The Golden Hexagon

CHAPTER 14

Aurora left the cave with Afra behind her. She opened her mind and immediately began hearing the trees talk. She loved the forest and the chattering trees. She noticed that the fruit bearing trees tended to love gossip.

"Oh did you notice, that ferret completely insulted that rabbit!" an apple tree said.

"Totally" a mango tree replied.

She laughed. Afra looked at her curiously.

"No, I'm not a lunatic" Aurora told her.

"Sometimes you laughing for nothing is a tad bit creepy, you know?" Afra said.

"I was just listening to the trees talking," she replied.

Afra stared at her as if she had sprouted three extra heads.

"It's just one of my Powers. It's quite useful" she said.

"One of your Powers?" Afra asked.

"Kaira says I will be having the Powers of earth, water and sun like all Descendants of the Maiden of Trees, apparently" she replied.

They navigated through the forest, alternating between walking and running.

Aurora knelt, and pushed the decomposing leaves and twigs away, and touched the soil, feeling its texture.

"You can always tell whether there's a water body near by looking at the moisture of the soil," Aurora said. "See, the soil is a bit moist over here, so, if we push the bushes aside, there should be a water body nearby".

She pushed aside the bushes, and a small stream ran about ten meters behind.

"How do you know all this?" Afra asked her.

"It's just observing . Once I had opened my mind, everything seemed to be vivider, louder and slower" she replied.

"Open your mind?" Afra.

"To talk to the trees. The other five of you cannot do that more than a little to communicate with your Guardians. Basically your mind is like a door. It's cracked open for you to talk with your Guardians, but it has to remain fully open for me if I am to develop all my Powers" she said.

They walked in silence when Afra asked again, "So how do you get food?".

"I usually ask the trees where I can get food, and they tell me. But even then, you have to be careful. Usually, the poisonous plants grow only near the good plants. The only indicator is to check the leaves. If they are fresh, green and not wilted, they are usually non poisonous" she said.

"Can't you ask the plants whether they are poisonous or not?" Afra asked.

"Sometimes I do ask them, but the thing is, most of the time, they themselves do not know if their fruits are poisonous or not. Some fruits can be eaten by animals, but cannot be consumed by humans, like pokeberries. So it's not fair to expect plants which have barely seen humans to know whether their fruits can be eaten or not" Aurora said.

They walked another kilometer or so when they came across a patch of wild strawberries.

"Now see, these are wild strawberries" Aurora said, pointing the patch to Afra.

She picked a few ripe ones and pocketed them.

Now that she looked at Afra in proper light, Aurora felt she looked much better than she had the previous night. Her cheeks were flushed, and her hazel eyes looked at the forest in wonder. Afra's dark brown hair was in a plait like hers, and a sword hung on her hips. She had a quiet confidence about her, and spent a lot of time brooding on some matter or the other.