𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓡𝓸𝓬𝓴 𝓣𝓻𝓪𝓰𝓮𝓭𝓲𝓮𝓼 ~ 𝓗𝓸𝔀 𝔀𝓲𝓵𝓵 𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓼 𝓮𝓷𝓭, 𝓯𝓸𝓻 𝓾𝓼? | 𝓑𝓸𝓸𝓴 2

4. 𝓦𝓱𝓸 𝓲𝓼 𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓼, 𝓠𝓾𝓮𝓮𝓷 𝓑𝓪𝓻𝓫?

Barb POV:
"Yeah! I've got the Techno String!" I yelled out, holding the blue string in my hand, up over my head, as I walked into our ride.
The Hard Rock Trolls and I were on our World tour, on our way to get my Strings. We have just been around the Techno's and was headed to the Classical's.
"Who knew world domination could be so much fun?" I ranted on as the others cheered for me, the best feeling. I gave one of my crew members a high five, before approaching over my electric guitar. That guitar was the one where all of my Strings, was gonna be. I carefully placed the String in my guitar, making it go red, just like the Rock String beside it.
"Only four more Strings to go until Rock unites the world." I explained as I sat down on my throne, leaning back and got comfortable.
But It suddenly hit me, my gaze wondering around the room, we were missing someone.
"Dad? Where's dad!" I yelled. Before the sound of a toilet getting flushed was heard, and the lock being unlocked. He rolled out in his awesome wheelchair as one from the crew played a guitar melody. "There you are, dad! I got the Techno String!" I ranted wanting him to be proud of me. "Cool, what's a String a-again?" He asked, he had the curse of forgetting things easily, it wasn't his fault.
"Don't you remember the plan?"
"Plan? I don't remember... a plan" He mumbled confused, fiddling with the buttons on his wheelchair.
"Oh, great idea, man! Okay guys, Line up!" I spoke up to all the crew members, everyone getting in position. As my dad couldn't remember, I could just show him again. Three Trolls from the crew, turned their backs towards us, as the image of my plan were sewed on their jean jackets.
"Okay. We're on a world tour, and on each stop, we get a new String." I pointed on one of the jackets. "When I have all six Strings, I'll play the ultimate Power chord. And I will unite the Trolls under one Music. Our music!" I yelled sticking my fist in the air.
Everyone yelled 'Rock' as a supporting matter. I turned to my dad as I noticed him raising his fist, slowly. "Oh, here it comes!"
He continued raising it, he wasn't that fast. His expression changed as he was ready to yell. I shrugged still waiting intently.
"Just a little bit more.." Riff said, one of my crew members and the best drummer in world history. "Riff, just help him man." I whispered nudging him.
"Yes, your Rockness." He answered and walked over to my dad, he kicked his two fingers up, with his own, and then my dad yelled. "Rock n' Roll!"
I slid over to sit beside him on his wheelchair as i hugged his side.
~~~
The others started to go back to what they were doing, and I stood back up. My dad started to wheel away as I turned back to him. He was headed towards one of the boards in the back. He reached for a picture, but it was so high on the board, he couldn't reach it from his wheelchair. I ran to him and snatched it for him. Before I would give it to him, I looked at it myself. It was a picture of my dad, my mom before she died, and me. But there was two of me, I looked at bit closer, there was another little girl. "Dad, who's this?" I asked pointing at the other Troll on the picture. I've never noticed another Troll on our family picture before.
I could see a ripping mark, which parted the picture in two, right over the little girl. Someone has ripped her out of the picture, but taped it back together, not long ago, the tape was new.
"Barbara, sit down." Dad suggested, and I sat down on his wheelchair beside him, on his leg, just like I used to do when I was a little Troll. "This, is your sister." He said, pointing at the little Troll on the picture. She looked just like me, but with orange skin instead.
"How did I not know about this?" I asked him, my heart was pounding, frustration boiling in my blood, he tells me, I have a sister, so many years after mom died.
