Overwhelming Thoughts part 1
A sheen of sweat plagued Poppy’s brow as she kneeled in the dirt, pulling weeds from the flowers that grew in front of her shack. The sun was setting beyond the trees and cast the clearing she now lived in into slight shadow. She had been managing her time well in her self induced seclusion, moderating it by either fixing up her shack, gardening, scrapbooking or patrolling for critters. One thing she found herself NOT doing, was singing. She had barely sang anything for the 2 months she had been here and not from lack of trying. She just didn’t feel like singing and when she did, she wasn’t sure what to sing. Ever since she had found out she was half-Funk and that Queen Essence was her Aunt, she had been questioning what she should sing, something she had never done before. She couldn’t decide wether to sing Pop or Funk, so she had tried to do both like Cooper had. And it had worked! She had never felt happier singing both Pop and Funk and enjoyed learning about being Funk. Until she heard those two Pop Trolls talking …
Poppy shook her head, picking up her basket full of weeds. Not her problem anymore. She turned towards her shack and walked up onto the front porch, setting the basket down by the door and turned to her new rocking chair, plopping herself down into it with a yawn. She had been really tired the last month and it was nice to sit down and relax.
Poppy watched as the sun set even further beyond the top of the trees, allowing the stars and the moon to make their nightly appearance. Poppy closed her eyes as a gentle breeze blew, enjoying the cool air it brought as she began to rock her chair, her mind clearing as her exhaustion took over. She slipped into sleep, the stars beginning to twinkle overhead. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Where was she?
Poppy looked out ahead of her, staring into the white void that surrounded her on all sides.
What was happening?
Poppy desperately turning every which way, but to no avail. White met her eyes at every angle. Her breathing picked up as she began to run, trying to find something, anything! That could tell her what was going on. Then a flash of colour. Poppy turned to it and found … her Dad? He was standing in the white, a frown on his face. Suddenly footsteps behind her.
Poppy whirled, finding … Queen Essence? She too, was frowning. What?
Trolls began to appear all around her, surrounding her. Her friends, the other leaders, even Trolls she didn’t recognise. All of them staring at her with frowns on their faces.
Poppy tried to speak, but nothing came out of her mouth. What was happening?
Suddenly, a voice hissed into the void. Echoing in the empty space.
“Maybe that’s why she’s such a lousy Queen.”
*CRACK*
Cracks began to web across the floor, starting at the edge of the crowd surrounding her and racing towards the middle … towards her. Poppy tried to get away, but the floor gave out beneath her, causing her to fall into a endless dark abyss never to see light again. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Poppy jerked awake with a short scream, gripping the chair beneath her as she heaved for breath. Her head darted around, looking through the darkness outside her house, the light coming from inside only lighting up the porch.
Look left? Nothing there. Look right? Zilch. Then what happened caught up with her and she gave a deep sigh, slumping in her chair. That dream again. It was the same every time, but it still cost her more than a few nights of sleep. She’d been having it almost every night for over a month, and it was the main reason for her exhaustion.
Poppy leaned her head back, giving another deep sigh as she began to rock again, trying to sooth her mind enough to get back to sleep.
That’s when she heard the noise.
Poppy picked her head back up, looking around the clearing. What was that? It sounded like something … falling?
“Huh?”
Poppy leaned forward in her chair to look up past the edge of her porch roof. She barely got a glimpse of huge, black and red, before it struck the earth in front of her house.
With a ‘BOOM’ a cloud of dust flew up into the air and towards her, causing her to cough and squint trying to clear the the dust from her eyes and lungs.
As the dust began to settle she could tell exactly what it was the came crashing from the sky. Black leather? Red lights and accents? Zipper mouth? There was no denying it.
Barb’s Angler-Bus.
The mouth of the bus slowly zipped open, red light flooding out.
“Poppy!”, growled out a familiar voice.
A familiar head of bright-red Mohawk appeared from the depths of the bus.
Poppy kept a neutral expression on her face as she looked into the face of the Queen of Rock.
“Hey, Barb. What’s up?”
