When The Falls Turn Amethyst

Chapter One

A singular bead of sweat trickled down Branch's nose and dripped. He swiped it away, frustrated, and furrowed his dark brows. It was impossible to concentrate on his cleaning task while a loud, pink troll scurried behind him babbling away about the next big, exciting party. All he had to do was dust the tunnels and take an inventory today.

Deep into the tunnels of Branch's Fear Bunker there was a soft breeze, scattering the dust and small bits of debris that he was collecting into piles. He unconsciously pondered the need to have air vents if it was just going to make his life more difficult. Unfortunately, air was a necessity underground.

Branch sighed heavily and scraped the bristles of his broom along the top of the ceiling to loosen the dust build-up, getting more irritated by the second when a pebble bounced into his forehead.

"The food, the music, the glitter! And everyone is going to be there, Branch! Even you, right?!" Poppy clapped her hands together and laughed. Branch quarter-turned and gave her an icy stare over his shoulder. Poppy's smile dropped quickly and she folded her hands to her chest.

"Poppy... you know I don't do parties." Branch set his broom against the wall and roughly patted his vest and pants down. "You ask me every party and every time I tell you NO. Do you even remember what happened last time you guys had a big party?"

Poppy tilted her head a bit and thought. "Hm... We were attacked by Bergens?"

"We were attacked by BERGENS!" Branch threw his arms out and looked at her credulously. "So are you actually serious right now?"

"Yeah, but - Branch, it's different now! The Bergens are our friends and we don't have to worry about that kind of thing anymore. Let's live a little, come on." Poppy pulled out a rainbow-colored, self-made fuzzy envelope from her hair and held the invitation out with both hands, smiling big at the grey troll. "It would do you good to have some fun, don't you think?"

Branch stared at the invitation with disdain, knowing full well how much glitter was packed into the contents of such a tiny device. "Poppy..." he started again.

"Say no more, say no more!" Poppy thrust the envelope into Branch's arms. "I'll give you some time to think on it. The party doesn't start for two more days so I hope you can muster up some of that lion's courage and come hang out with us trolls!"

Without another word, Poppy turned at the heel and trotted down the hall towards the main room. She was out of sight in an instant and on the lift to the upper hatch. Branch listened to the elevator mechanism and sighed heavily again when he knew that Poppy was gone from the bunker. With extreme carefulness, he lifted the tab of his felt invitation and opened the glittering card inside.

The Troll Tree was scrap booked and personalized with tiny cut-out troll friends, waving in unison around the tree. Another pop-up double rainbow revealed behind that, waving a giant banner with Branch's name written on it.

"BRANCH! BRANCH! LET'S CELEBRATE FRIENDSHIP WITH THE BERGENS! WHEEE!"

The sudden screech of Poppy's recorded voice made Branch stumble back, but he wasn't quick enough to dodge the fountain of holographic glitter that sprayed directly into his face.

Grinding his teeth together, he wiped most of the glitter away and tossed the card into the trash pile.

He wasn't going to that party and no one was going to make him go. Not Poppy, not King Peppy, and not any other troll who dared come ask him! There was nothing worth celebrating, in Branch's opinion. A Bergen-Troll Peace Treaty wasn't going to undo or erase the decades of fear and death that the monsters pushed on their society. Branch was never going to forgive them and parties like this are what give the Bergens the upper hand. It wasn't safe and no one was going to listen to his antics anyway, so there was no reason to bother with it.