Chapter Text
“Branch it’s going to rain on us soon, I can smell it! I promise you, John Dory won’t be mad at us for not coming back with a full hunt”
Making sure that Copper saw him rolling his eyes he kept moving. He and Branch rarely foraged as there are specific people for it, but Flora had asked for a favor from Branch. Which then ended up with Cooper joining him when he heard her asking.
They needed to grab extra fruit for their food stores. They had fixed the caved-in ceiling from the Bergen incident but some of the debris had crushed the crops and the crystals helping them grow. Along with one of the store houses being wrecked too. The crystals and plants had been an easy fix but the food storage had taken a minute to fill again.
It had been months since everything had happened but Branch knew you could never be too sure about anything, meaning that it was okay to grab extra. It’s not like anyone would complain, it might be a little full of himself but they liked most things that he did. They had been a little annoyed with all of his contingencies but after the incident with Chef finding them, they had been praising him since.
As much as the praise was kind of nice, he never did it because he wanted their acceptance or acknowledgment. To some degree he felt like the village was somewhat of a responsibility of his. He had been semi-learning how to take care of it from his dad for most of his life. So seeing how the Bergen incident had affected his people was a little hard to see sometimes.
The trolls in the city had become more…clingy. Everyone checked up on everyone, no one troll was able to be by themselves. As a community their paranoia had already been a bit bad, so when someone had betrayed their own people, something had cracked. They would make sure it didn’t happen again.
His family had been worried that everybody would end up distrusting their neighbors, but surprisingly it had the opposite effect. It seemed to make them hold on to those near them even more, like the loss of Creek physically hurt them. The new amount of attachment people were showing was a bit alarming but it was already becoming a new normal. Thankfully his dad was good at avoidance, so they had avoided the behavior from everyone but Fern.
Seeing a raspberry bush nearby, Branch felt himself pick up the pace. Grabbing one of the small empty bags he had in his bag he started to pick the fruit of the bush. When all of the sudden he heard a buzzing noise in the back of his mind. What was that?
It definitely wasn’t Rhonda or Timber coming, he knew their sounds well, especially after the first couple of weeks of Timber’s training. After the incident John had the bright idea of more security, Branch had the idea of starting more patrols focused only on checking the area but John had a “better” idea. And that had been to throw a lasso on a winkerwolf on their next patrol. If that hadn’t been heart stopping he had then found and befriended an armadillo bus on a later patrol. Luckily Rhonda hadn’t really needed any training, but Timber, oh boy, if anyone ever said that his dad didn’t know how to work his magic they were dead wrong.
If it was either of the two of them they definitely would have known. Glancing at Cooper, he noticed that he was continuing to dance in place, their bags bouncing on his back. Rolling his eyes he turned from his friend and focused on the sound. Hearing the sound get louder, his instincts started to flare.
“Cooper, we need to run,” and within seconds they are both taking off. Hearing the buzzing get louder they moved quickly running with all their speed. Nervous, Branch noticed Cooper falling behind a little bit, his speed not as fast as the average troll. Turning a corner they came face to face with a monstrous and dark beast.
It had a large maw, leathery skin, teeth shaped like zippers and a tuft of hair on the top of its head. Its mouth seemed to almost be glowing red, as it stared at them with beady eyes. About to turn around and run they heard the buzzing loud as ever behind them. Not turning his back to the creature he tried to see what it was in the corner of his eye, but failed when he stiffened up at the sound of sudden footsteps.
“Well, well, well, if it isn’t a pop troll. You two look a little weird but whatever.”
Seeing red out of the corner of his eye, he was surprised when a troll came to stand in front of them. Everything about her was sharp in a way that he had never seen before. If her hair wasn’t bright red, he’d think that she was gray because of the muddy look of her skin. Even her teeth and ears were pointed and she had a wild and dark look to her face and clothes. And what did she mean by pop troll?
“So where’s the rest of you? To be specific I’m looking for a King Peppy or Queen Poppy”
He didn’t know what she meant by her phrase earlier, or what she wanted with him and his people, but he knew just from the way she looked at him that it wasn’t good. Hearing Poppy’s name even coming from her mouth made him want to throttle her. Deciding to stay silent he glared at her, a growl rising in his throat.
If she was asking for Peppy, she clearly knew nothing about their people. He would have to remember that she clearly knew nothing.
She snorted as she looked at him, “Feisty,” and then she turned to Cooper and his hackles raised even more. “Wow, and the funk trolls said they knew nothing about pop, little liars, probably sent one of their own to warn you guys. Psh, whatever.”
