Falling Deep
Summry: When Juniper Fallie (aspiring rock goddess, current delivery girl) delivers an order to a rickety shake in the woods she stumbles upon a world of color, music, and peace. "Don't lose yourself, you're falling deep and I'm worried just how low you'll steep. If this carries on you'll soon find us all gone. My friend, you're falling deep.."
Another Saturday, another pizza to be delivered in some strange part of the city she usually made an attempt to stay away from; and then after that an even longer drive into the woods where she hadn't known was there. A passing car drove past with their high lights on, temporally blinding her, and she was forced to slow to a crawl in front of a large group of bad asses that looked at her like she was meat on a hook. She kept her eyes glued ahead as she quickly sped up, not wanting to end up on the next day's obituary listings.
She accidentally drove past what could have easily been a cement block with a door and a few windows twice before she realized it was the listed address. She pulled over and quickly gathered the top pizza warmer and stepped out of the car, keys firmly in hand under the pizza and tucked uncomfortably between each finger. When she made it to the door she gave it a sharp rap with her knuckles and waved at a peeking eye when the curtain shifted a bit at the window; a moment later a balding man opened the door and laughed, "Damn, bitch, you knock like a cop; you know that?"
Juniper's lips twitched before she pulled them back in forced amusement and laughed, "Nah, I get a nicer reaction from people when I knock on their door with a pizza instead of a search warrant." The man laughed harder and handed over thirty dollars before telling her to keep the change and slamming the door in her face. Looking down at the receipt she walked back to her beat up clunker car with the mismatched parts and sped off, keeping the annoyance from her face until she was far enough to screw up nose and pout at the twenty-seven cent tip. Unless the next house in Bumfucked Egypt gave her a ten dollar tip she was looking at another dollar deal mean for supper, otherwise she'd be dipping into her rent money and the last time she'd done that she'd immediately regretted her actions in spite of having a full refrigerator.
Her landlord had, thankfully, forgiven her enough to make payments... Provided she also pay the ten percent interested for each month the bill carried over; which hadn't sounded like a bad deal at the time but now set her back another hundred and fifty a month. The small apartment was worth it, though, if the rumors of it previously belonging to the one and only woman to hit the top ten chart for five constitutive years with two or more songs, Clare Davis. Juniper's idle and aspiration, the single reason she'd ignored both friends and family alike to chase her impossible dream inside a pit hole of nightmare and self destruction.
Everything was okay, though, because the life she lead now was only a temporary. Her life was glitter, lights, and sound with her name being screamed by thousands of rapturous and adoring fans all wanting to hear HER sound. The time between there and where she was now didn't matter, it only mattered that she persevere until then, and if she had to eat a few stale mystery meat burgers along then so be it. Determination had her hands gripping the hard plastic of her steering wheel as she spotted the small trail where she'd been directed to go down and sighed, pulling along side the road and getting out of her car to consider it critically.
There was no doubt about it, her Patchwork monster of a car was to large to even think fitting through the trees was possible. Thankfully she'd tied her bike on her trunk for situations like these and niftily took it down, strapping the pizza onto the back and arming herself with mace and her panic alarm before taking off. She only had ten minutes to get the pizza to the client before the thirty-minute-or-less deal took effect and she found herself seventeen dollars and eight six cents short on payday. It was difficult to navigate the shadowy path and the gravel didn't help with her steering, but she kicked her feet against the pedals as fast as she could anyhow. She skidded more than once, just barely managing to catch herself and rebalanced before being torn from the seat and over the handlebars.
When the road started to get grassier the farther she went she wasn't sure to be thankful or worried, however the trees remained a good distance apart and close enough together to easily decipher where the path was. It took her several moments until she finally came to a large cleared area with a small shack in the center. Tree stumps circled the property and she had felt eery sensation of hidden eyes watching her every move the second her bike rolled in. She breathed heavily and stepped off her bike, walking it between the tree stumps and up to the rotting wooden steps before unstrapping the pizza and tiredly walking up to the door and giving it her standard businesslike rap.
She waited a bit, before frowning and knocking against the door with the sinking realization that it had been a crank order. She stamped her foot, not surprised at all when the wooden boards broke from the sudden impact, and as she pulled her foot from the rotting POS stairs and decided to jump off the side rather then test her continued luck with the steps. It was only a five foot jump, but as the balls of her feet hit the ground she found herself tearing through the dirt like it was wet tissue paper and felt the panic of being buried alive as her view of the woods came to a sudden and startling end.
Once-ler road back to his campsite, tired and covered in the squishy remains of tomato pulp and seeds after a surprisingly unsuccessful day. He was so sure that someone would see the potential of his amazing and revolutionary invention, however the people in town had regarded him like he was some sort of singing and dancing target. How could they even go so far as to throw a tomato at him? He was trying to show them something that would change how they lived their lives forever; who couldn't want something that had a thousand different uses?
