#lenol-teague

Where was she? A yellow puff sat at the edge of a forest, a small treehouse not far behind her. How had she gotten here? She couldn’t remember. She wracked her mind, but she couldn’t thing of any reason for her to be here. In fact, she couldn’t remember anything at all.

It wasn’t long until she began to panic. She didn’t know anything, where she was, where she came from, even who she was. She didn’t even know what her name was. 

Mint had been stalking a rather juicy-looking quail through the thicket, and her shadowy perch atop the tree was perfect for sniping the bird without incident. Her arrow was just about ready to be loosed when her prey waddled away, and an old friend emerged.

It was a pretty ordinary day. Luna and Lenol had just been hanging out and chatting. Lunch time had come around, so she started making some food for the both of them. “Hey Lenol, could you pass me the olive oil?” Luna asked, focused on the meal. “Hm? Oh yeah, I got it.” Lenol handed her the bottle, brushing against her nub in the process. Suddenly, his vision faded and was replaced with an unfamiliar scene.

He found himself behind a school building not far from a small group of kids picking on a Minny. The Minny suddenly shouted something at the Boxin who seemed to be the head of the group which clearly enraged him. He reeled back his fist and a blur of yellow darted past Lenol and in front of the blow. A younger Luna with her hair down stood in front of the bully now, cringing from the punch she’d just taken.

She coughed. “Look, I don’t care what happened. You really could’ve hurt Adam just now. Back off.” The Boxin was undeterred. In fact, he seemed even more furious. “That was the point, you freak! Step aside! Now!!” Luna stayed where she was, staring the boy down.  “Fine. I’ll go through you first!” She braced herself as the Boxin laid blow after blow into her. Lenol was stuck in place, he couldn’t move or even shout for him to stop.

The Boxin’s friend couldn’t pry him off and he didn’t stop even when Luna fell and her wing’s bone audibly snapped. Several adults came running from the distance, shouting, as the vision faded away.

((Pft, good choices!))

It was a strange encounter to say the least. He looked vaguely like Maho and that other person, Magolor, she’d met once or twice, but was clearly different. Almost like someone had seen one of them one time and had attempted to recreate them from memory. The stranger had snuck up on her and shouted some nonsense, giving her quite the shock. Still, she’d been willing to let that slide, maybe he just didn’t have the best social skills.

He’d asked her if she was lonely and if she wanted to be friends. Now, she was really getting some weird vibes from the guy, but she didn’t want to hurt his feelings. It didn’t hurt to give the guy a chance, right? Then she’d offered her nub for a shake and he kissed her.

Luna had never been more furious in her life. A small group of what she assumed were his friends popped out of hiding, laughing, only making it worse. She didn’t hesitate to hit the jerk hard in the face, before making her position crystal clear. “You did not have my permission to do that. I have no idea what stupid reason you had for doing that and, frankly, I don’t care. We are not friends. Leave and do not touch me again.”

The idiot had spouted more nonsense about it not being his fault, but Luna had had enough. She marched back into her home, barely noticing her landlord shooing the group away behind her.

((And now for the near death experience.))

Adam was angry most of the time, but today had been especially rough, so he was in no mood to deal with anyone. Of course, it was just his luck that the bullies would notice him. “Hey, it’s Shortstack! Where ya going, peewee?” The Minny flinched. Nova, he just wanted to go home. “Not in the mood, Kevin.” He barely kept from growling out. The Boxin, of course, came up to him anyway, his small entourage backing him up. “Well, I am. So, too bad for you, pipsqueak.” “Yeah! Kevin does what he wants!” The Burning Leo at his side piped up. “Shut up, Toby.” Kevin snapped.

“I almost looked right over you, you’re so close to the ground.” Kevin laughed, only making Adam even more furious. “I said I’m not in the mood.” He replied through clenched teeth. The Tac at Kevin’s side who had been uncharacteristically silent until now spoke up. “Hey, can we just, not, today, Kev? What’s even the point?” “The point,” Kevin started, turning to her, “is that I want to. You going soft on me, Harley?” “Wh-no, but-” “Then you can shut up, too.” He stated, anger creeping into his voice. Harley backed up, scared to continue questioning him.

