The Silver Tree (Spirit Animals Fanfiction)

Chapter 2

Abeke's cereal had gone mushy long ago, and yet she still hadn't eaten one bite. Something was troubling her. Lately, things at Greenhaven had been, well, boring. After they defeated the Wyrm, the Greencloaks had still had lots of things to do, celebrating, rebuilding, sharing stories and adventures, but now all that was long over and things had been quiet. Too quiet. As a hunter, Abeke knew to never get too comfortable, to never let her guard down, for fear of being snuck up on. And that's what was troubling her.

Putting her suspicions aside, Abeke forced down a spoonful of her breakfast, but by now it had gotten to the stage where the cereal and milk became one. With a sigh, she pushed her bowl away. She was sitting by herself at a table in the dining hall. It was pretty early in the morning and most of the Greencloaks were still in their rooms sleeping or getting ready for the day.

Just then, Abeke noticed a very groggy looking Conor walking down the stairs into the hall. She waved to him, but he didn't even see her. She watched as he poured himself a bowl of cereal and then promptly spilled it all over himself and the stone floor. Barely holding back a smile, Abeke went over to help him clean up.

Conor was usually a pretty shy boy, even though he was a lot more confident than when he first became a Greencloak. Abeke expected him to be as red as the Niloan sun sets back home, flustered and hurriedly cleaning up the mess, self conscience of every move. But what happened was exactly the opposite. He stood there for a few seconds staring at the mess as if processing it all very slowly. Eventually he placed his bowl on the counter and brushed a couple of the cereal pieces off himself. Then, leaving the floor a complete mess, Conor, his shirt still sopping and covered in cereal, took a new bowl, filled it, and walked to an empty table, leaving a trail of milk as he went. Something was definitely wrong. The entire hall had witnessed the whole ordeal and everybody was silent. After a long pause, the other Greencloaks started to go back to their breakfast, chatting away.

Abeke made her way over to the empty table where Conor was sitting and sat down across from him. It took him exactly fifteen seconds to realize she was sitting there.

"Oh, hey," he said after another few seconds, blinking slowly. It looked to Abeke like more of his cereal had ended up on his face than in his mouth.

"Good morning," she said, then after a few seconds when she realized he wasn't going to respond she continued. "Have a bad sleep last night?"

After a long silence, which seemed to be a recurring event this morning, he responded "I had a dream."

She waited, but he did not elaborate.

"Go on," she prompted.

"I was in the garden surrounding the Evertree," he began, "everything seemed peaceful, until I saw a white rose."

Conor continued telling the story. He didn't give much detail, but Abeke didn't mind. It was as if she could picture the entire scene in her head, even if she hadn't had the dream herself.

"Strange," she said when Conor was finished.

"I know," he replied, without an awkward pause. He seemed to have woken up during the recounting of the story. "But that isn't even the weirdest part."

He brought his hand out on top of the table, palm up. From this angle Abeke could see that he had a cut on his finger, still fairly red and fresh.

"So you're saying that when you got hurt in the dream, you got hurt in real life?" she asked.

"I know it's crazy, but it's true," he replied.

Abeke shook her head. "Have you considered that maybe it was just a normal dream?" she questioned. "You might have just cut your finger on your bed and dreamed an explanation."