The haziness of the early morning gave the forest a mystical appearance, light peeked out from the dense trees in thin curtains and every plant sparkled under its rays. It was a refreshing sight for Lenti; he spent so much of his time indoors lately, due to both the weather and his work on the food truck, that he hadn’t had the chance to really take in the spring season like this. The brown Pacapillar strolled on the path with only a small bag strapped on to his body; it dangled off to one side, just barely not making contact with his 5 nubby legs. He had to stop to adjust the bag for a moment and behind him three onion creatures, his “OhYes” companions, almost ran into him. These nearly identical creatures stood behind Lenti in a row watching him fumble with his bag, their onion plant stalks swaying in the wind each one with a different colored ribbon. While Lenti was busy, the trio of onions took this opportunity to run and jump in some nearby puddles. Like little kids they played, cheering little squeaks with every splash.
”Red, Blue, Yellow, it’s time to get going!” Lenti called to the OhYes’s, having finally finished adjusting his bag. Red and Yellow made a few more splashes before returning to Lenti’s side, Blue was the only one who kept splashing in the huge puddle, “Come on, Blue!” he called again, this time Blue heard him and hopped out shaking off the excess water. Seeing his onion friend heard this time, Lenti turned and continued on the path with Red and Yellow trailing close behind.
CRASH! The loud sound came from behind the group followed by a high pitched squeak, Lenti whipped his head back around to see an object plopped in the middle of the puddle with Blue laying face first in the dirt. Lenti darted over to Blue’s side, lifting him up to his feet, “Are you okay?”
Blue’s normally happy googly eyes looked more like that of an “OhNo’s”, he let out a little whimper wiping the tears from his eyes, “I-I think so.” Looking over his shoulder at the object sitting in the water, “It didn’t hit me.”
Lenti dusted off the dirt on his onion’s blue ribbon, “At least you’re okay.” He kept an eye on the leafy clump sitting motionless in the puddle, it seemed to be just a collection of leaves and a few tree branches, but something seemed off about it that he couldn’t make sense of. He didn’t have to wonder much longer; the pile started to inch back and forth. He thought he had imagined it, but the onions all let out a frightened shout and hid behind him confirming he wasn’t the only one that saw it move. The plant mass continued to shuffle around and Lenti quickly dug through his bag and dragged out a small pointer stick from it, a stick one would see in a classroom setting. It was the only thing he had on him that he could use to fend off a creature; with a quick fling of the stick, it changed from a small object slightly bigger than Lenti’s hand to longer than his Pacapillar head feelers.
The plant mass bounced out of the puddle away from Lenti and his group, it gave a quick shake of its body making debris and water fly off. The creature’s body was green with cat-like ears on its leafy body, one of its eyes peeked out from under a huge leaf that hung from its forehead, if it wasn’t for the blue flower on one of its ears this creature would be entirely green. It let out a squeak, “Ugh! I missed it!” The green creature hopped in its frustration, “It was right here, I know it! I heard it!” It then froze in place now noticing it was being stared at by a Pacapillar and his trio of onions.
Lenti put his pointer stick back into its small shape and tucked it away in his bag. He knew he wouldn’t need it now. This creature was a Foliage, the spring version of it in fact. He read about these cat-like, plant, spirits, before but never saw one up close like this, “It’s nothing to be afraid of guys, she’s not going to hurt us.” Lenti reassured his onion companions and they stepped out from behind him. “What is it you’re looking for?” He asked the leafy cat that looked at him confused tilting his head.
“A bug, I was so close to getting it and now it’s gone! I guess I just have to hunt for it later…” She sighed, “Oh why do I bother, you can’t understand what I’m saying anyway.” The Foliage scoffed, shaking her head.
“I can understand you.” Lenti replied with a laugh.
“What?! Since when can Pacapillars understand the voice of plant beings?!” The Foliage’s eye widened, staring Lenti down.
“Well, when you’ve lived with ‘plant beings’ for long enough, you start to learn their speech.” Lenti smiled, it was rare that his unique knowledge of the plant squeak speech came in handy like this, “So do you need help finding that-?” Before he could even finish his question the green leaf creature was hopping all around in front of him.
“Oh, forget about the bug, you can hear me for real!” The Foliage hopped around in just the exact excited way that his onions do, it made him smile to see his onions aren’t the only plant beings that does that.
“Well, if you say so.” Lenti laughed, shuffling his nubby hand in his bag pulling out a pinkish pellet, “Here, how about you try this?” The Foliage stopped hopping and gazed at the little pellet confused.
“What is this?”
“It’s a snack. The onions like them a lot, I thought you would too.”
The large cat eye of the leafy creature stared at the pellet. She creeped closer, giving it a better look before snatching it right from Lenti’s palm. She didn’t hesitate to give the pellet a little toss into the air right into her mouth. She munched on it making tiny happy squeaky sounds. The onion trio that stood beside Lenti just eyed him, “Hey, don’t look at me like that, it was only one.” He gave them a pat on the head and began to walk down the path, “Come on, guys, let’s get going.” The onions followed behind leaving the Foliage.
“Hey, wait!” The leafy cat creature bounced ahead of the group blocking their path, “Before you leave, why don’t I show you something?”