"I was devastated, your mom not making it through birth, and my other little girl disappearing. One day she was in the crib beside you, the next day she was gone. I don't know if she's even still among us." My dad's expression looked down, he couldn't look me in my eyes.
"Hey, hey Dad, that's- awesome, if she's still alive, I can actually have a sister!" I tried cheering up the mood.
"The most beautiful red hair, just like yours she had, after your mother. Beautiful orange skin, also from your mother, you got my skin. I wish you'd get to grow up with her." Was his last comment. I stood up as he slightly pushed me off, and he rolled off.
I didn't know what to say, what was there to say? I looked back down at the picture, I was still holding.
'I will not let my dad be sad or blame himself for whatever happened to her. I will find her, if that's the last thing I have to do.'
I promised myself mentally. Folding the picture and stuck it into my pocket.
~~~
Juniper POV:
We have been in the hot air balloon over the night, we brought blankets, to stay warm in the cold nightly breeze. I had laid myself onto Branch to get, extra warmth. Poppy took his other side, he has allowed her to.
As the morning sunlight has woken us up, it wasn't for long we just laid around.
Poppy was searching though her supplies as I was leaning out of the balloon, but only with my head and chest. I was breathing in the fresh morning air.
I turned around and saw Branch walking with a giant book in hand, his chest was popping out, looking all confident with his captain hat on.
"All right, in a short 456 pages, I'm gonna know how to fly this thing!" He spoke slamming the book down on a table built into the ballon, he rubbed his hands together, excited to start on it. I just shrugged, letting him, as I turned back again to the breathtaking sight in front of me.
"Uh Branch, we don't need a giant comprehensive manual!" Poppy scoffed, the sound of a book shutting made me turn around for a second time. Poppy has shut his manual and took it from the table. She looked him right in the eye, as he reached out to grab it from her, before throwing the book over board. Branch tried to grab it from falling, but was too late. He looked sadly down at his book falling through the clouds.
"I mean, how hard can it be?" She hummed turning to all the bottoms built into the balloon.
"Poppy, I don't think that's a good idea." I spoke, approaching Branch, who was still looking down after the book who was long gone by now. Rubbing soothing circles into his back.
🎵Boop do-do-do, Try one of these-🎵 Poppy sang silently, ignoring my opinion and pressed one of the bottoms. The balloon started speeding up as it flew in high speed thought the sky. We all held on to something, not to get the same faith as Branch's book. The balloon stopped itself, as we have arrived at the very same spot we began at. "All right, Poppy, easy on the buttons!" The balloon shouted down.
"Sorry!" Poppy apologised to the balloon.
Branch let out a breath, but he shushed me and Poppy, as he seemed to have heard something. "Shh, what was that?" He whispered to us. Poppy and I sharing a look, as we heard a faint snore, coming from behind us. slowly, all three of us turned to the sound, it was coming from Poppy's cotton candy supply. Branch reached the tower of candy, and removed the top of the candy floss, revealing a snoring Biggie and Mr. Dinkles, which was sucking on Biggie's thumb.
"Biggie?" Poppy asked waking him up, she sounded so relieved, he was there. I noticed Branch in the corner of my eye rolling his eyes.
"Oh, Hello! Sorry I couldn't help myself, you know how I am around cotton candy!" Biggie has woken up by Poppy's call for his name. He groaned as he stood up on a full stomach, his body was all sticky from the sugar, Mr. Dinkles was glued to his stomach. "Oh dear, now look what's happened to Mr. Dinkles. Got all gummed up" Biggie held into Dinkles, trying to get him off.
Which only led to him accidentally throwing Mr. Dinkles, as he flew out of the Balloon.
Biggie quickly reacted, and ran to the edge, me following right behind.
"Mr. Dinkles! Oh there you are!" He yelled out but saw him sticking to the balloon, luckily. "I thought you were- phew." Biggie breathed out, unsticking Dinkles from the side of the balloon. "Right, then we'll just be on our way-" Biggie ranted on not noticing he was way up in the sky. As he looked down and noticed, he screamed.
