A Risky Tree
Inspired (to an extent) by the poem in the previous post.
PG-ish
Sad, at times.
Mrs. Adachi called out, pleading for Lani in to come in for breakfast, but he still waited. He stood completely motionless, near his water bowl, and stared out of the yard. From the sidewalk, Lani heard the sound of footsteps and quiet conversation, wagged his tail, and rushed toward the gate.
"But I can't just abandon you two," said Safety, as she floated into view. "It's my job as an angel to make sure you and your friend always remain very happy!"
"No, Yuya and I are alright now. You don't have to worry about us anymore; our little misunderstanding is over now." Moe turned to look at Safety, and seeing the cheerful smile on her face, managed a smile of her own.
"And that's a relief!" But before she could impress upon Moe the importance of her duties, she was interrupted by barking from behind the gate.
"Hey, there's Lani again." Moe crouched down to take a closer look at the happy orange ball of fluff. "This is, like, the third time this week he's been waiting here on my way to school."
"Oh, dear!" Safety floated down to the ground, fiddled with her glasses, and tried to put a stern look in her big blue eyes. "Now Lani, you don't have to worry about me; I'll be alright. Please go inside. I'm sure Mrs. Adachi has prepared a very lovely breakfast for you. You don't want to miss your wonderful meal, now do you?"
Lani walked toward the gate, poked his sharp fox-like nose through, and gently whimpered when he could go no further.
Moe reached through the gate and gave Lani a pat on the head. 'Oh come on Safety, I think its nice to have a little company in the morning."
"Lani, come in and eat your breakfast this instant, or I'll have to throw it out!"
"Oh dear. I just can't stand that sort of ... dis ... harmony." Safety leaned against Moe's leg to steady herself, and before she could get up, disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Startled, Lani backed away from the puff of smoke, and focused his eyes on it, intently. As the smoke cleared revealing Apprentice Shinigami Risky, Lani cocked his head quizzically.
"Yes, I'm free again! Look out world, here comes Risky!" Risky started to triumphantly raise her scythe above her head, but stopped when she noticed Lani's tiny eyes locked onto her from behind tufts of fur. She smiled nervously and waved at him. "Hey, what's he looking at?" she whispered to Moe.
"Lani was having a nice little chat with Safety." Moe gave Risky a little grin.
"Well I don't want to have a chat with some dumb dog." Risky turned her head, and regarded Lani with disgust, and then pointed at Moe. "You! Make it go away!"
"No. I'm going to school. See you Risky! Bye, Lani!" As Moe walked off, Lani barked, and then turned his head to once again look at Risky.
"Why can't he just go away?" Risky grabbed her scythe in both hands, and shook it above her head angrily. Lani again cocked his head quizzically, then leapt up onto his hind legs, and shook his forepaws above his head, matching time with Risky's scythe.
"What are you gonna do about it, collect his soul?" Moe called out mockingly, as she turned the corner.
"Me collect a dog's soul? Don't be insulting. Unless ..." Risky hopped down off of the gate behind a garbage can, out of sight of all.
As Lani scurried off into the house, Risky reached under her hat and pulled out a massive book. She flipped through the pages, and slipped her scythe into the book at just the right page.
"Death Apples! Those can poison the souls of anything -- people, spirits, and even animals."
She spun the scythe above her head, and the book glowed invitingly. She slammed the point of the scythe into the book, and when she pulled it out, a sickly green crab apple was stuck on the end of it. She packed her scythe and book back into her hat, and held the apple in both arms.
"Oh, Lani," called out Risky as she sprung toward the gate, "I've got a little treat for you!"
But Lani was nowhere to be seen. She squeezed her hat and head through the bars of the gate and looked around. She started to squeeze the rest of her body through, but stopped, afraid Lani might be hiding somewhere in the yard, waiting for her.
I know, she thought, I'll toss it in the water bowl. Then the poison will get that dog with just one little drink.
She heaved the apple up to her shoulder like a shot-put, and threw it into the yard. It bounced off of the bowl, and landed in a patch of grass next to it. Risky grumbled at her misfortune and literally burned with rage, tiny flames sprouting up over her shoulders, her arms, her hat, and in her eyes. The poison apple also burned. Little green flames formed all over it, killing nearby blades of grass. Risky slung her scythe over one shoulder and gripped it tightly as she walked off, still glowing like a hot coal.
