Gray Is Not All Colorless

Seeking Truth and Answers

Gray is Not All Colorless

A/N: I'm so, so, SO sorry for taking so flipping long on this! College had been taking about 95% of my time for the past few months, almost up to the point where I was sleep deprived for a couple of days! Scratch that, a couple of weeks!

Because of that, I hadn't written much about ANYTHING on ANY of my stories. But now, I have about a six-week break before the next semester starts, and I am going to take complete and total advantage of that.

Now, I'm sure you guys aren't here to listen to me rant about lack of sleep. Let's get on with the long-awaited Chapter 9! Roll it!

Chapter 9

Seeking Truth and Answers

Once they got back to Bridget's bedroom, the scullery maid carefully took Branch out of her apron pocket. But instead of putting him back in his cage, she placed him onto her pillow. Then, she sat down on the bed herself, careful to not jostle it too much to send the Troll flying off.

"You can go ahead and explore anywhere in the castle if you want for a few minutes, Branch." The female Bergen said to the gray Troll. "I have a surprise planned for you."

Branch tilted his head to the side. "Really?" He asked her. "You trust me enough not to escape?"

Bridget just smiled at him as she went over to the other side of the room. "If you really wanted to, you would've done it by now." She said simply.

Branch bit the inside of his cheek to keep himself from smiling. But there was a little knowing smirk appearing on his face.

"Fair enough." He answered.

He then ran over to the edge and then jumped onto the night table near her bed, where his cage used to be and where the ventilation shaft was; the one where Tempest had used to sneak in earlier. He went over to it and gently rattled the bars to see that it was still loose.

"Do you guys have a library?" He asked, an idea suddenly coming into his head.

Bridget nodded. "Yeah." She said. "I would dust every book there every month, maybe even read one or two pages of one. It's just upstairs. It's actually right above us."

Branch nodded, and then managed to slightly pull open the bars of the vent, just enough for him to slip through easier. Then, he squeezed through and started walking through the darkened shaft.

Once he had reached a certain point where the shaft was going upward, he then used his hair to springboard himself upward. He didn't quite make it all the way up, but at least the ducting was firm enough for him to grab and climb the rest of the way up.

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Soon, when he peered through another side shaft, he saw the library. He lightly rattled the bars and saw that they were loose. Branch then carefully pushed them down and then leaped forward, reaching with his hair over to one of the chandeliers to hold onto.

Branch took a moment to look around the surprisingly gigantic library. Of course, he expected the books to be much bigger than himself, but he didn't count on the Bergens having so many. But he had a feeling that most of these books weren't exactly like the ones back in Troll Village. Since Bergens don't feel happiness, if they had even had stories, they wouldn't have happy endings.

Pushing those thoughts away from his mind for the time being, Branch swung himself over to one of the many shelves. Then, he started scanning the books, looking for anything that had to do with the truth about Trollstice.