( A/N — BRIGGIE BONDING TIME HEHEHEHEHEH )

( A/N - also I realized that the picture Creek ripped up is also the picture Poppy used to replace that one- we're just gonna ignore that error and just keep swimming )

Biggie looked out of the ditch. It looked like they were in a completely different world. "Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore."

"What? Who's Toto? What's Kansas?" Branch carefully climbed up the ditch, struggling with his injured arm.

( A/N - it's not a tornado book without Wizard of Oz references- )

The forest was completely destroyed. Misty Meadows wasn't misty, it was just dark and debris filled. Trees were knocked down, bushes were torn out of the ground, it didn't even seem to have any other creatures in it.

"Which way's the village? I'm sure we can find our way now." Biggie, who's still a Troll, was being optimistic and put a smile on his face, pulling Branch out and ready for him to lead the way.

"Uh.." Branch couldn't recognize anything. Their tent was gone, their supplies were gone, there was nothing he could use to identify their direction.

He scanned the ground for any sign, but nothing was helpful– except for a paper that suddenly hit Biggie in the face.

Branch jumped up to grab it off Biggie's face and examined it. It was slightly faded from the wind, but he still recognized it. "It's one of Poppy's pictures of me, and her." He smiled at it.

"So, which way home?"

"I don't know, I don't know where anything is." Branch put the picture in his hair to keep it safe and tried to smell his way to the village, but the rain washed out every scent.

Biggie walked around for a few minutes, searching for anything that remained. He found something soft and white, and yanked it out from under the tree it was stuck under. "Isn't this Guy's hair?"

"That mean this must be where our site was." Branch remembered cutting Guy's hair to keep the tent on the ground. That obviously didn't work.

"Which means Troll Village is that way!" Biggie pointed in the direction they arrived in. Or at least he thought they came that way.

"No, i'm pretty sure we came from that way." Branch pointed in the opposite direction.

"Actually, we came from that way." Biggie continued to point in his direction.

"That way." Branch pointed in his direction.

"Branch, i'm positive we came from that direction."

"Biggie, we came from that direction." Branch started walking the the direction he was sure the village was.

Biggie wrapped his hair around Branch's torso and pulled him back. “We shouldn't take any chances- what if we get lost?”

“We're already lost.”

“But what if we get lost-er?”

“That's not a word.” Branch pulled Biggie's hair off of him and began to continue walking away.

“Can we please stay in the ditch overnight?” Biggie pleaded.

Branch looked up at the sky. “It's still really early, though. We can probably make it to the village before dusk if I'm heading the right direction.”

“Can't you navigate with the stars?”

“I can also navigate with the sun, though.”

Biggie sat on the ground, criss cross applesauce style, still committed to staying in the ditch for another night.

Branch rolled his eyes and proceeded to walk out of sight.

Biggie realized his efforts to stay were pointless, Branch was going to find his way to the village with or without him. He dashed back over to Branch, shrieking. “Don't leave me alone!”

“Then stay with me.” Branch looked up near the sun, blocking the blinding rays by cuffing his hands. “We'll make it home by tonight, which means we won't need to start a fire or gather food.”

‘Fire.’ Biggie thought, an idea coming to mind. “Branch, what if we start a fire to signal the Trolls that we're lost, and send them to our direct location? I'm sure the smoke is visible from here.”

“It's more efficient if we just find it ourselves though, and we don't even know if the trolls are a-” He stopped himself, not wanting to get the thought of all of his friends that were practically family to him being dead.

“They're alive Branch, I know it.” Biggie reassured him.

( A/N - “You don't know anything, Biggie, 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.” )

Branch still wasn't sure. ‘The storm was heading directly for the village—’

Branch interrupted himself again, with an idea. “Biggie, climb this tree.”

( A/N - Why haven't I thought of this up until now? )

“Why? Is there food up there?”

“No, but look for the big, black supercell, the storm we just went through. If it's moving slowly enough and the wind hasn't shifted, the storm should lead us right to thr village.”

Biggie did as he was ordered to, slowly climbing up the tree. He slid back down multiple times, his weight made it difficult for him to climb. There weren't many branches on it either, which added to his difficulties.

Biggie was about halfway up the tree, ready to check the sky, when the branch he had rested his foot on, snapped off. “And I oop-”

He plummeted off the tree and landed directly on Branch.

Biggie, not realizing he was crushing Branch, looked around. “Branch? Where did you go?”

“...under your gluteus maximus..”

Biggie looked down, realizing Branch was underneath his butt. “Sorry-”

Branch dusted himself off and sighed. “Biggie, what do you think we should do?”

“Don't ask me, you already know what I'm going to say and you don't like the idea of sitting around because it's not productive.”

“We're desperate at this point. There's no such thing as a bad idea.”

Biggie picked a twig up and placed it on the ground. “I wanted to start a signal fire so the village can hopefully find us, and collect food in case we're stuck out here for the night.”

Branch picked up another twig and placed it on top of Biggie's. “Gather as much firewood as you can and then we'll meet back here in twenty minutes, I can find some berries or something.”

“Okay!” Biggie showed a thumbs up and began picking up every twig in sight, which there were a lot of them from the storm blowing them off the trees.

Branch spun around and whichever direction he was facing was where he would search. He didn't know which direction he was walking in, but it looked promising.

“What berries are safe to eat?” Branch picked up a red berry and examined it. He would normally carry a guide with him, but he didn't have one with him.

He took a small bite into it and chewed it for a few seconds before deciding on his opinion. The berry brought a sour flavor to his mouth, meaning it probably wasn't safe to eat.

