Okay so the ending to 'born to be free' was emotional enough, believe me I cried while writing it!! But the original ending was going to be a WHOLE LOT DARKER!!!

In the early draft idea of the story, Spirit was still going to save Branch from getting killed by Creek and she would have still gotten injured. However, she was originally not going to survive. Spirit was going to die due to her injuries and Branch's last words to her were still going to be 'you were born to be free, Spirit.' *Queue intense sobbing*

THANKFULLY, the idea changed because I'm pretty sure everyone would have cried for the next week after that ending! Also because I thought it was way too dark for a fanfic about positive, go-lucky trolls. Aaaaand I would have literally sobbed my eyes out if I ever wrote that scene.