Spirit
Dedicated to @censuredface​ and his post about Gust’s guitar. Enjoy XD
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Her name was Moondust. Moondust Speckled. But she always introduced herself as Dottie or Dot, so almost no one knew about her real name. She just really didn't like it. "Dottie" sounded much better for her.
She was original in every possible way. Usually, country trolls women wore their hair in so many different plaits and ponytails. But her hair was always streaming from her head like a waterfall in the color of the sun. She never had a hat either. Once she started wearing a hat, but it wasn't her - she stole it from her boyfriend, and later from her fiance. It looked better on her, as she said. It fits with her big brown speckles on the whole of her white horse body.
Dottie was also pretty short for country trolls. Everyone was at least a head taller than her. She was like a tea-spoon troll among pop trolls, and she never minded it. She had respect. And it's because she had the biggest and the goldest heart in Lonesome Flats. Her chubby face was always filled with a big sunny smile that she never grudged anybody. Everyone adored her and there wasn't a troll who wouldn't love her engaging company. When she was playing her guitar, which she loved to call Spirit, the crowd of country trolls drew around her and listened to her in complete silence. No one ever told her that her guitar was way too big for her, no one interrupted her if she sang wrong lyrics and played bad chord. Lonesome Flats's love for Dottie was immeasurable.
But no one loved her as much as her fiance, Gust Tumbleweed. They both were really young when they got engaged. They had known each other for just a year back then; a long sweet year from the love at the first sight to the big proposal party. Gust was always by her side, always there for her. He had a special place on the highest pedestal in Dottie's life as the only one who could call her by her real name without making her mad. They loved hanging out together, running far from the town, and picnicking in the wildest places they found. Their favorite hide was a rupestrian bay under the big waterfall called Angels' Weep in the Red Mountains. The light streaming through the water shined whole the cave in such a magical way and the echo lingered their voices for so long. In this place, a secret whisper "I love you" made hearts shiver with arousal.
Their proposal party was much bigger than they'd planned. The group of the family and the closest friends quickly became into the crowd of cheering country trolls wanting to celebrate the happy moment for the favorite pair in the town. Dancing and sing lasted the whole night and the fiance and fiancee felt that they needed a little break from the Lonesome Flats. So the very next day, they packed the most necessary stuff in the bags, Dottie grabbed her guitar Spirit, and they escaped from the town with red desertic dawn.
The only one, who knew about it, was a little blue-haired cousin of Gust - sweet Holly Darling. She was sleeping on the couch in Gust's living room - her mum had put her there, after she'd got asleep at the party. Dottie's hooves knocking woke her up, so she noticed the couple leaving the house.
When the household woke up and discovered Gust's and his fiancee's disappearance, Holly told everyone to not worry, cause the pair had gone on a trip. So after a few relief sighs and typical country jokes, they all got back to their daily grind.
Three days passed and people started to worry. How far did the couple go? When would they get back? To cap it all off, a huge, terrible-looking thunderstorm was coming to Lonesome Flats. Everyone was hoping that Gust and Dottie would come back before the storm, but hour by hour it looked less and less possible. Gigantic black clouds were already above the town and the rain started pouring when Alpha Dawn set out with a search and rescue operation, taking a few of the bravest trolls and leaving the town under his daughter's care. Young Delta ordered an emergency lockdown and everybody hid in their houses. 10 years old Holly felt so guilty that she hadn't stopped the pair from leaving...
After a day, Alpha Dawn came back without good news. The storm lasted the whole week and no one remembered a bigger disaster than that thunderstorm. The wind knocked down cactuses, the rains cored big holes in the roads and ruined the fields. When the storm left the town and country trolls got out on the streets, destructions were huge.
Alpha Dawn once again announced a search and rescue operation. This time Delta was a leader of it and he stayed to help with undoing the damage. After two days, the rescue group with his daughter on the lead came back, carrying unconscious Gust and brown, battered guitar. Orange-skinned youth was so faint but alive. When they woke him up, watered him, and fed him, when they told him what happened and started asking about Dottie, he broke down. He was crying for so long until he told them he had lost his fiancee in the storm, and he had no idea what happened next. The thunder just had surprised them in the mountains. They gave him a guitar and he was hugging it for a long while. The search action lasted for two weeks more, but they didn't find even a sign of Dottie's existence.
10 years have passed since the storm. Gust fixed the guitar and learned how to play it. People told him to throw it away and buy a new one, cause Spirit was run-down, but he was so stubborn about it. The plan of starting a bakery with Dottie was still lying forgotten in the corner of his room. Without any idea for his life, he started a career and soon became a fun Sherrif and lives a calm, boring life. When the invitation to Trollstopia came, he grabbed Spirit and ran away from Lonesome Flats. He needed a change, a brand-new chapter. With Dottie's soul in his guitar, he believes he can find happiness once again. Trollstopia seems like a hope for it, and he feels ready.
