Chapter Text
John Dory aimed his grappling hook out the window. “Big Bro going Solo! Yolo!” he said, saluting with two fingers. He turned to fly out of the window, ready to leave forever, but he froze, his tail stilling. Something set off his freeze reflex. JD blinked, not sure what it was. Something outside? He leaned out the window, trying to see what was setting off his danger sense.
“What, got cold paws?” Spruce scoffed, arms folded over his bare chest.
“No…” JD replied slowly, not sure what got his attention until he looked higher up, his eyes catching on some movement. The trees here were spaced out, giving way for the trolls to have spaces for parties, concerts, and the like, with the main Tree for living. Across the way was the disco party tree, with some trolls dancing on the higher branches. JD’s ears dropped, his tail and fur frizzing up slightly, as he sucked in air as he finally spotted what was wrong.
A large shadowed figure was moving closer to the partying trolls, and they didn’t seem to notice.
“What in the Muses are you looking at?” Spruce asked with a frown, marching over and leaning into JD’s space to look out the window too. JD silently pointed a finger from the hand still not holding the grapple and it took Spruce a second to see, his hair freezing up like his brothers’. “...that's a giant.”
“Yep,”
“A giant?” Clay, sounding interested and curious, started moving closer just to stop when Spruce held up a hand. “Spruce, really?”
“Clay, Floyd, grab Branch and get back.” Spruce ordered as the two oldest brothers watched as the giant shadow moved close enough they could see details. The giant was, well, ugly. It must be gray or dark green to blend in to the forest so well, and even though it was tall it seemed to walk silently. In the moonlight its eyes and jagged teeth reflected as it stopped near the party tree. A troll, probably a Glitter Jewel troll from the reflections they were giving off, danced without a care down the branch they were on. Getting closer to the giant. The giant that was staring right at them.
JD might not be the smartest troll in the forest, but he instinctively realized what was going to happen. He slapped his hand over Spruce's eyes, pushing his brother back as he did. JD couldn’t look away though. So the eldest brother saw when the giant casually slapped the troll into their mouth and clearly swallowed. The party sounds, already faint from the distance, cut off suddenly. The giant started to smile, a look that seemed foreign and unnatural on their face, and they started laughing joyfully.
“JD, get off of me-”
“Run,- out the back, now!” JD gasped, his mind going past panic and straight into survival mode. He recalled the grappling hook and moved back from the window, turning to his family. At some point their grandma had arrived, looking ready for her rummy night. JD had no idea what face he was making, but it shut up any fighting. Floyd scooped up Branch and slipped him into his hair and headed for the back door, Clay following after grabbing a baseball bat (and the diaper bag). Spruce rushed over to Grandma and quickly but carefully swept her off her paws and into his arms.
“Spruce, don’t, I’ll slow you down-”
“I’m not leaving you Grandma!” Spruce interrupted and the two went out the open door. JD waited until he was sure they were clear as he turned off the lights in the pod before he looked outside the window. Another giant had appeared and was looking at the first, who was laughing. Thankfully neither looked in his direction so JD was able to grab his pops old emergency bag and slip out the door.
Outside and on a branch closer to the tree truck was his family. JD handed Floyd the emergency bag, which was swung onto his back. It was packed but Floyd should be able to handle the weight even with Branch in his hair. JD would have asked for Branch, but he needed his hair free in case they ran into trouble.
“What are we running from?”
“Giants-
“There's more?!
“-and one just ate a troll and now is laughing like a loon.”
Everyone looked horrified and JD swallowed, trying not to think of what he saw. “I know we were fighting like 3 minutes ago, but I can lead everyone out. Out to the trail if you follow what I say.” Clay’s face soured at that but he didn’t get to say anything as screams started to echo in the air.
Everything after that was a blur to JD. All he knew was run, hide, jump, and duck, and thankfully a lot of Clay’s choro could be used here. By the time he blinked out of survival focus, they were standing at the entrance to the Neverglade Trails. Panting he wiped his brow, pulling his goggles off to do so. Familiar voices faded into his ears and JD turned around to face his family.
“Holy Trolly, where’d all you come from?”
