Omache

My heart practically jumps out of my chest and I instantly freeze. Muscles tense ready for me to jump to safety. I then slowly turn my head to the direction of the howl whilst simultaneously reaching for the knife on my belt and get ready to at... Oh dear lord what am I looking at. Oh, its mating season never mind. Well that was close…well sort of close. I calm down and release the hold I had on m knife I grab a couple of bananas, put them in my satchel and silently tree jump away from the baboon territory. Once I reach the spot where I left my cloak, I put the slingshot back into the satchel and wear the cloak. My muscles kind of hurt from tree jumping so I do a couple of stretches. Once I’m done I start tree jumping the way back, making sure to keep a keen eye out for the gumberry smudges I put on some of the trunks of trees on my way to the baboon territory. I always make sure to have plenty of gumberries with me when I’m travelling into unfamiliar places. Once I can see the village I stop tree jumping and take a break. Tree jumping drains s lot out of a person, so I take a banana out of my satchel and eat it. My right then starts to ache so I look for a comfortable looking branch that is facing the village. Once I find one I sit down comfortably and release a sigh if relief whilst admiring the beautiful view of the village from where I am sitting. The village is located high above the ground, right where the strongest tree branches are. The village is consists of many wooden huts and cabins that are perched on top of wooden platforms, that are nailed to the trunks of the huge trees. Actually some of the villagers live in hollowed out sections of the trees. The platforms are nailed to the trunks in cross sections for added support and strength. The village isn’t set onto one giant platform but actually in many different platforms that are placed at different heights and each platform supports a wooden hut or cabin. The platforms are checked daily for rotting or termites so that no platform breaks and the people living on them fall to their deaths. All the wooden buildings are either coated in tar, candle wax or gumberry wax in order to protect the wood fr water damage. Every six months the village gathers all the children who are able to tree jump properly, puts them in groups and then puts an adult in each group to chaperone. They all go underneath the platforms to go and coat the braces and fix or replace any broken ones. Once we are all done underneath we go and coat the thatch roofs with gumberry wax since it is water resistant and nonflammable. This is very tiring work and the constant heat from the blazing sun doesn’t help the situation. Fortunately whilst we are working the rest of the village is preparing a huge feast with all kind of delicious refreshing fruit and amazing cooked food. Since almost everything is made out of wood the fires needed to cook the food are made in hollowed out trees that, with the tips cut off and with chimneys built into them. What made me think of this now is all the smoke coming from peoples kitchens due to them preparing supper and preparing for tomorrow’s ceremony.

Once I’m done eating the banana I get up and make my way back the village, careful not to put much pressure on my right knee. Once I reach the village outpost I greet Dave who is on watch guard duty now by waving at him. He waves back with the hand holding his crossbow, I then make my way to the center of the village since my home is located near there. At the center if the village is the hall and the library. They are the two largest buildings in the village plus they are the only buildings that have stained glass. The library being the one with the most. Once I reach the tree that supports my house, I start climbing up the trunk using the planks nailed to the trunk that act as vertical stares. Whilst climbing I’m careful not to put much strain on my right knee in order to prevent it from dislocating. I reach the top and pull myself up onto the platform. I sit down and admire the rest of the sunset and also watch everyone go back into their nice comfortable with their families, with smiles plastered across their faces. Sometimes I just like to sit down and watch everyone interacting with their families during sunset. I find it heart warming to see them all so happy, makes me wish that I had real family of my own. My parents died when I was four and I have lived with aunt Mandy ever since. I have very little memories of my parents and the ones I do have are very fuzzy and not clear. Technically she isn’t my aunt, we are not in any way blood related but once my parents died she took me in and raised me by herself ever since. She is the sweetest and kindest person I know and she treats me pike her own child. Its not like I don’t appreciate what she does for me but I just sometimes miss my parents and having a complete family.

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Once the sun is set I stand up and walk over to the kitchen. The kitchen is its own hollowed out tree that is smaller than the main tree where we live in. The kitchen has a radius of five metres which is big enough to fit a stove l, an oven and curved shelves that are put all around the perimeter of the circular kitchen. The shelves are filled form top to bottom with all kinds of different herbs, spices, roots, vegetables, fruit and bark. Aunt Mandy is one the villages few healers so she uses all the contents in the shelves to make ointments, pain killers, soap and disinfectants. She also loves cooking g so she uses spices, roots, vegetables, oils, flour and yeast. Over the years her love of cooking has rubbed of on me, so she started teaching how to cook when I was ten years old. I take the bananas out of my satchel and place them on the shelf with their fruits. I make sure to put the bananas exactly on the spot Aunt Mandy labelled. If I don’t she’ll give an entire lecture on the importance of petting things in their correct spot. Then she’ll go on about how putting something in the incorrect spot might result in the death of a patient because if she takes what she thinks is the correct herb or medication that the patient needs but it turns out that it is something else, then she gives it to a patient the person will die and it will be my fault. Once I put the bananas in their correct place I walk over to the shelves that have Aunt Mandy’s ready made medications. I grab a tiny jar filled with gumberry tree sap mixed with a little honey for taste. Gumberry tree sap relieves you of pain but results in you being very tired. If you consume you consume 10ml of the sap it will relieve you of pain for a couple of hours but if you consume 20 to 30ml you will be unconscious for about five hours. I take out a measuring spoon with a capacity of five milliliters from a nearby drawer and pour the sap onto it and drink the sap in order to ease the pain in my knee. I put everything back into its place then walk over to the main tree where aunt Mandy and I live. As I enter the cabin I notice that there is a note that has been stuck to the door from Aunt Mandy. Guess I’ll be spending the night alone again, apparently some kids were tree jumping on moss covered branches, three of them slipped and broke some bones. Aunt Mandy’s room and mine are separated by a curtain cutting through the diameter of the cabin. Once I enter my room I throw myself on my bed, I lay there for a few minutes mind racing with thoughts of the following day. Eventually I slip into dreamless sleep.