Curse of the Weretroll (rewrite)

Chapter 51

     "Come on... there's gotta be something... anything..." Branch mumbled to himself in a frantic whimper, the young boy looking desperately through a book he had gotten from the library when all this horror first began...

     The books had simply piled up in his bunker, almost becoming useless clutter once he found that note from his grandma... She believed in him... and that knowledge was enough to stop the survivalist from looking any farther into what was happening to him...

     But now...

     After that dream... after the weeks of constantly losing control of his wolf side... he just couldn't do it anymore... he couldn't take this torture... he just couldn't be who his grandma wanted him to be... who she had been in her own life... a good Weretroll... He had let her down...

     Now... he had to unfortunately go against his grandmother's wishes despite the major heartache it caused him... to protect the village... to protect Poppy... from himself... he was just too dangerous...

     The little gray troll had already searched all the books about wolves while looking for answers on why he had began changing in the first place, but now he was searching books about werewolves...

     Well... he knew he wasn't a werewolf. He was a Weretroll... but it's close enough, right? Besides... there were lots of books about werewolves, but none about Weretrolls... It was like no one had ever heard of them before... probably for good reason.... If the trolls knew about what Branch was... he'd be dead for sure...

     "Come on you lousy books! Give me some frosting answers!" the village grump yelled out at the top of his lungs, chucking the book he was currently reading across the room in a blind fury, his eyes lighting up in pure rage...

     There he goes again...

     Losing control...

     Letting the wolf take over...

     He needed to hurry... to find the one book he was specifically looking for... and that one book would tell him the way to cure himself... a way to get rid of his wolf side once and for all so he would never hurt anyone ever again...

     But unfortunately... so far... the only cure he had found was receiving a silver bullet straight through the heart... and that was definitely not an option...

     Branch couldn't help but whimper softly, his eyes wide in fear as he read through another book he had just picked up from beside himself...

     Every single one of them... all the thousands of books he had read through in the past few minutes... they all ended the exact same way... with the werewolf dyeing a horrible painful death... would... would that happen to him?

     The young boy shuddered at the thought, closing the book up before placing it back down onto the floor with a sigh of defeat...

     "What am I gonna do..."

—————

     Poppy skipped through the forest, the young girl holding a large pot of soup to give to Branch as she hummed softly to herself in pure uncontainable happiness...

He was sick... and she was gonna help him feel better...

     After only a few short minutes of walking, the young princess finally reached her friend's super secret heavily fortified Bergen proof survival bunker before quickly beginning to knock on the rock behind his welcome mat to alert the survivalist of her presence...

     "Branch!?" she called out at the top of her lungs, hoping the gray troll would open his door to greet her. "I brought you some soup!" No reply... "Branch!?" Nothing... "Hmm... that's strange..." she muttered to herself, wondering why the young boy wasn't answering. "Where is he?"

     With a slight shrug, Poppy pulled a pair of scissors out of her hair, putting the soup gently on the ground beside her before beginning to pick the lock to Branch's bunker...

     Click!

     The young princess smiled as the hatch popped open, allowing her to climbed inside before heading down the elevator with her 'get well soon' gift for her very best friend...

     "Branch?" she called out, looking around curiously as the elevator moved down at a steady pace. "Are you in here?"

Silence...

     At the bottom of the elevator, Poppy stepped into the survivalist's living room, the young princess instantly seeing a million books cluttering his floor...

"Branch!? Where are you!?" she called out again, but there was still no response from the gray troll who called the bunker home...

     Curious about the mess in the usually neat troll's house, Poppy picked up one of the books, looking at the cover to determine what it was about...

     "Werewolves?" she whispered in slight shock. "Why is he reading about werewolves?"

Slowly, she reached down, picking up another book to look at...

This one was about werewolves too. And this one... and that one...

All of them... all of the many books covering his dirt floor... they were all about werewolves... What was he doing?

     Still looking for her best friend, Poppy walked into the next room, smiling slightly with a soft sigh as she saw Branch curled up on the floor, the young boy surrounded by more books...

     Strangely... the village grump was sleeping curled up in a ball, his hands and feet twitching slightly like a dreaming dog...

     "Branch..." Poppy whispered, shaking her head slightly with a light chuckle. She couldn't help but think the young boy looked rather adorable sleeping like that...

     Slowly, as to not wake up the sleeping Weretroll, Poppy headed to his bed, taking a warm blanket from it to tuck Branch in with...

     He purred with content as the blanket fell over him, the twitching of his hands and feet ceasing as Poppy wrapped him up nice an snug...

     "Sleep tight, Branch. I'll see you in the morning," the young princess whispered, petting the wolf troll's head gently before leaving the room...

As she walked out however, the pink troll suddenly stumbled as she accidentally stepped on one of the many books down in the underground bunker...

     Curious, Poppy picked it up, looking closely at the cover...

     "How to cure a werewolf..."

     Poppy looked at the book for a short moment before slowly turning her gaze back over to Branch...

     'Is that what he's doing?' she thought to herself, watching the sleeping Weretroll sympathetically. 'Trying to stop being a wolf?'

     Well... if that's what he wanted... she was going to help!

     With a confident smile, Poppy put the book into her hair before silently leaving the bunker with her head held high...