Ashi

Chapter 2

With his hands in mine, I walk backwards to the bridge. As we start to cross the wood creaks and partially splinters. Oliver snaps his eyes shut.

I squeeze his hands. "No," I sooth, "Don't close your eyes, just look at me. Everything will be fine."

Timidly, he loosens his eyes and stares directly at me. Unwavering. My lips skip to a silly grin, and I continue saying soothing words as we take one step after another.

And before we take in a breath, we're across! We don't even realize it at first, busy looking into each others' eyes, until my back hits a lone tree. We're shaken at the rubber-like bark of the tree and toddle around, trying to get our balance, but to no avail. We fall on top of each other, Oliver on top of me.

Before getting up, we share a laugh.

"Trees like these sure aren't in Iowa, right Oli?" I giggle.

"No way. They might be made for Hollywood though."

"Yeah! Like for that one new movie that the news has been talking about. Ah, you know, the one that was, um-"

"About the alien from from Mars, who travels around the galaxy?" Oliver adds when I cut off.

"That's the one!"

Oliver laughs while he rolls off of me, forgetting for the longest time that we were so close. We stare up at the sky, slowly darkening to an eerie violet. Blue, green, red, yellow, white, and pale orange dots glitter high above, glowing brighter as the minutes pass.

After about ten minutes of aimless chatter and gazing, I sit up, leaning against the odd palm tree.

Oliver's stomach growls and he lightly flushes as I chuckle quietly to myself. "Hungry, Oli?" I chime.

He nods and leans with me against the tree. "Hey, Donnie? How are we going to eat? I mean, I don't even know what's edible or not. Heck, I don't even know where to find it!"

"Yeah, and where are we going to sleep? I don't know about you, but I want somewhere where we can be slightly hidden. That howl that we hear even now and then...I don't even want to find out what it looks like."

"Mm." He stands, holding out a hand to me, and I take it, getting to my feet. "Well, might as well start looking for a place to sleep."

Even though we can see clearly, for walking in the dark that is, we still take our steps in small shuffles, less than an inch between our shoulders. Here and there we find a tree, but mostly it's just still grass, as short as if it had been freshly mowed.

The night reaches its peak, a violet-black sky illuminated with bright colors. I try to search for a moon or something besides stars, but I can't find one.

Then Oliver runs off, darting far ahead of me, leaving me stunned.

"Oli?!" I question, yelling for him to come back.

He turn around, grinning like a silly, little child as he stands in front of a rather large palm tree. Well, they did vary in size quite a bit: from huge redwood size, like the ones in California, to tiny, toothpick ones that are still rather tall, but look as if they should be newborn.

I catch up to him, infected by his smile as I match his.

He drops to his knees, getting on all fours as he looks through the small opening at the bottom, barely enough to fit through, but small enough to easily stay hidden.

"It's hollow," he informs me, "And there looks to be enough space, if you don't mind sitting up for the night."

I wrap an arm around him, hold his shoulder, and bump his other one with mine. "Oli, you're awesome! Way to go!"

He stiffens with embarrassment, a light blush on the tip of his ears, and a shy smile barely showing. I hum with excitement for a moment before pulling Oliver down with me. I crawl through the hole and inside the tree.

I gasp when I look up. On the outside I couldn't tell, but here on the inside, it practically glows in the starlight.

"Yeah, I was amazed too when I first looked in." Oliver agrees when he gets inside with me. "Oh, and before I went in I scraped some of the bark off. Not meaning to, mind you, but the more I look at it the more edible it seems."

"Yeah? Let me try first then. I am your knight after all."

He rolls his eyes again, yet pleased with the comment.

As I bite into the bark I realize something. It's so yummy! It tastes like vanilla cake brushed in a light maple drizzle. I tear off half of it and hand it to Oliver, nodding.

He laughs. "You're making such a funny face, Donnie. I take it that you like it, huh? Do you think I'll like it?"

I nod furiously, swallowing my bite with ease. "It's so good, Oli, it's better than even strawberry shortcake."

"Really? It must take pretty good for it to be better than your favorite snack." He takes a bite for himself and melts. He slumps against my shoulder with his own funny face.

And soon, the bark is all gone. Well, it was only the size of ours palms for each of us, so I don't think that we ate it too fast. Though, it was really good. But, whatever.

Yet, strangely enough, even after only that tiny piece, I feel full. Weird. I consult Oliver about it.

"Same here," he agrees, "I didn't think I ate that much, but now that I'm finished I feel full."

We try to figure out why that is, but when Oliver yawns, we both understand to think about it later. It's going to be a long day tomorrow, after all.

I slump back against the tree, closing my eyes. Oliver does the same, inches from me. However, in a mere minute his head creeps to my shoulder and rests there, steady breaths echoing from the small opening from his mouth.

I hum quietly and contently, carefully slipping off my navy blue jacket and laying it over him. Then I rest my head on his, letting my eyes droop to a close.

 I'll always protect you, Oli, I say to myself as I let my arms fall over by Oliver's. I won't let anything hurt you ever again.