"I suppose we start with John Dory first...?" Branch stated, looking around for the Neverglade Trail and finding no sign of it.

"No," Poppy tried to compromise. "Spruce...? Clay...?"

"They're going to take a lot more convincing to do the Perfect Family Harmony than John Dory is," Branch explained. "Knowing John, he would agree to do it relatively quickly. That's why I want us to go find him first. If we could only find out where the Neverglade Trail is—"

"You mean the trail right down there?"

What? Branch turned around, making his way over to the side of their hot air balloon where Poppy was and peered down at the ground where she was pointing.

"Were we flying over it the whole time? I thought—?"

Poppy turned her head to look at him, stifling an amused laugh. "The Neverglade Trail isn't going to obviously be anywhere in the sky. Why were you not looking down for it to begin with?"

"Thinking about Floyd and hoping we can gather the others and get them back to Mount Rageous to save him before it's too late distracted me, Poppy. If only we could find John Dory without accidentally flying over him—"

Before he could finish his sentence, Poppy cut him off. "There he is..."

Branch joined her, rolling his eyes with a huff when he caught sight of a bus rather than his oldest brother. "Poppy, that doesn't even look like a troll."

"No." Poppy let out a soft laugh. "Right beside the bus. In front of the campfire. Do you not see the campfire?"

Poppy was right. If Branch squinted hard enough, he could very clearly see his oldest brother. "Yes, I see the campfire, Poppy. As if that isn't obvious. Should we land down there or—?"

"No." An amused look appeared on Poppy's face. "I think we should have a little fun and cause our balloon to crash into the middle of the trail. As for how we're going to do it, I'm not really sure…"

Branch lowered his voice. "Poppy, are you serious right now?"

"Yeah. How else are we going to grab his attention?" she said with a laugh, sporting a grin.

"I don't know?" Branch rested a hand on his chin. "Maybe by landing the balloon safely and carefully and making our way towards him?"

"That's boring." Poppy began to look for the best way to carry out her crazy idea. "I still say we crash the balloon into the middle of the Neverglade Trail."

Branch started to panic. "Poppy, no."

"Poppy yes!" she responded in an enthusiastic tone, finally having figured out the best way to do so. "Now help me crash the balloon."

Branch sighed, lightly rubbing at his forehead. "I really have no choice, do I?"

"Nope. Not in the slightest."

—

"I still can't believe you still decided to crash it," Branch groaned as he pushed his way out of the torn and dirty balloon part of their hot air balloon. Poppy followed suit.

"What can I say?" She shrugged and stood at the same time as Branch. "I still wanted to have fun. And it was still with your help."

"I still shouldn't have agreed though. Why do I even talk myself into these crazy ideas of yours?"

"Because you love me," Poppy said with a soft laugh and a large grin, giving Branch a kiss. "And because you're the best husband and king in the world!"

"Yeah. I do." Branch gave Poppy a smile in return and looked down at her dress and leg warmers, a confused look very quickly replacing said smile when he noticed the lack of dirt on them. And on Poppy as a whole. "Wait…. Hang on a minute….Poppy, how in the world are you not covered in dirt?"

"I don't know. Magic, I guess," Poppy said with a shrug. She gestured at Branch's own clothes. "Also, pretty sure Floyd's going to get mad at the state of your vest when you see him again. Considering he was the one who gave it to you."

Branch looked down at himself. "He's not going to know if I clean it first. But that's not important right now. What's more important now is we talk to John."

"But he's not sitting by the bus or the campfire anymore."

Branch stopped before he could come up with a response and glanced around. Poppy was right. John Dory, for some reason, was no longer in sight. But the door to the "bus" that he had previously been sitting in front of was open. But the campfire, on the other hand, was still burning. And Poppy… well, she was standing over by the campfire and reaching one hand out towards it. Branch's eyes widened in a panic and he could only stay stationary, staring at her. Oh, dear lord.

"Poppy," he eventually found himself sighing softly, lightly resting his right hand on his forehead. "Please don't burn yourself."

She paused, her arm now stopped and halfway towards the campfire. "Who said I wasn't going to do that?"

"Me. This is a crazy idea of yours that I'm seriously going to have to talk you out of."

Poppy rolled her eyes and retracted her hand, looking at him. "Come on. Fun and crazy don't mean the same thing, you know. And, believe me, that idea of mine was more fun than it was crazy."

"Poppy, come on." Branch sighed, stepping forwards and very quickly pulling her away from the campfire. "The more crazy ideas you come up with and try to attempt to do, the more likely it is that we're going to run out of time to save Floyd by the time we return to Mount Rageous."

Poppy pouted, folding her arms. "Fine. Fine. No more crazy ideas."

"Good," Branch said in relief as he and Poppy turned, the two of them coming face to face with the bus, which had stood up and was looking at them.

The husband and wife's eyes widened as they looked at one another then back at the bus.

The exact same thought popped into their minds.

Wait, what?