged Winnie forward. She sighed and approached Pepper. She sat beside her in the middle of the boxtroll group. A small one with a small funnel on its head sat in her lap. She hugged it softly and spoke to her nanny, "All I ever wanted was for my father to stop neglecting me. Now all I want is for him to stop suffocating me. If you tell him what I did today, he'll never let me see Eggs or the Boxtrolls ever again."
Pepper took a moment to think it over. There was no way Portley-Rind would ever reconsider things. He was a white hat politician after all. She finally figured it out, and began, "You remind me of myself when I was your age; Bossy, irrational, and very clever. Only you had good friends that cared about you." she paused, then continued in a more stern tone, "Alright, I won't tell your father what happened today, and it better not happen again. I'll let you hang out with your little friends and keep your secret safe. They're clearly no danger to you." she looked at all the boxtrolls around her, Shoe still cozy beside her. She smiled, "As long as i'm your nanny you are in safe hands, Ms. Portley-Rind."
Winnie sprouted up, "Oh thank you, Ms. Pepper!" She gave her a big hug. Pepper was shocked, but returned the affection. All the boxtrolls patted their boxes and slowly started joining. Even the boy piled onto the hug.
"Alright, you're all crushing me with your cardboard bodies, hop off!" Pepper stood up and everyone fell off. She dusted herself off once again and fixed her hair.
Winnie took her friends hand and pulled him towards her nanny. "Ms. Pepper, this is my friend, Eggs." the boy waved to her with a warm smile on his face.
"Ah, you're the infamous Egg boy." Pepper felt relief finally having a face to match to the name. The boy wrinkled his brow in confusion. "Nevermind," Pepper waved her hands, "Come along Winifred, we got to get you home for dinner." The girl nodded, and waved goodbye to her friends. The boxtrolls all waved goodbye to Pepper, they were very happy to have met her.