Storm POV

"So you said a short grey man with a gun, and a pale green-"

"It's Sward! I've told you I know it was him!" I insist.

Test looks doubtful from my claim, but maybe he just doesn't want it to be true.

Well, who wants to admit a traitor has returned?

The only reason I didn't break his ungrateful neck along with Mr sunshades with the pew pew toy was Leif's wellbeing.

For a moment I had feared she had been shot with the slight trickle of blood down her face. But upon closer inspection it was just a tough blow to the head.

The next time I see that shortie I swear I'll snap his skull over my knee for what he did to her.

Screw what Test said about 'only subduing your opponent'. I'll straight up murder him. If he has the cruel stupidity to have my best friend at point blank, he doesn't deserve 'respect'. He clearly didn't respect or care about her life so why should I?

"Do you have any clue why they attacked Leif?" Test moves on, briefly lingering over her.

She'd been messed up so badly by those jerks she passed out. I'm the only one who messes with her, and even then I don't scare her to the point of breaking her fragile self. What the heck did they do to her?

I mean.. I got us chased by a bear when were were younger. Can you really top that?

Oh.. and.. I guess I also almost turned on the oven while she was in it. (I swear I didn't know what those knobs did. And don't ask how I got her in there in the first place, but trust me when I say she is REALLY gullible.)

Well, she's probably the most passive, sweet, innocent little flower in this entire town. While most girls our age was (aughhh gross) having crushes and busy trying to make themselves look like dolls and get the attention of the guys, and without my awesome ideas for adventure, Leif was just like a kid.

Looking at the world around her in a childlike wonder, afraid to leave her sister's house unless I was there with her or when she was surrounded by flora. Everyone in town says she never really left the house, even when Linda was still here. Maybe that stopped her from growing up?

Really, if your childhood is all you have around you, do you ever leave it behind? If it's all you have to hold on to, can you really grow out of it?

Maybe it was the safety of her home that created her childish illusions that the world was safe, that people were kind and good natured. A delusion I've tried to lightly break, so she wouldn't get into this kind of situation. So it'd hurt less, so she could prepare herself and brace when she met bad people.

Some job I did.

Whatever little ways I could have possibly helped her grow into a more logical, less naive, mindset could not have possibly prepared her to be stuck at gunpoint.

To be fair, these things never happened here in Ferdun town.

Regardless that's no excuse for not to have been there. I should have been there for her. I'm her best friend for Pete's sake!

I'm.. her only friend.

"That.." Test stops, lifting her arm where a small leaf lays over it, like a big sticker.

I honestly take the time to ponder how a single leaf could have somehow stayed on her with me literally blazing it through the forest back to to town before Test stopped me.

I hear him draw a sharp breath, a hovering "can it be" left unspoken in the air..

"What? Did they hurt her somewhere else?" I demand. "Coz if they did I will tear the whole forest down by hand and find-"

"Life energy from Grenendaris.." He gasped.

"What from the Gramma Turd Ez?"

His eyes grow distant, traveling through years of memory to whatever he's connected in that head of his.

He reaches out and touches the leaf as if it were an antique found once again. He attempts to peel it off but from his efforts it just looks like it was super glued to her skin.

"Um.. Test?" I scowl at my former teacher. "Why are you caressing a leaf?"

Man, his love life must suck if he's courting plant parts now.

"Where was she again?" He questions. "The forest you said? Was there.. a big tree? Radiating some sort of warmth?"

"Uhh yeah, the forest. Uhh.. guess there was a tree that was pretty big? As for the warmth thing I think it was just coz my thunder left 'em smoking. Heh." I let a spark of electricity flicker in my palm to emphasise the point.

"I think I know what those men-"

"A shortie and Sward."

"-were doing there." He goes on, ignoring my interjection. "And if they were of the nature you described.. their intentions are going to mean they are not going to leave things as they are."

"So what. They show their faces, I'll put a hole through them." Honestly did he expect any less? HE trained me, and I schooled him and Sward, regardless of age.

"Storm, they are going to harass her, she is going to be in danger-"

"Ow."

Leif sits up, touching the part of her head where dried blood had stuck. She looks around in confusion a moment before registering us before her. "Oh. Hi Storm. Hi Test."

"LEIF!" I crush her in a chokehold- hug. I mean hug.

