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One day, a timid, scared little mouse was running, in search of something.
One day, a proud, tired lion was sleeping under the shade of a tree, fast asleep without a care in the world.
By some strange twist of fate, the mouse’s day and the lion’s day were one and the same.
A great lion, with dark, deep fur, and a thick mane, has stretched himself out in the jungle. Of course, it’s a jungle. Lions can sleep in jungles, and I can sleep wherever I want. The lion thinks to himself, and gives a great big yawn, ready to enjoy a nap.
Until he felt tiny feet scamper over his tail. Who in their right mind would dare step on my tail?! The lion peeks open a brilliant green eye to see who insulted him. A soft, round ball of fur with large ears, whiskers, and thin tail stands before him. It looks to and fro, unaware that it will be dead soon, it was too preoccupied looking around.
THWACK
The lion’s massive paw smacks the ground right where the poor mouse stood. It was pinned to the ground and the lion could feel the erratic heartbeat of the little creature in his hold. The lion scoops up the mouse, keeping it enclosed in his palm with his fingers around it.
“Poor pathetic thing. Life’s not fair, isn’t it?”
The lion feels the mouse try to struggle in his grasp, desperate to escape.
“I, will never be king, I’ll never be enough. And, you,” The lion brings his prey closer to his great big maw. “Will never live to see another day.”
“If life isn’t fair, then make it fair!”
…Huh? The lion’s paw starts to unfurl, he can feel the mouse pushing open his fingers.
Fingers? Oh, yeah, that’s right. I’m a beastman, I have hands, not paws.
He opens his hand and sees the mouse. But this mouse… looks familiar. With a human body but large ears atop their head and a tail behind them.
Did you always look like that? Sure, it makes sense. The prefect has beastman features, it’s gotta be that herbivore sitting in my palm since they put their hands on their hips and give scolding looks like that too.
“Are you listening to me? Quit this whole ‘woe is me’ shtick. You’re a lion , so act like it!”
This is a really mouthy mouse. The lion smirks down at the mouse, and brings the little creature eye level to him. “Yeah? Then that means I, a lion, should eat rude little mice like you.” He cups his hand and brings it to his mouth, he can feel the mouse back away into his curled fingers.
“Waitwaitwait, WAIT!” The proud lion pauses, he does love playing with his food.
“Why bother killing someone as unimportant as me?! I’m just a mouse, you shouldn’t lower yourself to eat something like that.” The mouse bargains.
“That's all you got? Goodbye.” A little bit closer, the mouse can feel the heat of the lion’s breath on them.
“I’ll owe you one!”
The lion stops. He brings the mouse away from his face and stares at the creature shaking in his gloved hand. And gives a loud, disbelieving laugh.
“You? HA , what could a mouse do for a lion like me?”
The mouse frowns at that, then closes their eyes. Well, they tried, they gave in and resigned to their place in the food chain.
…They’re still breathing? They open their eyes and see that the lion beastman has gently set them down onto the grass. His mouth was quirked up into an amused grin at the mouse’s surprised face.
“Nah, I don’t want to eat something that tastes funny. Get outta here before I change my mind.” The lion rests his head onto one of his hands and lounges on his side, watching the mouse’s reaction.
The mouse has a bright-eyed admiring gaze in their eyes and squeak out, “T-thank you! I won’t forget this!”
The lion rolls his eyes. Why is this thing still here, quit looking up to me with those big eyes.
He lowers his hand and flicks the mouse away, they fly into the air and give an indignant squeak as they land further away. The lion settles down and falls asleep with a grin on his face.
It’s over.
I’ve been caught.
The once proud, powerful lion couldn’t move, he laid flat onto the ground, black tears streamed from his eyes. Inky black coated his arms and he scratched at the ground, trying to dig his way out.
A net has him pinned. The thick ropes would’ve been no problem for him, he could easily bite through them or use his magic to disintegrate them. If they were normal bindings.
He could see the black print of words twist around each other, creating a tight bind that mimics cords. Every time he struggled against the words or tries to break them, he could hear them echo in his mind.
“Drought Bringer”
“Cursed Prince”
“You don't deserve a crown”
“Never be fit to rule!”
“No future”
“Moody brat”
“Terrifying”
“Evil”
Shut up! Stop it! Why can’t I ever be enough?! Why doesn’t anyone see how hard I’ve worked?
The lion stops struggling. Why bother doing anything. Nothing will change. His eyes drooped and movement became sluggish. Ink and sand filled his mouth, it was getting harder to breathe. I’ll sleep it off. The lion thinks. Maybe I won’t wake up. He gives a mournful roar, and lays still.
“What did I say about feeling sorry for yourself? Come on, let me get you out of there.”
His ears flicker, as the sound of chewing fills the silence. That mouse again? The small creature was using its teeth and trying to break through the black cords.
“...What are you doin’. It’s useless. Go away.”
The mouse ignores the lion, and continues working at the ropes. “You might’ve given up, but I’m going to at least try to help you. I do owe you for letting me go.”
He stays quiet at that. Green eyes watch as the mouse keeps going, any fatigue fades away as he waits to see if this weak animal could do it. The taut rope loosens as the mouse gives one final bite through the cord. The netting that kept him down has an opening and he sees a hand stretch out towards him.
“Hey, Leona. Get up.”
Leona’s eyes blink away the blurriness as you come into focus. The sunlight coming through the tree he was sleeping under cast a soft shadow on your features. Leona wonders for a second where your ears went when he remembers that it was a weird dream, not reality.
“Hey, Twisted Wonderland to Leona?” You wave your hand in front of you to get his attention. “You better get up soon. Crewel’s class is going to be coming here.”
He doesn’t respond, instead he gives you a yawn. Well, you tried. He’s probably going to go back to sleep. You shuffle between some bushes and get back onto the botanical garden’s pathway but pause when you hear some noise behind you.
“You’re up? Are you heading to class?” Leona stretches his stiff muscles as he stands up before sauntering over to you.
“Nah, I’m headin’ to your’s, mousey.”
Mousey?
Leona stands next to you and waits for your reaction.
“...What did I get demoted or promoted from ‘herbivore’? And why would you want to go to my class? My next one is PE, you don’t want to join in some exercise, do you?” Leona moves ahead of you, towards the school fields.
He’s seriously going to class with me?
“Don’t worry about labels. Mouse, herbivore, it's the same ranking to me so nothin’ has changed.” He turns back slightly to wait for you to catch up and smirks. “And I’m not doing a thing. Just going to see how badly you can run.”
You huff at him, “I’m a good runner!”
“You better be. Vargas is going to make you guys run the mile today.”
He was right. Your class did have to run a mile today. Leona had a teasing grin on his face while he sat on the sidelines and made fun of your running form.
Yeah, ‘mouse’ fits them just right. Leona thinks while you fall behind everyone else and struggle to keep your legs going to push you forward. He suppresses a laugh when you flip him off.
Weird mouse, I’ll allow them to stick around. For now.
Leona lays on his side on the grass and enjoys the view, feeling satisfied at finding a new pastime.