Soul Bound

Chapter Twenty-nine

Chapter Twenty-nine

"Falon, get out of the tree," Finn says, staring up at me from the ground. I know he could come up here and get me if he wanted to, but I don't care.

"No!" I yell down at him, squeezing my arms and legs around the burnt branch of an oak. The charred, black bark is covering my entire front side.

"Falon... out of the tree." He's using his serious voice now.

"No!" I yell again, turning away from him.

"Falon you have three seconds to get down or I'm coming up to get you," Finn says. He's angry now. But I'm angry too. He just doesn't understand.

I look back at him so I can yell even louder. "Why do I have to go to school? I don't want to be a human! Why do I have to be a human?"

He can't make me go to school. I don't want to be with other kids. I just want to be with my forest.

"Because that's what you are, love." He sighs and crosses his arms, pulling at his beard with one hand.

"You're not human!" I retort.

"I know, love, but I didn't have a choice."

"I do! And I don't want to be one." I would cross my arms too if I could, but I might fall out of my tree.

"Why not?" Finn asks.

"They're mean and tricky and bullies and they kill everything," I declare.

"They're not all bad," he defends.

"Yes they are! Look what they did to my forest!" My chubby four-year-old finger points out at the burnt down forest, still smoking in places.

"It's not your forest, Falon."

That really makes me mad. "It's not theirs either! But they killed it all!"

Finn sighs again, but looks sadly out at the scorched land. "I'm sorry, Falon. It was a beautiful forest. But it'll grow back one day." Finn doesn't seem so mad anymore.

I sit up on the branch, sure he won't try to come get me down now. "When? When will it grow back?"

"When the humans don't want it anymore."

"Will everything grow back?" I ask, hopeful.

"Yes. Everything. Nature is resilient, love."

"I don't know what that means," I say, eyebrows furrowed.

"It means that it will always come back if we give it time," Finn explains.

Now I cross my arms. "Well, let's wait for it to grow then."

Finn's eyes go wide. "Now?"

"Yes. I'll stay up here and watch it," I insist.

"No, you'll come down and we'll go home. Now." That's his do it now voice. I have to do it when he uses his do it now voice.

"But what if it needs help growing?"

"Nature never needs our help, Falon. It does much better when we leave it alone."

"Not me. It needs my help. I'm special, remember?" He tells me all the time how special I am.

"Yes, you are special, love. But you need to come home with me, alright? We'll come back tomorrow."