I see the light | Twisted Wonderland

1.4 Botanical battles

Grim swaggered in, his chest puffed out and a strut only celebrities on a runway had. Interestingly, despite Yuu's knowledge on most plants, he couldn't actually recognise any of them fully. They have some similarities with plants that he knew but they were never one to one. Each flower he thought he could recognise from his grandparent's garden, always had one sharp detail that made it pretty much unrecognisable to him. Though who would've guessed that the entirely magic world would have most likely entirely magic plants. Totally not him.

With a hop, skip and a step, Grim wandered off, though close enough for Yuu to hear. Gazing around at the variety of flowers, Yuu's eyes began to be drawn to a few familiar looking flowers hanging from the ceiling, until he felt his foot step on something.

"Hey! You got some nerve steppin' on my tail and just walkin away!" Just as Yuu was just about to lift his foot off the ground, a gruff voice came from behind him. He turned around to see a long brown haired beastman with electric green eyes standing right behind him as he glared at Yuu. He had a distinctive scar across one of his eyes, feline-like ears sitting on top of his head and the two front sections of his hair braided.

"Ain't nothin' worse than bein' in the middle of a great nap and havin' some jerk step on your tail." Leona huffed, holding his head with his hand.

'If he is so bothered by it, why doesn't he just put his tail in a place that wouldn't be stepped on yknow, unlike an actual pathway', Yuu thought. Simply just looking around the botanical gardens, there was plenty of space to roam around. Just as Yuu was going to complain, a familiar voice rang out.

"Well Leona, if you had just put your tail in a spot where people wouldn't walk through, you might actually find different results." Sol countered, walking out from the bushes.

"If those herbivores watched where they were going, I wouldn't have any problems."

Yuu wondered what Sol was doing here, let alone with such a disagreeable guy, who knows maybe the lion man currently threatening him was actually a swell dude but honestly he didn't want to stick around and find out.

Walking over to Yuu, Leona sizes him up.

"You...I know you. You're that herbivore from orientation who couldn't use magic." As he mocked Yuu, Leona took a few more steps forward and sniffs him a few times.

"I know that's how beastmen do things but I still can't get over you casually just sniffing people because you feel like it." Sol cringed. To which, Leona merely responded with a flick of his tail.

"No one gets to stomp on my tail and just walk away without payin' the price. I'm in a bad mood on account of bein' woken up from my nap, too. That's gonna cost you a tooth." He sneered, already getting ready for a fight. Grim, still wide-eyed at the event, quickly pulled Yuu's pants and yelled, "Yuu! Cheese it!" as the two of them got ready to scramble to the closest exit or to hopefully find Ace or Deuce.

As they prepared their escape, a loud almost nasally voice sounded throughout the botanical gardens.

"Leona! There you are!" Another beastman appeared, pointing straight at Leona. "Leona, you've already had to repeat one year. If you get held back again, we'll be in the same grade!"

Sol didn't say anything at Ruggie's comment, just watched as Leona's face contorted into annoyance. "Put a sock in it already, I'm tired of all yer yappin,' Ruggie." Leona groaned, as he stretched his arms out.

"Look, you think I like always being on your case? C'mon, man. You act like it'd be hard for you. You could skate through like if you'd just TRY. Come on! Let's go already!" Ruggie nagged, already running off.

Leona walked along with Ruggie, before turning back to face Yuu. "Next time you stink up my territory, there's gonna be a price to pay, herbivores!" He threatened and then turned back around.

Grim yelped as he felt his fur prick up. Running over to Sol, he grabbed his pant leg as he shouted. "Why didn't ya warn us about him?!"

At Grim's temper tantrum, Sol laughed, putting down his art supplies and picked him up. "You guys stepped on Leona's tail before I could do anything."

Despite Sol's logical statement, Yuu still couldn't help but sour at it.

"You could've warned me that people like that existed."

"Darling, I sincerely doubt Leona is at the top of your problems at Night Raven."

Round the corner, Ace and Deuce both appeared with baskets and tongs in hand. Seeing Yuu's downtrodden look and Grim thrashing about in Sol's arms, Deuce couldn't help but ask. "What in the world happened to you two? Did you lose in a fight or something?"

"Don't even ask about it, Deuce." Yuu groaned, walking past the clueless boy.

"Sheesh, what's his problem?" Ace muttered but still followed Yuu back to the Heartslabyul dormitories.

Deuce looked back towards Sol and hesitated before walking up to him.

"Um Housewarden Edelweiss! Did you want to join ust? Trey is helping us out, it'll be a lot of fun I promise! Trey says that they are the tastiest straight after they come out of the oven. Plus I don't think Ace would mind the extra help." As he continued he began to get more excited at the prospect of eating a tart.

"A tart? Is it Ace's replacement tart for the one he ate?" Sol queried. At Deuce nod, Sol agreed to help them out though he needed to drop off the art supplies he took so he would just meet up with them at Heartslabyul.

After getting Sol's agreement, Deuce became only more excited at baking this tart. He ran back, catching up with the other first years.

"Oi what took you so long, Juice?"

"Don't you dare make that nickname stick."

Edited?: No

Word count:1014

SORRY FOR THE EXTREMELY LATE UPDATE, I've been so busy and haven't been having a lot of lucid dreams about this recently. I'm trying to get back on track though!