Faded Rainbows

Volcano rock city

Once Trollex was sure he was clear of Symphonyville, he poked his head out of the water as he followed the current. He could already feel the water getting warmer from the volcano, and the water had started to taste like sulfur.

He could feel his stomach doing flips. The last time he had faced Queen Barb alone, she nearly wiped his tribe off the map. And it sounded like that was exactly her plan from the get go. She didn't care who got hurt, because they'd have all been rock trolls in the end.

He rubbed at his sore arm, gritting his teeth slightly. He would have liked some back up... He could always keep following the river till it dropped him in the ocean, go get his blue first, then come back with Beat... and maybe a few other trolls. Or he could detour and drop by Pop village, and bring Poppy with him...

He sighed. No, he felt like this was something he had to face alone... He sped up a little bit, making it to the intersection between the river to Pop village and the one that led past Volcano rock city to the ocean. He continued on, the volcano finally coming into view.

He paused to float in the water, staring up at the towering volcano. "I regret all of my decisions right now. I can't BELIEVE I'm doing this... Ugh..." He swam forward again, twisting and tugging lightly at his fingers to try and calm his nerves. Once he made it to the pebbly beach, he sighed, starting the task of dragging himself out of the water. Once completely on dry land, he flopped onto his back and huffed, staring at the blue sky above. He was happy that the volcano didn't ruin the view at least.

He jumped when he heard some movement nearby, and pushed himself into a sitting position. His ear fins perked up, listening for another sound. There! He heard the sound of rolling pebbles and tried to push himself to his fins, succeeding in doing little more than causing a ruckus as stones rolled out from under him.

"Hey, did you hear that?" He froze dead in his tracks when he heard a gruff voice speak, and the sound of several footsteps approaching. He flipped onto his belly and tried to crawl away while trying to get to his fins. He really wanted flow right now...!

It was then some bushes near by parted, Trollex barely off his stomach as he came face to face with two surly looking hard rock trolls. "Clams..."

One troll, who had long, frizzy black hair, tilted his head, setting his fists on his hips. "Is that a Techno troll? What's he doing here?"

"And why does he look like he's going to scream?" The other spoke, a girl with dark blue hair that stood up like most pop trolls did. She stepped forward, and Trollex did his best to scoot back, flicking his fins to see if flow had kicked in. No luck! Why was he still wet...?

The jacket! He looked at his arms and sure enough, the jacket was so wet it would take a few hours to dry at least, and until it was, flow wouldn't kick in... "Sea slugs! I can't believe I was so stupid...!"

He jolted a bit when he heard the other trolls take another step forward, the female squinting a bit. "Hey, isn't that... Oh, no way! Dude, go get Barb! I think that's Trollex! The other one stared dumbly at his companion, making her roll her eyes. "You know, like, KING Trollex? Of the Techno trolls? Our literal NEIGHBORS?"

It took the other a moment more to realize what was happening before his eyes widened. "Oh, dude! I'll go get Barb!" He ran off, causing the female to face palm herself before sighing and rolling her eyes. She turned back to Trollex, who was trying very hard to get the jacket off of himself. She ran over, closing the distance left between them and crouching over him. "Yo, hold on, lemme help, your arms stuck!"

He was very stuck indeed, squirming as best he could to get free on his own, but no luck. As the troll finally tugged the jacket free, he managed to scramble away, turning around again to face her. "W-Who're you?"