Since everyone liked the Grey King and Cursed grey I decided to try something else. It is again to do with Branch being a King from a different kind of trolls. I've used the legends of King Arthur and Lord of the rings as inspiration here, I hope you will all enjoy this story. It may turn out to be quiet a long one…Anyways warnings of angst, darkness, romance and fluff. I don't own anything here. I have dyslexia so please be nice. Please note I will do my best to describe the robes but so you all know they are based on those worn by elves in lord of the rings films. I don't often try to write song lyrics so if the ones here are not very good I can only say sorry and I tried.

In the Mist lived a King

Chapter one:

All trolls know the legend, it's been told for generations ask any troll child and they can all faithfully recite the opening line of the old story. In the mist lived a King…What most versions of the story forgot or left out was the next part of that line which went and he was blessed with wings in shades of the sky at daytime and the deepest sapphire of night. This story is about a legend which was not really a legend it was in fact the truth but it was a truth which had been long forgotten.

Branch had been helping Poppy with the younger trolls when one of them had thrown a ball it had missed the child they had been aiming for and hit the blue troll square in the back. Branch cried out in pain, there was a ripping sound and the whole pod turned to stair as wings opened out from his back they were of sky blue feathers edged with sapphire blue. The now shirtless blue troll was down on his knees panting hard, he screamed again, a force of some kind rippled out from him opening up the pod and releasing blue feathers into the air which vanished into blue sparkles. Former King Peppy and many other trolls were drawn to the pod, the old King could hardly believe the sight before him.

Slowly Branch stood, his wings moved to help him to balance, the blue troll looked over his shoulder at them and frowned with confusion. Poppy came dashing over to him, she threw her arms round Branch and held him tightly happy to see that he was alright despite this change. Smiling softly the now winged troll returned the embrace his wings moving slightly to curl round them too. The pink troll looked round at them, she reached out with one hand and touched a wing gently it gave a small twitch but that was all. Peppy crossed the pods floor to his daughter, he had been willing to let Branch and his daughter to be together until now but for the old troll wings and whatever that force had been they had all felt were simply too much for him. Peppy pulled Poppy out of Branch's arms, he pushed his daughter behind him and then pointed at the blue troll. "Take what you need and get out of here freak!"

Branch jerked back as though the words where blows, he ran from the pod and out into the troll tree his new wings carefully flattening themselves against his back out of the way. No one could speak they couldn't believe what Peppy had just done to the hero of their clan and the one to save his daughter. Poppy tried to tug herself out of her father's grip but he wouldn't let go instead he turned on her furry burning in his eyes. "You are not going after him. Poppy Branch had wings! Wings for troll's sakes! And what was power we all felt he isn't normal!"

"But I love him! No matter what Branch is still Branch!" At last Poppy manage to tug herself free of her father's grasp, she dashed into the troll tree closely followed by the snack pack but by the time she had made it to the pod of the blue troll he was not there.

"BRANCH!" Poppy screamed but there was no answer, the Queen went down onto her knees, she wrapped her arms round herself and began to sob hard. As she wept Poppy turned grey from the bottom up, the snack pack gathered round their friend, they all hugged her hard trying to offer some form of comfort to the clearly heartbroken young Queen, but they knew that in reality there was little they could do to ease Poppy's suffering.

As Peppy entered the pod, he took one look at his grey child being held by her friends and knew he really had been extremely foolish. "Oh Poppy…"

The grey troll looked up at her father and as her gaze fell on him, it felt to the old troll as though she was throwing daggers into his heart. After a few moments of silence Poppy addressed her father in a voice so cold it froze his blood. "Go away and leave me alone father." Slowly the snack pack released their friend, the grey troll stood, she walked to Branch's bed climbed into it and drew the blue bedclothes over her with her back firmly turned to the rest of the room. The snack pack all stood, they then turned to glare at their old King who couldn't even look at them, he was so ashamed of himself and his actions.

At first no one knew what to do or say after all that had happened, eventually though Suki spoke to the rest of the snack pack. "We need to go after Branch…"

There were murmurs of agreement to this statement, then Cooper voiced the question all of the others were thinking. "But were do winged trolls even come from?"

