Adventure is Out There

Chapter 8

"A tree, how harmful can a tree be?" Cate asked herself.

Her journey had only started about twenty minutes ago. At first, she had trotted off, feeling confident, ready to prove to everyone how valuable she was. How she, Cate could do something worthy of greatness. Cate was not going to be the one who was left out just because they didn't need her as much. This was not going to be like that game they had played without her.

This time it would be her doing the something and them not doing something as important. The others were going to be "chasing butterflies" as Lindsey had said. Nibbling on the sandwich Mim had packed her, she abated her pace to a walk. Her quiver was full of arrows and the bow ready when she needed it.

An old map had been torn out of the book but it was almost useless. Cate could scarcely tell if she was headed in the right direction. The pictures were to some assistance but most were faded. Cate was careful not to rip the map for it was brittle. The words to her disadvantage were too hard for her, but readable.

"Why am I doing this?" she thought.

The answer came from a tiny voice in her head, "You are doing this to show the world how wrong they are about you. That you should be the one leaving them out of games and things like this. That they are not worthy of you trying to save, because there is no way unless you get caught. This time it's the other way around, than the last." Cate's response to this was nothing; she had nothing to say back to the voice. The truth was she didn't know what to say back. She wondered if the voice was right, about everything she was.

Cate trudged along the trail until her feet burned and she was faint from the sun that beat his harmful rays on her. She sat under a nearby willow tree. This was her favorite of the trees because they were the sort of trees you would read under. The shade was a blanket of protection.

The leaves made a border from the rest of the world, from her and the sun. It shielded her from the journey ahead of her. It was just Cate and the willow. She leaned back upon the rough bark. The willow was her protector. The willow was comforting Cate.

.A root flew up and covered her lap like a seatbelt. It dragged Cate into the dirt. Cate was screaming, but inside her head. She thought quickly, "This tree can't be protecting me if it's doing this." But she didn't realize how wrong she was.

Cate was no longer visible. The willow again was pretending to be a safe haven. The tree was waiting for another person to sit and rest under its protection.

Slowly she was drawn through the earth. She couldn't breathe, until a pocket of air would appear before Cate was about to pass out. The invisible force pulling her would pause for a minute, and start tugging on Cate again.

Even though it had only been five minutes, Cate felt as she had been in the earth for as long as she could remember. Whatever wanted her wanted her alive and awake, but dirty and weary. The jerking stopped and she fell to the floor of a sort of path which looked as if it were a passageway to a city.

~

A legend of a city, so grand yet so poor, a city filled with love and light. A small town with a sun in the center, a sun so bright that shone every hour except mid-night for that is the time it slept. The Sun had a daughter, her smile made everyone one's day, and her laugh made her shine like a star because she was one. She had the ocean's eyes and the hair of golden sand. The young girl was so pure and so bright just as her father who she deeply loved.

Every night she would say goodnight to her father and then venture in the outskirts of town, looking for a place to call her own. She wanted a place to be the light that gave everyone hope, she wished to follow in her father's footsteps of being the sun. It was not long until the surroundings around the town were explored and the girl decided to go a bit farther.