Chapter Text
Squeaker had clearly been dozing off. Or at least starting to. To the point where she wasn't getting anymore hot dogs for herself, and Clay wasn't about to make her stay awake to roast a marshmallow or two. She probably skipped naptime again. Which is fair enough. She'll be getting old enough soon that she stops having naps in the middle of the day. But she can nap a bit for now.
And then she hears a howl in the distance, and Squeaker is immediately awake again. She does that excited inhale that younger kids do when they're happy and amazed by something. "Awoooo!" She howls in turn then shoves herself out of Clay's lap.
"Ow! Careful!"
Squeaker doesn't pay him any mind. She howls, again. "Awooo!"
It takes less than a minute to hear racing footsteps. No one would really call that thundering. No, they're coming from something much too small for that. It's coming from Pete, running on all fours. He slides to a stop in front of Squeaker, just missing ramming into the campfire. "'Sup." Man, he wishes he thought of something cooler to say.
But of course the little kid doesn't care at all if he said something cool. She squeals with excitement and hugs his head.
"Awww! You're really that excited to see me like this, huh?" He chuckles. "Am I really that special?"
"Hey!" His dad shouts. "You're, like, the speciallest little guy ever!"
Pete, very lovingly and not at all in a mean or rude way, rolls his eyes. "Thank you, Dad." He wiggles his head out of Squeaker's hold and swiftly picks her up under the arms and stands up as he stands up. "So, whatcha wanna do? Or did you just wanna see me like this?"
Maybe that's the case. She's staring at him with these big, sparkling eyes. Pete might have to be the one to come up with something. Her bed time is in, like, an hour, he thinks. She'll start to get too tired for much, and maybe even too tired to come up with anything. And they don't have time to do anything wild. Man, aren't you not supposed to do things that amp kids up right before bed?
"Don't try running all around the woods together," Clay tells them. He pulls a book out from his hair. "'Mooney' may be able to run all wild out there all night, but Squeaker can't."
The little girl whines. She pouts.
"Well, we're supposed to be making s'mores anyway, right? We've gotta have those before we do anything!" And despite all of those hot dogs Pete made sure to eat before, he's still feeling hungry after the change.
Branch makes a bit of a face. Like a.... a wait a minute trying to process something kind of face. "Can you even have s'mores? Dogs aren't supposed to have chocolate and... well, you're part dog."
"Werewolves get a greater healing factor. I get poison immunities. Could probably survive anything as long as I get enough moonlight." And werewolves get way more powerful when they use Trolls. That means, like, super immunities and super healing. Pete is a Troll, so he gets a lot of that naturally.
The Weretroll sits down right on the ground and settles Squeaker in his lap. "Alright! Bring on the marshmallows! And all the other parts in that old song."
John Dory hums and nods. Then, after a moment, he admits, "I have no idea which song you're talking about."
"Ya know, the campfire one? Graham cracker, graham cracker, chocolate bar?" Pete almost sings the melody of the song along with that. That should be a good sign about his mental health, right? That he's almost singing around other people again? And that's not to mention that he was almost singing those emo songs with his Uncle Floyd the other day, depending on how screaming like that counts. But not yet.
Branch seems to know the song. Sort of muttering the melody at first before singing it more clearly. "Graham cracker, graham cracker, chocolate bar. Sitting 'round the campfire under the stars. We're roasting marshmallows, marshmallows, sticky and sweet. Put 'em all together and you got a treat."
"BOOM!" Squeaker jumps up and makes a mock explosion. Of course. An explosion makes for an awesome ending to just about any song. Most lullabies excluded. And it draws a laugh from most of the grown-ups.
"Yeah! And then the campfire explodes!" Pete nods. "That's how the song goes."
Branch makes a face. "No it doesn't!"
"Sometimes it does!"
Clay hums. "That's why you don't use explosive materials for campfires."
"Ooof. Ya' only ever make that mistake once." The eldest troll there starts to pass out s'mores materials on plates.
Now, Pete's kinda used to his dad just dropping or implying some sort of lore like that. Like, okay, so he used explosives for a campfire once. Pretty dumb mistake for someone to make, but he's heard a lot about the mistakes his dad made when he was still pretty new to the trails. And new to interacting with Trolls outside of the tree. These two, however, apparently aren't used to lore drops like that.
Clay just stares at his oldest brother. "What the heck, John."
"You only have those glitter star bombs! Glitter would be the last sort of explosives anyone would ever think of to use for that!"
"It's what I had on hand! I couldn't get the stick rubbing thing to work fast enough!" He shakes his head. "Give me a break, will ya?"
Squeaker couldn't care less about what they're all talking about. She's just as happy as can be like this. Chilling with 'Mooney,' about to have these sweet treats, looking forward to sleeping outside tonight. She likes it when she gets to sleep outside. She also likes it when she gets to sleep tucked in tight and cozy somewhere. It'll depend on how she feels about it all tonight.
