Chapter 1

It's been a couple days since Poppy's seen Branch. Each day she keeps getting more and more worried. Worried that something bad happened to the grumpy survivalist troll.

She should have realized something was wrong that first day.

Flashback- Poppy's pov

Beep beep bee-

I shot up, smiling widely as I turn off my alarm. Quickly I jumped off my bed and got dressed, looking in the mirror.

"Today is going to be a great day! I just know it!" I smiled to myself.

Glancing over to the extra special invitation I made for Branch, it was inviting him to the party happening later today, since he's been acting different theses past few day. Branch has been more grumpy and closed off, I mean more than usual. So in an effort to cheer him up I made this extra special invitation. Hint hint, it has a little extra something to hopefully cheer him up, that I know he'll like! Hopefully.

'He's just going to say no like always.' A little voice in the back of my mind whispered.

Shaking my head and smiling wide I grabbed the invitation and put it gently in my hair, as not to damage it, and skipped to the dining room to where my dad was.

"Hi dad!" I skipped over to him and gave him a great big hug.

Turning around to me smiling wide "Poppy!" he exclaimed returning my hug, "How are you this wonderful morning, my sweet princess?"

"I feel great!" skipping over I grabbed a berry shoving it in my mouth. Facing dad again "How are you?" I asked as small bits of the berry spilled from my mouth.

Letting out a loud hardy laugh he handed me a napkin and responded, "I'm feeling wonderful my dear," as I wiped my face he grabbed my basket of invitations and gave it to me taking the napkin. "Have a fun party Poppy and make sure you're done by midnight."

Nodding my head I began to take off, but quickly ran back to give my dad a hug.

"I love you dad."

"I love you too Poppy."

Running outside my pod I was immediately greeted with a "Good morning Princess Poppy!"

"Good morning to all of you!" I greeted back. Grabbing my cowbell out of my hair I started tapping it.

"A five-six-seven-eight!"

(Time skip over big musical number)

"YEAH!" Everyone shouted after we sang the final note. We all were breathing heavily still holding our poses from the song.

'That should lure Branch out' I thought to myself.

As I was regaining my breath I glanced around trying to spot the grumpy troll. But I couldn't find him anywhere! 'Where is he? Isn't he normally warning us about the bergens at this point? Where could he have gone? Where is Branch!?' my mind was racing trying to figure out where the survivalist is.

A voice called out from behind me "Uh Poppy?". Breaking me from my train of thought glancing behind me I notice all the trolls still in the final pose and struggling to stay up.

"Do you think we can get down now?" Biggie asked as he held up six other trolls on his shoulders plus Mr. Dinkles in his arms. "I'm getting a bit tired holding up all these trolls."

"Yeah," Cooper piped up, I was standing on his head and he started to wobble a bit, "You're my best friend Poppy, but my neck is starting to hurt from holding you up."

"OH! I'm sorry!"

Quickly I scrambled down and off Cooper's neck, spinning around to face the rest of the trolls, with a huge smile on my face I called out, "That was great everyone! You all did fantastic, you can go off to do whatever you want! I'll see you all later at the party!"

They all cheered as they dispersed to do do their own things. My friends walked over to me, concerned looks on their faces.

"What's wrong Poppy?" Guy diamond asked in his auto tune voice. "You're not acting like yourself."

Smidge gasped covering her mouth with her hands, "You're not sick are you?!" The others gasped as well and all started to gather around me voices overlapping one another.

I waved my hand in a dismissing motion, "No, no nothing like that," I sighed, cocking my head behind me to peer in the direction of where Branch's bunker is. "It's just that, normally Branch would be here giving his whole 'If you guys keep singing and dancing like that you'll attract a bergen' routine." Wrapping one arm around me, I began tapping my fingers against my arm.

Dj Suki rolled her eyes crossing her arms, "Why do you even want to hear it? He does it every day, honestly it's a nice break not to hear it."

Creek hummed in agreement, placing a hand on my shoulder, "Poppy enjoy the nice break from his overbearing negativity, it's starting to affect your aura." he gave me a small smile as he looked into my eyes.

Returning a small smile back, I shrugged his hand off gently, turning to completely face my friends. "It's not that I enjoy his routine either, it's just that," reaching into my hair, I delicately grabbed the invitation from my hair to show them. "He's just been so grumpy and closed off that-"

Cooper cut me off, "But he's always grumpy and closed off. Such a party pooper!" huffing his lip pouting out. He looked back at me, and I gave him a deadpanned look for cutting me off.

"Sorry." he mumbled.

"It's okay Cooper. As I was saying he's been more closed off and grumpy than usual, so I wanted to give him this special invitation to hopefully cheer him up." caressing the top of the invitation. Putting the invitation delicately back in my hair, looking back up at my silent friends.

The twins were the first break the silence "Poppy you do know-" "-that he's just going to-" "destroy the invitation like always."

Hanging my head a little low I started to kick at the ground, "I guess you're both right."

"Don't be sad Poppy," Biggie said, then gave me a off-the clock hug. I smiled and hugged him back, "Thanks Biggie."

He chuckled "You're most welcome Poppy."

"Besides Poppy-" Satin piped up as she and Chenille walked over to me. "Every time around this year Branch disappears for a day-"

"We're sure you'll probably see him tomorrow, back to his normal amount of grumpiness." Chenille finished up.

I thought about it for a moment, "Hmmm, you're right! I'm sure he's just off gathering material for his bunker like always," smiling wide as my friends cheered because I was acting myself again. 'I'm sure he's just fine, heck he might just crash the party later,' I thought to myself.

Ping ping

Looking down at my watch, a huge grin that reached from ear to ear broke out.

