Blossoming Friendship
The school's exterior was made of coarse sandstone covered in white paint. Students of all species played on the playground on swings, slides, jungle gyms, or being childish by playing tag. A 10 year old snow leopard sat on the bench waiting for the reccess bell to ring for the students to go back to their classes. The bell rang and every student lined up behind their teacher to go to their class rooms. Dustyn Turner, the snow leopard, stood second from last in the line and his teacher, an elderly red wolf, led his class through the gymnasium to their room. The cold white wall and grey concrete floored halls made every fur feel incredibly uncomfortable. When Dustyn walked by the main office's door way, the snow leopard saw something new, a lion cub. Dustyn snuck out of the line and hid next to the door and peered around the corner. The lion cub was maybe 3 inches taller then him, possibly 10 years old and had the beginning of a black mane on the top of his head almost completely covered by a white knit cap; he wore a white dress robe that went to his knees and loose white pants and leather sandals. Dustyn noticed the lion was scared; then a 5' 9" lioness in a similar white rode with black gloves and a pink scarf was wrapped around her head to where only her face was showing, walked into view. The lion cub clung to the female's left leg.
"He must be new." Dustyn thought to himself.
Then the principal walked into view.
"Well, Mrs. Asad, we are pleased that you chose our school to send Emir to, he will have fun and make a lot of friends." the somewhat over weight fox said kneeling down to look at the cub, who hid his face in his mother's robe.
"Emir?" Dustyn thought never hearing a name anywhere similar to that.
"Mr. Kneely, as you can tell just by our names and the way we dress, we are Muslims so my son needs 3 minutes each day at recess to pray." Mrs. Asad said nicely and Emir looked up at the fox.
"We can arrange that, ma'am." Mr. Kneely smiled.
"Shake the nice man's paw, Emir." the lioness said and the little cub reached out and took the fox's index finger in his paw and shook, making the lioness, fox and the secretary, a bear, laugh at the feline, only to make him blush through his gold fur and hide in his mother's robe again.
"Okay, my little prince, go to your classroom and I'll see you at three." the lioness said knealing down and adjusted the cub's cap.
"Lah! Oom! Lah!" the lion cub said franticlly in Arabic, saying "No! Mom! No!".
"Its okay, I'll be here at three, its only 3 hours." the lioness said kissing the cub's forehead and she left.
"Okay Emir, your class is room 10. Lets go." said the bear as she stood up and lead the cub out of the office.
"Dustyn? what are you doing here?" the female asked.
"I...I...saw him and wanted to say hi." the snow leopard said quietly knowing he got caught.
"Dustyn, youre in room 10, right?" the female asked.
"Yes, ma'am." Dustyn answered.
"Take Emir to the room." the female said.
"Okay." Dustyn smiled and the cub stepped forward.
The two cubs walked through the hall, but Emir didnt say anything, he just marvelled at the large building. Dustyn wanted to ask the cub about himself, but the cub always looked away when Dustyn looked towards him. The two cubs walked up to the door to their class. Dustyn reached forward and knocked on the door with his silver and black spotted paw and was answered by the red wolf from earlier and the lion cub hid behind the snow leopard, trembling at the sight of the large lupine.
"Mr. Emir." said the lupine and ushered the two felines in and the lion found a seat right next to Dustyn, still as silent as a rock.
There was giggling from a wolf whispering to a German Shepard and a fox, pointing at the new student.
The teacher left after being called to the office and the 2:45 bell rang and everyone started to get ready to go home.
Then, a lupine paw pulled the lion's knit cap off his head and the wolf tossed it to the fox.
"The kitty is wearing a dress too!" the wolf laughed and everyone laughed and pointed to the lion who started blushing, still not saying anything.
"Come on, James, give him his hat back!" Dustyn shouted at the wolf.
"Youre defending him?" the wolf laughed and the fox tossed the cap back to James.
"Give me back my kufi!!!" roared a voice with a slight Arabic accent and everyone looked to the lion, he had tears running down his face, matting his fur and his paws were balled into fists.
"What the...?" James asked confused.
"He can talk?" asked the German Shepard.
The lion walked over to James, took his cap from the stunned wolf and put it back on, before grabbing his purple messenger bag and left the room.
"Emir! Wait up!" Dustyn yelled running after the lion.
The lion was sitting under the tree on the playground reading a book when Dustyn caught up and looked up at the snow leopard.
"It is Emir, right?" Dusyn asked smiling, trying to relax the lion even more.
"Yes. Dustyn, correct?" Emir asked and Dustyn sat down.
