Mark of the Ranger

XXVIII. The Arboretum

         The night that Ko had arrived at the arboretum, he was instantly ridiculed. He strolled into the large area, which, in itself, was impressive. It was flooding with trees of all kinds, most of them recognizable by Ko. He had spent many a night in his room reading about trees. He thought they were interesting--tall giants that stood for years and didn't die, fed themselves, and had roots deep in the ground. Ko had no precise idea why, but he knew that he loved trees.

         However, these people didn't know about Ko's love for trees, and judged him based on his outwards appearance, which is the last thing that one should ever do. When Ko showed himself, they all burst into laughter. "A snow elf helping with the trees? This had got to be a mistake!" They laughed. Now, being a snow elf, Ko was used to laughter, so he just stood and waited patiently for them to stop. When they did, he spoke. "Whether or not it is a mistake is out of your control, so you should stop worrying about it. Now, can someone tell me exactly what we're doing with these trees?" One of the people, a female snow elf, tried to answer, but she couldn't stop laughing at Ko's miniscule frame.

          "C'mon, guys, let's get him somewhere to sleep, and we'll tell him what he needs to do after breakfast," one man spoke from the middle of the crowd to the others, taking Ko's side. Whoever had the voice stepped out of the crowd. He had dark black hair that was slicked back, and a stocky, if not short, frame. He grabbed Ko by the hand and led him through a cluster of trees. "I'm Reuben, by the way. I'm certain that's rather important," Reuben introduced. Ko took that to mind as Reuben led him to a large tree.

          "I don't see anything, Reuben," Ko said, not seeing anything. Reuben tapped him on the shoulder, then tilted his head upward. "Oh," was all Ko could say after that. At the top of the tree was a network of treehouses--a treevillage. "Awesome, right?" Reuben understood. He then ran to the large tree and scaled it swiftly without using anything but his own four limbs and the digits attached to them. He reached the nearest treehouse with relative ease. "Do you need help getting up here? There's a ladd--"

          "I'll be fine, Reuben. I am an elf, after all." Ko interrupted before charging the base of the tree trunk.

          "That may be, but you're a snow elf," Reuben attempted to say as he watched Ko run up the tree trunk. Snow elves are not well known for their speed because they don't usually use it. However, they were the fastest known race, except for, perhaps, an Aeromancy construct. Even then, those didn't really count as a race. Ko raced up, eventually having to include his hands in the climbing. At last, he neared the first treehouse, and Reuben helped him up. "Impressive," Reuben congratulated.

          "You said something about a bunk," Ko reminded him. Reuben nodded, then turned and began to walk towards the rest of the treevillage. Ko followed. The two looked for quite some time for a treehouse that wasn't full before finding a spare bunk in one of the far houses. Reuben found a blank plate and a pen. "What's your name? I didn't catch it," Reuben asked. Ko told him his name, and soon "Ko" was proudly displayed on the plate on his new bed. "I look forward to working with you, Ko," Reuben said before running out the treehouse.

           Ko felt tired from the sea journey and went straight to sleep. He dreamed that he was the best tree climber in all of the Five Lands and that no one laughed at him, but instead bowed down to his awesome power. He woke up the next morning, still remaining in his delusions of grandeur. He delighted in the thought of being the best. He dressed in his new clothes and strutted out towards the treehouse that was closest to the tree trunk, where Reuben was waiting with a small stick in his mouth to make him look tougher.

          "Let's get you to breakfast right quick," Reuben said once he took the stick out. He  abruptly leaped off the platform and slid down the tree trunk with his bare hands. Ko followed, getting a serious wood burn on his hands. When he showed Reuben, he winced and gave him a medicine for that. "But don't worry, your hands will get used to it. Almost every worker in this magic farm has callouses somewhere." Ko really didn't like the way that Reuben said somewhere, but he didn't want to know why, either. He just stayed quiet as the two waited for everyone to wake up and slide down the trees.

          Once everyone had done that, the tree workers walked up the stairs to the main rock dome. There, Ko saw Lio and what must have been his workers sitting at these tables eating something out of bowls. The tree workers went to a shelf near the tables and picked up said bowls that were full of something and sat down next to the geovore carers. Ko sat next to Lio so he could speak to him. "How's your people, Lio? Mine are racist," Ko asked. Lio snickered. "I'm sorry about that. Actually, my coworkers are great, and the job sure is exciting. We've already fed the geovores today.

          "Productive morning."

          "I know. Oh, that's right. My name has been changed to Lion."

          "Oh, that's much better than Lio. I can't believe we didn't think of that earlier," Ko agreed as he tried to digest the something in the bowls. It was almost like noodles, but a little like porridge, and it tasted like apples. Ko hoped that he didn't have to know what it was.

          Soon after that conversation, Isabel and Elena walked in through the hall that the man who assigned chores had led them down. However, instead of the shirts and trousers they had been given, the two girls were wearing white dresses and black high heels. "What's with the wardrobe change?" Lion asked them. 

          "Headmaster's orders," Elena explained bitterly. Lion and Ko said nothing else. Their other friends had joined the attempting-to-eat club, but nothing interesting happened with them just yet.

          Finally, Reuben asked the tree workers to follow him back to the arboretum. The tree workers obeyed without question. Once they reached the arboretum, Reuben asked a  male wood elf to help Ko with collecting, as it was his first time, then assigned other pairs. The wood elf, without introduction, led him by the hand to a tree that seemed to have a lot of fruit near the top of its branches.

          The wood elf handed him a machete. "Do you know to use this?" The wood elf asked. Ko nodded. "Good. Now, we need to climb to the top cut off that fruit, grab it and put it in these bags." the wood elf handed him a large sack. "Simple enough for you, snow elf?" Ko would have felt reasonably insulted, but he was too busy looking at the tree. "Hand me your other machete," he said to the wood elf, and held out his hand. The wood elf tentatively placed the machete in Ko's diminutive palm, and Ko set to work.

          He scaled the tree with speed, ease, and grace. It was a hollowodd tree, so its bark was soft and easy to carve. He used the points of the machete to climb its trunk, his legs dangling uselessly below him. When he reached a branch with fruit on it, he straddled it, carefully cut off the fruit, then grabbed it and tossed it in his bag, which he had mounted on his back. 

          When Ko had collected enough fruit to fill the sack, he slid down the tree and handed the wood elf his sack. The wood elf stood there, mouth agape. "I'm sorry for doubting you," the wood elf said, and this time, it wasn't a dream.

          "Let's go get some more fruit, shall we?" Ko suggested. His new coworker was fine with that.