Penny was a dryad.
She didn't do great in the dryad singles
scene, mostly because her name was Penny and all the dryads had names
like Wisteria or Naralescent or Jenniferesia. But Penny had two things
no other dryad or tree spirit had. Penny had retractable feet and a
velcro Vans wallet full of arcade tokens.
Neil was
wolfman. No, he wasn't a werewolf, because that would mean he could
change from wolf to man at various times. At all times, Neil was part
man and part wolf. Like Penny, he had his own challenges. However,
also like Penny, he had a secret. Neil had never gotten less than a
perfect score at Galaga.
Obviously, it was only a matter of time before they met. And when they did, it would be electric.
(boogie woogie woogie)
Thank
the gods (Penny was into Game of Thrones, so she always thanked
multiple gods, or occasionally Oprah), she could sleep all day as a
tree, because the closest arcade was crowded until about midnight.
After midnight, you could play any game you wanted without waiting. Each night as the moon reached its highest point in the sky, and
the rest of the forest quieted, Penny would begin to work her feet
out into the open.
The trick to retractable feet was core
strength. You had to really use your pelvic floor and lower abs to
encourage them to extend. The first few times, Penny had
strained until nearly dawn before finally giving up and going back to
sleep. But by the fourth night, something clicked. Using all she had
heard from the yoga instructor who led class under her branches on
Saturdays, Penny managed to target her lower trunk six-pack. Before she
knew it, she was looking down at two brown bare feet. She wiggled her
toes in surprise. Six toes on one foot and four on the other, but cute
nonetheless. And more importantly, those toes and feet were
serviceable. Once, the initial novelty subsided, she headed towards
town.
See, Penny hadn't always been a tree spirit.
Only a few years prior, she'd been a young woman. Dryad was a form she
had chosen. Some people said it was a matter of nurture not nature, but
Penny had always known deep down, that she was a nymph. Eventually,
she embraced the dryad lifestyle and loved it. The only part of being a
woman that she missed was landing her high scores at Klepto's
Fun Zingers. The day she realized she had retractable feet, her life
seemed complete. Now she had the best of both worlds.
Across town, Neil also was living his best life.