Trolls: I'm In Love With A Mertroll

~Chapter 9~

Branch led Poppy to the crystallite cave, he covered her eyes "You ready?" He asked.

"Eee! I'm so excited" Poppy squealed.

Branch led her into the cave and stopped at the centre "Ok open your eyes in three, two, one" Branch removed his hands from her eyes "Now" He said.

Poppy slowly opened her eyes and was in awe, the cave was absolutely stunning, Crystalites of every colour you could think of, making the cave glow bright and the coral was nice and vibrant.

"It's so beautiful... Branch I love it" Poppy said, taking in all the scenery.

"That's not the best part" Branch said.

"There's more?" Poppy asked excitedly.

"Yep, this isn't any ordinary coral, it's Beat Coral you make a musical sound like clapping and..." Branch clapped his hands and the coral lit up to the sound.

"Woah..." Poppy said, amazed by the coral.

Poppy tried clapping and giggled when the coral lit up, she clapped more around the coral as she swam past each one around the cave, Branch couldn't help but smile at her but his smile faded as he got lost in his thoughts, thinking about something he didn't want to try and think about. Poppy noticed this and swam over to him.

"Why the sad face? Are you ok?" Poppy asked.

"I've missed this place" Branch sighed.

"Why do you miss it? Have you not been here for a while?" Poppy asked.

"It's been about 20 years" Branch admitted.

"Woah, that's a long time... What happened?" Poppy asked

Branch stayed silent for a moment "It's ok, you don't have to talk about it" Poppy said, feeling bad for asking.

This girl, her beaming positivity settled in that moment and a look of genuine concern was on her face, Branch hasn't seen this kind of sympathetic look from her before and it reassured him that she was there to listen and not judge about his past, he saw she felt bad for asking so he lifted his head and smiled a little.

"It's ok, I'll tell you" Branch sat down on a rock.

~Flashback~

I was 5 years old
It was a nice day outside, we were having a picnic when we saw someone down below,
it was an old woman she looked like she was looking around for Crystalites and my parents didn't like that

King Aquatis swam down with two guards to confront the old woman.

My father confronted her

She asked for a Crystallite, but I knew what my father would say.

~Flashback over~

"Our responsibility is to all the mertrolls that live in this kingdom, if we don't have crystallites we won't have enough for our subjects to live" Branch repeated his father's words.

"So your father said no" Poppy realized.

"Yep, he always does" Branch said.

"So then what happened?" Poppy asked.

"Well..." Branch's ears went down slightly.

~Flashback~

"Fine, if you won't let me, the great and powerful Tahlia have a crystalite, I'll take all of yours away!" Tahlia sneered.