As he neared his large tent he seen the Lorax sitting at the stump trying to teach a pack of tiny fuzzy bears how to play poker. At least he wasn't the only one having a crummy day, "No! I told you they aren't food, spit them out already!" he snapped and reached over to jerk an ace of diamonds from the Swomee's beak before turning to look over his shoulder, "How's sales today, Beanpole?"
"Don't you worry about sales, Mustache, I've just got to spread the word and soon my thneed'll be in every store across the world." Once-ler replied, brushing a bit of tomato off his shoulder to reveal a large red stain, "Drat, you think that will come out?"
"Not in this life time, buddy." The Lorax answered through a laugh while he collected the cards from the Bar-ba-loots and Swomee Swams, "So how about some flap jacks to celebrate the failure of your ridiculous invention?"
Once-ler frowned at the furry orange critter and was about to tell him of the newest and most useful thing a thneet could do that involved nothing but a quick bend and a shove when a shrill and piercing scream interrupted the calm tranquility of the forest. A flock of startled Swomee's flew from their perches, and Once-ler frowned at the area, "What do you suppose that was?" he asked, looking down for the Lorax's answer. However his new friend was already scampering off to see for himself and, after a short internal struggle between curiosity and caution, he found himself soon running after.
When the Lorax finally stopped running, coming up to one of the many truffula trees Once-ler caught up to him, breathing heavily as he stood a few paces behind the mystical fur ball, "You know, for being so short you run outstandingly fast." he complimented though heaving breath, bending to prop his hands against his knees and tried to catch his breath.
"This ain't funny, Beanpole, things like this aren't suppose to happen." The Lorax stated, worrying tinging his voice as he circled around something laying motionless in the thick carpet of springy bright green grass. The little beast shook himself, puffing out his mustache importantly and pointed at the object, "Pick her up and bring her back to the tent."
Once-ler's head jerked to attention. Her? Looking a bit closer he could see locks of golden blonde hair tangled in the grass, "Is that a girl?" he asked, shock causing his voice to raise a pitch. He wasn't good with girls, never had been; even his mother liked to joke about his future life as a male spinster to her friends. He shook his head quickly from side to side and stepped back, "I can't have a girl in my house, Lorax, she'll ruin everything."
"Just get her, would you? This is kind of important, kid, and I don't have the time to argue with you on this point." The Lorax grabbed his tail and began floating through the air as a bridge of light formed around him, "I'll be back as soon as I can, if she wakes up before I get back do NOT let her leave!"
When the forest guardian disappeared behind some clouds Once-ler found himself alone with the prone woman and sighed; edging closer and closer until he could fully see the woman laying in the grass and nearly had a heart attack... She wasn't only just a girl, but a pretty one as well. If there was one thing he was worse at than dealing with a girl it was even being around a pretty girl. "Lorax, come back!" he shouted at the sky, wide eyes looking frantically for any sign that the little guy would reappear, "Seriously, fuzz ball, I can't do this!"
However after a minute of waiting his hope dimmed and he looked resolutely at the girl near his feet; despite being pretty he didn't see anything so unusual about her... Not that pretty girls were unusual or that it was unusual for her to be pretty... He smacked himself in the head to get rid of the nonsense thoughts he knew he would probably blurt out at her later and knelt down to gather her in his arms. The slight warm weight against his chest had his heart thundering noisily before he even took his first step, and by the time he reached his tent and set her atop his bed he was sure it would just give out from over use or something.
Now he just stood there, staring down at her and wondering how long she would wake up and how long it would take before he made a giant ass out of himself. She suddenly moaned and shifted a bit on the mattress and Once-ler nearly tripped over himself before deciding to make some coffee and drink it at the small table he used for eating. He was nervously sipping his coffee when the Lorax finally came back, frowning a bit but otherwise unworried about Once-ler's new and unwanted guest.
"I can't believe you left me alone with her!" Once-ler snapped and the little orange guardian climbed up the other chair and sat in it across from him, "She could have woken up and thought I kidnapped her or something! Things like that happen, you know, and people go to jail!"
"Stop spazzing, Beanpole, you're not going to go to jail for helping an unconscious girl you found laying in the forest." The Lorax responded, leaning back comfortably in the simple wooden chair and sighing, "You're still making pancakes, right?" Once-ler gawked at him, "What?"
"There's a girl in my bed whom I've never seen before who will eventually wake up because you," he jabbed a finger against his furry friends chest to emphasize his words, "made it sound like if I didn't something terrible would happen and the only thing you say is stop spazzing where's my pancakes?" Once-ler threw his arms in the air and deflating dramatically in his chair, looking at the creature before him in a silent plea for some sort of answer for the predicament he was in.
