Barbara and Lance
I'm out on another night patrol through the academy. I know it sounds exhausting, but it's all part of the job as a Disciplinary Committee Member.
Everything seems to be in order so far, but that was until I spot something, which is part of the reason why we have these night patrols. I sigh in disapproval and annoyance at the sight I see. Two human students, both girls, are standing outside of the forest furries dorm gate. One is standing on top of the other girl's shoulders, trying to climb the wall.
"Seriously?" I whispered to myself, shaking my head.
So, doing my job, I walk over to them and put a stop to their plans. I clear my throat very loudly and both girls gasp in surprise, then the girl on top falls to the ground with the bottom girl tumbling with her. Both girls groan in pain and look up at me.
"And just what are you two doing out here so late?" I question them with a stern voice.
"We-uh," the first girl trails off, trying to think of a cover-up.
"We were just trying to get Annika's bracelet back," the second girl jumps in, "one of the girls this morning was being mean to us and she took Annika's bracelet and threw it over the wall."
The first girl, Annika, nods her head in agreement. "Yeah, that's right! And we were just trying to climb over the wall so we can get it back."
I raise my brow at them and I see them sweat with nerves. "Really girls?" I question them, "You expect me, Barbara, the Leader of the Disciplinary Committee, to believe that old fib?
Their faces fall and they moan in guilt, "You mean you've already heard that one?"
I sigh and shake my head at their ignorance, "Honestly I can't tell you how many times I've heard that lie or many other ones," I tell them, "now let's be honest here, you two are here so you can get a hopeful glimpse at the forest furries," I confirm their reason.
They look at each other then back at me and nod their heads.
"Mm-hm, just as I thought," I hum.
"Well can you blame us, Barbara?" The second girl questions me, "the forest furries are just so cute and gorgeous," she gushes out, "I mean, you can't help but just want to catch a glimpse of them-"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get it," I interrupt her, not wanting to hear another word, "but that doesn't mean that you two are off the hook, I'm afraid you two will have to come with me to the Headmaster's Office."
At first, they whine in protest but they knew they can't argue with me any further. So the two try to stand up, but Annika stops and yelps in pain, and lowers back down onto her knees.
"Annika, are you okay?" Her friend asks her with worry.
"What is it? What's wrong?" I ask her, rushing to her aid, kneeling beside her.
"My knee hurts a lot," Annika whimpers in pain, tears pricking at the corner of her eyes.
I look down at her knee and see that it's all red and bruised. She must've landed on her knee when she fell off of her friend.
"Oh no," Her friend whispers.
"That doesn't look good," I said, "we'll have to take you to the school nurse and have that-" But then I was interrupted by the sound of rustling bushes behind me.
I quickly stand up and turn towards the sound, standing in front of the girls in hopes to protect them. The rustling continues until there was an added sound to it. It sounds like something sliding against the ground. Like something being dragged.
I search through the shadows of the trees and bushes, trying to locate the source of the sound. Until finally, the source emerges and shows itself in our sight.
It was a male rattlesnake furry. He was about 7 ft. tall, with the help of his tail holding him up. His scales were copper and bronze colors, and I can see dark brown diamond patterns on his tale so he must be a diamondback rattlesnake furry. And he is very muscular, his muscles are big. He's wearing a western-style vest with some Native American jewelry on it, and on his leather cowboy hat too. His eyes are a glowing yellow, narrowing with slits in them, staring down at us with the lust to kill in them. And his mouth was pulled back with an evil grin and I can see his long and pointy fangs poking out with venom covering them.
"Well, well," He coos at us, with his deep scary western accent, "lookie what I found."
The two girls behind me whimper in fear, while I stand strong, not letting my fear surface.
"Three young, beautiful, and delicious girls," He purrs as his glowing eyes examine us, "well ain't this my lucky night."
"What are you doing here?" I question him with a hard and firm voice, "This is school property, no outsiders allowed."
"Oh is it now? Now I coulda sworn that there was a sign at the front gate that says all humans and furries welcome," He quotes the words from the plaque sign that we have at the front gate of our school.
"Yes, but not furries like you," I sneer at him.
"Oh really now? And how exactly are ya gonna make me leave darlin'?" He questions me, slithering closer, "You gonna give me a smack on my hand and tell me I've been a naughty snake?"
My heart pounds harder and harder against my chest and my body feels like it's gone cold with fear. I'm trying hard to think of something, but my mind was completely blank.
