FicWad

I open my eyes slowly as I look around and notice that I was in the guest room of Flonne's house. I got up and decided to see if she was awake. I headed to the kitchen only to find Flonne making breakfast. She noticed me and became happy.

"Oh good morning Alex, how are you?"

"I'm alright..I see you're making breakfast eh?" Flonne smiled back at me. "Yep that's right, although..." I noticed that she was starting to become sad.

"What's wrong?" Flonne turned to me and spoke in a sad tone.

"I'm almost running out of food to eat."

"Really?" I asked her in a shock expression. Flonne nodded her head and continue.

"You see, I haven't found any nuts around the trees that surround Liberty Park and my food stock is running low, so I won't be able to survive the winter." Winter?Oh right..animals have to hibernate in the winter, I forgot about that.

"So you're saying is that you're running out of food, is that right?" I asked her. She nodded her head and smiled nervously.

"Yeah, but don't worried, I'm sure I'll found some food to save..my only concern is everyone else that lives in this park."

"Why's that?" Flonne looked down in depression.

"You see, every year, our food stock always has been short as long as I remember..many animals here go around either stealing human food or finding food from the dumpster." Wow really? Man I can't believe they can't find any food the place, that's kinda sad.

"I see..well, maybe this time we can find some food to survive through the winter." I suggested. Flonne became delighted about my idea.

"That's great Alex..but first, let's eat breakfast so our tummies is full for now." Now that you mention it..I guess one bite won't hurt. Flonne grabbed a few nuts and gave some for herself and me. We ate our nuts which of course was very delicious..well I do like nuts..but as a squirrel, who knew acorns tasted so good. While we were eating..Flonne spoke up.

"So Alex...I always wondered..why do you always wear that scarf?" I became afraid as if she thinks it's nothing. I know she believed me about being a human and all...but I just can't tell her that yet.

"You see, I wear this because this is the only thing I have left from my mom." I told her. Flonne smiled at me wearing something that my mom gave me.

"Okay then." Flonne said happily. As we finished eating, someone knock on the hole.as we turned to see a bird waiting patiently at the front entrance of the door.

"Hmm...yes, can I help you?" The bird was talking to Flonne for a few minutes and it seemed whatever they were talking about, Flonne made a surprise expression.

"Oh! Really?! Well I guess I should head over there then." The bird then flew away as I got up and walked towards Flonne.

"Hey Flonne what's up?" I asked her. Flonne looked at me with a worried expression.

"Well apparently there's a big meeting happening at the Mill, so I have to go right now." I got confuse of what she said.

"A meeting? For what exactly?" I asked her.

"You see, it's about searching for food to save for winter." Oh yeah, we were just talking about five minutes ago.

"Well if it's alright, can I come?" Flonne smiled happily at me.

"Sure why not." Flonne and I left the tree and I followed her to this mill she was talking about. Once we arrived at the place, I remembered what it was, we saw it yesterday from that secret place Flonne took me. Now that I see it up close, it's much bigger and broken down. We entered the place and once inside, I saw many animals inside there talking to each other. Me and Flonne were in the back of the crowd and waited until the meeting started.

"I wonder what Raccoon will say this time?" Flonne thought aloud. I became confused of the name she said.

"Raccoon?" I asked in confusion.

"Yeah, he's the park's leader, he's been park leader for 25 years." Park leader? I didn't know parks had any leaders. While we were talking, I notice everyone was looking at me, I'm guessing because of my appearance. I covered my mouth with my scarf and tried to ignore them. Just then, someone came out of the crowd, I look at him and he appears to be a raccoon. He looked old and on his right arm there was a red bird on him with really big black eyes, looking at them kinda makes me creep out.

"Now then everyone, I call all of you here for this assembly." Everyone turned their eyes on him. So this is Raccoon, and he's name after his species? That's kinda weird.

"Now then, as you all ready know that winter is coming up soon, so we prepare ourselves for it, so I ask much for everyone for food around the park, so I need you know to bring any food you can find to the Oak Tree tomorrow to store food for winter." Everyone agreed with that and proceed to leave the area. Wow, that was fast.

