Branch's POV

I sit in my Bunker as I read yet another letter from anonymous. I've been getting these letters and drawings from...whoever for years, and I tried to figure out who would give me these and why haven't they showed themselves to me.

I read the letter I just received, and it seems to be a poem.

"To my dearest Branch,

You hide yourself from the world
And keep all those far away.
You wish not to see the sunlight,
As you prefer the clouds of gray.

Everyone tries to make you smile,
But you can only reject.
I try to get to know you for a while,
But it's my heart that fear protects.

My fear of renunciation, keeps me silent,
For it will break me even more.
And they all say "stay away, for he's just trouble"
Then what's the point of meeting him for?

You may not know it but I'm like you,
Though I have a deeper and darker secret,
And I'm scared to let anyone know, even you,
So that is why I must always keep it.

You're the only one I've always admired,
Even from far away,
So this until the next message of my deepest desires...
...Or until we meet face to face one day.

Sincerely, Anonymous.

I look at all the other letters, and drawings that were made for me. I try to think about who this mysterious stranger was, and why did they make these for me.

"Branch!" A voice suddenly calls, startling me, along with loud banging. I quickly hurry to put the letter and drawing away in my cubby hole, only to have the rest of them fall out making a mess.

"Aw jeez!" I scrambled to put all the letters and pictures away. I go up to the entrance to hear Poppy's voice

"Branch! Branch! Branch! BRANCH, ARE YOU IN THERE?!"

I slid open the peek hole to the mat to see her and (Y/n).

"I'm not going to your party!"

"The party's over. We just got attacked by a Bergen!"

"I knew it!"

I open the mat and grab both girls in my trap room. I locked the door, and set up all my traps, even mouse traps. We waited for a moment before Poppy talked.

"Branch-"

I cover her mouth and told her to shush.

"I have to tell you something-"

I shushed her again.

"I was just gonna-"

I shushed her many more times. I listen for any noise, as Poppy raised her hand with a serious face.

"What? What could be so important that it's worth leading the Bergen right to us?"

"The Bergen's gone."

"You don't know that. It could still be out there. Watching. Waiting. Listening..."

"No, it left. It took Cooper, and Smidge, and Fuzzbert, and Satin, and Chenille, and Biggie, and Guy Diamond, and DJ, and Creek,"

I rolled my eyes as she continued.

"And Aliki, and Janell...and (Y/n)'s sister, Clover!"

I then looked at (Y/n) who looks down sadly.

"Which is why we have to ask you...will you go to Bergen Town with us and save everyone?"

"What? No."

"Branch, you can't say "no", they're your friends!"

"Ah-ah-ah. They're your friends. I'm staying right here in my bunker where it's safe."

"Oh, that's great. You're the one guy who knows more about Bergens than anyone...but, when we finally need you, you just want to hide here forever?"

"Forever? No."

I then pull the lever which makes the elevator go down to my bunker.

(Y/n)'s POV

We go down the elevator to see a lot of stuff.

"Yeah, I really only have enough supplies down here to last me 10 years." Branch starts. "11, if I'm willing to store and drink my own sweat. Which I am. You all said I was crazy, huh? Well, who's crazy now?"

We then reached the bottom.

"Me. Crazy perpared."

"I'm sorry." Poppy then speaks. "I should have listened to you. You told me not to throw the party. And I threw it, anyway. And it's my fault they were taken, and now I don't know what to do."

"Why don't you try scrapbooking to freedom?"

Ouch.

"Solid burn, Branch."

He just smirks.

"Well, thanks, anyway."

We both just leave.

"Hey, anytime, ladies. See you both in ten years."

Poppy pulls the lever as we go up.

"B...but, Poppy, how are we gonna get to bergen town without Branch?" I asked.

"You'll see." She says with a smirk looking up.

"What are you...talking about-"

As we stop half way I look up the entrance to see the rest of the trolls.

"...Oh."

We go back down the elevator to Branch, as Poppy says, "Oh hey, Branch. Just wondering if we could borrow something."

He sighs, "What?"

"Your bunker!"

"What?!"

