"Hmmm..." Poppy muttered softly to herself as she stood upon the edge of the now mysteriously empty glitter pit, the young queen carefully looking into the deep dark hole as if searching for clues while casually rubbing her chin in contemplation, everyone in the village standing right alongside her, all watching their leader in anticipation, wondering where their glitter could have possibly disappeared to...

     Finally... after a few long moments of pure and utter silence... Poppy suddenly turned to her people with a small sigh, ready to give her answer to the question currently on everyone's mind...

"Ok, everyone," she announced in a loud voice that easily carried through the large open area of the forest. "I'm sure you're all here because you've heard the rumors about the glitter pit being empty..."

     Everyone scooted forewords a bit, listening in great suspense to their queen's every word, not even one stray mutter escaping the crowed of strangely silent trolls...

     "Well... I am here to tell you all..." she continued strongly, her chin held high and hands folded behind her back. "Those rumors are true."

     "AHHHHH!" everyone immediately screamed out at the absolutely horrifying announcement, all the trolls of the village beginning to run around in circles of panic. "We're all done for!" one random civilian yelled out in terror before suddenly collapsing right down to the ground in shock...

"Everyone! Calm down!" Poppy yelled out loudly, the newly crowned queen trying her absolute best to get everyone back under control. "There is absolutely no reason to panic!"

"You heard her!" Cooper suddenly yelled above the multitude of terrified screams, the giraffe-like troll standing out in the crowed of panic stricken civilians. "She said panic!"

"AHHHHH!" everyone immediately screamed again, freaking out even more than they already had been before...

"No, no, no! Guys!" Poppy quickly denied, the pink troll waving her hands frantically through the air to try and redraw attention to herself. "I said don't panic!"

But... of course... everyone simply continued panicking... the destructive mob running around the village as they productively destroyed everything in sight... one troll even flipping a mushroom table which had, at the time, had it's roots planted firmly into the ground below...

"Trolls!" Poppy quickly yelled out to her people to hopefully stop this carnage... to end this riot...

Unfortunately though... no one could seem to hear their queen's pleading cries over their own frantic shouting...

"Trolls!!" she immediately tried again, yelling even louder than the time before...

But... still... no one payed any attention to her... the complete decimation of Troll Village seeming quite imminent at this point...

"STOOOOOOOP!" the young queen finally shouted out at the top of her lungs, the earth seeming to literally shake under the intensity of her mighty roar...

The pink troll finally gaining the undying attention she had so desperately requested... everyone suddenly stopped dead in their tracks... the villagers turning to look at their queen in slight shock... none of them having known the young girl could possibly have it in her to be so strict when absolutely necessary...

"Ok," Poppy sighed, taking a deep breath to try and calm herself down. "Like I said... there is no reason to panic," she assured, being the voice of reason for the first time in her life. "The glitter pit will eventually refill on it's own... but in the meantime..." She lowers her voice, speaking quickly as if hoping no one will hear what she has to say next... "We'll just have to get by for a while without any glitter..."

     Everyone instantly gasped sharply at the new queen's words, acting as if not having glitter for a few weeks would literally kill them...

     "Come on, guys!" Poppy enthused in her usual cheerful manner, trying her absolute best to keep the peace. "It won't be that bad..." She playfully scoffed, waving her hand nonchalantly through the air to signal that the situation was no big deal... even though... she too was secretly freaking out inside...

"You're wrong!" a rather familiar voice suddenly shouted out from amongst the crowd...

With a small collective gasp... everyone turned, immediately clearing a path as the former King Peppy walked forewords, using his cane to support his weight with a slight wobble to his old knees...

"Dad? What are you talking about?" Poppy questioned, slowly approaching her father to steady him even though he seemed perfectly capable of taking care of himself...

"This has happened once before..." the recently retired king spoke in a somewhat mystical yet mysterious tone, the old orange troll looking to his daughter in clear worry. "A long, long time ago..."

"Ok..." Poppy muttered slowly, trying her absolute hardest to understand her father's concerns, though his story didn't seem to quite add up to her. "Well... we had a surplus of glitter just yesterday... so obviously the pit refilled itself after that point. Otherwise we..."
"No!" Peppy quickly interrupted in possibly the most dramatic tone he could muster. "It did not..."

Everyone instantly froze at their former king's words... waiting intently for him to continue...

And waited...

And waited...

And waited some more...

But still... the old troll just stood there... seemingly checking his nonexistent finger nails...

"Well...?" Poppy finally prompted with a curious gaze after another few short moments of pure absolute silence, Peppy looking right up to his daughter in slight confusion as if having just popped back into reality at the sound of her voice... "Well what?" the old king asked, seeming completely baffled.
"What happened!?" Poppy shouted with a slight sternness to her voice... really wanting... no... needing for her father to continue...

"Oh right..." Peppy finally nodded in realization. "I was telling a story..."

Finally getting back on topic... Peppy suddenly pulled a random scrapbook out of his hair, opening it up to a specific page which conveniently showed pop-up images for this exact scenario...

"The glitter pit never just 'runs dry'..." Peppy explained over dramatically, projecting his voice so all the villagers could hear him loud and clear. "It pulls from a never ending glitter spring off in the farthest reaches of Bergen Territory... if it's stopped receiving from the spring... that means there's a clog somewhere along the way... and the glitter can't get past... effectively draining our own pit... forever!"

The crowd all gasped in horror at Peppy's over dramatic story... looking as if they were all on the verge of another village wide panic...

"The only way to get our glitter back..." the old king continued, turning the page of his convenient scrapbook to show all the possible dangers of the journey ahead... "Is to go on an impossible journey to the Meadow of Glitter to plunge the clog free... or... troll life as we know it... will be gone..."