"Well, I guess we should get started already." Flonne said ready to leave. I proceeded and was about head outside until I notice that Raccoon was looking at me, I became confused of why he was looking at me, but I decided to ignore and leave. Me and Flonne left the mill to go and search for food.

"So that Raccoon was the park's leader?" I asked her.

"Yeah, he's very wise and always know everything about this park." Gee, that's kinda amazing. While we were walking, I couldn't help but feel like we were being watched or something. I turned around and look around the area and saw nothing. Flonne turned to me with a confuse expression.

"Hey, is something wrong?" I finished looking around the area and turned around with my usual emotionless expression.

"I was just wondering, where do we start looking for food?" I asked her. Flonne thought for a while and came up with something.

"I know, we can split up!" Split up?

"Why?"

"Well, I thought that maybe we can split so we can found more food easier. You can search for food around the park and I can go the market place to buy some stuff there, but...." She paused for a moment with a depressed look.

"But what?" I asked her. She looked at me with a sad look.

"You see, it's probably going to be crowded there anyway, so I think the food stock might be gone right now." Well, people fighting each other in order to get what they want in stores and markets..that kinda usually happens with humans.

"Well, at least we could try..I'll go to the marketplace to get some food for you." I told her, but Flonne shook her head.

"Oh no no no Alex, I'll do it, and you're right, at least we could try..you go search for some food around the park, I'll head to the marketplace." She told me with a calm look.

"Alright..and where should we meet up?" I asked her.

"We should meet up back at my home." Seems like a good place to go back to start at.

"Alright, got it and we should meet up at the end of the day." I told her giving her the time to meet each other again. Flonne nodded her head in agreement.

"Okay, well see yeah!" She was about to leave until she stopped and look at me.

"You know Alex, I still can't believe your actually a human who's been transformed into a squirrel, and I promise I won't tell anyone about you or your past." Flonne told me happily. I became surprised for her promising that, but I didn't smile back at her because..I never want to smiled ever again, so I let out my emotionless expression at her.

"Thank..you..Flonne." Flonne must've known that I really mean it because she smiled warmly at me. She then left the area and proceeded to the marketplace. I decided to go and find some food for her.

I walked around Liberty Park in hopes of finding food around the place, I search around the trees, bushes, the ground, and even inside of the oak trees, but no luck. While I was searching for food, I notice a familiar chipmunk wearing goggles looking around the area. I remember her yesterday, that was Maya! Maya noticed me and waved happily at me.

"Hey Alex!" I waved back at her and walked towards her.

"Hey Maya, what are you doing?" I asked her.

"Oh I'm searching for any food with my newest invention." Maya pulled out a...whatever it was. It almost look like a compass.

"You're using a compass to search for food?" I asked her with a dull expression.

"No no no, this isn't any compass like those humans use to navigate, this will help me search for food..you see, I took some human stuff at the garbage dump and found this and also a TV Antenna, with that, I can use the TV antenna as a signal to pick up food." This chipmunk is totally crazy.

"Okay...well good luck with that." I told her with an emotionless expression. I was about to leave until I thought that maybe I should ask her about her life. "Hey Maya." Maya turned to me with a happy expression.

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry for ruining your invention yesterday, I promise I won't ruin it ever again." I apologized to her. Maya became a little sad for me bringing that up, but then she smiled warmly at me.

"Nah, it's okay, I understand, it's just that..I want to help this park as much as I can." She told me. This cause me to be confuse.

"What do you mean?"

"You see, I didn't know my parents back then, I was alone until I was taken care of a mole named Mole." Okay, I feel like this names are getting ridiculous because their names of their species

"And back when I was just a baby, I once saw Humans watching something on the TV and I became amazed with machines and inventing. I also heard that humans made telephone poles to communicate with each other, with that kinda invention, it helped change the world, and that when I promise, that I can help the world the same way humans did." That was actually a pretty good dream. I looked at her and pull the scarf down that was covering my mouth and told her.

"Well I know you'll be able to achieve that dream..just don't lose hope." Maya looked at me with a surprise expression, but then smiled happily.