"Okay, everybody! Come on in!"

Soon all the remaining trolls enter the bunker.

"No! No! No! Whoa, wait!" Branch tries to tell everyone off, but they don't listen and invades his stuff.

I fly up, trying not to get trampled, and land near Poppy and Branch.

"Poppy, what are you two doing?!" Branch asked clearly upset.

"Uh... This...wasn't really my i-" I tried to talk only to get cut off by Poppy.

"You said you have enough provisions for last 10 years, right?" Poppy says with a sly smirk.

"Yes, to last me 10 years. Me! It'll last them 2 weeks!"

"Then, I guess we better hurry."

She grabs my hand as we leave. Then Branch grabs my hand, as I blushed a bit.

"Wait, wait, wait. You two won't last a day out there. Especially her."

Well jeez, thanks Branch.

"And you won't last a minute in here."

He remains silent, as we saw trolls chugging down his sweat, and kids jumping off the bear traps. Poppy then says, "Solid burn, returned."

She takes my hand again as her dad stops us. "Uh, Poppy, wait. Please be careful."

"Don't worry dad, we can do this."

They both then hug.

"I love you, Poppy."

"I love you, too, dad."

Poppy walks ahead as I followed her.

"(Y/n)."

I stop and turned to King Peppy.

"Please, look after my daughter."

I smile a little nervous and nod. "Y-yes, sir."

I get on the elevator with Poppy as she waves goodbye to everyone. "Bye, everybody!"

Everyone waves back.

"See you soon!"

"Good luck, Princess Poppy and (Y/n)!"

"Bye..." I shyly waved back as I looked over at Poppy. "Um... A-are we gonna leave?"

She held up three fingers as she started counting down. "...And 3, 2, 1."

Her hug time bracelet and my choker blooms up and she pulls the lever, making the elevator go up. And everyone else's hug time bracelets light up, as Branch gets a horrified look on his face.

"Hug time!" King Peppy shouts.

"No." Branch backed away.

"Hug time! Hug time! Hug time!"

We watched as the other trolls huddle around, about to hug the horrified Branch.

"No! NO!"

We exit from the bunker. Well that was a cold move.

Later we're off in the woods following the bergen chef's footprints. I changed out of my party clothes and into my regular clothes, and grabbed necessary supplies for the trip.

"With their friends safely hidden," Poppy started narrating, while she was scrapbooking. "Princess Poppy and (Y/n) set off to rescue their other friends. Confidence they'd make it to Bergen Town on their own."

I look in the book to see Poppy bumping into Chef's foot as she then takes Poppy's head and Poppy's body bleeds rainbows as I watched in horror in the book and fly away.

"...What the...?"

"Convinced they'd make it to Bergen town."

Chef puts salt on Poppy and eats her.

"Um..."

She closes the book, as we look at the footprints the bergen made.

"Totally sure they'd...make it to Bergen Town."

We stayed alert just in case something was after us.

"You know, maybe a song will lighten up a few things."

"...a song?"

After "Get back up again",

"Poppy!" I panicked as I flew over to her. "Poppy? Poppy, get up!"

I tried waking her up, but stopped as I hear weird noises above me. I looked to see four-eyed spiders surround us.

"Uh-oh...!"

I picked up Poppy and flew away only to get pulled backed by the spiders' web. My wings were stuck so I couldn't fly away from the spiders.

'This is it,' I thought to myself. 'This is how I'm gonna die. I couldn't even protect the princess...!'

I close my eyes tight as the spiders were about to eat us, but instead we're were pulled away, and placed behind someone.

"Branch?"

He stands in front of us as the spiders got closer to us. He took out a frying pan, and throws it at one of them stunning them for a bit, before heading back to what they were planning. Seeing how that didn't work, Branch takes off his camping bag and used his hair to whip the spiders away.

"Whoa..." I said quietly. "I wish I was that brave..."

He whips the spider into a cave, which turns out to be a mouth of a monster. It looks down at Branch, who gasp and back away, while I hold Poppy tight. But instead of doing anything, it goes to sleep. We both sighed, but then I remembered, "Poppy!"

