Faded Rainbows

A song to heal a heart

Branch had decided it would be wise to go through the quieter areas to get to Queen Poppy's pod. Of course, that only lasted so long, since her pod was in the dead center of the village. At one point, Branch and Trollex stood in a bush together, bracing themselves for the last leg of their journey. The packed village square. Trollex let out a small whimper, looking up into the open sky over the pop troll's heads. "I could always just... you know, carry you and go over everyone's heads."

Branch looked over at Trollex, and then shook his head. "No, we'd catch even more attention that way. Might be easier if I go through, and you go over. They're used to seeing me walking around, but I still attract attention. I can keep them from looking up as you sleep over."

Trollex shook his head. "Seems unfair throwing you to the mob..."

Branch smiled a bit, though it was tense. "I just gotta make it quick, and so do you... Now go!" He pushed himself out of the bush and onto the busy street, walking with purpose straight for Poppy's pod. Sure enough, several trolls spotted him, approaching to chat or in some cases, trying to drag poor Branch into an impromptu musical.

Trollex slipped upwards into the sky, doing his best not to travel through open air too much. Everything seemed to be going well, both were over half way to Poppy's pod, but a shout from below caught his attention. "Hey, is that a Techno troll?"

Sea slugs! He was spotted! He tried to dart into hiding nearby, but it seemed the damage had been done. He peaked out of his new hiding place, looking through the gathering crowd for branch. For a troll that was so different than the other pop trolls, he was shockingly hard to spot.

Trollex found his eyes constantly drawn by the sparkly glitter trolls, or the other trolls in the crowd that were physically different from the others. He was starting to panic, wishing desperately for a distraction.

He blinked in surprise as he saw a small, glowing light appear on a troll's wrist, coupled with a soft chiming noise. Soon more and more trolls had their wrists glowing. What happened next had Trollex questioning a lot of things at once. He watched as every single troll that had gathered started to randomly hug each other!

It was then he spotted Branch, having managed to pull himself from the impromptu hug pile and was now making a beeline for Poppy's pod, a glowing light emanating from his wrist as well. Trollex pushed through the foliage of his hiding place, diving quickly to follow after Branch.

The pod hardly had time to open to admit the two trolls before they were tumbling inside. Branch laughed softly as the Pod closed once again behind him. "Haha, wow! Saved by hug time again..."

Trollex looked down at the panting troll, tilting his head. "Hug time? Is that why everyone suddenly started hugging each other?"

Branch nodded, standing at last and dusting himself off. "Yeah, it started after we escaped the Bergens. It was to keep everyone's spirits up after what we'd been through."

"Wait, what are Bergens?" Trollex blinked a bit. He'd heard of the Pop's losing their colors before, but nothing about Bergens.

Just as it seemed Branch was about to explain, Poppy seemed to spring from out of nowhere, landing on Branch with a thump and hugging him tightly. "They're our friends! That's what they are, right, Branchy?"

Branch huffed, but was grinning widely. "Yeah yeah, Poppy, they're our friends now."

Trollex glanced around the interior of the pod, wondering just WHERE Poppy had come from. Poppy seemed to finally notice the other guest she had in her home, gasping sharply as she stood, running over and pulling Trollex into a tight hug. "Ohmygosh, a guest! Branch, why didn't you tell me you were bringing a new friend for hug time! Oh this is great! I'll get cocoa!" And with that, she was off like a shot to another room.