Curse of the Weretroll (rewrite)

Chapter 52

The sun had set hours ago, the moon having come up to take it's place in the star filled sky as Poppy sat in her family pod reading the book she had found down in Branch's bunker...

     Well... more like the book she had stolen from Branch's bunker...

     But... but! She had taken it for a good cause...

She was determined to help her friend. He wanted a cure... and she was gonna find it for him!

     But... so far... her desperate attempt to finally make Branch happy... well... let's just say it wasn't going too well...

'Silver bullet through the heart...' "No," she immediately responded to the words on the page before continuing to read. 'Drain all the blood from their veins?'

The young princess couldn't help but shudder at that suggestion before quickly turning the page to move on to the next cure...

'Scalping their head with a knife...' Defiantly not... 'Bonking their head with something silver...'

     "Hey!" she shouted out with a smile. "That one could actually work!"

     But the young girl's excitement quickly died down once she continued reading, her smile instantly fading away from her face...

     'Hard enough to kill them...'

     "Ugh!" the pink troll groaned in frustration, slamming her fists down angrily onto the table she was sitting at. "Isn't there any cure that leaves the werewolf alive!?"

She flipped through several more pages, frustrated to see that all the cures ultimately lead to death...

"The British Men of Letters first worked on creating the cure in the 1930s, something that was referred to as "plasma therapy" using the live blood of the sire werewolf..." she read out loud from one of the pages. "The organization tested it on mice, but it only worked on one. Eventually, it was tested on a single troll subject, but the troll died in agony..." That's it! She couldn't take this anymore! "Oh my god!" Poppy shouted out loudly in pure uncontainable rage. "Just give me a frosting cure that I can actually frosting use!"

"Poppy?" she suddenly heard in a familiar voice, causing the young princess to jump in surprise as she quickly spun around in her seat, instantly spotting her father standing just behind her...

"Oh... uh... d... dad. Hi," she said in an exaggeratedly cheerful tone, the pink troll smiling innocently as she closed up the book before stealthily stuffing it into her hair.

     "What are you doing, sweetie?" the old king questioned, raising an eyebrow in confusion as he looked to his daughter, awaiting her answer...

     "Uh... nothing," Poppy quickly lied. "Just doing some reading..."

He looked at his daughter in slight concern, finally looking down in front of her at the desk she was currently sitting at...

     And that's when he saw them... multiple drawings of the wolf sat on the wooded table, Peppy sighing at the sight of them...

"You're worried about the wolf..." he finally stated with a soft sigh. "Aren't you?"

     "W... well... actually..." Poppy started, but her father quickly cut off her words, the old king continuing to speak over her...

     "Creek told me it attacked you last night..." he stated, placing a calming hand on his beautiful daughter's shoulder as he gazed straight into her eyes, Poppy not daring to say even a single word... "I promise you, Poppy... you have nothing to worry about. I am doing everything I can to make sure that beast dies a horrible painful death..."

Poppy gulped at those horrifying words, her eyes widening in terror at the thought...

     That was Branch her father was trying to kill... her best friend in the entire world... no... the entire universe!

"I'm sending out hunters to search for the monster," Peppy informed. "But until they do dispose of that wolf... I want you to stay in the village. Do you understand?"
"But dad..." Poppy started, quickly getting cut off by her father once more...
"I asked if you understood..." the orange troll interrupted sternly...

Slowly, Poppy nodded, lowering her head in shame, knowing she couldn't tell him the wolf's true identity... if she did... it just might put Branch in even more danger... she just had to keep her mouth shut... her lips sealed... for Branch...

"Yes, dad..." she finally sighed, not even looking up to make eye contact with her father. "I understand..."