He gagged and opened his mouth to took the berry out. “This is going to take forever.” He complained like a four year old.

A fuzzy critter purred and nested itself on Branch's feet, nibbling on a berry of it's own.

“Is that eatable for a Troll to eat?”

It made a weird nose and rolled the berry to Branch, who ate it.

“Thank you! Can you help me find more!”

The critter rolled it's body as if to nod and put a serious expression on it's face. It rolled around the area, looking for berries, then gave Branch instructions.

“JOABLJNAna jabojnauoabajobbouabouBuoUoguobboubnuohouhou.” The critter said.

“Uh huh, got it.” Branch gave it a thumbs up.

~

Further away from Branch, back near where they were staying, Biggie carried a large pile of sticks. It nearly covered his face, making him unable to see.

“Just one more.” He reached out for a stick, taking a few steps forward to reach better.

“One more step..” He slowly put his toe down— but oddly he didn't feel the soft grass, he felt something round (not like a ball- like a bracelet-) and with a smoother texture.

The pain from stepping on it wasn't stepping on a Lego agony, but it did hurt a little.

He dropped the sticks to view what he stepped on. It appeared to be a hug watch, a purple hug watch with an orchid for a flower. No one in Troll Village has seen a hug watch like this one since Poppy's grandma was queen.

Biggie squealed like me and put the watch on his wrist with his watch, and carried his sticks back to their spot.

“Branch! Branch! Branch! Branch! Branch! Branch! Branch! Branch! Branch! Branch! Branch! Branch! Branch! Branch! Branch! Branch! Branch! Branch! Branch! Branch! Branch! Branch! Branch! Branch! Branch!”

“What?” Branch had been leaning against a tree, yawning for about seven minutes, waiting for his food to arrive. Talk about bad service.

“I was gathering the firewood when I found Queen— where's the food?”

“It's coming, I think.” Branch shrugged, checking his nonexistent watch to see the time. 4:57.

“Oh, okay. So, I was gathering the firewood when I found Queen Rose's hug time watch!”

“Queen Rose? Who's Queen Rose?”

Biggie gasped loudly and shook him back and forth. “What do you means who's Queen Rose?! She was the best queen to date. She's Poppy's grandmother and Peppy's mother. She started a war with five troll tribes, divided the land, helped to stop our scarce food supply during the longest Snow Day, ended the period we like to called The Fake Depression when Trolls pretended to be depressed to get food, she-”

“I get it, she was a great queen. But did she befriend the Bergens?”

“No.”

“Did she bring hope back to the entire village and stop us from being eaten?”

“No.”

“Did she declare the first non-troll an honorary troll?”

“No..”

“Then, she wasn't as great as Poppy is.” Branch declared, looking past the tree he was against.

“Stupid cheap service.” Branch sighed and stood on top of the two sticks they placed earlier.

“What are you doing?”

Branch bAtTeD hIs EyElAsHeS and whistled a sweet little tune.

“What- the- hair?” Biggie blinked.

After a few seconds, an army of squirrels and fuzzy critters swear the two, each holding fruits and berries for them.

“BUSLBOUSOBUSBUOSBUSBUSINANIAOOANSINSIN!” The critter from earlier squeaked.

“Thank you.” Branch hugged it and took the grapes from it, happily plopping them into his mouth.

“I'm calling you Princess Branch now.” Biggie snickered.

Branch rolled his eyes.

( A/N - Yeah, I cut out One Call Away or whatever I had in the original. )

“BJABAOBUANOIAIOIAOINA?” The critter asked.

“Sure! That would be nice, thanks for the offer.”

“What did he ask?” Biggie questioned, watching the critter roll over to the stack of sticks.

“Slowly becoming our slave.”

Biggie wasn't sure if he was joking or not, and moved away from him.

The critter rolled really fast back and forth and around and around the wood, then ignited in to flames and rolled into the fire, not coming out.

“Little critter?” Branch stepped over to the fire, and looked in, hoping to find it's body, but it was gone.

“What a violent death.” Biggie folded his hands, praying for the critter's journey into either heaven or.. the bad place.

“I was about to name it.” Branch wiped a tear from his eye.

Biggie looked up to see how high the smoke went. It went above the tree tops, so if someone was looking for them they would definitely be able to see.

( A/N - I thought a cute name for whatever that critter's species was, a permar-burner. A critter than can permanently burn. )

Biggie scratched himself, being itchy from the layer of dirt on his body. “Is there a lake anywhere that we can quickly go to?”

Branch perked his ear up, listening for water. “I detect water about one thousand four hundred sixty-three feet from here.”

The animal army excitedly carried them to the water.

“How did you know all that information about Queen Rose?”

“I've read all about troll history, especially the ones about the royal family. There's a lot of shocking information in there. Like how the newborn princesses were killed because only princes were wanted so they could give birth to their own princes and then marry. Nowadays, it's wanted that if a princess is born they shall love, but to prove their bravery and loyalty to the throne, the princess' love interest gives birth.” Biggie explained.

“Woah, that's brutal. I didn't expect troll laws to be so harsh.”

“I didn't either, but that's what make the history so interesting.

( A/N - I had a weird dream last night that was a lot like this book, except with my family. My sister and mom were lost in the woods after a tornado. )

“What happens if the king refuses to have the baby?”

“The king is dethroned and unable to see their royal partner ever again, and the princess/queen must find new love.”

“Wow..” Branch nibbled on a blueberry.

“I wonder what you and Poppy's baby will look like.” Biggie looked up, picturing the Broppy child.

Branch spit the blueberry out. “Our what?”

( A/N - okay- i finally completed chapter six. )