Tree Whisperer

Chapter 23: Brenda

My heart was pounding out of my chest as adrenaline kicked in. Nathan was panting beside me. We had run no more than twenty feet when we noticed that the Narchichi’s had an inhuman-like speed. I suppose that would be because they weren’t human…

            A claw seemed to wrap around us, pulling Nathan and I back. I looked down to see one long black talon that seemed to extend from the Narchichi’s pointed arm hooked around mine and Nathan’s waist.

            I looked skeptically at Nathan. We were going to die. Or worse, our souls would die and turn into Narchichi’s souls. Slowly, ever so slowly, we were pulled back farther and farther. The Narchichi manipulated his hand so that we were now in front of him, being pushed forward. We were being pushed toward a rock. A giant rock… Oh my god, it was a cave. Was this where we would be slaughtered? Or stoned? Or turned into Narchichi’s? A million questions seemed to surface to my mind. But above all, I wondered what Nathan’s reaction was to all of this. I glanced at Nathan to see his head turned away from mine. His shoulders were shaking.

            Gradually, Nathan turned toward me. He was smiling. No, smiling was an understatement. He was laughing, laughing so hard he had tears running down his cheeks. “Okay, so where does this joke end? Did Alex put you up to this? Is he blackmailing you into doing this? I swear I am going to kill him. What, I mean,” Nathan glanced around himself with a crazed look in his eye. “None of this is real; it’s part of some elaborate joke or… or maybe I’m dreaming?” He pinched his arm.

            “Nope, definitely not dreaming,” he chuckled again. “What are evil garden gnomes going to pop at us now too?”

            What? I thought. Garden gnomes…?

            By now we were only a few feet away from the cave. It was closing in on us. I glanced around the exterior of the cave. There was a lattice of black cords, which looked much like the claws of the Narchichi’s attached to one side. Was this a makeshift prison? Were we going to jail? Or maybe it was what they put intruders of their land in. That made the most sense, I just didn’t want to think about what they did to intruders. Nathan suddenly grabbed hold of my hand.

            “Tell me this was a joke, Brenda. This has to be some kind of joke!” Nathan pleaded.

            We were thrown into the cave, and the black lattice slammed shut, another exterior door I hadn’t noticed before following with it. The cave was pitch black. I heard a rustling in a bag before Nathan pulled out his phone. He quickly turned it on, illuminating the dark cave.

            “Now answer me Brenda. When is this joke gonna end?”

            I gulped. He thought this was a joke. He thought I was human. Oh no. No no no no no no! A million times no! This was not the time for him to figure out I wasn’t lying. This would definitely explain why when he found out I was a tree he took is so well. I am such an idiot! How could I not see it?!

            “N-Nathan. This isn’t…” I cleared my throat. “This isn’t a joke. It-it never was.”

            Nathan started hyperventilating. “N-Nathan! Stop!” I shook his shoulders.

            “You—you’re a tree? And, and those things out there, those were Narchichi’s? And, and I was right when I guessed nobody else could see you? I thought you were just playing along… or something.”  He ran his hand through his hair before his eyes widened.

            “You aren’t trying to kill me, are you? Can you do something magic that’ll poison me in my sleep?”

            “No! I would never do that!” I shouted, trying to regain control of the situation. “But those things out there, Narchichi’s, they could. And we need to stick together and away from harm. We have to figure out a way out of here.”

            “Oh my g—” Nathan began.

            “I know,” I cut him off. “We’re trapped. We might die. We might be Narchichi’s by tomorrow morning. But we also might be free by tomorrow morning. We might have escaped. We need to think. We need to put our heads together and just think until we get an idea. No idea is a bad one.”

            Nathan and I thought. We thought long and hard and for at least an hour. But we still had no idea how we were going to escape. The door out of the cave was being guarded, as Nathan and I had figured out that the guards switched every half hour. We could easily hear their footsteps and a low shriek that accompanied when they talked to each other through the door. Nathan had shined the light from his phone on it and we realized the doors were a silver color, much like the metal used in vaults.

The walls were made of thick, hard stone. It would be impossible to break through them without some kind of bomb… which we obviously didn’t have. The ground was brown, a soft muddy color.

And that was when an idea popped into my head. What if…

*****

            Our hands were covered in dirt. Nathan and I had been trying to dig our way out of the cave for the past twenty minutes. So far, we had barely made a dent, our hole was in the far back corner of the cave, just in case we had to cover it up if the Narchichi’s came in. It was about six inches deep. The soil that once had looked soft and pliable turned out to be practically solid.

Two hours later, the hole was about two feet by two feet deep, just big enough for Nathan’s bag to fit into.

            “I can’t dig anymore. How about we take a break until morning? We’ll put my bag in here so the Narchichi’s don’t see it,” Nathan suggested as he stood to rub his hands on his pants, leaving long brown streaks.

            “Okay,” I replied in agreement.

            “I’m gonna turn off my phone now, so it’ll be dark. Okay?” Nathan asked.

            “Alright. Let’s get some sleep. We’ll be digging all day tomorrow,” I reminded him. If we live that long.

We would take a break only for lunch and dinner, although I wouldn’t be hungry until tomorrow afternoon anyways since I had received lots of nutrients the night before when I was in tree form. When I was safe, I thought. But I quickly pushed the thought away. I couldn’t afford to think about anything but digging tomorrow.

            And with that I drifted off to sleep, resting on the mound of dirt that was my bed. This would be the first time in my life I hadn’t gone to sleep in tree form.

            I just hoped it wouldn’t be my last night ever.          

A/N: Sorry for the late update... I've come to a conclusion. I need a deadline for when to post the next chapter from now on, but give me at least two days between updates (unless I'm in a really good mood and update early). But if you give a deadline please leave a comment on what you thought of the chapter. I don't just want a day of the week. Thanks! Don't forget to Vote, Comment, Follow!