The guards brought their pitchforks closer to Bridget's neck, and she couldn't do anything but quiver, when-

"STOP!" Poppy screamed out.

The guards halted when they heard a feminine voice other than Chef's or Bridget's.

"What was that." Chef scrunched her face at the sudden noise.

Poppy revealed herself from out of Bridget's hair and climbed onto her hand to stand on it.

"She didn't eat us!"

The guards completely put down their pitchforks, shocked at what they were looking at.

Chef immediately saw what was happening here, or at least she thought she did.

"So you tried to escape again, huh," she started at Poppy with that horrifying look of hers, then looked at Bridget the same, "and you HELPED HER."

"But let me explain! We just wanted to-"

Not even letting her finish, Chef snacthed Poppy from Bridget's hand and squeezed her tight.

"If you both think you can ruin trollstice all over again for any of us, you're horribly mistaken. I worked way too hard to finally make this a reality, and you idiots are not gonna destroy this for me!"

Poppy struggled in her grasp, but that only made her grip even tighter.

Up in the vents, Branch could feel himself begin to lose his mind.

"Branch! What do we do?!" Biggie whispered to him.

Branch looked back at Biggie, then back out to what was happening. He didn't know what to do, but he had to think of something fast.

Chef turned her attention to the guards.

"Take her away while I go look for those other trolls." She pointed at Bridget.

They followed her order and grab Bridget by her arms harshly and pulled her away.

"No! Please! I didn't mean anyone any harm! L-Let me go!" Bridget begged and struggled.

Gristle just watched everything happen, not knowing what to do or say.

"Now for you and your little friends." Chef smirked devilishly at Poppy and started to walk away with her.

"DON'T HURT HER!"

As Chef continued walking, she heard a bunch of yelling from a mixture of voices.

"What in the name of- AH!"

Branch, Peppy, and every troll from troll village, jumped onto Chef and began attacking her.

"Leave my daughter alone!" Peppy was hitting her on the side of her head with his cane.

"Get off of me you hooligans!" Chef tried pushing them off of wherever most of them were, but in the process she also dropped Poppy.

Branch saw this and immediately jumped down from Chef's shoulder and quickly grabbed her.

"Poppy? Are you okay?" He held her in his arms carefully, knowing that her body was just squeezed by Chef's strong hand.

"Y-Yeah.." Poppy got up and wobbled a bit, and looked to see all the chaos.

"Guys, stop! Violence never solves a problem!"

The trolls all heard Poppy and immediately got off of Chef, standing on a nearby table.

Everyone now stood silent, looking at each other, but Poppy finally broke it, as she felt was now the time to explain everything.

"Look, I never wanted to hurt anyone. I just wanted to help all of you."

The Bergens, clearly confused and somewhat intrigued, continued listening to her.

"I asked Bridget if she could help us confront you all, she wasn't trying to ruin anything, I promise you. I know you're all unhappy and you feel like there's no other way to feel happy unless you eat us, because we're happy. But.. I lost so many people I loved because of this. And so did my villagers." Poppy began thinking back to when she lost her mother to the bergens, but she stayed strong.

"See, us trolls, we may always seem happy, but we're not. We have other emotions besides happiness. And when you take our village away for your own benefit, we get really sad."

Gristle began to have a look of despair for the creatures. He hadn't thought about trollstice like how Poppy described it.

"So please.. we wanna help you. We don't want this anymore. We can both be happy together. You just have to let us help." Poppy walked up to Gristle and laid her hand on top of his.

Gristle looked down at her, then at the rest of the trolls.

Then he looked at Bridget, who still had that scared and desperate look in her eyes.

"Let her go." Gristle said quietly.

The guards let go of Bridget, but she stayed right where she was.

Chef, of course, did not like where any of this was going.

"I-I am so sorry King Gristle, I-"

"No." He stopped her, making her and the trolls look up in surprise.

"I'm sorry. I didn't realize how selfish I, and my father back then, were being until now. I never thought about how you guys may have felt until now. You all have never did anything to us. And I feel so horrible at the thought of you all mourning over your loved ones because of our selfish behavior." Gristle knelt down to the trolls to where they were completely face to face.

They all looked at each other, not knowing what to say.

Poppy, however, smiled softly, and laid her hand on top of his again.

"It's okay, King Gristle. You only wanted what was best for your kingdom. You only wanted them to be happy like your dad did." She said in a soft tone.