"Yeah that's right! I can't give up on my dreams yet! I'm gonna keep going to make Liberty Park a better place for everyone here! Thanks Alex. I'll see ya later." She was about to leave until she told me. "Oh by the way, if you see Flonne, tell her I said hi." With that, Maya left the area and was gone within sight.

I began to think to feel pretty sad hearing Maya's backstory, I wonder..what purpose do I have, how can I help the world? I guess I can think about it later. I should focus on finding some food. I was about to leave until I felt someone or something around the area. I turned around and saw that no one was around. Seriously, why did I keep having this weird feeling that someone is watching and following me? I should probably just keep moving forward.

I continued to go in search of food around the park, but no matter how hard I try to find some, there's no luck. While walking around, I tripped over something. I got up and saw what I tripped over, apparently, it was some hole on the ground. Probably dug by some groundhogs or moles. But then all of a sudden, I started to hear something coming out of it.

"Out of my way!"

"No you get out of my way!"

"I swear of me you guys I'll kick your butts if you two keep arguing like this." That voice...it almost sounded like that groundhog I encountered yesterday.

"Aw, you know what, I'm gonna take a break." Suddenly, Jake got out of the hole, trying to take a breather, when suddenly he noticed me. "Oh hey, you're..um..what was your name again?" I guess he forgotten about it.

"Alex Hunter." I told him. Jake smiled finally remembering my name.

"Oh right, hey Alex, how's it been?"

"I'm doing alright, just searching for some food to store for winter, but I'm running out of luck, what are you doing anyway Jake?" Jake got out of hole and started to stretch his back.

"You see, me, and my bros and sis are digging holes to stock some food up for winter." Oh that's what they're doing.

"So wait, you guys haven't start searching for food yet?" I asked him in confusion.

"Well yeah, but once we're done, we're totally going to search for some food." Hmm, I see, maybe I should ask him some for questions.

"Okay...say Jake, when you mention your 'bros' and 'sis', do you mean your brothers and sister?" I asked him, trying to get it right. He smiled happily as I guess correctly.

"Yeah that's right, my two other twin brothers, Johnny and Jimmy, and my younger sister, Jamie, we're the Bruisers." The Bruisers? What the heck is that?

"The Bruisers?"

"You see, the Bruiser are a group of Groundhogs who been around since Liberty Park was made along with Oakton, our family been around for 52 generations, and me, Johnny, Jimmy, and Jamie are the 53rd generations of the Bruisers." Holy crap! 52 generations?!

"Wow, really, then who was the last generation?" Jacob looked down in depression once I ask that question.

"That would be my mom and dad." Really?

"Oh, well, how are they're doing?" Jake became more depressed once I asked that question. Wait, don't tell me..

"They're dead." I should've known.

"What happen?" I asked him wanting to know what happen to his parents.

"You see, my dad was leader of the Bruisers, he dated my mom and brought birth to me, my bros, and sis. As we grew, my dad said that he'll hand over the leadership to me since I was the oldest in the family, but I decline the offer and decided to give it to Johnny." So he decline the offer and gave it to his younger brother?

"Why?" Jacob looked away from me and stared at the sky with a serious expression.

"You see, I care about my bros and sis very much, I'll sacrifice my life to save theirs. I care about them, and I thought that maybe Johnny had the qualifications to be a leader, so that's why." I see. It's because his love with his siblings that he handed the leadership of the Bruisers to him.

"Of course, I became a member of the Bruisers, not the leader, of course, we sometimes like to tell jokes all the times, and always fight with each other over and over, but we let it go sometimes. While our time of being the new members of the Bruisers was going great, the incident occurred." The incident?

"What incident?" I asked. Jake looked at me with a sad look.

"You see, the night before the incident, our home got invaded by a dog, we panic and ran out of their as fast as we could. Once we got of their, we didn't stop and kept going and going until suddenly, a car appeared and was about to ram Johnny, Jimmy, and Jamie, luckily, I pushed them out of the way, but I was about to hit by it." This story is just keep getting more and more intense.