Silence greeted this question for the longest time until a very old voice spoke up from behind them. "In the mist lived a King and he was blessed with wings in shades of the sky at daytime and the deepest sapphire of night." The snack pack turned to look at old Moss a very old, green male troll as he entered the pod with the aid of his walking stick.

"But that's just a story." Guy Diamond said to him with wide eyes even as Satin helped the old troll across the room and into a chair.

Moss shook his head at the glittering troll. "No Guy Diamond it is not a story, it is in fact a legend but it is a legend about the truth. The King of the Mist islands was lost to his people a long time ago, but as you will know from the stories it was always said he would return to those lands…Now how did that part of the story go…?"

"The King of the Mist would return to the lands of his ancestors broken of heart and scared of soul. There in the mist he will mourn the loss of his soul mate and true love until he uses the mist to swallow the memories of the pain in his heart and numb the aching of the scar on his soul. Then the great King known as the great healing King will rule the island of Mists, and so shall his heirs after him until time does end." Peppy said very softly causing the younger trolls to turn and look at him. "What have I done?" The old King asked no one in particular as he sank down to sit onto the floor of the pod.

These words caused another silence to hang over the pod. "So where are the islands of the Mist?" Suki eventually asked the older two trolls.

It was Moss who answered this question from the DJ. "They are islands far to the west and no easy place for any troll to reach, this is because no troll really knows were in the west they are. Some stories say they lay beyond the setting sun and others that the mist guards them preventing any who do not have Mist blood from finding them. One thing is for sure Queen Poppy will never get her true colours back until Branch is returned to her."

"I know this is probably a stupid question but how is Branch the King of the Mist lands?" Biggie asked the older troll with confusion.

The old green troll smiled at the large troll. "It is not a stupid question Biggie. Rosiepuff is the answer to that question, she was a Mist islander but spent her whole life hiding her wings because she fell in love with Branch's grandfather. I was one of the few trolls to know she had the royal blue wings which have always marked out those of the royal line. Rosiepuff knew Branch would inherit the powers of the Mist royals, it always breeds true into the eldest child no matter who their mate in life is. Poor Branch he lost all his family before anyone could tell him what was coming…Getting back his true colours must have woken his powers and they were just waiting for a reason to show themselves, which is exactly what happened today."

"Is there nothing we can do…?" Suki asked the old troll softly.

Moss looked thoughtful for a long while and then answered this question. "There is only one thing I can suggest but it many result in nothing. The old archives here in the troll tree might contain something which will help you to be able to find Branch."

"Well then let's go and see what we can find." Suki said rousing the rest of the members of the snack pack, they gave cheers of agreement eager to see if they could find a way to help Poppy. Suki went over to the grey Queen on her bed, she touched her shoulder gently and said very softly to her friend. "We will find a way to bring Branch back to you, no matter how long it takes or what we have to do to achieve it."

With this said the seven friends with Moss, left the pod, then with the old green troll as their guide the snack pack made their way into archives. Once they were there they quickly started to search through everything there for anything they could find on the Mist Island and it's king. Peppy however staid with his daughter in Branch's pod, but no matter what he said or did Poppy refused to look at her father or talk to him, not that the old King could blame her. Over the next few days Poppy would only leave Branch's pod to do her duty as Queen, the rest of the time she could be found curled up in his bed. It was painful for all of the trolls to see the state of now grey troll, but they refused to let themselves also turn grey because they knew it would hurt their Queen even more if this were to happen to them because of her.

The snack pack spent days, then weeks slowly but methodically going through the archives looking for anything about the Mist islands and the King, Moss and Peppy were helping the friends with their search as and when they could. So far though their search was proving fruitless, anything which they did discover in the archives only told them what they already knew about the King of the Mist and the islands themselves. The snack pack still held out hope that somewhere in the vast archive, amongst the hundreds of thousands of books and papers there would be the information that they were desperate to find. With the more time that passed the worse Poppy seemed to get, she was becoming even more grey than before and more lethargic. This meant that Peppy was having to take back over ruling the trolls from his daughter and his concern as well as his feelings of guilt over the state of Poppy was growing with the time that passed.