Deuce looked up at the tall chestnut trees in front of him, internally groaning at the work that was ahead of him; Ace, on the other hand, didn't bother to hide his annoyance.
"Why do we have to pick the stupid chestnuts fresh?! We have a literal magic food bag that can give us whatever we need! What's the point?!", he asked an irritated looking Cassandra, who sighed and rubbed her temples.
"Because chestnuts taste better fresh, and before you ask why I don't just fish a tart out of the bag, it's because I refuse to half-ass my baking.", the tribrid explained, her expression letting everyone know this wasn't the first time she had been forced to explain this. Grim, who was sitting on Ace's shoulder, opened his muzzle to speak, only to be interrupted by his master.
"And before you ask why I got the ingredients for the strawberry tart out of the bag Grim, it's because I was in a rush and pissed off at Riddle. Now that I have time, we're doing this the old fashioned way. Understand?", Cassandra elaborated. Ace and Grim both groaned loudly.
"Yeah, we get it. Doesn't mean we have to like it, though.", the indirect cause of this situation said. Cassandra shot him a 'do not test me' look, which caused him to jump, before the tribrid rolled her eyes and turned to face everyone.
"We need about two buckets full, which shouldn't take too long with all of us working together. After that we can- GRIM!", Cassandra explained, but cut herself off when she saw Grim fly up into one of the chestnut trees and try to pick one of the nuts. Cassandra began to panic.
"Don't touch those! They're-", she began to call out urgently, but was cut off when Grim did the exact opposite of what she told him to do and grabbed the chestnut, yelling out a loud 'OW!' when he did, quickly retracting his paw and placing it in his mouth. Cassandra winced.
"-Prickly...", Cassandra finished, and she panicked when Grim flew down and began to sniffle. Rapidly taking him into her arms, she hugged him tight and kissed his paw gently. Grim looked at his master with watery eyes as she smiled.
"Better?", she asked. Grim blinked away the last of his tears and nodded. With that out of the way, Cassandra realized something.
"We'll need some gloves if we want to pick these things. I'll go check and see if there's any in the botanical garden; Griffin, would you mind watching Grim while I'm gone?", the redheaded girl asked. The ex-soldier shook his head with a smile and let his boss place her familiar gently on his shoulder. Cassandra patted the fire-cat's head gently and started on her way to the gardens.
"I'll be back soon! You guys wait here!", she called back, just as she was about to open the glass door to the gardens. Entering quietly, Cassandra was mesmerized by the natural beauty of the gardens. She had never been in here before, opting to stick to outdoor trees when she had committed fruit larceny during yesterday's lunch so as to avoid security cameras.
The hanging vines, viberant flowers, and exotic looking fruits that filled the glass building were unlike anything Cassandra had ever seen before. There were even a few small stone bridges that went over flowing, crystal blue streams. Cassandra took a deep inhale of floral, earthy scented air, and exhaled with a blissful sigh.
The gardens reminded her of the compound gardens Yue and Griffin kept back home. She would have to come back here at some point.
Walking down the stone path, the redhead placed her hands in her jacket pockets and scanned the area for supplies. Once she was around the heart of the garden, she grinned when she caught sight of several stacked green plastic buckets with several sets of thick work gloves in them.
"Found ya!", she said, happy with her discovery. She began to quickly walk over to the equipment, and she was so focused on getting to the objects, she didn't notice the dark, furry lion's tail laying in the walkway. Just as Cassandra was about to reach the buckets, she stopped when she stepped on something unusual.
Looking back confused, she looked down in shock at the now swishing lion's tail.
'What the hell is a lion doing here...?', the tribrid thought, her eyes squinting as she realized the tail was familiar. Searching her memory for when she might have seen it, her eyes widened as she remembered what- or rather, who it belonged to. Her eyes widened even further as a very grumpy looking Leona Kingscholar stood up with a hand on his hip in all his sassy, unamused glory. He glared at her through half lidded eyes, not seeming to fully register who she was.
"You've got some nerve to step on the king's tail, herbivore.", he growled out, clearly annoyed at having been woken up. Cassandra looked up at him and raised an eyebrow at the nicknames for them both.
"'Herbivore'? Really? That's the best you can do?", she said, a bit annoyed at how badly the nickname suited her.
'And 'king'? Only one person in this room is a king and it isn't you.', she thought, keeping her thoughts on the irony of Leona's moniker to herself.
Call her fang-face or lizard eyes or something if you're going to insult her. At least make it so the damn name fits. In what world is she a herbivore?
Leona seemed to wake up fully at the sound of her voice, looking down at her surprised after he heard her remark. His frown then turned to a mischievous smirk as he bent at the waist to lean his face closer to her's.
"Well, well... if it isn't the troublemaking carnivore...", he said slowly, his voice taking a tone Cassandra couldn't identify. She felt her irritation melt away at the change in nickname.
