Everyday at the exact same time, Poppy went back to the little pond deep in the forest, the young princess excited to see the wolf she had named Squishy...
"Squishy! I brought some brownies!" she announced most of the days when she arrived, but this time... this time things were a little bit different...
"Hey there, Squishy," the pink troll greeted as she walked up to the lounging wolf on that beautiful afternoon, the large critter instantly looking up at the sound of her voice.
"Arf!" Branch greeted happily as he rose up to his four feet, the Weretroll heading directly over to nuzzle his head against his friend's shoulder.
"Good to see you too," Poppy chuckled, petting the wolf's head as she hugged him in return. "I brought a surprise for you today..."
Branch cocked his head slightly at the announcement, looking to the young princess in slight confusion...
A surprise? What kind of surprise?
Laughing softly at the adorable look on her friend's face, Poppy reached up into her hair before pulling out a rubber sphere-like object, the young girl holding it out to show off like it was the greatest thing in the world...
'A ball?' Branch questioned in confusion, raising an eyebrow at the pink troll he called a friend...
He loved Poppy... but that girl just kept getting weirder and weirder every day...
"I thought we could play some fetch," the young princess informed with a smile, getting ready to throw the toy for the wolf to chase down, receive, and bring back... "All my friends' Cuddle Pups love this game... so I thought you would too..."
'Ok...' Branch sighed, looking to Poppy in slight annoyance. 'There is no way I am chasing that...'
"Fetch!" Poppy yelled, throwing the rubber toy as far as she possibly could, the wolf's eyes lighting up as his hunting instincts took over.
'... Ball!' he shouted out excitedly, the large creature suddenly taking off in pursuit of his prey...
Poppy couldn't help but laugh as her friend chased down the bouncing ball, finally pouncing on top of it like it was an escaping animal that he wanted to eat for lunch...
"Grrr..." the Weretroll growled softly, sinking his sharp fangs into the rubber of his recently captured toy...
Shaking his head roughly with the ball in his mouth, Branch finally trotted back over to Poppy, dropping the toy at her feet before bowing down before her, the predator inside of him waiting excitedly for his prey to be thrown yet again...
With a laugh of pure amusement, Poppy picked up the ball before throwing it far away, her wolf friend quickly taking off in pursuit of it...
—————
It was a fun day...
The sun about to set, Poppy sat in the grass of the open field, the young princess looking up at the sky to watch the clouds rolling by as Branch lay right beside her, chewing fiercely at the toy his best friend had so generously allowed him to keep, small growls escaping the wolf's throat as he sunk his teeth deep into his prey...
"Look at that one, Squishy," Poppy laughed, pointing up at a familiar looking cloud. "It's shaped like a wolf. Just like you..."
With a small grunt to show he was indeed paying attention, Branch continued chewing on his toy, not seeming to care about anything else in the moment...
With a small sigh of content, Poppy folded her arms behind her head, the young girl leaning back to lay her body against Squishy's hip...
"Arp!" Branch suddenly yelped out loudly in pain, the little Weretroll quickly jumping up to his four feet, ball completely forgotten, as he looked to his friend with sorrowful eyes, the poor thing seeming to be holding his right back leg slightly off the ground as to not put pressure on it...
"Squishy?" Poppy questioned in confusion, sitting back up as she turned to look at the wolf in concern... "What's wrong?"
Seeming to feel badly for worrying her, Branch's ears drooped down in shame before he slowly lay back on the ground, the young boy placing his head gently onto Poppy's lap...
Still deeply concerned about her friend, Poppy rolled over onto her knees, looking the wolf in the eyes...
"Is your leg ok, bud?" she asked in a soft calming tone, the young princess beginning to gently stroke her hands through the wild animal's thick black fur to try and see underneath it...
Branch, whimpering softly, looked to Poppy as she checked him over, a few sharp pains shooting through his right leg as she did so...
He tried his best to keep still as to not accidentally hurt the troll he cared so much about, but he couldn't help but twitch slightly as she poked at certain spots of his leg... it just hurt so much...
There... Poppy stopped combing through the thick fur of the wolf when she finally found what she was looking for...
On his hip was a small hole, looking as if the poor thing had a bullet wound that was just starting to heal over... that was surly why it hurt him so much just to simply touch the area... but... where did the injury come from?
Poppy gasped sharply as a thought came to her head, the young princess suddenly remembering the night she had helped the large critter escape from the village... Creek had shot him... just like he had accidentally shot Branch... strange how the wounds just so happened to be in the exact same spot...
Tears beginning to flood her eyes, the young pink troll looked at her friend's hip once more, completely distraught to see a massive scar where the bullet hole was... He had clearly injured it farther after the fact...
"How long has this been bothering you?" she asked, looking back to the wolf's face, gazing straight into Branch's crystal blue eyes...
Branch looked at her, thinking carefully about the question...
The truth was... his hip had been hurting a lot since the incident... especially in his troll form... The pain was almost unbearable, but the survivalist had learned to mostly ignore the agonizing feeling of discomfort, though he couldn't help but limp when walking...
Another whimper escaping his throat, Branch looked away from the young princess, ashamed in himself for accidentally upsetting her...
Looking at the wound yet again, Poppy suddenly realized something... it had been cleaned... and even stitched up... Though the stitches seemed to have snapped... the hole looked to have been closed back up by more natural means of healing treatment...
But... the wolf couldn't have done that to himself... he had no hands or even opposable thumbs... so... who could have taken the time to try and help this poor creature?
Looking up to the sky, Branch suddenly rose up to his four feet, the wolf beginning to gently nudge Poppy back towards the village...
He was right... it was certainly getting late...
"Ok, ok," the young princess laughed, gently petting the wolf's head to get him to stop pushing her. "I'll see you in the morning, Squishy..."
Heading off into the forest, Poppy just couldn't get the thought out of her head...
What troll could possibly know enough about nature to know which items could be used as natural sealants?
With a gasp... the answer suddenly came to her head...
Flashback
—————
Poppy skipped happily through the village, a tuft of black hair in the sea of colors suddenly catching her eye...
"Branch!" the young princess called out happily, the village grump stopping at the sound of her voice...
She had just gotten back from her first visit with Squishy, and after almost killing the wolf to then becoming friends with him... she wanted so badly to tell her best friend all about her day...
Quickly, she rushed over to the little gray troll, Branch sighing as she approached him...
"Hello, Poppy..." he groaned, rolling his eyes in slight annoyance.
"Branch! I have so much to tell you!" she shouted out in return. "I..."
But she paused when the young princess noticed the blood stain on her best friend's shorts, her eyes widening in horror at the sight...
"Wha... what happened?" she asked in a stuttered voice, pointing to the gray troll's hip...
Branch looked down for a moment before quickly turning his gaze back up to Poppy...
"Oh... I... I fell..." he explained softly, his voice sounding almost as if he were lying to her. But why would he do that? "The stitches... they kinda snapped..."
(Hmmm... just like Squishy...)
"I can take you to the doctor to get them fixed..." Poppy offered.
"No..." the village grump quickly denied, shaking his head as he looked to Poppy in slight fear. "I can fix it... I have some herbs back in my bunker that are specifically grown to close up wounds... and it can last for years so there's no chance of it snapping during another figh... I mean... fall..."
—————
"Branch..." the young princess whispered, her eyes wide in disbelief as she turned back to Squishy, the wolf surprisingly gone from sight... "It can't be..."
Quickly, completely shocked by her new discovery, Poppy took off running back towards the village, the young girl heading right for Branch's survival bunker...