As she walked away, the apple burned away a circle of grass around it, and melded into the ground. Within minutes, a sickly green sprout emerged from the ground in the middle of the circle.
For the fourth time that afternoon, Lani heard footsteps on the sidewalk. He stopped sniffing at the mysterious little tree that had sprouted up next to his water dish, and for the fourth time, trotted toward the gate, wagging his tail in anticipation.
Lani watched as Moe hurried down the sidewalk, barely having the time to bark once before she walked out of sight.
Then Risky sprung into view, singing some happy little song about death and destruction. As Lani turned his head toward Risky, she stopped in mid-leap. Risky narrowed her eyes as she looked at Lani, and carefully traversed the sidewalk in front of the Adachi residence. Risky alternated with each step between looking forward and shooting a glare at Lani, while he continued to watch her, wagging his tail, and barking cheerfully every time Risky looked his way.
When Lani was finally out of view, Risky began springing forward again.
"Moe, it's looking at me again," she whined, hurrying to catch up. "What am I supposed to do? It's not fair."
Moe ignored her and rushed into her house, slamming the door shut on Risky's face. She whined a little more, pulled her scythe out of the door, and walked off in a huff. Fine, she thought, I'll just find someone else's soul to collect. We'll see who's sorry when you decide you want to end it all, and I'm not there! She walked away, with her head held high.
Meanwhile, Lani had gone to get a drink of water, and found that the tree had grown. It was now taller than he was, had grown pale green leaves all over its branches, and a few black flower buds dotted the plant. He pushed his way under the leaves to reach his dish, lapped up a few sips of water with a long, narrow tongue, then backed away. The places where the leaves had touched his fur felt a little odd. He shook off, casting away this strange chilling feeling, took several steps away from the tree, and took a nap.
The next morning, Moe stopped again in front of the gate to the Adachi residence. However, Lani was nowhere to be seen. What had caught her attention was a mysterious rustling sound within her school bag. She nervously put it down and, keeping it at arm's length, unfastened it and flipped it open.
Fortunately, nothing jumped out to bite her.
She carefully peeked in, and looked over her books, bento box, pencil box, papers, and finally focused on a small white paper bag, the source of the rustling sound. Now the rustling was joined by a furious chomping sound, accompanied by muffled burps.
Moe frowned and sighed. Quick as a wink, she reached into the paper bag, pulling out a little shinigami in a little black hat, with a big chocolate chip cookie stuffed most of the way into her mouth.
Risky wriggled one arm out of Moe's grasp, and finished stuffing the cookie into her mouth. "Hey, can't crunch crunch eat in peace? Hey, get crunch crunch crunch off me!"
Moe unceremoniously dropped Risky on her butt, and looked carefully into the bag. "Oh, no! I was going to share those with my friends at lunch." All that remained was one small cookie, broken into three very small pieces, a few crumbs, and a single chocolate chip.
"Hey, I left you a cookie, and it's in three pieces. You can and your two friends can split those three pieces, right?" Risky stood on her toes, and craned her neck to get a better look at the pieces Moe was frowning at in her hand.
"That wasn't very nice, you know."
Moe put the cookie pieces back in the bag, and idly tossed the chocolate chip to her mouth. Risky leapt into the air and intercepted the chip, catching it in her mouth, chewing once, and swallowing it before she hit the ground.
As Moe gathered her things Risky realized where she was. Nervously she peered into the yard. She stared daggers at the front door, the sidewalk, the water bowl. She looked toward the poison tree, suspecting Lani was hiding behind it, and not noticing that little black buds were sprouting into little green and black flowers.
"He's in the window," Moe commented casually, picking up her bag.
"Window? Where?" Risky surveyed the house in a panic, finally spotting Lani inside the window. He was standing in a chair, happily staring out at them. "Oh, so that's where you're lurking. That's a pretty clever hiding place, but you couldn't fool me!" Risky steeled herself and marched into the yard.
Good riddance, thought Moe, as she continued to school.