Standing around his family were at least 20 other trolls, some with trollings hiding in hair or latched (think possums) onto backs. Everyone looked freaked out but thankfully no one was loudly panicking. Yet.
“We heard the screaming,”
“We saw you running and we followed,”
“You seemed like you knew what you were doing,”
JD gulped at that, his heart skipping a beat as the faith and responsibility to guide so many trolls hit him at once. Then he switched into Performance Mode and grinned his boy band grin, gaining frowns from his brothers watching and a worried look from grandma.
“Well, I at least know this trail pretty well,” he pulled out a folded map and flicked it open. He held it up and had his hair glow just enough to read the details. “My pops used to take me to this campsite up the ways. It's safe and covered and the brush would warn us of threats.”
The trolls murmured but no one fought him on this, thankfully. So with JD in front the escaped trolls headed deeper into the forest. Grandma Rosiepuff did so on her own two feet, having firmly told Spruce to put her down, which gave him the chance to put on his casual vest. It didn’t take the group long to reach the spot, truthfully only a little under an hour. The campsite was small but covered from the elements and with thick tree cover above. There was comfortable moss everywhere and soon everytroll had found a spot to rest for the night. Only JD had brought any camping gear and he shared what he could, which was mostly rations since he didn’t feel it was a good idea to start a fire. They had no idea how far away the giants were now and a smoke signal would be a really bad idea. Farther up the trail would be different.
Inside JD’s bag was just one tent but given the size of his family, it was a huge one. He quickly pitched it under a shady bush and with some help was able to make sleeping spots for his family. He offered the space to the other trolls with trollings, but the others politely declined and JD didn’t feel up to fighting. If anything he was grateful, even if he felt selfish at the same time. Grandma Rosiepuff took Branch inside when JD was done to put the little guy to sleep, leaving JD and the other four standing outside.
JD sighed and rubbed his neck, a nervous tick more than for pain. Then he turned to his brothers, his ‘Everything is Fine’ smile still on his face. “OK, I’m going to stay up and be on watch, just to be safe. There's only one sleeping bag but the ground is soft so you guys should be able to sleep.”
“You're not seriously planning on staying up all night by yourself?” Clay asked incredulously and JD blinked at him confused.
“Uh, yeah? There's a lot of trolls here counting on me to keep them safe,”
Spruce shook his head and waved a hand in a sharp ‘No’. “Absolutely not. You’ve been running full tilt since before the concert, I know you didn’t eat anything since lunch and it was a tiny sandwich at that. You think we’re going to let you do everything on your own?”
“You guys didn’t like camping before when there wasn’t life or death at stake, why-”
“Because before we still had a warm and comfy pod to sleep in instead of the dirty ground!” Clay cut in, pointing to the ground with his hands then throwing his hands up in the air, already frustrated his tail swinging back and forth. “Why won’t you just stop trying to do everything and let us help!?”
“Guys, maybe we should keep it down,” Floyd cut in and for once the others listened. It was probably thanks to how tired they all were, and the adrenaline rush had long run out.
“Look,” JD tried again to get his brothers to see reason. “I just can’t be worrying about you guys and whatever is out there and all these other trolls looking to me to lead them, all at the same time, when I did not ask for it-!”
“Oh, like you wouldn’t have anyway?” Clay snarked, arms folded and an eyebrow raised.
JD was holding onto his temper by a thread at this point. He wasn’t stupid, he remembered the fight from only a few hours before and did not want to start another. Especially since he had to now change his plan to leave, alone, because frankly; he wasn’t expecting giants. So he sighed and rubbed between his eyes with his palm.
“Alright, alright, fine. It's too late to be dealing with this. Clay, I know you wake up in the middle of the night most often, so I’ll wake you up in a few hours. Spruce, you’ll get a third watch, since you like waking up early. Floyd, you stay with Grandma and Branch.”
Floyd, understandably, looks upset with that. “JD, I don’t want to sleep while you’ll all be up,”
JD gave Floyd a kind understanding smile here. “Floyd, I know, but I need someone to be with Grandma and Branch in case he wakes up. We all know how Grandma sleeps,” he said and the brothers shared the first smiles any had made in hours.
