Chapter 6

Branch's pov.

"POPPY! NOOOOOOOO!"

Howling in despair feeling my body trembling in agony, 'NO, NOT AGAIN!' I thought to myself, watching the creature spread it's wings, about to take off toward the sky. Everything still feeling like it was in slow motion.

"BRANCH!" Poppy cried out struggling in the creature's beak, trying to break free. Looking at me with desperation, panic and fear in her eyes. She needs my help or she was definitely going to die! Feeling my breathing rapidly increase, it felt like my throat was closing up as I let panic and fear practically suffocate me at the thought of the one thing in my life that means everything to me die.

Suddenly for a split second the creature's beak changed into a hand and Poppy changed into her! I feel like throwing up as the memory replayed right in front of me, on what felt like an endless inescapable loop.

"BRANCH!" she cried out but sounding like the princess's voice. Reality came crashing back like a thousand bricks as I watched the creature shot straight up into the sky. Poppy still struggling in its beak.

Growling lowly, "No! Not this time," I whispered bitterly at the memory. 'I am not going to let someone I care about sacrifices themself for me again, I am not the helpless young troll I once was, despite my injuries, I'm now older and stronger. I'm not going to sit back, do nothing and let my fear stop me! I'm going to rescue her even if it means I die. And damn it I will sacrifice myself a thousand times over if that means Poppy will get to live!' I could feel my blood boil inside me, letting the surging anger fuel me, until the only thing I could see was red.

Pushing myself off the ground a bit, ignoring my body as it screamed in pain, wrapping my hair around the closest flower in the direction the creature is going to fly in. I propelled myself toward the flower, and using the amount of speed gained, I swung myself on top of the flower, hissing in pain when I landed. Once on top I got into a crouching position, similar to an animal's, putting most of my weight on my hands and less injured leg, and shot my hair toward the creature, just trying to grab anything on it that I could hold on to. I missed grabbing that stupid creature's leg, rather hitting it instead of grabbing it. Making it even more agitated.

Temporarily stopping the creature rotated toward me narrowing its eyes, and then it managed to let out this loud ear-bleeding screech-like sound from its mouth, while still holding Poppy in it's beak. The sound made both Poppy and I cover our ears in an attempt to block the sound out.

Thanks to my sensitive hearing I could detect Poppy's voice hidden among the screech "BRANCH!"

Glancing up, still covering my ears, we caught each other's eyes and seem to have to have the same idea once our eyes connected. Launching our hair toward each other, I pushed myself off the flower trying to stand on my semi good leg, to get a bit extra distance.

DAMN IT!

We just missed each other by a hair. Falling back down onto the flower I noticed the creature stopped his screeching.

"I'm not close enough!" I snarled.

We were about to try again but the damn creature moved making us miss each other again, and started to fly off in it's original direction. Gaining a slight head start. But that's not going to stop me!

Using my semi-good leg I pushed off the flower that I was currently on, launching myself toward the next flower in the path; almost stumbling off as the flower swayed due to the new weight on it. I kept running like that, advancing from flower top to flower top, getting closer to the creature as it flew above the flower field but never close enough. My anger and determination overriding the agonizing pain that shot through my body with every movement I made.

As I kept running, trying to keep with the damn thing, both Poppy and I kept trying to wrap our hairs together so she could pull me up. But between trying to find flower tops to jump on that are still in my path, constantly trying to grab her hair, not falling off the flowers and trying not to let the agonizing pain stop me nor slow me down. Things are a bit …...stressful.

Quickly glancing ahead I noticed that we were coming up toward a clearing, too big to jump across, and if I go around I'll lose them.

'I can't jump over the clearing, and I can't go around nor under the clearing. I can't afford to fall behind, I'm already just barely able to keep up with the damn thing!' letting out labored breaths advancing to the next flower, 'Grrr, What do I do?!'

'Just give up. You can't save her.' the voice sneered.

"No!" I barked under my breath, "I won't give up!" jumping onto a much smaller blue flower, than I liked, I became extremely startled when I felt the blue flower bounce under me pushing me up higher as I jumped off, nearly missing the next flower. Unable to stop moving, despite the pain from that landing, I kept going. Without stopping I hastily took a look back at the blue flower in confusion. something about it seemed familiar to me. Staring back ahead the same type of blue flower was becoming more frequent, and at the edge of this side of the clearing, in the direction we were heading, was a cluster of the small blue flower. There is just something about those blue flowers, that has the gears in my mind turning, trying to figure what type of flower they are.

