It was getting dark and Hickory sat with Biggie, DJ and Rose around a campfire. While he was doing that Branch and Trollex sat away from him with Branch looking at him through binoculars and Trollex eyeing him full of jealousy and suspicion.
"No offence, Trollex, but I had the same suspicion about you when we first met." Branch whispered to him.
"It's cool." Trollex whispered back, "You don't have suspicion about me now, right?"
"Of course not." he whispered but then turned his attention back to his binoculars.
"It is a beautiful night, isn't it?" Rose asked.
"Yes! Mr Dinkles loves a full moon." Biggie agreed.
"It sure is awesome, dude." DJ added.
"Let's get our grub on. Food's ready!" Hickory announced.
"Well, I'll bring more candlin'!" Poppy said in an accent as she walked next to Branch and Trollex.
"Poppy," Branch whispered, "maybe it's just me and Trollex but are you getting a weird vibe from Hickory?"
"What? No. Why? Are you?" she asked.
"We just, I don't know, we don't trust him." Trollex whispered as he grabbed the binoculars from Branch and saw Hickory laughing with Rose. His grip then intensified on the binoculars.
"Well, yeah, but you don't trust anybody, Branch. And, Trollex, I get that it's hard to trust somebody after what happened to your home,but still." Poppy protested.
"Hey, we just want everyone to be safe." Branch told her, "And you know what's not safe? Putting too much trust into complete stranger."
"Oh, I see." Poppy scoffed, "It's not Hickory you don't trust it's me. Do you not think I'm a good queen?"
"Wait. What?" Branch and Trollex asked in sync.
"I didn't say that." Branch added.
"I thought we were friends, Branch, I'm starting to think you don't know what that means." she said but then turned her attention to Trollex, "Could you give us a minute?"
"Sure." he replied as he went to sit next to Rose with him glaring at Hickory the whole time.
"We are friends." Branch told Popy after Trollex left, "And sometimes that means speaking up if I think you're making a mistake."
Poppy looked as if she was thinking about it but then they all heard smooth jazz.
"Do you guys hear anything?" Rose asked everyone.
Then Chaz emerged from the river surrounded by pink bubbles, candles and Rose petals.
"Look at that guys ChEsT hAiR." Poppy said before going loopy.
"Poppy, I cAn'T fEeL mY fAcE." Branch told her as he went loopy too and patted his face.
"It'S lIkE I'm BeInG pArAlYsEd By It'S sMoOtHnEsS." Rose said also going loopy.
Rose then found herself at a ball in a beautiful gown.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
