Green is the Color of Love
Flora_Winters
Disclaimer: I do not own Ferngully and I'm not making any money here either.
Summary: Pips has never seen a guy without wings before and he is intrigued by his best friend's magical little mishap. What dangers will this alien creature bring to their tranquil forest? Will a forbidden love be able to bloom where venomous hate is not too far behind? Language, MM, Violence, WD, WIP
Chapter Eleven
Zak gave his can a good shake and spray painted a large crimson X right across the trunk of the tall tree. It was so humid, his light blue t-shirt was soaked all the way through. He watched how the red paint started to stream down the trunk towards the leaf strewn ground. That was just how hot and humid it was.
Walking along, he marked a few more trees and leaned back in the shade. He let out a loud yawn, took his cap off, and shook his wet mane. He felt all sticky and gross. It was going to feel so good taking a cool shower later. He was so looking forward to that.
Speaking of cool water, I wonder if there is a stream around here somewhere. All these plants are so green, surely to goodness there must be some water.
He turned off his music and pulled his earplugs out so he could listen. All he could hear was the sounds of birds, wind rustling the leaves, and the sudden and swift destruction the Leveler left in its wake. It would be impossible to hear anything with all that noise going on.
"Hey Zak!" Uncle Ralph's voice called over the loud speakers. "You can move on to the next section if you're ready."
Zak pulled out his little talkie, pushed the green button down, "I'm on it."
"Keep an eye on your surroundings!" Uncle Tone's voice came across the Leveler speakers.
He rolled his eyes, wondering how many of the other workers were shaking their heads. He didn't want anybody to feel like he was getting any kind of special treatment just because he was these guys' nephew. He had made it clear that he wanted to be treated just like everyone else, so that he didn't get singled out.
Well, I am the youngest person here. And they do worry about me.
That was when he heard a few voices across from him. He noticed that it was two of the guys that showed up yesterday. They both looked kind of rough around the edges and weren't too friendly with anybody. He kept his distance just far enough so he could hear them.
"I don't like the idea of two faggots running this show," the taller of the two voiced. "Did you see the way they fawn over that little bastard."
The shorter one snorted. "It wouldn't surprise me if he was queer, too. You know that shit is contagious."
The taller one shuddered. "We best keep our fucking distance then. I don't wanna catch that shit."
Zak turned his back and leaned against the tree. He took several deep breaths to keep calm. He'd like nothing more than to jump the two of them and spray paint them both blind. It would serve them right, but it would make his uncles look bad. They were both responsible for him and he knew they could both whip these two's asses in a second.
He closed his eyes and took a few more deep breaths, put his earplugs back in, and turned his music on. Even all the way out here, he couldn't escape humanity's hatred of his homosexuality.
Even though his music was playing, he could still hear his parent's loud as day.
"I will not have a faggot for a son!" His father had yelled.
"Just think of our friends! What will the neighbors say? Who is he?" His mom ranted and raved. "We'll be ruined. I'll never be able to show my face at the country club ever again."
"Get your ass up to your fucking room right this minute!" His father yelled, trying to hit him but missed. "I can't even look at you!"
Zak shook his head, refusing to let anymore tears fall. He never had to see those people ever again.
He went in the opposite direction of the two homophobes. He hoped they'd step into a nest of snakes.
IIIII
Crysta fluttered on ahead of Batty by several meters, laughing like bells on the wind. She was so excited. She was going to get to see her very first human ever. The blue glow all around her kept getting brighter and brighter the faster she flew.
What would they look like? What will they be wearing? How tall are they? Will I even be able to understand them? I bet they're just amazing!
"Would you please slow down!" Batty yelled after her, flapping his wings a little faster. "I know you're making a big mistake doing this! I'm telling you now! You're going to regret this."
She gazed back over her shoulder, dark hair billowing around her. "Come on, Batty! Where is your sense of adventure? I want to see and learn everything I can about humans."
"Oh, believe me when I tell you there is absolutely nothing you can learn from them," he said, keeping pace with her now. "Nothing good. Look at everything you have around you. Life giving trees, pure air, clean water, every color flower in the spectrum, and music all around. This is paradise. You possess everything you need. You are far more advanced than they will ever hope to be."
Crysta smirked over at him. "Then I have much to teach them."
Batty smacked his forehead and fell ten feet. He yelled all the way down, before righting himself, nearly missing the broad side of a kangaroo's ass.
"Are you all right?" Crysta yelled back at him, only to stop.
