863

Chapter 6

     Branch raised an eyebrow in confusion as he looked down at the mysterious key that was now in his hand.

     "What is that?" Val asked, seeing him pull the strange object out of his hair.

     "A key..." he answered, not even looking up at the bluish-purple rock troll. "I... I think it came from the ceiling..."

     "Who the heck would put a key in a ceiling," Poppy asked, taking the strange object from her boyfriend to look at closer. "Someone who doesn't want it found..." Dj proposed, her eyes wide, no longer tired in the slightest.

     "Reporter Lagoona Tidepool is on the case!" Lagoona yelled out triumphantly, looking closely at the key through a magnifying glass. "Hmm... 863... fascinating!"

     The techno troll pulled out her notebook, quickly beginning to write down her findings.

     "The gold key for some reason has the numbers '863' printed on it..." she said out loud as she wrote it down. "What does 863 mean?" Smidge asked in confusion, the group of girls all surrounding eachother to see the key better, all of them super curious about what it went to.

"It doesn't matter," Branch suddenly said sternly, snatching the key back from Poppy. "Cuz we're getting rid of it!"

"What!?" everyone yelled out at once as Branch began to walk towards the door, taking the key with him.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, Branch," Poppy said, quickly flinging her hair around his ankle to stop his retreat, accidentally tripping him, causing the light blue pop troll to fall flat on his stomach with a thud.

"Hey! Let me go!" Branch yelled out in anger, trying to escape his girlfriend's grasp, but he just ended up getting all tangled in her long pink hair, trapping himself even more... "Grr..."

     "You can't just get rid of the key, Branch," Poppy stated, slowly approaching her boyfriend who was currently entangled in a ball of her own hair. "Don't you want to know what it unlocks?"

     "No..." Branch grumbled bluntly. "What ever it is could be dangerous. Or even worse... lead to another..." He gagged slightly, sticking out his tongue in disgust before continuing. "Adventure..."

     "Oh come on, Branch!" Poppy chuckled, waving her hand through the air. "You love adventures."

     "False..." he denied, forcing his way out of the soft ball of pink hair. "Every time we go on an adventure... I almost die!"

     "That's not true," Poppy laughed, thinking he was just over reacting like usual.

     "It's completely true!" Branch yelled in reply, beginning to list off the times he almost died on their many adventures. "There was that time when we went to find the stone of friendship and I fell off a cliff..."
"Yeah..." Poppy said softly. "But that's just one..."
"And the time we went to find the village's missing glitter, and that Chief Nightengail person tried to throw me into a volcano..."
"That doesn't prove..."
"And... there was that time when we went to find your mom, and she actually literally killed me!"
"She brought you back!" Poppy yelled, getting frustrated by Branch's proof.
"It still hurt!" he yelled back, the two of them glaring at each other in anger.

     Finally, after a long moment of pure and utter silence... Branch sighed, lowering his head as his ears drooped down sadly.

     "And worse..." he began. "There are the times you almost died, Poppy..." He looked back up at her, her angered glare fading from her face as she heard her boyfriend's words. "You know what... I... I don't really care about those things that happened to me... I can live with them..." he stated softly, reaching out to take Poppy's hands in his. "But if anything happened to you... that's... that's a pain I just can't live with..."

     Poppy was speechless for a moment, not knowing what to say.

     "Branch..." she finally said softly. "Nothing's going to happen."
"You're right..." he responded, his voice basically a whisper. "Because we're destroying this key..."

     Again, he began to walk away, leaving the building as the group of girls watched after him.

     "Well?" Val said, crossing her arms. "Aren't you going after him? We need that key!"

     "No..." Poppy sighed, turning to face her friends. "I don't need to go after him... cuz I've got the key right here!"

     Suddenly, she pulled the key out of her hair, showing it off to the group.

     "Whoa..." they all muttered in awe.

     "Snatched it from him, while he wasn't looking," the queen of pop said smugly. "Now let's find out what this thing goes to..."

—————

     Branch walked far from the village, heading right to a cliff he had only been to once. Another adventure where he had almost lost his life. Another adventure... where he almost lost Poppy...

     He walked over to the edge of the cliff, looking into the water below. He remembered fighting with Creek at the top of this peak, both of them tumbling over the edge together.

     Luckily, Poppy had been there to catch Branch as he fell... unluckily... that only caused her to fall too...

     Branch remembered that day well, even though it had happened long ago. Back when they had first befriended the Bergens. Back when he found his true colors. Back before they even knew about the other troll tribes.

     And yet... even though that adventure had happened so long ago... it wasn't even the first... he almost lost Poppy to the Bergens only a few days prior to that. Adventures were just always coming... always putting them in danger... not this time though... not if Branch had anything to say about it...

     The light blue pop troll reached into his hair, digging around for the key, so he could throw it off the edge of this cliff, never to be seen again... but instead of the key... he only found a note...

     "What the..." Branch muttered softly, opening up the folded piece of paper.

     'Sorry, Branch... but I have to know where this adventure takes us... love you!' a little scrapbook Poppy said to him before blasting a buttload of glitter into his face.

     "Ugh..." he groaned, slapping both hands over his face in annoyance. "Poppy..."