Trolls World Tour

by David Lewman

  Branch grabbed his chest and groaned. If he and Poppy couldn’t even make a good high five connection, how could he hope they’d ever be more than friends?

  Then he had a comforting thought. Maybe it wasn’t him. Maybe Poppy was just having an off day, and she wasn’t able to make a good high five with anyone. For that matter, maybe everyone in Trolls Village was having a bad high five day. It could be something in the weather, or the air, or—

  SMACK! Fuzzbert, the hairiest Troll in the village, ran by and stuck a giant hand out of his long green hair. Poppy gave it a resounding high five.

  “Ah, yes, Fuzzbert!” she cried happily. “Now, that’s a good connection!”

  Branch grabbed his chest and groaned again.

  But his groan was drowned out by a loud scream!

  “AAAHHHHHHH!”

  Poppy and Branch looked at each other. What was that?

  Poppy dropped her watering can and ran toward the scream with Branch right behind her. They didn’t have to run far before they spotted Biggie, screaming and running around a clearing. A fuzzy creature resembling a bat was flying around Biggie’s head. It had black, leathery wings, white fuzz around its head, big red eyes, long teeth, and two purple feet. The fuzzy thing was carrying an envelope in its mouth.

  “Biggie?” Poppy said.

  “Help!” Biggie cried. “I’m being harangued by a monster!”

  Biggie frantically pushed through a crowd of Trolls, but the critter kept flapping around his head. Finally Biggie gave up and lay down on the ground, curling into a ball. The scraggly-looking bat kept smacking Biggie in the face over and over. WHAP! WHAP! WHAP!

  “Someone stop it!” Biggie pleaded.

  Poppy ran up to Biggie and used her hair to snatch the bat-thing out of the air. “Gotcha!” she said triumphantly. Then she realized it was now in her hair! “Ahhh! It’s in my hair! It’s in my hair! Get it out, get it out, get it out!”

  With a fierce battle cry, Branch dove at Poppy. “YAAAAAAH!”

  He tackled Poppy and the creature to the ground. Then he yanked the bat-thing from Poppy’s hair and placed it on the ground on its back. He rubbed its fuzzy belly to calm it down.

  “Shhh, shhh, shhh, shhh, shhhhhh,” Branch soothed. “There you go. There you go. Calm down. Who’s a good boy? You’re a good boy.”

  The bat-critter stopped flapping its wings. Then it closed its big red eyes and started to purr. “Rrrrr-trrrrr-rrrrrr…”

  Once Branch had gotten the creature calmed down, the other Trolls cautiously approached to get a closer look.

  “What is that thing?” Legsly asked.

  “It’s creepy!” Cooper said, shuddering.

  “It’s scary!” Satin and Chenille said at the same time.

  “And…naaaaaaasty,” Guy Diamond said in his electronic .

  “Hold me, Daddy,” Tiny Diamond said in his deep voice, scared of the bizarre animal.

  Poppy looked over at the rolled-up tube the bat-thing had dropped when Branch had tackled them. She walked over and picked it up.

  “ ‘To Queen Poppy’?” she read, surprised to see her own name on the mysterious piece of mail. Then she realized what it must be—an invitation!

  “Oh, don’t worry, everyone!” she reassured her fellow Trolls. “It looks like it’s just an invitation.”

  “Ohhhhh,” Cooper said. “That’s a relief.”

  “Whew.” Satin and Chenille sighed at the same time.

  “What’s an invitation, Daddy?” Tiny Diamond asked.

  As Guy Diamond lovingly explained what an invitation was, Poppy unrolled the message and read it out loud. “ ‘Barb, Queen of Rock, announces her One Nation of Trolls Under Rock World Tour. Bring your string to the biggest party the world has ever seen.’ ” Poppy looked up, confused. “Queen of Rock? What does that mean?”

  “And why does she need our string?” Cooper asked.

  “Maybe she wants to tie up a lot of presents to give away at her party,” Biggie suggested.

  Smidge liked Biggie’s idea. “Ooooh, presents!”

  They were all starting to feel much better about the fuzzy little bat and the message it had brought to them. But just as they were starting to get excited about a big party with presents, King Peppy hurried in, walking with the help of his green cane. He was clearly upset. He snatched the invitation out of his daughter’s hands.

