We Stand Together

4.6

Poppy Dizznee

Please note that Poppy is a toddler and won't be able to pronounce things properly in dialogue all the time. They are not typos when in her dialogue, it's just how she talks.

From the perspective of Poppy Dizznee...Present Day

I don't know why everyone is wearing green. We don't usually wear this much green at once. What's going on?

Mommy and Daddy look upset, but everyone else is quiet. I don't know why. Is everyone sad? Why? I don't want anyone to be sad. I walked up to Mommy and pat her legs with a big smile on my face, then stick out my tongue. But she only gives me a little smile and picks me up. What?! That ALWAYS makes Mommy laugh!

"Okay, is everyone ready?" Mommy asked us.

"Yeah, mom," Rosie nodded, holding Jasper's hand. "Everyone is dressed and ready to go."

"Good," Daddy spoke up, "now, remember, we're going to meet the Alexander, Vackers, Gramee and Grandpa and Grumpa Cassius, and on the way there we need to stick together so we don't get lost. No one go wandering off without an adult, and when someone says they're very sorry for our loss, we say thank you, okay?"

"Alright, now let's go. Rosemary, Celeste, Jasper, Theo, why don't you guys go first so you can meet up with the others sooner?" suggested Mommy.

Rosemary, Celeste, Jasper, and Theo did as they were told and they were gone in a flash of light. Next, Mommy carried me up to the leap master with Claire and Daddy following. Daddy held up his pathfinder and said, "Wanderling Woods," before I could blink twice! WHOOSH! We were gone!

We arrived in a place filled with trees. Tall trees, small trees, pretty trees, ugly trees, all kinds of trees. Lots and lots of trees. I like trees.

Everyone but Grumpa was waiting for us at the entrance. Celeste and Rosemary were standing with Alexander, who was also wearing green, talking. Jasper was talking with Amy, who was also wearing green, nearby. Theo was talking with Isaac, who was wearing green too. Mommy, Daddy and I walked over to Aunt Sophie and Uncle Fitz who were wearing green- WAIT A MINUTE! EVERYONE IS WEARING GREEN!

"Why is evrone wearin' geen?" I asked, puzzled.

"We're here to visit Uncle Keefe, baby, remember?" Mommy kissed my hair softly. "We always wear green to visit Uncle Keefe. It's respectful."

"Where is he?" I looked around, "Does he wive in da treez?"

"No, punk-a-boo, he isn't with us anymore," Daddy smiled sadly, "the bad guys got him. He doesn't know who he is anymore so he's stuck with them somewhere."

"But Mommy said wer gunna see him," I kept looking around.

"We're going to see what we have left of him," Mommy corrected herself. "After Uncle Keefe was gone, we took a hair out of his brush and planted it with a wanderling seed. We then planted the seed in these woods with the other elves who aren't with us anymore, even though he's still alive, because the friend we once knew is gone. We're going to go see the tree that seed grew into."

"Is tat why evrone is so sad?" I asked.

Mommy nodded, "Yeah. We all miss him a lot."

"Whendid he go away?" I asked next.

"Before any of you kids were born," answered Daddy, "but we take you guys here so you can have some part of him in your lives too. He was a good guy."

"Oh," I said quietly and didn't know what else to say. I wanted to meet this Uncle Keefe like Mommy and Daddy did.

We walked through the woods for a while before we saw anyone. From a distance it just looked like a man in a big trench coat with a knit hat, but as we got closer I recognized him as Grumpa.