The boys had been gone for almost a year when the tree heard that the next Trollstice, the Burgan Prince, would be eating King Peppy's younger daughter Poppy for his first troll. Lily was among the trolls working hard to finish the tunnels to the outside to save everyone, before going to her Burgan watch duties. She hated leaving Branch and Grandma Rosiepuff for such long periods of time, but she could make it up to them when they were free.
Finally the day arrived and it was time to leave the tree, which had been home to generations of their people. Lily was the last to exit the pod, looking over the neat living room she had swept and trying not to let her gaze linger on the table with its memories of dinners and the letters that she left to each of the other boys there. Pulling her pack more securely onto her shoulders Lily turned and exited the pod for the last time, shutting the door behind her.
It was dark outside and Lily carried Branch while Grandma Rosiepuff leaned on her to the center of the tree and the tunnel entrance. The village had split up so each would go through the tunnel in groups, families and the elderly were first. But before Lily could enter with Branch and Grandma Rosie she felt a hand on her shoulder pulling her back, a sparkly troll told her, "You need to wait your turn."
Before Branch or Grandma Rosiepuff would protest she just smiled at them, "It's alright." Kneeling in front of the little trolling, "Help Grandma through the tunnel for me Baby Blue," and kissed the little guy on the head. Standing up, "I'll see you both on the other side."
Keeping an easy stance for Branches sake as he looked back to her until the tunnel hid her from view Lily cursed the troll who seemed ready to grab her again to keep her in place. Instead of making a scene she helped other trolls into and through the start of the tunnels until they were well on their way before going back to help the next group. They started moving faster pushing forward any stragglers as the chant of, "Trolls! Trolls! Trolls!" seemed to shake the world around them.
Through the fear some trolls forgot the instructions on how to get through the tunnels and Lily shouted above everyone, "Calm down!" Seeing them turn to her, "I dug these tunnels, follow me." To her relief they did follow her, even picking up the pace slightly as she led them on until the tunnels began to shake around them.
As chaos reigned around her, Lily saw a few trolls shoved over and nearly trampled until she used her hair to pull them out of the way. Everyone around them was moving in a stampede. The problem with this stampede was that they did not know where to go. Again screaming for them to follow her Lily pulled the arm of an injured troll around her shoulders before sprinting down the tunnel the rest of the village had followed.
Not bothering to look back to see if anyone had followed her Lily hurried with her burden trying her best to keep them both upright and moving as the bucking of the tunnel tried to knock them over. Just as she was thinking that this could not get any worse, shovels started to break though near her and the troll she was helping. Cursing silently she started sprinting again towards the sound of King Peppy yelling, "No troll left behind!"
Seeing the king stripped naked was not something Lily really wanted to do, but today was not going the way she wanted so why would it start now. Then she saw the cracks in the ceiling, "Look out!" Running forward she pushed her frozen king, the unconscious troll leaning on her, and herself out of the way of the shovel coming down on top of them. Agony shot through her arm as Lily lifted her head to see that the other two were still alive before passing out from the pain.
It was night before Lily opened her eyes again, seeing the pale face of Grandma Rosiepuff sitting next to her and feeling the weight of Branch against her side. "Grandma?" the older woman looked ready to burst into tears. Reaching out to the older woman Lily wiped away her Grandmother's tears, "It's alright Grandma."
Taking Lily's hand in both of hers, "Yes dear." Swallowing, "It's alright."
Something in Grandma Rosiepuff's tone made Lily freeze, and she realized that the older troll was pointedly not looking at her left side. Turning her head Lily saw that her left arm ended at about her elbow, wrapped in bandages that looked like they were changed recently. Looking back at the older woman, "Maybe I should take up wearing shawls."
It looked like Grandma Rosiepuff was going to start crying again as she nodded, "They would look good on you dear." Neither of them spoke again that night, they didn't need to. Branch slept peacefully and both adults in the room got some sleep as well.