The Lorax just looked at him, "You can't possibly be that scared of her." he finally choked out, obviously fighting off laughter, "She looks about as dangerous as a house cat, actually not even that, at least house cats have claws." he snorted a laugh and continued chuckling when he noticed the grayish blue eyes staring at him seriously. "Oh fine kid, here's how it is;" he started, waving an orange hand in the air as he spoke, "The girl tripped into a bi-dimensional tear between her world and ours and might have to stick around for a while with the other deities figure out where they went wrong."
"What?" Once-ler screwed up his face and turned to give an odd look to the girl behind him still resting on his mattress, "Wait..." he shook his head and blinked back at the Lorax, "She's from where?"
"I dunno, some place called Arch I guess." The Lorax shrugged and arched an eyebrow, watching in amusement as the human struggled to understand. "It's not something that can't be fixed, but it is a pretty big deal so you might want to buck up," he gave a large grin as Once-ler finally caught up with the meaning behind the words, "I'm going to have to keep an eye on the girl."
The sound of voices first stirred Juniper from her near comatose sleep, her eyes hazily cracking open to see odd bits of furniture she didn't recognize and felt the first icy cold bought of fear freeze the blood in her veins. "You can't keep her here, this is my house!" one practically yelped, the sound of something being knocked over clattered loudly and she couldn't stop her body from jerking in surprise automatically.
Thankfully it went unnoticed and another voice responded in a pushy tone, "Well where else are we going to stick her? Like it or not, Beanpole, she's staying with you until we can get this mess sorted out you've got yourself a pretty little roommate, try to get along." Juniper's eyes widened, had she been kidnapped? Didn't they know a delivery girl was the poorest type of ransom? Or had they stolen her to sale as some weird type of sex slave? She spotted what looked to be a large wooden fly swatter and tried to scoot off the bed without being noticed.
"Hi there, you sleep well?" An orange monkey like thing suddenly peeked over the mattress and she immediately gave a startled scream, rolling away from him and awkwardly falling off the other side of the bed to land in a heap on the floor. "That was possibly the single rudest way anyone's ever reacted at first sight of me."
She groaned and spotted two long thick metal needles that looked dangerous enough to be taken seriously just under a bed and snatched them in either hand; "Get away from me!" she snapped, swinging widely. She heard more then seen a dark haired man hurriedly backing out of her reach as her eyes danced about looking for an exit. She'd be damned before she gave up without a struggle, there had been times when the news talked about heroic victims who saved themselves all the time! Sort of.
"I mean it, stay away!" She suddenly spotted the door and heaved a silent prayer of thanks to her guardian angel and sprinted for it. Jerking it open she suddenly froze, staring into a landscape of color so bright and soft that it left her struggling for breath. It was like standing in the world of an artist who'd carefully selected only the warmest and friendliest colors to use. Tall golden tree trunks that reached majestically into the softest bits of fluff she'd ever seen that clashed beautifully with the perfect clear blue sky. A bit away there were even fluffy little brown bear cubs frolicking about happily, not fazed at all that a human had suddenly entered with two long stabby things clutched in her white knuckled fists.
"Well it seems something finally caught your attention." The bossy voice stated smartly behind her back, "Must be quite a difference to get that much of a reaction, wonder what your place is like." she turned slightly to look back into the house at the small orange animal like thing that was talking to her. She blinked at him slowly, not understanding anything aside from the fact that she had no idea what was happening. "Come back inside and talk a bit with us, I think Beanpole's fixing to make some pancakes."
She frowned, her eyes going from the little orange thing to the tall handsome man thing that stood beside it. "I'm hallucinating?"
His eyes widened, "You are? Well you might have hit your head probably." his eyes widened a bit more and his face flooded with color, "Yeah, you probably hit your head." her lips quirked a bit in amusement as he fixed his sentence. She hadn't seen a shy boy since she'd moved to the city to land herself a contract. "I've got coffee cups."
"Yeah," the orange thing joked tauntingly, "and it's got coffee in them, too." the man glared down at it before pushing his hands deep in his pockets and knocking it over with his foot.
She looked around the brightly colored forest with it's living breathing teddy bears that scampered around cutely even in the presence of humans and stepped back into the house. The door shut behind her and she jumped, bearing her stabby things at the man behind her who jumped back in response, "I'm not going to hurt you!" he yelped, "So don't hurt me, either!"