I listened to her chest, as Branch runs over. "Is she alright?"

"I-I don't hear anything!"

"Hang on!"

He gets a stick from the tree and two pair of bugs from the tree. He comes back over and rips the web from around Poppy. He rubs the bugs together and puts them in Poppy's chest as her heart starts pulsating. We check to see her if she's okay as she suddenly springs back up saying, "Get back up again!"

She then looks at Branch.

"Branch! My man. You're right on time."

"Oh, right." Branch starts while he walks over to me to cut my wings free. "Like you both knew I was coming."

"Well...I honestly didn't..." I mumbled. "Thanks, Branch."

"Yeah. I thought after the third Hug Time, getting eaten by a Bergen wouldn't seem so bad."

"And I thought there was no way you two could do this by yourselves. Guess we were both right."

"Hmm. Alright! Let's do this. Sooner we get to Bergen Town, sooner we save everybody, and make it home safely."

She walked ahead of us, then Branch catches up.

"Wait, wait, wait. What's your plan?"

"I just told you; To rescue everyone and make it home safely."

"Okay. That's not a plan, that's a wish list."

I have to agree with him there.

"Oh! I suppose you have a plan."

Branch cleared his throat as he started. "First... We get to the edge of Bergen Town without being spotted. Then, we get inside by sneaking through the old escape tunnels...Which will then lead us to the troll tree. Right before we get caught, and suffer the miserable death of the hands of a horrible, bloodthirsty Bergen!"

I looked to noticed Poppy was scrapbooking.

"Hold on a second. Are you scrapbooking my plan?"

"Uh-huh, yeah. Almost..." Poppy cut the last piece of paper. "Done!"

The scrapbook opens with Poppy Branch, and me, along with the Snack Pack, Creek and my sister and her friends. Then words open up saying "We Did It!" as glitter splats on Branch's unamused face...again.

"There will be no more..." He starts as he blows his nose and the glitter comes out "...scrapbooking."

Later we were walking on a log, as Poppy starts humming. I just walked with my head down, while wearing my hoodie

"Do you have to sing?" Branch asked annoyed.

"I always sing when I'm in a good mood." Poppy replies.

"Do you have to be in a good mood?"

"Why wouldn't I be? By this time tomorrow, we'll be with all our friends, and (Y/n) will be with sister again. Ohh, I wonder what they're all doing right now."

"Probably being digested."

I just stayed silent the whole time.

"They're alive, Branch. I know it!"

"You don't know anything, Poppy, and I can't wait to see the look on your face when you realize the world isn't all cupcakes and rainbows. 'Cause it isn't. Bad things happen and there's nothing you can do about it. And I'm sure (Y/n) knows it too."

He grabs my hands and walks off, as I blush again. I look to see Poppy walk up to us, with annoyed expression.

"Hey, I know it's not all cupcakes and rainbows," Poppy states "But, I'd rather go through life thinking that it mostly is, instead of being like you. You don't sing, you don't dance...and (Y/n), she may not do as much or hug, but at least she's not so gray all the time like you!"

If only she knew...

"What happened to you-"

Branch suddenly shushed Poppy and we all stop.

"A Bergen?" Poppy asked.

"Maybe." He whispered.

We looked around nervously, bit then I realized there weren't any around. And I think Poppy did too.

"There's no Bergen, is there? You just said that so I stopped talking!"

"Maybe."

He smirked and walked still holding my hand. A few minutes later Poppy was a head of us, humming a song, while me and Branch were both walking behind her.

We both stayed silent for a while.

"Hey." I looked over at Branch as he asked, "I know we don't usually get the chance to talk this much, but how come your not as cheery or as social as the rest?"

I honestly was not expecting him to ask that. I didn't even think he was that curious about me.

"Well..." I started, "I'm just...n-not really good at...socializing."

"Not good at socializing? I never knew you'd have to be good at it, but then again I don't really socialize all that much either, not like I want to. But... how come you don't like singing like everyone else?"

I didn't want to tell him the truth so I lied. "I...have a terrible singing voice."