“What’s with you, anyway, tiny? No explosions from the short fuse today?” The Boxin smirked, getting into Adam’s face. That was it, he couldn’t stand it anymore. “Oh, you want an explosion, tough guy?! You really have nothing better to do than get people to hate you, don’t you?!? Y’know, I bet it’s because you’re like this that your Mom left you!” It was no sooner that the words left his mouth that the Minny clapped his nubs over it. The anger was replaced with fear and a painful silence settled on them. His two lackeys were stunned, Toby standing mouth agape and Harley edging even further away, ready to run. Kevin himself was silent for a good few seconds before his face twisted into absolute rage. No one had seen him that mad before.

His eyes narrowed on the Minny, who was starting to tremble. Nova, why had he said that?! He just wanted him stop! He didn’t even know what his family life was like! But it seemed to really hit home. Kevin chuckled darkly to himself. “Oh, shorty. I’m going to kill you.” The Boxin raised his fist and for a split second, Adam really thought he was going to die. He closed his eyes tight.

But the impact never came, though he heard the sound of a fist making contact and a grunt of pain. Hesitantly, Adam opened his eyes to find that Luna had stepped in between them. “Wh-Luna?!? The heck are you doing here?!?” He asked, shocked, but she didn’t answer him. She coughed. “Look, I don’t care what happened. You really could’ve hurt Adam just now. Back off.” Kevin ground his teeth. “That was the point, you freak! Step aside! Now!!” She didn’t move a muscle. “Fine. I’ll go through you first!” He raised his fist again.

Vanilla, for as long as she could remember, seemed to always take the brunt of whatever sickness would be going around. Usually, it came from her exerting herself on treating her sisters when they came down with things like this. However, such memories became difficult to recall as a terrible fever and infection had overtaken her.

She told herself over and over again that she had to have faith in the doctor who ran this tiny hospital. She had to overcome, be stronger than this affliction! Yet, her hope seemed to deteriorate with her health. She had to do something for them, to let them have some kind of closure if the worst did happen.

Lenol had been around, trying to assist in her recovery and keep her dying hope alive. One day, she asked to see him, a sealed letter in her paws.

“Lenol…” Vanilla rasped, weakly handing him the letter, much to the other’s astonishment. “You know how bad this is getting….”

“No… No, no no no! Vanilla-” He began to plea.

She ignored him. “Take this to my sisters and Ram, please. If I were to pass on… I want them to know what went wrong. I would never be able to rest easy if they never learned my fate, Lenol…”

“Don’t say that! Vanilla, you have to get better! You will get better, I promise!”

“If I do get better, I’ll allow you to toss out that letter and we can forget about this. But for now… Just promise me you’ll find them… And take care of them.”

Lenol took a sharp breath before murmuring. “…Okay.”

Vanilla gave him a warm smile, reflecting pure gratefulness.

In the short time that Luna had known Lenol, she’d come to notice a fair number of inconsistencies in the things he told her about his past. At first she’d left it alone, after all she hadn’t told him everything about herself either. But the more one story contradicted another, the harder she found it to stay silent about it. After a lot of thought, she’d finally decided to just ask him directly.

Out of all her sisters, Vanilla was assumed to be the strongest. While she argued that age didn’t necessarily translate to sheer skill, and that each of her siblings had their own strengths and weaknesses, her kidnappers apparently didn’t see it that way. At the very least, Vanilla was glad her sisters were safe.

She awoke with a groan, her entire body trembling from the cold. Her left foot had been chained to the ground, and she couldn’t feel her wings. It took a moment for her emerald green eyes to adjust somewhat. Though they were still blurred, she spied a shape next to her, watching her. From the shape alone, Vanilla could only assume they were a Puff.

“…Where am I?” Vanilla murmured, keeping her voice soft and gentle. In her mind, she was already forming a plan for escape, should this Puff be a threat. There was a polearm of sorts on the ground, just out of reach. When her wings regained feeling, she could stretch one over to scoot the weapon within her grasp.