Trolls and the Sleeping Curse (rewrite)

Chapter 1

"He'll never see this one coming," Branch chuckled mischievously, moving his chess piece forewords.

     Suddenly, he stood, moving to the other side of the board, before sitting back down.

     "Wow," he said, his eyes widening in shock. "Did not see that coming."

All of a sudden, there was a knock on the door, the sound echoing through his bunker.

     "Hugh?" Branch said, looking up at his elevator in confusion. Who could that be? He wasn't expecting company. Especially not at this hour.

     Slowly, he rose to his feet, walking cautiously to the elevator, before riding it up to his hatch.

     "Who's there!?" he called up to the surface, not wanting to unlock his door, if he didn't know who was on the other side.

     Silence...

     "Hello?" he called out. "I said... who's there!?"

     No reply...

     Maybe it was just someone dropping off an invitation. Ever since he'd rejoined troll society about a year ago, he had been getting invitations from more trolls than just Poppy. Lots of invitations...

Slowly, he opened up the hatch, peeking out into the dark of night. No one was in sight. There wasn't even an envelope on the ground like there usually was when there was a knock on his door. Sus...

     "Hmmm..." he muttered to himself, looking around in confusion. 'But who...'

Suddenly, before he could finish his thought, a bag was flung over his head, blinding him from seeing his surroundings.

     "Hey!" Branch shouted, kicking and punching at the burlap sack, trying to escape, as someone picked up the bag, dragging him out of his bunker. "Let me outta here!" he screamed in a panic. "Let me go!"

He could feel himself being dragged through the forest, as he looked around the bag he was trapped in frantically for a way to escape, his heart pounding like crazy.

     Finally, the bag stopped moving, leaving Branch laying on the ground who knows where, as his ears twitched, listening for any sort of sound that would tell him who his captor was, but the area was completely silent.

     "Ok, Branch..." he muttered to himself, trying not to panic. "It's ok... you just gotta get outta here. You'll be fine..."

He twisted around in the sack, forcing his hand out through the opening, as he felt around for the string that held the bag shut.

"Got it!" he shouted out in victory, smiling at his success. He pulled at the rope carefully, trying to get it untied, as he stuck his tongue out of his mouth in concentration. "Almost... got it..."

Finally, he got the bag untied, jumping out of the sack, as he immedioutly went into defensive mode, looking around himself cautiously.

     "Who's out there!?" he demanded in a shout. No reply. "What do you want with me!?" Still... no answer.

Branch looked around frantically, seeing nothing but darkness surrounding him. No one was there... but then... who had kidnapped him? And why?

     Finally, he stood up straight, scratching his head in confusion. "Who..."

Suddenly a bright light flashed on, shining brightly in the blue troll's face.

"Ahh!" he screamed out in shock, putting his hands up in front of his face, to shield his eyes from the blinding light.