~ The Other Side of the Storm ~

Chapter 7

( A/N - So I don't think the time makes much sense- so I guess I'll explain it- the storm struck where the bOyS were earlier, like late morning, early afternoon? It's moving kind of slow so it struck Troll Village a little later. So during like the afternoon-

uh so hopefully it makes sense now? I probably screwed up somewhere- imsorry )

“Is it over? How late is it? Did it barely miss us?” Poppy repeatedly asked those questions, pacing around and squeezing trolls to death.

“Poppy, chill out.” DJ Suki took Poppy's hand, getting her to stand still.

“Chill out?” Poppy looked at DJ, her eye twitching a little and with a stressed look in her eyes. “Chill out? How am I supposed to chill out when two of my best friends might be dead and my home is being destroyed?”

DJ backed away with an innocent smile, and hid in the crowd. “I said nothing.”

Creek took the spot where DJ was standing, and gazed into Poppy's beautiful magenta eyes, despite the insanity in them. “Take a deep breath, then release it.”

Poppy inhaled, but choked on the air. “I can't take a deep breath.”

“Or you can just breathe normally and think positive thoughts.” Archer slid over to face Poppy, knocking Creek over.

“Archer!” Poppy giggled and helped Creek stand up. “I was hoping I would find you! Can you tell Priscilla and CJ Suki that DJ was going to spend time with them instead of having them join the search party? It's just going to be you, me, Creek, Keith, and Guy!”

Archer smiled, “Anything for you!” The lizard thing walked over to the two trolls, who were snuggling with each other.

Poppy felt herself blush a little, and didn't try to hide it. Instead, she turned back to Creek and smiled at him, blushing. “Creek, I want to thank you for being here for me when Branch isn't. You're a really good friend.”

“You're welcome,” he blushed as well. “Thank you for being an amazing queen and best friend.”

Poppy booped his nose. “I'm going to go check outside! You can begin to find things we might need for the search party.”

“Okay,” Creek walked around and picked up almost anything he could find. “Flashlight, sleeping bags, crunchy swamp moss, crunchy swamp moss, crunchy swamp moss, crunchy swamp moss, crunchy swamp moss, crunchy swamp moss, crunchy swamp moss, crunchy swamp moss, crunchy swamp moss, crunchy swamp moss, crunchy swamp moss, crunchy swamp moss, crunchy swamp moss, crunchy swamp moss, crunchy swamp moss, crunchy swamp moss, crunchy swamp moss, crunchy swamp moss,crunchy swamp moss, crunchy swamp moss, crunchy swamp moss, water, more water, a yoga mat, and a knife.”

Satisfied with his selections, he searched for a bag and put it all inside.

Poppy waved to them all, even though she was probably going to be right back, and ascended up the elevator shaft.

She listened closely for the wind and rain, which was hard to hear. The wind was now a light breeze and the rain was a light drizzle.

Poppy pushed on the door, but it didn't budge. “Don't be stuck now!” She gave it a forceful push with her hair, and it luckily did open after pushing a tree branch off.

She looked out, then stood where she was for a solid thirty seconds, too stunned to move or close her mouth.

She could feel tears fall down her cheeks. “Troll Village- i-it's gone.”

Pods were torn off of trees, trees were piled on each other like dominos, destroyed furniture and decoration from pods were scattered all across the forest.

A photo of her grandmother and mother sat a few feet from her, all torn up and covered in mud.

Her grandmother had magenta hair just like her, with a single strand of gray hair. She wore a solid gold crown and a warm smile. Her skin was yellow, blending perfectly with the blue and yellow.

Her mother had red hair, and pink skin. She looked just like a Troll that would pop out of a Valentine's card. Poppy's mother wasn't a great queen like her mother-in-law. She did a terrible job, even though Peppy worked really hard to help her, she failed.

One night, during a terrible storm, both queens were reported missing, and no one knew what happened. There were theories that Bergens took them, or the wind blew them away.

It didn't matter though. They were both probably dead, and now all the memories of them were lost.

Poppy hugged the picture and fell onto her knees, sobbing uncontrollably. “I'm sorry.”

Peppy peeked out of the bunker, and fell next to her, hoping to comfort her and reassure her that things were going to get better.

Poppy showed him the picture, making him tear up.

“This was the only picture of mom and grandma we had left.” Poppy hugged Peppy, burying her face in his shoulder to cry.

“I'm sure we can find some other memory of them.” He stayed positive.

Creek came out and sat with them. “We can't change what happened in the past, but considering what happened then, you get an idea of what to change in the future. For example, you can't stop the storm from destroying the village, but you can fix up the village.”

“That was really inspiring, thanks Creek.” She hugged him.

Poppy got up and pulled herself together. “Trolls! Despite our devastation due to the destruction, we need to hold our heads high and clean the village up!”

More trolls climbed out and cheered for her.

Peppy stood on a fallen tree branch and began to order trolls around, explaining their jobs and being organized.

Poppy excused herself from the others and climbed up a tree to look around. “It shouldn't be hard to find two bright blue Trolls in a green forest.. right?”

She looked for a few seconds and already regretted the statement. “It is hard to find trolls in a forest.”

She checked several tree branches to make sure they wouldn't break on her, and eventually chose one to sit on.

It should've been easy to find them with all the trees laying on the ground— but it wasn't. It made her even more nervous. Poppy had millions of scenarios on what could've happened to them in her head.

Poppy looked around again one more time to make sure she didn't miss anything.

She squinted her eyes, noticing something. “Is that smoke? Fire smoke?”

A fire couldn't have just randomly started in the forest, it had to have been started by someone.

( well- there's still some lightning going around but sHhh- )

Poppy grinned, assuming it was the bOyS, and slid down the trunk. “Creek! Archer! Guy! Come on!”

( oh another set of bOyS- we'll call them BoYs. )

And so it begins.