Edit: changed up a part because i'm dumb and forgot that the idea had been introduced chapters before

(One of the ideas in this chapter is from GeorgeBeard4 , if somehow you aren't already (who isn't-) follow him, he has good books (I haven't read most of them). It was kind of hard to get the idea to make sense, but I think it worked? I actually seriously hate this but uh- here-

AND WHY IS IT SO LONG WHAT-)

Finally, it was actually morning, the sky was a dark gray, meaning it was going to rain again and there was rumbling in the distance. If they beat the storm, they might actually find their way home that day.

By the time everyone woke up Ash and Archer had found their way to the group. Poppy, Biggie, Guy, and Creek hugged Archer.

Ash took a step away from the group and rolled her eyes at them. "Hi. Hello." She waved at them.

"Hi." Rose and Biggie waved back at her.

"Can we go home now?" Guy asked, as he returned Mr. Dinkles to Biggie. Remember he was there?

"MR. DINKLES!" Biggie squeezed the worm to death, sobbing just as much as Branch and Poppy were yesterday before Poppy shattered his heart.

"Mew." Mr. Dinkles sighed, wishing to be dead.

"Yeah, I can lead you to Misty Meadows, but you guys getting back to your home is all in you." Ash gestured for them to follow her, back through the woods.

They all followed her— except for Branch. He was just lying on the ground, sadly. He was awake, but hasn't moved at all.

Guy grabbed Biggie's arm and turned him around, pointing at Branch.

"Branch-" Biggie sighed and picked Branch right off the ground and sat him on his shoulder, "come on."

"No, just let me die out here, alone. It's not like it'll make any difference in the village. They're clearly better off without me since even Creek is more trustworthy than me." Branch flopped on to his stomach and hung over Biggie's shoulder like a toddler.

"No, we're not better off without you! We love you!" Guy frowned. He hated hearing Branch speak so negatively about himself.

Branch was in mental and physical pain, and they could see it, but they didn't know how to help him much.

"I loved her so much.. and she's abandoned me.." Branch sat up and looked at Poppy. The pink troll looked completely fine ignoring Branch, she looked like she had completely moved on from him. "Everyone always leaves me.. even my parents." He sighed.

Verdana and Acorn stopped walking and looked over at Branch, overhearing the conversation.

"Your parents abandoned you?" Verdana put her hand on her heart, feeling bad. "That's awful."

"I don't really know the circumstances they were in, so I can't be mad at them. I just wish I knew who they were." Branch shrugged and cracked a small smile at the couple. "I saw them for a few days once.. but then .. uh.. my mom fell out of a tree. We thought she died, but then my mom and dad both disappeared the next day."

Acorn hugged himself and looked down, feeling slightly guilty, "When Verdana and I were still teenagers, we found out we were expecting, and we were too young. There was no way we could take care of a child at that age, and we still had so many things to do with our lives."

Verdana nodded, "When he was born, we gave him to his grandma. I'm sure she's taken better care of him than we could've. We spent some time with him years later too, but I also fell out of a tree. In the middle of the night, Acorn and I both left again." She sighed, "I wish we got to spend more time with him.. or even remember what his name is."

"Woah.." Branch's eyes widened, that story sounded too familiar. "I was left with my grandma, too. Every time I asked about where my parents were she's change the subject or give me some cake to distract me.. I never got an answer, before I.. uh.." He sighed and hugged Biggie's shoulder.

Acorn and Verdana looked into Branch's eyes, both seeing the same thing in them— themselves. Branch had their eyes.

Verdana gasped loudly it pulled Branch off of Biggie, pulling him right into a huge hug, "IT'S YOU! YOU'RE OUR SON!"

"I- what?" Branch didn't want to believe it, he was in such a dark place, he didn't want to dig deeper into the sadness with the false hope. "No.."

Acorn squished Branch's face and made him look directly into his eyes, "Look."

Branch had the roundness of Verdana's eyes and the deep blue color of Acorn's.

"Y-YOU ARE!" Branch squeezed them tighter than they were already hugging him, "I CAN'T BELIEVE IT TOOK US THIS LONG TO NOTICE!" He was crying, but not for a bad reason this time.

(SHH WE'RE GONNA FORGET ABOUT THE OTHER BACK STORY 😭 I'M GONNA TRY TO MAKE IT MAKE SENSE)

"What are you guys doing back there?" Archer spun around to see the hug and Biggie just awwing.

They had fallen behind the group, not even noticing.

Poppy stared at Branch for several seconds, just pondering their relationship. She still wanted to love him, but she was just confused on the assault situation. He was too sweet to hurt Creek, right? Or, is Creek too sweet to hurt Branch? She sighed and called to the family and Biggie, "Come on guys, we have to get to Misty Meadows before it starts—"

Before she finished, rain quickly started pouring down, drenching them all.

She made herself an umbrella with her hair, "—raining."

The three walked back to the group, their arms all over each other's shoulders, laughing. Branch stopped being upset over Poppy, he moved on from her.

"Hey! We're here!" Mandy grinned, gesturing to Misty Meadows— which was mistier than it's been for the last couple days.