"Listen Doll-Face," The orange thing spoke up and her eyes darted over to the tall table behind her, "I am the Lorax and I speak for the trees." She stared at him like he'd lost his mind and he continued on, "I'm also in charge of the Bar-ba-loots and-"
She suddenly heaved a sigh and laughed, her arms coming down to relax at her sides, "Oh I see, I'm dreaming." she elbowed the man behind her, grinning in amusement, "You know, for a second there it didn't even cross my mind?" shaking her head she laughed again, sighing and shaking her head at her self, "Wow, I thought I'd grown out of wanting to live in a cartoon; guess I'm still a kid at heart."
The orange thing coughed a bit and she looked over at it, "I'm afraid this ain't a dream, Doll-Face, you stumbled into an unnoticed tear in your dimension. You're gonna be here for a little while until things can get fixed up, wish I could tell you more but it's not part of my department." she laughed at that, she had some wicked imagination to have unconsciously thought him up. "Don't worry, though, they nearly always figure things out before someone dies."
The man gaped at the little creature in shock, "She could die?"
"It was a joke, Beanpole, don't take everything so seriously, I thought you were making pancakes." The man rolled his eyes, but stepped over to his counter and began gathering ingredients. The thing looked back at her and waved leaned forward, "I don't know if they've got pancakes or not where you come from, but I'm telling you right now there's nothing that tastes better." she arched a brow at that and came over to sit at the table, setting her staby things onto the wooden surface. She and the orange creature watched the man make up the batter to the fried cakes before pouring out the buttermilk yellow into even sized disks on a skillet. The second it touched the sizzling butter the room nearly burst with the sweet unique aroma and she covered a laugh; she didn't realize she'd liked pancakes so much.
He started flipping them into the air in precise arches, getting three or four spins spins with toss and Juniper found herself applauding appreciatively of his skill. He brought a large stack to the table and set up two sets of strange dishware and flatware before both she and the orange thing. "You not eating, kid?"
"Wouldn't be able to if I tried." Beanpole denied, taking the last chair and sitting beside her nervously and she grinned, shooting a look at the mustached animal guy across from her. She could practically feel the tension pouring out of him in waves of discomfort and, if she hadn't found it so impossibly adorable, might have felt a little bad for him.
She tried to pat his arm comfortingly, but only ended up bursting into a long fit of laughter when he'd jumped from his chair holding his heart and looking at her like she'd grown three heads. Of course, she had tried to indirectly impale him less then an hour previous. Keeping that in mind she managed to regain control of herself and slowly lifted them to him, "Here, you can have these back." she offered.
He reached over and she dropped them into his open palm and the orange thing laughed a little mockingly, "So here's the deal, you'll stay with Beanpole until things are sorted out. As you can see he's excitable, so try to take it easy on him." he expertly selected four pancakes and poured syrup over crisp light brown disks, "I know you think this is a dream, but it won't make it any less real if you ran off a cliff thinking you can fly. So try to avoid doing that."
"No cliff diving, check." She nodded, giving the little beastie a thumbs up.
He looked sternly at her before quickly demolishing the pancakes on his plate, she looked up at the awkward man and tilted her head. It was rare for her to have lucid dreams and she didn't see any reason why she couldn't have fun. Be a participator! "I'm sorry for threatening you with your, um... Nails?"
"Knitting needles." He corrected somewhat defensively, and after a moment and she blinked at him, "Knitting can be a man thing." she nodded quickly, trying to keep a straight face, however she must have failed because he crossed his arms and looked at her seriously, "Real men knit."
"At least the smart ones do." she answered smartly, giving him a large smile which he slowly returned. She reached over to him with her hand out, "I'm Juniper Fallie; aspiring musician, current delivery girl. Your name's Bean Pole?"
He accepted the handshake, but before he could say anything the orange thing spoke up, apparently finished with his share for the moment, "He's the wonderful Once-ler, creator of the thneed, the single most useless contraption ever thought up."
Once-ler shot a playful glare at the small furry dude, "It's the exact opposite, Lorax." he turned to Juniper and pulled what looked like a long pink scarf from around his neck and held it out, "A thousand different uses, each one better than the last! Made from the finest material possible this handy little thing can be a scarf, a hat," he twirled it about and placed it on Juniper's head and she laughed, "a table cloth, and a shirt; and that's just naming off the popular uses."
She patted the thneed on her head before laughing, "How about a muzzle?"
"Oh that too, of course." Once-ler answered before he understood the joke and rolled his eyes, removing the thneed from her head and hanging it on a hook, "You'll be begging me for it soon enough." he suddenly went into a coughing fit and grabbed his cooling coffee to take a huge swallow. Both Juniper and the orange fuzz watched as he turned a strange shade of purple.
"If you do eventually make me one I think I'll prefer mine in lavender." She answered seriously, leaning forward on the table and resting her chin in her hands, "I suppose it is actually kind of cute, though, and it felt so soft!"
