Chương 8: Little People

"Nasha slow down!" Nel yells out after his older sister. Being a whole year younger he can't keep up when she really wants to hurry. Stopping with a few small hops to break her momentum, Nasha turns to check on her little brother with a strong eye roll.

"Little Nel if you don't hurry up we wont make it back before dark and dad will have our hide."

"I know, I know, but my legs are so small I cant hop the logs like you do." Nel responds with sad eyes as he catches up to his sister and they both run off into the wood. Today the kids are up to no good. Breaking one of the only rules their village has given them is just another day of fun for siblings with no work to keep them busy. It happens to bring the elders pride that their young ones need not worry about helping. Enough is provided already. Let them explore and learn.

Nasha, strong and brave as she may be, is still only six years old. Leading the way she clears logs and ducks branches with an experience born of repetition. Grinning ear to ear she runs, a little slower than she wants to, towards the village boundary. Passing the perimeter guard with a wave and a WOOP!, her and her younger brother set off to finally explore that cave they saw from the hill just a few days ago.

As she comes to the waters edge several minutes later she recalls her mothers words before asking to explore.

"Do not cross the creek Nasha, we don't patrol there often enough to keep the predators away" With a finger point and a stern eye. Nasha, knowing better, judges the path clear with a sweeping gaze and leads her little brother off. Together they climb the rocks over the creek, face the direction of the lookout hill and take off. It is frustratingly slow for her trying to slow down for Nel, but she knows she cant leave him behind or he will tell mother they broke a rule.

Daydreaming about finding riches and adventure in a deep cave, she comes to the lookout hill.

"I think it was this way" she calls out turning at an especially thick tree on the other side of the hill. As long as she keeps the hill in sight she will always find her way home so she doesn't really worry if she picked the wrong tree to turn at. Getting lost in this wood isn't too bad as the hunters will find her trail even in the dark. They have found several kids in the past with the same method, and its never gone wrong. Several minutes pass as her pace slows to a walk.

"Little Nel, I don't think we went the right way this time lets turn back."

"I said stop calling me little, I'm only a year younger and I'll be bigger than you with my next growth spurt!" Nel sticks his tongue out to make his point as his sister smiles, showing her two missing front teeth. Turning another direction and taking off with the hill still in sight, Nasha leads the way through several patches of brush. Untraveled forest floor can become hectic but she can hear her little brother right behind her.

Crossing a bush she stops short to scan the area and Nell rams right into her back sending them both to the ground in a sprawl of limbs and shouts.

"MY NOSE, MY NOSE, OW OW OW" Nell cries out clamping his small hand over his even smaller nose.

"Shh, remember no yelling in the wood. Let me see it." Lifting his hand away Nasha can see the blood begin to drip slowly from his nose.

"Its not that bad little Nel. I'm sure it will stop bleeding by the time we make it back to the village. Come on we are almost there!" Brushing away the drying blood with the edge of her fur cover, she leads the two yet further into the forest. As Nasha comes to a stop at the peak of a small ridge line, she takes a moment to scan the area. Knowing she isn't in the right area still, her mood sours. They wont have time if they have to backtrack to the lookout hill again.

Freezing with eyes wide she turns and grabs Nel with a palm over his mouth and throws them both to the forest floor. Her brothers wide terrified eyes stare back at her as she covers her mouth with one finger in the universal "Don't make a sound" way that all kids recognize. With a brave little nod, he pulls her hand away and looks around to find the reason she is acting so strange. Pushing his little head to the side so he can see, she can feel his whole body shiver and stiffen.

He whips his little head back at her and whispers "What is that? Trees can't move Nasha. What's it doing?"

"I don't know, now shush and let me get a good look." After watching for a few more seconds she looks left and right and points.

"Be quiet and we will move to that bush. It will hide us and we can see it better from there." The brave duo strike off being extra sneaky. After laying down almost on top of one another, they peak through the bush. What they see makes their eyes widen in awe.

"Its a tree, and its moving? Hey Nel, do you remember the story Gran told us about tree guardians?" Nasha asks while keeping her voice so quiet she barely hears herself. Little Nel nods back with a huge smile. Its a legend, and its right in front of them! Watching the moving tree as it reaches high into a normal looking tree, they see a bright yellow flower sprout slowly. Nasha knows growth. Her village uses mana to speed the growth of their crops all the time.

But the speed of this flowers bloom is almost as fast as their most experienced grower.

"It must be a tree guardian!" She whispers while looking to her brother for any form of approval. Worried she will never see one again Nasha makes a plan.

"Nel, I'm going to offer it a gift. You stay here and if anything dangerous happens, run." The duo make strong eye contact, and with clearly mixed feelings of fear and awe, he nods once. As Nasha the brave removes her favorite bracelet, the moving tree walks over to a nearby bush and picks a berry to eat. Nell watches with fascination as he turns to his hand and counts his own fingers.

"One, two, three, four, and a thumb... that's five." Looking back up at the moving tree he counts in a low whisper "One, two, three, and... a thumb. Four? Nasha do tree people have four fingers?"

"How should I know, this is the first one I've seen." She closes her hand with the bracelet inside and stands up slowly, prepared to run at any sign of danger. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

Wow these berries are amazing. Blue really is a beautiful color for food. I pluck several more berries from the bush as I crouch in front of it snacking. Looking around for a way to take the best berries I've ever had with me, I hear a strange noise from behind.

"hello?" I jump to my feet and spin around with claws up and eyes wide with fear. Distracted by the food I never heard anything approach and forgot to keep watching my surroundings. My wide eyes land on a short tan creature with smaller, but still wide eyes. With a ear busting screech the thing takes off into the wood and another smaller one pops from the bush beside it and follows making almost the same shrieking noise.

