Chapter Text
Poppy normally wasn’t allowed to stay up very late. Her bedtime usually fell around 8 p.m., 8:30 p.m. on special occasions. Not tonight. Tonight was different. Tonight was grim, the opposite of all their other celebrations, a night of mourning. And it was only on this night of mourning that she was not only allowed to stay up all night, but expected to. She had a long night ahead of her, as did everyone else.
She was lying back on the grass, staring up at the sky. She didn’t know any of the constellations, so she made up her own to pass the time. Her favorite was the sundae, with the brightest star in the sky representing the cherry on top.
The whole village was gathered together in what had been their town square for the last year. Poppy understood in concept that their numbers were few - 33 trolls in all - but at the same time, she couldn’t remember ever being in a group larger than this. This was all she knew.
Though she was staring up at the sky, the trolling next to her was sitting up, knees drawn up to his chest. Poppy could tell he was about to start crying, so she sat up, eager to make him feel better. “Don’t cry, Branch. We’re not there anymore.” She went in for a hug, but he dodged out of the way, glaring at her. Just because their siblings get along, it doesn’t mean they do.
“You don’t understand, Poppy. You don’t remember.”
This was true. She didn’t remember. She’d been only a baby, after all. She wasn’t sure how to respond, how she could stop his tears falling. She was about to give an answer, one that Branch would most certainly ignore, when Miss Glory, currently their babysitter, knelt down next to them, shushing them in the kindest way possible. “Quiet, children. Queen Viva is about to start.”
Poppy’s back straightened up, attention immediately going to her sister, who was brushing herself off before addressing the village. Directly behind her was Clay, Viva’s second in command. It was the same pair of statements every year, never changing. Poppy was firmly of the opinion that they could at least add a nice song every once in a while to brighten it up a bit, but she didn’t really care as long as it was her sister speaking.
“Here we are again, my dear trolls.” Viva wasn’t smiling as she usually was. She looked grim and sad, something Poppy had never liked to see. “The end of another Trollstice.”
Everyone around her bowed their heads. Poppy followed suit, not really knowing why, but not wanting to stand out of the crowd.
“Five years ago today, we escaped from the Troll Tree at my father, King Peppy’s, command. We left a lot of people behind. Family. Friends.” Poppy looked around, noticing that everyone had the same frowny face her sister did. A couple of people were even crying. She felt her own face melt into a frown, but for very different reasons than everyone else's. She didn’t want her friends to be unhappy. She wanted them to smile again. But she couldn’t cheer them all up at once. She could only choose one, and since Branch wouldn’t let her, she clung onto Miss Glory’s leg.
“Since then, five Trollstices have passed without us, five massacres at the bergens’ hands. We’ve almost definitely lost lots of trolls each time, even though we don’t know who. For all we know, they could all be gone. Or maybe they escaped too, and haven’t found us yet. I really, really, really hope it’s that last one. But, we don’t know.” Viva took a deep, shaky breath. “We just don’t know. So, tonight, we’re gonna have a big ‘ol meal in their honor, to remember everyone we left behind. Like, a big picnic!” She forced out a smile. “Now, I’m gonna hand the mic over to my pal, Clay, to go over the usual procedure, just a quick refresher for everyone.”
It hadn’t escaped Poppy’s notice that Viva had been a bit more rushed towards the end of her speech than usual. Viva stepped back, and Clay stepped forward. She zoned out as the usual safety procedures were gone over for what she was pretty sure was the eighth time today. She didn’t get why it needed to be drilled so deep into their heads - it wasn’t like anything had changed from last year, or the year before that. They’d move under the cover of night, walk as far as they could before morning, and when the sun started rising, they’d choose their new home for the next year. According to Viva and Clay, it was dangerous to stay in one place for too long. Sometimes, they’d even move sooner than planned when evidence of danger was found nearby. There were about a million little rules in place to ensure that no one got lost, to make sure that everything was under control, and to be positive that nothing was left behind. It was boring. Poppy knew Viva’s friend liked boring things, but she didn’t. In her opinion, Clay’s whole speech was just ten more minutes that Poppy couldn’t spend with her sister or a good cupcake. All the same, she kept quiet through the whole thing, waiting for it to end.
“- and remember, everyone has a buddy! Buddies were chosen this morning! Never let your buddy out of your sight, and stay with the group!” Clay cleared his throat, having read out the final safety precaution. “Now, everyone is free to eat. May our loved ones be safe.”
