"Branch! Branch, help me!"

Branch watched, almost too stunned to move, as Sunshine was being swept away by the raging river. She repeatedly sank beneath the waves, coughing and shouting for him every time she resurfaced.

"Hang on, Sunshine," Branch yelled, trying his hardest to outrun the rush if water and save the little troll. His pounding heart sank when he realized they were quickly approaching the edge of a waterfall.

Just before she reached the end, Sunshine managed to grab onto a nearby tree limb that was poking out of the water. "Hurry Branch," she shouted, "I'm slipping!"

"Grab on," Branch shouted, flinging his hair out to her. Just as she let go of the tree, a wave pushed her further away from him. He looked around for something, anything, else that he could do, but it was all in vain. He watched helplessly as she was swept over the edge of the waterfall, screaming his name as she fell.

…

"Sunny!"

Poppy jolted awake at the sound of her boyfriend's voice. She looked over and saw him sitting upright in bed, breathing heavily and gripping onto the covers for dear life.

"Branch," she said as she rushed to his side and took one of his hands in both of hers, "Branch, it's okay."

Branch's eyes were as wide as saucers and glistening with tears. He had his gaze focused straight ahead of him and on nothing in particular. "S-Sunny," he sobbed, "She was…I tried to…but I was too…"

"It was just a bad dream, Branch," Poppy assured him, "Sunny's fine."

Branch still refused to look at her as he shook his head. They didn't know that for sure. That dream could have been a sign that Sunshine was in danger, and he had to be there to stop it. He was tired of thinking about her being out there without them.

Lost…

Hungry…

Alone…

Back where she started.

Without a word, he leapt out of bed and raced out of the inn, ignoring Poppy's pleas to wait for her and her reminder to grab his things. He paid no attention to the confused and concerned glances he got from every troll he passed, nor did he respond when one asked him what his "hurry" was. His mind was laser-focused on boarding the balloon and continuing their search.

He was going to find Sunshine. And he was going to save her this time.

…

Her namesake was beating down on her.

She was sweating and breathing heavily.

Every cell in her body was telling her to collapse to her hands and knees and scream for help.

Yet still she refused to give up.

Sunshine took another long sip from her water canteen. It was a good thing that she had found a pond to refill it in before she set off again; it felt like she had been trudging through the desert for an eternity.

She had set back off on her journey the moment the sun began to rise, and she hadn't seen another troll since. She knew that she'd find civilization eventually. That, along with the possibility of finding her family, was the only thing keeping her going.

She pulled her scrapbook out of her bag and flipped to one of the first few pages. On it was a picture she had made when she was little, right after Poppy had taught her scrapbooking; two trolls, labeled "MAMA" and "DADDY," holding hands with a little troll who shared Mama's yellow skin and Daddy's red hair, labeled "ME." At the bottom of the page, she had written, "MY FAMILY." She wondered how accurate the picture would really be. Was she right on the money, or did she take after one parent more than the other? That didn't matter to her. What mattered was that she'd find them soon.

Her view of the scrapbook was suddenly obscured by a shadow looming overhead. Stuffing the book back into her bag, she continued on, puffing her hair out into an umbrella shape. Wait a minute, she thought, since when does it rain in the desert?. She wasn't scared, just confused.

Until she heard their voices.

"There she is! I see her!"

No.

"Oh my gosh, that is her!"

No no no no no!

…

Branch was leaning on the edge of the balloon, resting his chin on his hand. He was half-asleep and half-listening to Poppy as she kept pointing out everything she saw that even remotely resembled a living creature ("puffalo, adorabull, puffalo riding an adorabull," etc). If it weren't so important, he would've ripped the binoculars out of her hands and thrown them out of the balloon.

"Don't say it out loud unless it looks like a troll," he told her, fighting to stay awake. He had barely slept a wink the night before, what sleep he had managed to get being plagued by nightmares about losing Sunshine.

He was pulled out of his stupor by his girlfriend's frantic shouting. "There she is," she yelled, pointing down at where she was looking, "I see her!"

The exhaustion in his eyes was soon replaced with hope as he ran to the other side of the balloon. "I'm positive that's her, Branch," Poppy confirmed as he took the binoculars from her. Sure enough, he could see Sunny's hairpin glinting in the daylight. For the most part, she appeared to be no worse for wear, thank goodness. She had stopped in her tracks when they appeared overhead.

"Sunny, up here," he shouted, waving to her excitedly, "it's us!"

