The Princess of Troll Village, who was no longer pink, had awoken from her slumber as she was laying against a tree.

She sat up slowly and rubbed her eyes, yawning, then held on to the tree for support to get back into her feet.

She stood there for a second, her mind a little blank since she was still a bit tired.

Then she started gaining consciousness, she started thinking about yesterday again. The things that were said, the things that he said.

Brushing the thoughts away, she shook her head lightly and inhaled.

"I can do this! Home shouldn't be too far from here! I just have to uhhh.. walk? Yeah, then maybe I could find a trail." Poppy tried to have confidence in herself as she had awoken completely and she dusted her dress off and began to walk.

As she walked though, she happened to step on something that made a light cracking sound.

A stick.

She looked down to her feet and slowly bent down and picked up the stick.

She examined it slowly, like she recognized it from somewhere.

From someone.

Sure, it was a forest, and there was obviously gonna be sticks around, but it reminded her of a certain person.

He loved to pick sticks.. She mumbled quietly while staring at it for a little while.

After a few minutes, she turned her glance away from the stick and dropped it, like she never even grabbed it in the first place, and continued walking.

But she didn't even last 3 steps.

She stopped again, and sighed deeply.

"What am I doing.. I need him.." Not very much thinking about the choice she was making, she turned around and began to ran.

"Braaaaanch? Braaaaaaanch! Where are youuuuuuu?" Poppy called out, yelling as loud as she could while running and looking around.

"Come on Branch.." She said in a light and hopeful voice, hoping he'd be around somewhere.

Again, she started to call out his name.

"Braaaaaaaanch! Please come out! I'm really sorry about everything! Bra-"

Before she could even say anything else, huge and loud footsteps could be heard coming her way.

Hearing this, she quickly turned her head to see what the noise was and gasped lightly.

Another bergen.

Poppy panicked internally and quickly hid behind a tree.

The bergen, actually one of the guards that chef sent out, took a deep inhale, trying to find her scent.

"Got it." He smirked and walked closer to where she was.

Poppy breathed heavily but not loudly. She wanted to run but that would make the bergen easily grab her, but then she thought of something.

She quickly climbed up the tree and camouflaged her hair green to make it look like she was part of it and breathed as quietly and calm as she could.

After doing so, the bergen had already grabbed a hold of the tree and yanked it out of the ground, making the pink troll nearly squeal and hold on tightly to a large tree Branch. (A/N: HAHAHAHAHAH okay I'll stop-)

He held it close to his face and examined it closely, trying to find her.

Poppy peeked through her hair lightly, only seeing the crippled teeth of the bergen.

"Eugh, bergens have zero hygiene.." She shuddered and mumbled lightly to herself.

"I know you're in there little princess." The bergen said in his deep voice.

Suddenly, he got an idea, and started to shake the tree.

Uh oh.. Poppy thought as she kept a tighter grip on the tree, starting to panic again.

"You may as well just come out, you might fall and hurt your pretty little head." He said again while smirking and continued to shake the tree but with more force.

Poppy's grip started to loosen a bit and she slipped a little out of her hiding spot.

"No no no no no-" Her words were cut off by a little squeak she emitted as she hung onto another branch, except it was shorter than the other one she held onto.

She saw the ground beneath her and took a big gulp, beginning to sweat.

"There you are." He hummed as he started to reach for her slowly.

"Don't touch me you little-!" Poppy started kicking her feet trying to defend herself, but all he did was just grab her and she stopped kicking, but tried keeping a tight grip on the branch.

"Urgh, let go of that dang Branch!" He tried pulling her off as his grip on her tightened.

"Neverr! WAAAAGHH!" Poppy finally lost her grip as she was completely into the bergen's grasp.

"See, that wasn't so hard was it? Besides, you're village is already on their trip to bergen town, you'll be there with them!" The bergen looked down at her with a vicious look in his eyes.

"You're lying!" She struggled in his grasp as she kicked her feet around.

"Oh don't worry sweetheart, once we arrive you'll know that I'm not." He chuckled as his grip on her tightened to the point she could barely breathe.

The last thing she could yell out was, "BRANCH!", before struggling to breathe.

The bergen began to turn around and make his way to bergen town, but was merely interrupted by a pebble getting thrown at his head.

"Ow! What the-?" Then another was thrown at his head.

"Did you think you'd get away with something like this? Well ya thought wrong pal." Said a masculine voice.

The bergen turned around to try and find the voice and found it to be Branch, with an unamused look on his face.

Poppy noticed him as well and wanted to say his name again, but she could barely breathe so she just smiled weakly.

"Well well well, looks like we have another one who wants to join the party." The bergen smirked.

"I don't do parties, so here's a better option. I'm gonna overthrow you instead." Branch said in his sarcastic voice and smirked back at him then ran past him.

"Hey!" The bergen turned around countless times, trying to grab him.

Oh great, now I feel nauseas while I can't even breathe. Poppy facepalmed herself mentally.

Branch stopped near a tree and waited for him to notice him.

When he did he growled and stared at him intensely.

"You don't wanna mess with me troll, I could eat you both right now but that's against my mission which was to bring you two back to bergen town." His anger took over his instincts and as he put more force on his grip on Poppy.

She gasped and shut her eyes tightly, nearly feeling like she was gonna pass out.

Branch nearly panicked seeing her suffocate, he had to move fast, he couldn't risk anything else bad happening to her.

