“Wait,” said Igby, “she asked you to go on a super dangerous and perilous journey to death worlds, which are planets full of rage and despair, to say hello to her tree friends, and without a second thought, you just agreed to that?”
After our visit with the world tree, Don Tom led me and Igby to go back and clean up all the broken wood from the boat. We stopped at his house to grab some carts, to make carrying the wood back easier. When I asked them why we don’t just make another bubble and throw all the wood in it, they both just looked at me and moved on without further acknowledgement. I kinda forgot for a second there that the whole reason we’re cleaning wood is because I pop bubbles, and therefore should not be handling them. So now that we’re filling up the carts with wood, I told them about what the world tree and I talked about.
“Of course I did,” I answered Igby.
“Awesome!” his eyes lit up, “I wonder if death world trees still produce fruit…?”
You know, now that he says it that way, this whole thing seems kind of impulsive on my end. But truth be told, it’s not like I’d be going out of my way or anything. My only goal has been to see the universe, to explore. Why would I leave the more dangerous parts out? Besides, it seemed like she really, really wanted me to do this. Why would I ever say no?
“Well, we’ve seen how well you can take a fall, fighting for your life shouldn’t be that big of a deal, right?” Don Tom says with what I think is a wink, but I cannot tell, because his eye is a flower.
“Do you think so?” I ask him, picking up a stack of wood and steadying it over my shoulder. I hadn’t even really thought about fighting. I can swim well, run fast, and I’ve never lost a grappling match. I’ve never gotten sick, even when my whole town had a flu. But my life was never in danger. At least, until the couple of times I’ve fallen since coming to Arbnia. And that one time Pom accidentally pushed me out of that really tall tree when she hit me for telling a bad joke. And that time the girls dared me to climb up on the roof and dance, and I tripped and fell to the ground after trying to do a spin. And actually, a lot of other times. But nobody was trying to kill me.
“I don’t think you have reason to worry about it,” Don Tom says, “that stack of wood you’re carrying around like it’s nothing? That’s about twice my size. I think you’re stronger than you think.”
Now that he’s pointed it out, I realize that Igby is only carrying one piece of wood at a time. Don Tom is also only carrying three or so pieces at a time. I hadn’t thought about it, but I’m carrying about eight pieces. I just figured it would be faster if I carried as much wood as I could.
“Has nobody pointed this out to you before?” Igby laughs out. I think he can tell that I hadn’t noticed.
“Not like this, I guess,” I shrug, tossing the wood into the cart.
I’m feeling pretty reassured about the whole fighting monsters thing. I mean, if worse comes to worst, I can always run, climb, and swim away. It’s not like I’ll be completely defenseless. If I have to fight my way out of a corner, I’m sure I’ll figure something out in the moment.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
~~~
After a while longer, all the wood is in the carts. We wheel them back to Don Tom’s house. Once everything is situated in the workshop, Don Tom clasps his wooden hands together.
“Well Hana, it seems my job is done. You’re welcome to stay and rest a bit, but it sounds like you’ve got an adventure ahead of you,” he says.
“Honestly, I’d love to take a power nap before heading back out,” I tell him.
“Be my guest, a friend of the trees is a friend of mine,” he says, and opens the door back into the front room with the seating area. Igby and I follow him through.
“I’ll make some tea. Igby, you can stay a while too,” says Don Tom, gesturing at that seating area with the sheet chair things.
So Igby and I go sit in the sheet chair thing.
“You excited to head back out?” Igby asks me, laying back in his seat.
“Yes!” I say, and then lean forward, “so what do you think? Do you wanna come with me and try death world tree fruit?”
“As tempting as that is, I do recall my condition for joining you being that your boat is cool enough,” he leans forward, matching my posture with that shit-eating grin, “and your boat is in pieces and in carts.”
Oh, right.
He laughs and lays back in his chair again.
“Don’t worry about me though. I’m apprenticing for Don Tom now, so he can teach me how to build my own boat, and I’ll be out there on my own adventure soon enough!”
Cocking my head to the side, I ask, “wait, since when?”
He lifts his head enough to smile at me again.
“I’m telling him when he comes back with tea and snacks.”
I cock my head to the other side now.
“Isn’t he supposed to agree to that before you start acting like it’s already happening?”
“It’ll be fine,” he says, “I’m sure he’ll be happy to put me to work.”
“Yeah, I guess I can see that,” I lean back in my seat as well.
Right on time, Don Tom comes out with tea and some sandwiches.
“So, I hear I have a new apprentice?”
Well that was easy.
The three of us chat a little longer, and as Don Tom and Igby begin seriously discussing the details of their apprenticeship arrangement, my eyes drift closed, and I pass out in my seat.
~~~
When I wake up, it’s quiet inside. I sit up, and realize that nobody is here. Glancing around, I find two bags on the table next to a piece of paper. When I pick it up, it says:
Hana,
It was nice to meet you. I took Igby with me to gather supplies. If you wake up and leave before we get back, these bags are for you. Snacks for the aether.
Good luck,
Don Tom
I open the bags. One has brown nuts in it. One has three puapols. Both smell absolutely delicious. Come to think of it, I didn’t look to see if the world tree was growing puapols. I’m sure she was, she sure smelled like it anyways, but I didn’t look.
Oh well, I think to myself, time to head out.