With that, the silent and still crowd burst back into motion. Everyone was pulling food out of their bags, handing it around, and eating as quickly as they could. They were supposed to savor this meal, but everyone was too eager to get on the road. The sooner you left, the farther you would be by morning.
Poppy could see Viva making her way towards her, giving quick waves to people as she went. Poppy was eager to see her sister, and was bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet. When she was closer, Poppy sprinted over and slammed into her full force. Viva laughed a little and crouched down to hug her. “Hey there, Popster!” She squeezed her tightly. “Did Miss Glory take good care of you?”
“Uh huh!” Poppy nodded, not letting go. Even at this time of night, her sheer amount of energy just couldn’t be contained in her tiny little body. “Do we get to have cupcakes now?”
“Well, of course!” Viva scooped her baby sister up, smiling again, to Poppy’s delight. “Now, what kind do you want?” Viva asked as though she didn’t already know. “Chocolate? Or maybe vanilla? Or…”
“Strawberry, strawberry!” Poppy had always adored strawberry cupcakes, strawberry ice cream, strawberry anything. She liked the color most of all - pink dessert was the best dessert. It was pink, after all. How could it not be the best?
Viva took Poppy’s hand, taking her to go eat. Poppy shot one last glance back at Branch, who was holding Clay’s hand. Clay was talking with Miss Glory, and Branch was staring at the ground. Poppy could tell he was still upset. Tears fell from his face and down onto the ground. It was true what Branch had said, she didn’t really understand. He was a few years older than her. He had a better memory of the Troll Tree than she did, a better memory of what they’d escaped and what they’d lost. But everyone else remembered too, and they still smiled. He never did.
She felt Viva gently tug on her arm, so she picked up the pace, skipping after her big sister. They would settle underneath a larger mushroom, Viva getting a blanket set up for them to sit on. P0ppy sat down criss-cross applesauce, and soon had the promised strawberry cupcake in hand, as well as a little glass of juice.
“It’s a full moon tonight, Poppy. Did you notice that?” She had noticed. She’d stared up at the sky for what felt like forever that evening. But instead of saying that, she shook her head, because she knew where Viva was going with this. Viva had a story to tell, and even though Poppy had heard it a million times, she knew it would make Viva feel better about everything.
“Nuh uh.”
Viva smiled. “You know, Mom loved the moon. She used to tell me all sorts of stories about the moon when I was your age.” She pulled Poppy a little bit closer to her, snuggling her to her side. As she started telling Poppy the same story she’d heard about a dozen times, Poppy picked the cherry off the top of her cupcake, popping it in her mouth.
“Mom used to tell me there was a man up there in the moon. If you look carefully at the dark spots - those are called craters - you can just make out his face. See?” She pointed. “Those are his eyes, and that’s his mouth…”
Poppy squinted at the moon. It was high in the sky at this time of night. She honestly didn’t see it. She had a big imagination, as everyone always told her, and she could make out any number of shapes in the clouds during the day. But try as she might, she could see no face in the moon, unless it was the face of a creature with no similarity to a troll, or any other creature she’d ever seen for that matter. But who was she to argue?
“What does he do? Why is he up there?”
“Well,” Viva paused to take a bite of her own treat. “He watches over us. He makes sure that no troll is forgotten. He knows all our names, all our faces, and he wants to make sure we’re all safe. Sometimes, when I miss Dad, I’ll look up and ask the moon to watch over him.” Viva spoke with a strange tone, one Poppy was familiar with, but could never really interpret. She sounded both happy and sad. But that made no sense. How could someone be happy and sad at the same time?
“Can he really do that?”
“Mom said he could. And I trust Mom.”
Poppy stared at her food, pondering this. She’d almost finished eating, all that was left of her cupcake being the top half, the half with all the frosting. She always saved the frosting for last, because it was the best part.
Poppy was only five. There was so much she didn’t understand. She didn’t understand why everyone was so sad. She didn’t understand why they always had to leave. She hardly understood anything, even when she tried her hardest. That was what she did on the walk that night. Tried to understand. Tried to understand how her sister could be happy and sad at the same time. Tried to understand why Branch never smiled. Tried to understand that there were really creatures out there that took their discontent out on a family she’d never met, which was another thing she didn’t really understand. But try as she might, she was only five. She wasn’t meant to understand everything.