"When I thought my life was over..mom and dad pushed me out of the way and...." He paused and clench his fist in anger. "They got hit by the car." I became surprised to hear that they both his parents sacrifice themselves to save their own children, but I didn't showed it, besides, I learned to endure many dead bodies that I come across

"After that car was gone, we saw both mom and dad bleeding badly after being by that car, we called for help and took them to the infirmary, once so, both of them were reaching the point of death, ever since, we both became sad and mourn over their deaths, right before they passed to the afterlife, my dad promise me something." Jake's dad promised him...something?

"What was that promise then?" I asked him wanting to know more of that. Jacob looked at me with a serious expression.

"I promise him that I would protect my bros and sis, and never let the Bruiser Clan fall down, but after their deaths, I decided that I want to rebuild the Bruiser Clan so when I heard about bikers gang from humans, I decided to build my own crew, and I have to say, all the members of crew are really worthy on becoming part of the Bruiser Clan." Jacob showed me his jacket and showed a symbol of a groundhog paw on it, probably the symbol for his bike gang. but I was truly amazed to hear that Jacob made a promise to protect his family. That's truly amazing.

"I see...that was a beautiful story Jake, and I just know that you'll never let your parents down. You just need to keep going and never give up hope." Jacob looked at me with a surprised expression. He then smiled warmly at me, then suddenly, he just grab me and gave me a..hug.

"Thanks Alex..and thank you for listening to my story, I really appreciate that." I nodded my head at him. He then let go of me and scratched his head. Just then, I heard someone else's voice coming from the hole he was just in.

"Jake, what's taking so long? We're almost done here!" That voice sounded like..a girl maybe?

"Yeah yeah, I'm coming sis!" Jake was about to go into the hole until he look at me, and giving me a thumbs up. "Well I'll see you later Alex, bye!" Jacob then went back into the hole and kept making their den for storing food.

Well, looks like I talk to both Flonne's friends for today, but I wasn't able to search for some food. "Man what is Flonne is gonna say? I just hope that she bought some food at the marketplace." I thought aloud, I thought that maybe I should head back to Flonne's home. I was about to go back until I was suddenly got hit by something. I fell down, rubbing my head in pain. I turned around and saw a red and gray squirrel rubbing their heads in pain. Who are these guys?

"Hey, are you okay?" I asked in an emotionless expression.

"Yeah, we're alright, sorry for bumping into you." The red squirrel said getting up from the ground. The gray squirrel got up and looked at me with suspicion. "I don't think we know each other, and I never seen you in the park before." I guess I can introduced myself.

"Oh, you see, I just recently got to this park, my name is Alex Hunter." I told them my name. They both made confuse expressions.

"Alex Hunter? What kind of name is that?" I made a tick mark on my hard for what that gray squirrel said, but I tried to ignore that calm down.

"Doesn't matter Grayson, anyway, my name is Andie, and this here is Grayson. Now would you excuse us, we have a nut cart to raid." The red squirrel known as Andie said starting to go back what was she and Grayson we're doing. I then made a surprise expression as I heard what she said. Maybe I can grab some nuts out of the nut cart to give to Flonne. Yeah, I can basically do that.

"Wait!" I stopped in front of them with a emotionless expression. "I want to..help you guys...get those nuts from the nut cart." I told them. They became surprised for me asking them, even though, they don't know anything about me, but Andie thought for a while and made her decision.

"Well, I guess so, alright, but why?" She asked.

"That's none of your concerns. I just want to help, that's all." I told them. Andie made a confuse expression of what I meant, so what, you think I should tell them everything, like heck no. As for Grayson, he was a different story.

"Alrighty then! Onward for the park!" he charged and headed to the entrance of the park. Me and Andie followed him to get to the nut cart. Once we arrived, we saw the nut cart, I looked around and saw a man wearing a green shirt and dark green overalls wearing a green cap on his head. It appears that he's selling some nuts to them.

"There it is, now all we have to do is get past that dog and grab some nuts and bring some back to the park." I noticed that dog walking and sniffing around the nut cart. I realized it was going to be a tough challenge but I think I could handle it.