"Woah! Poppy, Juniper? Where are you balloon-flying us to?" He asked, turning back towards us, feeling ill from the sight.
"We're on a mission to help Barb unite the Trolls, and I'm so glad you're coming with us!" Poppy spoke. "So the two lovebirds over there can get some peace~" she added, turning her head to me, as she wiggled her eyebrows, making my cheeks go all red.
"I did what in the who now?" He was still at the part where he was going to help us, not by choice.
"Hey man, join the club" Branch spoke non-enthusiastic, as he was dragged into this too.
"And I hope you didn't eat all the cotton candy" I approached the stack of cotton candy, Poppy has brought.
"Because Barb is gonna love it-" I ranted on, picking up some of it. As I turned back around, my focus shifted to my Boyfriend, who has got his focus on a box with a little pink flower on top. He seemed nervous as he shifted on the flower, making sure it stayed on top. I can just tell, something was off. I cleared my throat to get his attention. "Branchifer?"
"Uh uhm, y-yes Junnifer?" He answered back, his eyesight shifting between me and the random box nervously, as he leaned his elbow on the box. His back was facing me, as I approached, walking up beside him, he is avoiding eye contact. Pointing at the box, I asked.
"What's this?"
"Oh it's nothing, nothing! Tha-tha-that's just my- uh Man stuff!" He stammered, swinging his arms, trying to take my attention away from it, now I knew for sure something was off, and it was inside that box. Just as I reached out to open it, he threw himself on top.
"I love man stuff! Show me!" He was hesitant. I gave him the puppy eyes, the look I've learned, he couldn't stand. He shook his head and looked away, he was really hesitant. If he wasn't going to give in, I wasn't either. Placing both my hands on his shoulders, I pushed him off of it, a thud was heard as he hit the bottom of the balloon basket, we were in. I send him a glare, before slowly opening the lid.
I gasped. "Weapons!" My words made Poppy gasp too. She was quickly by my side, gazing down the box, making sure it was.
"Oh, for shame!" She spoke, shaking her head in disbelief at him, as he got back on his feet.
"Well, I-" he started, looking back and forth between us. "Violence never solves a problem, Branch!" Poppy kept lessoning him, taking a hold of one of his sharp sticks he called weapons.
She threw it aside, thinking it would fall out from the balloon, but it was headed straight towards Mr. Dinkles. The stick got shoved straight into his little mouth. Biggie quickly realised as a hum was heard from his worm, he squeezed him, making him spit it out and it came flying right in Branch's direction, the sharp end forward. Without looking he caught the Stick, before it hit his ear.
"I'm not saying we have to use them, I'm just saying it's better to be prepared in case we need them." He pointed out, with his stick, looking at Poppy. "We won't need them unless these pointy sticks help you listen-" I shot in, taking the one in his hand from him. "Or these Rocks help you put yourself in someone else's shoes!" I reasoned again, picking up a rock from his box. "And what about these, is this- what is this?" I stood with a golden thing you put on your hand, it looked pretty harmless to me. "Is this some kind of jewellery- oh it's actually kinda cool-looking." I mumbled the last part as I got distracted. I sang a little note admiring it in the sunlight, before Branch took it from me.
"Give me that! We don't even know what's out there!" He pointed out. "I just want you to be safe." He added, holding eye contact with me as he did, crossing his arms over his chest. Poppy and Biggie awed at his words. I held the eye contact with a surprised look, nodding to him, understanding.
He smiled back to me, he could see I understood why he brought them, which I do, but I still couldn't see why the weapons was necessary.
Dropping his stick weapon back in the casket, I swung my foot and kicked the box over board. he ran to the edge, watching the box fall down through the clouds, another thing of his he has lost in under an hour.
"Oh man." Branch sighed, turning back to face me. "By the way, I whittled those for hours!"
"Branch, the only weapons we need, are this guy, and this guy!" Poppy interrupted as she flexed her muscles on her arms. "For hugs!" She then added spreading out her arms.