Slowly things began to click, "I think I figured it out," launching myself toward a blue flower in my path. My theory was confirmed; when I was once again bounced off a bit higher and faster than before. These blue flowers are Bondi flowers! They're also known as 'The Bouncing Flower.'!

I can use the Bondi flower to help me! But I need an idea and fast! Since the excruciatingly torturous pain that has been tormenting my body with every movement is starting to slow me down. Not to mention all the blood I've been losing, making me even more unsteady.

Thank trolls that I push myself during my trainings, without the endurance and stamina I've built up over the years I probably would have been dead days ago. Any normal troll probably wouldn't even last a minute out here; except maybe that small yellow troll Poppy hangs out with. She'd most likely survive.

Racking my brain an idea struck my mind as we grew even closer the clearing, darting my eyes back up toward the creature I realized Poppy had been calling out to me; probably for a while now.

"Hellooooooooo, BRANCH! EARTH TO BRANCH!" She bellowed out to me struggling, yelling and waving her arms in different attempts to gain my attention. "BRANCH!"

"POPPY!" I called up to her leaping onto another Bondi flower gaining a bit more speed. "I HAVE AN IDEA!" Jumping onto the next flower I glanced up to see where under the creature I was; barely under it's tail feathers. I need to get ahead if this is going to work. "POPPY I NEED YOU TO SLOW IT DOWN. SO I CAN GET AHEAD OF IT!"

I can't fully explain the plan due to how rapidly the clearing is coming up; and I'm just barely under the creature's stomach.

Luckily she seemed to understand what my plan is, but then her face twists in confusion.

"WAIT? HOW AM I GOING TO SLOW IT DOWN?! I'M KINDA STUCK HERE!"

"USE YOUR HAIR! COVER ITS EYES!"

I instructed refocusing my attention back to trying get ahead of the creature. This is my only shot. Bounding onto the next flower with weakening limbs that had been ready to give out long before. Above the creature made distressing sounds as Poppy covered its eyes, effectively slowing it down. Leaping toward every Bondi flower in my path I tried to gain as much speed and height as I can. The edge of the clearing is just a couple flowers away, quickly darting my eyes up to check only to find nothing above me! Glancing back and there it was! The creature was just behind me, in the air, still trying to regain its sight back.

'Yes! My plan might work! But this is my only chance! I'm not going to waste it!' determination and anger for the creature powering me. Fueling me. Not to give up!

Jumping onto one of the last Bondi flower, before the clearing, I used all the speed to launch myself off the flower and above the clearing; high above the ground but still lower than the creature. Twisting mid air I shouted "POPPY!" and shot my hair toward her. Unwrapping her hair from the creature's eyes she launched her hair toward mine.

And.

SUCCESS!

Our hair wrapped around each others tight and she quickly pulled me toward her.

Once I got close enough, my arms were immediately around her, holding her tightly but gentle, right above where the beak was clamped down on her. Shoving her face into my neck I could feel her arms wrap, clinging onto me, like her life depends on it, around my waist; choking back a cry of pain since her arms were right on both some reopened and new wounds. Poppy entangled her legs with mine so they weren't dangling freely in the air. Neither of us unraveling our hair from each other. Pressed as closely as we could be even with the beak in the way.

'I need to make sure she's okay,'

Bringing my left hand up to cup her cheek, I lifted her head away from my neck so I could looked into her eyes to make sure she isn't lying. I'm trying to be as gentle with her as possible to make sure I wasn't accidentally hurting her in case she had injuries I couldn't see. I'm not going to let my anger hurt her. Looking into her eyes my heart ached as I saw hidden tears threatening to show.

"Are you okay?"

"I'll be fine Branch," she reassured, I gave her a look that says 'tell me where you're hurt'. Sighing she continued "The hook part is pierced into my side and I'm pretty sure I'm bleeding."

Moving the arm that was above the hook slightly, without letting her go, worry and anger surged through my body at the sight; she was right. The hooked part was in her side, I couldn't see the tip of the hook, but I could see that she was definitely bleeding.

