You Need Better Protocols

The shrubs just in front of the crowd of leaflings began rustling, before a massive boar- or rather normal sized boar- jumped out snorting. A few of the leaflings began running towards a hole in the tree nearest to them, however, the newer leaflings that had just sprouted were frozen in fear. The boar sucked a few of those leaflings in, not even bothering with chewing before heading to the next few.

"God damnit! Run you idiots!" shouted Lucius, running as fast as his little legs could carry him towards the nearest leafling. Perhaps it was his years of training or maybe just the fact that he was that sort of person, but his body moved to help those in need instinctively.

"What are you still doing staring at that thing. Move!" shouted Lucius, kicking the frozen leafling to the ground to snap it back to reality. The leafling quickly sat up and began running once it regained its senses, joining its brethren who were hiding in the tree.

By this point the boar had eaten at least half of the newly born leaflings, only a few of the leaflings not in the tree were left alive.

"Hey, fat face, over here!" shouted Lucius, trying to get the boar's attention, though it seemed that the boar couldn't understand plant and continued mowing down the frozen leaflings.

~Why am I getting so worked up over a stupid dream?~ he wondered to himself, however, he didn't stop to ponder over it too long. He kicked over as many leaflings as he could, deciding that those too close to the boar were as good as dead anyway, before going into the hole himself.

After the boar had finished snacking on the frozen leaflings, it came to try its luck at the tree. However the hole was too small for its head to fit, so only its snout went through.

"Take this you bastard," he shouted, before kicking the boar in the snout. As expected, the kick held no weight, and the boar was unaffected. Seeing that it would not get any more food, it left the area.

"Safe!"

"Safe!" The leaflings all began shouting in joy, they had survived, and for most, it was all thanks to Lucius.

"Thank you leafling," they said in gratitude as they surrounded him.

"Safe? What about this is safe? Are you all idiots?" Lucius shouted in annoyance, his gaze sweeping over all the leaflings that surrounded him.

"You! You call that a warning? What's the point of telling us to hide if the boar is already upon us? Oh, and you-" as Lucius said this he looked to the leafling who had welcomed him into the world "-why didn't you help the newer ones? They were just born, did you expect them to understand what was going on?"

It was odd that Lucius was able to distinguish between the different leaflings as they all looked the same. But he decided not to think too much about it, at the moment he was infuriated by this group's lack of safety standards.

"You need better emergency protocols. You're the leader aren't you?" asked Lucius, referring to the leafling who had first spoken to him.

"Emergency?"

"Protocols?"

The concepts seemed foreign to the leaflings, though what could he expect. They weren't humans, at best they were just helpless animal things waiting to be eaten.

"Yes, I am the oldest leafling, I guess you could call me the leader," replied the leader leafling, his tone filled with embarrassment.

"Then tell me, apart from welcoming us, what other responsibilities do you have?"

"I absorb sunlight and sometimes water," responded the leader, this time more proudly.

~Yhup, they are all fucked. I need to get out of here. Even if this is a dream, there's no way I'm going to be pig food,~ thought Lucius before turning to leave.

"Wait leafling. Where are you going?" asked the leader.

"Anywhere that isn't here. There are too many shrubs, you can't even see a threat coming before it's already on you," Lucius replied. It was only common sense for a soldier. Who would be dumb enough to set up camp in an area where your enemies could easily ambush you.

"Saviour leafling, can you take us with you?" asked the leader. The slight nodding gestures that the other leaflings were doing -or whatever they're shaking up and down meant- seemed to mean that it was the general consensus. Everyone wanted to accompany the leafling who had saved countless people. And though the words he spoke were confusing, they could tell that they came from deep wisdom.

"Saviour leafling? What, like Jesus? Does nobody in this dream have common sense? And why are we leaves? Can anybody tell me that?" grunted Lucius, his annoyance reaching new heights.

"You know what, do what you want. Just don't slow me down."

The other jumped up and down in joy, before quickly running behind Lucius once they noticed how far he had already walked.

As they walked he made sure to prevent routes that had trees with broken branches, that was a clear indicator that something big had passed by. It would've been better if he had hands to climb up, they were probably safer on higher ground, but there was no use wishing for things he couldn't have.

"Can you guys walk in formation? You're taking up too much space, if we have to start running you'll all just stumble over one another," said Lucius, turning to look at the crowd of leaflings that walked behind him.

"Saviour leafling, what is a 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯?" asked the leader.