Oh phoenix, sing to me a healing symphony, unbroken & true

Chapter 6

Tommy slowly opened his eyes, blinking to adapt to the new light shining in through the fabric sheeted door. 

He peeled his blanket off of himself and sat up slowly. He held his hand out and pulled the curtain over to look outside.

It seemed that the snow had stopped. There was still snow of course, but not as much, and there wasn't any new flakes and specs sifting down from the light grey cloudy sky. 

Now, it's the perfect time off day, and Tommy could explore where he'd set up his new home. Er, not really a home, but he gave it the benefit of the doubt.

He hopped out of the tree and started walking a bit of a distance away from the tree, only turning around once, he was far out enough where he could successfully turn around and see most of the tree. 

There wasn't much snow on the floor of the forest. That was thanks to the fact of the thick, somehow lush green leaves of the giant oak. Better for him.

The tree had both low and tall branches. Perfect for hiding, climbing, and stashing supplies and food. Ah yes, food. He'd already been preparing to start stealing to eat, but he'd have to start soon anyways.

He started planning a bunch of different things for the tree home. Like building a platform off the branches to look off of, maybe he could even build a garden to make his own food in spring. He could buy knives or something and learn how to hunt. 

Tommy had dread it before, but maybe living in this tree wouldn't be such a bad idea. It even sounded fun, almost. 

He'd go to work, work on the treehouse, find some food, and survive.

———

One and a half months later...

———

Tommy got off the train he was on, arriving at the 12th district after a long shift.

The 13th district, being a forest, didn't have a subway; a forest didn't need one. Though it didn't bother him at all, as the subway in the 12th district was a less than a minute walk from the border of the 13th district, the edge of the forest.

After over a month of living here, he'd memorized the way back to his tree. It was in the center of the forest, blocked by a lot of other trees. 

Tommy started walking into the forest and instantly picked up a copper-like scent. Blood?  Tommy would've thought it was just some fox hunting a rabbit or something. 

But then he sniffed again. That definitely wasn't the smell of a fox or a rabbit. It smelt... like a person. Was there someone injured in his forest?

He would not stand for it(Even though this technically was not his forest..). He sniffed the air again. The blood scent was stronger than he thought, he could easily smell it. That meant there must be a lot.

He started running the direction of the scent until he found a trail of blood. The blood took a sharp turn, so he did too. The more he traveled, the stronger the scent, and the more blood there was on the partially white forest floor.