I mean.. I hate hugs. I hate it when she does it to me. But I think after all that trauma, she needs and deserves it.

I let go after Test taps my shoulder urgently, bringing to awareness her strangled gasps for breath.

"I am gonna make those goons pay for what they did to you!" I promise her, shaking her by the shoulders to let my words echo into her.

After I release her, she looks at her arm, at the leaf still clinging on.

"It.. wasn't just a dream then?" She murmurs to herself.

The moment she speaks, the leaf peels itself off her and floats up to meet her eye level.

"DEMON LEAF!" I holler, swinging an electrically charged fist down on it.

Who replaced it with hard metal. Because that's how it feels like the moment the impact lands.

"AAAOOOOOWWWWWWW!!!" I screech, whipping my hand back to affirm it hasn't broken. Yep. A dumb titanium leaf thingy can't break these guns. But seriously. OWWWWWWWW

I swear it's laughing at me. I don't know how, but it glows in brief intervals, as it bobs midair. Mimicking laughter.

I have never felt more ridiculed in my life by a leaf. I have never been ridiculed by a leaf, period.

It lands on Leif's head, on the hidden criss cross of bandages before building a more consistent glow. She looks a little startled, but doesn't seem to be suffering. It gently tugs off the cloth, letting it fall like potato skin being peeled around her head, revealing no injury that earlier had been spitting blood.

Okay. Bless that leaf.

Leif looks at in in awe before whispering a soft "Thank you". The tree clipping taps her forehead lightly before lying to rest on the back of her hand.

"Leif.. did you by any chance get hit by a concentration of warm energy? Before you passed out I mean." Test speaks up, breaking the mesmerising silence of the miracle performed.

"Uh... yeah..." She answers, lightly she taps a spot between her chest and abdomen. "It hit me right here."

"Did you.. hear anything? A voice perhaps that sort of echoes in your head?" Test presses.

"Um.. yes."

"What did it say?"

"Uh.. I.. think.." Leif's eyes flicker to the ceiling as she attempts to pull the words from her memory. "Something like 'The choice was made long ago'.. I don't remember it well, sorry.."

"Leif, I think.. Grenendaris made you his Chosen." Test deduced, voice wrapped in awe, yet terror.

"Who made me what?"

"Grenendaris, the Energy of Life manifested into a form in the shape of a dragon, though he prefers to stay inside his tree. Which I believe is the one you were unfortunately blocking those men from." Test explains. "Energy dragons.. they.. they are the being that first gave abilities to humanity. Long ago, people asked to be able to wield certain elements, and those they deemed responsible and worth, were Blessed with the manipulative power over that certain energy."

"But some, like the Unvirs and Nevirods, choose only one person to bind to through a connection to help aid them in their work of keeping things balanced. The people they pick to be the vessel of their connection, are Chosens. And now,"

"I'm.. his Chosen?" Leif concluded, though her face still help confusion.

"How exactly do you know all this?" I questioned, narrowing my eyes at my former teacher. "Oh! Are you gonna be all movie cliche and turn out to be like the opposite of whatever she is and back stab her in the end for you to be the most powerful one standing?"

"Umm.. no."

Man. And I thought things were gonna get interesting.

"2 years ago, before I came to live here, I met Grenendaris." Test retells the tale before I can question him on anymore movie cliches. "Drapus was in bad shape when we made the journey here and.. he didn't make it. But Grenendaris took pity on him and revived him. And as exchange, Drapus lives in the forest and tries to help Grenendaris when he can."

"I guess he wasn't there when it mattered, huh." I grumbled.

"He didn't come back for the evening as he usually does." Test frowns, a hint of worry. "Stay with Leif. I'll go call him again."

I sit beside her as he exits through the door.

"Sooo..." I look at her. "What's it-"

"Her name's Gem." Leif smiles, as the leaf circles around her hand.

"Uh.. what?"

"She said her name is Gemalinder, but to just call her Gem." Leif must be insane to think a sentient magical leaf is capable of having and telling her its name-

Okay nevermind. This whole situation is so insane it makes sense.

I play along. "Well okay. What's 'Gem' telling you?"

Her curiosity and awe melts away into terror. Whatever the plant organ told her clearly doesn't seem good.

"We shouldn't have let Test go out alone." She mumbles.