Persimmon's Tree

Chapter 5

         Persimmon hid her internal terror. She had no idea animals could draw. How much of the world was she missing; waiting for an empty promise her father made? It angered her. What if all of the times she ate a deer or a rabbit, it could actually respond to her in a way that said, "Hey, maybe don't eat me. I have a family too." It made her laugh to think about, but it also made her a bit sad. Deer and rabbits were nothing like these creatures. When she looked into their eyes, she saw feeling and emotion within them. How could she have never met such interesting creatures before?

The pull of curiosity struck her as she studied the drawing a bit more. From the times she looked at herself in the reflection of the river, she noticed the similarities she had with her father. She was an IceWing, not a SkyWing. She wanted to ignore her connection she had with her mother. Persimmon hated her even more after Poinsettia told her what she did to Poinsettia's eggs.

Persimmon hissed at herself to focus. Here. Now. Forest. Smart creatures. Drawing that looks just like her.

She abruptly turned her head to look at the creatures. They flinched back and started yelling things at each other.

"How did you do this? Why does it look like me?" She said as she pointed at the drawing.

The creature with long hair walked up to her and put its small arms on its sides. Persimmon chuckled in response.

It pointed at the drawing Persimmon had in her talons and screeched.

"You want it back? Sure, but you don't have to scream everything to get what you want, you know." Persimmon said, giving the drawing back to the creature.

It huffed at her and turned to look at its friends. Persimmon stretched her neck to get a better look at what they were doing.

One creature was putting up quite a major argument, or what Persimmon perceived as an argument. It reminded her of how her sister would always try and bicker with the things she'd do. It's probably why she's able to understand these weird things so much.

The one with the long hair made a motion with its paw that was pointed in Persimmon's direction. It was actually interesting watching these somewhat intelligent creatures discuss something with one another.

They eventually seemed to stop communicating and the one she met first walked up to her again. It seemed to have an expression that radiated worry. Persimmon squinted, but the creature pointed to Persimmon's back. Persimmon blinked and lifted a brow. What was it saying? She arched her neck to look at her back in confusion, then felt a touch on her talon. Her head whipped back around to look at the creature, which was abruptly startled by her quick movement, then touched her talon again.

Another creature quickly ran up to the other that pointed at Persimmon's back, then seemed to grab its arm and pull it away from her. The two appeared to be arguing in squeak form, until eventually the one with long hair seemed to stop the other. The other creature slowly stepped back with a look of sadness on its face, but didn't continue to fight.

Before Persimmon had the chance to think another thought, she felt something scurry up her arm and rest behind the spikes on her neck. Persimmon screamed and looked behind her to see what the creature was doing on her back, but it just looked at her with the drawing in its paws. It placed the paper on her back and grabbed a very small piece of charcoal. It looked like it was writing something, but it didn't look up until it was finished thinking through what it was doing.

The creature held up the back of the paper, and it had clear, visible words on it that said, "fly." Persimmon's eyes went wide.

"HOW IN THE NAME OF ALL THREE MOONS DID YOU LEARN HOW TO WRITE IN DRAGON??" Persimmon shouted and realized it scared the other creatures.