Curse of the Weretroll (rewrite)

Chapter 36

     Off in the forest... far from the village... a little pink figure walked slowly past the scarcely separated trees, kicking lightly at a stone as she trudged past...

     Poppy had been walking through the forest all day, trying her absolute best to clear her racing mind...

     She couldn't believe she ever trusted that wolf... and now it was free... because of her. Branch was hurt... because of her...

     There was so much blood... the young princess just couldn't get the image of her best friend's horribly mangled body out of her head...

     The day she had found him dying all alone in the pitch black forest... that was by far the worst day of her entire life... she just couldn't imagine what she would ever do without him...

     The wolf had hurt Branch... that she knew for sure... and it would probably hurt others as well... she couldn't let that happen...

     It was right then and there that the princess decided on something... and once she put her mind to it... there was no stopping her...

     She had to find that wolf... and get rid of it once and for all... just like her father had wanted to do in the first place... to protect her people... to protect her friends and family... to avenge Branch...

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     By the end of his shopping trip, Branch had a cart full of chocolate... his greatest weakness...

     "Ugh..." he sighed, seeing how much chocolate he had absentmindedly scooped up on his way past.

     Well... he always had space for the sugary treat down in his safe room... and at least he'd have enough stockpiled in case the end of the world ever came to fruition...

     Heading back towards his bunker to drop off his groceries before going over to the library, Branch was suddenly blind sighted by a rather strong punch straight to his jaw...

     "AHHH!" the little troll screamed out in pain before collapsing right down to the ground, landing rather roughly down in the dirt...

     A sharp pain now shooting through his right hip, Branch couldn't help but shut his eyes tight as he lay on his left side, the poor boy wincing harshly in pure agony...

     Suddenly, the village grump was lifted straight off the ground by the front of his leaf vest, the young boy coming face to face with the last troll he wanted to see...

     "You think you can ignore me!?" the purple nuisance shouted out angrily, spit flying from his mouth in pure rage.

     "Wha... what?" Branch mumbled in complete confusion, looking weakly up at this threat, the entire village gathering around to watch what was about to happen...

     "I don't care if you just got out of that hospital!" Creek hollered, shaking the survivalist roughly in his grasp. "I'm about to put you right back in there!"

     Branch helplessly watching with wide fearful eyes, Creek raised his fist, slamming it directly into Branch's nose...

     "Ow!" the village grump cried out in pain before the purple nuisance suddenly tackled him to the ground, the large audience gasping at what they were witnessing...

     "I'll teach you to mess with me!" Creek yelled out, rapidly punching and kicking at Branch, the little gray troll refusing to fight back, simply trying to defend himself so he wouldn't lose control again...

     Luckily, the survivalist was able to block almost all of Creek's blows, and yet... the jerk troll wouldn't stop his attack...

     Finally, Branch managed to kick up his feet, flipping the purple nuisance off of himself, Creek flopping onto his back as the village grump quickly jumped back up to his feet, the young boy clutching at his injured hip as he panted heavily in exhaustion...

The crowed of trolls got closer to the two competitors, murmuring softly to themselves as the observed the fight, not doing anything to try and stop it...

Branch looked down at his throbbing hip, seeing that the stitches the doctors had put in to close up his bullet wound had split open during the jerk troll's attack, blood now soaking through his brown shorts...

"Ugh..." he groaned, shutting his eyes once more as he clutched his injury tightly to try and relieve the pain now coursing through his entire leg...

With a soft chuckle, Creek slowly sat back up, smirking over at the little gray troll in front of him.

"What's the matter?" the jerk troll snickered, Branch forcing his eyes open to glare over at him... "You too weak to handle a few punches?"

"I could kill you right here and now if I wanted to..." Branch growled, his eyes seeming to light up with rage as he glared fiercely at this threat...

     "Now, now, Branchie..." Creek snickered, waving his finger mockingly through the air. "You wouldn't dare touch me... what would the princess think?"

     Oh, he did not just bring Poppy into this!

     With a low angered growl escaping the gray troll's throat, his vision seeming to cloud with pure uncontainable rage... Branch suddenly lunged forwards, pinning the purple nuisance roughly against a nearby tree, raising up his fist to slam hard into this jerk's face...

     Creek's eyes widened in terror as he stared at Branch in complete horror, Branch glaring right back at him, the young boy panting heavily as he readied his final blow...

     But... right before he took this creep's life away with a single punch... the survivalist stopped...

     Realizing what he was doing... Branch's eyes widened in horror, the little troll quickly backing away from the purple nuisance as he looked down at his hands in fear, seeing the fur beginning to sprout from his gray skin...

     "No..." he muttered under his breath in a soft whisper, before looking around at all the trolls staring at him in fear, mothers holding their young children close to protect their precious trollings from the gray menace...

     With a quick gulp of pure terror, Branch quickly ran off into the forest before the villagers could realize what was happening... that he was slowly transforming into the greatly feared wolf...