Gray is Not All Colorless

A/N: Honestly, I don't even want to know how long it's been since I've updated this story. So please don't tell me. I know that this chapter is way shorter than the previous one, but in all honesty, this chapter is really only one scene, and I can't prolong it more than I have to just to make this story longer and at a consistent length with each chapter. It takes away from the stuff that really makes the story interesting.

Well, I won't keep you guys from reading this brief chapter. So I hope that it's good enough to be worth the wait.

*hides in my secret writing nook* Roll it! *locks door*

Chapter 11

Planning Branch's Rescue

It had been a long day for the Snack Pack as they set up a makeshift camp in the woods. They managed to get a good enough campfire going, along with finding large leaves to use as blankets to keep them warm from the brisk night air. Glitz had settled himself in Suki's arms and buzzed sadly, clearly missing Branch. He wasn't the only one, though. All of the Snack Pack missed him; well, except for one Troll.

Creek looked around at his friends and saw their sad frowns on their faces. They were still feeling.... guilty; he almost gagged at the word, about what Branch did for them? Yes, he will admit, it was very unexpected of the gray Troll to come to their rescue, and he was kind of grateful for it. But what he did for them, sacrificing himself for their freedom, he was pretty much signing his own death warrant. And showing off his new title to the Bergens; could he get any more arrogant?

Biggie sniffed as he held Mr. Dinkles close to him. "What will happen to Branch now?" He asked, almost afraid to even ask the question.

"Well, they said that Bergens can't eat gray Trolls." Guy Diamond said. "That's some reassurance, right?"

"But if he gets caught trying to escape?" Satin asked. "They could change their minds and try to kill him anyway."

Suki petted Glitz's back as she began thinking. Branch risked a whole lot to rescue them, even though he had the right to scold them for not listening to him about his warnings of throwing a super crazy party.

Despite his own fears of the giant and gluttonous monsters, he still came for them and sacrificed his freedom for theirs. He might have his reasons for having such great fear of them; reasons that he kept to himself and that they didn't even bother trying to learn about, but he still came to save them.

Creek huffed. "For someone who likes to overthink, he sure got himself in a pickle this time." He said.

For the first time, Suki felt disgusted by Creek's lack of worry for Branch. Maybe this was the reason that Branch never liked him, much less tolerated him. She remembered when Creek would try his best to do nice things for the gray survivalist, but the guy never seemed interested.

Now, ever since King Peppy had declared that Branch is to be his heir to the throne, Creek seemed very... peeved at him. Was he.... jealous of him? Creek wanted to be King?

If someone had told her that Creek wanted to be King before this all happened, she would have somewhat supported her friend. But over the course of just two days, Branch had shown better potential as a leader, such as kindness, patience, intelligence, and bravery.

She saw his kindness and patience towards some of the villagers, including her own niece. He was very smart, knowing that he built his own bunker and that he can easily fix most any logical or structural problem just by looking at it.

And for the longest time, she had thought that he was scared of the Bergens, which was why he never attended any parties. But actually, he was very brave. Despite his fears, he still came to try and save them from the beasts' lair, even if it meant certain doom. That was true bravery; doing something crazy despite their personal fears.

They owe him; big time. They can't just leave him to his fate. Suki saw how kindly Branch interacted with the king, and how Peppy came to view him as his own because Branch had no living relatives left. She didn't know the whole story about that, and when she asked Peppy about that, he only said that it was Branch's story to tell if he ever wanted to.

But she had heard rumors about Branch being the last living descendant of his family, although the thought of it was too hard to comprehend; but it explained so much. Why he was always alone except for his visits to Peppy, why he built that bunker, and why he was afraid of the Bergens.

And yet, despite his fears, he still came for them. She faintly remembered when the Trolls escaped Bergen Town, and a young Branch came over to a heartbroken Peppy to give him comfort about the loss of his daughter so that their king wouldn't turn gray like him. Once Peppy was strong enough, he had said out loud, "Never again". Never again would a Troll be left behind because of someone else's folly.

Never again. The words were booming in Suki's head as she narrowed her eyes at the fire. She stopped petting Glitz, who looked up at her in confusion. Her friends then noticed her determined glare.

"Suki?" Guy asked her.

