War of the Roses (3) (MANUSCRIPT)

Stem 5: The Lion, Part 1

        His eyes flashing open, Leleonus coughed. 

    "Where a- am I?" Scratching at his blonde hair, his eyes flashed a bright white.

     Putting a hand on his shoulder, Vaal sighed. "Zoning out again, are we? Hah! We're on that 'field trip' that Vervain wanted to go on. Well, aboutta be, anyway." 

      Shaking his head, Leleonus chuckled, his blonde hair falling down to his lips. "I'm sorry, come again? You couldn't possibly be referring to the 'world outside the tree' could you?" 

    "Oh, but what else? Hah, man, it's gonna be so sick." Vaal stuck his tongue out. "I can't wait to taste what the air is like out there. What the people are like, or what some of the animals are like! I heard people are a lot like us, too. Oh, it's gonna be so cool! What do you think the world outside the tree is like, Leleonus?" 

     "Full of cars and fish, honestly." Leleonus rolled his eyes as he leaned his arm on the wooden wall behind him. 

     Vaal furrowed his brow. "Really? Just mainly fish, huh? Why's that, buddy?" 

     Whistling, Leleonus crossed his arms as an orange ray of fluorescent light poured on him from the ceiling. "We're near a special kind of city. Ostfolk. It's a dock." 

     "Ah- Hey! Do you think there's any Flower Children we could meet that live under water?" Vaal jumped a bit. 

      "Man, heh, you're this excited to leave the tree? Well, I've told you about my life before this school, haven't I?" 

     "Honestly, I can only recall bits and parts." 

     "Well, I guess I haven't been quite comfortable divulging everything-" 

     "Don't sweat it, Lele! When you're here, it doesn't matter who you were before. In fact, I think that's the greatest value of being a Flower Child. It's the tantamount 'point', or so Ms. Dendron says. I barely pay any attention in her Root Lectures." Vaal stretched one arm behind his head as he threw the other over Leleonus' neck. 

     Leleonus blushed. "Hm, thank you." With a nod, he let Vaal's phrase run around his head once more. 

     'It doesn't matter who you were before'. 

     Huh. Yeah, thank you, Vaal. You have no idea how much that means to me. It feels like I just met you -- all of you here, in this gigantic tree -- and yet, I feel like I've been home forever. I'm where I belong. Leleonus touched a hand to his cheek. 

     "Yo, Lele, you alright? Haha, maybe our faces are a little too close together!" Vaal backed up, releasing his affectionate grip. "You seem to be quite the teary-eyed fellow, champ." 

     A knot caught in his throat, Leleonus laughed it away. "Haha! I'm not sure where that came from. Weird, right? Hey, let's brace ourselves for this adventure, alright?" 

     Raising an eyebrow, Vaal crossed his arms and smirked. "Hmph. Can't fool me, Lele. I can feel it in that crunchy DNA of yours. Haha! No biggie, you just got a little too sentimental there is all." 

     "C- Crunchy?" 

     "Well, of course! The cells of plants are pretty crunchy, after all. But, unlike the poor vines that get stuck along the sides of rivers, we can regrow from the seeds of anything! Once, the perks of being a 'Flower Child', my dude." 

     Hm, that makes me wonder. Is it possible that I aborted a potential 'past life' to regrow from a bundle of seeds outside Francis' house? Leleonus' shoulders tensed. 

     "Say, did you hear what Madame Vervain said the other day? The outside world has these things called, 'motorcycles'! That's such a wild word. I feel like- Well, I feel like I can kinda-sorta remember something like that. Maybe from a previous incarnation, I don't know. Haha! Y'ever think about stuff like that, Lele? I heard that when people spring back up from the seeds they regrow from, they forget their former selves." 

     "Uh," Leleonus left his mouth open. "funny you should mention it. I'm not sure. Do you ever get intimations of a... past life, Vaal?" 

      The wood beneath them shaking some, Vaal turned around, his blood colored hair spreading out. 

     "Whoa! Talk about a ruckus, man. Noisy footsteps in a woody, dank place like this must only mean-" 

     "An evacuation," Leleonus' eyes flashed white once more. "of all the students." 

     "Hm? Dang, I guess they were pretty serious about this field trip!" 

     Leleonus bit his bottom lip. I hope that's what it is. But why now? Why, after all this time of laying low, does the faculty of this 'school' want the Flower Children to be wandering the world publicly? 

      In the next moment, the wooden walls, which had encased all the students of Private Flora Academia, opened up. Shrill sunlight pouring in from a vibrant horizon, blue like rushing water, jabbed into Leleonus' vision. 

     "Aw, jeez!" Stepping back, his pupils shrunk with a drastic speed. 

     Vaal put an arm over his eyes. "What the hell is that big, cheesy lookin' thing?" 

    Leleonus put his hands over his knees, sweating some, as he looked back at all the layers and rings on the inside of the wooden, yet encasing, utopia around him. "That's... the sun, Vaal."