'Now that's more like it.', she thought, backing away a bit as Leona slowly crept closer. She almost wanted to laugh. Did he really think she wasn't gonna notice that? Cassandra smirked at him.
"And if it isn't his royal fuzziness. Tell me, what brings you here?", the tribrid asked. Leona's eye twitched in annoyance and his smirk faltered a bit.
"This is where I nap, carnivore, and you just stepped on my tail.", the brunette explained. Cassandra raised an eyebrow as if to say 'okay, so?'. Did he want her to apologize? She would for the sake of manners, but not before she played with him for a bit.
"Yes, and I apologize, but I have things to retrieve and people to get back to, so if you'll excuse me-", she began, only to be interrupted when her back hit a sheet of glass. Leona grinned in what she assumed was triumph and caged her with his arms. Cassandra kept her face blank, keeping the green eyed man from realizing she knew what he was doing.
"And I apologize for what I'm about to do. No one will take me seriously as king if I let some first year get away with stepping on my tail. It's nothing personal; you understand, right?", Leona said with a fang-filled grin that mimicked her own smile. Cassandra mirrored the third year's expression.
"So I need to retrieve something and leave and you need to punish me for stepping on your tail; but you won't let me leave and I do not wish to be punished. It seems we're at an impasse.", the girl drawled slowly, golden eyes flaring. Leona raised an eyebrow and felt his heart jump.
"So it seems.", he purred lowly. Cassandra wasn't ashamed to admit she found the sound attractive.
Leona had lied. He would never hurt a woman. He was just going to... well, he didn't know what he was going to do, but he was going to make an impression. He liked this girl, with her damning intelligence and 'devil-may-care' attitude. He was finding himself caring less and less about how she was going to affect his plans, and more about what she thought of him. He wanted her to look at him, talk to him, touch him, acknowledge him. He wanted her, and what the king wanted, he got.
Cassandra was getting impatient; not that she was bored, she could stare into those summer green eyes all day, but she had work to do. And from what Leona was implying, she had a prideful lion to knock down a peg.
"Well, in that case, I hope you like birds eye views.", Cassandra said mischievously. Leona blinked in confusion at the seemingly random statement, not noticing the thick vines on the trees above them creeping down behind him.
"What do you mean by- DAH!", he asked, shouting in surprise when he was swiftly lifted into the air by his ankles and wrists. The prince was pinned to the glass ceiling by many taught vines before he could even react. His limbs were spread out like a starfish, and he had no mobility in his arms, preventing him from using his Unique Magic, or even his claws. The second prince of the Afterglow Savannah blinked in bewilderment.
He was stuck.
Cassandra watched all of this with a smug smile, hands behind her back as the foliage did her bidding.
Ah, the wonders of copy magic.
The tribrid made her way over to the reason she was here in the first place, and Leona could only watch as she went about her business. He struggled in place for a while, trying to free himself. When he realized these efforts were futile, he looked down at the cause of his blight with pleading eyes.
"Let me down!", he yelled. Cassandra didn't even bother to look up from what she was doing as she smirked.
"No, I don't think I will!", she yelled back. Leona sweated nervously, beginning to panic a bit.
"Please?! How will I get down?!", he pleaded, doing what everyone who knew him thought impossible as he swallowed his pride and asked for help. Cassandra grinned up at him mischievously.
"Someone will come looking for you eventually!", she yelled, throwing the remark behind her shoulder as she grabbed the buckets and gloves and walked off. The color drained from Leona's tan face.
"Carnivore! Carnivore, don't you dare leave me here! Carnivore! Carnivore! Cassandra!", the beastman yelled out as the beautiful woman left, finally breaking down and deciding to use her name when she got to the exit. The end of his cry was punctuated by the slamming of the glass door behind her as she left, and Leona was alone.
Sighing, the prince looked down at the stone walkway beneath him with a tired, annoyed expression.
"Seven fucking dammit.", he hissed, roaring loudly in annoyance soon after when some fruit he couldn't identify fell from one of the vines and onto his head.
This was gonna be a long day...
—----------------------------------------------
Cassandra made her way over to the awaiting young men swiftly, handing out buckets and gloves to each one of them, save for Grim, who only got a bucket.
"What took you so long?", Shorter asked with a raised eyebrow. Cassandra gave him a mysterious, 'I-know-something-you-don't' smile.
"I had a run in with a stray cat. Now Grim, I couldn't find any gloves your size, so you can catch the nuts in the bucketts as we throw them down, okay?", the golden eyed girl said, her tone going from sly to motherly fast enough to nearly give Shorter whiplash. Blinking, the purple haired vampire shrugged as Grim nodded and saluted his smiling master.
It probably wasn't important, anyway.
Cassandra put her gloves on, grabbed her bucket and grinned as she turned to face the group with her hands on her hips.