"You two stay here, I got this." I walked away from and climb atop of the tree, as I got up to a branch where I can see the nut cart, I then grabbed a twig and threw as far as I can throw at the pug, once I did, the pug noticed the twig and went to chased after it. The man noticed the dog was chasing after something and went towards after it.

I jumped onto the nut cart and call over Andie and Grayson to come here. They jumped onto the nut cart and grabbed as many nuts as possible.

"Wow that was amazing..how did you did that?" Andie said amazed of what I did.

"I have my reasons." I told her with an emotionless expression. I put most of the nuts inside of scarf, but it was a lot heavier than expected, but I didn't mind. While we finished packing many nuts as possible to carry, we saw the man coming back from the vendor. Well, guess its our cue to leave. We ran out as fast as we could and headed back to the park. Once so, I followed them back to whatever they're going to put these nuts at.

We stopped at what it appears to be the biggest Oak Tree I ever seen since I first got here. "Hey Alex, thank you so much for helping us." She said smiling at me. I didn't return a smile back at her but I thank her.

"Your welcome." I told her. Grayson looked at me noticing about my appearance.

"You know I never seen a squirrel who wears a scarf before, or even have some stick around their back." Oh now you finally noticed that. I turned away from him, trying to ignore his concerns. Just then, I saw everyone coming to the Grand Oak Tree, seeing all the nuts we collected. I release all of the nuts out of my scarf and gave all of the nuts to them. Andie and Grayson shared their nuts to the citizens as well. I wonder if Flonne is around?

While I was giving some nuts to the animals, I heard a voice call out from somewhere. "Looks like everyone has arrived." I turned around and saw Raccoon coming out of the tree. He walked down and noticed all of the nuts I brought. He then turned to me and looked at me with a serious expression.

"So you must be the mysterious black squirrel I heard about it." He told me. Heard about? What's he talking about, I've been here for at least two days.

"Heard about me?" He nodded his head and continue.

"You see, I saw you at the meeting at the mill and I became very curious about you young squirrel." Oh so that's why he was looking at me, he was just what's to know about me.

"So please tell me, what is your name?"

"Alex Hunter." I said, showing no emotions to him.

"I see, well then Alex, for helping Andie and Grayson finding this much food to store for winter, I hereby announce you a new citizen of Liberty Park." Raccoon announced. Everyone started to clapped and cheer for me. Wow, all I did was just going around, searching for food, and helping those two for food, and this all happen. I didn't show any emotion as always while they were congratulating me.

"Now now everybody, I know that we have this much food, but it won't help us survive the entire winter." Everybody became depressed to hear that. "But don't worried, I'm sure we can find more food that can help us survive the winter, in the meantime, we should all head back to our homes to rest up." Raccoon announced, everybody headed back home to go rest up.

Raccoon's POV

After everyone left, I stood inside the mill and looked around to see that everyone was fast asleep. Mole then appeared walking towards the steps to the second floor.

"So have you gather information about that new visitor of the park?" I asked him sternly.

"Yes, his name is Alex Hunter, and apparently, he's a weird one, I mean a squirrel wearing a scarf, and a wooden stick around his back, that's really weird. But, he's staying at Flonne's place." I see, well then, it looks like I need to know more about him.

"Thank you for the information Mole, and now then, after what he did for the park earlier ago, he's not a troublemaker like that Surly Squirrel and his rat partner, Buddy." I said rubbing my chin.

"Well yeah, but how can we be sure he can be trusted?" Mole asked me. I looked at him with a serious expression. "Well, I guess we'll have to see." I looked at the night sky and began to think about him. So...Alex Hunter...it's been a long time since I heard that name, well, this will be fun.

Alex's POV

I decided to head back to Flonne's home, thinking that she was finally home. I climb up the tree and headed inside, once I did, I saw Flonne sitting down, looking down in depression. She notice me and became surprise. "Oh hey Alex, you're back."She said in a sad tone.

"Hey Flonne, so how did it go?" She let out a sigh and explain to me what happen.