  “It’s nothing!” he squeaked. “It means nothing at all! It’s just junk mail! You don’t need to worry about it. I mean, quit looking at it! Everyone, forget what you saw!” He started chomping on the invitation, eating it!

  Branch let out another fierce battle cry. “YAAAAHHHH!” He ran and tackled King Peppy to the ground and began rubbing his eyeballs to soothe him. “Shhh, shhh, shhh, shhh, shhhhh,” he soothed. “There ya go. There ya go. Calm down. Calm down….”

  Soon King Peppy was purring, too. “Okay, I’m calm,” he said after a moment. “I’m calm.”

  Poppy knelt beside her father and touched his shoulder gently. “Dad, what’s going on?” she asked.

  He paused, thinking about what to say. He didn’t wanted to tell his daughter the secret he’d been keeping for so long. He wanted the problem to just go away. He sighed. Now he knew it wasn’t going to be that easy.

  “Well, I have long feared this day would come,” King Peppy admitted. “I was hoping to protect you from this, Poppy.”

  Poppy looked confused, and maybe just a little bit annoyed. “Protect me?” she asked. “I’m not a little kid anymore, Dad. I’m the queen now.”

  “You’re right,” King Peppy said, nodding slowly. “The truth is…we are not alone in this world.”

  Mr. Dinkles made a spooky sound to accompany King Peppy’s explanation. Biggie stuck a finger in his pet worm’s round mouth.

  “Shhh!” Biggie said to his little friend.

  “There are other kinds of Trolls,” King Peppy told them. The Trolls around him were silent for a moment, taking this in. Other Trolls? What did King Peppy mean?

  “Wow, really?” Poppy said enthusiastically. “Dad, that’s great! The more Trolls, the merrier!”

  The other Trolls nodded and smiled. Queen Poppy was right. More Trolls just meant bigger parties!

  “You don’t understand,” King Peppy said, shaking his head. “These other Trolls aren’t like us. They’re…different.”

  “Different how?” Poppy asked. “Different like Legsly?”

  “I love being me!” Legsly said, stretching her long legs until she stood at her full height, towering over the other Trolls, even Biggie.

  “Or Fuzzbert, or Smidge, or Chris?” Poppy asked, pointing to them one by one. Fuzzbert was hairy, Smidge was tiny, and Chris looked like four Trolls on each other’s shoulders stacked into one.

  “Yeah, different like me?” Chris asked in his quadruple voice.

  “No,” King Peppy said seriously. “Not different like that.”

  “Then how?” Poppy asked.

  King Peppy paced as he answered Poppy’s question. “These other Trolls are different from us in ways you can’t even imagine. You see, we love music with a hummable hook. With an upbeat melody. With a catchy rhythm that makes you want to snap your fingers, tap your toes, and wiggle your butt. Right?”

  “Right,” the other Trolls said, nodding. That was exactly the kind of music they all loved. They sang and played it every day.

  “That’s pop music,” King Peppy explained. “That’s our music. That’s what makes us Pop Trolls.”

  The Trolls looked surprised. They’d always just called themselves Trolls. They’d never heard of Pop Trolls. It was strange to think that they were something they hadn’t even known existed!

  “But these other Trolls,” King Peppy continued. “They sing different. They dance different.”
>
  The strangeness of this idea scared the Trolls. They started to panic, running around and crying, “NOOOOO!”

  “STOP!” King Peppy commanded. Everyone froze. The king turned to his daughter. “How about we break down to a smaller group? I need to show you something.”

  * * *

  King Peppy led Poppy, Branch, Biggie, Mr. Dinkles, Cooper, Smidge, Guy Diamond, Tiny Diamond, Satin, and Chenille to a beautiful grotto filled with green vines and shimmering waterfalls. In the center of the grotto was a stone pillar with an ancient scroll lying on it.

  “It’s a story as old as time,” King Peppy said as he opened the scroll. The Trolls gathered around to look at the beautiful illustrations.

  “In the beginning,” King Peppy said, “there was silence.” He showed them drawings of six Trolls. “Our world was without song or dance.”

