Peanut and Whiskers are the characters that I’ve come up with and am most happy with. They have a unique background that I won’t disclose yet (hoping for an agent to like my book idea) but are a duo of animals that are best friends and try to save the forest from a range of different enemies! This new segment will run on Monday’s opposite the podcast. I hope you like it!

Scott McPeanut

Chapter 1: Elephant butter

The sun shined through the window, right into Peanut’s eyes. She groaned and moved her big pink ear to block out the sun and try to go back to sleep, but she was awake.

“What a way to wake up!” Peanut mumbled to herself before stepping into her pink slippers. Everything about Peanut was some shade of pink. Her trunk and ears matched her fingers and toes, and her knees and legs matched her back and tail. She picked up her little rainbow bow with her trunk and tied it around her left ear so that everyone could see it. The morning started just like every other, stretching her trunk to the ground and then high up into the air, followed by the same stretches with her tail, legs and ears. Her trunk sucked up a cup of water and Peanut splashed it into her mouth. “What a bright and sunny day! I wonder if Whiskers was ready to play.”

Laughing in her head because of the unintentional pun, she took her slippers off and ran outside, hoping to see Whiskers already waiting for her.

“Hey Peanut!” Whiskers said, “I was wondering if you were going to get up anytime soon. I’ve been waiting for like… thirty minutes!”

“Oh, I’m sorry Whiskers,” she said, “I didn’t realize it was that late!”

“Don’t feel sorry. I may have stretched the truth a little. I woke up late too and just got here. I sprinted so that I didn’t keep you waiting.”

They both laughed and started walking to their favorite place in the whole forest. There was a lovely little lake in a clearing where the light bounced off the water in such a way that it was like you could see into another dimension. They rushed to the treehouse that they had made last summer and were excited to start playing.

Whiskers was a tiny blue mouse who was always a little goofy. He was the type of mouse that would run up behind an elephant to try to scare her, but then spend the next twenty minutes laughing with her until they were best friends. His rounded ears and wet little nose were almost always bouncing when he walked because he was just the happiest and most sincere little mouse you’ll ever meet.

“What are we gonna do first when we get to the treehouse?” Whiskers asked. “We can finally start making the comic book that we were talking about! Or, if you don’t want to do that, we can always work on the new plans that Wink gave us. He said that it might help us ‘touch the clouds,’ whatever that means. Or or or, we can –”

“Whoa!” Peanut laughed. “We have all day to figure out what were gonna do. Let’s just enjoy the walk for now.”

“Okay…” Whiskers said. “Or! We can race there and winner gets to pick what we do first!

Whiskers got a head start and Peanut followed. The opening to the clearing wasn’t very far away, and it was just far enough for Peanut to catch up and stretch her trunk through the opening before Whiskers’ little body could.

“That’s no fair!” Whiskers yelled. “But a deal’s a deal. What do you want to do first?”

Peanut picked up the flattest rock that she could see and wrapper her trunk around the outside of it. “Want to see what will go farther?”

“You know it!” Whiskers ran to the treehouse and came back with a pair of goggles and a brown leather cap. He jumped onto the stone and, with all of her might, Peanut threw the duo at the water. The stone skipped once, then twice, then three times, before Whiskers was thrown off and the stone sank.

“Woop!” Whiskers said, swimming back to shore. “Being small has its perks.”

Peanut picked up another rock. “You ready for take two? I think you can hold on for four skips this time.”

“I’ll see what I can do.” He jumped onto the rock and started counting down. “Three… two… one… blastoff!”

Peanut bounced him not two times, not three times, not even four times, but five times! Whiskers got back on shore and shook out his fur. “One more?”

As Peanut looked for the perfect stone, Whiskers got a nervous look on his face. “Hey Peanut, does that look strange to you?”

“What are you talking about?” Peanut looked all around. “I don’t see anything.”

“Right there. Next to the stump.”

That’s when Peanut noticed a small bunny and it froze in place. It was a light brown and its fur shined like it had just been waxed by their turtle friend, Harold. “He seems nice. We should invite him over to skip rocks with us.”

“Okay, but I’m keeping my eye on him. He’s creeping me out.”

“Oh, come Whiskers. You’re being paranoid.” She looked at the bunny who still hadn’t moved a muscle. “Do you want to come skip rocks with us?”