"HUG TIME!" We all yelled before getting into one big hug pile, as we were hugging I took a quick glance past Creeks head, toward the location of Branch's bunker. I couldn't help but feel my heart ache a small bit at the thought of something bad happening to Branch. After we all broke apart I reached out and grabbed Suki and Guy Diamond's hand and dragged them behind as the others followed close behind.

"Lets go set up a great party!"

Flashback over

But Branch never showed up at the party, and no one saw him the next day either and Poppy got so worried, that she decided to stop by his bunker later that day before she was going to go home. To see why the survivalist has been locked up in his bunker for a little over two days.

Flashback-Poppy's pov

Bang Bang Bang

"Branch! Branch! Branch! Open up!" I yelled out banging on the bolder above his bunker, stepping back I crossed my arms, looking down at his welcome mat that spelled 'GO AWAY'.

I waited a couple more minutes before I went back to the bolder, and pulled the secret lever that opened up the mat. Jumping down into the hole I glanced around and noticed… Traps. Traps everywhere, even more than last time.

'Typical Branch' I thought to myself, As I was looking around at the many traps I noticed a lever that stood out, so I did what any troll would do.

I pulled the lever.

The ground under me began to shake as it started to move down, as I moved down deeper into the bunker my mouth hung open as I took in all the materials the survivalist apparently had stored down here.

"Whoa," I marveled at how big his bunker actually was, I had never been down here before the furthest Branch ever allowed me was the trap room above, and that was only one time! I walked over to a nearby cabinet and preceded to open it. Inside was a bunch of beakers and test tubes and a bunch of other things I don't really know too much about. After closing the cabinet I started looking around calling out for the grumpy troll.

"Branch!" I called out, bounding into his kitchen, I dug through his cabinets and saw berries, roots and a variant amounts of other foods. "I'm going through your pantry~" I sang out, hopefully drawing him out from wherever he was hiding.

After a few more minutes of not hearing a reply, I began to wander around a bit more. Ending up in, last but not least, Branch's room, pushing the door open and flipping the lights on I felt my breath hitched in my throat as I took in his room. Surprisingly it wasn't like the rest of the bunker, unlike the rest of the bunker which gave a cold closed off feeling, his room gave off more of a warm comforting feeling. Unlike the rest of Branch's bunker which consisted mainly of gray stone walls, the bedroom looked like it had been built inside a tree root and the floor was moss making it soft to walk on. The bed was close the bathroom, across from his bed was his closet, I peeked inside and giggled at the multitude of the amount of the same type of clothing. Glancing to my left I noticed a huge bookcase.

Cocking my head to the side, "Branch, the most grumpiest troll in like the entire history of trolls likes to read?!" pondering this information. "I mean I knew he liked to read up on things, mostly anything and everything about bergens but these," I questioned out-loud, grabbing one of the many books on the shelves, a book called 'How to sew: for dummies.' "I'd never expect Branch to read these types of books."

Placing the book back, out of the corner of my eye I notice something shimmer, I skipped over to a box and threw the lid open. I snorted at what I saw inside the box; more traps. As well as some other contraptions, I let out a small smile.

'That's my Branchie,' I thought to myself, standing up it dawned upon me what I just thought, 'MY BRANCHIE!? Ohhhhh no-no-no-no-no I do not like Branch like that! I like Creek like that!' I mentally screamed.

'Don't deny it,' the little voice in my mind commented, 'You love Branch. You love-love-looove Branch."

Before I could begin to deny the statement a little ping sounded throughout the room. I looked down at my bracelet, feeling my heart soar I whipped around looking for the grey troll when it slowly dawned upon me that, oh yeah, he isn't here. So I did the next best thing and gave myself a hug, before letting out a small yawn. Peeking at the clock on his nightstand I noticed two things, one: it was midnight, and two: Branch wears reading glasses!

I couldn't help but let out a small giggle at the thought of Branch wearing reading glasses. But as my laughter died down I began to remember why I came here.

"Branch, where are you?" I called out into the empty bunker, becoming even more on edge as to where he could have gone to. Sighing I peered over at the bed, 'I don't think it'd be safe for me to head home at this time. Especially since Branch's bunker is a bit far from the village, it's probably safer for me to stay here.' I thought to myself. Turning the lights off I walked over to the bed and grabbed the covers, I lifted them up.

'I hope Branch doesn't mind that sleep in his bed,' climbing into the bed and placing the covers over me, 'since I didn't see any spare bedrooms.'

Nuzzling my face into his pillow, I couldn't help but inhale the lingering scent. It smelled like the earth and sweat and just Branch, it made me feel so safe and secure that it just lured me into sleep.

~In the morning~

BEEP BEEP BEEP

"Ughhhhh" I groaned, pulling the pillow I was snuggling with closer, trying to block out the annoying alarm. Shoving my face further into the pillow, I blindly tried to turn the alarm off but to no avail, letting out a huff I glared up at the alarm. Which read '5:05', after screaming into the pillow, I groggily turn off the alarm, rubbing my eyes as I sat up still holding the pillow close to me. Taking in my surroundings it slowly dawn upon me as to where I am, in Branch's bunker, in his bedroom, in his bed, snuggling with his pillow!

Shoving the pillow behind me I slid out of the bed walking into the living room, "Branch!" I called out into the bunker in hope that he came back during the night. But I felt my plus quicken when no response was heard, placing my hand over my racing heart, as to calm it down. My mind began to race, and I became worried stiff as I came to a conclusion; Branch must have gotten hurt getting material!

Lucky for me that Branch is a troll of routine, he likes to the same route to get his materials and I know where that route is! Hopefully he isn't too hurt, but if I want to get to Branch before he possibly gets worse, I have to go now!

"Don't worry Branch! I'm coming to save you!"