As Risky continued forward, she raised her head, and caught Lani's gaze. He wagged his tail, happy to be noticed at last, but was somewhat taken aback by Risky's penetrating stare. But before Lani could react, Mrs. Adachi picked him up.
"Lani, how many times do I have to tell you to stay off the furniture?" She set Lani down on the floor, and brushed orange fur off of her favorite chair. Not comprehending, Lani wagged his tail and barked happily. "Yes, I suppose you should be happy. Today's the first bright and sunny day in long time, and we can go for a walk in the park! Isn't that nice?"
Lani could comprehend "walk" and "park," and wagged his tail even harder, jumping up in excitement. Somewhere in the distance, Risky groaned, and disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Mrs. Adachi went into another room to find Lani's leash, and he promptly hopped back onto Mrs. Adachi's favorite chair to take another look out the window.
Safety floated up to the window, and bowed deeply. "Good morning, Lani! It certainly is a pleasant day."
Lani put his front paws on the windowsill, and barked, pressing his nose against the window.
"I'm happy to see you too, Lani. Blessings of the Great Angel be upon you on this day." She gently patted the window right where Lani's nose was pressing against it.
"Oh, Lani what a cute little tree you have here!" She floated above the tree, admiring the green and black flowers that had blossomed all over it. Smiling brilliantly, she floated down, saying, "I've never seen flowers like this before." But as she reached out to a flower it wilted. Before she could even touch it, the flower had dried up completely.
"Oh, it must be sick. I wonder why," she mused, floating around the tree, looking at it from every angle. She noticed that no matter how healthy the tree looked from a distance, every time she took a close look at a flower or leaf, it seemed on the verge of withering away.
Safety turned toward the window. Her worried look was met by Lani's still happy, still excited face.
Safety smiled at Lani. "Don't worry. I'll help your tree."
She reached into her robe, and pulled out a watering can with a picture of a daisy with wings. She pirouetted into the air above the tree, and chanted, "Angel! Geru geru, neru neru neru, desuno! Lovely Sprinkling!"
Dozens of tiny drops of water flew out of the watering can, hovered in the air, catching the light so they cast dozens of tiny rainbows on the tree. Safety smiled at her handiwork, and again bowed to Lani. "Many blessings upon you and your cute little tree! Yorishiku, Lani, desuno!"
Safety flitted off toward Moe's school, smiling brilliantly.
The water gently floated down onto the tree. Dozens of leaves and flowers each greedily absorbed a drop and disappeared with a colorful spark. This left many branches bare, and a few even cracked off, as if they had been crushed by a heavy weight.
When Lani walked out the door with Mrs. Adachi, he gave a puzzled look to the lopsided tree, half withered away and half still growing over his water dish, before joyously leading her out the gate, toward the park.
That afternoon, Safety let Moe and her friends go ahead to her house, and stopped to check on Lani's tree. Lani was waiting for her at the gate, wagging his tail as always.
"Hello Lani! What a pleasant afternoon," she said.
But before she could say anything more, a shout came from Moe's living room. "Oh no, you failed the math test too?" cried Moe and Kotone in unison.
"Oh ... such ... misfortune," said Safety weakly.
Lani now found himself face to face with Risky. He barked tentatively. He was answered by a silent, withering glare from Risky. He whined a bit, and backed further into the yard, pointing his head downward in shame.
"Yeah, that's right, get outta here!" Risky marched into the yard, still staring daggers at Lani. The remaining leaves on the tree glistened, and with a soft "pop" one of the surviving flowers turned into a shiny green apple.
Lani looked up and whimpered insistently. Risky's eyes burned with rage, startling him. He rushed to his water dish, trying to hide himself by lying behind it, and trying to hide his face under his paws. He peeked out to see Risky still giving him nasty looks, and whimpered again.
Several more apples popped up on the tree.
"What are you doing here? Go on, scram!" Risky marched toward Lani relentlessly.
Startled, he backed into the tree. It shook, and one of the apples fell in Lani's bowl, splashing Lani's face with green-tinged water. He yelped once, and ran to the house.
In the distance, Moe, Kotone, and Suzuko cried out in unison, "Yes! We all got perfect scores on our English test!"
Risky vanished, and the first thing Safety noticed was Lani, whimpering gently, fleeing into the house.