But he kept calm, for her.

Suddenly, he thought of something.

He sighed and leaned against the tree, acting chill as possible.

"Alright, I'm right here, come and get me."

"Wait what-"

"Yeah, come on, just take me." He nodded his head.

"Hmmm." The bergen started getting a little suspicious at his behavior.

What the heck is he doing?!

Branch noticed Poppy's worried expression, but he gave her a warm smile for reassurance.

"You better not be playin games with me troll." He eyed Branch intently, leaning closer to him.

"I'm not, I'm dead serious come on and get me! Don't waste your time." He crossed his arms, staring at him back.

"Hmph." He snorted and attempted to reach for him, when suddenly-

"Just kidding." He smirked and wrapped his hair around the tree and flung himself up as high as he could.

Once he reached his face he took action quickly and kicked him in the nose as hard as he could.

The bergen yelled in pain and held his nose, and finally, Poppy was fully out of his grasp, as she was soaring towards the ground.

"AHHHHHHHH!!" Poppy screamed as she was getting closer to the ground.

Branch quickly noticed and ran to where she was and jumped up to the air and caught her carefully, falling back to the ground safely.

"Are you okay?" He asked her in a calm voice, still holding her in his arms.

All she did was nod, she couldn't really speak clearly, nor still even breathe correctly.

Meanwhile, the bergen started to regain consciousness of things after groaning of pain from his nose.

Poppy gasped and noticed him beginning to try and find them again.

"Branch!" She said in a whispering voice.

Branch looked at her then the bergen then tried to think.

He looked far from him and saw tall grasses.

He looked around again and saw another pebble and picked it up.

He started to run as quietly as he could towards the grasses while the bergen was still turned around and focused on his nose, feeling Poppy wrap her arms around him a bit more tightly.

Once they were both enclosed in he put her down carefully and looked at the pebble.

"What are you doing?" She whispered.

He just looked at her then smiled and threw it not ahead, but through the grass, making it move slightly.

"Hide in your hair." He whispered as he hid in his, then she proceeded to do the same.

The bergen saw the grasses move slightly, mistakingly thinking it was them.

"Hey!" He ran after where he saw the grasses move, looking around.

Hearing him run away, finally, they both released from their hair and stood back up.

"That took a looooot of effort." Branch held his head dramatically, but he stopped as he looked at Poppy, gray just like him, who looked at him right back, but then looked away and rubbed her arm slightly.

Branch sighed and looked away as well, feeling his heart break more than it already had. He'd already noticed she was gray before, but he didn't have time to say anything about it since he was trying to save her.

"I don't even know what to say.. I.. I'm so sorry Poppy.. I didn't mean to hurt you, I just.. I wanted us to get back home as soon as possible, and us being on the wrong trail just frustrated me.. I was afraid another bergen might've found us before we got back which one did, but of I got rid of it," He cleared his throat, "anyway, I guess I got really upset and some of the wrong things just came out my mouth. Now I made you gray, and.. ugh.. me, a gray troll, made an optimistic troll like you, gray.. I just can't forgive myself for that, and I don't think I ever will.. I mean, pfft, I can't forgive myself for anything.."

He stopped talking and stared at the ground, shifting his foot slightly, when he felt a pair of arms wrap around his neck gently.

"But I can."

He looked into her eyes.

"What?"

Poppy sighed and pulled away from him, holding his shoulders gently.

"I'm sorry too Branch.. I know you just wanted us to get home as soon as we could, it's my own fault that we got lost.. and even if my feelings did get hurt, there were some things you said that were true.. I admit I can be pretty careless sometimes.. but I always just try to focus on the bright side of things.. now I know that sometimes, you just gotta focus on reality and what might be going on around you.. and not everything's gonna be cupcakes and rainbows.." She shrugged and let go of his shoulders.

Branch sighed.

"It's not like you were wrong either.. you only tried taking me in as friend when nobody else did.. but I just kept pushing you away.. I mean, I was used to having no friends, but it would've been nice to at least have one.." He rubbed his arm.

"It's okay, Branch.. I should've just respected that you wanted to be alone.." She said in a soft voice and smiled a bit and held his hand.

Branch smiled a bit back and held her hand back gently, but then sighed again.

"But.. I.."

"Shhhhh." She put a finger on his lips lightly.

"Let's not go too deep into this. We both forgave each other and that's what matters." She smiled more, sliding her hand to his cheek, holding it carefully.

Branch smiled more as well, looking into her eyes again.

She looked back into his eyes as well, both not realizing that they were once again leaning in close to each other, their eyes closing slowly.

They continued to reach closer to each other's lips until they once again abruptly stopped, except by nature.

A clash of thunder could be heard from the clouds, making Poppy yelp and fall backwards.

Branch rolled his eyes and grabbed her hand and picked her up.

"Relax, it's just thunder."

"Then that means there's gonna be a storm!" Poppy flapped her arms everywhere, not taking her eyes off him.

"Look we can find somewhere to hide, it hasn't even started raining ye-"

Thunder clashed again, and the sky started to pour with rain.

Poppy looked at him with a pouty face.

"You were saying?" Her pouty face turned into a smirk slowly.

Branch huffed and made an umbrella with his hair.

"Come on." He grabbed her hand and they went to seek somewhere to hide until the storm passed.

And it didn't look like this storm would pass by anytime soon.

A/N: Ya'll feelin better?