Chapter Text
It had been so long since he’d last felt at peace. The usual comfort of a song was long gone along with the previous constant background hum of other trolls. Waking up to the morning song was no longer possible, and neither was singing a cheerful bop while surrounded by mates.
Creek was never one to lose his calm, but even he had to admit the forest’s vibe was not chill. Rustles from the leaves had him constantly looking over his shoulder, while the dark shadows that occasionally passed overhead left him stumbling for shelter. Not even meditation was helping calm his frayed nerves.
Another howl had him running for cover, frazzled hair shooting out to hide his body from whatever raced past. Every night was surrounded by shrieks from the unknown, the laughter of the past replaced with cackling dangers.
How many days had it been since he had last seen another troll?
Had last heard a welcoming voice that wasn’t just trying to kill him?
Nothing was going his way. Ever since that party, bad things just kept happening over and over. It’s not like it was his fault that the bergens came and attacked everyone!
While it was never his intention to have everyone else die, why was everyone blaming him for all their problems? Anyone else in his situation would have done anything to live, just like he did. And Creek didn’t even do anything bad. All he did was tell Chef the location of the troll village in exchange for his life.
The memory of going down the bergen king’s throat crawled over his fur, the wet slippery feeling as he clung to its tonsil hovered over his paws. Even now Creek wasn’t sure how he managed to get out of its mouth. Of course he would beg for his life! Of course he would do anything to not have to be surrounded by those yellow teeth and slimy walls. Chef had promised him his safety at just the measly cost of revealing the location of the village. It’s not like he forced her to kidnap them and lead his village into their mouths himself. All he did was try to stay alive!
How could the others not see this? How could they not realize he never did anything bad, only tried to save his own life? Didn’t King Peppy do the exact same thing when he finally moved the village to save his daughter? It’s not like they weren’t dying before it was Poppy’s turn to be eaten. Why did it matter when Creek took action to save a life just like the king did?
Ugh. If only it wasn’t for that grey killjoy. If he had only stayed cooped up in his fear bunker, then the other trolls would have been defenceless. Why did he have to open his hole for others and not just keep himself alone like he always is? Then again, if there was any troll Creek would to choose to be eaten by bergens, it would have to be Branch. That safety jerk always enjoyed screaming over the music about ‘danger this’ and ‘danger that!’
And to top it all off, he had to go twisting everyone’s minds into thinking he wanted them dead! He had kicked Creek out of Bergen Town with Chef of all bergens! That was just asking for him to be eaten with how angry she was. It was only through pure luck that they had ended up inside a hill, the dark caves below giving an opportunity to hide. He’d only just managed to take cover when she had regained composure, running off before she could swipe him again.
Even so, the previously gentle forest around Troll Village was now filled with dangers. He’d been pecked at by baby birds, wrapped in spider webs, turned blue by poison Blue-ack, and there was even that close call from the Venus Troll Traps. Balloons had never been so scary before.
Taking a step over a fallen log, Creek barely kept his tongue in check as he nearly slipped right into a muddy pile. He forced himself to take a deep breath and count to 5 before letting it out. Gathering his wits back together, he nearly missed the subtle rustle just a short distance away.
Quickly giving up the previous balance he’d regained, Creek dived behind a nearby boulder. The muddy puddle from before coming in handy as it cloaked his bright colours with brown mush. Glancing over to the rustle’s source, he couldn’t believe his eyes as a flash of blue emerged from the bushes. Creek didn’t know whether to thank his luck or curse it. Right before him stood a troll just like he had been longing to see for so long. There was just one problem; it was the very troll that plagued his thoughts.
Branch stepped fully out of the bushes as he continued walking onwards, a rucksack filled with what looked like twigs on his back. Creek held his breath, not wanting to be noticed by the blue hermit. As much as he missed other trolls, this one in particular left a bitter taste in his mouth that almost made him turn around in disgust.
Creek wanted to get back to the village. More than anything he wanted that! If he could just make it back, he could explain himself to the others and they would surely realize he was only trying to save himself from a terrible fate. But Branch? There was no way that recluse would allow him anywhere near the others. Of course the snack pack would forgive him and let him inside anyway, but Creek could bet that Branch would do anything he could to not let him in.
He had to find a way to talk to the others before Branch realized he was here. Surely he could just sneak behind and follow him back? Once he was back then it was only a matter of talking to Poppy and the others when Branch returned to rotting under his rock.