Lorax huffed in his seat, "Made from my truffula tree that you viciously hacked down without a second thought." Once-ler rolled his eyes and nodded as though he'd already heard it a thousand times before, and who knew, maybe he had. Juniper shrugged and reached forward, not really caring who cut what down for any reason.
There was a few scratches at his door and he excused himself to answer it and reveal the same teddy bears that had been playing outside, "Oh, you guys ready for bed, huh? I suppose it is getting dark." He stepped back and allowed them in, "Where's everyone else, not wanting to sleep inside tonight?" The smallest teddy bear shrugged and he laughed, "Great, more room for us, Pip." the little bear ran around the tall man's ankles twice before darting inside and jumping up on the bed, snuggling into the covers as.
"That's so cute I could get a cavity just looking." Juniper sighed happily the little bear, Pip, peeked over at her and mawed, she squealed in response, "Nite, nite little teddy bear Pip."
The next day Once-ler woke up on the edge of his bed, nearly pushed entirely off by the small pack of Bar-ba-loots that had apparently taken over in the middle of the night. He yawned and stretched before stumbling out of bed and removing his night clothes and slipping into his day set as fluidly as always before he remembered the female guest that he'd left sleeping on his sofa the night before. He blushed darkly as his eyes immediately flicked towards the couch and heaving a great sigh of relief to see the slim blonde curled onto the burnt orange fabric.
He was tempted to do as he wanted and set off for town to try and sell his thneeb to the residents, but if he were honest he was curious about the pretty little blonde that was exceedingly more dangerous then she appeared. She seemed nice enough, if not a bit determined to win Pipsqueak's affection from him which, honestly, probably wasn't going to work. He grinned a bit and turned and set a pot of coffee to brew before turning to fix up a few dozen pancakes and had just finished preparing the batter when Juniper walked up beside him wearing a set of his old cow pajamas that were several sizes to large, rubbing the sleep from her eyes and looking like something a teenaged boy would want hidden in the back of his closet.
"I thought I'd have woken up before I woke up." She joked, however there was a slight bit of worry edging her voice and he got the distinct impression that her little 'this is a dream' bubble didn't have long before it popped. "Oh, you made coffee! You're the second greatest person in the world after myself!"
"Hey, it's to early to start a battle of ego's." The Lorax's voice spoke up and the two turned around to see him emerge through the large pile of sleeping bears, "And there's to many bar-ba-loots!" he sounded far crankier then he looked, though, so Once-ler turned back around and didn't listen to any more of the old guardian's list of complaints.
Flipping the cakes into the air again he smugly listened to Juniper once again applaud, setting the first stack on the table before turning to the blonde who had dragged one of the dining chairs over to sit at the stove as he cooked. "How many do you want?" he asked, spinning his flipper expertly between his fingers.
She grinned, "I don't eat breakfast, don't mind me." she denied, "I'll take some coffee, though, where's your mugs?" he pointed to a cabinet and she took herself down a cup, "Want one?" he nodded and she took down another, bringing both cups over to him and holding them out as he poured, "So what's your plans for the day?"
He gestured to the hanging thneed, "I'm going to sell my thneed, of course." he answered proudly, a large grin in place as he thought about his future, "It's going to be big, you know, everyone in the world's going to need a thneed."
She nodded, "Well it's certainly got a great name." she complimented, a sweet giggle that had him smiling wider, "Mind if I come along? I want to see your marketing strategy." she was stirring in some milk and sugar to her coffee and he slid his over for the additions as well. He supposed he could take her, it sounded harmless enough.
"I'm not sure that's a good idea." The Lorax said behind them and Once-ler looked over his shoulder to see him chewing on a mouth full of pancakes, "She doesn't know anything about this place or how people here work."
"And I might not have that much time to see it so I should go when the first opportunity allows me to!" she lifted her cup to the hanging thneed and grinned, "Besides, maybe I can help sell some thneeds, women tend to listen to women about fashion and you said that can be a shirt, didn't you?" Once-ler's eyes light up and she grinned her victory at the Lorax who grunted, already admitting his loss. It only took a half an hour to finish up the pancakes and she used the time to slip into the tight jeans she'd been wearing and molded one of his thneeds into a something called a halter top.
It certinly made him halt, that's for sure. The soft purple thneed he'd managed to find for her out of the ten he'd made looked great and, if television had taught him anything it was that it never hurt to have a good looking lady flaunting around in your product. "Wait and see, Lorax, today is a day that everything changes. When we come back every one of them will be sold with orders for more in our pockets."
"Gonna sell some thneeds!" Juniper pumped a fist in the air followed Once-ler to the door where he grabbed his guitar and headed out. They were walking up to Melvin when Juniper suddenly looked up at him, her bared arms behind her back, "So what comes after you sell it, by the way?"