"Well, apparently, I was too late, I was at the back of the line waiting all day, once I arrived, apparently, they were sold out." Oh boy. She let out another sigh and ask me something.

"So, how did go for you?" She asked still in a sad tone. "Well.." I took off my scarf and revealed many nuts I stored in. Yeah, I may or may not took some while nobody was looking. Flonne became surprised to see this many nuts.

"Wow Alex, this is amazing! I guess you had better luck than I did!" Flonne exclaimed happily. Well I wouldn't say that I was lucky but hey..

"It was nothing, really." I told her in a emotionless expression. Flonne smiled happily and giggled. I became confused of what she was giggling at.

"What are you giggling about?" Flonne gave out a smile at me.

"You know, for a squirrel, you're pretty amazing." I widen my eyes in surprise for her admiring me. It's been a long time since someone admire me. I looked away and started to blush from her. I just hope she doesn't notice my blushing.

After that, we put away the nuts in her food stock and proceeded to go to bed. Flonne was already fast asleep in her room, while I was sleeping the guest room, but while so, I heard someone knocking on the hole. I got up and saw that it was Andie.

"Andie? What are you doing here?" I asked her.

"Well I came to congratulated you for your help on getting those nuts for us, that was really brave of you." I covered my mouth with my scarf. "It was nothing, I just doing it for a friend." Andie smiled at me.

"Well anyway, I just want to thank you and I hope we can become good friends." I widened my eyes in surprise as she just said that we're good friends.

"Friends? You really admired me as a friend?" I asked her, trying to make sure this wasn't a trick.

"Yeah, after all, you did help me and Grayson raid those nuts from the nut cart." I can't believe it. She really does admired me as a friend..that's pretty..amazing, I guess.

"W-well then, I'm just glad that I could help and be good friends to each other." I told her showing no emotions, but Andie smiled softly before she left. I curled up and went to sleep, until suddenly I heard footsteps and someone was shaking me.

"Hey! Wake up!" I open my eyes and saw a squirrel next to me, but it was too dark to see who it was.

"Grayson? Is that you?" I said thinking it was him, but there was something off about his voice and appearance now that you mention it.

"Not even close kid." The squirrel said. "Buddy?" He snapped his fingers and suddenly, I was pulled out of the guest room and brought to Flonne's room since it has the most light in there, and once so, I saw who it really was, a purple squirrel with an angry look and a blue rat whose name I guess was Buddy, who seemed to be a lot stronger since he dragged me out of the guest room.

"Now listen here you!" The purple squirrel told me. "I'm onto you, just who you are? Walking into this park and working alongside Raccoon. Man, you're seriously stupid if you do something like that." I got up and brushed off the dirt out of my fur.

"I take it you don't like others very much." I said showing no hint of fear or shock. "And who are you exactly?"

"Names Surly." The purple squirrel introduce himself as Surly. Surly? And I thought Grayson's name was weird enough. "And this here's Buddy, don't ask him anything, he's doesn't talk much, no offence." The rat shrugged his shoulders like he doesn't mind.

"Are you going to hurt me, because if so, then you came to the wrong place to start a fight." Surly was about to respond until he noticed Flonne sleeping peacefully. Wow, she's a heavy sleeper.

"Who's that?" Surly asked wanting to know her.

"That's Flonne, she allowed me to live here with her until I can find a place to stay at." I told him. I noticed how distracted Surly was as he kept staring at her. I even overheard what he was muttering about.

"Boy...it's must be nice...to have someone...to care about you..." Wait, does he..have a terrible childhood as I did?

Just then, after a moment of silence, he finally snapped and out of his daze and said "Look, think of what you're about to do! Working alongside with Raccoon will be the biggest mistake ever." He then left the house with Buddy tagging alongside him. What is his problem and why did muttered about someone actually caring about people. Maybe..he could had a terrible childhood..just like me? I guess I should ask Flonne in the morning about this. I curled up and slept right next to Flonne, she wouldn't mind if I slept with her tonight. But I just hoped that I don't encounter that purple squirrel and his rat cohort again.

But by the next day, I got wrapped into something that got me into helping the park from starvation and winter.