Trolls and the Enchanted Forest (rewrite)

Chapter 10

     The princess walked through the forest, still searching frantically for her missing friend. She was so worried about him.

     'What if something really bad happened to him?' she thought to herself. 'What if...' She shook her head, trying to get that awful thought out of her brain. "No, Poppy!" she yelled at herself. "You can't think that way. He's ok. He has to be ok..."

     She looked around herself again, still not seeing any signs of the grey troll being nearby.

     "Branch!?" she called out. "Come on, Branch!? Where are you!?"

"Poppy!" she suddenly heard in a fearful scream from off in the distance. "Poppy, help!"

     She gasped softly, her eyes widening in shock. She knew that voice...

     "Branch!" she yelled out, quickly running off towards the voice, but stopped, freezing in her tracks as she reached the edge of a cliff.

"Branch!? Where are you!?" she called out, looking around, not seeing the grey troll anywhere.

"Down here!" she suddenly heard.

Quickly, she looked down, her eyes widening, as she saw Branch standing on a small leadge, which was crumbling under his weight.

     What once was a fairly large piece of rock, was now just a little sliver that his feet hung over the edge of, only his heels standing to keep his balance.

He looked down, seeing the small river far below him, as he whimpered in fear, afraid of falling to his doom.

"Don't worry, Branch!" Poppy yelled down to him. "I'm gonna get you back up here!"
"Hurry!" Branch begged, crying softly in fear.

She whipped her hair down to him, but it wasn't long enough to reach. He was still far from being saved...

"You need to help, Branch!" she called down to him. "Grab my hair with yours!"

He looked up at her, tears flooding his eyes.

"I... I don't know how," he admitted softly, kind of embarrassed that he couldn't do what the other trolls could do so easily.

"What!?" Poppy yelled in disbelief. "What kind of troll doesn't know how to use their hair!? Didn't your family ever teach you to..."

She paused, suddenly remembering what Creek had told her. Branch didn't have a family...

"Oh..." she said quietly, feeling bad for yelling at him for something he had no control over. "It... it's ok. I'll teach you," she told him. "Just focus, ok? It's just like moving your arms or legs. Can you do that?"

Branch nodded, looking up at the beautiful princess. He took a deep breath, closing his eyes as he concentrated on moving his hair up to her.

His pure black hair twitched slightly, beginning to stretch upward, but as it did, the ledge he was just barely standing on crumbled even more, his left foot now having nothing to stand on.

"AHHH!" Branch screamed, almost falling down the canyon, but he quickly caught himself, regaining his balance, now holding all of his weight on his right foot.

"Branch!" Poppy yelled in fear, seeing him almost plummeting down to his demise.

He looked down below him again, his teeth chattering, as he began to shake, his heart racing in terror.

     'Gonna die... gonna die... gonna die...' he thought to himself, his eyes wide, as he whimpered softly.

"Branch!" Poppy yelled down to him, trying to get his attention. "Focus! Give me your hair!"

He looked back up at her, panting heavily in fear, and then finally nodded, focusing on moving his hair up to Poppy's, trying desperately to block out the terrifying thoughts swimming through his brain.

Slowly, his hair stretched out towards hers.

     The black strands of his hair were about to intertwine with Poppy's pink strands, when the ledge completely crumbled away, sending Branch falling down towards the river below.

"Noooooooo! Braaaaaanch!"