The Silver Tree (Spirit Animals Fanfiction)

Chapter 11

Okay so just over two months for one little chapter is ridiculous! Summer is here and with it comes so many opportunities for writing. So here's the challenge: one chapter a week. Seeing as I always, always, always take longer than planned, we'll see how this works out. Chapters will inevitably we shorter, but hopefully there'll be lots! Thanks for sticking with me, guys. Enjoy chapter 11!

Conor stood in the middle of a garden. His mother's garden to be exact. It had always been more of a practical chore than a pastime for her, preferring to grow vegetables rather than flowers. Conor wasn't sure that she ever really enjoyed the weeding and watering, but it was a woman's work so that's what she did.

He leaned down to smell a patch of flowers. He couldn't quite pinpoint what he was smelling and when he looked up, he didn't recognize the variety either. He could only tell that they were flowers of some sort. Shrugging this off, Conor straightened his back and began wandering the garden.

He didn't remember it being a very large garden, but now it seemed to sprawl out before him, more colorful and carefully taken care of than it had ever been. Conor began wandering around the pathways, noticing that his house didn't seem to be rotting and dilapidated. He could no longer see the bumps and cracks that made this place home, but he was sure he'd notice them if he looked closely. Things like that didn't just disappear.

Lost in his thoughts, Conor almost didn't notice his brother until he was just a few feet away from him. "Charlie?" he asked, uncertain.

The older boy looked up, his soft blond hair framing the sides of his face. "Conor!" he smiled the ear to ear grin that always brightened up Conor's day. "How's it going?"

Conor thought for a moment. "Good, I think," he responded. "What about you?"

"Great!" he exclaimed. "You know, I always loved this garden. I know it belonged to mom, but she never gave these plants the proper care they needed. I used to sneak out at night to work on them because father wouldn't let me do it."

"I never knew you liked gardening," Conor said. "But I can see father objecting."

Charlie nodded. "That's why I came out at night. But eventually he noticed that I was tired during the day, and one night he stayed up late and caught me tending to these hibiscus," he gestured to a group of violet flowers nearby. "He... wasn't pleased. To say the least. He locked my door at night and threatened to do worse if I went for another evening stroll."

"God," Conor felt the anger rising in him just listening to stories about his father. "He has got to be the rudest, most small-minded person in all of Erdas. I can't believe he would—"

"No, please," Charlie stopped him. "Don't say bad things about father. It's not his fault, he just doesn't understand. Things have changed since he was young. A lot has changed."

Conor didn't argue for Charlie's sake, but the rage still simmered inside him, ready to boil up at any moment. "So you never went back to this garden?"

Charlie shook his head. "And now look," he gently picked up a wilting flower that Conor guessed was a daffodil because of it's yellow petals. His knowledge on flowers wasn't very broad.

"But you're here now," Conor argued. "Can't you save them? Water them or something?" For some reason Conor felt that he needed to save this garden, as a piece of his childhood or something like that. It was weird since he'd never really paid it much attention as a kid, but the thought of losing it now threatened to make him tear up.

Surprisingly, Charlie laughed. "No, I can't fix these plants with water," he said. "It's much too late for that. But that doesn't mean there isn't anything we can do." He paused for so long Conor wondered if he would continue.