Hello everyone! Well, I kinda hurt my hand, so I can't really play guitar, which means I get to write a story! Strings are dangerous when they snap...

Anyway, i've had this idea for a while now, so I decided to go with it.

This is book one of the Chronicles Of Happy Tree Town. I'm gonna give a bio of how I think all the characters arrived there, and how it became an city where no one ever dies permanently.

Meth, Nanette, Crystal, Lucy, and Ruby will be in it, for those of you who remember my OCs, lol, but i'm gonna start with the creation of immortality.

If you've read my old work, you'll know that I have a somewhat dark way of writing, but I still can't surpass deadliving. I'll keep trying though, ^^'

You will be surprised by the character's roles, but it will go back to normal later on.

Any way, here we go. BTW, Meth will have a role in this story, but he will have his own explaining how and why he is what he is.

Book I: Shine

Prologue

Lumpy sat at his work bench for what seemed like ever before he noticed the loud banging at his door. Mumbling, he pushed away from his array of test tubes and beakers, before walking to a sink to quickly decontaminate.

He spent fifteen years of his life studying at the Institution of Medicinal Research outside of Oakvale, plus another three years apprenticing under Dr. Mitchell, a man who has made brilliant strides at curing several diseases few even knew existed.

Dr. Mitchell has also worked to help his son, Simon, who was diagnosed with minor brain damage at birth, achieve a normal life, and he was then diagnosed with asthma and given the nickname Sniffles.

Sniffles was always watching Lumpy as he worked in the doctor's laboratory, marking test samples and keeping records, and anything else that needed doing.

Sniffle was commonly known throughout the neighborhood, and often played with the children. So Lumpy was a little surprised this day to-

Well, i'm getting ahead of myself, all you need to know is that Lumpy is a very talented scientist who has spent the last five years of his life trying to find the cure for many deadly diseases and infections, including the cure for death.

He quickly climbed up the staircase and ran to the door. Sniffles, the blue anteater, was crying softly and tugged on Lumpy's sleeve.

"Mr. Lumpy, you have to come help! There was an car accident! Peter's wife and son are in trouble!"

Lumpy took a last look to the stairs that lend back to his workshop, but he sighed and followed the anteater to the scene of the trouble, but there wasn't anything that could have prepared him for what he saw.

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Peter was a dedicated patriot, and devout father of one son with another on the way. He served two terms in the military, and returned home to his wife and son just last year.

Mary had met Peter when they were both nine years old. Mary was a badger, and the bear had to save her from some minor bullying and name calling. Well, they hit it off and they dated steadily through high school, announcing their plan to marry each other at Peter's open house. Things moved steadily after that, Peter being discharged after being hit with shrapnel, earning him the exit rank of staff sergeant.

The first time Peter saw his son in all his time away, he was already six, and recognized his father as if he hadn't ever left. He walked straight up to him and called him Pop, so that was what he was called. Tommy was the kid's name, and Pop was the proud father of him.

It was on this day, seven months later, that Tommy and his mother Mary were returning from a visit to the doctor, that her favorite song came on the radio. It was Shine by Pillar, and every time she heard it, she couldn't help humming along or singing.

She turned onto the road leading to the neighborhood where they lived, and bent down to increase the volume of the radio. Tommy began yelling from the backseat, which caught the attention of Mary.

Right as the radio's volume increased, she noticed the overturned truck and the driver waving for her to pass around.

She slammed the breaks and the car swerved to the right. They would have passed safely, but the car's Anti-Lock Braking System activated and began pumping the breaks. The car lurched back towards the truck, colliding violently into the under body's full frame, tearing their small sedan with the uni-body to shreds as it lurched sideways and rolled several times.

Herman always swore that those ABS systems took more lives than they saved, and he was right.

Oh, excuse me, I keep getting off track. Herman is known throughout the neighborhood as a handy man, a beaver who could fix almost anything, and it was this day he was coming home from the construction site where he worked.

Given the name Handy, he was thinking back to the discussion he had with the foreman about where he saw himself in the business. He hadn't really thought much on it and the foremen told him they were talking about promoting Herman to site manager.

Handy was happy about the news and hadn't known about the sliding before it was too late. His truck was flipped and he was standing outside of it without and injuries. He slid on his hardhat and began setting road flares around the overturned vehicle when he saw the sedan closing in.

He was relieved when he saw the vehicle passing safely, but heard the noise that would haunt him for the rest of his life.

The ABS motors pumped the breaks, sending the uni-body sedan into the full-framed pickup that exploded when the tank was ruptured by the impact. The sedan went flipping end over end, while the flaming wreckage of the truck flew at Handy, sending him flying into a street light.

He was laying sprawled out on the ground when the motor left the doghouse of the vehicle and landed directly on his out-stretched arms. He suffered the immense pain before blacking out completely.

The car, however, wasn't better off from the experience. Being less reinforced than the pickup, the roof caved in on the first tumble, merely inches from the frightened passengers. The remains of the car landed upside down several hundred feet away from the beginning of the accident.

The dash was crumpled in, but the firewall held strong, keeping the motor from leaving the engine bay and landing onto the driver.

Battered and bleeding, Mary slowly opened her eyes and feared what she saw. The car was totaled, but the backseat was missing. The entire car was folded like a crushed can, and the whole rear end missing.

The safety glass was scattered everywhere and she had full vision of the rest of the vehicle. The rear end was sitting, facing her as if some cruel joke was played on her. Tommy was still sitting in his booster seat that featured 'Splendid the Super Squirrel' fighting off the dangers of drunk drivers.

His neck was twisted in an impossibly comfortable angle, and the child was coughing weakly, his arms twitching weakly.

The sight of this horrible tragedy caused unbelievable stress, as if surviving an accident wasn't enough, she began to go into labor.

She was crying hysterically when Sniffles came running over. Mary heard the footsteps and tried to compose herself.

"Gee, are you okay?" Sniffles asked as he neared the wreckage.

"Stop Sniffles!" Mary yelled weakly before he came to a spot where Tommy would be visible.

Sniffles blinked, but stopped.

"Sniffles, I need you to go get Mr. Lumpy! Tell him it's important!"

"But," Sniffles began, "I'm really not supposed to go that far, my mommy will be mad."

"It's okay, you can do this. Your mommy won't be angry. But you have to hurry!"

Sniffles nodded and quickly ran off towards the end of the neighborhood.

Through some miracle the radio was still being powered and the console swung freely, the speakers still blaring the song.

She closed her eyes and began breathing heavily.

The band on the radio kept playing as if nothing happened, "Heaven let your light shine down..."

Well, there you have it. Sorry there wasn't much talking, it's only a prologue and there will be actual dialogue in the next chapter.

If you liked it, feel free to comment with anything I messed up on.

Thanks for reading.