Mind made up, Creek hung back until Branch was almost out of sight before finally sneaking out from behind the boulder and following the hermit’s path.
Soon.
Soon he’d be home.
Branch wasn’t sure what it was, but something felt off on his journey home. He double and triple checked his rucksack multiple times to make sure nothing had come loose or fallen out. It was only when he spotted the first marker showing the village was close that he started to calm down.
A short while later the songs finally started to reach his ears. As much as he liked tolerated the villagers, they really knew how to make it known to every creature in the forest where they were. It was a miracle it took this long for a bergen to finally show up.
Making a quick pit-stop at his bunker, he threw his rucksack into the entryway before jumping right back out to head to the main village. He had promised Poppy earlier that he would hang out with her for the afternoon. Ever since he’d regained his true colours a few weeks ago, she’d made him swear he’d try to come out of his bunker more often.
It was… kind of her to kick him into socialising more. But that didn’t mean it wasn’t just as overwhelming as before. Ever since the big rescue in Bergen Town, the Snack Pack had gotten a lot more in his face about being friends. Not to say they weren’t overwhelming before, but apparently if you give them an inch, they take a mile.
As if to prove his point, not even a second after his foot had landed inside the village, Cooper came running up to him talking a mile a minute.
“Branch! You have to come quick! Poppy! She- she’s in trouble!”
“What?! Take me to her!” The words had barely left his mouth before Branch was sprinting in the direction Cooper had come from.
“Where?!” He shouted back to Cooper, not wanting to slow down and risk Poppy getting hurt while he wasn’t there.
“Her pod!” came the reply from behind.
A quick flick of his hair vaulted Branch into the air and swinging across the tree branches. His tail whipped behind him as anxiety spread like cold ice through his veins.
What had happened?! She was fine this morning! Branch had only been out for a few hours, and even then he’d done all his usual patrols and checks around the village before leaving. Was it the bergens? Did they decide that happiness wasn’t inside them all along and came to have a snack? Or was it a creature? While it was common for one to occasionally get a bit too close to the village, usually his alarms would have gone off long ago so he could chase them away. But none of them had gone off. And there was no heavy destruction in the area.
Could it be something else then? What if she got hurt while playing? Or while setting up a party, a ladder fell and crushed her? What if she’d gone near a poisonous plant and gotten sick? What if she was on death’s door?!
His thoughts wouldn’t stop. Anxiety crept up and clouded his mind of all thoughts other than Poppy laying in her pod unconscious, broken bones and blood covering her pink fur.
Swinging on the last branch, he landed with a forward roll in front of Poppy’s pod. Not stopping to gather himself, Branch slammed into the door and barged into her home.
“POPPY!”
“Branch?”
Multiple sets of eyes turned towards him before his own settled on the surprised form of Poppy sitting on the floor, surrounded by colourful scraps of paper, glue, and glitter. The rest of the Snack Pack were scattered around the room with their own explosion of craft supplies littering the room.
“Huh?” Branch barely got to take in the scene before him before another thump came from outside the pod. Cooper came rushing in behind Branch, almost knocking into him in his haste.
“I got Branch, Poppy! Surely he can find a solution!”
“Wait what? What’s going on? I thought you were in trouble”
“Oh she is!” Cooper exclaimed. Branch’s heart skipped a beat as the fear returned full force, eyes darting over Poppy in search for even the slightest injury. “Poppy has run out of pink glitter!”
He froze. There was no better explanation to how it felt as everything came to a sudden screeching halt. But just as quickly, red hot fire replaced the icy cold in his veins as he realized just what had happened.
“Coooooppperrrr” he growled, literally growled, at the clueless troll beside him.
“Yeah?” Oh, he was going to shred this idiot. When Branch responded with nothing more than more growls, Cooper finally looked at him directly. It seemed as though the danger he was in finally clicked as death raged behind Branch’s eyes.
All he allowed was a scream from the four-legged troll before he pounced, tackling them as they shouted for mercy.
“Woah woah woah! What’s going on here?!” Poppy yelled, jumping to her feet and letting her crafts scatter on the floor.
“I’m gonna kill you!” was his only reply as misplaced rage fuelled his swings.
Poppy reached Branch just in time to pull him off of Cooper before he could actually hurt him, not that he would ever actually hurt any of them. Smidge was right by her side as each grabbed an arm.