"Now, Let's get to work, shall we?"
—-------------------------------------------------
Leona had no idea how long he had been stuck here. He knew it was getting late due to the light of sunset that was shining into the greenhouse. He had long given up trying to escape on his own, but that didn't matter. He had an idea.
Wiggling a bit, he tried to use his one free appendage, his tail, to get his phone out of his back pocket. Making a few struggling noises, he moved his tail about his uniform pants pocket, wrapping it around his phone when he found it. When he had a good grip on it, he carefully and slowly took it out. When he was about halfway to his face, however, he lost his grip and his phone almost fell. Eyes wide with panic, he tried to grapple the phone. It slipped from his grasp a few times before finally, with a sigh of relief from Leona, he caught it and it didn't slip. Quickly bringing it up to his ear so as to not test his luck, the prince realized the glaring flaw in his plan.
He couldn't call anyone...
Sighing, Leona resigned himself to waiting for someone to show up or call him, when he had a rare stroke of luck.
The roaring ringtone of his phone went off, and with a quick glance to the side, he saw the name of his unofficial vice on the caller ID and a small picture of a smugly smiling Ruggie. Leona had never felt more grateful for the hyena's annoying tendencies than he had in that moment.
Frantically pressing the tip of his tail against the green 'accept call' button, Leona was greeted by the sweet, sweet sound of Ruggie having a conniption.
"Boss, where the hell are you?! No one's seen you since lunch! Do you want to give me a heart attack?! What the hell is wrong with-?!", Ruggie yelled on the other end of the call, sounding less like a teenager and more like a worried mother. Leona was happy to hear another voice, but soon became annoyed and cut Ruggie off.
"Ruggie, listen to me. I need you to drop whatever you're doing, and get your ass to the botanical gardens. This is not a request.", the dorm head said seriously. Ruggie went silent for a few moments, soon answering with a small 'alright'.
What Leona assumed was about fifteen minutes later, he heard the opening and closing of a door and quiet footsteps coming his way. Soon Ruggie was in his sight and looking around, confused and apprehensive, with his hands on his hips.
"Leona! I'm here! What do you need?!", he yelled, trying to find his employer. Eventually, Leona realized he wasn't going to find him without help.
"Up here!", he called out. Ruggie looked even more confused until he looked up, shocked. He opened his mouth to say something, but Leona beat him to it. Whatever he had to say, he wasn't in the mood.
"Just get me down from here, no questions asked.", was all he said, sounding deadpanned. Ruggie continued to look at him in shock. Leona became annoyed.
"What?!", he yelled out. That snapped Ruggie out of it, causing him to laugh hysterically in his usual ringing cackle. Leona growled in anger.
"Th-the great 'King of Savanaclaw', de-defeated by -HAHAHA- a bunch of VINES! Oh, oh sweet Seven it's too much!", the hyena beastman screamed out through his laughter, bending over to hold his stomach. It didn't seem like he was going to calm down anytime soon, so Leona decided to make him for the sake of his pride.
"SHUT UP, YOU STUPID HYENA! STOP LAUGHING AND GET ME DOWN FROM HERE!", the green eyed man yelled, causing the hyena in question to stifle his laughter to a quiet giggle and set about doing as he was told.
Raising his magic pen, Ruggie pointed it at the vines holding Leona.
"Dissolutum!", he shouted, and a small flash of yellow light shot out from the pen, disintegrating the vines when it hit them. Leona abruptly fell to the ground, not batting an eye at the height he was falling from. When he hit the ground, Leona gracefully fell on his feet and fixed his clothes and hair. Ruggie put his pen away and looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
"So, what happened exactly...?", he asked, and flinched when Leona glared at him.
"What did I say about questions?", he asked rhetorically, and Ruggie had the good sense not to try his luck again after his laughing fit.
"Nevermind.", he said stiffly, walking towards the door. Leona, however, stayed where he was. Ruggie looked back at him, able to make out his contemplative expression in spite of the darkness that had come when night had fallen not moments ago due to his enhanced sight.
"You coming?", he asked with his hands behind his head. Leona nodded and turned away from him.
"Yeah, I'll be there in a minute. I gotta take care of something first.", the dorm head grumbled, and Ruggie shrugged and resolved to wait for him outside before continuing his trek.
When the door shut once more, Leona's ears twitched and he pulled out his phone. After briefly scrolling through his contacts, he tapped the name of the person he wanted to call and tapped his foot with a hand on his hip as the dial tone rang. When it ceased, the first words out of Leona's mouth were;
"Hey Scarabi. Yeah, I know it's been a while, but I've got a question for you; how do you get a woman to want to marry you?"
I've had this scene in my head since I started this fic, and by God does it feel good to write it out. Next time, egg brawls and Sam time!
So long and Goodnight, Thackery Binx.