It's been 10 years...

♧Chapter 17♧

*Creek's point of view*

When I woke up instead of finding my head on my girlfriend's shoulder I was... for some reason laying on a pillow? When I looked around I saw that my girlfriend wasn't even here in general! What the heck happened? Where did she go?

If you didn't figure it out already, I actually planned to spend the whole day with her. So I thought about it for a moment and well...I thought taking a nap with her would be more calming and romantic soooooo.....I drugged the tea. Look I know that it sounds pretty messed up but it's not like I did anything irrational while she was drugged! And before you freak out the drug was just a small dose of roofies it's not like I made her sick or anything!

Not to mention that's she my girlfriend and I deserve to have a girlfriend who will spend time with me, oh and I guess Poppy deserves a good boyfriend but het life is already perfect! She has no idea all of the annoying stuff that I have to go through! Plus if she's just gonna be busy with her duties all the time then the relationship will never work out! Thats probably why she left right now UGH! Why does she have to do this to me?!

Great, now I'm mad and it's all thanks to her! I hope she cries tonight!

...

*Nobody's point of view*

Meanwhile Poppy was getting a scolding from her father for going missing for so long, they were both in her pretty pink pod with her father completely exhausted from looking everywhere for his one and only daughter. It's already bad enough for him that he lost his only love he doesn't want to loose her either. He wasn't gonna be at all happy when he found out the truth of where she's been.

Peppy: Poppy where were you!? You've been gone for hours!

The princess's head faced the ground and her small hands were curled into fists.

Poppy: I'm sorry dad...I-I was with Creek and after drinking some tea I-I feel asleep and-

Peppy: FOR 4 HOURS?!

She swallowed

Poppy: Yes...

Peppy: Poppy the whole village was looking for you! You had all of us worried sick! Do have any idea how terrified I was?!

Poppy: I really am sorry I just-

Peppy: Just go to your room! We'll talk when I calm down...

The princess looked down in shame, she proceeded to nod her head and she went up stairs in her pod obeying her father's orders.

King Peppy frustratingly walked out of his daughter's pod as fast as he could despite him needing a cane to walk and slammed the door shut leaving Poppy all by herself.

She flinched and squinted her eyes when she heard the door slam she looked out her window to see her father leaving her home in a frustrated manner. She felt her eyes tear up when she saw how angry she had made her own father. It's already bad enough that her people would go absolutely insane when the thought she was sick, she could only imagine how insane they went when they thought she was missing. So she did the only logical thing in a situation like this...

She blamed herself.

She ran to her bed and hugged her fluffy pillow close, she thought she was an irresponsible idiot right now. She has to do these duties for a reason and she failed to do them to which she felt ashamed.

Poppy: All o-of this happened *sniff* because I couldn't s-stay awake...*sniff*

She gripped her pillow tighter until her knuckles turned red, and right now...the only thing in the whole universe that she wanted right now was...

*ping!*

...a hug

Something tells me she will have to cry herself asleep tonight.

Meanwhile Poppy's father was pacing back and forth in his pod, on hand rubbed his left temple while the other still gripped onto his wooden cane. He was deeply upset and was mumbling to himself all sorts of stuff.

Peppy: I can't believe she didn't do her duties because she was asleep! There's no way she slept for that long in the middle of the day! She has to be lying to me. But why would she lie to me?! What could she possibly be hiding from her own father?

But just then in the corner of his eye he caught a glimpse of one of his favorite photos, it was of him and a baby Poppy sitting in a rocking chair together as she cuddled to her father's shirt and she slept soundly. He couldn't help but smile at how adorable she was when she was little...his eyes kept looking at more pictures he had on his wall each on having Poppy growing older and older and so did he. She kept growing taller and taller while he only seemed to get shorter...when he got to her teenage years he chuckled at how she used to have a phase where she was completely obsessed with hair pins. She had hair pins shaped like all sorts of girly stuff and she would always wear at least 5 of them on her bangs each day, she looked so silly but he never said anything since it made her happy...finally he got to his most recent one, it was of him and Poppy scrapbooking together his scrapbook was a little messy while hers was absolutely perfect, he had a proud smirk on his face while his daughter just giggled.

He couldn't help but smile and chuckle but that quickly went away when he remembered the look on his daughter's face when he yelled at her for the first time.

He placed his soft orange hand on the picture and he slowly slid it down admiring all of the memories and how she is such an innocent soul.

Peppy: I went too far...

To be continued...

And before you go! I just want to let you guys know that I've noticed that this book has been more about Poppy than it should be...so from here on out the rest of the chapters will be about Branch! It will consist of him slowly becoming more and more lonely throughout the 10 years until finally when the 10 years are up he makes a shocking discovery! Stay tuned!