Nine Lives, One Fight - Part 16
The story: Deep in the forest of Troll Town, there lies a mysterious tiny purple mushroom that has a secret magical ability. King Peppy calls this mushroom forbidden for all Trolls to go near it. One day, while Branch is out in the woods doing his survival research studying, he encounters it and, not knowing it is a regular mushroom, decides to harvest it and bring it home. But in the next morning, its magic effects transform him into a small blue cat! After being sent to the animal pound, his girlfriend, Poppy, finds him and decides to adopt him, although not recognizing it is Branch. Desperate to finish his research project due for a special event invented by Poppy, Branch is forced to learn how to behave like a pet cat and must figure out what caused him to become one.
You already seen what had happened in Part 15. Now get ready for Part 16!:
Out of breath, Poppy stopped in front of Branch’s survival bunker. She knocked on the giant rock, yelling “Branch! Branch! BRANCH?! You still home?”
Silence fell as Poppy leaned her ear to listen for any response. Unfortunately, there is still nothing to be heard from underground. She started to become anxious as she continued calling for Branch, but the more she kept doing that, the more silent the bunker became.
“Come on!” Poppy protested. “You’re missing the party…again ever since you’re gray!”
Branch peeked out from a rock, watching her anxiously. Then he looked back at the party in the distance and sighed. He had no choice but to talk to her.
When he caught up with her, Poppy is not listening to him and kept pounding at the bunker door “Get up now! What’s taking you so long?!”
Poppy is wondering why Branch never responded every time she enters the bunker. Is Branch sick? she thought. Has he been ignoring me the whole time? Did he go on vacation without telling me? Did he put soundproof earmuffs for the rest of the day? He went grey and depressed again? Or how in the world did he became deaf?
Her thoughts were interrupted by worried meowing. “Meeow! Meow!”
Poppy looked down and saw Branch approaching her. He looked scared and he pointed his paw at himself, meowing to get her attention. “Meeeeoooowww!! Meow!”
“Sorry, Mr. Tickle,” she told him. “I can’t speak with you right now. Can’t you see I’m trying to talk with Branch here?”
Branch shook his head and meowed even louder, still pointing at himself. “Meow! Meeeow! Meeeeow!”
However, Poppy still didn’t seem to understand what he is clearly saying. “Meeeeooooowww!!! Meeeeooooowww!!!” is all that can be heard from Branch. She just stared at him with her mouth open.
“Please be quiet!” she said, trying to calm her cat to no avail. “I need one of the contestants to come up for the festival!”
But Branch was insistent. He latched onto Poppy’s leg, biting her dress and pulling. She winced, trying to get him off.
“Mr. Tickle, cut it out!” Poppy scolded him, but Branch kept tugging at her dress with his teeth, attempting to stop her from knocking at the bunker. “Please! Let go of my dress! Stop it!”
Branch latched tightly onto her dress. Poppy tried to shake him off, shouting “Get off of me! Bad kitty! Bad little kitty! Get out of here!”
Finally, she managed to yank her dress away from Branch, who shrank back with guilt. “Meow!”
“What is it you’re trying to tell me?” Poppy asked, holding her arms up in dismay. “I don’t know what you’re talking about!”
“Meeeeooooowww!” Branch cried, sounding impatient. He was trying to make full use of his words in order for Poppy to understand, but it felt that he didn’t quite make it very well. He keeps pointing at himself, as if he’s trying to tell Poppy that he is here.
“Meow!” Branch crawled to Poppy’s leg and held on to it. Digging his sharp claws tightly into her skin, he shook it hard, pleading for her to understand him.
Wincing, Poppy shook her leg. She looked straight into his eyes and asked with a shrug “What do you want now? Are you okay? Are you hungry? You want some more fish?”
She put a hand to her hair, wondering if her cat wanted something to eat. But Branch wasn’t interested on food right now. Instead, he shook his head and tugged her leg. “Meeeow! Meeeeeeeow!! Meeeeoww!” he cried, as if he was saying in his own language “No, no, no! I’m not hungry, Poppy! It’s me, Branch! I’m turned into a cat! I’m right here, not in my bunker!”
Poppy stared in disbelief as Branch continued moaning, looking up at her with big sad eyes. “Meeeeeeeeoooow! Meeow!”
What is wrong with my cat? the pink Troll thought in her head. She thought that maybe her pet is acting very strange, but she doesn’t seem to understand Branch’s poor condition.
“I’m sorry, buddy,” she said, giving him a reassuring pat in the head. “But I can’t seem to understand your condition. All you wanted was my attention than me paying attention to others!”
