Hickory groaned as he came to, and around him the other Bounty Hunters did the same.

"Does anybody remember what happened?" Gomdori's voice cut through the darkness under his eyelids.

"Is everyone okay?" that was Tresillo.

"Hickory? Hickory!" The urgent voice of his brother might have helped quicken the process of his body returning to awareness. He opened his eyes and was blinded by the light peeking through the top floor of the balloon basket.

"Where are we?!" Chaz asked, panicking, "Does anyone know where we are?!"

"We all just woke up!" Wani said, "Chill out!"

"Chill out?!" Chaz demanded, "We all just got knocked unconscious in a storm and drifted onto land somewhere miles from home, and you expect me to chill out?!"

"If you're so worried do you wanna go and see what's out there?" Wani asked.

"Guys! This will get us nowhere." Hickory interrupted the banter, "I'm gonna go out there myself. This journey vas my idea after all."

"I'll go out with you." Dickory said.

"Dickory…"

Said troll was already trying to get the flap open.

Hickory sighed, and went over to help. The basket had clearly been tossed over onto its side and buried halfway into the sand. The two brothers opened the flap and looked around. The storm had left everything foggy, but from the looks of it they were on the edge of a forest of massive trees, all still in full leaf, yet starting to get their First-Autumn shades of red and yellow. A little ways down the beach there was a river emptying into the sea, overflowing and rough currented from the previous night's storm. Sheila B had a massive whole and no air left in her.

"Vell…" Dickory said, observing the popped balloon, "I suppose ve're stuck here for now…"

"Seems safe enough." Hickory shrugged before turning around, "Guys, It's okay! You can come out."

"Hey it could have been worse." Baby Bun commented, "We could have all drowned."

"And that makes being stranded on a mystery island better?" Gomdori asked, earning a shrug from the pink K-Pop Troll.

"So what's the plan?" Tresillo asked Hickory.

Hickory thought about it for a few seconds, "I say we move further inland." He finally said, "See if we can find anything to fix the balloon with, and other things we might need for a long time stay." Hickory hadn't even noticed that he had starting talking in his country accent. The rest of the trolls had, but said nothing.

"We can follow the river over there," Wani suggested, "That way we won't get lost on the way."

And that's exactly what they did.

The fog had begun to clear as the sun shone down on the mid morning. The bounty hunters made their way through the forest, eyes and ears open for any plants that looked dangerous or any aggressive animals.

"It looked like fall was coming." Wani thought aloud, trying to make conversation.

"I hope we get out of here before winter comes." Hickory replied, "I hate being in the middle of nowhere in the snow." It was true. There was something about snow and extreme cold that was terrifying to him, but he could never place exactly why he felt that way.

"Didn't you grow up in the mountains, though?" Kim Petit asked, "How old were you when-" Ari nudged her in the arm, "What?"

"After the avalanche, ve left the mountains." Dickory explained irritably, "That vas twenty years ago."

"Twenty years?!" Marimba asked, "How old were you two?"

"Hickory vas five. I vas seventeen." Dickory replied. It was nonchalant, but Hickory knew how much pain this was bringing up for him.

Lucky for both of them then that that particular conversation was cut short.

Chaz screamed. Tresillo shouted something in spanish, and everyone else faced the river with looks of terror at the creature looming out of the river.

It was no doubt reptilian. Its large snake-like head was attached to a long neck, and the rest of its body was obscured under the surface of the river. Its jaws, lined with long sharp teeth, looked like they could swallow a troll whole. And its bright yellow eyes observed the trolls with a strange curiosity from a predator. Not aggressively, just mentally questioning the presence of the strange new trolls.

The smooth jazz music swelled around the trolls and the creature started to sway with a strange look of forced bliss. With a splash that soaked the trolls the head landed back in the water and started to sink.

"Come on! Let's put as much distance between that thing and us as we can!" Chaz said as he stopped playing his clarinet and started to run. Everyone else followed. Hickory noticed the ground beginning to slant upwards, and the river became a waterfall somewhere on the way. Then they reached the top of the hill and stopped, looking down at the forest they had just come out of.

"Wow!" Marimba commented, looking the opposite way over the seeming plateau covered in a dark green field of grass, "This island looks like it goes on for miles."

"Well then we better keep explor- AAH!"

"Tambora?!" Tresillo called.

They all took a step forward and suddenly fell into a network of tunnels that were so slick there was nowhere left to go but downward. Hickory heard the echoes of the screams of his companions as he kept sliding down the tunnel slide and eventually scraped his leg on the rough ground as he slid to a stop. He ripped one of his suspenders off and dunked it into the river that had been flowing underground. There were a lot of rivers on this island, he had noticed.

"What was that?!"

Great. To make things worse, Chaz was the only troll in sight.

"Is everyone there?!" Wani's voice echoed through the tunnels around them.

"Who's not dead?" Gomdori asked.

"I'm alright!" That was Tambora.

"So am I!" Kim Petite, "And Ari is with me."

"I'm fine," Marimba.

"Me too!" Baby Bun.

"Same here!" Gomdori.

"Chaz is with me… unfortunately…" Hickory muttered the last word so it was barely audible. He dabbed the scrape with the damp piece of cloth.

"Glad you're not hurt." Dickory seemed relieved.

"So now what?" Tressillo asked.

Hickory looked around. There was no climbing out the way they came back in. Those tunnels were somehow nowhere to be found. The walls were just as slick as the tunnels that had caused them to slide down here.

And there was only one tunnel that was open on the ground level.

"There's gotta be a way outta here." Hickory said to the tunnels up above that let in the sound of the others' voices, "Guess we just keep going until we find it." He started to walk toward the tunnel, but then turned back to Chaz, "You comin'?"

"Yeah, I am." Chaz stood up, grabbed his clarinet and dusted off his black leather pants, "Shall we?"

Hickory rolled his eyes and as they started their journey, somehow knowing that everyone else had reached the same conclusion he had and were doing the same.

He just hoped they would be able to find the way out…

And soon.

Okay guys, there's a LOT I have to figure out about the next chapter of this, so it's probably gonna take a while, but I hope you all stay tuned! :)