The rattlesnake chuckles in evil amusement, "Yeah I didn't think so, now why don't ya'll be a couple of good girls and stand still, I wanna enjoy this as much as I can." He hisses and slithers closer with his rattle on the end shaking and making loud rattle noises.
The girls behind me whimper even louder and cower in fear, holding each other for comfort. I am not going to let this snake hurt these girls. And if I have to sacrifice myself to keep them safe, I will.
But before the snake could do anything, someone jumps in front of me and punches the rattlesnake square in the jaw. The rattlesnake grunts and falls to the ground with a bit of blood coming out of his mouth. I look up and see it's Lance who came to my aid.
I look back at the rattlesnake and see him getting back up on his tail and nursing his poor jaw from where he got punched. He turns to Lance and glares at him with deep hatred.
"Why you weak, boneless, antlered, piece of rug!!" He throws insults at Lance and was about to strike at him but was stopped by Tyler, a grey rabbit furry.
Tyler quickly jabs the rattlesnake in the stomach, which makes him double over in pain, and the rattlesnake turns to Tyler, who sticks his fingers by his ears and blows raspberries at him. Tyler was a bit of a goofy furry, but whenever you need him, he's got your back.
The rattlesnake growls and glares at Tyler and swiftly slithers over to him and tries to strike at him. But Tyler was much to fast for the snake. As the rattlesnake keeps trying to strike him, Tyler ends up leading him to Barnabus, who stands tall, takes a big deep breath, and lets out a mighty roar. The rattlesnake backs away from Barnabus, looks around, and sees that he is surrounded by half of the forest furries.
"Like the young lady here was telling you earlier," Lance steps forward and confronts the rattlesnake, "these are school grounds and there are no outsiders allowed. So I suggest that you leave this place or else," Lance growls that last part then stops his hoof onto the ground, showing the rattlesnake some dominance.
The rattlesnake was quiet at first, snarling at Lance and the forest furries in hatred. But I'm sure that he knows he can't take on a whole group of forest furries, he had to back down. He growls in frustration and slithers away, heading back to the direction where the gate is.
Lance turns to two cougar furries, Samuel and Samantha, who are twin siblings, and he orders them, "Follow him, make sure he actually leaves." The two nod their heads and go after the rattlesnake. Lance turns to me with a soft expression now on his face, and he raises his hand and caresses my cheek. "Are you okay?" He asks me with concern.
I nod my head, "I'm fine, but Annika is injured." I gesture to the girls behind me. They all look and see her bruised knee.
Lance then turns to Barnabus, "Barnabus, would you please escort them to the nurse's office and have her knee looked at?" He asks him.
Barnabus nods his big head then walks over to the girls and gently picks up Annika, bridal style, and has her friend follow him back to the school.
Lance turns his attention back to me and smiles warmly at me. "I'm glad to see that you're alright."
I smile back at him, feeling the familiar warmth in my heart again.
Lance tucks a loose strand of my red hair into my ear. "I admire how brave you were standing up to that Rattlesnake and protecting your classmates Barbara, but one thing I can't stand is you having to face off a dangerous predator like him by yourself."
My smile fell and I sigh and look down, but that was stopped by Lance grabbing my chin and lifting my head back up and have me look into his beautiful eyes.
"You're strong Barbara, but you're also delicate to me, and I will do everything in my power to protect you," Lance whispers to me, then he leans forward and presses a soft kiss on my forehead.
I froze at his actions and my eyes widen, and I feel the heat of blush covering my cheeks.
Lance leans back and smiles down at me and pats my cheek very gently. "You should head back to your dorm room and get some rest, we've had quite a night tonight."
I snap out of my daze and nod my head, agreeing with him. Then we both part ways and head to our seperate dorm rooms. But as I'm walking back to my dorm, I suddenly remember my debt to Lance. Now that he's come for my rescue again like he always has, my debt for him has grown higher and higher than it was before.
I just don't know what I can do to pay it off any longer.
Elizabeth and Seth
Ever since yesterday, when I caught Seth's wife, Natasha, making out with her husband's rival for the Mayor's title, William Sheffield, it's been driving me crazy! So many times I want to walk up to Seth and tell him what I saw, but I also think maybe I shouldn't because I'm scared that Seth won't believe me. I mean this is his wife we're talking about! Yeah sure they have been having some problems lately but Seth still does love her, I think. Anyway, if I were to just waltz in and tell him that his wife is cheating on him, he'll either be crushed or he'll deny it.
Ugh! I'm going coconuts here!