Feeling Poppy nudge my hand, which still rested on her cheek, "Branch," snapping my eyes back to hers, her eyes filled with a desire to stay strong; but I could see how heavily this was affecting her. "Don't worry about me right now, you're in worse shape than I am," As if to prove her point one of her hands lightly brushed over one of the many open and bleeding wounds on my back, causing me yelp in pain. Poppy's eyes scanned over my face analyzing the cuts and bruises there, bringing a hand up quickly to wipe away some of the blood from one of the cuts. Her eyebrows furrowed in concern.

Moving her arms from my waist to around my neck she pulled her body away slightly making a face full of mixed emotions as she stared at my chest, probably taking in how bad it was, how it was bleeding heavily from new wounds or from old ones at this point it doesn't matter. How parts of my chest were swollen and how obvious it was that I had trouble breathing normally, how practically useless the bandages on my chest were now.

'How I am still alive at this point is beyond either of us. I don't think I'm going to make it back to the troll village, but I will make sure Poppy makes it back alive.'

"Some of your bandages are torn, and you have new deeper cuts over your old ones. We need to bandage you up first before we do anything." she whispered softly under her breath, as if her voice alone could soothe and heal all my injures. The way she's acting right now is making me feel uneasy. Silence fell between us as she continued to stare down at my chest, and I couldn't help but notice that the front of her dress was soaked with both her blood and my blood; and that her arms had my blood on them as well.

Before I could open my mouth we felt the head began to violently shake, making us instinctively tightened our grip on each other pressing our bodies back together. What felt like hours wrapped up in our own world, in reality was really only like a couple minutes at most, because the creature who I guess was in a daze from being temporarily blinded, finally realized that it had some extra weight on it. So in attempt to get rid of me, the creature began to violently shake its head in an attempt to throw me off.

"Branch, how are we even going to get out of here?" The princess asked whimpering slightly, her face in my neck again.

This entire time in the back of my mind I've thinking up different ideas and escape plans, but only one of the them looks like it would actually work; and Poppy's not going to like it. Taking a deep breath, "If I could somehow restrain its wing movement than I could make it crash into the ground then it should be easy to pry the beak apart and free you. You should be relatively safe if I can twist it in the air so it lands on its back instead of face down." I explained letting the implications of the plan linger in the air. I held my breath, my ears twitching in anticipation, as I waited for her to understand what will happen to the creature because of this plan; who was still trying to throw me off. It doesn't help that due to blood loss I'm already feeling a bit dizzy and nauseous, or that I'm using what little strength I have left to hold onto Poppy.

Feeling the princess's body become stiff and tense against mine, despite the fact we're being thrown around, told me she understood what would happen to the creature. Snapping her head up, her wide eyes bore into mine. "B-b-but the crash from this height….." her breathing began to quicken and I could feel her heart beat rapidly in her chest, "Will kill it!" her eyes held mine silently asking if what I said is true. Tearing my eyes away letting out a sigh, I nodded.

"I know."

"Branch, you can't kill it! It's a living creature!" she pleaded her voice cracking trying not to let the tears fall.

"Poppy think about it!" I argued bringing my eyes back to meet hers, "You're trapped and I'm struggling just to stay alive at this point! Even if we somehow manage to escape this creature and make it back home leaving the creature alive, it will still be out here! Ready to attack and eat a troll who probably doesn't know how to defend themself like we do. Just imagine if a trolling somehow managed to end up here they'd be perfect for this creature eat, and then all the trolls who'd come here looking for them. It be a feast for the creature!" Pointing out a possible scenario. Any color that I possibly have gained over the years was immediately drained my body as I watched the princess's face contort into a face of horror at the thought, the tears she was holding back began to fall. Shoving her face back into my neck I could feel her body rack as she sobbed into my neck.

"But!" Another sob, "But! That would never happen!" she continued to sob into my neck as we were being violently shaken around.

I could handle being thrown around like a sack of potatoes, but how to handle the sobbing princess is a whole different story. If this plan is going to work I'm going to need her help, so in an awkward attempt to help calm her down I softly ran my hand up and down her back as best I could, nuzzling my face into her hair, holding her even closer than before if possible. It seemed to work as I felt her arms tighten around my neck, she stopped sobbing but I could feel her tears against my neck as she silently cried. Mentally kicking myself knowing I was the reason she was crying right now.

