Planteria

Chapter 9

A week after I got back from the Never Mountains, I was sitting in the branches of my tree, mindlessly carving a block of wood, when I heard a bit of rustling below me. I looked down and saw my best friend, Wendell, climbing up. I hadn't seen him in almost a year when he left to explore the Skydreamer's realm. I took my wooden blocks off the branch closest to me to make room for him. Once he made it to the branch, he just looked at me and gave me a sad smile.

"How are you holding up?" he asked.

I thought about the question for a minute, then answered truthfully. "I'm okay."

"You sure?" Wendell questioned, "because it's okay if you aren't, you know that, right?"

"Thanks Wendell. I know it's alright if I'm not okay, and ask me a couple days ago, heck, probably this morning even, and I might have answered differently. But I'm doing my best, and I'm helping Alexa. And as lazy as father has been in the past, he's actually been stepping up and doing better, helping us out, making sure we're okay." I stretched out on my branch. "It might seem like I'm moving on super fast, but mother was sick her whole life. She would have her good days and her bad days. Her good days were just so good sometimes that you would nearly forget she was sick."

"I remember I knew you for a year and a half before you told me your mom was sick," Wendell recalled. "And you only really told me because you couldn't meet up at the ruins like you planned because she was having a bad day, your dad was at work, and you had to take care of Alexa."

"I'd forgotten about that."

Wendell patted my leg. "That's why I'm your backup brain."

I faintly heard my name being called, and I looked down. Alexa was on the ground, looking up to the branches and shouting my name.

"Kaia! Kaia are you up there?"

"I'm here, Lexa!" I shouted back.

Wendell looked down. "Alexa was calling? Dang girl, you have good ears."

Alexa started climbing up the branches, occasionally stopping to look up, shielding her eyes from the sun. "Who's up there with you, Kaia?"

"You get three guesses," I told her.

Alexa resumed climbing while she thought.

"Cindy," she said, guessing one of my friends from middle school.

"Nope."

"Alexandra?" she guessed one of her friends from school.

"Only one guess left," I told her.

She took a couple seconds to think a little harder. "Evan?"

"That's just insulting!" Wendell cried at the sound of his older brother's name.

"Wendell!" Alexa yelled, climbing faster. She hugged him when she arrived at our level of branches. "When did you get back?"

"Just now," he told her.

"How long until you go off on another adventure?" was her next question.

Wendell thought a moment. "Well, I think I'll be staying for a while this time. A lot has happened since I've been gone. I don't want to miss out on too much more. Besides, you've gotten so big! When did I give you permission to turn ten?"

Alexa giggled. "I didn't need your permission, I just needed the calendar's."

Wendell shook his head. "Well then, I'm going to need to have a talk with the calendar."

This sent Alexa into a fit of giggles.

"What's so funny?" Wendell asked.

"You can't have a talk with the calendar, it's an in-an-i-mate object," she said, pronouncing it very carefully.

Wendell's jaw dropped, and he turned to me. "When did you start teaching her words like 'inanimate'?"

I was just as surprised. "I didn't teach her," I told him. "She must have read it in one of the books I gave her."

"What kind of books are you giving her that have the word 'inanimate' in them?"

"To list all the books I've given her to read since you've been gone: Plants and Animals of the Never Mountains, A Beginners Guide to Carving-"

"I didn't like that one," Alexa interrupted.

"-The Dictionary, The Thesaurus-"

"That was a fun one," Alexa said.

"-and The Plants of Foz Forest," I finished.

Wendell stared at me in shock. "You gave your at the time nine year old sister the dictionary and thesaurus to read?"

I shrugged "she asked for them."

Alexa nodded.

"Well, I have a book for you to read next, and it has fairies and leprecons in it," Wendell said.

"Really?" Alexa asked. "What's it called?"

Wendell smiled. "Artemis Fowl."