Chapter Text
“Goodbye Miss Poppy!” The trollings chorused.
Poppy sent them a smile and a wave as she left the school pod, entrusting them to a different teacher for math.
She tucked her scrapbook of the escape from Bergentown into her hair, jumping down to the next branch before continuing on her walk. She enjoyed teaching the kids history. She felt it was important to know, in order to understand their culture and the adults around them.
She had a rule to herself that she never directly lied to the children when they asked her questions. When one child asked if the bergens would still eat them, she didn't try to dismiss the girl's fear. She told the truth, though she was quick to follow it up with words of comfort. These kids were smart enough to learn about their people's history, but there was no need to terrify them for something that would probably never happen.
She waved at a couple trolls she passed with a smile. They smiled in return, excitedly showing her the invitations they had gotten for the party that night. That made her smile a little wider as she entered the pod for her next appointment.
“Good morning, Queen Poppy!” The troll at the front desk greeted happily. Poppy smiled at her in return. “Are you here to see him again?”
She nodded. “Is he awake?”
The troll nodded. “He started his day a few hours before the sun rose this morning,” she explained.
“Is that my daughter?!” A voice called out, loudly. From around the corner came the former king of the trolls, Peppy.
Poppy smiled at him. “Good morning, Dad!” She said excitedly. “Are you ready for the party tonight?”
He frowned. “Party?” He smiled lightly at her. “You know I don’t come to parties without an invitation,” he joked.
She nodded, pulling out an invitation. “That’s why I brought this for you!” She handed him the red envelope. “I just started handing them out this morning!”
He smiled softly, taking the card. “Thank you, mi viva,” he said. “Are you going to stay for a bit?”
“Sorry, dad,” she said, her face dropping. “I have to hand out the rest of the invitations.”
He nodded. “Okay. I’ll see you soon, then,” he smiled at her. “Te amo, mi viva.”
Poppy smiled softly at him. “I love you too, Dad.” They hugged (even though it wasn’t hug time) and she waved as he turned to walk away again.
She watched as he walked into his room, where a friendly troll was walking up with some food for him. Distractedly, he placed the invitation on a pile of identical invitations, turning to talk to the nurse.
“You know, you don’t have to do this every day,” the receptionist said. “We can remind him of things if you’re busy.”
Poppy pulled her gaze away from her Dad’s room. “It’s no problem,” she said. “I always have time for him.” She glanced over. “Are you sure he’ll be okay for dinner tonight? I might be able to step away from party set-up to eat with him-”
“Queen Poppy,” the receptionist cut in, kindly. “He’ll be okay. Go get ready for tonight.”
The young queen smiled politely, turning and heading out of the pod. Though she was worried, she had to start the morning song soon.
—
Poppy grinned at her friends as she waved her people goodbye. Wrapping up a morning song was always a nice feeling- it was probably the only time when singing and dancing could make her tired anymore.
She was interrupted, though, by someone clapping very slowly behind her. She looked around to find one of the trolls who never joined in songs staring at her.
Branch.
He was a mystery to her. She was sure her dad would have explained if he remembered more, but since he didn't, she didn't know there was a troll living just outside the village until that year.
Unfortunately, it was because he had started to become a disruption to certain functions of the village. She had yet to be present at one of the events, but trolls told her that he would run in, yelling about the bergens, flailing and throwing things. The other trolls told her to leave him be, but she refused to leave anyone .
So, she started investigating the strange troll. He was gray, which she had never heard of as a coat color. He seemed largely uninterested in social events, and preferred more practical tasks. She admired that, though she had yet to express that in conversation with him.
“Unbelievable.” He stated, stopping his clapping to step forwards. “I could hear you from a mile away!”
“Oh good!” Poppy said excitedly. “I was worried we weren't projecting enough!” She noticed the forest responded well to their singing. It helped crops grow and strengthened the natural barrier the trees provided. If he could hear them from a mile away…
“Poppy. If I can hear you,” Branch cut in. “Then so can the bergens!”
“Oh boy,” Guy Diamond said, exhaustedly.
“You always ruin everything ,” Satin scoffed.
“Bursting in to warn us about the ‘bergens,’” Chenille finished.
