Grumbling softly to himself, Branch stomped angrily through the village, still furious at Peppy for what he had done to Poppy. He had hurt her... and that was just utterly unforgivable...

"That lousy little piece of..." he grumbled under his breath in resentment, stomping forewords towards his underground home, wanting to just lock himself away so he could be alone for a few hours...

Suddenly, interrupting his hateful words, Branch stepped down onto something that previously lay unnoticed on the ground in front of him, the blue troll stopping in slight confusion...

"What the..." he muttered, looking down to see what was now under his foot.

His anger seeming to fade away right then and there, Branch frowned as he saw Peppy's broken cane on the ground in front of him... the cane he had snapped in half thanks to his overwhelming rage... rage that he hadn't felt since he regained his true colors...

Had he gone too far? He was angry... like... really angry... infuriated even... but that was no excuse for what he had done...

Ashamed in himself for the way he had behaved, Branch sighed, reaching down to pick up the two pieces of the broken cane, looking down at them in dejection...

"Sorry, Peppy..." he mumbled to himself, lowering his head as his ears drooped down, guilt filling his heart to the brim...

What had he done...

Deciding he was going to make up for his mistake, the little blue troll took the cane with him back to his bunker, ready to repair it no matter how long it took...

—————

Down in his bunker, Branch was just finishing up glueing, sanding, and staining the cane back to its former glory.

He looked at it with a small smile, proud of his work. It looked good as new... but he wasn't done yet...

Branch took the cane in his hand, standing up with the help of the newly repaired piece of wood, just to make sure it was sturdy. The last thing he wanted was for it to fall apart again when returning it to the king...

Satisfied with his job well done, Branch then began walking it back to Peppy's pod, but stopped suddenly once he reached the elevator, his ear twitching a bit as if listening to something...

"What?" he said softly in slight confusion, the little troll turning to Gary who sat on his special pillow. "Of course I'm returning it, Gary. I made a mistake, and I have to apologize for it."

'But he hurt your girlfriend,' Gary objected. 'Don't you want to make that rat pay?'

Branch looked away, getting angry once again as Gary's 'words' reminded him of how depressed Poppy was in the moment, all because of her father...

"Yes... he did..." he grumbled softly. He wanted so bad to stand up for his girlfriend... to make her happy... but he knew that this wasn't the correct way to do it... "But..." he continued with a sigh, pushing away his anger completely. "That didn't give me the right to do what I did... I will protect Poppy..." He turned back to Gary, giving his son a firm look. "But this..." he continued, showing the inanimate remote control the cane that he held in his hand, the crack down the middle of it still prominently placed in the wood. "This was not the right way to do it..."

And with that... ignoring Gary's farther objections... Branch stepped onto his elevator, riding it up to the surface so he could apologize to the former king for his irrational behavior...

—————

Slowly, Branch walked nervously towards Peppy's pod, thinking about what had happened earlier that day...

Would the old troll be mad at him? Yes he was trying to apologize... but what he had done... it was so bad... he wouldn't blame the former king if he refused to forgive him...

But the fear of how Peppy would react to his presence quickly faded away as he began thinking about Poppy... how sad she was the last time he saw her...

     She just wanted to find her mom... and Peppy was stopping her from doing that...

     Branch wanted to help... he wanted Poppy to be happy... When Poppy was sad... he was sad... but... he didn't know how he could make things better...

     He needed a way to find Poppy's mom... Then she would be happy again... but how would he do that? He had no way of knowing where she was...

For now... he just needed to focus on apologizing to her father. He needed to make things right...

—————

"Peppy?" Branch called out, poking his head through the doorway of the former king's pod. "I... I'm sorry about earlier. I overreacted, and I feel really bad about it..." He looked down, remembering the old troll's cane that he was still holding. "And I fixed your cane..." he continued. But there was no answer...

"Hello?" he called into the empty house, looking around for any signs of the orange troll being home. "King Peppy?"

To his dismay... Branch quickly realized no one was home...

With a sigh, he placed the cane against one of the walls where he was sure Peppy would see it before turning to walk out...

     But he stopped once he reached the doorway, suddenly spotting something suspicious through the corner of his eye...

Hidden on one of the shelves in the crowded pod was a rolled up piece of paper, the name Pansy written out on it...

"Hmm..." Branch muttered softly, curious about what it could be... He recognized that name... but why?

     Curiosity taking over, the little blue pop troll walked over to the shelf, taking the paper in his hands as he opened it up to look at...

His eyes widened at what he saw, a quiet gasp escaping his throat in shock...

"No way..." he whispered softly to himself, not believing his eyes...

Slowly, he looked up from the paper, examining the room around himself just to make extra sure he was actually alone... he couldn't risk being seen with what he was about to do...

     His heart racing and palms sweating... Branch sneakily stuffed the paper into his hair before quickly running off to find Poppy...