Key of Souls: Twisted Wonderland

Chapter 22: The Reigning Beast of the Garden

3rd POV

Once classes were over for the day, the group of first-years met together and walked outside and went around the school and headed to the woods behind the campus. After a brief search, they found the chestnut trees that Trey mentioned, which should have more than enough needed for the Unbirthday Party.

"Waaah! There are so many chestnuts all over the place! It's a forest of all-you-can-eat Mont Blanc... Guugh.", Grim said as he went to one of the trees.

"Careful Grim, don't just pick them up with-", Dawn tried to warn him, but it was too late. "Let's get picking... Oww ow!", Grim cried out. The moment he tried to pick out one of the chestnuts, he felt a sharp pain in his paw and it got stuck. "Ffgna!! The thorns priced my paw!", he shouted as he shook it off.

"We can't pick them up with bare hands. I'll also be good to get a basket or something to put them all in.", Deuce suggested.

"Doesn't the botanical garden have whatever we need inside?", Ace asked.

Deuce nodded his head and said, "Let's go take a look." The three teens and Grim then proceeded to head to the botanical garden. As they reached the Temperate Zone, everyone was astonished as they looked around in pure amazement at the different variety of flowers and trees surrounding them. The whole botanical garden was filled with a variety of plants and a clear pathway that was large enough to walk in, the walls and rooftop were made of glass with sunlight lighting their way ahead.

"Wow, it's bigger in here than I thought.", Ace said awestruck. Everybody nodded their heads in agreement.

"There should be a caretaker of this place. We should split up and find them.", Deuce said.

"Then I'll go right.", said Ace as he turned and walked in that direction.

"And I'll head left. Grim and Dawn, you guys can go straight to the back.", Deuce said.

"Right.", Dawn said with a nod. The group then split up and went their separate ways to find gloves and baskets to collect the chestnuts. Dawn took this as an opportunity to look around and admire the scenery. "Wow, I've never seen flowers this beautiful before. I feel like I could just walk in this garden forever.", she said while admiring the flora growing around her. Dawn spotted flowers she easily recognized and other species of plants she'd never seen before.

"Hey, hey, look at this. There's a bunch of fruit! They smell so good!", said Grim as he dashed ahead of Dawn to the tree with with fruit, looking really hungry. "Hey, no swiping!", she called out as she ran to catch Grim before he started eating when...

"...Ow!"

Dawn stopped the moment she heard something and looked around; she also felt something under her foot. "Did I just step on something?", she wondered. She then heard the sound of bushes rustling and a man walked in front of her. "Hey. You've got some nerve stepping on someone's tail without saying anything.", he said with a rich, deep voice. Dawn felt a chill run down her spine at how close he was and took a step back.

He was a muscular young man with brown skin. He had thick, messy, long brown hair with two braids on both sides. He also had piercing green eyes, with a thin scar going down from his left eyebrow to his cheek. He also had lion-like features, such as light-brown lion ears and a thin tail. His uniform was very casual in appearance. He didn't wear a blazer or tie; just a white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up slightly with a few of the buttons on the top left undone, revealing a bit of his muscular chest, a golden yellow vest, black gloves, two beaded bracelets and a golden bracelet on his left wrist, his dorm's emblem was tied to his belt, and instead of shoes, he wore a pair of sandals.