He grinned at her, "Well, for one, I'll be rich!"
"Well, yes, but what are you going to do?" He picked up his saddle bags and placed them on Melvin and she was standing over watching and thought about the question. "My parents are rich, you know, filthy rich; and I can tell you right now that there is a reason it's called filthy."
"If you're parents are rich then why are you a delivery girl?" He asked before taking Melvin's leads and starting the long walk into town. She kept pace beside him and gave a slight shrug in answer and he rolled his eyes, "I'll buy things I need with the money and take care of my family."
She scrunched her nose at him, "I thought the only thing you need is a thneed?" he gave her a playful glare and she grinned, flashing a peace sign, "I'm just saying, money is the last thing that can make you happy, so don't try and rely on it to much because you'll only end up sitting in a nice house with nice things and horrible people."
"That won't happen to me." He assured her, though he wondered just how long it would take for his mother to come into the picture and take over everything the way she usually did. He tried to picture her playing with the bar-ba-loots and swimming with the humming fish, but it was so foreign that only a blank image came to mind. He tightened his hold on the reigns, "After all, none of my friends can talk save for the Lorax, and he's easy enough to ignore when I set my mind to it."
She laughed and he grinned again, trying to shake off a sinking feeling despite the light atmosphere; but he managed from embarrassing himself aside from a brief misplacement with his hands when he helped her onto Melvin. When they entered town she looked like she'd been completely thrown from her element, "Wow, everything's... Oddly different but not to much." she confided, leaning over to point at the buildings, "We mostly just stick to ninety degree angles, this is fabulous! So much more to look at."
He grinned and helped her down, careful to hold onto her hand and waist while she hopped, and once her feet landed on the soft dirt he felt a hollow victory. "We'll set up at the gazebo over there and get started." and not ten minutes later he was strumming his strings with Juniper sitting across the stairs before him. "Everybody needs a thneed," he first started singing and the blonde before him gave him a supportive thumbs up, her foot jiggling along to his strumming, "A fine thing that all people-"
"You know what we need? For you to stop!" A sarcastic voice jeered from the growing crowed. He pushed on, however, intent on getting his point across. His fingers working against the strings he picked up the tune a bit.
"Yeah everybody needs a thneed-"
"You suck!"
"Cuz it's one of the greatest things that I've ever seen, yeah everyone should have a thneed!" A crystal clear melodious voice broke in and his eyes darted down to see that Juniper had adjusted her position a bit. Her arms were propped up behind her and her legs were stretched down the stairs. She grinned at him and he nodded, ripping a new series of notes from his guitar, "Just when I thought that I had seen it all, I tripped around and started to fall. Woke up to see this man standing tall and wearing one of the greatest things I ever saw."
The jeering voices didn't decrease, however her voice soared above the disdainful words and insults without pausing or faltering, "Yeah everybody needs a thneed," he sang with her and she laughed loudly, "You need a hat?"
"It'll help you with that." Juniper joined along, leaning forward and giving a wink, "What about a nice fluffy coat?"
"Whatever floats your boat!" He laughed and reached down, grabbing the blondes hand and helping her up. "You want some really nice socks?"
"Would they match my top?" She shimmied her shoulders and the crowed around them roared approval, "Oh, everybody needs a thneed." she continued on, stepping down each step jauntily, "It can do just whatever you please, come on up and give it a see." grabbing an old woman's hand she twirled her up the stairs and snatched the one he was wearing to tie it into a skirt around the lady's hips, "My, aren't you a tease?"
"Baby, it's got over a thousand ways to help ya through your day." his fingers danced on the strings for a moment and the crowed cheered. He threw a large wink at Juniper and she made a large show of catching it and putting it in her pocket, "Everybody needs a thneed."
"Yeah, everyone needs a thneed." She sang along, taking the old woman's hands and dancing her about the gazebo energetically, "A fine thing-"
"The best of the best!"
"Beats everything, there's no contest!"
"Everyone needs a thneed!" they ended together and threw their arms into the air and were nearly trampled by the stamped of people waving money in the air. Their eyes were bright an excited over his product, each previously mocking face now vying to be the first in what would soon be the single most popular product ever. He looked around and seen Juniper directing a large grin at him before flashing him the victory sign and he tilted his hat back and returned it.
It took nearly two hours to sell what thneeds they had and to accept all advanced orders for more and by the time they were done both of their stomachs were growling. "Let's celebrate with ice cream!" Juniper squealed, spotting a small soft serve shoppe a couple blocks away. She was already dragging him towards Melvin before he grinned, nodding his agreement and happily being dragged to the swirling cone roof.