"Now which direction was home?" Guy could hardly recognize anything from the rain and destruction from the second storm.

Critz attempted to sniff the air, but he didn't have a nose, "Shit."

(critz speaks for once. you're welcome.)

"Here we go again," Rose face palmed, "They're never gonna get home."

And just with those few words, Branch's good mood disappeared. "Never?"

"Never?" Biggie had the exact same reaction.

"We just have to keep looking in every direction until we find the right one!" Poppy tried to stay positive. She gave Biggie a quick hug to assure him it'd be okay. "It's gonna be okay!"

"No, it won't! I've been told that a bunch of times but nothing about being out here is okay!" Biggie crossed his arms and turned away from her.

Poppy sighed and looked over at Branch. Branch was looking right at her, but as soon as he met her gaze, looked in another direction.

Ash had one idea, "Maybe I c-" She was cut off by a loud crash of thunder and a bright flash of lighting.

"We should probably seek shelter!" Creek grabbed on to Archer, freaked out.

Archer smirked at Creek, "Aw, you're scared."

Creek took a huge step to the side and rubbed the 'Archer germs' off, "No!"

"Where are we supposed to seek shelter in this giant field?" Poppy knew for a fact that standing in an open field, near trees, was about the dumbest place you could be during a storm.

"The ditch?" Branch wasn't sure which part of the field it was on, but if they found it they'd be safe.

"Oh, yeah!" Biggie looked around, "Where is it?"

"Let's just run around here until we find it!" Guy didn't hesitate at all to take off, scanning the area for the hole.

Archer looked up at the sky, his eyes widened at the site. "Oh my."

Creek saw what he saw too, "Uh oh."

Up in the sky, yet again, was another supercell storm, and what was going on up there? Yet another, tornado.

(It's my book and I can make more tornadoes if I want to 😡😡)

"Ditch. Now." Branch pushed Biggie forward, using him to protect him from the winds and debris.

"It's not that bad yet!" Acorn tried to keep them calm.

A tree right beside him was rooted from the ground and flew over their heads across the field.

"I lied, let's go!" Acorn ran at Flash speed to catch up with Guy.

Most of the debris was flying from behind them, the smaller ones hitting them, the bigger ones just barely missing them.

"We can't run and dodge debris at the same time." Branch ducked under a huge tree branch that nearly knocked him out for like the third time. "Ha! At least I can—" He ran right into a tree. "—'t."

Guy ran back, grabbed Branch by his leg, and dragged him along, wasting no time at all, "You're not dying today!"

A small-ish branch stabbed Biggie in the back. That obviously hurt, but the pain disappeared when he got an idea. "I can protect you guys!"

"What do you mean?" Poppy asked, tilting her head, slow jogging backwards.

"I'm gonna make sure you guys can make it safely!" Biggie used his size an advantage to protect the 'short' trolls, though hurting himself doing so.

"Biggie, what are you doing? You're gonna get yourself killed!" Branch held on to the grass as Guy tried to continue pulling him.

"It's better than all of you dying from the debris!" Biggie urged them to keep going, "Please, go!"

"We found it!" Poppy began to climb down in to the ditch and gestured for the others to come down, "Come on! Quickly!"

Guy nodded at Biggie and smiled, "Thanks.." He slowly began to walk backwards, still dragging Branch.

"BIGGIE! NO-" Branch begged Biggie not to do this. This was definitely the worst of the three storms, but he shouldn't have to sacrifice himself for all of their safety. He kept grabbing the grass, but Guy was stronger.

Guy pushed Branch into the ditch and jumped in, "Okay, we're gonna survive, right?"

Branch attempted to climb out, "BIGGIE!" He could see Biggie running towards the ditch now that the others were in, safely.

"Branch! Stay down!" Guy grabbed Branch's legs and pulled him back in. He held his arms back. "He'll make it!"

Branch kept trying to climb out, there were tears rolling down his cheeks, he needed Biggie in his life. They had gotten so close in just a few days, they were best friends. "BIGGIE!" He shouted again, waiting for a response.

They heard nothing from Biggie, only the low growls of the tornado tear up trees and bushes around them.

"Isn't there some scale to rate tornadoes? What is this rated?" Ash covered her ears, which didn't have much of an effect considering her ears were big and it was extremely loud.

Branch snapped into a tornado geek for a second, "They're rated by destruction on the enhanced Fujita scale, worst being EF5 and calmest being an EF0. Judging by what we've experienced so far, I predict this is an EF4, the first one was an EF2, and the second was EF1." After he finished geeking, he went back to being upset over Biggie.

"..Fun..?" Poppy scratched her head.

"BIGGIE?" Branch was now freaking out even more, "LET ME SEE WHAT'S HAPPENING!" Branch finally escaped Guy'a grip, but before he could climb out, he heard the heart-stopping sound of Biggie's shriek.

"Biggie?" Branch poked his head of the ditch, "Biggie?" Biggie was completely gone. "Oh no-"

He was on the other side of the storm, he didn't care debris still flew through the air, his best friend was gone. "No-" He dropped to his knees and looked at the grass.  He didn't fight his tears, he just let them flow. "This is all my fault.."