Suki then stood up from her spot, her eyes remaining glued to the fire in front of her. "We're not leaving him." She said firmly.

"Say what?" Smidge questioned, hoping that she wasn't implying what she thought she was implying.

"We're not leaving Branch." Suki clarified, looking up at her friends. "Why should he suffer alone in that horrible place when it was sort of our fault that Chef found the village?"

The other Trolls were silent as they all felt the guilt for not listening to the gray Troll. Except for Creek, who annoyingly had a nonchalant expression on his face.

"But he said that he would escape." He reminded them. "Since the guy never does anything but plan for the end of the world, he would think of something."

Suki resisted the urge to scoff at her friend; his possible jealousy was clouding his judgment, but now was not the time to call him out.

"But who knows how long that would take?" She added. "It could be days, maybe even weeks!"

"And what about the king?" Biggie piped in, holding Mr. Dinkles a little more closely to him. "He will be crushed when he hears what happened. He was the one who truly looked after Branch, so of course he would think of him as a son."

"Exactly." Suki replied. "Branch is really the only family the king has left. I don't know the whole story, but the king was pretty close with some of Branch's relatives. It made sense that he would look after him after they died."

"But we can't stay out here." Satin said, looking around the dark forest.

"We can't survive out here for who knows how long." Chenille added. "We're not like Branch."

"We'll wait over at the tunnels for a few days." Suki said. "It's open enough, and it will be easy enough for us to hide in the forest without getting lost if a Bergen ever wanders out that far."

Creek crossed his arms. "And exactly how long will we wait?" He asked.

"About three days." Suki replied. "If he doesn't escape by then, then we will break him out."

Her friends' eyes all widened. "Break him out?!" Guy exclaimed. "How will we even do that?"

"We'll think of something." Suki said. "But the main reason why we shouldn't leave him is this."

"What's that?" Cooper asked.

Suki looked at the group before sighing. "Branch is our friend." She answered. "Yeah, maybe he isn't actually the touchy-feely type, but then again, we haven't exactly been very kind to him either. We just let silly rumors affect our judgment of him without really getting to know him."

All of them were silent as they looked down at their feet with guilt (minus Creek of course). Suki then turned to Biggie.

"Biggie. Remember when you were looking for Mr. Dinkles for almost two days, and Branch found him?"

Biggie nodded. He had been looking for his beloved pet for almost the entire day when he suddenly vanished several months ago, and he had been driving himself into the ground because of that. But then, Branch had found the missing worm and explained that he had found him munching on some weeds in a nearby clearing. During that time of year, he needed to eat those weeds often, so Branch gave Biggie the worm and a couple of the weeds he had pulled before telling him where to find the clearing, then he left.

Then Suki turned over to the twins. "Satin, Chenille. Not only would Branch give you practical advice about your fashion designs, but remember when you two got that really bad heat rash during that super sunny day last summer?"

They nodded. It was a really bad heat rash, their shoulders and arms almost red and literally burning despite their pastel skin tones. But luckily for them, Branch had found them while he was gathering supplies and gave them a soothing burn cream he had made himself to treat it and gave them the reminder that they needed to reapply every three hours until the rash was gone. Then he walked away without giving them a chance to say anything.

"Smidge, remember when you overdid yourself during your workouts, and Branch was nice enough to let you have some water he was collecting because you forgot to bring your water bottle?" Suki asked the tiny yellow Troll, to which she nodded in recollection.

"And Cooper? Remember when you accidentally got that rope tied around your leg? Branch cut it loose for you. Any longer, and you would have lost feeling in that leg permanently." The four-legged Troll looked down at said leg.

"And he saved CJ." Suki added, remembering the incident from only yesterday. "I thought he did whatever he could to avoid other people, and yet, he still came to her rescue. And he allowed her to come close to him. Despite having his reasons for staying away from others, he still allowed an innocent child to approach him."

The red Troll then sighed. "We owe him that much for coming for us." She said while rubbing her arm. "Helping him get out of that place is the best way we can show him that we are willing to make it up to him for all of the years we've been cruel to him. And let's admit it, because of his bravery, he actually seems like he can be a great king, and he needs all the supporters he can get. He already has enough people who think that he can't do it; but now, he has a whole group of friends that will support him in whatever way possible."