The s'mores are good. Pete tries pretty hard not to accidentally eat most of the marshmallows. He knows he very easily could, and it wouldn't be fair if he did. Even holding himself back long enough to roast them before eating them is hard. If the moon was actually full, he probably wouldn't have any self control over eating something. The fact that Squeaker is happily humming while they prepare the s'mores helps him be himself. Along with that whole thing about being around loved ones.
Oh, Pete is planning to be a good distance from everyone on a full moon night. He freaked people out enough the last time.
"Hey, Squeaker." Clay holds up a graham cracker and piece of chocolate a bit away from her. "Can you say 's'more'?"
The little girl makes grabby hands for the treats. Pete grabs her stick before it and her perfectly roasted marshmallow can fall to the ground. "Mmmm!"
"'S'more.'" Clay says it more slowly and clearly. They've been working on trying to get her to say more words. It's not bad that she's mostly non-verbal right now, but there's also nothing bad right now with working on that.
Well, maybe right now as in this moment is a bit of a problem. She's cranky, and up past her bedtime. She whines in this way that makes it sound like she's about to cry. The whine also kinda sounds like a dawn out "mo," or maybe "no," if you wanted to believe she's having trouble making the n sounds. And boy, Pete's weirdly protective when he's in this form.
Clay blinks at Pete. "Did you just... growl?"
Pete blinks back. "Did I?"
The green-haired troll makes a face. Pete has this instinct to hold that eye-contact, like it's some sort of challenge. It's just some of that dumb animal instinct. He's above that. Pete makes himself turn away from the eye contact to look at his other present uncle and his dad. Branch is also giving him this weird look, like he thinks Pete might bite or something. Or Pete just did something really weird and he doesn't really know how to respond to it.
Dad breaks the weird, tense silence by letting out a breath. "Ha. Classic Pete. Always gonna surprise you with a random noise like that."
Ah, now it's feeling a little bit like Pete's being teased now. Okay. So... Ah, shove it. As soon as Squeaker goes to bed, he's gonna run all over these woods. Hopefully, it won't be too long. He is itching to get moving already. "Uh... Pst. Squeaker. I bet if you say 's'more' for Mr. Clay, something really cool will happen." Which he is just saying for the sake of breaking the awkwardness and trying to move on from it. "Like... I don't know. You'll have to find out."
Branch sighs. "I wonder what Poppy's got going on back at the village."
What she has going on is a sleepover. Currently, face masks. In her pod is her, of course, and just as obviously Viva and Floyd. The Snack Pack had also been invited, but Biggie had something with Mr. Dinkles, Satin and Chenille had some sort of fashion thing to get ready in the morning, and Legsly left for this month's long, scenic, group bike expedition. And obviously DJ Suki is at Techno Reef. She wouldn't have been able to make it.
Kismet was invited, too. It just felt right to invite them. Only two of them ended up accepting the invitation: Hype and Boom. Ablaze and Trickee didn't give a reason for why they weren't coming. Ablaze even shot a mild glare and said "I don't need to give a reason. 'No' is a full sentence," when askd what he was getting up to. Fair enough.
Val, the ambassador from the Hard Rock Trolls, is also there. "Why is there so much glitter in this?" She holds up one of the bowls with the face mask stuff in it. "Where's the mud in this? It's frickin' purple."
Viva doesn't even look away from painting a mud mask on Floyd as she answers her, "Dirt comes in all kinds of colors!"
"I helped make the face masks." Smidge points her thumb at herself. "That definitely has mud in it. I got the dirt myself!"
"You guys should think about mixing lava stuff in. One of my bandmates does that when they make their own face masks, and they say it turns out really good."
Hype takes the bowl from her. "Most of us here aren't fire proof. It'd burn all our skin off."
"Nah! You just grind it up and mix it in!"
"How would you even crush up a rock like that?" Boom asks.
Guy Diamond and Poppy both look at Smidge. She thinks hard about the challenge for a bit. "Hmmm. Yeah. I could crush it."
"What, with your bare hands?"
"Yeah, duh."
"Sick."
"Daddy! Daddy!" Tiny Diamond gets his dad's attention. "I heard that dog out there again! Did ya hear it? It was howling out there!"
"Oh? Was it?" That odd howling in the distance. It was only around for maybe a few nights a few weeks ago. Everyone would have thought that whatever critter it was had moved on by now.
"You know, wolves are usually in packs, right?" Val says out loud, only for Tiny to loudly shush her.
"Ay! We're not gonna hear it again if you yabber on like that!"
Val holds her hands up. "My bad, little man. My bad."
So, everyone just has to stay quiet for a few moments, just in case they hear a howl again. Floyd pretends he doesn't know exactly what— or rather, who would be howling like that out there. He's pretty good at keeping secrets. He's not the kind of guy to get nervous when having to lie or play dumb. Muses, the secrets he used to keep from his brothers as a kid.
After a bit without any more howling, Tiny pouts. "I know I heard it!"
Boom pats the kid on the head. "We could... howl for you? If you want?"
"It's not the same."
"You guys wouldn't want a wolf getting too close, anyway." Val leans completely back in this puffy beanbag chair and lounges with her hands behind her head. "Wolves travel in packs, and they're territorial, too. It'd be hard to get them to leave once they move in. If they're just passing through, it's fine. Probably."
