How I Met Hena Chakelithp

Chapter 14. Wen's Woods

The uneasiness didn't last. About a month later, while Hena was sitting by the fire carving wood, I counted my money on the floor of the attic and found that I had fifty-seven crajas, eighty-two bolesh. That was enough to buy ten trees, even though I'd calculated that we only needed eight, like Hena had said. 

"Good news!" I yelled downstairs, from where I could faintly hear a monologue that consisted mainly of grumbles of "this takes forever", self-encouragements such as "come on, come on Hena, you can keep going," and occasionally exclamations like "Ouch!" or "Eek" when she cut her finger and whatnot.
"What?" she yelled back.
"We have enough money to get you a room!"
"Good!"
"Can we go to the forest now?"
"Why?"
"I want to get you a room!"
"Uh...eh..oh that's right, there we go...wait, what?
"Hena, we've been saving for a month!"
"I need to finish this!"
I sighed. I knew Hena pretty well, and I knew that when she was carving, she was not to be deterred.
I took my money bag, climbed down, and watched Hena carve. It was a picture of a dragon, its body fluid and scales smooth. It appeared to be soaring over the ocean. It did not have a rider.
For chopping down trees, my axe was definitely needed. I got it from its hook on the wall and saw its oak handle...
"Hey Hena! We can get some ironwood while we're there too!"
"Okay..." Hena said. She didn't seem to be listening because she was so focused on carving. I shook my head, smiling.
It turned out to be another ten minutes before Hena finished with her carving. She finally set it down and got up from her chair.
"You should bring your jacket," I said. "It'll be pretty cold when we fly over the ocean."
"Okay," Hena said.
I hitched my wagon up to the two dragons for when it would be full of boards. The downside was that we couldn't fly. They would have to walk and pull the wagon, which would take longer, but which would be easier.
We got onto the wagon and traveled to the east of the region border, toward the Utiiq woods, talking all the way. When we started to descend, Hena asked how long it would take to chop down the trees.

I told her.
"Seven hours! That's a long time!" she said.
"You can talk to the forest dragons. There are tons of them around."
"Okay," Hena said, still looking rather put out.
We landed on a patch of grass. Hena and I went into the forest to find an ironwood tree. It was a long time before we did, but we did, and Hena was right: Ironwood is almost impossible to break. Hena and I attached the axe blade to a stick and I loved the sturdy feeling of it.
I left Hena to talk to the dragons while I chopped down trees.