"We're so glad we finally found you, sweetheart," Poppy added.

Despite their shouts, Sunshine did not turn around. She clearly knew they were there, but she didn't react right away.

When she did, it wasn't how they thought she was going to. She shook her head for a few seconds, leapt back to her feet, and ran in the opposite direction.

Branch and Poppy gasped as the balloon followed. They had been so excited to find the little girl, but she was fleeing from them like they were bergens at Trollstice.

"Hey, where are you going," Poppy called after her.

"Sunny, come back," Branch yelled.

"I can't go back with you," they heard Sunshine faintly yell back, "You can't make me!"

Branch watched her in confusion as he wracked his brain for what to do. They had come so close to getting her back; what had she been through that made her act so belligerent towards them?

"Bring it down just a little more, Poppy," he ordered. He hated the idea that had come to him, but Sunshine wasn't really giving him much of a choice. "I'm sorry, Sunshine," he muttered once he'd gotten close enough to her.

Reaching out with both hands, he grabbed her by the hair. "Gotcha," he shouted triumphantly, ignoring her screams of protest. He ignored the fact that she was thrashing angrily in his grasp. He ignored the pain when her arms and feet came into contact with his body. He just focused on holding her as tightly as he could, stroking her back and singing her favorite lullaby.

Within seconds, all of the fight had left Sunshine's body. She melted into Branch's embrace as she began to cry, resigning herself to the fact that her adventure was over.

"Shh, it's okay, Sunny," Poppy said, joining in on their hug, "we're here now."

"I hope you don't think we're upset with you," Branch added, kissing her on the forehead, "because we're not. We were just so worried about you."

"I wasn't ready," Sunshine replied, sniffling, "I wasn't ready for you to find me."

Poppy and Branch looked at her with deep concern. Did she really not expect them to look for her? "Sunny—" Branch began, before quickly being interrupted by the trolling.

"Don't," she interjected, avoiding eye contact with either of them. "I know what you're going to say. I'm not going to let you stop me from finding my family!"

The two adult trolls were taken aback at her outburst. Part of Sunshine regretted raising her voice, but her determination had yet to waiver. She slumped to the ground and began to cry once again, believing that she was in the most trouble she'd ever been in.

"Sunny," Branch said softly, placing his hand under her chin and moving her to meet his gaze, "Look at me, sweetie. We would never try to stop you. We know how hair-bent you've always been on finding your mom."

"We just wish you had told us you were planning this," Poppy added, placing a hand on Sunny's shoulder, "that way we could have come with you."

Sunshine looked away from her caretakers as a guilty blush formed on her cheeks. She may have thought she knew what she was looking for deep down, but she didn't really have a concise idea; she still didn't even know what her parents looked like, let alone where they could be. In addition, she had no idea of any potential dangers that the journey could have flung her way. She should have known that they would be worried about her.

After a few more minutes of hugging and reassuring her that she had no reason to be sorry, the three trolls discussed the next step in their mission. They started by eliminating the places they had already searched; Branch almost had a fit when Sunshine said she had gone to Volcano Rock City by herself, the only thing keeping him calm was being told that Barb stayed with her the entire time. Looking back at the map, they noticed that they were not too far from Lonesome Flats. In fact, Poppy looked out over the edge of the balloon and found that they were directly above it.

Delta Dawn was waiting for them when they landed right outside of their town. "It's really great to see ya, Poppy," she said excitedly, "word's been spreadin' like wildfire about your little adventure."

"Really," Poppy asked, surprised, "then maybe you can help us."

"Way ahead of ya," the Country mayor stated proudly, "I've already told all the pop trolls that live here to meet in the center of town ASAP." As Delta began to tell the pop queen about all of the other Pop trolls that lived in their realm, pointing the ones in the crowd in front of them out by name, she stopped dead in her tracks when she saw Sunshine step out of the balloon. Some of the other trolls gasped and started muttering to each other.

Slowly, Delta approached her, eliciting a sheepish giggle and a wave from the child. "Uh, hello, Ms. Delta," greeted Sunshine. She had met the leaders of the other tribes when she was a baby, but hadn't really seen them much since. "I haven't seen you since you were itty-bitty," she said, brushing a lock of hair out of Sunshine's face.

"If only I'd known you'd be the spittin' image of your mama."

…

Looks like Sunshine is finally going to find her family!

Sorry it took me so long to update. Part of it was writer's block, and most of it was the holidays keeping me busy.