Staring after them as they clear multiple logs and disappear into the brush I realize they probably aren't dangerous if they reacted that way. With a shrug and a shameful grunt I return to my blue berry bush and try to figure out a plan for keeping them. Ok I need some kind of pouch. Maybe if i find some large leaves. Looking around I spot a small tree-like thing in the distance that has absolutely massive leaves and jog over to it.

Collecting two of the massive things and jogging back to my bush, I begin another creative project. If I poke a claw along all sides but one and wind some ivy thru them.... maybe. Laying the two leaves on top of one another and threading unbraided ivy through most of it, I leave a hand sized gap in one side and tie the ivy off on each end. stuffing my hand between the two tied together leaves and spreading my fingers opens the small sack, and with a satisfied smile I hold it up to check for any flaws.

Another win for me! With the berry sack half full I start to collect some ivy to tie it to my other thigh, since I have my grey box of colorful rocks on one side already. I hear the small feet padding slowly my way and turn with more confidence to the two small guests coming around a tree in the distance. Seeing them freeze up, I smile and hold out my hand with some berries on my palm. Silently standing for a while just looking at each other was weird.

Eventually the taller one turns to the small one and points at the ground and makes another odd noise "Don't move Nel." With that, it walks slowly toward my outstretched hand. When it gets close it also raises a hand that holds a small red braid with some tiny colorful rocks woven in. I stare at the beauty of this creation for just a few seconds before it takes another small step forward and places the red braid in my palm with one hand and takes the berries with the other.

A slow smile creeps up my face as I realize these creatures are not just some animals. They are people! Little as they may be. With a small "HOOP" I raise the red braid to my eye and look closely.

"Are you really a tree guardian?" I tilt my head to the side and grunt in an unsure way. What are these noises? These people know a lot of noises it seems.

"Do you understand me?" it asks with eyebrows crunched together. I straighten my tilted head and take a seat, waving at the little person to join me. Communication is going to be tricky. Why hadn't I thought of this. I notice the long brown braid running from the top of its head and an idea comes to mind. With bright eyes I pull out some of the braided ivy from my leg armor and show the little person while pointing at its own brown braid.

I can see the moment it understands as its eyebrows raise and it smiles while pulling its braid forward for me to look at. Beautiful work with some kind of tie at the bottom to hold it together. I nod in approval and it smiles and nods back. We share my sack of berries as we show each other things and it makes random noises at its smaller kin. Seeing a drop of blood from the smaller ones nose I lean close with a hand outstretched. Nearly touching its tiny nose before it flinches back.

The larger one calms it with a small hand on its shoulder and after a brief moment of eye contact with both, I nod and finish my reach to place a finger on its nose. Closing my eyes and concentrating on pushing with my chest pressure and mending the injury, I hear a sharp inhale. When I open my eyes the bigger one is smiling wide and checking the small ones nose. With a confident grunt I smile and eat another berry.

Eventually it points at itself and makes the noise "NASHA", then points at the smaller one and utters "NEL". I tilt my head and huff in confusion, not understanding the meaning of this noise. It repeats the gestures and noises so I copy it slowly. Pointing at the taller one with the braid I touch my tongue to the roof of my mouth "Na..." how? oh like the sliders in the bush "sss" and "ahh". Again with more confidence and all together "Nasssa".

It makes a repeated chirping noise which I assume is amusement at my incorrect noise. With a huff I point at it a little more forcefully and make "Nasha", this time getting several nods of approval from the small thing. Full of confidence and knowing the other noise is easier I point at the smaller creature and make "Nel". They both nod and then togher, point at me. While they both look with questioning eyes and point my way, I find myself unsure of the goal. Was that their noise? What is my noise?

I have never had a noise. Mother and father just always pointed and grunted or huffed to get our attention. Being silent was always more important in the wood at home hole. Noises were bad. Too much noise brought big predators. I raise my head at the thought of predators and scan the area before returning to my thoughts. What noise is mine? Well, my favorite noise to make is the one a rock makes when I throw it into the river. Pointing at myself I confidently proclaim my noise to be....

I look at my little brother in confusion and he stares back with an eyebrow raised before we both laugh and tumble over each other.

"Did the tree say Blick?" Nel asks with a giggle. We look back at... Blick... and realize it does not find our laughter amusing. Nel grabs another berry to eat while I confirm my next thought out loud.

"It isn't a tree, little Nel. Look, the bark is just weaved around its arms and legs. Its face has a light grey fur, it looks like its wearing alligator skin on its back and it has two cute bear ears! Oh I want to pet them!"

"Nasha no! what if it bites? look at those teeth!" Nel, the ever frightened pest, exclaims. Always the voice of reason. Wait till mom hears about this.

"Oh no, Nell. We are going to be so late!" Nells eyes explode open as he looks to the darkening sky with panic. I wave to our new friend and pat his shoulder pad twice before helping Nell up and walking backwards. It clearly doesn't understand our language so I don't know how to explain and I don't have time. so with a wave and a small bow me and my little brother run back home. What a day!

The two little people.... Nasha and Nell.... turn with scared eyes and run off into the wood. I sit for a while trying to figure out why they needed to move so fast before I realize they looked at the darkening sky before they panicked. I have been here several nights. What could have them so scared? Well, they are rather small, almost reaching my belly standing at full height. Without much fur for warmth and not a claw one on any of their too many fingers.

The big one didn't even have all its teeth, I grunt in amusement. I guess they just don't have any ways to protect themselves from things. Even those fuzzy tree critters would injure them quite a lot in a scuffle. Fair enough. Taking note of my location compared to that large hill in the distance, and the direction they ran off, I decide to gather a bit more snacks and find a hide hole myself. What a great discovery. Another people. Not my kin, I realize with a sad grunt. HMM. I grunt one last happy noise.

"Blick" That will be my noise.