Tree Whisperer

Chapter 26: Nathan

A little voice inside my head shrieked at me to run away. I needed to get out of here, save myself, escape this terrible madness. But I was frozen in a horrifying fascination. Isn’t there a saying that curiosity killed the cat? Yeah, I guess the cat had nine lives, so it could waste a couple lives here and there, but I wasn’t a cat! I didn’t eat mice and sleep all day. Although sleeping all day would be nice…

I had one life, and one life only. So why wasn’t I running?

“Hello!” The Narchichi said dramatically, with a flail of its arm in a wide circular motion. “I’m Psimlok! Call me Lok, though, that’s what everyone calls me. Let’s walk and talk.” Lok motioned with a flick of its pointed arm for us to follow, and, uneasily, Brenda and I did.

*****

Throughout the day, I found myself growing more and more comfortable around Lok. Lok was a girl, and she loved Spreig, which was some type of cooking class. She also filled us in on what the Learning Center was. Basically it was school, except you had way more freedom. The first class was a mandatory history class. We would learn all about how the Nar’s, which is short for Narchichi’s, discovered this land, who specifically discovered it, the hard journey it took to claim this land, the history they had with the Trees. The first day in History, we had learned that the Trees and Narchichi’s were Cousins. They were created by the same gods and goddesses as the Trees. They had lived in peace and harmony. Everyone had gone to the same school, were friends, and worked together. It seemed so serene, and I wondered what had happened to destroy that friendship. We’d be learning about that tomorrow.

The second class was the art of Spreig, and wasn’t mandatory, but if you didn’t go to class, you had to go to an additional History lesson. As interested as I was in the history of the Nar’s, Brenda and Lok insisted we go to the Spreig class. And who was I to complain, it was free food!

We were almost done in this class, as I was sitting there, watching Lok create a piece of delicious art. A large flame burst from the old-fashioned oven, arcing gracefully over the raw meat Lok was holding. I jumped out of the chair I was sitting in, clutching my erratic heart.

“Jeez, Lok, careful!” I practically screamed.

Her black eyes squinted in confusion. “What’d you say…? It’s kinda hard to understand your accent and everything…” Lok trailed off awkwardly. Throughout the day Brenda and I had been asked to repeat ourselves numerous times. It was getting to the point where it would be weird if we didn’t have to say everything twice, say everything twice.

“I said, ‘Jeez, Lok, CAREFUL!’” I yelled the last part.

Lok simply smiled mischievously at me, “You realize you were just staring into space for like the past ten minutes, right? So, you’re welcome for waking you up…”

“Wow, thanks Lok, remind me to return the favor next time you doze off…”

“Alright, Nathan, whatever you say.”

I rolled my eyes, and smiled.

“Hey Nathan, you wanna try my Spreig thing?” Brenda asked.

Brenda held up a piece of charred… Spreig thing. I wrinkled my nose and glanced at Lok. “Does that look edible?” I asked her.

She took one look at it, before, wrapping a piece of paper around it, and tossing it in a trash can.

“You’re lucky you didn’t blow the place up!” Lok exclaimed, gathering a few dirty glances from Nar’s around us. After Lok had defended us this morning, the Mean Nar’s, as we had started to call them, started a nasty rumor about her. Brenda and I didn’t really understand the meaning of it, what with the words not translating into English. Lok had tried to explain it to us, but looked relieved beyond relief when we told her she didn’t have to tell us what it meant.

Brenda frowned, and retorted slowly, “I thought I did really well.” I chortled.

“Got something to say, Nathan?” I shook my head, silently laughing at Brenda.

Brenda nodded her head in false sadness. “Really? I thought that looked like the best piece of blob in the entire world…”

Lok laughed. “Yeah, if it was being made for a Tree to eat.”

Lok stopped laughing. “Wait, Brenda, I didn’t mean that… It’s habit to say that kind of thing…”

Brenda nodded. “Okay,” she said softly. I glanced at Brenda. The comment had obviously bothered her. It bothered me a little too. We were just beginning to get used to Lok and the personality she came with. It felt like we had known her eons longer than we really had.

We really don’t fit in here, I thought. Evidently, Brenda agreed.

Brenda and I quietly watched Lok work her magic, creating shapes and lines out of the once raw meat.

After a moment, Lok skewered it, and roasted it for another moment over the fire. When she was done, she said, “For Brenda.”

The Spreig was brown, cooked darker in some areas that highlighted the shape. It looked like broccoli at first, shaped with little nubs for leaves and a smooth trunk. Upon closer inspection, I saw that there was detail along the trunk of the broccoli, like… tree bark.

It was a tree. Wow, just figuring that out Nathan? I imagined Brenda saying, if she were in a better mood.

Shut up, I responded.

But it occurred to me then, that Lok could have burnt the tree. After all Trees were made of wood. They were meant to burn. But cooked at the right temperature, and the right way, it was perfect the way it was made. At the hands of a Narchichi.

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