“Meeooww!!!” Branch insisted, glaring at her. Why can’t she pay attention to him more than everyone in the village?
“Stop complaining to me and let me do my queen duties for now!” Poppy said firmly. “I can’t believe how strange you are acting!”
“Meeeeoowwrrr! Meeeooowrr!” snarled Branch, getting mad every time she didn’t hear his voice. “Meeowr!”
Poppy cautiously stepped back from the angry tone of Branch’s cat voice. She was getting nervous that her cat wanted to talk to her even more. “Okay, please calm down,” she nervously said. “Can’t you try to be a little bit gentle?”
Without warning, Branch hissed and immediately lunged at her!
“MEEEEEEEEEOOOOWWRRR!!!” SLASH!!!!
Poppy screamed and braced herself as Branch’s cat claws sliced through her hand. She staggered backwards in pain, holding her hand, which was now covered with a small claw scratch mark.
Branch landed on the ground, panting furiously with his glaring eyes and clenched teeth. But then, his eyes widened with horror when he realized what he did and rushed to console Poppy, who was wincing painfully at her scar.
When she looked down at Branch, he cautiously stepped forward and tried to apologize. Then Poppy stood up and yelled harshly at him “GET OUT!!! Bad kitty!”
At the sound of her angry voice, Branch cowered, feeling sorry for her. His four legs sank backwards with guilt and shame.
“Leave me alone!” Poppy shouted, on the verge of tears. “Get out of here! SHOO!!!”
Following her words, Branch changed direction and fled into the forest, leaving Poppy alone outside his bunker.
Soon, Branch scurried to a nearby tree and stopped to catch his breath. The angry words of Poppy had stung in his brain when he looked back at her, who went back to knocking at his bunker entrance. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Poppy just yelled at him! And what’s worse, he hurt her feelings by physically hurting her hand!
Branch hung his head low, scared at his own outburst. He looked down at his front legs with a grief-stricken look on his face. He doesn’t want to be a cat, he don’t want to hurt his girlfriend again and he hated to see how mad she became and how she scolded him like that. Panting with fear, he curled himself up, hoping all of this would go away.
Suddenly, a leaf fluttered down and landed on his nose. Opening his eyes, Branch looked up to see where it had descended. He spotted a small thin tree branch on a larger one. This gave him an idea.
If Branch can really bring this tiny little tree branch to Poppy, he hoped it might get her to recognize him. Without hesitating for a second, Branch started climbing up the tree to get to the top.
Back in the bunker entrance, Poppy was still trying to knock on the door.
“Come on, Branch,” she muttered. “Everyone’s waiting for you. Why can’t you come out now?”
Suddenly, an orange Troll approached her. His name is Nigel, and he serves as the lieutenant of King Peppy. He called out to her “Your Highness! Something’s wrong with the forbidden mushroom down the woods!”
Poppy stopped knocking and turned to him in disbelief. This could only be one thing he is trying to tell her. “You mean the Archaeo morphisis?” she asked. “What happened to it? Is it safe?”
“No time to explain,” Nigel told her. “Come to the woods immediately. King Peppy has been investigating the whole thing.”
Poppy briefly glanced back at Branch’s empty bunker, and then, unable to conceal the worry on her own face, she faced the orange Troll and replied “Okay, I’m coming!”
After Nigel and Poppy ran off into the woods, Branch, unaware of their departure from his bunker, had reached the top of the tree to get the small tree branch. Tightroping across the larger tree limb, he moved closer to the smallest tree limb and examined it for a moment.
Then he grabbed it with his mouth and completely plucked it out of the tree.
Branch climbed down the tree with the small tree branch clenched in his mouth, sprinting off and making his way back to the bunker.
“Poppy!” he managed to say with his mouth full. “Wait up!”
When he finally made it near the GO AWAY! mat, Branch lifted his head up and waved the tree branch around.
“Poppy! POPPY!!!” he cried, his voice muffled by the stick clutched in his mouth. “It’s me! I’m right here...”
But when Branch looked around, no one is here. “Poppy?” he called. The pink Troll is nowhere to be seen. Desperately looking at the direction of where she was heading, he decided to follow her, bringing along his tree branch.
Deep in the woods, Poppy and Nigel found her father and a local Troll named Cookie Sugarloaf anxiously investigating the Archaeo morphisis’ territory.
“Dad?” Poppy cried. “What’s happening?! Where’s the mushroom?”
