{ELEMENTISTS OF WILLOW FOREST BOOK IV} The Day of Death

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I was born here.  In Willow Forest.  In the second bedroom on the first floor of a log cabin which formally resided where the House of Nature is now.  If you're wondering, that's why I wanted it built there.

No doctors.  No midwives.  No nurses.  Just my mother, my grandmother and possibly the spirit of Hephzibah.

Oh.  And about three dozen or so animals.  There were always animals in our house.  It seemed weird to me when I eventually discovered that most young children were not accustomed to having several wild animals, not even native to this country, either on or near their bed when they woke up in the morning.

Willow Forest has always belonged to Hephzibah.  When possible, her descendants lived in it, and guarded it, and helped the large variety of animals living in it.  The Death Wolves never entered it.  A few centuries ago, women were inclined to live with their husbands.  When it became socially acceptable for women to raise children without men, the descendants of Hephzibah had no need for the men who had fathered their children.  They lived with others of their lineage, raising the next generation, who would eventually leave, and return with the next.

Oh, and for some reason, there has never been a male descendant of Hephzibah.  Almost always one child.  Always a girl.

I never knew my father, or my grandfather.  Most animals don't.  As my only experiences were of animals, my mother and my grandmother, I assumed this was the way for all humans, until I realised that in books, most people have a mother and a father, unless their parents are divorced or dead or there is some other reason usually explained within the first few chapters.

I knew what Elementists were and that I was one, but didn't know what a TV was.  I knew about Death Wolves, but was clueless about what a phone was, or a tablet, or a radio.

Until I read about those things in books.

Our house was simple.  Three floors, all grown years and years ago by whichever of my ancestors.  There were a few rugs, and pictures on the walls, but the walls, ceilings and floors were all flattened wood, and were left so you could see the wood.  It was a way of reminding us that wood is part of us, and we are part of wood, and wood is beautiful and strong and dependable and the source of life, as much as life is a source of wood.

As if we would forget.

The ground floor had a kitchen with a dining area, and a living room.  The first floor had two bedrooms, one for my mother, and one for my grandmother, plus a small bathroom.  The top floor was my floor.

It had a bed and a wardrobe and a chest and a table, but also plenty of perches for birds and nests for mammals and a sloping ceiling and a round window on each wall which I frequently used to analyse the weather before I ventured out into the forest.

In other words, I loved it.

The whole forest was my back garden.  I spent most of the time out there, climbing trees while my grandmother watched and grew appropriate branches, and playing with animals, and helping out in the garden where we grew our food.  I guess I had some magic from birth.  I could feel wood at the age of six.  I never got ill.  I could easily communicate with animals.  I could even send some basic telepathic messages to animals at the age of eight, but certainly couldn't control wood yet.

The children of Hephzibah had evolved to protect Willow Forest.  Our powers had done the same.

I used to build dens.  Because I couldn't control wood as my grandmother and mother did, it fascinated me to build a wobbly structure out of sticks and branches.  Then, after a while, either my mother or my grandmother (usually my grandmother) would come along and somehow merge all the sticks together, and create a solid, living, breathing play house.  She would always congratulate me, and say that I built most of it, and she only put on the finishing touches.  Even when I was small, I knew that whatever I did would have almost nothing to do with the end result.

When my grandmother had 'finished it off' for me, I would insist on inviting her inside for tea, then my mother would come with freshly made cakes, and we'd all sit down inside my new den, and I would be the housekeeper for once, while they were my guests, just like in books, and-

Sorry.  I'm getting distracted.

The point is, I was as happy as any small child, if not happier, even though I spent most of my time either outside or reading, and had no idea what a TV was until I read about it in books.

We weren't overly old fashioned.  We had an oven, and a sink, and a fridge, and a bathroom with a bath and a loo and a shower and electric lighting.  They won't have been installed by a plumber or an electrician though.  No workman would ever be allowed into Willow Forest.  I think it must have been my grandmother who did it.  She was the type of down-to-earth, let's-get-your-hands-dirty, do-it-yourself woman who would do that.

I never stepped a foot out of Willow Forest.  Virtually nobody ever stepped a foot in.  We did get the occasional visitors from the Elementist world, but I'll come to that later.  We had fabric though, and thread, and a sewing machine, which my mother used to make all of our clothes and blankets and cushions and things.  I think she got the materials from a nearby town.  I don't know for certain.  I suppose she had the money to do that by growing some 'designer' furniture every now and then, and selling it, again in the nearby town.  I always used to wonder why Mama would grow a really lovely new table then it would disappear a few days later.

We were vegetarians, and grew and made all of our own food.  We grew a lot of things, or we must have, because we had tofu and noodles and pasta and pizza as well as what you're no doubt imagining.  There were hens and cows and goats in the forest, and they let us have their milk and eggs.

My mother looked like me, if that helps.  Same blonde hair.  Same eyes.  Same skin tone.  Same features, except hers had a refined elegance, and mine still had some chubby toddler characteristics (when I was five).  She taught me how to read, and how to play chess, and more or less what they'd teach you in schools.  Most of the time, she made things for the house, and helped animals in the forest.  I called her Mama.

My grandmother was my playmate.  She would work the fields, and help animals, and grow me trees to climb and dens to play with, and often bring me bear cubs or duck chicks or other young animals that their mothers were struggling with to look after and play with until they were old enough to fend for themselves.  I couldn't say 'grandmother' when I was small.  It came out as 'Gama' which is what I came to call her.  She had silver hair, cut short like a man's, and her skin was tanned to the extent of being orange, from working outside all day.

 It was home.  And I loved it.