"Yeah." Smidge said, looking deep in thought as she came up with an idea. "We can help him and show him what can be expected of him when he becomes king. Peppy can teach him the more serious stuff while we can help him with the more fun stuff."

"Well, he may not always like having fun," Guy Diamond said slowly, "but we can help him organize those while now also listening to his ideas on being safe without it being too much for him."

"Yeah, we can do that!" Biggie agreed.

"It does sound like a good compromise." Satin said.

"Having our fun while it being safe enough for Branch to not go so paranoid!" Chenille added excitedly.

While they were all talking about ideas to help Branch get integrated back into normal Troll society while not stressing him out too much, no one noticed that Creek was almost a putrid green instead of his usual plum shade. His blood was boiling like hot magma, and his teeth were clenched with hatred, almost gritting unpleasantly.

There they go again, praising Branch for how great he really is! What does he have that Creek doesn't?! He was handsome, charming, charismatic, and not such a stormy downer like that gray Troll hermit! Branch would rather spend his time reading silly books and building his stupid bunker and dumb inventions than keep everyone happy. As the true model of a perfect Troll, Creek should've been the one that that senile weak King Peppy chose as his heir.

Can't they see that Branch was the absolute worst option for a candidate to become king?! Those simple, naïve fools! So what if that gray freak decided to play hero and come all this way to try and come to their rescue? He practically arranged his own death by taking their place as a prisoner of the Bergens, the very creatures that he was afraid of the most! A foolish attempt at a selfless act of sacrifice! Even though they can't eat him since he was gray, the village grump might go into a nervous breakdown and lose whatever was left of his mind and kill himself if he stayed in that place any longer.

However, he was curious about that female gray Troll. Tempest. Something about her didn't quite add up in Creek's mind. How can a Troll betray their own kind? Due to her brief overview about her life, she had lived her whole life in Bergen Town. They must have accidentally left her behind when she was very small. But the only one that they knew that they had lost that day was the king's daughter, Princess Poppy. No other family had notified the king if they had lost their child.

Could she... Could this Tempest be Princess Poppy? If she is, then she is the rightful heir to the throne. But she's gray, just like Branch. She most likely has gone her whole life without ever knowing what happiness is. One Troll born to the throne, the other biasedly chosen for it, and both of them are gray. How ironic is that?

But then, Creek had a thought. What if he, and his friends of course, could show her what it's like to be happy? Branch obviously can't teach her that since he is gray and unhappy himself. He still probably remembered what it felt like, but he refused to feel it again for some reason. Obviously, something happened when he was young that made him the way he is, and that he still can't get over.

Anyway, back to the female gray Troll. If Creek could show her how to be happy, she might fall in love with him and regain her colors. Then, she could finally leave Bergen Town and come back to Troll Village.

When Peppy sees that his daughter is alive and well, and happy, then he could reward Creek with his daughter's hand in marriage. Then Branch won't become king, and Peppy's daughter would be wrapped around his finger, and the two of them would rule over the village in perpetual happiness, and Creek would finally banish Branch, along with anyone who still supported him. It was genius!

Creek did his best to keep up his bored expression as he listened to his friends come up with ideas on who to rescue Branch, hiding his dastardly smirk on his face. He'll play along, for now. But when they get back to the village with Peppy's daughter, then he'll show those fools who should really be king of the Trolls, and if his so-called friends still think that that gray hermit freak should rule, then they will pay dearly for that. Maybe they ought to share the same fate as Branch if they still think that he's so amazing.

A/N: *peeks out of writing nook* Well, the last part of this chapter was meant to be in Creek's point of view, so that's why it sort of got dark. We all know that Creek really hates Branch, especially now.

But is he right about Tempest being the lost Princess Poppy? If she is, then he has a new plan hatching on how to become king, while the rest of the Snack Pack are working on a rescue plan. It seems that Branch is kind of starting to rub off on them. Maybe not his pessimism, but his bravery despite his fears. That's true courage.

Anyway, please don't ask me when the next chapter will be, because I have no idea. I'll write when I get the chance, but I am making no promises about when I'll update. I hope you can understand. But at least I'm not giving up on this story.

All in all, I hope that y'all enjoyed this pretty short chapter. Please leave a comment about what you think, and remember to stay healthy.

Got to fly!