***

I'd always felt like I was in my element while in the woods, especially when it was a clear, sunlit day like this. Grass was starting to sprout and the trees were budding. The sunlight was streaming down through the leaves, creating a mellow, cheerful sort of greenish glow that filled the forest. I gripped my axe with one hand. I'd had it since I was nine and it was one of my proudest possessions. I enjoyed the sense of power and security that I got while holding it. I let my hair down and twirled around a few times. But I was here to chop down trees, not to twirl.
So I looked for a wide, straight tree that was old, huge, and reaching the end of its days. I soon found one and started chopping.
Each blow made me feel stronger. I started to sweat, even though it was only fifty degrees out and I wasn't wearing a coat: Chopping wood was hard work. As I got closer to the center, the sweat started dripping down my neck. I picked up my water canteen and promptly consumed its entire contents, letting the cool, clear liquid flow down my throat. I leaned against the tree and heard a deafening cracking sound. You can bet your life I got out from under that tree faster than a hungry dragon running after a nice fat deer.
More cracks resounded in my head as the tree went down. Finally it hit the forest floor with a crunch of old leaves. I chopped off the fibers that still connected the tree to the stump and started walking back.
When I got there, I found Hena in deep conversation with another girl about our age with long curly orange hair and light brown eyes. She and Hena were sitting on the grass together.
"Srarori's back," Hena said to the girl. I came and sat down.
"Hi," said the girl. "My name's Wen. You're Srarori, right?"
"Yeah," I said. "Nice to meet you."
"You too," said Wen, shaking my hand vigorously.
"What brings you to the forest?" I said.
"I'm visiting my birthplace. I'm a forest-born."
"Wow!" I said. Forest-borns were people who, during their childhood, had been raised in the forest, by forest dragons.
Wen went on. "I work in a traveling circus that goes all around Asluncia and Utiiq, doing acrobatics and things like that."
"That's cool," I said. "You should meet my friend Aranee. She likes acrobatics too."
"Sounds good. Maybe I can see her sometime."
"What kind of acrobatics do you do?" asked Hena.
"Let me show you," said Wen.
Wen lunged and did a handstand, then walked on her hands to the nearest tree. She used her hands to launch herself up feet first, then hooked her legs around a branch. She swung from the limb, going higher and higher, and then she straightened her legs and flew into the air. She did a 180 turn in midair and landed in a squat. Hena and I clapped as Wen sat down again.
She reached into her pocket and retrieved a card with a date, place, and time on it.
"Our next performance," said Wen, handing it to me. "If you want to go, admission is 20 bolesh."
"Let's go!" said Hena. I agreed. I liked Wen.
"Thanks. My brother and I will see you there."
"You have a brother?" asked Hena.
"Yeah," said Wen. "He's my age. We were born on the same day. We're not identical twins, obviously, but we have the same parents and birthday."
"He's a forest-born too?"
"Of course. Our mother died after giving birth to us and our father left us in the forest, knowing the dragons would take care of us. My parents thought there would only be one baby, but there were two, and with my mother dead, my papa didn't think he could take care of two babies all by himself."
Wen was still sitting on the grass nonchalantly. She seemed completely relaxed, and clearly she wasn't shy talking about these things.
"I--I'm really sorry," I said. "I couldn't imagine growing up without parents."
Another thing I couldn't imagine was how casually she talked about this and how she could possibly say such things without becoming solemn and silent.
"It's fine," Wen smiled. "I have a good life. Lots of friends, enough money, and a family that takes good care of me."
Seeing our confused faces, she said, "Oh yes, the circus is like my family. We've been through a lot together. All of us came because we had nowhere to go, and all of us found happiness in each other."
I felt utter admiration for this girl. She was very respectable. She seemed like she was possibly the toughest person I'd ever met. She had survived a childhood without parents, many hard times in the circus, and was still going through, with gratitude and joy, a nomadic lifestyle that constantly moved around, never staying in one place, not allowing her to make any lasting friendships. Unless...
"Well, it was really nice meeting you," said Wen. "I have to go see the forest dragons before our rehearsal."
"Okay. See you at the performance." I said.
"More like you'll see us at the hobo party."
I laughed. Wen walked away.
"So," I said to Hena. "We have to get chopping so we can build you a room."
We chopped for an hour, sharing stories and jokes from our lives. I told her about the time Kaliana pranked me by waiting for me to walk inside and setting up a bucket of mashed blueberries that fell on my head when I opened the door. She had rigged up a string attached to the handle, so that when I pulled the door open, I pulled the bucket down. In return, I took all her socks, stuffed them with dragon dung, and then put them back inside her drawer. I explained that I was nine and she was six and we were always bothering each other.
Hena told me about the time when she and Tielle had gotten back at a boy who was mean to them. Apparently he'd told Hena she looked like a doll from a horror play because her skin was so pale. He also elaborated on that theme by telling Tielle that Hena was scary and would kill her if she didn't get away, but that Tielle was so dumb that she probably didn't know what was good for her. I was appalled. Hena said he had also called her a raven (which was a symbol of bad luck in her culture) because of her black hair. He had also put nails in Tielle's shoes.
But I laughed when she told me how she'd gotten even. She and Tielle had left a basket of cookies on his doorstep that were actually pieces of charcoal that they had PAINTED to look like cookies. Hena said she and Tielle had noticed that whenever he saw sweets, he just ate them right off the bat without examining them or saving them for later. They had decided to use that to their advantage. They also knew there was a tree right next to his house that nobody ever noticed, so they hid up there until he came home. When he saw them on his stoop, he picked one up and bit right into it.
Hena said she and Tielle almost died laughing.
But I was very, very glad she didn't, because then I never would have met her.
I asked why she'd come here in the first place. She said that her country was very low and close to sea level, and there was a giant flood, so she'd set off alone to the mountainous highland twenty miles away which people always went to in times of rising waters. She'd gotten blown off course in the wind and...I knew the rest.
When the chopping was done and we had produced several long, clean white boards, we hauled them, one by one, onto our wagon. When each board was on, we tied the dragons on and began the long ride home.

***

The ride wasn't as long, and not nearly as boring, as I thought it would be, with Hena to keep me company. It felt like the time flew by as we talked, and before we knew it, we were again standing at the stretch of ocean between my island and the mainland. Each dragon carried two boards at a time over the gap. Soon we were both standing in front of the house.
"Well, here we are," I said. "Do you want to start building tomorrow, or do you want to take a break for a few days?"
"Why can't we start now?"
"Because I'm about to keel over flat on my face," I pointed out.
"Okay," Hena shrugged. "I guess I'm pretty tired too."
"I just wanna eat dinner and pass out," I said.
So we did.

Author's note: Some of you might know this. A wen is a giant blister. I wrote this story before I learned that and decided not to change it. Wen is honestly a a good character.