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

All There Once Was

20:  All There Once Was

 

I couldn't believe it.  I was home!  I was here.  Instantly, all the headaches and pains I had been getting since that Geography lesson seemed to disappear.  I wasn't going to die.  I was back at Willow forest.  I was back among trees.  I could go and see Mama and Gama!

I looked around at Luke, Rachael, Josie, Rock, Pebble, Ethan and Felix.  Maybe it would be best to tell Mama and Gama about them before I went to see them, in case they freaked out a bit that their long-lost daughter had returned home with seven other kids whom wanted to live with them too.

"Wait here."  I instructed them.

Then I hopped over the fence, and started running again.

I recognised that ash tree!  There was a fox I had raised in my bedroom.  I laughed.  Hey Feeka!  I knew this path!  That was where I built a den once.  I played hide and seek in this clearing!  That's the bush Mama makes blackberry sorbet from, and the tree I climbed with a racoon aged seven... I'd tripped over that log before!  This was the place Cub One/Haider had raced Cub Two/Leandra and me.  I had a tea party down there, and saw my first dik-dik over here, and that path leads up to the fields, and this one is almost there, and now I'm really close, and-

I stopped.

Where was it?

Our house?

It was definitely right here.  The house was here.  Wasn't it?  I checked.  Yep.  There's the waterfall, see?  That's definitely the right bridge, because it's got the patched up bit from when that elephant stuck its foot through.  I was at the right spot.

So why wasn't the house there?

Maybe it had to be moved, because the stream flooded.  Yes, that had to be it.  There had been a lot of rain last Winter.  I'd seen all these warnings on TV, saying that you had to move if you lived right next to a stream.

Where would they have moved the house to?

I decided to climb my Faraway Tree. Firstly, because I wanted to, secondly, because I would be able to see the entire forest from up there, so would be able to find Mama and Gama.

I was so happy at the thought of climbing my tree again, I almost started skipping, like a little kid.  Would I still be able to climb all the way up at full speed blindfolded?  I'd grown since I did that, so branches might not be where I'd think they would be.  Had my tree grown?  Where there more branches and levels to explore?

THUM

I think my heart skipped a beat.