I am too exhausted I literally can't tell if this is bad or not I can't process anything. I'm not even sure I finished writing this. Just pretend it's good or done or whatever.

"Please don't kill me!" Branch covered his face, now pressed against the tree with the knifearoo inches away. If it were any other animal, he would've easily found a way to escape, however seeing a knife was a constant reminder of his suicide attempt in the past.

"Step away from my friend."

The knifearoo looked behind themself to see Hickory, hands on his hips, eyeing them up and down.

Hickory switched his voice into his lil' country twang, "here's what I need you to do, partner. Step away from my friend and no one gets hurt or deal with me." He stood in a fighting stance.

Poppy snuck behind the knifearoo and grabbed Branch by the hand and pulled him away, "we have a plan."

The knifearoo looked at Hickory, not impressed at all.

Hickory chuckled, "I'm in danger." He quickly dashed off into the woods away from the others to give them time to get far away from where they were.

"Why are we sacrificing Hickory?" Branch kept looking back as Poppy dragged him through the forest.

Poppy rolled her eyes. "We aren't sacrificing him! He's just distracting it so we could get you to safety!"

"Big kangaroo with knifes for hands versus adorable yodeler." Branch raised his eyebrow.

"He outran an entire town of four legged trolls in a costume shared with his brother, while carrying me and pulling you, pretty sure he'll be fine." Poppy patted Branch on the shoulder and hid behind a tree, "I think this is far enough."

"Now we just have to wait fo Hickory to come back." Guy sat on the ground by the tree and hugged his legs, "If he comes back."

"Yeah.." Branch sat on the ground beside Guy and bit his nonexistent nails.

"So you two are certain Biggie who was caught in a tornado is alive but not Hickory who's only running away from an animal?" Poppy shook her head at them.

"Biggie means more to us than Hickory, he's not just a good friend, he felt like a brother." Guy rested his head on Branch's shoulder.

"What happened to the Poppy that hopes everyone is alive no matter what happened to them? You watched Creek get eaten and still believed he was alive." Branch hugged Guy while giving Poppy a bit of a side eye, "what makes Biggie so different?"

"Because he was hurled by a tornado not just shoved in a Bergen's mouth, Branch!"

"I know, but why don't you have any hope for him? It's like you don't even care about Biggie."

"Of course I care about Biggie, he was one of my best friends too, but I keep getting my hopes up and then everything goes downhill. Like I hoped Creek was alive and he was, but then he sold us out. I hoped you and Biggie were alive and you were, but then you almost killed yourself and he was consumed by a tornado. If Biggie is alive, something bad will probably happen to him anyways and he'll die in front of us or something." Poppy sighed and flopped on to her stomach, her face to the grass.

Branch looked at Guy then Poppy, back and forth. "I-I guess we should just head back to the village." You could hear his voice breaking up, he really didn't want to give up, but Poppy was probably right.

Poppy looked up, "really?" Her plan didn't work anywhere near close the way she wanted it to, but at least she was getting the outcome she wanted.

"Y-yeah." Branch looked at his feet, "when Hickory returns we can go."

"Where is Hickory?" Guy looked around, the yodeler was still no where in sight.

"Maybe leading him far away? I'm sure he's fine!" Poppy forced a smile and kept a close watch on the area they came from.

"Unlike Biggie." Branch mumbled under his breath, shooting Poppy a dirty look for a split second.

Poppy looked over at Branch, she heard him and saw the look, but didn't call him out. Maybe wanting to go home was a bad idea for more reasons than just Biggie probably being dead and it being dangerous. At least Branch was really happy out there for the first time in a while.

"QUEEN POPPY! BRANCH! NUDE FOLK!" A female southern accent shouted from not too far away.

Poppy's ear twitched, "Delta?" She ran to where she heard the call come from and as she expected, the country leader was there with Hickory sitting on her back.

"Why are you out here and are you two okay?" Poppy ran to her side to examine Hickory.

"It just cut my leg a lil', I'm alright, though, I'm thick skinned." Hickory put his hand over the cut to prevent the blood from coming out.

"The tip of a blade got my arm, but it's not deep at all, I'm okay too." Delta showed her arm, it was definitely worse than what she claimed.

"Why are you here?" Branch asked Delta, "how did you find us?"

"I followed y'all in to the woods and got lost until I heard Hickory's high pitched scream."

"It's not that high pitched." Hickory crossed his arms.

"We're going back to Trollstopia, we all agreed on it." Poppy turned around, ready to lead them back.

"I didn't." Guy and Hickory both raised their hands.

"Why should we go back? If we find Biggie we can tend to his injuries, give him nice food and water, and we'll have our best friend back. If he's not dead, he'll die out here because of us." Guy frowned and looked at Branch, "right?"

"And we have Delta here now and as Branch always says, safety in numbers." Hickory pointed out, then leaned towards Poppy and gave her puppy eyes, "I want to meet this Biggie guy, even if he is just a dead body."

"Please?" Guy, Branch, and Delta all joined in on the puppy eyes.

Poppy sighed and forced a smile, "okay!"

The others excitedly cheered and already scrambled around, ready to continue the search.

"I'll go make bandages for Delta and Hickory's cuts!" Guy rushed off to gather some large leaves.

"THANK YOU!" Branch gave Poppy a quick squeeze then ran after Guy to help him.

"Yeah.." Poppy forced a chuckle and waved to him. They were only going to be out there for another two days, maybe they'd be fine? Maybe they wouldn't even find his body.

She was just going to have to make the best out of this, make this better than the tornado situation, no more injuries, no more arguing, and they didn't have to worry about Creek.

Poppy smiled a genuine smile and clasped her hands, "Everything is going to end happily!"