Batty was now hanging upside down from a tree limb, quivering. He was all blended in with some really dark foliage. She could tell it was him, because he was the only leaf making noise and shaking without there being any wind.
"What's wrong?" She asked.
"I'm going no further," he said, shaking his head back and forth. "Nope. Not going to. I never want to see another human ever again. They are horrible things."
She cocked her head to the side, giving him a concerned look. "Okay," she said, gently patting his cheek. "You stay here and I'll be back as soon as I can. This is my chance and I'm not going to let it slip by."
"You're making a mistake," Batty told her matter of fact, but then sighed really deep. "Be careful, little bug." She nodded and was about to take off when Pips suddenly dropped down, scaring bat and fairy half to death.
"Pips!" She squeaked.
"BUG!" Batty shrieked. "SMASH IT!"
The fiery haired fairy glared, both hands on his hips as he floated there. "If you're going to see humans, then I'm going with you."
Crysta's blue eyes lit up even more. "Oh, Pips! Really? You'll really come with me? You won't tell Magi?"
He shook his head. "I'll be in big trouble, too, if I open my mouth."
"Two deaf bugs oblivious to good reason," Batty hissed.
Pips and Crysta ignored him.
"Come on then," Crysta said, taking off in a bright blue blaze.
Pips turned to Batty. "You need to relax."
"Relax?" Batty asked, puffing out his chest. "I am relaxed! I am always relaxed! We're all relaxed here! If I were any more relaxed, I'd be dead!"
Pips rolled his eyes and darted off in a lime green flash.
Batty closed his wings. "People come and go so quickly here."
IIIII
Zak didn't quite know what to make of the tree that stood before him. It wasn't a giant, but it was very wide and round. Darker than a starless night. He'd never seen a tree so black. The limbs were all twisted and ugly to look at. The whole thing looked terribly deformed. Not a single leaf on it. When he looked closer, not a single bug or animal would go near it. It was like a blight amidst all the green. Nothing grew around its base either. A perfect circle of barren soil.
He stepped right up to the tree, daring to not even touch it. He gave his spray can a good shake, and painted a giant crimson X right across it. As he turned away, he never saw how the paint began to bubble and steam against all that darkness.
IIIII
"Oh, fuck yeah!" Hexus gasped, feeding on the sudden poison that brightened his tiny little world, giving him a quick burst of strength he hadn't felt in a long, long time. The darkness around him shifted as he sucked that energy into his being. It was sweet and wonderful. "Blessed fucking ecstasy."
And just like that, there was no more to be had.
"No!" He cried, trying his best to move and shake himself. "Give me more! I must have more! Is this some cruel game?"
He quieted. There was something he hadn't heard in a very long time.
Sound. There was sound.
He could hear things around him again. Loud and hopeful things.
He leaned back and grinned from pointy ear to pointy ear.
Something absolutely terrible was coming. Something was coming to set him free.
IIIII
Pips came to a halt and quickly grabbed Crysta by the wrist, pulling her after him into a thicket of leaves. He poked his head out and his green eyes widened with fright. "It's a human," he whispered, squeezing Crysta's wrist tight enough to make her squeak in protest. He let her go with an apologetic look.
"Is it a human?" She asked, putting her head up right beside his.
"I think so," he said, moving a leaf back just a bit. "Look at him. He looks like us, right? Just a little taller…"
"A little taller?" She asked, looking at him. "Did you really say that?"
"You know what I mean!" He snapped, playfully pushing her shoulder, suddenly remembering they were very close to their first ever real human. "Look at him. He's tall and has no wings."
They both trembled as the human walked. The steps were like thunder to them.
"What are those things on his feet?" Crysta asked.
"I don't know," Pips shuddered, causing a few sparkles to flutter off his bronze skin. "And he has some kind of white vines hanging from his ears. Maybe Batty was right."
Both he and Crysta quickly looked at each other. "Maybe we should get out of here now," Crysta said. "I think he's getting closer."
Pips shook his head. "I don't hear anything. Maybe he went away."
They both pulled back some leaves and stopped dead in their tracks. The breath left Pips lungs and he just fluttered there in shock. The human's face was right before them, and it was looking right at the two of them.
Eyes the color of night sky were looking right at him. Pips couldn't move. It was almost like he was being pulled right into them. Like they were two gaping mouths trying to suck him deep within. The green all around him began to glow brighter and brighter.
Crysta screamed. Pips screamed right along with her, snapping him out of his daze.
They both darted before two large hands came swiftly together to catch them. Thunder boomed right behind them, and they knew the human was chasing them.