“Okay! Explain!” she demanded as Branch was shuffled away.
Once Branch was pulled away and forced to look at Poppy, the sudden shame hit him like a truck. Yeah, Cooper had made him panic into thinking Poppy was hurt, but it wasn’t right for him to jump him like that. The sudden rush of fear, relief, confusion and anger had just swept him off his feet, leaving him blind to rational thought. But that was no excuse. No matter how unused to being around other trolls he was, he shouldn’t have freaked out like that.
“It was nuthin’,” he mumbled, refusing to meet her eyes.
“That was not nothing.” She was refusing to let this go, but Branch was just as stubborn about revealing his fear. Realizing Branch wasn’t going to explain, Poppy turned to Cooper who was climbing back to his feet, completely unhurt. “What happened?” she repeated.
“Oh, I was just heading out for more pink glitter like I said I would when I spotted Branch! I told him how you were in trouble with no glitter, and he rushed here!” he replied completely relaxed as if he hadn’t just been tackled.
“you never mentioned the glitter part…” Branch mumbled, but apparently Poppy heard.
“Wait, you rushed here thinking I was in trouble?” a big smile spread across her face. “Awwwww! You do care!” A dark shade of blue spread across his cheeks and over his ears as Poppy continued to tease his exposed worry for her.
“But still! You shouldn’t have tackled Cooper like that!” If it was even possible, the blush ran a darker shade as the shame came full force.
“’m sorry Cooper” he mumbled out, still too embarrassed to look anyone in the eyes.
Just as it felt his embarrassment was reaching its peak, a ting rang out across the pod.
“Hug time!” the snack pack exclaimed, each one extending out their arms. As if to show he held no hard feelings Cooper came over to Branch and wound his neck around the stiff troll. Poppy joined in before the rest of the group came clambering over to continue the troll pile.
Branch gave it all of 3 seconds before he started fidgeting to try and escape. He may be trying to reintegrate into troll society, but that did not mean he was going to immediately start accepting all these hugs.
Thankfully the moment passed, and everyone returned to their previous seats. Branch stood awkwardly by the pod’s doorway before Poppy noticed his hovering. Grabbing his paw, she dragged him down to floor beside her.
“So, what actually are you doing anyway?” Branch questioned, finally getting a proper chance to look at the craft-chaos before him.
“We’re making party invites!” Biggie exclaimed, raising his carefully crafted invite into the air to show off.
“Yeah! Tomorrow is supposed to be a sunny day, so we’re inviting everyone to a picnic!” Satin cheered.
“The whole village is invited,” Chenille joined.
Ah. That explained the pile of envelopes already stacked by the door.
“Here! Help us out,” a stack of colourful paper and scissors were shoved into his hands by DJ Suki before he could object.
“Uhhh crafting isn’t really my thing,” he objected, pushing away the items given to him. But Poppy was apparently already one step ahead of him.
“No worries! You can be on organisation duty then and make sure we get everyone in the village!” Trust Poppy to know exactly how to include him despite all his aversions.
A shocked little “sure” escaped his mouth as he got settled in, grabbing a notebook and pen from his hair as he started listing all the villagers one by one. Guy Diamond ran out to collect the missing pink glitter that Cooper seemed to completely forget about as he got absorbed back in crafting.
The afternoon passed by quickly as the last invitation was made and added to the pile. The envelopes were divided into neat piles by Branch as he handed a stack to each Snack Pack member. He’d spent the last of the afternoon designing the best path to deliver letters most efficiently. Each member had their designated pile of invites and route to follow, ensuring all cards delivered before end of day.
A quick farewell scattered the group with the promise to see each other tomorrow. It wasn’t long before every card was hand delivered (or snuck into their pockets in Branch’s case) when the sun finally set. Finally, the day was over and Branch couldn’t wait to get back underground into the safety of his bunker. Ever since he was in the woods a weird feeling had crawled up his neck as if something was watching him. But no matter how hard he glared into the darkness, nothing ever revealed itself.
Deciding to do a bit more extensive patrol around the village that night, it wasn’t until the stars were long in the sky before Branch finally crawled home. The day was long and tiring, and this prickling feeling wasn’t helping to calm his nerves. Completing the final lock down of the bunker, Branch sunk into bed. Both dreading and excited for tomorrow’s picnic.