Chapter 3

266 8 32

by Photrollartophy

by Photrollartophy

Azalea skipped ahead, wearing her backpack, as Branch, Poppy, and Twig fallowed behind. Branch was watching out for danger. Nothing was going to hurt his family, while he was around.

"Branch, would you relax," Poppy said, taking Twig out of his arms.
"No, Poppy. The world is a dangerous place," Branch replied, still watching his surroundings.

As they walked past Techno Lagoon, a group of Fuzzlings were working on getting the crashed dune-huggie out of the water. Poppy saw, and stopped. "Is that..." Branch noticed what was happening, and quickly ran behind Poppy, gently pushing her forwards. "No. Nope. Nope. Nope. Just a random dune-huggie. Deffenetly not yours," Branch said, nervously. "But it's got my cupcakes and rainbows sticker on it's bumper," Poppy objected. Branch froze, and then laughed nervously.

"You need to relax, Pops," he said, beginning to walk again. The leader of the fuzzlings group, a pop troll wearing a hard hat, noticed the family walking by. "Queen Poppy!" he called out. "We've got your dune-huggie." Poppy glared at Branch, and he smiled innocently. "Must be talking to a different Queen Poppy. Now let's go. Azalea's gonna be late for her first day of school. Ha. Ha. Ha," he said, still pushing her forwards.

They reached the school, and Azalea suddenly stopped, feeling nervous. She backed up a little, clutching her backpack straps in her tiny fist. Branch saw that his daughter was nervous, and walked over to her.

"Daddy," she said. "I don't wanna go."
"You'll be fine."
"But... but... but..." She hid behind Branch, hugging his leg. Branch smiled down at her, and then knelt down, putting his hands on her shoulders.

"Listen, Azalea. No ones more nervous about this than me." She blinked up at him, whipping her tears away. "I mean... anything could happen. You could get lost. Or you could get hurt. Or a flock of birds could swoop down and take you!" Branch was starting to scare himself. "Branch!" Poppy yelled. Branch looked at Poppy. "Not helping," she said. Branch looked back at Azalea, who was even more scared now than she had been before. "Oh... right. Right." He took a deep breath. "What I'm saying is... everyone gets scared, but if you let your fear control you, you'll never get to try new things, and make new friends."

Azalea whipped her tears again, smiling up at her dad. Then Branch leaned over, and whispered in her ear; "but if you want to let fear control you... that's okay too."
"Branch!" Poppy yelled, glaring at her husband.

With a deep breath, Azalea looked back at the school. "Ok..." she said, quietly. "I'll try." Branch smiled, and then gave her a hug.
"Now go have some fun." Azalea smiled, and then walked off towards the school, immedioutly making friends with a group of techno, pop, classical, funk, and rock trolls.

Poppy walked over to Branch, placing her hand on his shoulder, as he watched his only daughter walk into the school, and disappear from his sight. "I'm proud of you Branch," she said with a smile. Branch stood, still looking at the school. "You ready to go home?"
"Yeah. Yeah. You go ahead, okay, Pops. I'll... ugh... catch up." Poppy kissed Branch's cheek, and then walked away.

Branch stayed behind, looking at the school. He sighed, and then started walking towards home. He only took about four steps however before he stopped, turning back to look at the school again.

"Yeah..." he sighed. "I can't do this." He then took off running towards the school.