Chapter Text
“The tunnels aren't ready,” the king shared, despondently. “We'll have to go through one more trollstice. Our only hope is that the escape will be easier once they're at ease.”
“But King Peppy!” A troll protested. “They plan to eat Princess Poppy!” Mutters erupted from the gathered trolls. Although only a few months old, the infant princess had managed to win over most of the kingdom with her smiles.
Grief flashed across the king’s face- a crack in the facade- before returning to his determined calm. “I… know. But we have no options right now. We can try to fake them out, but unless the scouts can finish the tunnels, we're stuck here.”
[Outside the pod, Princess Viva heard this, and sprinted into the tunnels, determined to break out, one way or another.
Outside the pod, a different troll heard this, and ran towards the royal pod, grabbing the sleeping princess out of her crib. They grabbed some supplies, tucking them and the princess into their hair. Then, they snuck out, avoiding the bergen guards as best as they could, the pavement making no sound under their tiny feet.]
—
Poppy smiled to herself, humming as she sewed. The Flats were warmer than Funk City or Classical Mountains, but it got cold at night. Besides, you could never have too many quilts, especially when a new egg was almost hatched.
She giggled in excitement as she continued to stitch. She always liked making things with her hands and putting her heart into them. She preferred crafts to farm work any day. Granted, she wasn't strong enough for most of the farm work anyways, but it helped that she liked what she was doing instead.
Delta Dawn walked by, ruffling her hair. “And what's so funny?” She teased. While she stayed in Lonesome Flats, Poppy lived in her house. The mayor lived alone, officially, but it wasn’t uncommon for trolls to use her guest rooms.
“Oh, nothing!” Poppy said. “Just excited about this quilt!” She held up the fabric to show her aunt figure.
The town sheriff looked down at the patterns, whistling softly. “You just about wove the spitting image of the town onto that quilt there, Poppyseed.” She smiled proudly.
Poppy smiled at her. “Thanks!”
“I just don't much remember a rainbow over the town,” she continued, teasingly.
The pink troll blushed, but didn’t lower the quilt. “I thought it would be fun!” She excused.
Delta ruffled her hair again. “I'm sure you did. I'm heading out for the midday song,” she notified her, pulling on her hat. “If you need to leave the house-”
“Wear my boots, I know,” Poppy said with a sigh. “It just feels so much better to walk around barefoot!”
“Sure. Up until you step on a rattler,” Delta reminded her. “Wear your boots. This ain't Vibe City.”
Poppy didn’t like being barefoot in Vibe City when she lived there, though. The smoothness of the ground felt wrong to her, and she found herself sliding almost more than standing. (She wondered if it was genetic.) Even still, she nodded as Delta walked out the door, pulling out her banjo.
Soon, the sound of “Born to Die” filtered in through the open windows. When she was younger, it used to send Poppy into a fit of tears every time someone sang it. It took a lot of explaining and talking through feelings for her to become comfortable with the sorrow of Country songs.
(Now that she was older, she understood them a little better, too.)
She was tying off her last stitch as the song cut off abruptly with a great clatter. Curiously, she placed her sewing stuff down, slipping on her boots and stepping outside.
Down at the end of main street, a crowd had gathered, surrounding something. As Delta broke from the crowd, rushing past her, she amended her thought to “someone.”
She saw only a glimpse of the troll the mayor was carrying, but they looked like they might be a rock troll, given their coloring. The troll seemed very unsaturated, to put it bluntly.
Poppy frowned as she watched Delta rush into the doctor's office. There was no reason for a rock troll to be this far west.
“He didn't have no hooves,” Clampers said, trotting up behind her. It took Poppy a second to realize she was talking about the stranger. “Auntie seemed real shocked by that.”
Poppy looked down at her cousin. “He’s a rocker, then?” She asked, confirming. He definitely didn’t have fins to be a techno troll, nor did he have the wings to be classical.
The small troll shook her head, messing with one of her braids. “Nah. Too nature-y,” she commented. Silently, Poppy thought of a few groups of rock trolls with strong environmental focus, but decided to not bring it up at the moment. “Must of come from the forest a ways East.”