Not understanding a lick of what she was saying, he side eyed Cooper and noticed him doing the same thing. Looking to the side they saw an opening and geared themselves up to take it.
“So, you gonna take me to see your leader pop troll?”
He actually let out a growl at that question. Aggression bled into him as he looked at her strongly. She was out of her mind if she thought he was going to take them to his home.
“Whelp I tried,” and she looks at them with an annoyed look, “Take them away! And continue searching for the pop trolls, they’ve got to be near. We’re so close!”
Feeling a hand on his shoulder Branch let instinct take over and swung a clawed hand at the perpetrator. Feeling another set of hands, his background started to blur as he swung and kicked his way toward the out he saw earlier. He prayed Coop was following right behind him.
Feeling something wet on his hands he continued to swing and claw, when he suddenly heard the sound of a guitar and everything went dark.
Branch felt a pain in his head as he fought to open his eyes, light flooding into them too quickly. His eyesight finally returning to normal, he looked around and noticed bars on a cage. Groaning he shook his head trying to bring about more of his coherency. All of sudden he froze, his breath catching in his throat.
“Cooper”
“Right behind you B”
Feeling relief start to fill him, his body sagged down all the adrenaline leaving his body. His head was pounding and his body felt like he had just fought a hufflebear.
“What happened Coop”
Hearing Cooper answer back in their surface language, Branch stiffened up. They used it for when they were up top and didn’t want to be too loud. It was a mixture of hums, clicks and caws, reminiscent to the birds in the forest. It wasn’t a full language and was primarily only used by those who had jobs up top, or children who had learned bits of it because they liked to play pretend. Flora and her husband Oak had been the ones to create and teach it to a select few. Branch had actually been the one too teach Cooper.
So he was colored surprised when he heard the clicks of “not alone.” Nobody had ever called Cooper the brightest of trolls but they didn’t think him incapable either. He had trained just as much as Branch and had the same buried paranoia they all had. He just pushed it deep down in the same way that Poppy did. The positivity and avoidance on those two could fill up the whole city.
Looking around he was finally able to fully take in their surroundings. They were in a dark room with stage lights in the corner and red light shining on them from the corners and sitting in a large cage. With other trolls inside too. His body stiffening, he quickly got up and stood defensively in front of Cooper.
He sends back to two hums and a click.
Safe?
Cooper quickly sends an answer back to him.
Nonhostile.
It wasn't a guarantee that they were safe but it meant they weren’t being actively targeted either. Taking them in he scrunched his brow, they just looked so different compared to his people. One had scales and was floating, another on four legs, one with small wings on his back, and two of them looked similar to Cooper. Though they were all staring at them, the two of them were definitely focusing on Cooper more.
Noticing the tension, the floating one spoke up, “So are you guys really pop trolls?”
Not answering he just rumbled in his chest, the vibration soothing him. He had no idea what they were talking about, they kept calling him “pop” and not explaining anything, he was getting very close to hurting someone.
He heard the gold and feathered one whisper into the floating one’s ear, “Are we sure they’re pop trolls, they look different from the one we saw earlier, nevermind our history books”.
Growling again, he locked his eyes on the one who spoke, making sure to inch forward a little, hoping that the intimidation move worked. Listening to the squeak the flying one let out and noticing him fly backwards into the bars, Branch couldn’t help but feel some satisfaction. Hearing footsteps he noticed one of the Cooper look alikes closer in distance and looking at him softly.
“We mean no harm towards the either of you, if it would help, we can swear on our music.”
Turning towards Cooper he looked at him and wondered if he should keep the aggression thing going, he had only really done this when trying to intimidate some of the creatures in their forest. The marks on Cooper's face crinkled as he gave a slight smile towards him and then the others. Groaning Branch just turned toward the lady, and huffed.
“It’s fine, you don’t have to swear”
Moving back some steps, he leaned back against the bars, Cooper coming to sit next to him. He pointed at all of them and decided he was going to start with asking the most pertinent questions.
“What the hell is going on?” Okay, so maybe one singular question instead.
The floating man clicked his tongue, “It’s Queen Barb of the Hard Rock Trolls. She wants to unite all trolls under one music, rock. She’s going to gather all the strings so that she can turn everyone into rock trolls, whether we want it or not.”
Seeing how willing they were at giving answers he decided to be honest.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. What is rock? Also what strings are you talking about?”
At those words, all of them look at him like he’s lost his mind, spat on the ground and called himself a Bergen. Did he really say something so crazy.
“What is rock? Don’t you know about all the genres? You’re literally with a funk troll.”
Feeling annoyed, he shrugged his shoulders. Looking at all their faces he could tell they seemed just as confused as him, though the flying one seemed a bit annoyed that he nor Cooper seemed to know what they were talking about.