The bunny said nothing. It stood straight up and hopped closer. “See Whiskers, they’re probably more scared of us than we are of them.”

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Whiskers said quietly.

“Hello,” Peanut said to the bunny again, ignoring Whiskers. “Would you like to play with us?”

That’s when the bunny stopped and let out a deep laugh. A cool breeze ran through the forest and the sun was covered in clouds. “You should have listened to your mouse-friend. I do not want to skip stones with you. I’m here for something else.”

“What are you talking about?” Peanut said, stepping in front of Whiskers to protect him.

“Oh, are you so naïve that you don’t know? I’m here for your tree house and you’re either going to give it to me, or I’m going to take it from you.”

“That’s our treehouse!” Whiskers yelled. “We made it ourselves!”

“Are you saying I’m going to have to take it from you?”

“Why can’t we just share it?” Peanut asked. “This doesn’t need to turn into a big thing.”

“You don’t know who I am… do you?” the bunny asked.

“No, we don’t,” Peanut and Whiskers said together.

“Then allow me to introduce myself. I’m Fluffy! King of the bunnies! I own all the real estate in this part of the forest and you intruded by making your tree house there. It’s time for you to leave.”

“No. We built it. You may be ‘King of the bunnies’ but I’m a mouse,” Whiskers said.

“Well, I see that you’re not going to change your mind without help.” Fluffy brought his fingers to his lips and whistled. Hundreds and hundreds of bunnies came out of the woods and surrounded Peanut and Whiskers. “Do you want to change you mind?”

Peanut gulped nervously. “No!” Whiskers yelled.

“Then so be it. Attack!”

The army of bunnies started to leap at Peanut and Whiskers, but they ran to their treehouse and locked the door behind them.

“What do we do?” Peanut asked. This is crazy. Why can’t we just share it?”

“I think our only option is to defend the treehouse… or lose it.”

The bunnies started to knock on the door and walls. Peanut looked around for something to use to defend themselves and spotted a butterfly net on top of the blueprints that Wink had given them. “Maybe if we can talk to one, we can get them to stop.”

“It’s worth a shot.” Whiskers opened the door just enough for Peanut to swipe up one of the bunnies with the net, then closed and locked it again.

Something seemed strange about the bunny that they had captured. Its shiny coat looked like it had… melted.

“What can we do to stop you from trying to take our treehouse?” Whiskers asked.

“I won’t tell you anything!” The bunny bit down on something hard in its mouth and started to melt into a puddle. It was too horrid to watch, but neither Peanut or Whiskers could look away. All that was left was a puddle.

“Is this what I think it is?” Whiskers asked.

“I think so.” Peanut said, walking to the refrigerator for a stick of celery. She dipped it into the puddle and took a bite. “Yep. Definitely peanut butter.”

“Well then why are we hiding from them! Let’s go out there and eat all the peanut butter we can!”

Whiskers jumped out the door and started munching away at the bunnies. At first, he was overwhelmed by them, but when they saw what he was doing, they retreated with a look of terror in their eyes.

Peanut ran back to the refrigerator and sucked up a gallon of milk with her trunk and ran outside. She ate a bunny and sprayed milk into her mouth to help the gooey goodness go down easier.

The bunnies started to panic as their numbers shrunk from what could have been thousands to hundreds. Fluffy stood at the outskirts of clearing and watched his army dwindle. He ran back into the forest, abandoning his forces, not looking back to see them eaten.

When the bunnies were down to their last few forces, they threw their hands up and admitted defeat, then in one quick motion, bit the capsules in their mouth to prevent the ends that so many of their comrades had faced.

The ground was covered with peanut butter. It ran into the lake, creating a thick layer on the top. Peanut and Whiskers looked at each other and yawned. They had eaten so much peanut butter that they were exhausted.

“Now what do you want to do?” Peanut asked.

“I think I have an idea,” he said. He ran onto the peanut butter covered lake and laid down. “This is like a waterbed! Let’s take a nap. Then we’ll play in the treehouse.”

They laid on the lake and let out a big breath of air. “Fluffy is probably the only one who wants our treehouse, right?” Peanut asked.

“Of course. What do you think? That this is going to happen every other week?” Whiskers laughed. “You should go to sleep. You sound a bit… nutty.”

And just like that, Peanut and Whiskers fell asleep on the lake, until next time.