Heroes of Dreamland, Book 6 1/2: The Last Sakuranoki (OLD)

The Last of A Kind

While Cherry flew toward the house, Donguri turned back to Tracker one last time. "Take care of my daughter, you hear? Or my ghost will come after you."

Gulping, Tracker nodded. Something gave him the feeling the the Brownie meant it, even if he was grinning as he said it. "Of course, sir. I'll make sure she stays safe."

"Good," Donguri sighed, then turned to one of the trees, which seemed to be shivering, and placed a kind hand on its trunk. "There, there. It's going to be okay, just stay strong and keep reaching and growing, friend."

With a laugh of disbelief, Tracker turned away and started to run back toward the cottage. That guy was a bit off his rocker, talking to trees like that... Magical tree or no, it couldn't possibly be sentient. All of the years of farming must have been getting to the poor Brownie's head.

But before he got far at all, he then frowned and turned back to the other Light being. "Aren't you coming with us? Why would you want to stay here? It's not gonna be safe, you're sure to be killed."

With a chuckle, Donguri agreed without turning around to look at the Star Warrior, "I know that. But think of the sakuranoki. You wouldn't want to face the end alone, would you? I'm their last guardian, their last friend. It's my job to stay here with them." After not speaking for a minute, during which he watered a small sakuranoki a little bit from an old tin watering can, he added, "And I won't be alone, either. They'll be here with me. I probably won't make it, but if I do, I'll come find Cherry."

He set the watering can down, then finally turned around and looked at the Scout one last time. "She's got a lot ahead of her, she's going to be doing some pretty impressive things. If I were you, I'd consider myself lucky that I get to join the ride. Just be careful, all right, Tracker?"

With that, he turned and walked deeper into the grove, whistling cheerfully to himself, not showing any sign of fear or regret. If this was the end, this was the end, and there was nothing he could do about that. Either he'd make it and be able to find and care for his daughter again, or if he didn't, he'd get to be with his Kusa again, he could feel it. He'd spent his life caring for these trees, and if he ended it caring for the sakuranoki, well... it felt right.

A little bit awed at the Brownie's display of bravery, and a bit pitying of the guy's seeming to think that the ever-blossoming cherry trees could actually feel fear or anything else, Tracker took a deep breath and let it go in a heavy sigh. Then, he turned around again and ran back towards the cottage as fast as he could.

************************************************************************

At the house, Cherry had been pretty astonished to discover that she really could keep things inside of the cape. As she added more and more of her dream books, she felt convinced that eventually it was going to be full and quit accepting anything more, but it never was.

Tracker soon arrived to find her digging through the rubble of the wooden cabin-like cottage, trying to find the last dream book and her notebook. Thankfully, the little sakuranoki had been outside with her when the building had been sliced apart, so it was safe and sound.

Tracker came over and tapped her on the shoulder, causing her head to snap up in surprise. "Didn't mean to scare you," he chuckled, then handed her the notebook. "Is this what you're looking for?"

"My notebook," she nodded with a small smile and accepted it, then narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously. "Did you snoop around in it?"

Smiling innocently, he shrugged and replied, "I only looked at the page it was open to when I found it. Is there a particular reason why you like to draw swords so much?"