Before departing Everwoods, Ben paid a visit to Liam, one of the only true friends from his childhood days in the village. Liam had grown up to become a professional lumberjack, acquiring an array of high-quality axes, saws, and other logging tools over the years. Ben remembered Liam had married a girl from the next town over and they now had two young children together.

When Ben arrived at Liam's homestead on the outskirts of the woods and knocked on the door, it was opened by a grinning little girl of about seven or eight years of age. From her resemblance, Ben presumed it was Liam's daughter.

"Well hello there, miss. Is your father home by chance?" Ben kindly asked the petite, brown-haired girl.

She scrunched her eyebrows and replied in a doubtful tone, "Noooo, Daddy's way deep in the forest with his chopping buddies. Who are you, mister? Why are you looking for him?"

Ben chuckled softly at the precocious child's inquisitiveness. "My name is Ben. I'm an old friend of your father's. And you must be little Lani! My how you've sprouted up like a weed since I saw you last as a toddler!"

Lani's eyes widened as she put together the pieces. "Ohhh, I know who you are! You're Daddy's weirdo friend who went to the city to sell carvings and stuff! We visited your nasty old shop that smelled like Saul's sweaty armpits a few weeks ago!"

Ben laughed heartily at her playful bluntness. It reminded him very much of Liam's good-natured sense of humor. "Yes, yes, that's me alright! I've come back to town to fix up my family's cabin a bit, so I dropped by hoping to borrow some wood chopping tools from your father."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Lani flashed a gap-toothed grin. "Wellll I can get you a mini axe I got as a gift last year! I wanted to be a cool lumberjane like Daddy but chopping trees is way tough. I only whacked a few before getting ouchies." She scurried into the house, leaving Ben chuckling to himself on the front porch as he admired her youthful spunk.

Moments later she reappeared holding out a pint-sized axe with floral engravings on the handle. "Here ya go mister Ben! Be super carefuzzle (careful) with my special axe!" Ben graciously accepted the petite woodcutter's axe as Lani looked up at him with innocent pride.

"Why thank you kindly, milady Lani! This will help me tremendously. I shall guard it with my life and return it to you forthwith once my workshop is built!" Lani giggled gleefully at Ben's exaggerated noble knight bit as he waved goodbye and headed off toward the woods.

As Ben walked away, Liam's warmhearted daughter reminded him that the coldness he had experienced from Everwoods’ chief and bullies like Kevin was not universal. Liam had always been in his corner, even when they were ostracized youths, supporting each other through the lonesome days and consoling one another when the harassment from jerks like Kevin grew too harsh.

And Liam’s openheartedness had clearly carried through to raising the next generation, evidenced by wee little Lani's instinctive kindness and whimsical spirit. The encounter filled Ben’s heart with renewed warmth and conviction that this legacy of compassion was still alive in Everwoods, oft obscured by cruelty and regression as it may be. Lani represented the glimmer of goodness that Ben aimed to nurture through his efforts to expand his family’s home into a creative sanctuary.

As long as unsullied souls like Liam’s daughter could sprout and be nurtured here, the destiny of Everwoods need not be damned to close-minded stagnation as Ben had once cynically concluded when he disappeared those many years ago. For even the most stubborn soils can yield unexpected fruit when a few enlightened planters deign to tend them.

And perhaps too in time the vitality of art and progress might slowly dissolve the crust of greed and pettiness that had hardened around hearts like Kevin and the chief, as water gently but inexorably smoothes the sharpest edges of the most rigid stones. As Ben trekked toward the remote forest grove with an ax in hand to commence his construction labors, this glimmer of aspirational optimism warmed his soul against the late autumn chill.