“I didn't know there were trolls living out there,” the pink troll commented. West, along the river? Yeah, of course. The mountains North? Definitely. The sea out East? Yep. The volcano out East? She just got back from visiting. But the forest? Her gaze shifted back over to the doctor’s office. “I'm gonna go see if they need help over there.”
“Auntie told me to stay with Growly Pete,” Clampers informed her, tilting her head behind her to where the deputy was approaching, talking with Moonshine, the town bartender. “You have fun getting in trouble without me.” She gestured to the doctor’s office before turning and trotting away.
Poppy sent her a teasing glare before striding off to the doctor's office. Delta had given her no such instructions.
As she stepped inside, she found Delta and the doctor covering the stranger in damp towels, both looking panicked.
The sheriff melted in relief when she saw her enter. “Poppyseed, we need more water from the pump. Cold water,” she emphasized. “This fella's been out in the sun for a mighty long time, and he's running hot.”
She snuck a glance at the troll on the table. In the office, he seemed even less saturated, barely any color at all. He was wearing a vest constructed with layers of leaves sewn together. Must have been what Clampers was talking about, with him being nature-y.
She nodded, and turned away, striding out of the office.
On her way to the water pump, she recruited Holly Darlin’ to help her carry more cold water up to the doctor's. Delta seemed grateful when they arrived. The other troll left to do her chores, but made Poppy promise to share more details later.
By dinnertime, they had gotten him back down to normal temperatures. His skin was still sun-warmed, but his inside temperature was safe. By nightfall, though, he still had not woken up. The doctor promised it could still be fine, but declared he should have supervision until they were sure.
Delta sent her home, but stayed to watch the stranger. Clampers tried to bug her for details, but Poppy just went quietly up to her room.
Concern and curiosity bounced around in her head, each taking turns being the primary emotion.
She laid down and tried to sleep, but found she couldn't. Instead, she worked through the night on a blanket for the stranger. Leafy, natural colors, in a pattern that reminded her of the forests they flew over in Vibe City. (If she wasn’t going to sleep, she at least wanted to do something.)
When the sun rose, she decided it was too late to try to sleep, and picked up her sewing. In her stress, she had already almost finished the blanket. Frankly, the different shades of green overlaid on each other was gorgeous.
She tucked it in a basket and headed downstairs, ready to start the day.
In the kitchen, Clampers was riffling around in their cold box.
“Don't you have your own home?” Poppy said, sarcastically. Her cousin stuck her tongue out at her, but returned to her search. Poppy rolled her eyes affectionately, already knowing exactly what she was looking for. “Delta put the jam in the door,” she said, reaching over the trolling to grab it out.
Clampers reached up at it with grabby hands, but Poppy just sat there with an expectant expression and waited. The trolling sighed. “May I puh-lease have the jam?” She over-enunciated the word, out of annoyance and pettiness.
The older troll pretended to deliberate for just a moment (being petty back) before relinquishing the treat. She grabbed a plain roll of her own out from the ice box, and headed for the door.
“Where're you going?” Clampers called out to her, already pulling something else from the fridge.
“I’m just gonna check on the stranger!” She responded, pulling on her boots and heading out the door. “Tell your mom that Delta will be back soon.”
She didn't wait for a response before heading out the door, basket over her arm. She waved as she walked past working trolls starting their days - baking bread, pulling weeds, the like. She passed Holly, who sent her a questioning look, but Poppy just shrugged, indicating she didn’t know anything new.
As she stepped into the doctor's office, Delta sighed at her, bags under her eyes making her look even more exasperated. “What're you doing here?”
Poppy blinked innocently. “I just thought this would be a good place to work on my quilting,” she said. “Since, you know, you'll be heading home about now.” She knew Delta had zero plans of heading home, but Poppy wasn’t going to accept that.
“Poppy…” Delta said, chidingly.
The pink troll just stared at her innocently. “I mean, unless you were planning to stay awake and be exhausted for tonight,” she said. “Clampers is really excited to dance with her Auntie. And, you know, a hoedown ain’t complete without line dances.”
