{ELEMENTISTS OF WILLOW FOREST BOOK IV} The Day of Death

Luke

17:  Luke

 

 

 

They told me I fainted.  Apparently I bashed my head against the corner of the desk as I fell, which explained why my hair was matted with blood.  I tried to remember what had happened, and why I was lying on the bed in the nurse's room.

Right.  Geography.  Video.  Deforestation.  How I'd sort of became completely drained of energy, and collapsed.

Bored, I studied the sickroom.  Posters telling you to clean your teeth and not go jumping off cliffs; A stash of sad-looking toy animals on the bed; a slightly grubby, Noah's Ark duvet; a fridge containing ice-packs (seriously, isn't that, like, every Junior School's cure for everything?  'Miss, my arm hurts' 'Go and get an ice pack.' 'Miss, I fell over' 'Go and get an ice pack.'  'Miss, I think I have chicken pox' 'Ice pack.'  'Miss, my leg just fell off!' 'Ice pack.'); and a Tesco puppy calendar.  I checked the date.  Then, out of interest, I flicked back to see how long it had been since I'd wound up on that street corridor a town away from where I was now.

Seven months.  It had been exactly seven months since I'd left Willow Forest.

We are Oak, and Oak is us.

I realised, now, why I'd fainted.  I needed to be in a forest.  I needed to be amidst nature, surrounded by trees.  The children of Hephzibah protect Willow Forest, help trees, help them grow.  The trees need us to live; they need our power source, our life force.  And, in the same way, we need them.  We have to be near trees for, well, energy.  Life.  I wasn't sure.  The children of Hephzibah were the most powerful Elementists of all.  I'd always known that.  But we were only powerful with Oak.  We were only powerful with trees, in a forest.  In Willow Forest.  Without Willow Forest, we become... drained.  Like what had happened to me in Geography.

It had taken me seven months to become drained.  A bit like a phone.  Being at Willow Forest is my charger.  When I'm there, I'm fine.  But take me off the charge, and slowly my battery wears down, until you get the '25% of battery left' warning.

Which I had now had.

I needed to get back to Willow Forest soon.  Perhaps I could give myself temporary boosts every now and then, by climbing a tree, or going to the park, but it would only slow down the inevitable.

If I didn't go back to Willow forest soon, I'd die.

*

I got out of the nurse's room fairly quickly, and continued with school as normal.  I managed to put my fainting down to a sick bug.  Fortunately, there was a sick bug that started up a few days later.  I didn't get it.  (Weirdly enough, I've never really been ill.  Maybe it's a Hephzibah thing.) But, loads of people did fall ill.  Because at the Care Home, we're all living in close quarters with each other and disease spreads quickly, so virtually everyone got it.  Rachael and Josie both did.