“Thank goodness you’re here, Poppy,” King Peppy said, embracing his daughter. “While some of us are patrolling the forest, we discovered an urgent situation with the Archaeo morphisis!”
“Come look!” Cookie urged. She pointed at the Archaeo morphisis mushroom’s little garden, which was now empty and deserted.
Poppy gasped in horror. No single purple mushroom was standing here in sight. “Who took it out from the ground?” she said in disbelief. “I thought nobody can go near it and do such a thing like this!”
She turned to her father with a worried expression on her face. King Peppy nodded at her. If some greedy Troll really did pull it out of the ground, he always know that bad things will happen. He remembered about warning Branch not to go near the mushroom on the other day as he told Poppy “That’s what I’ve been warning everyone not to get mesmerized by its effects. But somehow, a Troll managed to get into the mushroom’s property and stole it.”
Looking stricken, Poppy looked down at the empty round hole where the mushroom used to be standing there. “Now that it is mysteriously gone, I fear something bad really happened to this Troll,” King Peppy explained anxiously.
“Dad, this is getting very serious,” said Poppy. “We need to find the thief who had taken it!”
“Then it’s your responsibility to look for the culprit,” Peppy told her. “The problem is...we have no idea who is the actual culprit! That is why the two Trolls who accompanied me were looking for some clues.”
The old king gestured to Nigel and Cookie. The female Troll approached Poppy with a tuft of blue hair in her hand. “We found this right after that Troll left with the mushroom,” she said, handing the hair strands to her.
From behind the four Trolls, Branch jumped onto a log, still holding his branch in his mouth and overhearing their conversation. He wanted to figure out what is going on with this crime investigation when he heard Poppy’s worried voice.
The pink Troll queen looked concerned as she stared at the blue hair strands in her hands. She recognized whose hair it belonged to.
“Branch’s hair?” she asked in complete disbelief. “But...Branch never did anything wrong. He’s innocent! Why would he be involved in a scene like that?”
Nigel approached the two Troll girls, holding Branch’s vest and shorts, which were left behind a few days ago after Branch’s cat transformation. “Don’t you see?” the orange Troll said. “We found his clothes laying in the woods. But after the mushroom took effect on the Troll, he didn’t came back.”
Poppy was shocked. She couldn’t believe what she had been witnessing. Looking at Branch’s clothes on the ground, she dropped to her knees as tears ran down her face.
“I’m terribly sorry, Poppy,” Peppy told his daughter, comforting her by patting her shoulder. “This is all the proof we’d found after the tragedy happened. You should accept that.”
Branch slowly approached them, hardly able to believe what just happened. He stared at his clothes on the ground, wondering if he was able to fit in them since they were now look bigger than him.
“No...no, Dad,” Poppy said sadly, her heart breaking for her boyfriend’s mysterious disappearance. “It can’t be true. Branch can’t be the one who accidentally harvested an ancient forbidden relic.”
“And he should’ve listened to us,” Peppy added. “Now I knew why Branch is completely ignoring us four days ago.”
Their words completely shocked Branch straight into his mind. He finally knew what is happening. He had grown selfish and put his whole life in danger instead of listening to the old king’s legal rules, as he had vowed to always do. Steeling himself, Branch dropped the stick and pulled Poppy’s dress.
Responding to Branch’s tugging, she turned around to face him. He pointed at the tree branch, and then he pointed at himself. “Meeow! Meeeeow!” he protested, trying to tell Poppy to recognize him by his name and using the tree branch to help her respond.
Instead, Poppy shook her head and petted his head. “No. I’m sorry, Mr. Tickle,” she told him. “Branch is not here for now. You know what happened to him?”
Branch shook his head and nosed the tree branch towards her feet. He kept pointing at it and pointing at himself, desperately trying to say his name. “Meeeow! Meeeeeeeeeooooww!!” he wailed.
Poppy frowned at the stick below her. Indirectly thinking that Branch wanted to play, she picked it up. Horrified, Branch jumped up and grabbed the tree branch from her, pulling it away from her.
When Nigel and Cookie heard Branch’s meowing noises, they stared at Poppy, worriedly wondering what is going on with her.
“Poppy, what is that?” Nigel asked. “It sounds like a cat.”
Poppy nervously turned back at the two Trolls while struggling to get the stick away from Branch and simply told them “It...it’s just a nearby alley cat in the distance! Don’t worry! I’ll get rid of it!” Then she turned her attention back to Branch and whispered to him sternly “Mr. Tickle, I need privacy for a moment. Go play with your stick but not in front of my Dad.”