Delta stared at her for another moment, before she sighed. “You promise to get someone if he wakes up?” Poppy nodded. Delta sighed, standing up from the floor. She pulled over Poppy’s chair and stood to leave. “If anything happens-”
“I can get Pete,” she said. “You need to go to bed.” (Poppy chose to ignore the fact that she had been up the entirety of the previous night too.)
The older troll sighed, leaving the room, ruffling her hair before leaving.
Poppy pulled out her quilting, sitting down and laying it over her lap to work as she kept an eye on the strange troll. She was touching up the edges when Delta came back in, late in the afternoon.
“Did'j'eet today?”
“I’m going to get plenty at the hoedown,” Poppy argued.
Delta opened her mouth to argue back, but was interrupted.
“Where…”
Both of the trolls looked over at the stranger, who was stirring. He tensed, reaching for something in his vest.
“Hello?” Poppy said, gently. “Are you okay?” Her grip on her needle tightened.
His face scrunched in confusion. His ears twitched, searching around for the sound. Slowly, his eyes blinked open, and he stared in confusion at the room he was in.
“Where am I?” He asked, quietly.
“You’re in the doctor’s office,” Delta answered. “In Lonesome Flats. I’m Delta Dawn, the sheriff and mayor. What’s your name?”
He squinted at her, though it was a toss up over whether he was doing it due to a headache or if it was judgement. “Why do you need to know?” He asked, suspiciously.
“Kiddo, you stumbled into town hotter than a tin roof in summer,” she snarked, rolling her eyes. “At the very least, I gotta make sure your brain ain’t so fried you forgot it.”
The stranger eyed her in silence for another moment, taking in her non-aggressive stance, before relenting. “Branch,” he said. “My name is Branch.”
“I’m Poppy!” She added, happily. “What are you doing out here in the Flats? Most Rock Trolls don’t come this far west.”
He stared at her. “I’m not made of rock,” he ground out. “I’m just gray.”
Poppy tilted her head in confusion. “No, like Rock. Not rock.”
“You’re just saying the same thing twice.”
“No, she means what songs do you sing?” Delta tried to explain.
He glared at her. “I don’t sing.”
The two tilted their heads at him.
“No music?” Poppy said, in pure confusion. “At all?”
He scoffed. “Why would I force myself to be happy just to sing a song about how ‘everything's great!’ when it's not?”
Poppy frowned. “That's not-”
Delta gasped softly. “You escaped from the giants!” She whispered in shock.
Branch shot her a look. “You mean the bergens? You know about them?”
Before Delta could answer, Poppy burst up from her chair, unintentionally dropping her quilt on the ground. Branch was shocked at the movement, but even more shocked at the fact that she had two legs.
“Oh my gosh!!” Poppy burst out excitedly, clinging to the edge of his bed. “You're just like me!!! I thought there was no troll like me!!!” Her hair began flickering like a rainbow flame in her excitement. “This is so fantastic-amazing-awesome!” She cheered. “It's fantastamawesome!” She pulled a notebook and pen out of her hair. “You have to tell me everything!”
He stared in shock at the items, before his face fell into a glare again. “I don't have to tell you anything.”
Her hair died out, lowering to her normal pink ponytail. “Nothing?” She asked, nervously.
“Poppyseed,” Delta interrupted. “Why don't you go take a nap before the hoedown?”
The pink troll sputtered at her aunt in offense, but eventually relented. She deflated, gathering up her materials. Rather than put the finished blanket back in her basket, though, she held it out to Branch.
“I know you're really warm right now, but I made this based on your vest,” she said, quietly. “I hope you like it.”
“Poppyseed,” Delta said, in warning.
Finally, the pink troll left the room, closing the door softly behind her.
Her mind was racing, but she had nowhere to direct it to. Her people were alive. She had the chance to learn about them, but the one troll who could tell her refused.
She walked back to Delta's house in a daze and laid down on the couch, falling asleep near instantly.