I sigh in self misery as I turn off the copy machine and grab the stack of papers I had copied for Seth. I hold the stack up to my chest and walk out of the copy room and head down the hall. I was on my way back to Seth's office, when I was stopped, by Natasha.
Natasha jumps in front of me out of nowhere with a menacing glare. I gasp and jump in fear and fix my glasses, which slightly fell out of place.
"Oh-uh," I stutter out, "he-hello Mrs. Lionheart, how lovely to see you again."
"Shut your mouth you little pipsqueak!" She sneers down at me.
I cower away from her, scared out of my mind and shaking with fear.
"I know you saw me with that Sheffield sheep, your lucky you haven't told Seth because if you did then you would've been dead the next few minutes," Natasha growls at me and points her claw at my face.
I shake in fear at the sight of her angry face and her sharp claws being only a few inches away from my face. "I-I swear I haven't said anything!" I shout.
"And that's good, it'll save you less time to get your eyes clawed out," Natasha growls showing all her claws.
I whimper at the thought of that, but then, I don't know what motivated me, but I ended up asking her, "Why would you cheat on your husband anyway?"
My question surprised her because her facial expression changed from threatening rage to shock.
"Why would you cheat on someone as amazing as Seth?" I question her, "Why would you cheat on a lion who's generous, and sweet, and strong, and a natural born leader? Why?"
Natasha was silent at first. Her lips tighten and her eyes narrow in anger again. "You want to know? Fine, I'll tell you why," Natasha says and puts her hands on her hips, "The reason I've cheated on Seth is because he is too much of a goody-two-shoes. He cares about his precious town and the people who live in it and he wants to give them all a happy life here. I find his generosity and good will sickening. And you know what else, being the wife the Mayor has its perks. As being Seth's wife, I can get anything I want, because otherwise if they don't give me what I want, I tell them that they will have my husband, the Mayor, to deal with. And I have been getting away with it for a long time without having Seth finding out. But now that you know, and knowing how much of a teacher's pet you are to Seth, I can't have you blabbing to him about all this, so I'm here to make sure that you keep your mouth shut!" Natasha then reaches over and grabs me by the neck and lifts me off the ground and slams me against the wall.
I cry out in fear and pain and start to cry as I see Natasha raising her paw in the air ready to strike me.
"NO!!" I scream, closing my eyes, waiting for the impact to come.
But it never does. I peek my eyes open and see Seth standing behind Natasha, holding her raised paw by the wrist. Seth looks outraged, almost murderous. He looks like he wants to break Natasha's wrist. Natasha struggles against Seth's grip, and that makes her grip on my neck release and I end up falling to the floor, coughing and taking deep breaths after being cut off from oxygen.
"Seth! What are you doing??" Natasha yells at Seth, struggling against his grip.
"What am I doing?" Seth questions her, letting her go, "what are you doing?? You were about to strike at Beth!!" Seth yells.
"That's none of your business!!" Natasha yells back at him, giving him a glare that's supposed to tell him to butt out.
"None of my business?! NONE OF MY BUSINESS?!?!" Seth yells/roars, "You trying to hurt Beth for no apparent reason is my business!!"
I have never seen Seth like this before. He is beyond angry, his voice almost sounds like he's roaring rather than yelling, and his yellow eyes were practically glowing with anger, and his growls grew so loud that it echoed off the hallway walls.
"OH?? Since when did you suddenly decide to defend your precious little aide and gang up on your wife??" Natasha questions him, putting her paws on her hips.
Seth narrows his eyes and growls, then gets in Natasha's face, making her back away a little, "Since I have seen and realized what kind of lioness you really are!"
Natasha wanted to say something but she just stuttered out her words, not getting her sentences at all. Seth then turns his back to her and comes to me. He kneels on the ground and lifts me into his arms. I gasp silently but quickly wrapped my arms around his mane-covered neck, not wanting to fall back to the ground.
Then Seth turns his attention back to Natasha and says to her in a stern voice, "I'm not going to let you take your anger out on innocent people Natasha. I may have let you off the hook for a lot of things, but this, this is unacceptable. Security!!" He shouts over his shoulder, then one of the security guards, who is a human, pops up from around the corner. "Joshua, would you please take my wife home?"
"Yes sir!" Joshua responds and walks over to Natasha, grabbing her by the arms an escorts/drags her to the exit.
"Wha-get your hands off me!!" Natasha commands the guard. "Seth! You can't do this to me!" She yells at Seth, who ignores her.
Seth turns his back on Natasha's retreating figure and carries me off, heading in the direction to the office.