"Yeah. I didnt know you could talk." Dustyn said.
"I can. I can talk in English very well." the lion smiled a soft smile.
The two felines waited for their parents.
"So, Emir, where are you from?" Dustyn asked kindly trying to make the nervous cub feel relaxed.
"The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia." the lion smiled.
"Where's that?" Dustyn asked, tilting his head slightly. Emir pulled out a large green and blue atlas from his messenger bag and turned the large pages until he came to the picture of Saudi Arabia.
"This place is huge!" Dustyn said, "Where are you from here?"
"Here," Emir said eagerly pointing to a red dot on the page, "Riyhad."
"Cool. You came from the other side of the world!" Dustyn purred.
"Yep. Where you from?" Emir smiled.
"England." Dustyn purred cutely.
Then a black Mercedes pulled up with a familar lioness at the wheel.
"Hey Emir, who's youre new friend?" Mrs. Asad asked climbing out of the car and adjusting her headscarf as she approached the pair of cubs.
"My name is Dustyn Turner, ma'am." Dustyn smiled as he stood up.
"Nice to meet you Dustyn, My name is Ma'alikah Ayat Asad." the feline said calmly.
"Wow, cool name!" Dustyn said.
"Dustyn!" yelled a voice from a red SUV parked near the busses, it was Mrs. Turner, Dustyn's mom.
"I gotta go." Dustyn said and before he knew what happend, Emir hugged the snow leopard and Dustyn hugged back.
"Bye." Emir said as he let go of his new friend and watched the snow leopard run off.
"First day and you've made a friend." Mrs. Asad said as the two lions rode in the black Mercedes to their new home.
"Yes, mom. He's nice." Emir smiled looking at his mother in the front seat from the back one, "May I give him a gift?"
"Sure, what do you want to give him?" Mrs. Asad smiled into the rearview mirror at her son as the car stopped at a stop light.
"I'll think of something momma." Emir smiled.
---20 minutes later at their house---
When the car stopped in the garage, Emir leapt out of the car.
Emir ran into the house and saw his father sitting in his chair, a newspaper in his huge paws. Emir hopped up onto the chair and waited for his father to put the paper down.
"BOO!" Mr. Asad yelled throuwing the newspaper into the air and making his claws curled to look scary and the cub yelped and giggled, covering his muzzle with his paws.
"Son, welcome home!" said a massive 6' 7" lion with a brown mane to his son and hugged him.
"Yep! And school was great! I made a new friend, his name is Dustyn!" Emir smiled at his father.
"Cool. Now, me and your mom need to talk about where your grandmother and the servants are gonna stay here." Mr. Asad said and the cub ran up stairs to his room.
When Emir got to his room, he shut the door and closed the blinds. He walked to his big queen sized bed and reached under the bed, retrieving a small wooden chest with intricate designs painted on it. Emir opened the beautiful chest and rummaged through the contents; bracelets, coins, and about 20 stacks of 200 brightly coloured Saudi Riyals; then the lion found what he was looking for, a black box with two rings in it.
"This is what I'll give him, a ring." Emir said to himself smiling.
---the next day---
"So, what did you pick for the gift?" Mrs. Asad asked as she pulled up to the school.
"A ring." Emir smiled and climbed out of the car.
"Good. Have fun, hunny!" Mrs. Asad called out as she watched her son run to the gym for bus hall.
After bus hall, the lion found his snow leopard friend.
"Hey Emir." Dustyn smiled and hugged the lion.
"Hey, Dustyn. I have a gift for you, I'll give it to you during recess." Emir smiled and Dustyn nodded.
During recess, Dustyn and Emir walked over to the outdoor class room and sat on one of the benches.
"Here." Emir smiled holding out his paw, closed, palm up. When he opened it, there was a solitary gold ring.
"Thank you, Emir!" Dustyn said taking the ring and slipping on his left index finger, the same thing Emir had done.
"Youre a friend, I give my friends anything." Emir explained.
Dustyn hugged the lion. The two felines talked out where they lived, or at least the memories they had. Dustyn had gone to a Grammar School and Emir had went to a religous school until they had come to America. They talked about how the areas were and their families.
Before they knew it, the bell was ringing.
"Ready?" Dustyn asked as they stood up.
"Yeah." Emir smiled and took Dustyn's right paw in his left one and they walked hand in hand to the school, both knowing they were gonna be great friends.
THE END
Well, thats my story on how Dustyn and Emir met, you people like it? Please comment! You comment and I'll post the new
Were-creature's Chapter!