"Oh, Lani, what's wrong?" she said.
Lani didn't hear, went deeper into the house, and hid under a table.
"What did that mean old Risky do to scare you? I'm sorry." She floated gently into the screen door, and then turned around, sighing.
When she saw the tree, she sighed even more. "What happened?" she gasped. "Half of the tree is gone!"
Safety walked toward the tree, which towered several inches over her head. She was glad that there were several apples on it, but this did not truly lift her spirits. She mournfully touched the jagged remains of a branch that had broken off. She examined several leaves, and shook her head when she realized that every single leaf she touched was dying.
She floated up above the tree, and looked down at it. This half of it is completely gone, nothing but ripped-out branches and bare roots, she thought. And this half of it looks okay, but its condition hasn't gotten any better -- it's still fading away. It might all be gone by tomorrow, and I couldn't do anything to help it. Tears welled up in Safety's eyes. They flowed freely down her cheeks, collecting into a massive drop at the bottom of her chin.
And Lani! Oh, the poor thing. What did Risky do to you?
As Safety floated away, the single teardrop fell off of her chin. It fell to earth, hitting the base of the tree with a splash. In an instant, a large gnarled root dissolved into nothingness.
I hope I can protect Miss Moe better than that, or I'll never get promoted past apprentice. Droplets scattered all over, catching fruits, branches, and leaves, causing them to melt away. One droplet landed in Lani's water dish, and within seconds, the apple that had fallen in dissolved into mush. Another drop turned the water crystal clear.
Safety sadly drifted through a window into Moe's bedroom.
The remaining angel's tears formed a small puddle on the ground. Over the next few minutes, some of the water soaked into the ground, and dissolved the roots of the tree. It toppled over into the puddle, where it began to melt.
Just before sundown, Lani ventured out from under the table, and took a look outside. Seeing nobody there, he took a few tentative steps out. He sniffed his way over toward the mysterious bare patch of ground next to his bowl. There he sat down and howled sadly for a moment.
Then he drank the strangely pure and clear water from his bowl.
And thought of the sweet little angel who cared for him so much.
And felt happy again.
PG-ish
Sad, at times.
Mrs. Adachi called out, pleading for Lani in to come in for breakfast, but he still waited. He stood completely motionless, near his water bowl, and stared out of the yard. From the sidewalk, Lani heard the sound of footsteps and quiet conversation, wagged his tail, and rushed toward the gate.
"But I can't just abandon you two," said Safety, as she floated into view. "It's my job as an angel to make sure you and your friend always remain very happy!"
"No, Yuya and I are alright now. You don't have to worry about us anymore; our little misunderstanding is over now." Moe turned to look at Safety, and seeing the cheerful smile on her face, managed a smile of her own.
"And that's a relief!" But before she could impress upon Moe the importance of her duties, she was interrupted by barking from behind the gate.
"Hey, there's Lani again." Moe crouched down to take a closer look at the happy orange ball of fluff. "This is, like, the third time this week he's been waiting here on my way to school."
"Oh, dear!" Safety floated down to the ground, fiddled with her glasses, and tried to put a stern look in her big blue eyes. "Now Lani, you don't have to worry about me; I'll be alright. Please go inside. I'm sure Mrs. Adachi has prepared a very lovely breakfast for you. You don't want to miss your wonderful meal, now do you?"
Lani walked toward the gate, poked his sharp fox-like nose through, and gently whimpered when he could go no further.
Moe reached through the gate and gave Lani a pat on the head. 'Oh come on Safety, I think its nice to have a little company in the morning."
"Lani, come in and eat your breakfast this instant, or I'll have to throw it out!"
"Oh dear. I just can't stand that sort of ... dis ... harmony." Safety leaned against Moe's leg to steady herself, and before she could get up, disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Startled, Lani backed away from the puff of smoke, and focused his eyes on it, intently. As the smoke cleared revealing Apprentice Shinigami Risky, Lani cocked his head quizzically.
"Yes, I'm free again! Look out world, here comes Risky!" Risky started to triumphantly raise her scythe above her head, but stopped when she noticed Lani's tiny eyes locked onto her from behind tufts of fur. She smiled nervously and waved at him. "Hey, what's he looking at?" she whispered to Moe.