“Meeeow! Meow!” Branch moaned, waving his paws around at the stick in Poppy’s arms. He doesn’t want to play for now.
Poppy carefully guessed what he really wanted. She asked him “You want me to throw this so you can get it?”
That is not what Branch meant! He kept shaking his head and meowing. “Meeow! Meeeeeeeeeooooooww!!!”
But before he can stop her, Poppy released the branch from his grip and threw it far in the woods. “Go on!” she said. “Fetch!”
“Wait!” Branch cried, watching helplessly as the stick disappeared into the darkness. “No!”
“Go get it,” Poppy told him. “What are you waiting for?”
Branch looked up at Poppy with a grave expression on his face, feeling like he wanted to confront her some more. But he promised himself not to hurt her again, so he ran off into the woods to find the stick. Poppy watched as he disappeared straight into the trees with his tail slinking around the grass.
After Branch was already gone, Poppy walked to her father, sighing with mere grief at the loss of her boyfriend.
King Peppy gave her a comforting hug, but this didn’t cheer her up for one bit. Then he changed the subject by asking her “How’s your Show-and-Tell presentation coming up?”
“It went along just fine,” Poppy said, looking down at the Archaeo morphisis mushroom’s empty spot. “But I think what you mean is probably why Branch never showed up on stage.” She sighed heavily before continuing. “I miss him, Dad.”
A tear rolled down Poppy’s cheek as she sat on a log, mourning. Peppy sat next to her. “Don’t worry. I hope he comes back,” he said gently. “I’m worried for him too. We just need to figure out the truth why he vanished.”
Poppy locked eyes with her father, feeling touched. She wanted to make sure that Branch will be alright, and she also wanted to know what caused him and the magical mushroom to vanish in the first place.
“But what exactly is the truth of the mushroom’s effects?” she asked her father, wanting to fill in more information.
Far from Poppy, Peppy, Nigel and Cookie in the deepest part of the forest, Branch is frantically searching through the bushes and trees for the tree branch that Poppy threw away. His heart was pounding like crazy as he looked around the area, trying to find it.
“No, no, no,” he muttered. “Where is it? Where is that stick? Where did she threw it?”
Turning to another direction, Branch sniffed around the ground and kept going. Following his nose, he stood on a log. Then he looked around, his head turning every which way.
He sniffed again, and he hopped out of the log and into the shrubs.
Settling down in a rough path, Branch scrambled his way around the area as he lifted up some rocks laying down on the ground, wondering if the tree branch was underneath them.
But there is still no sign of it. He searched every single rock for that stick, and he wanted to use that to make Poppy recognize him. After giving up, he sprinted forward, scanning the entire forest for anything to get Poppy’s attention.
Searching and sniffing high and low, he tried every tree, bush, shrub and rock but he is unable to find the thrown branch. With each area crowded with lots of foliage, Branch became even more and more frantic.
He didn’t know how long he had been searching. At one point, he tripped on a rock, his chin hitting the ground hard.
Branch got up and continued running forward. But he stopped when he saw how dark the whole forest is becoming. He crouched back in fear as he can hear the haunting noises of howling dogs, nearby cat screeching and wailing Animal Control vehicle sirens in the distance.
Then Branch had a creepy feeling, like something was watching him. He looked at the bushes behind him. Something was moving in there! He took a couple steps forward, then looked back behind him again. Nothing.
Branch looked behind his back to see how far he was from Troll Village. Worry washed over his face as Poppy, King Peppy, the Snack Pack or his bunker were nowhere to be seen in the darkness. “I’m getting incredibly more lost,” he whined. “This is all my fault.”
He knelt down, alone and frightened. Suddenly, a horrible pain pierces his belly, as if he had been impaled. Branch held his forehead with a cry of pain, and then he groaned and moaned as he tried to resist.
What is going on? he thought. Am I transforming again? But unlike the first time he became a cat, his head is starting to became more painful than ever. He stumbled and dropped into the ground, fighting against the pain.
“No! No, no, no, no! Not again!” Branch cried. His sight was already beginning to weaken. He moaned, trying to stay in control. He stifled a cry when a new stab-like blow gave him a horrible headache.
“No.........no, please......” he murmured as he grew weak of the magical control piercing through him. Like a werewolf transformation, his eyes became wide and like those of an actual cat. Finally, Branch screamed in complete pain so loud that it echoed the entire forest, causing birds to fly away.
“AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHH—MEEEEEEEOWWWRRRRRR!!!!”
Halfway through his scream, it turned into a cat’s actual screech.
