For Cursed Sapphire's Once-lerxOC 12 Days of Thneedmas
Once-ler decided to decorate for Christmas. He had what he could get from home: lights, a few cracked Christmas bulbs, and a few select decorations that he made as a child. He looked around his cottage, wishing he could have a tree. He went to Greenville earlier to look at a few Christmas trees. They were expensive. Even wreaths and garlands were.
Then, he realized...he happened to have a special friend who could make things grow. The Truffula forest sprite, Fiora. Perhaps she could help. Flora happened to be her specialty so if he showed her a Christmas tree.
"Hey, Beanpole," said the Lorax. "Why the long face?"
"Oh hey," he said. "It's nothing. Have you seen Fiora?"
"Mm she's tending the trees," said the orange guardian. He took a look around the Beanpole's cottage. "What's with all the shiny lights and decorations?"
"Well, Christmas is coming and I'm just in a holiday mood. I wish I could afford a tree."
"Tree?" said the Lorax with a frown. "You'd better not even think about it."
"Oh, like I'd REALLY go and chop down a tree, knowing full well that Fiora gets hurt because of that," Once-ler said sassily. "Besides, I didn't mean that. I meant a Christmas tree."
"Oh boy. Fiora's not gonna like it if you bring that thing around."
"Wh...ohhh right," he said, realizing.
If there was one thing that Fiora disliked, it was cutting down trees or any type of harm that was towards nature. The girl got offended if she even heard about it. It was hard enough explaining that the trees in the human world were used for many things.
"Maybe she could grow one for me," said Once-ler.
"Hm you could try," said the Lorax with a shrug. "But I dunno if she can grow trees outside of the Truffula forest. She's been growing mostly flora from here. Anything outside of it would be a little difficult."
"I'll see myself if she can," said Once-ler with enthusiasm.
He skipped through the forest, looking for the nature spirit. He heard her singing to the trees, caressing their trunks.
"Hey, Fiora," he said. "Am I interrupting anything?"
"Oh, hello, Once-ler," she said. "The trees are feeling a bit gloomy because the winter is coming. I thought I should sing to them to lift their spirits."
"That's nice," he said. "Anyway, I was wondering if you could help me with something."
"Certainly," she said.
"Anyway," he began, getting to the point. "I'd like you to make a Christmas tree."
The green girl furrowed her brow a bit. This was certainly new to her. "What's a Christmas tree?"
"Um...come to my house and I'll show you," said Once-ler.
Upon arriving to Once-ler's cottage, he showed her in a book what a Christmas tree looked like. While Once-ler showed her this, she learned that Christmas was another human celebration where gifts were exchanged between others and they decorated a tree with colorful bright balls made of glass and twinkling lights. She looked perplexed as she learned about this. Though she loved trees, this was a new one to her.
"Does decorating hurt the tree?" she said with a slight frown.
"No," said Once-ler.
"And how do you get this tree get into the house?" asked Fiora.
"We buy a tree from a person who cuts it down and sells it. Then we bring it in and put it in a basin of water to keep it alive."
The forest sprite's hair turned red with anger. Once-ler knew this would happen.
"That's terrible!" Fiora said angrily. "Brutally cutting down a tree all for to put shiny decorations on it!"
"Fiora, we do take care of the tree," said Once-ler. "The water helps it stay alive."
"Still, it's horrible! It's in pain and it's suffering!"
She stormed away in a huff, sitting in front of the lily pond where she could be alone in her thoughts. Once-ler pinched the bridge of his nose. Why did the nature sprite have to be so sensitive about things like this? He really wanted her to experience some human customs and yet anytime he had to explain something that involved harming nature, it was like walking on egg shells.
There had to be someway that he could coax her out of this angry state.
"Hey," he said.
She just looked at him with a scowl, then back at the water. Her hair was still fiery red. Oh yes. She was still angry.
"C'mon, Fiora," he said. "This is just how things are in the human world. There's not much you can do about it. It's just the way things are."
There was silence from the forest sprite as she sat there brooding.
"Look," he said. "We don't have to have a Christmas tree if you don't want to."
"Then what is it you want with me?" she said sulkily. "Because I will not participate in any human holiday that participates in the brutal murder of trees."
"I understand that, Fiora," Once-ler replied, nearly losing his patience. "But I wasn't going to buy a Christmas tree. I can't afford it anyway. What I wanted to ask you earlier is for you to make one...like in a pot where you put plants in. That way it won't get hurt."
The girl turned her head. "Oh!" she said, seemed a bit embarrassed. Her hair turned bright pink.
"It's OK, Fiora," Once-ler said. "Do you think you could make this Christmas tree?"
Fiora looked a bit sad. "Once-ler, I would love to create this beautiful tree, but I don't think I can. If I spent more time with these trees outside the forest, I could."
The young man was disappointed. He really had hoped he could have a Christmas tree. Though Christmas was often a holiday filled with a lot of disappointment as a child. Often he got nothing or sometimes broken toys of his older brothers, Brett and Chet. The tree would be a skimpy tree that had most of the needles missing.
"Alright," he said. "I guess I can live without it. Come on, we can decorate my cottage."
Fiora followed him back to his cottage. They were joined up by the residents of the Truffula forest: the bar-ba-loots, the swomee-swans, and the humming fish.
"Can we help?" asked Fiora.
"Of course, silly," he laughed. "We'll use my Thneeds as garlands around the cottage."
All of them decorated his cottage with him singing songs that seemed to be related to this human holiday called Christmas. The animals seemed to sing along with him, becoming a chorus-filled home. It brought joy to the young man. Fiora laughed and vocalized though she didn't really know any of the words to these songs.