"Lani was having a nice little chat with Safety." Moe gave Risky a little grin.
"Well I don't want to have a chat with some dumb dog." Risky turned her head, and regarded Lani with disgust, and then pointed at Moe. "You! Make it go away!"
"No. I'm going to school. See you Risky! Bye, Lani!" As Moe walked off, Lani barked, and then turned his head to once again look at Risky.
"Why can't he just go away?" Risky grabbed her scythe in both hands, and shook it above her head angrily. Lani again cocked his head quizzically, then leapt up onto his hind legs, and shook his forepaws above his head, matching time with Risky's scythe.
"What are you gonna do about it, collect his soul?" Moe called out mockingly, as she turned the corner.
"Me collect a dog's soul? Don't be insulting. Unless ..." Risky hopped down off of the gate behind a garbage can, out of sight of all.
As Lani scurried off into the house, Risky reached under her hat and pulled out a massive book. She flipped through the pages, and slipped her scythe into the book at just the right page.
"Death Apples! Those can poison the souls of anything -- people, spirits, and even animals."
She spun the scythe above her head, and the book glowed invitingly. She slammed the point of the scythe into the book, and when she pulled it out, a sickly green crab apple was stuck on the end of it. She packed her scythe and book back into her hat, and held the apple in both arms.
"Oh, Lani," called out Risky as she sprung toward the gate, "I've got a little treat for you!"
But Lani was nowhere to be seen. She squeezed her hat and head through the bars of the gate and looked around. She started to squeeze the rest of her body through, but stopped, afraid Lani might be hiding somewhere in the yard, waiting for her.
I know, she thought, I'll toss it in the water bowl. Then the poison will get that dog with just one little drink.
She heaved the apple up to her shoulder like a shot-put, and threw it into the yard. It bounced off of the bowl, and landed in a patch of grass next to it. Risky grumbled at her misfortune and literally burned with rage, tiny flames sprouting up over her shoulders, her arms, her hat, and in her eyes. The poison apple also burned. Little green flames formed all over it, killing nearby blades of grass. Risky slung her scythe over one shoulder and gripped it tightly as she walked off, still glowing like a hot coal.
As she walked away, the apple burned away a circle of grass around it, and melded into the ground. Within minutes, a sickly green sprout emerged from the ground in the middle of the circle.
For the fourth time that afternoon, Lani heard footsteps on the sidewalk. He stopped sniffing at the mysterious little tree that had sprouted up next to his water dish, and for the fourth time, trotted toward the gate, wagging his tail in anticipation.
Lani watched as Moe hurried down the sidewalk, barely having the time to bark once before she walked out of sight.
Then Risky sprung into view, singing some happy little song about death and destruction. As Lani turned his head toward Risky, she stopped in mid-leap. Risky narrowed her eyes as she looked at Lani, and carefully traversed the sidewalk in front of the Adachi residence. Risky alternated with each step between looking forward and shooting a glare at Lani, while he continued to watch her, wagging his tail, and barking cheerfully every time Risky looked his way.
When Lani was finally out of view, Risky began springing forward again.
"Moe, it's looking at me again," she whined, hurrying to catch up. "What am I supposed to do? It's not fair."
Moe ignored her and rushed into her house, slamming the door shut on Risky's face. She whined a little more, pulled her scythe out of the door, and walked off in a huff. Fine, she thought, I'll just find someone else's soul to collect. We'll see who's sorry when you decide you want to end it all, and I'm not there! She walked away, with her head held high.
Meanwhile, Lani had gone to get a drink of water, and found that the tree had grown. It was now taller than he was, had grown pale green leaves all over its branches, and a few black flower buds dotted the plant. He pushed his way under the leaves to reach his dish, lapped up a few sips of water with a long, narrow tongue, then backed away. The places where the leaves had touched his fur felt a little odd. He shook off, casting away this strange chilling feeling, took several steps away from the tree, and took a nap.
The next morning, Moe stopped again in front of the gate to the Adachi residence. However, Lani was nowhere to be seen. What had caught her attention was a mysterious rustling sound within her school bag. She nervously put it down and, keeping it at arm's length, unfastened it and flipped it open.