Verdana rubbed his back, "Sweetie, no it's isn't. He wanted to make sure we were safe."

Branch pushed her away, "No, if I didn't invite them on this stupid trip he'd be alive, you'd all be home, and I'd be the one who died, which who cares?" He took a deep breath and buried his face in to his knees.

"We care." Guy said frowning. "We love you, we'd care if you died!"

Branch scoffed and got off the ground, "Yeah, right." He looked at Ash, "H-Hey.. can I borrow the knife real quick? For Biggie?"

"I guess?" Ash pulled out the knife and handed it to him, "What are you gonna do..?"

Branch took a step back from them and stared at the knife, "I'm sick of causing people pain and feeling all of this pain.." He looked directly into Poppy's eyes as he jabbed the knife in to his side.

Poppy watched him do it, as if in slow motion. "BRANCH!"

Branch immediately regret the decision. He thought he'd die instantly, but it made things worse. Immediately a sharp pain struck the side, it felt like he was just punched hard. He was panicking, he couldn't breath correctly, his heart was beating weirdly, everything was blurry, he was dizzy. Too much was happening for him to handle. "Too much.."

"BRANCH? ARE YOU OKAY?" Guy stood in front of him, waving his hand in front of his face.

Branch put his hands on the area the wound was, blood was rushing down his legs, his vest was stained with rainbow, "I-I regret doing that."

"Take deep breaths!" Guy put his hands on his shoulder, "Calm down!"

Branch could hardly take a breath. He fell on to the ground, still touching the wound area. "I c-can't-"

Ash took the knife and moved it away from Branch, "We need a medical professional ASAP."

"How? We're in the middle of the woods? We hardly know where Troll Village is, there's a tornado on the other side of this field." Archer blinked.

"I think I know what can lead us to your home." Ash whistled with her fingers, "DAGGER!"

"Why are you calling for a dagger? We have my- uh- your knife." Creek raised his eyebrow.

"Dagger's not an actual Dagger." Ash roller her eyes and patted her legs, "Come here!"

A gray cuddlepup came tumbling through the bushes and ran right into Ash. He shook his head and stuck his tongue out and barked at her.

"I have a huge favor for you, okay?" Ash put her finger on his nose, "Sniff for trolls that aren't right here, okay?"

Dagger smiled and gave a quick nod. He sniffed around Poppy and Creek to get an idea of their scent. He licked Branch's cheek, jumped right over him, and pointed his nose in a direction, barking.

"Your home must be that way." Ash pointed and patted Dagger's head, "We need to go, now."

"We can't carry Branch, though. None of us are strong enough like Biggie was and there's no way he can walk himself." Poppy sat in the grass and had Branch on her lap. She hugged him gently, "You're gonna survive.. I know i-" She sighed, "I hope."

"S-Sorry.." Branch reached to hold Poppy's hand, hesitating slightly.

Poppy held his hand and smiled at him, "You don't have to apologize for anything! I should've trusted you. I know you'd never hurt Creek first, you're too sweet to do that." She put her other hand on the wound for pressure, "We need to stop him from bleeding!"

Rose tore off some of the fluff from her dress, "I guess this could work?" She lifted up the vest and put the cotton on it, pressing. "Don't let him pass out, keep him awake! I'm pretty sure that's what you're supposed to do? Otherwise you die or something?"

"Okay, then.." Poppy kept shaking Branch back and forth lightly, "Please don't leave me!"

Shaking him caused more blood to flow, making the problem worse. Branch fell unconscious anyway, even with Poppy trying to keep him up.

(Did research, despite what movies say, falling asleep doesn't make you more likely to die, it makes you more likely to survive.)

"We could make a stretcher out of leaves and twigs, probably. Two or more of us could carry him on that." Mandy gathered a few sticks off the ground, "And vines to tie it all together." She took the vine crown out of Rose's hair and weaved some sticks together.

Creek nervously scratched his neck, "What if we just wait for someone to find us?"

"We'll get back to your home way quicker than someone from your home comes to find us!" Acorn dove into a bush, searching for a huge leaf.

Creek, still anxious, looked over towards Poppy.

She looked at him with a stern glare, then resumed hugging Branch, "This is Creek's fault mostly.."

Creek sighed, "I did apologize to him.."

Poppy dropped Branch and stood up, storming over to Creek, "You think the words 'I'm sorry' will erase the pain he felt? You tried to kill him! He's not going to just forgive you! Plus, you lied to us to make yourself look innocent! Branch was my best friend, the troll I loved more than anything else in the entire universe, he might be leaving us forever, and I was mad at him! You can't apologize for this." She took a deep breath and sat with Branch again, "I shouldn't have ever believed that dirty, lying, son of a—"

"Heyo, can we get this next adventure started?" Rose pointed at the finished stretcher. It was simply built, but it would work until they made it to Troll Village.

"Finally, let's go home." Archer was about ready to ditch (the pun will never get old) them. He started strolling after Dagger.

(I'M SO SORRY THAT WAS SO LONG AND STUPID I PULLED AN ALL NIGHTER WRITING IT THE OTHER DAY THERE'S PROBABLY SO MANY TYPOS

also guess what idea came from Jaden-)