It wasn't until they sat on the curb outside and happily licked their ice creams that she smirked up at him, "So how's it feel to be the next hottest thing on the market?" she asked, pointing a long slender finger at the people already proudly supporting their thneeds in various ways as they returned to business as usual.
"Fantastic, now I've just got to head back and harvest the material..." He frowned and eyed Melvin's pack that held over a hundred orders, "I might have to get some help, though, I'll never be able to keep up on my own." he'd call his family when they got back to the tent and have them come join his business, it seemed like the best idea.
"Wow, your family must be great to pack everything up just to help you with your business." She grinned and nudged him with her shoulder, "Mine would just take over and do whatever they wanted." she licked her cone and he frowned. His family was an awful lot like that, actually, especially his mother and overbearing aunt, "You should teach me how to make a thneed, then I can help, too. I can't just live off you for free."
He chuckled, "You can be my marketing partner; be in charge of advertising and the such." she laughed and he shook his head, nodding at a little girl that now supported a thneeb umbrella perched cutely over her shoulder, "You think they'd be wearing them if you hadn't joined me up there? I was being eaten alive."
"Well I'm a musical genius, after all." She bragged cockily, eyebrows arching in an 'didn't you know?' look that he snorted at, reaching over to flick her between the eyes. She howled in response and clutched her 'wound', earning them both amused looks from the passerby's that were walking behind them. "I'll never recover, I'm suing you for everything you own!" She leveled a look at Melvin and nodded matter of factly, "Your new name is FancyPants McGuvvin the Thirty-Fifth."
Melvin snorted and shook his head, "I don't think he likes it." she laughed and Once-ler finished his cone, standing up and throwing the trash into one of the colorful tins that sat outside the shop. "Let's head back and tell everyone the good news!"
The good news didn't sit well with the Lorax, who had completely given up teaching the animal's poker and just let them play whatever card game they wanted. His long mustache twitched as he looked at the grinning goofballs that looked so pleased with themselves they could have peed their pants and not given a flip over it. "You actually sold it?"
"We sold all of them!" Once-ler bragged happily, "With orders for more!" he started walking to the tent behind them with Juniper bouncing at his heals, "I don't even know how I'm going to keep up with the demand-"
"Yep, this is only going to get bigger and bigger!" Juniper interrupted joyfully, "Isn't it great when new friends are successful? When you get all rich and powerful you should buy me an island." he laughed and the Lorax snorted disdainfully at the poor joke.
Dropping the cards onto the mossy rock he and the other animals had been using for a card table he followed the pair inside and shut the door, "What do you mean, 'bigger and bigger'?" the duo looked at him curiously, "I don't want any more humans in this forest, they'll destroy everything."
"Well it's not like he's going to build a factory or anything, fuzzy." She said comfortingly, kneeling down and patting his head gently, "Trust your friends a little bit, okay?"
"We're not friends." He humphed, crossing his arms over his chest and glaring at the girl, "I have to speak for the tress, they've got no tongues to do it for themselves. How would you feel if your home was invaded by strangers who didn't care about you or your home?"
She frowned back at him, "Who says they don't care? Look at Once-ler, he lives here with everyone happily, doesn't he?"
"He chopped down a tree the second he arrived!" The Lorax snapped, turning his glare over to the fidgeting man who stood awkwardly under his sever gaze, "Remember your promise, not a single tree is to be harmed, do not ruin this place with your 'big' ideas." Once-ler looked at him and nodded and the Lorax stormed back outside to continue his game of cards, leaving the two in the house to think over his words.
Juniper looked over at the dark haired man and grinned, "Hey, don't worry about that!" She bounced up and pushed him to a chair at the table, "You're a big success, a popular hit among everyone, look a bit happier for yourself. He's just worried because he doesn't want anything to change, some people are like that." she searched his cabinets and quickly discovered the ground coffee, grinning and shaking the can over her shoulder.
Once-ler watched her make a pot of coffee and gave her a weak grin as he wondered if maybe the Lorax wasn't right. He doubted his family would care if they had to kill off a few trees in order to line their pockets with money, "He's right, though, not everyone's going to care about cutting down the trees."
Juniper snorted, "Then don't let them, that's the great thing about being boss, Once-ler." She stated, turning and leaning against the sink, "This is your project, your baby; if you just let people walk all over you then you're basically just handing it over." her fingers twisted together and a contemplating look crossed her features, "Just... Make sure you can trust the people you bring in. There's nothing to worry about so long as you trust the people you surround yourself with, after all."
He nodded, relaxing a bit; "Absolutely." he agreed, his eyes going to the phone sitting beside his bed before looking back at the perky blonde grinning at him. He smiled, "Well since I'm the boss I say we take the rest of the day off and celebrate!"