“Branch will probably have a nightmare after the panic,” Clay added and Floyd sighed, conceding. He hugged his older brothers then slipped into the tent. Finding the last two members of his family asleep inside, Floyd just carefully crawled into the only sleeping bag and cuddled a sleeping Branch, his little brothers tail wrapping tightly around Floyd's arm. Outside the tent the three remaining brothers finalized the plan by figuring out when they’d wake each other up and after getting a low-key Pinky Promise from JD to actually swap with Clay, the last two went inside the tent to sleep.
Finally, JD was alone.
Well, not quite. JD looked around at the small group of sleeping trolls hidden under the brush and mushrooms of the trail. JD pulled his grappling hook out of his hair, just in case, and to have something in his hand. Then he started walking.
JD was focused on his surroundings, his ears twitching with every sound in the night. But even as focused he was, his mind wandered over the day and how everything had gone wrong even before the giants arrived and ate-no, nope, not thinking of that right now. No siree bob, no thinking of the giants eating a troll whole and that they probably weren’t the only one. No thinking of how he almost swung out the window and might have been spotted and grabbed next. At least his brothers would have been fine, they’d have stayed together and hidden in the high tree branches… or followed him out here on their own. JD shook his head here, waving away the very idea. His brothers were smart, they’d figure out the right thing to do.
…Unless he led the giants right to their pod- nope! No more thinking! JD pinched his tail, using the pain to ground him enough to focus on the here and now. He has trolls to protect.
What else is new?
Back at the tent, Clay moved back from the opening flap, letting the fabric drop as he turned and nodded to his awake brothers. Floyd was leaning on an elbow in the sleeping bag.
“Tomorrow we have to talk with JD and we can’t let him run off.” Spruce said firmly, his tail thumping the ground firmly but softly enough not to wake anyone.
“He almost did earlier, what's to stop him from doing it again?” Clay asked as he fidgeted with his vest.
“I’m pretty sure the giants and the fact we’re homeless would do it,” Clay flushed at that and Spruce sighed, shaking his head and scratching his neck. “OK, maybe a bit harsh. But come on bro’s, if there's one thing we know is JD would have come back in a week. He can’t stay away from the family forever-He’d rather die. Which is what he’ll end up doing if we don’t convince him to let us help.”
“You think the other trolls see him as a leader?” Clay asked wrinkling his nose, not liking the thought, even though that might be leftover anger.
“If not yet, then soon. Let's face it, JD is probably the best camper and survivalist a troll can be since mum and pops disappeared. Unless we go home soon, he’d end up the leader one way or another. We can’t let him shoulder everything alone this time. Just running the band turned him into a bossy hot mess; leading escapees will turn him into a monster.”
“I’m surprised you think so, given you looked ready to leave too.” Floyd muttered but regretted it at the hurt look on Spruces’ face, before said brother looked to the side and sighed.
“Yeah, well, I had a chance to think while running from home. Maybe if we’d said something when JD started on and on about the tour, things would be different.” Spruce said ruefully, then yawned into his elbow. “OK, we can talk about this later. We need to figure out what to do tomorrow then sleep…”
The brothers talked a little longer, deciding to catch JD before he left the tent in the morning, then stopped when Floyd yawned and Branch started fussing at the noise.
The next morning was grim, with clouds rolling in from the mountains adding to the ambiance. Thankfully they didn’t bring rain, but the mood was already starting off on a bad note. Not that JD saw this. When Clay switched with JD for shift change, he noted the eye bags under his brother's eyes when he took off his goggles. He told this to Spruce when it was his turn, and so the family agreed to let JD sleep as long as he liked. So it was with the sounds of breakfast that raised him from his slumber.
JD groaned as he rolled himself up into a sitting position. He wasn’t sore, the ground was very soft, but his sleep was restless with vague dreams that faded away from memory. Looking around the tent he did a headcount and nodded to himself. Everyone was there, including Spruce who quietly handed over his food.
Breakfast was a quiet affair, only broken by passing trolls outside of the tent. They only had snacks and rations but they made do. Once finished JD started to get up, but Spruce and Clay, ready for this, snatched his hands into their own and forced him to sit back down.