The one that had a troll like top and creature bottom spoke up after a moment of quiet. “There are six genres of music sugar,” she raises her hand, “I’ma country troll,” and then she points to the other’s respectively, “techno, classical and funk, and of course you met the rock trolls earlier. Those are the main ones, there are sub-genres though.” She’s looking at them neutrally as says everything, her tail gently swaying . “We're the leaders of our people.”
Begrudgingly he nodded and bowed his head a bit. “Your majesty”
“None of that now, I go by Sheriff or Deputy in my parts”
Nodding he looked at the rest of them, hoping they would introduce themselves next.
“King Quincy and Queen Essence of the Funk Trolls.”
“King Trollex of the Techo”
And then the golden one is looking at them with narrowed eyes, “Wolfgang Amadeus Trollzart of the Classical Trolls. You may call me Maestro.”
He definitely would not be doing that.
Branch wonders about how he should introduce himself, he’s not royalty, but he does have some status. He could make a decision for the trolls, and as long as he talked about it with his dad and Poppy, it was a go. But the thought of baring himself to any degree to these strangers in an unknown location, was making him itch. No matter how nice they were, it just felt too soon.
“Branch”
“Cooper”
And then it’s silent again and he’s just staring at all of them. It looks like they want to say something but are holding back, so he asks about the strings, needing clarification.
Queen Essence moved forward again starting the story of their history. “Long ago, the ancestors of the six Tribes created the strings, six in total for each main genre. For a long while all the tribes lived in harmony, until the Pop Trolls' leader stole the entire genre harp. The pop trolls population grew and grew until they were the largest tribe. They took our music and removed every inch of uniqueness from it. One day after having enough, each tribe took a string and ran. And we never lived in harmony again.”
Well, at least he felt justified now for not wanting to give too much information. That story did not give him the warm fuzzies. Psh, the largest. He wondered if that was still true. He doubted it. But now he was even more confused, if rock was one of the ones who had been upset that their music was stolen from them, weren’t they being hypocritical by doing the same exact thing? He needed to learn more about the situation.
“And we’re disliked because of all of this?”
She looked surprised at the question and the nonchalant tone in his voice but she still answered smoothly, “Not by myself or husband, but by many others, yes. Even with the incident a century behind us, many have not forgotten the act, even when pop trolls were thought long gone.”
Looking up at her, he hummed, that must be why they were so curious but off put by them. They had basically become the boogeyman for many of the tribes. She hadn’t explicitly said it, but he could tell that she’d been one of the ones who thought they were gone. But if Barb had gone after them, she had clearly thought they were still alive and kicking, the question was why and how. He froze as he remembered the comments from earlier. Had they really met a pop troll?
The bouts of silence are a little awkward but he could be as stubborn as it gets and he refused to talk first not while he was still trying to think.
King Quincy steps a little forward next looking at them both softly.
“Cooper was it? Can I ask you a personal question?”
Cooper looked at him for a second only looking back at them when he gave a small shrug. He had no idea what they were going to ask.
“Do you know what your egg looked like?”
Branch thinks his brain stalls a little as he hears the question, so they meant super personal when they had said that. Why were they even asking about that?
Giving his signature smile Cooper chuckled, “Nope, Branch probably does though.”
He scrunches up his face as he looks at Cooper, making sure that he could see his displeasure. Way to throw him under the bus and give information out.
“Was it gold with pink and purple waves on it”
Shocked, he slowly nodded. Seeing the queen tear up a bit, and start to walk closer, he made sure to not tense up as she stood in front of Cooper.
“I think I’ve been looking for you for the last twenty years. My son, we've finally found you!” and then she was hugging him. “You look just like your brother”
Cooper being true to himself only had one thing to say.
“Huh?”
Branch watched as King Quincy came forward, wrapping around Cooper as well, only pulling away to look at him as he spoke.
“Twenty years ago, we had twin eggs, but a predator swooped down and took your egg right out of your mothers hair. We’ve been looking for you ever since. We always believed that we’d find you one day.”
Branch is a little skeptic, but when he looked in their eyes he started to believe them more. They had the parent-like look in their eyes. He’d seen it several times.
And then they’re hugging again, and this time he sees Cooper start to hug the queen and king back. It’s beautiful, truly, he’s glad that Cooper has found more family but aren’t the stares are a little bit awkward. Maybe it’s his awkwardness showing but he’s feeling second hand awkwardness right now.
Popping his head up, Cooper looks at his parents. “So I’m a funk troll?” And if he sounds oddly upset at the prospect no one comments.
