AVftS-21

Part of a series of archived posts in AVftS
AVftS-21
Author:	Rea
Date Posted:	November 16, 2019
Forum Post:	Linked!
Word Count:	1,107
Characters:	Leeva, Síne, Talamaeus Laeraxius, Osin
- - - Navigation - - - <<< AVftS-20 · AVftS-22 >>> Post Index · PPP2 Home

Leeva sat in their mother’s branches. They were the only sprite with a mother, since their father had been human. Mother had only ever spoken of him in tones of hurt, her branches quivering, her sap moving thickly within her, making her branches droop down. Leeva did not know a lot, but they had collected enough pieces to put together a story.

Father came into the forest a long time ago. Mother was curious, like Leeva was curious.

Mother had chosen a gender, one to complement him, because she loved him. She’d chosen a form to please him, and it seemed to, for a while.

But then he cut her, and the only way to save herself was to root herself to the ground. So now she was a tree.

Leeva didn’t know more than that. They didn’t want to ask Mother, either, although they had been stuck here for hours and were very bored. They supposed, they could break away, if they wanted to, but they didn’t want to hurt Mother more.

They remembered just a day ago, they had ventured across the Endless Meadow to the human woman Sine’s house. Leeva’s leaves fluttered with warm as they thought of her. She was very nice to Leeva, and had taken them back home to the forest when they were scared.

They went to that Dead Place together, but as soon as Sine had stepped foot on the ashen ground, Leeva had stayed behind on the comfortable grass.

Mother was not the only one who warned them of the Dead Places. When they placed their roots in the ground, they could not hear anything from the Dead Place. The earth did not speak, and there were no plants to converse with, either.

They were too frightened to go with Sine. So they waited at the edge.

A human appeared, the crazy man. Leeva wished, wished, wished to get closer, but when they touched the ash, pain shot through their root, and they flinched back.

It was hot, and they could no longer feel the part of the root that touched the ash. It had turned ashen grey, and Leeva’s sap became thin, racing through them as they began to cry in terror.

None of the other sprites had been this stupid, so why was Leeva?

“Oi! Sine! Don’t ye ken yer nae supposed tae play wi' fire?”

Oh Twigs and Filament! Who WAS this angry human? Leeva had been so busy being terrified they hadn’t noticed another human, this one with wild hair and crazy eyes, and a bow and arrow. What could they do?!

Something grabbed them by their strong branch and dragged them into the forest. Leeva was aware of a thump—thump, thump—as the creature loped along. Its long fur tickled their leaves as they clung to it. They giggled, feeling very relieved.

“Bvercp!” they said in Tree. It wasn’t out loud, like humans. Sprites and other creatures of the Kingfisher forest didn’t need to use words, or noises of any kind. Silence was safer, anyways.

“Dangerous, little one,” their friend responded. “Not go outside forest. Must not. Must not.”

“I’m sorry,” said Leeva, “but I wanted to know what was outside, and then I got lost—I didn’t realize I wouldn’t be able to hear the forest so well from outside of it.”

“Must not, must not,” he said, glossing over their explanation.

Well, no one ever said people spoke Tree descriptively. There was no need for curiosity, and therefore, no need for creativity outside of survival. But Leeva was half human. They needed more to stay alive.

Bvercp only stopped after they were both back in deep forest territory, by the trees he liked to roost in. He climbed up with his long, thick, hairy arms, using his opposable thumbs on his hands and feet to easily rise to the knoll almost at the very top.

For a not sprite, he was very good at climbing!

Leeva had thought he always looked slightly human, but hairier.

They’d been friends with him forever.

“Hungry,” he said.

Leeva shook their head. They had spent plenty of time rooted and in the sun earlier. “A little thirsty,” they admitted.

Bvercp offered them half of a big, rough skinned fruit. The humans called it an Orange. They took it and stuck their rooty fingers into the flesh, absorbing the juice utterly. They offered the dried remains to Bvercp, who took it gladly. He pulled the chewy remnants out and put them between his sharp fangs, his large mouth chomping noisily, lips smacking together as he hummed.

Leeva tried to copy his mouth’s movements with their leaves, but they didn’t have a real mouth.

I wonder what eating is like?

“Leeva hurt?” Bvercp asked, pointing to the grey patch on their root from the ash. They looked at it. It hadn’t spread. They smacked it against the tree branch they sat on, and the ashen part broke away and fell to the ground like dust. It didn’t hurt. They figured that part of them would grow back eventually. They shook their head. “No, I am fine.”

“Careful.”

They cuddled next to Bvercp’s hip. They had never experienced anything like that before, that pain, that burning. It still made them shake, to think of it.

“Must not,” Bvercp repeated.

Leeva sat quietly, waving their leaves at his fur, which blew about splendidly. The sugar from the orange was getting to their head, and they began bouncing around Bvercp, extending branch after root to catch themself as they did, giggling madly.

Bvercp laughed at them, a deep, “Hoo, hoo, hoo!”

“LEEVA.”

Leeva stopped bouncing around, suddenly feeling extremely guilty.

“Mother, worried,” Bvercp said. “Stop worry now. Play later.”

“Yes,” said Leeva.

And so they’d gone home to their worried mother, who had been terrified, not just because Leeva had left the forest, and she found out from all the other snitching plants, but that once they had left, Mother could no longer feel them nearby.

It made Leeva feel even more guilty. They didn’t know that would happen when they left the forest . . .

Trees could feel everything that happened. Of course, they were so old and so slow that getting them to focus enough to tell you anything was a challenge. That Mother had noticed so quickly, and yelled so loudly, proved how scared she’d been. So they sat in Mother’s branches, thinking of their adventures, wondering what it all meant, as their mother whispered to them to stay, stay, stay safe.

But . . .

Leeva was already thinking about leaving the forest again.