"...Uh-huh...What about dancing?"

"I'm not good at it."

"Hugging?"

"I...just..."

"Hey!" Poppy interrupts. "What are you two talking about?"

"Uh...! ...N-nothing, important!" I said.

"OK!"

She's goes back to humming.

"Maybe we should find a place to rest for tonight." Branch says.

"Uh...Good idea..."

Hours later it's night time and Poppy is in her leaf sack, Branch has a blanket and a mattress, and I'm in my sleeping bag. I see Poppy looking at the picture of Creek. She sighs, and puts the picture on the side. She expands the pictures of Satin and Chenille, Fuzzbert and Smidge on the side, Guy Diamond, Biggie and DJ Suki on top of them, Clover, Janell, and Aliki on top of them, then the tall picture of Cooper.

"Good night, Cooper. Good night, Smidge. Good night Fuzzbert. Good night, Satin. Good night, Chenille. Good night, Biggie. Good night, DJ. Good night, Guy Diamond. Good night, Creek. Good night Aliki. Good night Janell. Good night Clover."

"And good night, Poppy!" Branch says annoyed, but then he looks at me. "Good night (Y/n)."

"Good night...Branch." I said, blushing a bit. Suddenly my chokers goes off as Poppy's bracelet goes off. She looks over at us, as I pretend to sleep, as Branch says, "Don't even think about it."

I look up to see Poppy staring at the sky, then she starts singing. "Stars shining bright above you..."

"Really? Seriously? More singing?"

"Yes, seriously. Singing helps me relax. Maybe you ought to try it."

"I don't sing, and I don't relax. This is the way I am, and I like it! And I also like a little SILENCE!"

He turns back around and tries to go to sleep. I try too, but then we both hear a sound. We got up to see that Poppy is playing her ukulele.

"Hello, darkness my old friend...
I've come to talk with you again..."

She steps back and the flowers bloom and start singing with her.

"Hello."

A spider appears next to Branch then it crawls on him and he flicks it away. More of the monsters and a frog appears singing along .

"Because, the visions of me creeping...
Left it's seeds while I was sleeping...
And the vision that was planted in my brain...
Still remains. Within the sound... Of silence."

As the monsters and other creatures disappear, and she finishes playing her ukulele, Branch stands up.

"May I?"

Poppy gives her ukulele to him, only to to have him throw it in fire, and go back to bed. Poppy just stood there, and I just laid down.

The next day, I woke up to see Poppy, and Branch still asleep. I look in the bag to get myself a snack for breakfast, but I look inside to my mirror. I don't remember putting it in there...maybe I was in such a rush to get prepared for the trip, I must have grabbed it by accident, but I realized my hat and hood were off showing my horns and I was gray!

I gasp and look to find my hat by Branch, I slowly and quietly walked over to get it from him. He stirs a bit but turns on his other side, I grab my hat and put it back on. I was still gray, so I decide to hum a song.

I looked to see my fake colors coming back. Just as I finished, Branch then wakes up and looks at me. "What are you doing?"

"Oh...I- was..." I blushed and looked away, "...Waiting for you two to wake up."

Just then Poppy hopped up, stretching and yawning.

"That was some good sleep." She speaks, as she gets up and starts walking"Alright! Lets go!"

"How is she so hyper after she just woke up?" Branch asked as I shrugged.

We walked making it to the edge of Bergen Town.

"So, one of these tunnels leads to the troll tree." Poppy said.

"That's right." Branch said.

"There's so many of them..." I stated."Which one should we take...?"

"I don't know."

"Choose a hole wisely." A voice suddenly called out "Because one leads to Bergen Town...and the others lead to certain death!"

"Who said that?" Branch shouted as I hid behind him.

"It...! was...! Me." A cloud then appeared from his hiding place and walked towards us. "Hey, guys, how's it going? Welcome to the root tunnels. Uh, I just wanted to warn you. One of these tunnels leads to the Troll Tree... and the others lead to...Certain death! Death, death, death... "

Branch and I gave him a weird look as Poppy asked "Do you think you can tell us which is the right one?"