“Yes and no. You can be multiple genres honey, music is forever growing and changing. Your brother isn’t a full funk troll either, he’s a hip-hop troll. Just as you’re a pop and funk troll. The influences of one’s life don’t just disappear after one revelation.”
That’s when Branch fully notices the differences between Cooper and his parents. Cooper’s ears are more perkier than the funk trolls, along with the fact that Cooper seems smaller. Branch isn’t sure if it was just the fact that he was younger than them, but Cooper just seemed smaller.
Cooper was super tall in Troll Hollow but maybe he was smaller than his biological tribe too. Branch didn’t know how to explain it but after years in the city, everyone had started to shrink just a bit. Not a crazy amount that it was super noticeable but enough that the doctors had noticed.
The trolls that hatched now were smaller than before too. They didn’t know what caused it, but Dr. Moonbloom thought it was because of living underground for a long time now. She thought our bodies were trying to let us become smaller to fit in the tunnels better and move faster. Troll biology was just weird, and unexplainable half the time.
He wondered if the pop trolls were really different from the others. Focusing back into the conversation he was able to catch the tail end of it.
“-kings on your face, do they have a specific meaning?”
“Um, well, it’s how we identify each other”
Wow, maybe he should do the talking. That was so misleading that he almost wanted to groan out loud. That made it seem like their tribe was so big that they needed marks to identify who was who. Rolling his eyes, he figured it was better than saying the truth.
Looking at the others he could see how curious they were about everything. Noticing King Trollex about to ask something, everyone froze when they heard the creak of a door. Looking towards the door he noticed a blue hand first and then pink hair. Something bubbles in his throat, words he’s longed to say but nothing comes out.
He can hear Trollzart whispering to the others, “I can’t see anything, is it Barb?”
Cooper answers swiftly, “Nope, he looks like…like a pop troll! But he…” and then he’s looking confused turning to Branch for answers.
“He's not ours,” and Branch internally flinches at the coldness in his voice. He didn’t mean to sound so harsh, but he was conflicted. He missed his brother but seeing him again so suddenly, in leather pants and on the other side of the bars, he’s just a bit perturbed.
“You two can see the door!” It had come from Trollex but he could tell that they were all a bit shocked.
Cooper just looks at them befuddled, “Yes? You guys can’t? It’s not even that dark right now.” And it really isn’t, some of the corners of their city were so dark that even they avoided the area, their eyes not being able to take the high level of darkness. Only the main parts where everyone loved and worked were lit up with the crystals.
Hearing the troll start to come closer into the room, he heard sighs of relief when the troll stepped into the light.
“Floyd!” It was a chorus from everyone except for Delta Dawn who merely tilted her hat in his direction.
“I’m sorry I’m so late, I meant to come back and see you guys earlier but Barb has been making us get the concert together. I’ve tried to get her to see sense but she’s not listening. She fully believes in this plan. A plus is that she’s having a hard time find-,” And their eyes finally meet. Branch wonders if the others can feel how heavy the silence is.
Apparently, Trollzart decides the silence is an opportune moment to ask questions.
“Floyd, are you a pop troll? And if so, where are your markings and why have you not said anything to Barb about their location?”
Floyd answers him but it’s eerie as he’s unable to tear himself away from Branch’s gaze. “Yes I am, and because it was too dangerous to go back to the tribe, so I told her I didn’t know where they were. Also I have no idea what markings you’re talking about.” Then there’s a pause as he stares into Branch intently, moving up to the bars of their cell so that he’s gripping them.
“Branch, is that you?” The tremble in his voice makes something roll in his stomach. Emotions that he had pushed down so long ago are thick on his tongue.
“Yeah,” and he’s lost as his voice trembles too. God, he’s already done with this whole situation. He just wants his dad and sister. Not a forced emotional confrontation. Floyd opened his mouth to speak but froze when the door bust open.
“Floyd, my main man, what are you doing here?”
Floyd looks nervous for a second but quickly turns around with a soft look on his face. “I heard that you brought some pop trolls in and wanted to see them. I know we talked about this before but we should really let-,” and he’s abruptly cut off.
“No can do, Floydster, they can’t leave the cage until I get what I want.”
She walks briskly up to the cage and slams a hand on it. Branch internally chuckles, if she thought that would intimidate him or Cooper then she had another thing coming.
“Where are the rest of the pop trolls hiding! Where’s your king!”
Branch only answers by chuckling and turning away slightly.
“You think this is funny? Well I hope your laughing when you see what we’ve done to your homes, we burnt those pods to the ground, now what-”
“Noooooo”
Looking at Cooper bewildered but also mildly concerned he stood up a bit to see what was wrong. Cooper knew that the pods were fake, as all hollow trolls did, so why was he yelling?