"But it could happen, Poppy. Do you honestly want to take that chance? Knowing that this creature could have been stopped before it took anymore lives?" murmuring softly into her hair, "Poppy, think about the safety of the kingdom." I need her to understand but I can't stop loathing myself for putting her through this.

'It's my fault she's acting like this! I shouldn't have been so stupid and let my guard down! Even for a second! Now I'm asking Poppy, who should have never risked her life for me in the first place, to do some of the most forbidden things a troll could do!' I bitterly thought mentally growling at myself for being so stupid. Feeling the princess stir I brought me back to reality.

Lifting her head away from my neck, she laid her chin on my chest, I took the hand that was caressing her back and moved it to her face wiping away her tears with my thumb. "What do we have to do?" she mumbled almost inaudibly, her gaze not meeting mine.

Glancing down at the ground I was able to make out the clearing and the Bondi flowers. It looks like the creature was so focused on trying to get rid of me that it relatively stayed above the clearing.

"Alright I'm going to climb up and use my hair to wrap around its wings to restrain it. I'm going to need you to cover its eyes, if it can't see then it can't try and attack me." shaking my head, "I don't think I could handle another attack,"

'The crash will already be too much for my weakened state,' I concluded. Turning back to look at the pink princess, she stared back at me, like she wanted to say something but didn't know how to say it. Before I could open my mouth to ask her what's wrong she cut me off.

"Do you trust me?"

Giving her a confused look, "I kinda have to?"

Suddenly without warning she removed both her arms from my neck making me fall a bit; almost losing my grip on her. "Poppy!" I shouted tightening my arms, "What were you thinking!?" Pulling a pair of scissors out of her hair, she grabbed her dress and then proceeded to start cutting it off, "Poppy?! What are you doing?" I exclaimed my face heating up, looking away as she continued to cut off her dress.

"I need to bandage you up, you bleeding out won't do either of us any good." Poppy hissed in pain when one of scissor blades accidentally cuts her skin, but that didn't stop her. I think she's just cutting out the middle of her dress, right under her upper chest to where the beak was clamped down on her. I knew she was done when I felt her shift and then the only thing that took over my mind was the feeling of how warm her skin was against mine.

She wrapped her dress around me as much as she could, considering how much smaller she is than me, the dress covered most of the torn bandages on my back, but fell just short of the ones on my chest. "Hold it down, so it doesn't move," she commanded holding both ends of the makeshift bandage in her hands. Using our combined hair I wrapped our hairs around our waists to keep us together as I removed my arms from around her waist to grab both ends of the fabric from her hands. Swiftly she grabbed some ribbon from her hair and quickly began to wrap it around my chest as best she could, the ribbon was holding the bandage down and covering the area on my chest that the fabric couldn't reach. As she was finishing up I removed our hairs and replaced my arms back around her waist to keep us together, looking back at the creature trying to find the best way to get onto it. Less than a minute later I felt her hands stop moving, she seemed to be just staring at my chest again, not tearing her eyes away she mumbled,

"Done."

Peering down I noticed she had tied the ribbon into a bow similar to hers, right in the middle of my chest, she let out a small snort at the sight, a ghost of a smile crossed her face. Any other time I'd probably demand she take the bow out and tie it normally, but I think she needs it more than I want it out. So for her, I'll keep it like this, this one time.

"Alright," I nodded, "Let's do this."

As I started to move away Poppy pulled me back toward her into a tight hug, "For good luck," she mumbled into my ear. Wheezing as she practically squeezed out what little life of me I have left, I nodded back to her, acknowledging the same to her. The princess untangled her legs from mine, making them drop and dangle in mid air, our entangled hair and arms around each other were the only thing left to keeping me from falling to certain death. Grabbing the only thing available in my reach, the creature's nostril hole, and with Poppy's help, I hoisted myself on top of the creature's beak. Freezing in my tracks as the creature's yellow-red eyes connected with mine, letting out a low trill. Luckily before it could do anything the trill turned into a shriek as our entangled hairs wrapped around it's eyes, looking back at Poppy she gave me two thumbs up smiling slightly while saying "I've got your back, Branch!" nodding quickly, I scrambled hastily down it's beak toward and onto the creature's crown before I could've been hurled off. Which was a good thing since once its eyes were covered again it began to even more frantically whip around in a desperate attempt to get rid of me. Clutching it's crown tightly I climbed down to its nape, pausing to look at the creature's body as I unwrapped my hair from the creature's eyes, leaving Poppy's to keep them covered, I found a major problem with my plan.

