~Chapter 3~

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Poppy and Branch finally arrived at the library and Branch looked around in curiosity but remembered he needed to stay focused.

"Welcome to the Pop village library, every scrapbook tells a tale of great wonders of the world and there's something for everybody-" Poppy explained but got cut off by Branch.

"Yeah yeah, can we please find the information we need?" Branch said, slightly impatient.

"Right sorry, so it should be in the history section, once we find it, we can go back to the beach. Poppy said determinedly.

Poppy looked around and found the history section and there were hundreds of books to choose from.

"This might take a while" Branch said slightly annoyed.

~~~Meanwhile in the deep~~~

A dark grey eel starts swimming towards a cave and while not paying attention to where he was going, he bumps against the cave wall.

"Ow! I really need to watch where I'm swimming" The little eel said.

He looked down and saw that his eyepatch was on the ground, the strap ripped in half from the collision.

"Annnnd get a new eyepatch" He sighed.

"Jasper get in here!" Said an elderly mertroll.

Jasper quickly swam inside and immediately started looking for the perfect new eyepatch to wear.

"Sorry Tahlia, my eyepatch broke so-" Jasper said but got cut off.

"I don't care about why you're late just make it back in time before I decide if I should destroy your other eye" Tahlia threatened.

Jasper gulped in fear remembering how his one eye got destroyed years ago, he didn't want to become a blind eel.

"G-got it Mistress" Jasper replied nervously.

"Now watch closely as I destroy this prototype crystal" Tahlia said with an evil smirk.

Tahlia waved her magic staff around as green magic swirled around it and went towards the prototype crystallite and it completely made it black, cold and completely destroyed.

"Hahaha, it works perfectly! Look at it Jasper, it's beautiful" Tahlia exclaimed while pretending to wipe a tear of joy.

"Beautiful? I don't know, I think it looks kinda odd and-" Jasper replied and then looked at her and noticed her angry face and stayed quiet.

"With this power, I can destroy every single crystallite and nobody will be able to stop us! Hahahahahaha" Tahlia cackled with evil joy but coughed from too much laughing.

"I really need to work on my laugh" Tahlia sighed.

  ~~~Back with Branch and Poppy~~~

"Poppy come on, I don't think it'll be here, let's just go before someone sees me" Branch said nervously.

"Branch we've only been here for five minutes" Poppy said while looking through a book.

"Five minutes is too long 😖" Branch panicked slightly, worried about someone seeing him.

"Well, we don't need any more time to look cause I found the book!" Poppy exclaimed while holding the book.

Poppy climbed down the ladder and Branch was about to grab the book when their hands accidentally touched making them blush a little, Branch picked up the book started to look through it.

"Ok here it is, the 'Breathing Mertroll Seaweed'
Whoever uses it can either turn into a mertroll or breathe underwater blah blah blah..." Branch said to himself looking through the page.

"It grows in the royal gardens? But there's only that one plant there- ohhhh so that's why my mom said that they're special plants" Branch realised.

"Great! You know where they are so you can swim back home and grab them" Poppy exclaimed.

"What?! No! I can't just grab them that'd be too sus" Branch exclaimed nervously.

"Well, just grab them secretly" Poppy suggested.

Branch looked through a window and saw it was getting late and started panicking.

"Oh crabs! It's getting late, my mom is gonna freak" Branch said nervously.

"Ok let's get you back to the beach and we can meet up tomorrow" Poppy said.

Branch thought about it because if he got caught going to the surface, he would get in trouble but he was just too curious about what the land could offer and maybe Poppy could show him around.

"Ok fine let's just go" Branch said.

Poppy and Branch headed back to the beach and made sure the coast was clear before Branch hopped back in the water.

"Bye Branch see you tomorrow" Poppy said while getting up to walk back to her pod.

"Bye Poppy" Branch replied and he quickly swam back to the royal shell pod hoping he wasn't gonna get in trouble.

Branch headed inside quietly hoping his Mom wouldn't notice but suddenly he heard a stern voice.

"And where have you been Mr?" Branch's mom asked.

"Don't say surface, don't say surface" Branch thought to himself.

"The Surface" Branch replied and realising what he said he put his hands over his mouth.

"What did you just say?!" Branch's mom exclaimed.

"What's wrong with your snout?" Branch's dad asked.

Branch looked down and saw his land troll nose and screamed, then he snapped back into reality hearing his mom trying to get his attention.

"Branch I asked you where you were?" Branch's mom asked again.

"I um... uh..." Branch stuttered trying to think of an excuse.

"It's my fault, I asked him to help me find sea cucumbers" Branch's grandma said.

"Mom I think his life is more important than your sea cucumbers" Branch's mom replied.

Branch whispered "Thank you" to his grandma and headed off to bed, planning to see Poppy tomorrow.

The next day Branch quietly swam out of his room to the royal garden and hesitantly took one of the breathing mertroll seaweed, it wouldn't be a huge issue since he was only grabbing one, right? He quickly swam to the beach which luckily was a fair distance to Aqua village.

Poppy was heading to the beach trying not to be suspicious and luckily no one noticed what she was doing until she ran into her father.

"Hello my precious daughter, how are you doing today?" King Peppy asked.

"Hi dad, I'm doing great today, morning song is perfect as usual and now just heading to the beach to.. uh... relax" Poppy lied trying to act as normal as possible.

"Well have a good time honey, and later tonight I want to discuss something very important with you" King Peppy said.

"Ok dad I'll see you soon bye" Poppy replied giving him a quick hug before she continued walking to the beach.

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