Then Biggie interrupted all three of us. "Uh, you may want to take a look at this-" he spoke, pointing out in the direction we were headed. All of our attentions shifted to the direction he was pointing, and saw what he was mentioning to, it was horrible. We have arrived at one of the Troll Kingdoms, which belonged to some of the others. All their buildings had burning marks and some was still on fire, someone has sabotaged this place.
"This is gonna take a lot of hugs" Branch mumbled as we got closer.
~~~
Our balloon landed safely on the ground as we all jumped out of it, to explore. Branch helped me down the steps as we looked sadly at the buildings. There was no Trolls to be found, whoever lived here.
Step by step, we approached the inner city, the burning buildings now surrounding us. Branch stepped on something that crunched under him, a piece of paper. He leaned down to pick it up, but there were only musical notes written on it. "Whoa, something gnarly happened here..." he commented looking down at the paper.
"Hello?"
Out of nowhere a small voice spoke. Branch whipped his head up, seeing nobody. His gaze searched for something sharp, he could use as a new weapon. He found a stick, laying only a few inches from him, you use to play violin with. He grabbed the stick, and pulled me into him, holding the stick up in front of us. "Who said that?" He yelled out. "Identify yourself!"
"Uh, are you nice or a-are you mean?" The little voice stammered, still no sight of the owner of the voice.
"We're nice!" Poppy quickly answered before any of us could, walking forward, her gaze still moving around her surroundings.
"We're really nice! Right Branch?" I spoke, getting free from his tight grasp, and nudged him in the ribs, making him drop the thing. He got the hint and kicked it away with his foot. "Yeah, but not too nice!" He then yelled out. "So don't even- try it." He mumbled the last part, making sure to seem intimidating. And out from a tiny rock, a little Pennywhistle suddenly stood up, it was like the singing mushrooms and flowers we had in Pop Village, these Trolls had talking instruments.
"Okay." It answered quietly as it rolled down a stack of sand, to where we were standing. Poppy looked around the city, for its Troll owner, but couldn't see anybody near. She carefully bowed down, as it had landed by her feet and picked it up.
"What is this place?" I asked the Pennywhistle, approaching Poppy and looking down at it. "It used to be called symphonyVille!" The Pennywhistle answered, but let out a little cough from all the sand inside of it. "Where the Classical Music Trolls lived."
"Classical." I mumbled to myself.
"But that was in the before." The Pennywhistle spoke in a soft whisper. "What happened here?" Poppy asked, her voice just as soft.
"Well, it was the most wonderful place you ever did seen. It was a place where all of the Classical Music Trolls could live in perfect harmony." It let out another cough, before continuing. "Wherever the conductor led, we followed... But then Queen Barb showed up."
~~~
Flashback:
"Sup Trollzart, dude! I'm here for your string!" Queen Barb spoke, as she had arrived at SymphonyVille. "We will not go quietly!" The conductor spoke up as his team of Classical Trolls were ready to fight, in a Classical way. As they played their Music, Barb pretended to have fallen asleep.
"Mi, mi, mi, mi ,mi- Oh, oh I'm sorry, I must have fallen asleep! Because your Music is sooooo boring!" She joked around, completely assaulting their Music. The Conductor scoffed, taking by his heart in a hurt manner, hurt by her cruel sarcasm.
"Where are the words bro, right? Now give me your String!" She shouted as one of her crew members turned up the volume on her electric guitar, she played a melody so powerful it made all of the Classical Trolls get blown backwards.
She took the conductors leading stick, as she broke it in two, revealing their yellow String inside.
~~~
Back to Now:
"She took our String! Our Music! She took everyone." Pennywhistle finished the events that had happened, her tiny voice cracking. We were looking out in the distance, watching the damage this Queen Barb has made, in their beautiful Village.
"We lost everything." The Pennywhistle cried out.
"Barb doesn't wanna unite us... she wants to destroy us." Poppy realised, her gaze not meeting Branch's, as he was right after all, in the end.
My gaze looked worried at Poppy, hers not meeting mine, as she kept staring into the distance.
Why would someone do that?