"How did I let you talk me into this?" Crysta shouted at him.
"Me?" Pips yelled at her. "I didn't talk you into a damn thing!"
"Let's split up!" She suggested, keeping up with him. "He can't catch both of us."
They both darted across the stream, looking back to see the human stumble and fall in the water. The white cords were pulled from his ears. Pips felt like he was going to be sick.
"Are you nuts?" He asked, shaking his head. "I'm not going to leave you."
Crysta snatched hold of his wrist and quickly jerked him over behind a tree. They both latched onto the bark, hearing the human running. The ground shook ever so slightly and then silence.
"Well?" Pips asked, looking up at her. "Is he gone?"
A giant hand came out of nowhere. Both faeries screamed and Pips let go of the bark and fell backwards before his wings caught him. The human had Crysta in his hands. He could see her faint blue glow between his fingers.
"He'll smash her!" Pips cried, fluttering around the humans face. "Let her go!" He yelled at him. "I'll bit your nose!" He landed on the human's head and started pulling at his yellow hair.
The giant creature ignored him, and slowly opened its hands. Crysta looked up into his face and her blue eyes widened in fright.
A loud noise shattered the uneasy silence. Pips turned and looked, but he was tangled in the human's hair. There was some kind of giant monster tearing its way through a tree. Pips face fell into horror as the tree was being murdered right before his eyes. He couldn't seem to catch his breath.
"Look out!" Crysta screamed as the tree shuddered in pain, but the human was paying her no mind. He couldn't stop looking down at her. The tree made a terrible sound as it began to fall.
"Crysta get away!" Pips yelled, struggling to free himself from the human's hair.
Crysta threw up her hands and closed her eyes. "Bless your heart with magic light, I give the gift of fairy size…NO! Fairy sight! Fairy sight!"
Blue light left the tips of her fingers, and a breeze blew around the human. Shimmering sparkles fluttered around his entire body and a few went up his nose. The human sneezed and all three were suddenly screaming as they were falling through the air.
Pips managed to open his eyes after a few seconds to see that someone was in his arms, and they were both falling rather quickly. Suddenly, their fall stopped, because they bounced into something sticky. Pips lifted his head, to see that there was a blond fairy with deeply tan skin laying right on top him. He was spread eagle in a spider's web.
He began to see if he could move, but he was stuck tight. "Hey," he said, shaking the fairy on top of him. "You need to get off me now." Pips froze and wrapped his arms around the fairy. "Where are you wings?" The guy had no wings.
Crysta landed across from him. "Pips! I did it! I shrank the human! Well, I didn't mean to shrink him. I meant to give him fairy sight! Oh, isn't this amazing?"
"Yeah," Pips groaned, realizing there was an unconscious human on top of him. "Great…"
A loud noise suddenly broke the silence once more. "Now what?" Pips cried, and he didn't like the look on Crysta's face.
He suddenly felt himself being jerked and he was moving.
"No!" Crysta cried. "Stop it! Don't you dare eat this tree!"
What?
"Crysta!" Pips struggled to get loose. "I can't move. Help us!"
"Hang on," she said, fluttering above him. "Give me your hand."
He reached up with it, and she took hold. He used his other one to keep a hold of the human. He couldn't leave him to get eaten by this monster. Crysta pulled with all her might, but it was no use. She couldn't pull him free.
"Go!" Pips yelled, but she wouldn't let go of his hand.
"No!" She said right back, pulling even harder. She pulled so hard it was hurting him, and he feared it would tear his wings. "I'm not leaving you."
The tree jerked, and the force from it caused him to pull Crysta right down on top of the human, where she was now struggling to free herself from the web.
"I'm so sorry," he cried, struggling even harder to free himself. He didn't care if he did tear his wings. He had to get Crysta free.
"Oh, no!" Crysta gasped, putting her head down on the human's back.
Pips tilted his head back and saw rows and rows of razor sharp teeth getting closer and closer. This monster was eating the tree for breakfast. He wrapped his arms tightly around the human and Crysta and closed his eyes tight.
Just as he thought all hope was suddenly gone, he felt wind beneath him. He cracked one eye open and looked. Batty was looking down at them, and he didn't look happy. They were in his claws. He had flown down and pulled them free from the web. Batty had saved them from the monster.
"I told you." He said, flapping his wings. "What did I tell you? Didn't I tell you? Cause I told you! Mm-hmm! And what did I say would happen when I told you? Exactly what just happened."
To be continued
Thank you so much for reading. This chapter was lots of fun to write. Thank you all so much for your reviews. They inspire me.