Branch tensed. “No, I don't,” he insisted.
Poppy found herself agreeing. There was a lot to be done around the village, and Branch had only interrupted a few events for trolls near the edges of the village. While yes, unfortunate, no worse than when Creek accidentally overbooked some events, and everyone was trying to claim each of the spots.
(Poppy tended to handle the scheduling by herself after that.)
“Branch, no one has seen a bergen in over 20 years,” Poppy said, trying to draw the others’ ire away. “They're not going to find us.”
“No,” he shot back. “They're not going to find me. ‘Cause I'll be in my heavily fortified, bergen-proof, survival bunker.”
Poppy face shifted. “Does that mean you're not coming to the party?” She questioned, genuinely.
Her friends, though, immediately started arguing on behalf of the party, trying to hype it up for the gray troll.
“Big?!” He picked out from them talking. “Loud?! Crazy?! You're just going to bring the bergens right to us!”
Next to Poppy, Cooper snorted. “Are you sure you want to invite this party pooper to poop on your party?” He said, whispering loudly.
“Yes,” she said decisively. “I don't want to leave anyone out.” She turned back to the aforementioned troll. “Branch,” she said, drawing his attention. “I know you're not the biggest fan of parties, but I really believe you'd like this one if you give it a chance.” She reached into her hair and pulled out a scrapbooked card. She didn't have anywhere near enough time to make these for every troll, but sometimes she liked using her limited time between parties to put some care into special cards.
The card she pulled out popped up with flowers and a rainbow, and then a small little version of Branch holding a heart. (They didn't have gray felt, so she improvised with some less saturated green. It wasn't her favorite thing, but it would do in a pinch.) The card also sang a little tune she had had one of her friends record for her. It wasn't anything stellar, but she was really proud of it.
“So?” She asked, proddingly.
Branch stared at her and slowly took the card. Poppy smiled wider. He always took the cards. Even if he didn't come to the party, he would at least have that-
His face morphed in anger, and in a quick movement, he had slammed the card onto the ground and stomped on it. Poppy felt like her soul left her body. Distantly, she was aware of her friends gasping behind her.
“I won't be caught dead at your party,” Branch growled. “But you will be: caught and dead. ”
Poppy was only slightly aware of Creek arriving, and him saying something to Branch. She, however, was frozen in shock.
The little flowers were crooked, springs bent and broken. The petals were crumpled and crushed, and the rainbow hadn't fared much better. The tiny Branch had lost his eyes, and was lying face down in the dirt.
The mechanisms for the flowers had taken her an entire break to do. She had stayed up, ignoring sleep to finish them. Sure, the other troll had never been eager about one of her parties, but he always took the cards. She enjoyed the satisfaction of giving someone a handmade gift, and she knew that most other trolls loved receiving them.
…or did they?
She was pulled out of her thoughts by a chime.
“Hug time!” Her friends chorused happily. She put on a smile and joined the group hug. She basked in the comfort until she felt strange movements, and then the group was missing one member. She stepped back herself to find Branch picking up his supplies and glaring at her.
“When the bergens find us, and the lives of every troll is on the line, I hope the answer is singing, dancing and hugging,” he snapped, angrily. “Because that's all you know how to do!”
“That's not true!” Biggie burst in. “Queen Poppy can also scrapbook!”
Poppy felt her face fall. Was that all her trolls thought she could do? Even her friends?
Branch scoffed. “I can't believe they made you queen,” he snapped, turning and walking into the forest.
She watched with a frown as he walked into the forest. Was he just the only one willing to say what they were all thinking? Was he the only one who saw who she truly was?
“Hey,” a voice cut in. “Tune out his negative vibrations, Poppy.” Creek stepped in front of her, giving her a smooth smile. “He's toxic .”
She smiled hesitantly. “Yeah, I guess…”
He smiled at her, not paying attention to her hesitance. “You guess right,” he said, delicately. He reached out and touched her nose “Boop!”
She sent him another small smile, watching her friends all walk away, chatting excitedly about the day ahead.
Once they were out of earshot, though, she frowned, letting out a sigh.
She turned to the forest where the gray troll had disappeared. Her friends insisted she had to focus on what she could control, but wasn't the whole point of being queen about focusing on her people? How would she know she couldn't control certain things until she tried?
