Born To Be Free | a trolls story

4. Leave her alone

The next morning Branch was down by the lagoon, he hadn't been there for years, he never really had time and because...it brought back a lot of memories. He would stay here for hours and hours playing with Spirit, she made him feel...happy but it was never enough to bring his colors back. As happy memories skipped through his mind he sighed as when he remembered the bad things that has happened at this lagoon. When Spirit was captured, when the entire pod of lykars disappeared but what hit him the hardest was just after he lost Iris.

***
10 years earlier.
Branch slowly opened his eyes and looked around. It was quiet. Too quiet. The back of his head stung, he gently lifted it up and rubbed it, trying to sooth the pain. He sat up still dazed, he tried to remember what happened...
It was just him and Iris strolling along the outskirts of the village until two large figures approached them. Branch couldn't remember what they were talking about but the last thing he remembered was one of the figures grabbing his tail and trying to pull him away from Iris then it picked him up by the tail and threw him against a tree, knocking him unconscious.
When the pain in his head started to fade he realised something. Iris was gone. Branch looked around and called out to her.

"Iris!" He called then he pricked up his ear to try and hear a reply. Nothing. "IRIS!" He shouted even louder. Nothing. Branch began to panic, he got up and searched the entire village calling for his sister. He stopped to ask some of the other trolls but they hadn't seen her, some of the trolls he asked wouldn't respond because they couldn't understand Branch from all his panting and sobbing, one troll tried to calm him down but he just ran away.

It was late at night and Branch was sitting by the edge of the lagoon he stared at the water with the moon's reflection rippling in the water. Branch had been searching for hours but there was no sign of her, he began to think that Iris was gone. He started to cry, tears began to stream down his cheeks. He lifted his knees and folded them into his chest and wrapped his tail in front of his feet. He sunk his head between his knees and sobbed.
After a while he lifted his head up, his eyes were stained red from the crying, he used his vest to dry away the tears. He felt something pin into his side, it wasn't sharp it just felt pointed. He reached into his pocket and took out his pendant, he watched the blue crystals in it shine with the moonlight. Iris had one exactly like it but with purple gems matching her skin, now that he was grey the gems didn't match his skin anymore. Tears started to flow from his eyes again and he was breathing hard through gritted teeth. He clenched the pendant in his fist and threw it far into the lagoon just like when he threw his hug time bracelet away all those years ago.

***

The lagoon had changed a lot since that day, when the sea lykar pod left the rivered trolls used the it to train their lykars in order to ride and race them and since then it looked less like a lagoon and more like and arena. The waterfalls never ran, the rocks on the edges were starting to crack and fall apart and the entrance to the open ocean at the far end was blocked off. It was hard to imagine that this was a beautiful haven for lykars all around.

Branch heard a voice say his name, he turned around and saw Poppy, he smiled at her as she sat down next to him.

"What are you doing here Branch?" Poppy asked. "I never see you at the lagoon anymore."

"I haven't been down here in years," Branch sighed, "not since Iris..." his words trailed off, he didn't want to finish the sentence but Poppy knew exactly what Branch was talking about, he was still sensitive about the loss of his sister. Poppy wrapped her arms around him and brought him in for a hug.

"It's okay Branch," Poppy reassured her friend as she stroked his head.

"I wasn't going to cry," he grunted, Poppy just smiled at him causing him to smile back but the moment was broken when Poppy noticed Branch's ear twitch.