An Inspired Story

Tall Tree Tales

"Don't go any higher! Please come down! You're going to fall."

The girl climbing the tree, just ignored him. She climbed on; hand up, foot up, hand up, foot up. She was halfway up the ancient oak tree now. The dark haired teen beneath her was pacing with worry.

"Leli, stop!" The so-called Leli stopped, sat down on a branch, legs swinging, and peered down with a cheeky grin spread across her heart-shaped face.

"Robin, you worry too much," she called down, flashing her signature grin. With her red hair and sparkling dark eyes, she looked every bit the pixie she was when her mouth was open. "I've been climbing everything insight before I could even walk."

****

Robin was so worried about her. She was almost ten metres up the tree and the branches were starting to thin out but she was still climbing. Her red hair was whipping in the strong wind that was making the branches wave up and down with her on them.

"I'm going to get the nest no matter what you say. The chicks have no mother and they'll die if I don't get them," she insisted. Their mother had flown into the classroom window during fourth period and had almost immediately died from shock.

"I know they'll die otherwise but can't you just get a ladder?" Robin asked pleadingly, "You're going to fall, and at this height you'll most definitely break a leg, if not your neck!"

"I'll be fine. Now shut up or I will fall."

Robin shut up immediately. All he could think about were the headlines: 'Girl falls from tree in massive thunderstorm', 'Girl struck by lightning while rescuing chicks'. Every scenario ended badly in his head.

"Got them!" Lelia yelled triumphantly, "I'm coming down now"

****

Lelia was a bit too high up for her liking but she couldn't tell Robin that. If she did he would panic and make her come down immediately, and the chicks would die if she left them in the oak tree.

The sky was dark,  the only light coming from the lightening flashing in the distance, though it wasn't really in the distance anymore; it was getting closer by the minute. Lelia glanced at the sky worryingly; it was dark and wet and windy and she was climbing with only one hand.

The nest in one hand, the other gripped to the bark, she peeked down at Robin, who was still pacing back and forth at the base of the tree.

"Robin, if I drop the nest will you be able to catch it?"

"No! You've seen my hand-eye coordination; I wouldn't even be able to catch an elephant if you threw one at me!" Robin yelled back in a rush. True.

"Well, tough shit. You're going to have to catch it."

"No!"

"Yes!"

"No!" He was almost screaching now.

"Ready? I'll give you a countdown. Three." Lelia got ready to drop it

"No!!" Now Robin was screaching.

"Two—" Thunder clapped directly overhead and Lelia lost her grip on the slippy trunk.

****

The thunder sounded above Robin and everything went into slow-motion. He saw Lelia's hands slipped off the tree and tucked her body around the nest, protecting the baby birds from the impact that will come.

As he ran forward to catch her, Robin's comments about his coordination are forgotten. All he can think of is her. Catching her. Saving her.

She was falling. And then she wasn't. Robin's mind snapped out of slow-motion and snapped back to Lelia. She hadn't hit the ground. Caught between some branches, she was three metres off the floor, the chicks still in her arms; still alive.

Finally, he found his voice,"Help! We need help!! Somebody, anybody, HELP!"

No one came.

Taking matters into his own hands, Robin started to climb the tree, trying to remember where Lelia had placed her hands and feet. After what seemed to Robin to have been hours, he reached her.

Breathing faintly, she lay sprawled across the wide branch, the nest still protected in her arms. She had a seeping gash across her forehead but otherwise, Lelia looked fine.

Taking the nest out of her hands, Robin put it safely next to her, in an alcove of the tree. Carefully, he licked Lelia up and silently thanked his football training for making him able to carry her and climb at the same time.

When Robin reached the base of the tree, Lelia started to regain consciousness. He could hear her muttering something but he couldn't tell what. Suddenly, he understood her, the nest.

After he made sure she was relatively fine, Robin started back up the tree. It was now even more slippy than before, as the rain had gone from a light drizzle to almost torrential rain.

Once again, Robin reached the branch that had held Lelia and still held the chicks that she had risked her life to get. He took the birds out of the alcove that he had put them in earlier and climbed down again.

Once on solid ground again, Robin put the nest in Lelia's arms when he realised something.

The chicks were robins.

———

This took me ages but I really wanted to get it out so here you go. Vote if you like it and comment if you have any tips for me.