And how did she know when she just wasn't trying hard enough? If the past kings and queens had just given up on the escape because they couldn't “control” the bergens, then they might never have escaped.
And yeah, she couldn't change a storm, but she could prepare for it and plan how to move past it.
Earlier that day, Satin and Chenille had made some wonderful dresses for her, that she absolutely loved! …it was just that… she couldn't look at them without thinking about how the materials would have been useful for so many different crafts and construction projects.
While she had led a sing-along for the village to work on a handful of new pods for their growing population, they still had to rebuild the community arts-and-crafts pod after the storm that had just blown through. Their grove protected them from a lot of dangerous weather, but they couldn't be lucky forever.
She resolved that she'd have to build this party up as much as she could, to ride the wave of excitement into the next village project.
(Getting trolls to show up to parties was easy. Getting them to show up to help gather crops was not. So, Poppy threw crop-gathering parties. House-building parties. History-lesson parties. And so on and so forth. It didn't hurt that she loved parties, too.)
She walked off to her village, getting ready to start the day.
—
The party was going fantastically!! Poppy could see trolls who didn’t usually come to parties there, even the critternarian, Milton Moss! After months of toiling away, her hard work was paying off!
She could see trolls laughing, dancing, feeling light in a way that she hadn’t in a while. From the stage in the front, she bounced along excitedly. It was her favorite music, her favorite people, her favorite everything!
She saw her friends at the edge of the party and signaled them, a smile consuming her face.
They released the glitter flowers, which had been building up all day. They all combined into an explosion in the air, dazzling every troll in the grove.
Poppy grinned as the crowd began dancing in renewed excitement. This was her favorite part of parties. The community and connection between everyone, creating something where others would leave feeling charged up and excited for what was ahead.
“I can’t hear you!!” She yelled. A cheer went up among her people.
She let them dance through one more song before signaling for Suki to lower the volume of the music. Luckily, the trolls noticed, and turned to the stage.
“Thank you all so much for coming!” She said. “I just wanted to take a minute, and get real for a second.”
“Poppy!” Biggie shouted. “That’s my friend! I know her!”
Luckily, the rest of her friends turned and shushed him so she could continue. She looked fondly at him before turning back to the crowd at large.
“I’d like to remember all the trolls who got us to this point, where we can celebrate 20 years of being free,” she spoke. “I’d like to thank my father, who led our people out of the tree, and all those who dug the tunnels for us to escape through. And I’d like to remember those we lost on the way.” The crowd grew quiet, which she let hang in the air for a moment longer, before continuing. “It’s through our togetherness that we’re here today, and with that togetherness, I’d like to make sure we’re here to stay! This week, I will be hosting a community event to rebuild the arts-and-crafts pod. There will be fun snacks, provided by a handful of our lovely bakeries-” She pointed at the bakers she had noticed in the crowd, who smiled and blushed at the attention. “-and give-away craft kits, to try out in the newly-rebuilt community pod!” The crowd cheered, chattering excitedly. “And now, let’s get back to this party!” She called.
Suki nodded, turning the music back on. The crowd was swept into another frenzy, all smiling and partying.
Poppy looked out on her success and smiled. These were the times she truly felt like a Queen. It more than made up for the hours of cleaning she’d have to go through once everyone went off to bed.
She paused, though, when she felt a vibration that made the pods shake. It was rhythmic, which made her wince internally. They couldn’t just destroy their own pods with their volume. She turned to Suki and gestured for her to turn down the bass.
Her friend looked at her with confusion, but lowered the music. Trolls began to look up curiously.
The vibration, though, didn’t stop. It got louder . Instead of coming from the party in front of her, it seemed to be coming from the forest behind her.
She motioned for Suki to cut the music, causing a murmur to go up through the trolls. Poppy held her hands up reassuringly, but listened closely. Critters usually left them alone, but it wouldn’t be the first time they had to pause a party for one passing through.
She turned around, looking into the forest as she listened. Something moved, and she followed it up to a pair of glowing, yellow eyes. It wasn’t a critter smiling at her as it approached. The lights from the party made everything more and more clear.
It was a bergen .