She jumped away from the counter and threw both arms into the air, a large smile on her face as she bounced, "Yay, party time!"
It wasn't long before pancakes started flying and the small house-tent was filled with bar-ba-loots, humming fish, and swomee swams in every nook and cranny. Juniper had taken control of his guitar and was strumming an energetic tune, singing about sunshine and happy days as a couple of the tiny bears danced around in time with her. Even the Lorax seemed to finally come around and was sitting at the table complaining about waiting for his third helping, "I've been waiting for an hour!"
"You've been waiting five minutes." Once-ler corrected with a laugh, setting another large stack in the center of the table that was quickly emptied, "And that's the last of them tonight, guys, we're offically out of flour."
Groans and whines filled the air as he turned away from the stove and reclaimed his beat up guitar from Juniper and flopped down beside her. He watched happily as his little forest friends gorged themselves on his food and Juniper made herself comfortable on his bed, crossing her ankles on the top of the head board with her arms crossed under her head. He strummed the acoustic lazily and she hummed along with the notes, "I once knew a man by the name of Jim, he took me aside and said 'boy let me tell you something'."
"Life's a bit rough, it can really bring you down; but you just remember you've got friends all around." picking up the pace he kept going, "Now I'm at the top with my loud, rowdy friends. We're going none stop in a party that never ends."
"Well I knew an old lady, her name was Martha Lee," Juniper joined him, jiggling her foot in time with the music, "She came up and told me, 'Girl let me tell you one thing'."
"Wha'd she tell ya, Juni?" Once-ler asked, hopping up from the bed and looking down at her.
"She said ' honey take your time, don't you move to fast; you don't want to wake up and find that your life's already passed. Keep your chin level to the ground you walk upon, you don't wanna end up like me with a sad, sad song." she sat up and propped herself up with her elbows, "Now look at me, sitting with my friends, old Martha Lee you would be so proud of me!"
Once-ler laughed, spinning to the Lorax who watched them with an unimpressed look and arched an eyebrow, "What do you say, my mustached pal; got any words of wisdom to share with the class?"
"Yeah, just one, hurt my trees and I'll kick you in the-"
"Okay, that was a fun song!" Juniper interrupted quickly, her eyes sparkling with amusement as she rolled onto her stomach and stretched. Once-ler had a bit of difficulty controlling his laughter and the Lorax chuckled a bit himself, stuffing another bite of pancakes. Finally she sighed sluggishly got off the mattress and made room for herself on the couch, snuggling an over-stuffed Pipsqueak that had made himself at home on the plush cushions. "You want to sleep with Juniper tonight, don't you my cuddly little buddy?"
She didn't receive an answer aside from a contented burp and her eyes darted to Once-ler, "That means 'Yes, of course' in bear language."
"Sure it does." Once-ler laughed, placing his well used guitar down beside his bed and falling onto it, exhausted but incredibly pleased with himself. His thneed was a hit, the Lorax wasn't being to much of a pain, and to top everything off he even managed to not make himself look like a fool; if that wasn't enough to keep him happy then the added bonus that his bed now smelled like girl sure was. With a sigh he stood up and gathered his pajamas, "Well I'm going to call it a night, I've got a lot of work ahead of me tomorrow."
"Just make sure you don't harm my trees, pal. Remember the promise you made." The Lorax warned darkly. Once-ler rolled his eyes and looked over to see that Juniper had managed to fall asleep with a death grip on Pipsqueak and grinned, walking over to her and pulling the small bear from her hands before lifting her feet up and sticking a pillow under head. "I see you're not as hung on letting her stick around as you were last night."
Once-ler shrugged and covered her with a sheet that was sitting on the back of the couch, "She's not so bad." he answered, his eyes lingering on her for another second before he turned towards the bathroom, "Bit of a pain having to change in the bathroom, though."
"For you, maybe."
Authors Note: There you have it, chapter one of Falling Deep delivered to you in a full thirteen page length of spell checked glory! I've got to admit, not to sound cocky or anything, but I kinda like Juniper. Anyhow, moving along I'd like to tell everyone that Juniper isn't from our universe, but it is kind of like a mirror universe to ours (so, yes, picture your town/city if you want, but dim everything down to just the bare minimum of color); just don't expect to understand everything she talks about or try to look up any songs she sings, because you won't find them.
Juniper Fallie is a fictional character made to order. I've styled her to be Once-ler's comrade in arms, but that does not make her any less human; she will probably do things and say things that you won't agree with (especially further on into the story). I will not condone all of her actions and I'd highly recommend you don't run off and do everything she does just because you it sounds fun.
Also, don't expect a super long story, I hate it when things get so drawn out that it becomes a pain in the neck to keep interested in.