Lenti tilted his head, “Show us what?”
“I collect flowers, you see.” The Foliage placed a leafy limb to her chest, “And over my years, I have grown a garden with all of the seeds I’ve collected. It’s not every day that someone can understand me and I can easily ask if they want to see my garden. So… why not come and see it? You won’t regret it, I promise!”
Lenti pondered for a moment, “Well… we could see it. Sounds like it would be fun.” He turned to his onions, “What do you guys think?”
“Sounds fun!” Yellow hopped in place.
“I don’t see why not.” Red replied nodding, ”Might even find some more puddles to jump into too.” He mumbled to Blue with a smile and Blue nodded in agreement.
“Alright, we’ll come over and see your garden.” Lenti smiled.
“Great!” grabbing hold of Lenti’s hand the leafy creature led him off the main path going straight through the thick forest.
“So, how far is this garden?” Lenti asked.
“It’s not far from here, we’ll be there in no time.” The Foliage whistled hopping along taking Lenti down a curved path dodging bushes and trees, “I just realized! I never told you my name.” The leafy cat’s eye widened, “My name’s Molly, and you’re…?”
“Lenti.” The brown Pacapillar replied with a grin.
“Lenti! Yes I know for sure you’ll love this garden I have!” Molly tweeted, “Just a few more turns and we’ll be right there! Oh, I’m so excited!” Before long, the forest thinned out leading to a small plain; there, the amount of flowers was more than Lenti imagined. There were so many different colors all clustered in one place, they were all organized in sections that made the area look like a checkerboard of color.
Lenti and his onions all glanced around in awe, “Wow… This is amazing! Lenti let go of Molly’s limb and quickly dug out a camera from his bag, “You okay if I take some pictures?”
“Of course! Take as many as you want!” Molly chirped and spun around on the spot. The onions that were following behind ran past both Molly and Lenti into the garden. It didn’t take long for them to find another puddle to hop around in yet again.
“Those onions and their love of puddles...” Lenti shakes his head with a light chuckle. He strolled by taking pictures of the flowers.
“By the way.” Molly started, “I have an even cooler and bigger flower deeper in the garden!” She bounced in front of Lenti towards a path off from the garden, “Come and follow me, you have to see it!”
Lenti called to his onions that he would be right back before following Molly. This part of the garden was thicker, and despite it being morning, it was almost entirely cased in shadow. Sitting in the middle of the area on a small raised part of the ground was a huge red, speckled, flower, so large in fact it was nearly the size of Lenti himself.
“Wow!” His eyes widened; he never saw a flower like this before, just as he was about to get closer to it he stopped abruptly. The smell hit him like a truck and made him gag and quickly cover his snoot, “What is this smell?” Lenti mumbled. He knew this smell; it brought back a memory that he long had tossed out of his mind, but now came flooding back in like it was yesterday. A memory when he forgot leftovers in the back of his fridge with a smell he would never forget: the smell of rotting meat. Hesitant, Lenti walked a bit closer to the flower; surely, it wasn’t coming from the flower itself, but boy was he wrong. It was even stronger now and Lenti had to back off. Molly didn’t seem to notice Lenti’s discomfort at all and continued all the way up next to the flower.
“Tatda!” Molly spread out her leaf limbs towards it, “What do you think? It’s amazing, right? Even the bugs love it too, I get so many flies coming around you wouldn’t believe it.” She now hopped up on one of the petals of the large flower and Lenti just watched, before he could collect his thoughts the Foliage spoke again, “Oh, you don’t need to say anything, I can tell you’re amazed by it already. Everyone I’ve shown this flower to always gets stunned by its beauty!” Lenti was stunned all right, stunned that Molly could even stand next to that flower. With a tilt of her head Molly asked, “What’s wrong?” Only now noticing Lenti’s discomfort.
Not wanting to offend Molly, Lenti put on his best face trying to hold back his gags, “t’s nothing, I just…” He stumbled over his words, taking a moment before continuing, “I realized… the time and I have to get going.” He started taking a small step back.
“Aw, well alright.” Sliding off the flower’s petal Molly hopped back over, “At least get yourself a picture before you go.” Lenti quickly snapped a few pictures from where he was standing, while he was farther away from it he still was able to get some decent pictures of the red flower. After that, the two went back from where they came, entering into the checkerboard flower field. “It was fun to have someone come and see my collection. I always love showing it off and have shown it to a lot of Pacapillars before, but…” Molly paused for a moment, “This time was different, since you can understand my words.” There was another slight pause from Molly before she looked up at Lenti with her wide eyes, “You’ll come and see me again sometime, right? Maybe I can show you around these parts of the forest?”
“Sure Molly, I would love to.” Lenti smiled and gave her a small pat on the head before calling out, “Red, Blue, Yellow, it’s time to get going!” The onions came running over from the puddles they were playing in, the group was then led off from the garden by Molly back onto the path where they met. “Thank you for showing us your garden, it was fun.” Lenti said to Molly, making her smile and give a small nod.
The group waved to Molly before she spring back up into the trees above disappearing into the leaves. Continuing their stoll on the path, this once uneventful stroll now became a memorable one for better or for worse. Lenti turned to his onions and whispered, “Remind me next time we go out to pack a mask with me.”