(Cover art is by )

I gasped. "Oh my goodness, I am so sorry!" I said quickly while getting to my feet. "Are you okay?"

"It's okay," the techno troll said while rubbing his eye. "It's just pain."

"I'm sorry, I am not myself today," I said as I slowly started to back away." I didn't know someone else was here. If you want, I could go somewhere else."

"No, it's alright," he said as he rose out of the water and onto the dock. "You can stay. I just came up here for a moment to clear my head."

"Oh," I said. Now that I could see him more clearly, I couldn't help but feel like I've seen him somewhere before. He had dark blue skin, yellow eyes, and light blue hair that was pulled back into a ponytail on the top of his head. The ponytail was being held together by a glowing purple hair tie. He was decorated with red, yellow, and orange pixels that were all over his tail and even a little bit up his back.

"Hey," I called after him. "Have we met? You seem awfully familiar."

He looked surprised. "Maybe. I feel like I've seen you somewhere before, too." Suddenly, his eyes widened. "Wait a second, you wouldn't happen to be Princess Roxanne of the Hard Rock trolls, would you?"

I shuddered at the title. "Well, yeah..." I mumbled. "What about it?"

He smiled, jumped into the air and sang:

Oh we'll meet again

Don't know where, don't know when

Oh I know we'll meet again some sunny day

I gasped. It was him; the boy who saved my life all those years ago! My only friend!

"Prince Titus?" I asked, still shocked that it was him.

"It's King Titus, actually," he responded as he floated back down to the ground. "My coronation was earlier today."

"Oh really?" I said, surprised. "Well then, what are you doing up here all by yourself? Shouldn't you be celebrating with all the other techno trolls in the reef?"

Titus shrugged and crossed his arms. "Well, yeah, but I've been doing that all day. It gets exhausting after a while, you know. I needed to get away for a few minutes, so I came up here."

"Don't you think they'd notice you're gone?"

"Eventually, yeah," he said as he slowly began to approach me. "But technically, I should be asking you the same question. What are you doing here all by yourself?"

"Well, I..." My hands started to get all sweaty. I wasn't sure how to answer that question. Should I lie to him or tell him the truth? Out of fear of what I should do, I started backing away from him, but he just kept getting closer.

"Please don't lie to me about the reason you're here, either," he asked gently. "I saw everything you did from the moment you ran into the water to when you kicked me in the face."

"I said I was sorry!" I was getting even more nervous the closer he got to me. Eventually, I had backed up so far that I has stepped off the wooden dock and back onto the sandy beach. The sudden change from wood to loose sand startled me so much that I fell backwards onto my butt.

A look of concern crossed his face as he slowly sat down beside me. "It's okay," he said. "You can tell me. I won't judge you or turn you away no matter what you say."

I winced. The injury on the back of my head was getting worse. I reached back to touch it and brought my hand in front of my face to see fresh blood on my fingers. It had reopened. Great...

Titus's eyes widened once he saw the blood on my hand. "Are you hurt?!" he asked while getting back up.

"It's just a scratch, it's really not that-"

"You're bleeding! Stay here, I'll be right back," he said as he dove back into the ocean. A few minutes later, he came back with a first aid kit and a clump of seaweed. He opened it up and took out a small tube of ointment.

"I said I'm fine. Why are you-"

"Sit still. This may sting a little," he said as he began to apply the ointment directly to the back of my head. I flinched a bit, but it didn't hurt as badly as when I got thrown into that box back in my room. Then, he picked up the seaweed and began to wrap it around my head like a bandage.

"There we go, all better!" He said happily. "That should heal within a few days, hopefully." Then he got all serious again and sat back down next to me.

"Now, tell me why you're here."

I took a deep breath, already regretting what I was about to do. I told him everything. From the day my mother died to running away earlier today. About halfway through my story, I could feel years worth of held in emotions and tears beginning to fall down my face. By the time I had finished, it was nighttime, and I looked like an emotional wreck.

"There," I sniffled. "Now you know...why I'm here..."

I finally looked up to see sadness in his eyes. "Do you really think that?" he asked sadly.

"Think what?"

"That nobody cares about you?"

"Well, yes..." I said as I looked back down at my hands again. "All the other rock trolls ever did was hurt me; they never cared." I pulled my knees into my chest and let out a big sigh. I knew I shouldn't have told him the truth. Now he's going to feel bad for me and it's all my-

"I care..." I looked back up to see him giving me a soft smile.

"You do?" I asked him while trying to wipe the snot from my nose.

"Of course I do! In fact..." he looked into my eyes, and took one of my hands in both of his.

"As your friend, I, King Titus of the techno trolls, solemnly swear that as long as I am here by your side, I will NEVER let anyone or anything hurt you."

Tears returned to my eyes as I stared at him in awe. I didn't deserve a friend like him. We barely knew each other, yet here he was vowing to protect me no matter the cost. I started to bite down on my lower lip to try and stop myself from crying even more, but it didn't feel like that was going to work for very long.

"Hey," he said softly as he placed his hand on my shoulder. "It's going to be okay." He pulled me closer to him and wrapped his arms around me in a gentle hug. I froze. Nobody had given me a hug in so long I had almost forgotten what one felt like. It felt warm, safe, and just overall comforting.

Slowly but surely, I wrapped my arms around him as well, returning his kind gesture as more tears started to fall down my face. But, they weren't sad tears anymore. These tears felt...happy.

"Doesn't it feel good to get all of those negative emotions out of your head?" He asked as he hugged me tighter. I smiled.

"Yeah," I sniffled. "This feels nice."