'Shit! How am I supposed to restrain its wings? My hair isn't long enough to go around the creature's entire body.' growling lowly as I gripped the creature's nape tightly. Turning to look at it's wings an idea popped into my mind, letting go of it's nape I crawled down it's mantle and swiftly clambered my way onto and down it's wing.

"Branch! What are you doing!?" I heard the princess holler at me.

"I have an idea!" Continuing to crawl toward the end of its wings, it took everything I had to hold on and not be blown off by the wind, or be thrown off-

But suddenly with a jerk of it's wing my grip slipped and I was thrown off the wing into the air, above the creature, "AHHHHHHH!"

"BRANCH!" Poppy's voice cracked as she called out to me, horrified.

Plummeting back down toward earth, I was able to grab one of the creature's end feathers on it's wing, clutching it for dear life as gravity tried to pull me back down. "I'm okay, Poppy!" I shouted to her, crawling back fully onto the wing, "I'll be okay! Just keep it's eyes covered!" I panted trying to stop my heart from beating out of my chest. Swiftly crawling to the end of the wing, I held on as tightly as troll possible, as the creature's wings flapped frantically, and waited till the wings got close to each other. Finally when they were close enough I launched my hair wrapping it around the other wing, avoiding the claws of the wings, bringing it closer to the wing I was on. I swiftly wrapped my hair around both wings as quickly as I could until the creature's wings were wrapped tightly unable to move.

Immediately without its wings moving to keep it airborne the creature began to plummet toward the ground from high in the sky, it took all my strength to hold on to the creature and keep it's wings from breaking free. Using the wings, I was able to turn the creature in mid air making it so that it's back would hit the ground first, trying to keep it that way as the creature wildly flailed around.

The creature hit the ground with a heavy THUD, the force from hitting the ground was so powerful that it that it actually threw me off the creature. I screamed loudly in pain as my damaged body forcefully hit the ground tumbling a few feet away. I couldn't stop a few tears from falling as I was gasping trying to breathe properly, pausing only to cough up some blood. Horrified I used my arm to wipe away the blood and pushed myself up, still struggling to breathe. Blood was also dripping from some parts of my body, but I couldn't care less at the moment, I need to focus on breathing properly.

"Branch!" I heard the pink princess call out to me, turning to look at her, I noticed she used the opportunity of the creature's beak being opened all the way from the crash to her advantage as she remove herself from the hook part, whimpering in pain when it left her body, and quickly scurried her way over to me. Kneeling down next to me she carefully pulled my upper half into her lap, placing her hands on both my cheeks Poppy lifted my head forcing me to look at her, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," turning my head away from her, I coughed again, luckily no blood this time, "I'll be fine," I lied, placing a hand over her wound in an attempt to stop the bleeding. Looking back up into her eyes I could tell she didn't believe me, to distract her I reached into her hair grabbed the last of her ribbon, and hastily tied it around her wound. Fortunately I began to even out my breathing, as best I could, basically I'm not constantly gasping for air with every breath; I'm still having a lot of difficulty breathing normally though.

"Let's go home-"

CAW!

Both of us froze at the sound, we watched in terror as the creature, with blood dripping down the side of it's head, rose itself off the ground. Whipping itself toward us its beady yellow-red eyes narrowed at us, ruffling up its feathers, the pattern rapidly moving down its body in anger. The creature then belted out the same ear-bleeding screech from before, then launched itself at us.

'The crash should've killed it! I guess it wasn't going down without a fight. There's nothing we can do to stop it,'

Sitting up I leaned over Poppy, facing the creature, putting myself between her and it as a last minute way to protect her; even though I knew it wouldn't work.

'I'm sorry I put you through all this, Poppy, I'm sorry I couldn't protect you.'