Gristle smiled in returned and turned his attention to Bridget, who gulped immediately and trembled in her spot.

He walked up to her, a sympathetic look on his face.

Poppy walked back to where Branch was and held his hand gently, watching what was about to happen.

"No need to be nervous. I only want to speak from what my heart wants to tell you." He reassured the trembling Bergen.

Bridget nodded, almost instantaneously.

Gristle took off his crown and held it to his chest, clearing his throat.

"I'm very sorry Bridget. I didn't realize how wrong I was to treat you such a way. My greed to get the trolls was so strong I didn't realize my disgusting attitude most of the time. Thank you for attempting to get me to see the error of my ways. And I promise you I won't ever treat you such a way again." Gristle took one of Bridget's hands and held his crown in another.

"O-Oh, um, I-I, uh, I'm.. y-you're welcome King Gristle.. oh gosh I think I'm blushing now.." Bridget fanned her face with her hand feeling herself began to heat up. She was holding her crush's hand, after all.

Poppy smiled and exchanged glances with Branch, and looked at her village, who also smiled.

The surrounding bergens also began to "ooh" and "aww" at what they have just witnessed.

Gristle kept Bridget's hand in his and turned to his citizens.

"Okay everyone, I hereby declare that trollstice will be no more, and instead, we will be at peace and harmony with the trolls as they'll help us gain back the happiness we desire!"

Everyone, both trolls and bergens, began to cheer.

Poppy smiled even wider now. Everyone was so cheerful and it's just what she wanted to see, and what she wants to see for as long as she continues to live.

"You did it, Poppy!" Biggie, as well as the rest of the snack pack and the village began to walk over to her, their smiles just as wide as hers.

"No, we did it." Poppy corrected him, still smiling.

But just as everyone continued cheering, a loud bang was heard.

Their attention was turned to chef, who had banged her hand on the table.

"Fools! You're all FOOLS! Do you realize what you're doing and saying right now?! We could've had another year of happiness and harmony, and this is King Gristle's first year! And you want to just destroy all of that! You idiots!" She scolded every single bergen she saw in the dining room.

"No Chef, you're the fool here. Trolls have more emotions than just happiness, they're not always cheerful. They get sad sometimes just like we do. And when we take their families or loved ones away for our own benefit, it breaks them to pieces. And I should've thought about that earlier, I know now. But they are going to help guide us back into the happiness we need."

Gristle walked up to Chef and cracked a smile.

"You should join us."

Chef looked down at him, then Bridget, then the trolls and the bergens.

She thought about it intently for a second, when-

"NO! We are doing this trollstice right NOW so I can become queen of this worthless and miserable good for nothing village! I could be a great ruler!" Chef growled.

The bergens, even if they knew it was true, became quite offended with that statement and gave her not so friendly looks.

"Oh, so this is just about you being queen isn't it! You never cared about us!" Gristle argued.

"They don't need someone like you ruling over them, you're a little boy! You don't have a clue of what you're doing! They need a full grown and smart adult to give them orders." Chef argued back.

"No, they need a leader, a representative who actually cares about them and listens to them, not someone who is just royalty for their own greed. Chad, Todd, take her away and make sure she is never able to return here." Gristle ordered his two guards standing near him.

"Aha. Chad and Todd are my best coworkers, they would never do-"

But she was stopped when she felt herself being grabbed by both shoulders.

"What do you two think you're doing! Get off of me!" Chef tried to release from their grasp.

"Sorry, King's rules. Plus, you were pretty mean anyway." Chad said as he followed along with Todd out of the dining room.

"After everything I've done for you morons! You can't do this to me! I will be queen! I will be BACK!!" Chef yelled as she was being dragged away.

And then, she was gone.

"Well um.. now that that's over with.. what do we do now?" Gristle bent down to Poppy's height, desperately in need of answers.

"Now we help you! But first, we're gonna need a favor. A huge favor." Poppy clasped her hands together.

"And that is?" He now stared at her in full curiosity.

A/N: Okay so

First off sorry for that terrible ending I didn't know how else to do it-

Second

The next chapter might be the last chapter of this book
Or chapter after next
Idk yet
I might do an epilogue too but eh.. not sure about that yet either

Damn this book was short lmao
And yet it took me months to write it cause I'm lazy as hell

Ahe m anyway
Hope y'all liked this chapter I guess
Bye bye see ya in the next one