  In one illustration, a felt scrapbook Troll was saying, “Boring!”

  King Peppy unrolled the scroll further. “Until one day, someone made a sound.”

  In the next drawing, a Troll was plucking a hair from the head of the Troll next to him. Above that Troll, the word “TWANG!” appeared. The other Trolls in the picture clapped and cheered.

  “Our ancestors were so inspired by the sound,” King Peppy went on, “that they took six strings”—he indicated an illustration of a Troll hand plucking one hair from each of the six different Trolls’ heads—“and those six strings had the power to control all music!” King Peppy was clearly still excited by the old tale. “The strings could play anything! Techno, Funk, Classical, Country Western, Rock, and Pop. And every kind of music in between. There was something for everyone, and it was one big party.”

  The next picture showed Trolls dancing while a musical instrument with six strings attached to it was passed from player to player. One dancing Troll made of felt cried, “YAY!”

  “But little by little,” King Peppy said, “Trolls became intolerant of each other’s music. They fought over the musical instrument, arguing about which kind of music they wanted to hear. And so the leaders of the Trolls held a meeting.”

  He unrolled more of the scroll, and everyone saw a drawing of Trolls meeting around a large table. “The Trolls elders realized there was but one solution,” King Peppy said. “Each tribe would take a string and go their separate way.”

  The king turned the scroll’s handles until he reached the end. A map showed where the six different Trolls tribes lived. “Those six tribes have lived in isolation ever since,” he concluded. “Techno, Country Western, Rock, Classical, Funk, and us…the Pop Trolls.”

  He closed the scroll. The Trolls stared at each other, amazed by this information about who they were and where they’d come from.

  “Now Barb’s announcement makes sense,” Poppy said, smiling. “She wants to reunite the strings so the Trolls world can be one big party again.”

  Branch was doubtful. “That’s all you heard?” he said to her. “One big party?”

  “Yeah, it’s when all of the Trolls lived in harmony,” she said. “And what’s more important than living in harmony?”

  “Well, I heard fighting,” Branch said. “The strings together leads to fighting.”

  King Peppy nodded. “Exactly, Branch. That’s why we need to keep our string safe.”

  “Where is our string?” Poppy asked.

  King Peppy turned a hidden dial. The waterfall behind him parted, revealing a musical instrument with one glowing pink string on it. “Behold the pop music string!” the king said. He plucked the string. It made a beautiful sound, sending a shimmering heart into the air.

  “Oooooooooo,” everyone cooed, impressed.

  “Whoa,” Poppy said. “It’s beautiful.” She couldn’t take her eyes off the colorful string.

  “And powerful,” King Peppy added. “Which is why we can’t let it fall into the wrong hands.”

  Branch, with a determined look on his face, said, “And we won’t. Not on my watch. What we need is a plan.” Branch was a BIG fan of planning ahead.

  “Don’t worry,” King Peppy told him. “I’ve been preparing for this day for years.”

  “Okay,” Branch said. “So what do we do?”

  King Peppy gulped loudly. “WE RUN!” Then he took off fast as his stumpy legs could carry him.

  Poppy looked confused. “Run?”

  “And hide,” King Peppy yelled over his shoulder. He had already covered more ground than anyone thought was possible for the old king.

  “On it,” Branch said. Already in full camouflage gear, he smeared dark lines under his eyes and started to run off with King Peppy.

  “But we don’t even know what we’re running and hiding from,” Poppy pointed out. Her father and Branch stopped in their tracks and turned back.

  “We’re hiding from Barb and all the other different Trolls,” King Peppy explained.

  “You’re assuming the worst about someone you haven’t even met,” Poppy argued.

  “You’re not listening to me,” King Peppy said.

  “You’re not listening to me,” Poppy insisted.

  King Peppy looked stern. “I’m your father!”

  “And I’m the queen!” Poppy countered.

  “Father trumps queen!” King Peppy declared. “Now, there’s no time to debate this! Let’s go. Come along, Branch.”

  Branch hesitated. He was a big believer in hiding, but he didn’t want to go against Poppy. She was frowning.

