Sweet as Sugar

Mu played with her happily. He bounced around energetically.

Melly chased after him, delighted as a little kid. It made her think of those times when her parents had just bought her a new puppy and she had followed it all around the yard. Her parents watched with smiles and played with the puppy wherever he came over to them for attention. She had loved that dog. They all had loved that dog. So why-

She suddenly stopped, her eyes empty. What had she done wrong?

Mu paused when he noticed she had stopped. He changed back into his human form. "Melly?" he asked softly "Are you okay?" He asked

Melly snapped back to her usual self. "Fine, fine. I just -" She looked around. "Have you seen my sketchbook?"

"By the tree" Mu smiled slightly. "So what are you Melly? Are you human?"

"Um...sort of?" Melly replied uncertainly as she went over and picked up her sketchbook. "Do you know what a genius is?"

"No." Mu replied. "Never heard of it before"

"Well, it's a demon on human form, only they used to be human first. At least most of them," Melly tried to explain. "And since we used to be human, we have our own hearts, but we can split up our hearts like a demon." She laughed nervously. "I know this doesn't make a lot of sense. Even we geniuses don't get ourselves."

"Oh. Okay" Mu replied, easily shrugging it off.

Melly was relieved that Mu didn't ask how she became a genius. In truth she didn't really remember herself. There were a lot of things she didn't really remember. It seemed like one day she just realized it.

"So what brings to these woods anyway?" she asked. "Do you live here?"

"I live anywhere I can" Mu replied. "I haven't really lived anywhere since the cirque. I wandered here, and there were apples, so I stayed."

"I see," Melly replied, a little saddened. "Want to come with me? I don't really have a home either, but it's more fun to travel with someone."

"Okay!" Mu chirped happily. "I like you, You're nice and fun!"

"Thanks! I try to be," Melly answered with a grin. "Nobody wants a sad person. Lots of people are sad already. I want to help cheer people up."

"So where are we going?" Mu asked

"Well, we're going to a town next," said Melly. "I like to go to towns to sell my art and meet with people, maybe get a little group started. I've done that before sometimes."

"Okay" Mu smiled.

"I think I'm gonna get some leaves from here first though," said Melly, picking a purple one off the ground. "They're in rare colors. That would be good for crafts."

"You can press them in your sketch book" Mu suggested

"Yeah, that's the plan," Melly chirped, doing exactly that with the leaf found. "I just have to get the leaves first."

"Mmhmm" Mu smiled "Do you want me to get some from the trees for you?"

"Yeah, that'd be great," Melly answered, beaming. "Maybe a few from each tree, if that's not too much."

"I can do that!" Mu chirped with a grin. He climbed back up the nearest tree and started picking leaves.

Melly continued to pick up interesting leaves off the ground. "Thanks! This will help a lot."

"You're welcome!" Mu chirped happily. "I like helping!"