Curse of the Weretroll (rewrite)

Chapter 11

    "You disappeared..." Poppy explained, drying her tears with her dress sleeve. "I searched everywhere... but I couldn't find you... and... and then... then the party was attacked..."

Branch's eyes widened in horror at what he was hearing...

Attacked!? Was he actually right all of these years? Had the Bergens finally found them!?

His mind was racing with horrified questions, but the survivalist couldn't seem to get even a single word to escape his mouth...

"Uh... Branch?" Poppy suddenly questioned, raising an eyebrow in confusion. "Where's your shirt?"

Branch looked down at himself, realizing he was only wearing his shorts, his leaf vest appearing to be completely missing...

"I... uh... I don't know..." he admitted, before shaking his head, quickly getting back to the subject that Poppy had just blatantly taken them off of... "Attacked?" he questioned, his voice trembling slightly. "B... Ber... Bergens?"

"No, Branch," Poppy explained calmly, causing Branch to let out a soft sigh of relief that they hadn't been rediscovered by their greatest enemy. "It was something else... something we haven't seen before..."

"Was anyone hurt?" Branch asked in slight concern. Suddenly, his eyes widened in terror, a horrific thought coming to his head... "Are you hurt!?" he yelled out in a panic, quickly beginning to check over the love of his life for any injuries...

At first... Poppy was a bit confused by her friend's reaction to her statement... she had never seen him so worried before... never mind concerned about her safety... she thought he couldn't care less about her...

"No, Branch," Poppy finally responded, pulling away from the gray troll's examination. "I'm not hurt. No one got hurt. It charged into the party as if searching for something and everyone quickly ran away to hide before it could do anything else..."

Branch sighed in relief at the knowledge the other trolls at-least had enough common sense to run from the threat...

"Dad has quarantined the village..." Poppy finally continued, Branch looking right back up to her as she spoke to him. "Everyone's supposed to stay inside until he can figure out what the creature was since he didn't get a good look."

"Ok... that explains the lack of trolls in the square..." Branch observed. "But why are you out in the open?"

"I told you..." Poppy said. "I was looking for you. You looked to be in so much pain last night before you vanished... it would have been easy for a predator to get you... plus with the Squirloff incident..."

"Ok! That's enough!" Branch quickly interrupted, not wanting to hear about his one moment of defenselessness... "I'm fine. Nothing got me..."

Well... that was a flat out lie... something had gotten him. How else would he have ended up in the forest surrounded by paw prints?

At-least he was lucky enough that the creature had decided not to eat him and left him alive...

Critters were usually really intelligent. It must have sensed there was something wrong with the gray troll it was planning on having for dinner and didn't want to catch his illness by eating him...

He was certainly one lucky troll...

"The thing was huge," Poppy continued. "Look..."

She pointed down at the ground beside the spot where Branch stood, the village grump turning to see what she was looking at, his eyes widening at the sight...

It... it was a paw print...

"What the heck kind of creature leaves a footprint like that?" Branch questioned, kneeling down to observe the print. He was rather good at defining tracks, but this one was completely new to him...

Actually... now that he was getting a closer look... it did look kind of familiar...

That's it! It was exactly the same as the tracks he had seen in the forest... the ones he had followed to find his way home...

What he first thought to be a rather small Cuddle Pup paw print was now revealed to be something else entirely...

He rubbed his finger carefully through the dirt of the paw print, pulling up a black strand of fur that shimmered slightly in the sunlight shining down onto it...

"Hmm..." the survivalist muttered curiously as he looked closely at the fur he now held between his finger tips. It definitely wasn't troll hair... or even Cuddle Pup fur... but then... what was it?

"Poppy!" a familiar shout suddenly rung out through the air, both trolls turning to see king Peppy running towards them, a group of trolls wearing party hats following close behind. "You weren't in your pod," he exclaimed, hugging his daughter tight. "I set up a search party as soon as possible... I told you to stay inside!"

     "I know, dad..." Poppy sighed, lowering her head in shame. "I'm sorry..."

     With a soft sigh, Peppy turned back to Branch, noticing him squatting next to one of the many paw print throughout the village...

     "Branch..." he started firmly. "Those prints are off limits to the citizens of troll Village for safety purposes. I'm gonna have to ask you to back away..."

     "Of... of course..." Branch responded respectfully, quickly rising back up to his feet so he could back away from the print. "S... sorry, king Peppy..."

Although this troll was his friend... Branch still found himself getting extremely nervous around him... I mean... this was the king! He could easily banish the gray troll from the village with a snap of his fingers if he wanted to...

Peppy smiled kindly at Branch, placing a comforting hand on the young troll's shoulder.

"No need to apologize, my boy," the old king assured. "You didn't know..."

     Branch smiled slightly, looking up at the orange troll in thanks for his reassuring words...

     "If you don't mind me asking..." Peppy suddenly started, his smile fading slightly from his face. "What do you have in your hand?"

Branch looked down, realizing he was still holding the strand of fur he had found on the ground...

     Looking back up, he reached out his hand, holding out the mystery object to the old king...

Peppy took the fur from the gray troll, looking down at it closely in slight confusion...

     "I found it in the print, sir..." Branch explained respectfully. "I don't really know what it is..."

With a gasp... Peppy's eyes suddenly widened, realizing what it was that he was holding...

"It can't be..." he muttered in a soft whisper of disbelief...

     "What?" Poppy asked, seeing the concern suddenly painted all over her father's face. "What's wrong, dad?"

     Slowly, the old king's gaze turned to his daughter, a look of distress sparkling in his eyes...

     "The wolves..." he started in a quiet tone. "Are back..."