  “We’re all Trolls,” she said, frustrated by her father’s fear. “Differences don’t matter.”

  * * *

  Later that day, at the edge of the Pop Trolls’ village, Poppy tied a pink bow on Queen Barb’s bat-creature and sprinkled glitter all over it.

  “Look how cute you are!” she exclaimed. She tied a note to the bat-thing’s leg. “Barb is going to love your new look! Tell her I look forward to helping her plan the world’s biggest party.”

  Branch came up behind her. “Poppy…”

  “Ahh!” she yelled, startled.

  “What are you doing?” Branch asked, noticing she’d put on a cape.

  Poppy tried to look innocent. “Nothing,” she said, knowing Branch would disapprove of her plan.

  Nearby, Sheila B., a big flower-faced balloon with a basket hanging underneath, was waiting to carry Poppy off on her secret mission. Most of Sheila B.’s flowers were pink, but one of her flower eyes was yellow and the other was blue. Both had red centers. Her mouth was green with green teeth. And her basket was dark green on the outside and purple on the inside.

  “Ooh, Poppy’s busted!” Sheila B. said, enjoying the little drama.

  “Shhhh!” Poppy said, shushing the bigmouthed balloon.

  Branch immediately guessed what she was doing. “Sneaking out to meet Barb?” he said. “Heading into enemy territory?”

  “She’s not the enemy,” Poppy insisted. “She’s a queen, the same as me.” She released the batlike creature, sending it slowly flying over the balloon and into the sky with Poppy’s letter to Queen Barb dangling from its leg.

  “Bye-bye, little bat!” Sheila B. said, watching it flap its wings, heading for home. Some of Poppy’s glitter fluttered down.

  “Your dad says Queen Barb is bad news,” Branch reminded Poppy.

  “Well, my dad doesn’t know everything.”

  “He knows more about this!” Branch said, raising his hands in frustration. “You didn’t even know there was a string until this morning!”

  Poppy walked over to the balloon, making adjustments and tossing in gear, including a basket of candy canes and gumdrops. “He may be fine in a world where everybody lives in isolation, but I’m not.”

  “But we don’t know anything about those other Trolls,” Branch said.

  As they argued, Poppy and Branch didn’t
notice that Cooper was walking by. He ducked behind a bush and eavesdropped on their conversation. He was curious to find out more about the batlike creature and where it had come from.

  “We know they’re Trolls,” Poppy said simply. “Branch, look around Pop Village. Everybody’s different. Even us.”

  Behind his bush, Cooper sneezed. AH-CHOO!

  Poppy asked. “Did you hear something?”

  “Stop trying to change the subject,” Branch said.

  Poppy started untying the ropes that held the balloon to the ground. “Being queen means having a lot of power,” she said. “And it’s my job to use it for good. I can’t stay home when I know there is a world out there full of different Trolls, just like us!”

  When he heard this, Cooper started getting an idea. He didn’t look like any of the other Trolls. His eyes widened as he thought about what Poppy had just said. Different Trolls…

  “This is a terrible idea that will most likely blow up in your face,” Branch warned.

  Poppy snipped the last rope, and the flower-faced balloon started to rise. “Okay, bye!” she said from inside the basket.

  Branch saw that nothing he said was going to stop Poppy from going ahead with her plan.

  “Wait,” he said, shooting his hair out to grab a tree limb and flip through the air. He landed in Sheila B.’s basket. “If you aren’t going to change your mind, then I guess I’m coming with you.”

  Poppy breathed a big sigh of relief. “Oh, thank you!” she said gratefully. “I really didn’t want to go by myself.”

  “Oh, yeah,” Sheila B. said, excited. “Road trip! Only, you know, in the sky. Without roads.”

  After the flower-faced balloon had risen into the sky with Poppy and Branch in its basket, Cooper came out from behind the bush. Looking around to see if anyone was watching, he headed back to the grotto where King Peppy had explained the history of the Trolls’ musical strings.

  Except for the sound of the nearby waterfalls, it was quiet in the grotto, and cool. Cooper crept in and opened the old scroll on the pedestal. He carefully rotated the handles until he came to an illustration showing the Trolls’ elders. One of them looked like him!