Sitting alone at lunch was no fun, Ammolite knew that much. Her two friends, Peridot, a plant Dranda, and Cuprite, a fire Dranda, were out. Cup was sick, but Peridot just needed a mental health day.
Oh, but of course, you don't know much about Zanzus. See, on Zanzus, there are three dominant species, Droggons, Drats, and Drandas. Droggons and Drats look like canine/dragons and feline/dragons, their main anatomy matching different canines, such as the maned wolf, or the arctic fox, or felines, such as lions and house cats. Drandas are an anomaly, though. Their Deities didn't mold them like they did the Droggons and Drandas, they just... Popped into existence one day, elements and everything. It may be impossible in your universe, but this isn't yours.
However, Ammolite noticed there was someone else sitting alone. She didn't recognize the Dranda, so she figured she must be new, because Ammolite knew almost everyone to some degree. So, she decided to approach her.
Now, Ammolite had a strange pattern. She has rings and dots scattered over her body, with different colored eyes. Her left eye is blue with a green, filled in spot around it, her right eye being green with a blue, 'hollowed out' ring around it. She has more of these spots and rings on her body, the most specific places being a blue ring around her left wrist, a green spot on top of her front right paw and that ring and spot over her eyes. Her wings are about 10 feet in span, with each wing being 5 feet. This is proportional, seeing as she is about 5' 6". Her tail has dark blue rings with an emerald green tip. She didn't consider herself attractive, and really, her patterns would give her away quite quickly if they were still in FE.
FE is short for Feral Era, a time period where Elementals were all much more animalistic and couldn't speak, but they could think like a human really would in that they'd have reasoning skills and such, so they'd have the mental capacity of a ten-year-old human. In other words, smart enough to be sadistic enough to fly from one continent around the world, miles, to attack each other. Well, the fire Elementals did. But you'll find out more of that later.
As Ammolite got closer to the water Dranda, she took notice of some other details. She was rather attractive, fit-looking, attractive coloring, all that. Her body was light blue, mostly covered by a dark blue jacket and loose blue jeans, but the tail flicking behind her had royal blue rings and a dark blue tip. Her wings had similar coloring, webbed with three segments, a rather rare trait, most webbed wings had two segments, but the top and bottom webbing patch had royal blue with the middle being dark blue. Her cheek fins, as Blue got her attention with a little 'Hey' was now able to see, had the same coloring pattern with the three segments. She raised an eyebrow, which Ammolite noticed were pale gold,
"What do you want?" she asked. She didn't sound rude or angry, she just sounded... Sad, really.
"I uh..." She cleared her throat, "I just wanted to ask why you were sitting alone!"
"Just got here. For a place that's supposed to be very friendly and welcoming, I don't feel very welcome here." She said, turning away from the air Elemental.
"W-well... Maybe I could change that! Leafly is a nice place to be, really. Airplix is better, though. We hold no grudges." She offered a small smile.
"Oh, I'm sure you'd think otherwise if you had any natural predators." The water Dranda said with a small chuckle.
"We would, we would. But we didn't. It's nice to know that everyone is welcome somewhere, though. May I sit?"
"... Sure, I guess." She said. Ammolite sat across from her at the table,
"So you just moved here, huh? From Aquarip?" Ammolite asked. Lapis' only response was a nod, the small smile she had when Ammolite approached her long faded. "Is it uh... Nice there?"
"Decent enough. Can't say the same for the Elementals there, though."
"Bullied?"
"Not even just by other students in school. I live with my mom because my dad is... In jail, but she's not much better than he is."
"I'm... I'm so sorry, uh... What was your name?"
"Lapis. I'm not a fan of my last name, I hate it. My mom and dad have ruined it for me forever."
"Oh... Well, maybe I could help you? I don't know exactly what you're going through, but depression runs in my family so I know how you feel to some lesser extent..."
Lapis smiled faintly,
"Maybe... Thanks for the offer, but I don't think I'm gonna need you." She said. That hurt Ammolite just as much as you think, if not more. 'I don't need you' in the way she said it just... Made her sad.
"I'm... I'm sorry..." Ammolite said quietly.
"Don't be. I just... Don't plan to get attached to anyone here. I hope you don't get attached to me either. I'm probably not gonna be around much longer."
Oh, gods, she's gonna kill herself, Ammolite thought.
"W-well let's not do that... A-at least give me a chance to help, please..."
"Thank you, Ammolite, but I really don't need that kind of guilt when I'm downing the pills. I feel bad enough for whatever reason."
"... When do you plan to do it?"
"You expect me to tell you?"
"Lapis please, don't do it. I... I care, even if I just met you, you seem so nice, you don't deserve to die!"
"I don't deserve to suffer either." She got up as the lunch bell went off, beckoning the Elementals to their classes.
Ammolite wasn't going to let her die, though. She didn't know what to do about it other than tell the school counselor. So she did. She skipped her class to tell the counselor as soon as she could, then went back to class so she could deal with it.
About ten minutes later, she was called into the office.
"Lapis, I'm sorry, I had to tell someone," She said as she entered the room. Lapis said nothing, blankly staring off into space.
"She won't speak to me. I was hoping maybe you could get her to open up. It's my job to care, was all she said to me before she just shut up entirely. Guessing she's not fond of therapists..." She said.
"Alright... If you could leave the room, maybe?"
She nodded and left, giving the two some space.
"Lapis...?"
"Why do you care?" She asked softly in an emotionless tone.
"Because you shouldn't have to suffer like this, Lapis, you deserve to be happy."
"I think if everyone was happy the world would be great, but who knows. Maybe if everyone were happy the world would be creepy."
"Well... You deserve happiness, even if I don't know you very well, I want to help. If your mom is a danger to you-"
"She's not a danger. The worst she's done is slap me before, she doesn't physically abuse. She's much more verbal. I'm just kind of numb to it now."
"... I mean that's still abuse, Lapis. You shouldn't let her do that to you."
"If I don't take it then she starts hitting."
"You seriously need to be taken away from her."
"I'd miss her. She's a bitch and I hate her but the transition would be weird a-and..." She realized she was tearing up now, running the back of her paw over her eyes to wipe away the fresh tears.
"N-no, it's fine. I don't care. Maybe someday you can save me or whatever, but for now, I don't want you anywhere near her. She's a terrible... Thing, she's not worthy of the title Elemental. She's much more like the Monsters."
Monsters are creatures who feed off of negative emotions, like fear, anger, grief, sadness, and jealousy. Deprs are the most common, short for depression. They can cause depression, but they aren't the only cause, they're attracted to sadness.
"If... If you say so... Can I at least have your shell code? So we can talk later?" Ammolite asked. Lapis nodded reluctantly, pulling her shell out of the pocket of her sweatshirt,
"H-here..." She opened up her code app, Ammolite scanning her camera over it to log it in her shell. Shells, as you can probably tell, are like cell phones. There's little difference, other than name and some minor details and companies, they're basically the same.
"I hope I can do something to help you. If you ever want to talk about anything, anything at all, I'd be happy to listen, okay?"
Lapis nodded softly at Ammolite,
"I'll keep that in mind... Thank you..." She said quietly. Ammolite opened the door to let the counselor back in, who talked to Lapis a bit after Ammolite went back to class.