Unable to move out of the way in time, there was nothing we could do but sit and watch in horror as the creature came barreling toward us! Wings stretched wide claws ready to tear our entire bodies to shred! It's beak open wide screeching the entire time! And right as I'm watching my entire life go by in front of my eyes-

CHOMP!

The entire creature was eaten whole, right before our eyes.

Staring in stunned silence we both looked down toward the thing that just ate the creature whole.

Leaving in its place was a small cocoa colored tamrainan; groundhog like creatures that have dog like personalities. Their playful act is mostly just a ruse these creatures are actually quite dangerous. Although this one must still be young as it was just a bit smaller than us and adults are twice as tall when fully grown. All I could do at the moment was stare at the tamrainan with a mix of shock, confusion and a bit of disgust.

"What the fuc-" I started to say but Poppy's squealing cut me off as she exclaimed, while running toward the tamrainan.

"Butterball! You saved us!"

"Poppy stay away from that thing! It'll eat us too!" I called out to her. But she just ignored me and scooped up the tamrainan into her arms nuzzling her face into its fur, its short tail wagging all the while. Poppy was laughing and smiling like the fact that we were almost eaten less than 30 seconds ago never happened, and it was just a normal day; me on the other hand, I was still trying to wrap my head around the situation. If this is Poppy's way of dealing with the aftermath of tough situations I don't think I'll ever understand her.

"No she wont, Branch," she laughed looking back at me, "This is Butterball! She's one of the forest creatures I took care of when that fire happened a couple years ago, she was a lot smaller back then."

While Poppy was catching up with the tamrainan, I grabbed a nearby flower petal and started to wipe up some of the blood that was dripping down my body; trying to ignore the throbbing pain with every movement. It didn't do much, but it helped a bit. Throwing the bloody flower petal away, Poppy's giggling and squealing brought my attention back to her, watching as the tamrainan was licking Poppy's face like an overexcited puppy.

"Hehehe down Butterball! Down! Stop licking me!" she squealed placing 'Butterball' back down on the ground.

It ran around excitedly but suddenly the tamrainan stopped, turned away and started to gag, it then proceeded to hack up the creature's entire skeleton, staring at it for a minute before looking back at us with a big dopey ass grin it's tongue flopped out of its mouth as it panted. Looking over at Poppy I was slightly pleased she had the same disgusted look as me, "Now I see why that creature was so afraid of the forest," I mumbled as she and the tamrainan started walking over to me.

Coughing into my fist, my stomach dropped when I saw that I had coughed up some more blood. Quickly wiping it on the ground, I could feel myself become weaker as the pain was catching up with me tenfold.

"Branch!"

"I'm right here Poppy, you don't need to yell," Wincing as she practically yelled in my ear, beaming as she smiled brightly.

"With Butterball's help we can make it back to the troll village! And you can get help! Isn't that great?" she beamed, always looking for the 'cupcakes and rainbows' of the situation. Reaching down she grabbed my hand and pulled me up onto my semi-good foot.

Placing her left hand down on the tamrainan, Poppy leaned against it for support, her right arm was wrapped around my waist, my left arm around her's, relying on her for support. I'm barely able to stay conscious, and even though my vision is starting to black out, I could still see the huge smile that went from ear to ear on the princess's face. The smile was as bright as ever, a good indicator she was starting to return back to her old self. My gut lurched when I realized that I'm probably not going to make back alive, but I can't tell her that she's just starting to return to normal and if I do she'll be crushed.

'I don't know why she would be, considering this is all your fault! You deserve to die.' the voice stated.

'I need to hold out till we get close enough to the village, to bring her back to the other trolls,' I thought ignoring the voice. Swaying a bit as the pain took hold of my entire body weighing it down like I was carrying ten tons of weight, I felt cold down to my bones and I could feel my lungs start to give out more as my heart ache with every beat. Squeezing my hip to gain my attention, I looked back at Poppy.

Poppy's voice was enough to distract me as she looked at me, still smiling brightly as she asked, "You ready to go home?"

Forcing a small grin to hide the pain I nodded, "Let's go," dropping the small grin when she looked away. Poppy beamed and looked toward the tamrainan before shouting,

"Onward Butterball! Take us home!"