After gathering my thoughts, I scaled up the wooden 'stairs' which were small holes in the wall. Careful not to trip, I pulled myself up into the small room that went straight through the tree and on the other side was connected to a bridge built of vines and pieces of wood. Of course, it was also decorated in flowers. I touched the cool wood of the tree. Once again, it didn't feel carved. How strange. Don't tell me they can manipulate plants as well?
I took a step onto the bridge and could not help looking down. My stomach lurched when I saw again how high I was. I usually wasn't afraid of heights and had often gone to rope parks in the past. The only difference being that there I was attached to something. One wrong step here and I was done for. The bridge seemed to be connected with another small tree room like this one and from there it was a platform. How far was this exactly? Do I have to walk all the way back there? My hands turned sweaty as I gripped the railing.
Afraid of heights? Me too. A voice spoke to me. Who was that? I looked around me until I realized a small cream-colored mouse sitting next to my foot with one paw on it. "And you are?" He looked up with those big dark eyes, twitching his nose.
Kimba is what they call me. I'm the one you saved. Thank you for that.
Awwww! What a cutie. "You're very welcome. I'd do it again anytime!" I wanted to pick him up so badly. So, as a thank you, may I help you now? I could sit on your shoulder and just talk to you to distract you if that helps? I- I know how it feels... So high up, it can be really scary!
Ugh, my heart was going to burst. "Yes! Yes of course. That would be great!"
So that's what we did. Kimba on my shoulder, telling me about his breakfast, and what he wanted to do when he was older, which was coordinating the flower artists. Apparently, the Kimberians, which is what they called themselves, had many different jobs. For example, collecting the flowers for the artists. This was a very difficult job since you had to go out into the forest sometimes and bring them back still in good shape and with the roots intact so that they could be planted into the tree system. Most flowers and ferns were grown locally on small plantations on the platforms. They were cultivated by the gardeners, who were also responsible for growing food and taking care of the trees and the flowers. The artists were even somewhat famous for their various creations. They arranged the flowers and decorated the tree village. Some artists one could consider to be architects of some sort. These were the ones with strong telekinesis abilities. They could build the bridges and pavilions and all the platforms that could be seen between and around the trees.
Happily, Kimba kept going on and on. Telling me about their Queen, how she was the best Queen ever. How she loved all of them. Also, something that I found to be very intriguing, was the fact that due to their telepathic abilities there was a way that they could all communicate with each other at the same time. It sounded a bit creepy to me and also weird for I couldn't imagine having a couple of hundred minds speaking in my head at the same time. But Kimba just laughed at this. Which, by the way, was the cutest thing ever.
He said that only the Queen could initiate this link and only if it was important. I had to ask then if there wasn't any danger of someone abusing this? Kimba gave me a funny look.
Why would someone abuse it? Also, you can always just deny the link. We all have our mental barriers so we can control who is in and who is not. Plus, it's not like she can control us. She can only talk.
"But wouldn't that mean that you can exclude others really well? As in you could be talking in front of one another but imagine if someone were just always left out? What if someone gets bullied and never gets talked to? Wouldn't that be horrible?"
Kimba gave me a confused look. You ask so many silly questions. Why would we leave someone out? We are one big family. It would be a disgrace to all of us.
Wow.
"Okay then. How about healing magic? Can you do that? I think Sira must have used that on me because I feel as good as ever." Even my back pain had disappeared.
Kimba snickered again at this remark. No, no, no. We can't. This forest is all we need. Sira doesn't need magic to create wonders. Creativity and knowledge are his secret recipe.
I nod in admiration. "Wow, that's impressive." Kimba curled his tail happily.
Yes, and then there's also our guards and scouts that make sure our collectors are safe when they go out.
"Do you have an army? Or a military of some sort? How about a prison?"
Ha! Of course we do! We'd be fools to think we don't need one. As for a prison, yes we do have that too. But it's hardly ever used. Occasionally we do have some mice that vandalize, which is punished severely by three days in prison.
"Three days? That's nothing!"
Kimba crawled on my head and looped his tail around my ear. Maybe for you Humans, but for us social beings, solitary confinement is the worst thing possible.
"So, do you never have a problem with citizens that don't want to work? I mean, if you, as you told me, can just go eat for free every day and as I understood you guys don't have money or so. How do you make sure everyone does their part?" Kimba shook his head.
No, never. We'd be too afraid of being kicked out of our society. As I said, we are very social beings. Being denied this social contact with others would be much worse than death. And that's the penalty of not contributing to society.
Yikes, that sounded pretty harsh.
We talked a little bit more about his tree schooling. How and what they teach at school until we reached the flower garden.
There were no signs that marked it as such, but the name spoke for itself. I gasped at its undeniable beauty.
If I had to describe it, I'd say imagine a purple willow tree growing thirty meters above ground on a platform grown from vines, that hung between five massive trees. The purple willow made up the roof and had hundreds of butterflies, dragonflies and fluffy bees swarming around it. Its roots grew together with the vines perfectly. To my even greater surprise, that was a small pond under the roots and around the tree that had colorful fish in it. They looked stunning, just like the rest. Yep, that's one of our flower gardens. Not the biggest, but one of my favorite ones. Remember that famous artist I had told you about before? Meyla? She's the creator of this piece of art. She's been gone for a few centuries now, but her legacy remains.
"Wow! This is beautiful!" I walked up to the big willow tree in the middle and touched it, just to make sure it was real.
Hello there! I see you finally made it. Sira was waving at me from across the platform where he was sitting. There were sitting rocks set down in a circle.
Come, you can sit here. Obediently I sat down on the stone next to Sira.
"It's so beautiful here! I think I could just stay here and look at this garden forever."
It is indeed beautiful here. Sira gave me an approving nod.
Then I remembered something. Something rather important.
"Wait, why is Ferras still asleep? Is he okay? He usually hears everything." I felt a bit guilty for leaving him there.
Don't worry, he's fine. I just had to... take care of him for a while. No one can know what I'm about to tell you now. Nobody, you hear me? You will figure it out on your own in time, but for now, you must trust me.
Nobody, you hear me? You will figure it out on your own in time, but for now, you must trust me
I agreed. Was this about that manticore thing? Was I not allowed to know about it?
Sira sat on my knee with a serious expression. Wait, where did Kimba go to? He was just here on my shoulder a second ago.
Do you know why you are still alive?
I gave Sira a confused look.
"What do you mean? Because you saved me?"
Sira snorted in amusement. No, not even I could have saved you after being bitten or burnt by a fire spirit. Only a high priest from the Lydian Temple could have done that. But even then, your chance at surviving that would have been basically zero.
I gulped in fear. I didn't realize the burn had been so severe I could have died.
No, my friend. Something else saved you there. Something that has taken more lives beforehand than you could ever imagine. And she is right here with you.
What on earth was Sira talking about? I nervously fiddled with my white dress.
Her Majesty, the Dragon Queen, has returned.