[Branch looks deeply confused at the fact he's receiving empathy. That people would say that eating him is wrong and believe him that something more nefarious might be afoot. That they'd try to find which Elf was guilty of chewing on him. That she'd call it "assault" instead of downplaying it.]
[That they'd want to prevent it from happening again.]
[Little by little, he lowers the knife just a tiny bit.]
They...they seem like kids. [They sure panic like them.] So it's really the fault of whoever told them it was okay to eat me.
I mean, kids don't just shove things in their mouths on their own. [A pause.] Troll kids don't anyway.
[He starts to wonder if the same goes for...for whatever the pointy-hat kids are. (Human kids?)]
[Being listened to is giving him room to process through the things he might have tried to reason through if he'd felt less panicked, a process started by Tim trying to get him to actually think.]
no subject
[That they'd want to prevent it from happening again.]
[Little by little, he lowers the knife just a tiny bit.]
They...they seem like kids. [They sure panic like them.] So it's really the fault of whoever told them it was okay to eat me.
I mean, kids don't just shove things in their mouths on their own. [A pause.] Troll kids don't anyway.
[He starts to wonder if the same goes for...for whatever the pointy-hat kids are. (Human kids?)]
[Being listened to is giving him room to process through the things he might have tried to reason through if he'd felt less panicked, a process started by Tim trying to get him to actually think.]