“I left my harmonica in a pod!”
Snorting Branch leaned back again. They used the pods for refreshments and snacks during their parties up above. He told Cooper time and time again not to leave anything in the pods, but he had a bad habit.
“I’ll make you another one”
Hearing another slam on the bars, he looked at Barb, noticing the distance Floyd had put in between them and the furious look she had on her face.
“You guys think this is a joke!” And then she turns to the funk trolls, “don’t think I didn’t notice how you guys were working together with pop, if you guys don’t want anything happening to your son, then you guys better speak up.”
The king and queen look at Barb furiously, “You touch a hair on his head, you’ll live to regret it”
“Doubt it”
Annoyed, he groaned out loud, bringing everyone's attention to himself. He could deal with threats at himself but he wasn’t going to let Cooper’s newfound family reap the consequences especially when they hadn’t even done anything.
“King Peppy is dead and none of his line is leading us. We didn’t have any idea about the strings until now. Most pop trolls don’t even know there are other genres.” And then he points to Floyd, “Ask your Floydster over there how he found out about the strings and everything.” She turns to Floyd looking at him imperiously.
“Um, I didn’t know about the different genres until I ran into a country troll a long time ago, and then when I came here, I learned about the strings from you during one of your planning sessions.” He’s blushing as he says it but he’s looking at her earnestly.
Branch has so many questions about their dynamic. How and why was Floyd even here? She clearly didn’t like pop trolls. Watching her ball up her fist, she looked at them hotly.
“Your king is dead? And the knowledge of, oh I don’t know, everything, is gone?”
“Yup.”
She’s angry then, yelling, cursing and throwing things around. He’s honestly a little glad that they’re in the cage with the way she’s throwing things. Seeing how quick Floyd moved out of range this must be a typical thing. They all sat and watched, wondering when she would calm down. Finally, as she huffed and puffed, out of breath from her explosion, he decided to speak up again.
“Can we all go now? The pop string is lost to time, if we really did have it once then it was lost with our king. Your plan won’t succeed, you need all the strings don’t you?”
Was he stoking the fire a bit? One hundred percent. But he was getting tired of only looking at their cage and the red lights in the room.
“You’re lying to me, you have to be! I will succeed, and we’ll be happy and together under one roof.”
“I’m not lying”
She’s yelling again but before she gets too far he decides to cut in. “Look, can you just open the cage and let us out. Honestly, I’m trying to help you, my dad is going to be furious.”
And he wasn’t lying on that point. Dad really was going to be furious, and an angry John Dory was not an easy troll to deal with. They both had bad impulsiveness sometimes but Branch’s was more verbal than his dad's. His dad tended to rush in and do things without fully thinking about them. An angry and not thinking JD would be disastrous.
“You think I care about your fucking dad! Dude are you serious, what the hell can your dad do! Be serious!”
“Take it back! He’s a way more awesome leader than you, you should be worried! He battles and kills things all the time!”
Ah, the Troll Hollow special, reverence for his dad. The Snack Pack was usually better about being normal around his dad, but they still had their moments. He really wishes this hadn’t been one of them. Everyone, but Barb is looking at them worriedly and horrified now, especially Floyd. Way to give away information and make his dad sound like a crazy murderer. Cooper had been doing so good earlier too.
“So daddy is the leader of the pop trolls, huh, so that means you definitely know where your tribe is! You little liars, you’re just saying these things so I’d let you go. You think I’m going to believe that a weak and pu-”
But then she stops and looks at Branch as if she had an epiphany. “You put four of my trolls in the hospital…”
He’s not thrilled at the information, having not fought back with the pure intent to hurt somebody but he can’t help but preen just a bit at her words. He was skillful even when panicked.
“You’re not like Floyd are you?”
“Nope.” He doesn’t think she had meant to say any of that out loud or even want an answer but he can’t help but answer with a smirk. Floyd hadn’t been with the pop trolls in almost twenty years. It sounded cold even to himself, but his brother was now an outsider of the community. Things were not the same as they’d been in the tree.
“Queen Barb!”
A troll burst through the door out of breath and looked panicked.
“There’s a giant wolf trashing our city, and there’s-!” And he breathes in deeply still not having fully caught his breath. “There are weird glowing trolls taking some of the others and disappearing. About twenty trolls have been taken so far!”
Branch is smiling when everyone turns to look at him and Cooper, but internally he’s wincing and groaning. That had to be his dad and some of the other trolls. What was he doing? He thought he was going to come in and sneak him out, not wage a war!