Fortunately, nothing jumped out to bite her.
She carefully peeked in, and looked over her books, bento box, pencil box, papers, and finally focused on a small white paper bag, the source of the rustling sound. Now the rustling was joined by a furious chomping sound, accompanied by muffled burps.
Moe frowned and sighed. Quick as a wink, she reached into the paper bag, pulling out a little shinigami in a little black hat, with a big chocolate chip cookie stuffed most of the way into her mouth.
Risky wriggled one arm out of Moe's grasp, and finished stuffing the cookie into her mouth. "Hey, can't crunch crunch eat in peace? Hey, get crunch crunch crunch off me!"
Moe unceremoniously dropped Risky on her butt, and looked carefully into the bag. "Oh, no! I was going to share those with my friends at lunch." All that remained was one small cookie, broken into three very small pieces, a few crumbs, and a single chocolate chip.
"Hey, I left you a cookie, and it's in three pieces. You can and your two friends can split those three pieces, right?" Risky stood on her toes, and craned her neck to get a better look at the pieces Moe was frowning at in her hand.
"That wasn't very nice, you know."
Moe put the cookie pieces back in the bag, and idly tossed the chocolate chip to her mouth. Risky leapt into the air and intercepted the chip, catching it in her mouth, chewing once, and swallowing it before she hit the ground.
As Moe gathered her things Risky realized where she was. Nervously she peered into the yard. She stared daggers at the front door, the sidewalk, the water bowl. She looked toward the poison tree, suspecting Lani was hiding behind it, and not noticing that little black buds were sprouting into little green and black flowers.
"He's in the window," Moe commented casually, picking up her bag.
"Window? Where?" Risky surveyed the house in a panic, finally spotting Lani inside the window. He was standing in a chair, happily staring out at them. "Oh, so that's where you're lurking. That's a pretty clever hiding place, but you couldn't fool me!" Risky steeled herself and marched into the yard.
Good riddance, thought Moe, as she continued to school.
As Risky continued forward, she raised her head, and caught Lani's gaze. He wagged his tail, happy to be noticed at last, but was somewhat taken aback by Risky's penetrating stare. But before Lani could react, Mrs. Adachi picked him up.
"Lani, how many times do I have to tell you to stay off the furniture?" She set Lani down on the floor, and brushed orange fur off of her favorite chair. Not comprehending, Lani wagged his tail and barked happily. "Yes, I suppose you should be happy. Today's the first bright and sunny day in long time, and we can go for a walk in the park! Isn't that nice?"
Lani could comprehend "walk" and "park," and wagged his tail even harder, jumping up in excitement. Somewhere in the distance, Risky groaned, and disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Mrs. Adachi went into another room to find Lani's leash, and he promptly hopped back onto Mrs. Adachi's favorite chair to take another look out the window.
Safety floated up to the window, and bowed deeply. "Good morning, Lani! It certainly is a pleasant day."
Lani put his front paws on the windowsill, and barked, pressing his nose against the window.
"I'm happy to see you too, Lani. Blessings of the Great Angel be upon you on this day." She gently patted the window right where Lani's nose was pressing against it.
"Oh, Lani what a cute little tree you have here!" She floated above the tree, admiring the green and black flowers that had blossomed all over it. Smiling brilliantly, she floated down, saying, "I've never seen flowers like this before." But as she reached out to a flower it wilted. Before she could even touch it, the flower had dried up completely.
"Oh, it must be sick. I wonder why," she mused, floating around the tree, looking at it from every angle. She noticed that no matter how healthy the tree looked from a distance, every time she took a close look at a flower or leaf, it seemed on the verge of withering away.
Safety turned toward the window. Her worried look was met by Lani's still happy, still excited face.
Safety smiled at Lani. "Don't worry. I'll help your tree."
She reached into her robe, and pulled out a watering can with a picture of a daisy with wings. She pirouetted into the air above the tree, and chanted, "Angel! Geru geru, neru neru neru, desuno! Lovely Sprinkling!"
Dozens of tiny drops of water flew out of the watering can, hovered in the air, catching the light so they cast dozens of tiny rainbows on the tree. Safety smiled at her handiwork, and again bowed to Lani. "Many blessings upon you and your cute little tree! Yorishiku, Lani, desuno!"