Viva laughs. "Wow, that's, like, soooo worrying!"
"We never had a problem with any critters or animals in the, like, twenty years we've lived here," Poppy reassures her sister and pats on her shoulder.
Smidge picks up a bowl of the sparkliest mud mask they have and hops up by the side of Val's seat. "I'm giving you the weird mud mask for that."
"As long as it has actual mud in it, I don't think I care."
"Of course it does! I told you it does! Do you doubt me?"
"I hardly know you! But you seem like a badass."
"Watch the language in front of tiny ears!" Smidge warns. "He's heard enough swear words."
Guy shoots this knowing smile her way. "Smidge, dear, I'm pretty sure he's heard most of them from you."
These people make for an interesting bunch. Floyd's glad his little brother can find friends in trolls like these. Good friends in good people could be hard to come by at times. Floyd couldn't remember having a lot of friendships like that. At least not any that would last for long. Actually, in hind sight, a few of them had fully drifted away after he got with...
Damn it, they were right about there being something off with this sudden new Pop Troll. But Floyd wanted to believe that Creek was just adjusting to the culture shock. That he'd be traumatized. That he did really mean any of the passive aggressive stuff he seemed to be saying. That he just needed someone to nudge him in the right direction and give him support. Floyd should have listened to them instead.
The face mask drying is making it harder to move his face. That means he can't make a sad face that'll have people asking him what's wrong. He may be known for being sensitive, but he doesn't really wanna talk about his ex right now. He doesn't wanna think about how he somehow escaped from jail. About how he's out there somewhere and Floyd doesn't know if he's gonna try to come back to the village or if he's gonna try to find Floyd again, or if he's just gonna run around in hiding until he finds someone else to manipulate.
No, Floyd doesn't want to think about any of that.
"How long do these face masks stay on?" he asks. He needs to distract himself a bit from thinking about that stuff.
Poppy, who'd just started putting some on Viva's face (while Viva is also putting some on her face), answers him. "Oh! No more than twenty minutes! These aren't the kind that you just leave on aaaaallll night."
Floyd hums. "Those can be hard to sleep in for people who roll around a lot. It gets on the pillows and stuff." He remembers when he was a kid, he tried to do a night time face mask with Bruce. He'd woken up with it all over his pillow. The whole pillow case had to be tossed, it was so badly stained.
Boom offers a sliced cucumber to him. He has this smile that, honest to God, is kinda adorable. "Cucumber?"
Floyd takes it, and eats it. If he wasn't supposed to eat it, Boom would have given him two. Then he would have put them on his eyes. "Thank you."
"Aren't sleepovers supposed to have things like movies or gossip or something?" Hype snatches the cucumber slices away from Boom. "We used to do scary stories with our sleepovers, but that was forever ago. And I'm not in the mood to be kept up worrying about ghosts or something." He pops one of the cucumber slices in his mouth.
Guy Diamond lights up when he hears the word 'gossip.' Figuratively, of course. Otherwise, he'd be totally blinding. "Oh! Yes, gossip sounds fun. Or... what's been going on around with everyone lately?"
For only just a small moment, Floyd considers bringing up Creek escaping from jail. Everyone might not even know their infamous traitor had even gone to jail in the first place. That could be some interesting sort of gossip. But again, he absolutely does not wanna talk or think about that stuff. Maybe Poppy deserves a warning about him possibly trying to come back, but now is not the place or the time for that.
Val offers something. "I think Demo, my band's manager, has been sneaking away for something. Like, he's hiding away for something, and I don't know what. Just that it has something to do with his guitar." She shrugs. "Eh, I don't really wanna get too absorbed in whatever his business is. If he doesn't want people to hear him play, it's fine. He can have his own biz."
"The only tea I have is about what my friends are up to." Hype munches on another cucumber slice before setting the rest of them to the side. "And, no offense to you guys, but this isn't the crowd I wanna spill that sort of tea with."
Boom blinks, then he gets a worried look as he looks towards Hype. "What do you mean?"
"Don't worry about it! It's nothing bad!" Hype waves his friend off. "Really, you don't need to worry about it. And it's not about that stuff from a few years back, if you're worried about that."
"Okay..." Boom still looks pretty unsure.
Guy offers some of his own gossip, "I heard some trolls in the Guru circle are arguing about crystals." He had that ready the moment gossip was brought up, didn't he? He was just being polite in letting everyone else try to go first. "Beliefs in other tribes about the power they have and how to use them have come in, and apparently, people can't agree on what the 'right way' is."
Val actually sits up, disturbing Smidge applying a face mask for her. Luckily, she was pretty much done anyway. "Holy shit, and the 'zen' dudes actually fighting?!?"
"They fight in a non-fighting way that is incredibly interesting to watch."
"Damn."
"Ay!" Tiny shouts again. And jumps up and down and waves his arms. "Shush! Shush!"
Everyone goes quiet, some of them not actually expecting to hear anything. It's almost his bed time, after all. He might be starting to imagine something, and he's too tired to tell. But they do end up hearing something: the last five or so seconds of a long howl.