S I L E N C E . . .

     "Soooo..." Cooper suddenly began in a questioning tone after a few long moments of pure absolute quiet... "Can we freak out now?"
"Yes," Peppy answered in the most casual manner imaginable, even giving a small nod to the giraffe-like troll as he gripped his cane gently in both hands... "Ok. Good... AHHHHH!"

     And with that... everyone instantly began panicking once again, all the trolls running around their village like crazy people...

     "STOP!" Poppy immediately yelled out as soon as the public freak out started up again, her voice filled with such authority everyone immediately settled down, looking to their queen to hear her out. "Everything will be fine," she assured in a calming tone once she was sure everyone was listening thoroughly, her father suddenly chiming in once more...

     "And... how do you plan on getting the glitter back, hm?" Peppy objected.
"I'll go find the clog and get rid of it," Poppy answered in her usual positive manner as if it were no big deal, giving her father a big wide smile of pure confidence to which Peppy immediately reacted with pure nervous worry in his voice...

     "No, Poppy, you can't!" Peppy said sternly, walking over to grab his daughter's hands in his own as he gazed straight into her eyes in the most fatherly manner possible. "There's so many treacherous obstacles from here to the Meadow of Glitter! It's too dangerous!"

     "Come on, dad. I literally befriended the Bergens just last week," Poppy objected with a light chuckle and nonchalant wave of her hand. "Nothing can be more dangerous than that. Besides... I'll have Branch!"

—————

"Me!? Why me!?" Branch asked in stunned surprise, after Poppy had informed him of what was going on much to the paranoid survivalist's disbelief.

     "Because," Poppy shrugged in reply, not seeing the big problem. "You helped me befriend the Bergens... I couldn't of done it without you! We make a great team, you and I..." She playfully punched his arm, smirking teasingly at the now blue troll.

     "You... you really think so?" Branch questioned in amazement, blushing deeply as he quickly turned his gaze away from the new queen with a small smile of pure loving joy.

     "Of course!" Poppy yelled out in overwhelming excitement. "Besides... you're my best friend, Branch! I wouldn't want to go anywhere without you right there by my side..."

     Gently, she took his hands in her own, giving him a small loving smile which made Branch instantly melt into her gaze, the former village grump smiling right back as he slowly got lost in her beautiful pink eyes... her beautiful smile... her beautiful... everything...

     It didn't take long however before he suddenly realized what was happening to him, the light blue troll shaking his head violently to snap himself right out of his little trance as he quickly pulled away from his secret crush...

"No, Poppy. We're not going, and that's final," he insisted, firmly standing his ground. "You're dad said it was dangerous."
"My dad doesn't know everything..." Poppy uncharacteristically scoffed, rolling her eyes as she crossed her arms in frustration. "Besides... we have to go, Branch! Or troll life as we know it will end!"

     "Are you sure you're not exaggerating just a little bit?" Branch questioned, crossing his arms as well with a slight squint of his eyes. "I mean... it's just glitter..." He shrugs, not fully understanding what the big deal was...

"Just glitter!?" Poppy shouted, taking extreme offense to the words that had just so casually escaped her best friend's mouth. "Branch! Trolls love glitter! It's the life of every party! The shine to every invitation! The blood in our very veins! And if you were a normal troll, you'd know that!"

Branch's eyes instantly shot open wide as he heard that, his ears perking up slightly as he immediately turned his disbelieving gaze to stare at the young queen in complete shock of her carelessly blunt words...

"Wha... what?" he stuttered softly, almost under his breath, the poor boy clearly devastated by what Poppy had just said to him, his eyes slightly glossed over as he stared at her in disbelief...

     Poppy looked back at him as she heard his despair filled murmur, the young girl seeming a bit confused by the cantankerous hermit's reaction for a short moment before realization suddenly struck... and she quickly realized what she had just said...

     The look now plastered prominently on her best friend's face broke the new queen's heart, making her regret her words instantly...

"No, Branch... I... I didn't mean that. I... I just..."

     Sighing in defeat, Branch looked away from his secret crush in pure despair, his ears drooping low as he glanced sadly down at his own two feet...

     "It's fine..." he murmured softly, not even raising his gaze to look at the pink troll who always seemed to make his day or break his heart with only one single word. "I just... (sigh) you can do whatever you want, Queen Poppy... go to find the glitter... don't go to find the glitter... whatever... but I'm not going with you..."

     "But, Branch..." Poppy tried to object in a soft and gentle tone, reaching out her hand to place on his shoulder in a comforting gesture of apology, but Branch just pulled away as soon as she touched him, his gaze whipping up to glare at her with the fiercest look she had ever seen from him...

     "No, Poppy!" Branch yelled out as he refused her gesture of comfort, his sadness suddenly being replaced with anger seemingly out of nowhere... pure... undeniable... rage... "I'm not going! Why don't you just bring some of your 'normal' troll friends with you!?"

     Poppy froze... looking wide eyed at Branch in complete shock for a long moment of stunned disbelief before the former village grump finally sighed, lowering his head once more...

     "They'd probably be more useful than me anyways..." he finished at a much lower volume, his ears drooping down lower than ever before to betray his true feelings of pure grief as he slowly pulled his elevator lever, the light blue troll sinking right back down into his bunker as the hatch closed over his head to lock himself away from the world and everyone in it once again...

"Branch, wait!" Poppy cried out, trying desperately to stop her best friend so she could apologize for so obviously hurting his feelings when that had never been her intention. "I didn't...!" But... it was too late... he was already gone...

     Sighing softly in defeat... Poppy reluctantly turned away from the survival bunker with a heavy heart, slowly making her way mournfully into the forest beyond...