Safety flitted off toward Moe's school, smiling brilliantly.
The water gently floated down onto the tree. Dozens of leaves and flowers each greedily absorbed a drop and disappeared with a colorful spark. This left many branches bare, and a few even cracked off, as if they had been crushed by a heavy weight.
When Lani walked out the door with Mrs. Adachi, he gave a puzzled look to the lopsided tree, half withered away and half still growing over his water dish, before joyously leading her out the gate, toward the park.
That afternoon, Safety let Moe and her friends go ahead to her house, and stopped to check on Lani's tree. Lani was waiting for her at the gate, wagging his tail as always.
"Hello Lani! What a pleasant afternoon," she said.
But before she could say anything more, a shout came from Moe's living room. "Oh no, you failed the math test too?" cried Moe and Kotone in unison.
"Oh ... such ... misfortune," said Safety weakly.
Lani now found himself face to face with Risky. He barked tentatively. He was answered by a silent, withering glare from Risky. He whined a bit, and backed further into the yard, pointing his head downward in shame.
"Yeah, that's right, get outta here!" Risky marched into the yard, still staring daggers at Lani. The remaining leaves on the tree glistened, and with a soft "pop" one of the surviving flowers turned into a shiny green apple.
Lani looked up and whimpered insistently. Risky's eyes burned with rage, startling him. He rushed to his water dish, trying to hide himself by lying behind it, and trying to hide his face under his paws. He peeked out to see Risky still giving him nasty looks, and whimpered again.
Several more apples popped up on the tree.
"What are you doing here? Go on, scram!" Risky marched toward Lani relentlessly.
Startled, he backed into the tree. It shook, and one of the apples fell in Lani's bowl, splashing Lani's face with green-tinged water. He yelped once, and ran to the house.
In the distance, Moe, Kotone, and Suzuko cried out in unison, "Yes! We all got perfect scores on our English test!"
Risky vanished, and the first thing Safety noticed was Lani, whimpering gently, fleeing into the house.
"Oh, Lani, what's wrong?" she said.
Lani didn't hear, went deeper into the house, and hid under a table.
"What did that mean old Risky do to scare you? I'm sorry." She floated gently into the screen door, and then turned around, sighing.
When she saw the tree, she sighed even more. "What happened?" she gasped. "Half of the tree is gone!"
Safety walked toward the tree, which towered several inches over her head. She was glad that there were several apples on it, but this did not truly lift her spirits. She mournfully touched the jagged remains of a branch that had broken off. She examined several leaves, and shook her head when she realized that every single leaf she touched was dying.
She floated up above the tree, and looked down at it. This half of it is completely gone, nothing but ripped-out branches and bare roots, she thought. And this half of it looks okay, but its condition hasn't gotten any better -- it's still fading away. It might all be gone by tomorrow, and I couldn't do anything to help it. Tears welled up in Safety's eyes. They flowed freely down her cheeks, collecting into a massive drop at the bottom of her chin.
And Lani! Oh, the poor thing. What did Risky do to you?
As Safety floated away, the single teardrop fell off of her chin. It fell to earth, hitting the base of the tree with a splash. In an instant, a large gnarled root dissolved into nothingness.
I hope I can protect Miss Moe better than that, or I'll never get promoted past apprentice. Droplets scattered all over, catching fruits, branches, and leaves, causing them to melt away. One droplet landed in Lani's water dish, and within seconds, the apple that had fallen in dissolved into mush. Another drop turned the water crystal clear.
Safety sadly drifted through a window into Moe's bedroom.
The remaining angel's tears formed a small puddle on the ground. Over the next few minutes, some of the water soaked into the ground, and dissolved the roots of the tree. It toppled over into the puddle, where it began to melt.
Just before sundown, Lani ventured out from under the table, and took a look outside. Seeing nobody there, he took a few tentative steps out. He sniffed his way over toward the mysterious bare patch of ground next to his bowl. There he sat down and howled sadly for a moment.
Then he drank the strangely pure and clear water from his bowl.
And thought of the sweet little angel who cared for him so much.
And felt happy again.