°Flower = You°

Chapter 4

"POPPY!" Branch yelled.

"POPPY!" eight voices chorused from behind him. He didn't even care that their friends were spying on them. The love of his life was taken from him! Just like his Grandma.

He clutched his chest and collapsed to the ground (so dramatic).
This is why he was so hell bent on not caring about people. He couldn't bare the pain of losing them.

Tears welled up in his eyes, so much that he didn't notice the crumpled piece of paper a few feet away from him. However, Suki did. She rushed to pick it up.

"Look guys! This is a map!" she exclaimed as she smoothed it out.

Branch's head snapped up. Did this mean they would get her back?

He scrambled up to get a look. All that was there was a single path and a red dot at the end with a tree next to it. He assumed that's where the kidnapper stayed.
Whoever it is wasn't careful enough, thank goodness.

Branch, now determined, declared that he was going to find the Queen.

"We'll come too!" announced Biggie.

Branch was about to protest. What if they got hurt? He'd never be able to forgive himself. As he looked at their faces though, he realized there was no way they were staying behind. They cared about Poppy too after all.

So he agreed. "Okay, let's go!"

They then made haste and followed the path that would lead them straight to their friend (hopefully).

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Poppy awoke with a throbbing headache, bleary eyes and a clouded mind. She was also in complete darkness to top it off.

"Ugh, where am I.....?"

It took a few moments for the fog over her thoughts to dissipate.
All she saw were metal bars all around.
Wait.
She was in a cage!

Now aware and alert, she tried to remember how she ended up here.
She was having a nice evening with Branch..... then-

"Ahh Poppy, glad to see you're awake! Not." an unfamiliar voice said.

"Who are you? Where am I?! WHAT DO YOU WANT WITH-"

"Please stop asking so many questions and be QUIET. You're giving me a headache." the stranger complained.

"I don't care and stop interrupting me!"
Poppy was scared. She was also growing frustrated at a rapid rate.
"Just tell me what you want with me!"

All of a sudden, light flooded the room. When her eyes adjusted, she saw a green male troll with red hair standing before her.

"Fine. Since you wanna know so much I'll tell you who I am. I'm Tide. A friend of the one you may know as Creek." he said.

Poppy's eyes widened. She didn't think she'd ever hear that name again. She started to panic. Did he set up this entire thing?

"He's behind this?! Where is that little-"
"He's dead." said Tide.

She was taken aback by the news. She wasn't sad about it though.

"I know what you're gonna ask. I'm doing this for him. This is his revenge." Tide smirked.

"Well I-It doesn't matter! You took me right in front of my friend and I bet he's looking for me right now!" she said confidently. Or at least tried to.

He chuckled dryly. "Oh sweetie, too bad all that searching will go to waste cause he's never gonna find you."

Poppy wasn't giving up hope.
"Just you wait! When he finds us, he's gonna whip your sorry-"

Before she could finish the door (that she didn't even see) was shattered to pieces.
It was Branch! The Snack Pack was here too!

Relief flooded through her.

"Poppy!" they exclaimed.
"I'm so glad we found you!"
"Are you okay?!"
"Whoever did this has it coming!"
They were all talking at once.

She was beyond happy right now but there was still trouble to deal with.
"GUYS!" she shouted over them and turned her head in Tide's direction.
They immediately went quiet. Then and only then, did they notice the other troll in the room with them.

Their expressions morphed from relieved to angry in seconds.

"Who are you?!" yelled Branch.

Tide, despite his confused and slightly scared expression, sighed. "I really have to explain this again? Okay. I'm Tide, friend of the late Creek. I kidnapped the Queen to get him his revenge yadda yadda yadda."

"Wait, late Creek? He's gone?" Guy Diamond asked, everyone else just as surprised. They all just thought he was in hiding.

"Yep. Kicked the bucket a few weeks ago. So now that that's in the open, how the hell did you find us?"

Branch pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and unfolded it.
"This look familiar?" he asked, a triumphant grin on his face.

Tide inhaled sharply. It was the map to his home! He must've dropped it when he swung down from a tree to grab the Queen. He was careless. Seeing that he was clearly out numbered, he succumbed to his cowardice and ran. Straight out of the window.

Everyone gasped. It wasn't exactly a short drop to the ground from this tree. They were stunned into silence.
Branch came back to his senses first despite what they had seen a few moments ago.

"C'mon guys. W-we've gotta get out of here." he said a bit shakily.

Satin pulled purple scissors from her hair and handed it to Branch. As soon as he picked the lock on the cage, Poppy didn't take five steps before she was enveloped into a group hug.

"We're so glad you're alright." Branch said, lightly caressing her cheek.

Poppy's face felt warm. Of course he would be able to make her blush in a situation like this.

"Okay, not that we all don't wanna see more cute Broppy moments but I think we should make like a banana and split." Cooper said.

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On their way back, Biggie brought it to their attention that everyone else back home must be worried.

"Ohhh I feel so bad! I didn't even think about that!" exclaimed Poppy.

With the other trolls at the forefront of their minds, they sped up their pace.

Branch suddenly remembered a weird word Cooper had said and turned towards Satin and Chenille.

"Hey guys, what does Broppy mean?" he asked.

The twins simply giggled and shook their heads.

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Woo! Lemme tell ya, I didn't expect this chapter to be this long. 1051 words. Okay.

A picture of Tide will be in the next chapter!