In the midst of the decorating, the two youths became entangled with a Thneed, facing nose to nose. The young man blushed brightly as his red Christmas bulbs and the forest sprite's hair became pink as his Thneed. The two of them could see their eye color and the speckles dotting on their cheeks: silver and light brown. Some of the forest creatures giggled at the two of them.
"Oh look," said Once-ler, gesturing to what looked like a plant with white berries hanging above them. "Mistletoe."
"What's that?" asked Fiora.
"It's a plant that grows in the human world," Once-ler explained. "On Christmas time, it means y-you have to..."
"To what?" the nature spirit asked, tilting her head.
The young man turned brighter red. "I-it means we have to kiss."
Fiora's hair became a brighter pink upon hearing this. She had to admit that all this time they had spent together in the Truffula forest, she found the young man quite fascinating learning about his world...though there were things about it she didn't like.
Once-ler had never had a girlfriend, let alone approached girls. He was often shy and ran away since he was afraid they would tease him for his awkwardness. Sometimes they'd laugh at him or thought he was strange. Fiora had been isolated for centuries from human civilization and was a blank slate when it came to human customs and social norms. He was actually comfortable around the nature spirit since she found his interests fascinating. He could knit and sew without feeling self-conscious. He was even more surprised when the girl asked him to teach her.
"Do you want to?" asked Fiora curious.
"We don't have to if you don't want to," Once-ler said, still bright red.
He lied. He really wanted to kiss her. He had wanted to get close to Fiora for a very long time, only for that overprotective, bossy little orange guardian to shout at him to keep his teenage male hormones in check.
Fiora was curious. "No, no. I want to see. Please."
Though he was entangled in his Thneed, he leaned towards the forest girl, brushing his adorable nose against her green one. Fiora closed her eyes, trembling with anticipation of a human kissing her. He just barely brushed his lips on her, his warm breath spread, making her tremble.
Almost immediately, he pulled away, quite embarrassed. The girl giggled lightly.
"W-wow," she said. "Your lips are...warm. Much warmer than the humming-fish."
"What's going on here?" said the Lorax, sticking his head in the window, seeing the two youths entangled. He frowned with crossed arms.
"Oh! We just got entangled while decorating, Mustache," said Once-ler.
The Lorax shook his head. That Beanpole was so clumsy whether it was tripping on his own feet, running into trees, and so forth. He hopped off the window and helped them out with difficulty.
"Nature's breath!" he exclaimed. "You really got yourselves in a knot!"
As soon as they were untangled, Once-ler cooked pancakes in the shape of Christmas trees, snowmen, and even made marshmallows in the shape of snowflakes. The forest dwellers munched up on the delicious fluffy pancakes and sticky marshmallows.
Once-ler smiled as they ate. Fiora could see he was sad because he didn't have a tree. Once-ler didn't really talk much about his Christmases with his family. She looked at the clay pot that would've held the Christmas tree. She waited until his back was turned and grabbed it, going outside...
Christmas Eve came. Once-ler was unsuccessful at selling his Thneed with his holiday sale. He sighed, exhausted and disheartened as he looked at what little money he had. He didn't know what to get Fiora for Christmas. She didn't really seem interested in material possessions. He ventured to where Mother Tree was. He scooped up the fallen tufts into a bag. Maybe she would like a Thneed...it was all he could make for her. He sat on his bed, knitting the tufts he had collected from Mother Tree.
He was just about finished when he heard a knock at the door.
"Come in," he called hurriedly, tucking Fiora's present under his pillow.
Fiora opened the door slowly and entered. She seemed to have a huge smile on her face like she had a secret. Her hair seemed to give it away given how pink it was.
"What's going on with you?" Once-ler said, laughing lightly.
"Oh, I have something for you," she said a bit playfully.
"Oh?" Once-ler replied coyly with raised eyebrows. "A Christmas present for me?"
"Y-yes."
She went outside and carried in with difficulty inside the cottage a clay pot, which contained...
A green Truffula tree!
A smile spread across the young man's face, filled with surprise and joy. Fiora stumbled as she struggled to bring it inside, straining. Once-ler shook his head with a smile and helped her set it down gently.
"Do you like it?" Fiora said. "It took me all day to grow it to this size and I know it's not the tree you wanted, but I thought you'd like to decorate it with your Christmas decorations."
Once-ler just stared at it, unable to express his feelings. Tears welled up in his blue eyes as he looked. He would definitely be making a green colored Thneed with this tree.
"You made this?" he said amazed.
The girl nodded, looking like a child who had created artwork in school to show to their parents.
"It's beautiful," he said in a shaky voice, touching the soft tufts. "I'm going to decorate it."
Grabbing a strand of Christmas lights, he wrapped it around the trunk. Once he plugged them in, it lit up like a colorful beacon. The forest dwellers stared in awe at the multi-colored lit green Truffula tree, staring in awe and wonder.
"Oh!" said Once-ler. "That reminds me...I have a present for you, Fiora. Wait here."
The young man reached behind his pillow, his heart pounding with excitement to give the green girl a gift. He held it in trembling hands, nuzzling the soft Thneed. He hoped Fiora would love this since it was made with her favorite tree's foliage. He hid it behind his back and walked towards Fiora; the blush on his face was from his ears to his neck.
"Here you go," he said, holding out the Thneed. "I-I made this from Mother Tree's tufts. All-natural and no trees harmed."
The forest girl looked at the Thneed and was overwhelmed with joy to see the multi-colored Thneed. She wrapped it around her shoulders, twirling around with it.
"It's beautiful, Once-ler. I love it!" she said. "I will use it since it does get cold in the Truffula forest at night."
"Glad you like it," he said. "Merry Christmas, Fiora."
"Merry Christmas, Once-ler," she said, giving him a kiss on the cheek.
The young man just blushed. wrapped an arm around the forest girl, all of them just looking at the lit up green Truffula tree that shined through the night.