"You bet!"

"Great!"

"No, that's okay. We're fine, thanks!" Branch said grabbing my hand and walking away, but Poppy stopped us. "Branch. He's trying to help us."

"I don't like the looks of him. I mean, who wears socks with no shoes?"

We looked to see Cloud guy scrapping his teeth.

"He seems to know what he's talking about."

Branch looked at me as I shrugged.

"Okay, fine. Which way do we go?"

"First, you have to give me a high five." Cloud guy then held up his hand. "Then I'll tell you."

"What?"

"Oh, I love high fives." Poppy held up her hand. "I'll do it."

"Oh, I know you'll do it. But will he? All right, dumpy diapers, up high!"

"Nope, I don't do high fives." Branch stated crossing his arms.

"Slap it, boss."

"Not gonna happen."

"Party on the top floor."

"Nope."

"Little slappy. Make daddy happy'-"

"That's weird."

"Come on, just one little high five."

"Oh, no, thanks. I'm good."

"Here, just do this..." He does an example, "But with your hand."

"Thank you for that demonstration. Really cleared up exactly what I will NOT be doing."

"Branch, it's a high five." Poppy said "The others lead to certain death. Get perspective."

"Okay, clearly you won't do it," Cloud guy spoke again, "but what about the little flyer over here?"

Everyone then turned their attention to me. I looked around before turning back to the cloud. "M-me?"

"Yeah, just give me a high five, and I'll tell you which tunnel to take. Easy!"

"Yeah! Come on, (Y/n)!" Poppy said.

"Um...Okay." I go to high five him but he moves his hand.

"Ooh. Too slow."

"Too slow?" I heard Branch asked confused.

"Classic." Poppy snickered.

"No, no. All right. I'm gonna let you slide with a fist bump."

"Okay..." I go to fist bump him only for him to do weird hand movements.

"Whoo. Shark attack! Nom-nom-nom-nom. Jellyfish! Hand sandwich. Turkey. Snowman. Dolphin. Helicopter. Last Supper. Monkey in a zoo."

"What...?" I tried to ask as he grabs my hand.

"Gear shift." He moves my hand around as he makes motor sounds. When he stops he laughs, as I look at Poppy, who is also laughing but stops, when she sees how annoyed Branch is.

"Okay, okay, okay. Now I'm thinking we hug."

Branch then picks up a stick, and breaks in half, as Cloud Guy's body suddenly has thunder and lightning and starts to rain. Branch then starts chasing him.

"That's right! You better run, cloud!" Branch yelled.

"Wait!" Poppy shouts running after, as I fly after her, shouting, "Hey, wait up!

"I'm gonna tear your little cloud arms off your cloud body, and high-five your face with them!"

"He's just a cloud!"

"Branch!"

We then enter one of tunnels.

"Get back here!"

"Branch! He can help us!"

"Calm down Branch!"

"Come back here!"

"Run, Cloud guy!"

"Branch!"

"I'm gonna kill you!"

Suddenly Cloud Guy stops and turns to face us saying, "Ta-da! We're here!" Everyone stops as he walks back to the hole.

"You guys are a lot of fun. You know, I gotta go. Got some cloud stuff to take care of. Catch you on the way back? Unless...you die! Die, die, die..."

He sinks back into the hole. I look to figure where we are. "The troll tree...Bergen Town..."

We look to see it was completely drained of life and color. We walked to the edge of the tree to see bergens walking around miserably, while singing,

"I ain't happy I'm feeling glad
I got sunshine in a bag
I'm useless
But not for long
The future is coming on
I ain't happy I'm feeling glad
I got sunshine in a bag
I'm useless
But not for long
The future is coming on and
coming on is coming on and
coming on is coming on and
coming on is coming on and..."

"Wow! They're as miserable as you, Branch." Poppy says as Branch and I look at her.

"Which means they haven't eaten a Troll yet! Now, come on. Let's go save our friends."

"Your friends." Branch corrects.

"Our friends. Don't fight it."

We started walking as I just thought to myself. 'Clover, Aliki, Janell... Please be alright...'