“Bros’, what gives?”
“JD, we are going to talk and you're going to sit there and listen, even if we have to sit on you to do it.”
“I’ll do it right now,” Floyd said cheekily and did just that, flopping comfortably on his brother's lap and putting his feet on Spruces'. Clay and Branch laughed at that, with Grandma giggling behind a paw. JD couldn't hold back his smile at that but it dropped right after.
“Guys, come on, the other trolls will be getting up soon,”
“Good, we have time to figure out our game plan.” Spruce said then looked JD right in the eyes intensely. “John Dory, straight to the point, you can’t do this again. You can’t work yourself to the bone juggling so much but won’t ask or let us help. I’m sick and tired of watching you do everything, and even without the giants, I'd still quit the band. If we’re going to end up roughing it out here in the woods with like, twenty trolls, there needs to be someone in charge.”
“Yeah, and it’d make the most sense for it to be me-”
“But it doesn’t have to only be you!”
Grandma spoke up here, her voice no nonsense and her face kind. “Johnny, you have done a wonderful job taking care of your brothers, going above and beyond. If you were placed as leader here, you’d do well, but it would kill you from the stress. You need to let us help. And it would be easier to do so from the start.”
JD really didn’t want to do this, but with one look around at his family, he knew this would be a losing battle for him. Something about his family is they are stubborn; especially when they are in agreement with each other. He’d have a better chance at out talking a rock. So JD sighed, not happy about this but also secretly relieved, scratching at his head.
“Alright, I won’t waste my breath arguing here. What should I or we do then?”
“I figured it all out last night,” Clay said, pulling his choreography notebook from his hair. It was more wild in the mornings and his natural green was showing. He flipped to a back page. “The royal family has a council for when they need to make big decisions, so why don’t we do the same?”
“But who would be on the council?" JD asked, dropping his head onto Floyd's, gaining giggles from a quiet but listening Branch. "And for that matter, aren’t we putting the cart before the horse here? We are going back home once the giants are gone,”
“But when will that be? You saw two of them just appear in the forest, what's to say there's not more?" Clay pointed out, holding up two fingers as well. "If you don’t want to go straight into setting up a council, that's fine, but we can still have a group of trolls the others can come to for help.”
“Matter of fact, here's an easy plan we can start with. Those trolls followed you, JD, because you knew what you were doing and got us safely away. So you can still be A leader, and so can the rest of us to help fill in the gaps. And Grandma, you can be the Head of this group, since your the oldest one here, the others would listen to you above us.” Spruce offered, getting a unamused stink eye from his grandma.
“Movin on from you calling me old, I think that is a great idea.” Grandma Rosiepuff agreed with a nod. “I worked on committees before, I have a good idea on how things are run.”
JD tilted his head as he scratched his neck, imagining what this plan would mean. He didn’t like the idea of sharing the load with his little brothers, never mind his grandma who should be allowed to rest and enjoy her golden years. But the idea had merit and if nothing else, it would help keep his brothers where he could see them, so to speak. If they form a council then even more so. Even Bitty looked excited with the plan, cutely rocking back and forth as he drank from his sippy cup.
“OK, if this is what you all want-
“It is,
“-Then I’m willing to give this a try. I just hope the others are cool with us basically taking over, but they could just say no I guess. But before we do this, I have rules.”
The brothers groaned but honestly were expecting this. JD had a lot of rules back in the tree so why not out in the wild?
JD sat up and held up a finger for each rule. “On matters of survival out here, my word is Law unless sometroll knows better. No troll is to leave the group alone, even to wee. And everytroll needs to do something to help out, camping can be fun but there are things to do. So no slacking off,” JD looked at Spruce “Sneaking off,” he then looked to Clay “Or …there has to be a third S word to use here but I can’t think of one right now so we will come back to this later!”
Branch and Floyd laughed at JD as his tone turned playful and the other two rolled their eyes amused as well. Grandma Rosiepuff smiled warmly as her grandsons enjoyed a few more moments of peace inside the tent, then together they left. It was time to talk the plan over with the other trolls and see where they go from here.