Chapter 10
"Hello! Hey you! I'm talking to you!"
Areon didn't quite know what to do. A myriad of thoughts raced through his mind. Should he pretend to be a local? Should he blast off with mister Puff Puff and hope that this person wasn't fast enough to catch him? Eventually he decided to confront the situation head on.
"What the hell do I say to this person?"
He turned around to face the elf talking to him before the words had automatically left his mouth.
"Aren't you a little young to be out here this late too?"
The person in front of him standing on top of the hill was a little girl who appeared to be no older than he was.
"Isn't it kind of hypocritical that you're asking me that question?" Areon added, slightly annoyed at the scenario.
The girl began to laugh and explain herself.
"Drat! It seems you got me red-handed. Sorry, I just wanted to see how you'd react. Can I sit with you? I wanna watch the flowers too."
Areon was apprehensive, he wasn't supposed to let anyone find him but this was just a girl.
"She can't be that bad, right?"
"How old are you anyway?" The girl asked inquisitively.
"Twelve, you?"
"Fourteen, haha, that makes me your senior."
Areon then extended his arm in order to give her a handshake.
"My name's Areon…"
The girl was about to reach her hand out to reciprocate, though just before they shook hands, she saw a white furred wolf appear from behind Areon.
"Ahhk!"
She recoiled back as she screamed, having been thoroughly startled by the wolf's presence.
"D- don't look now, but there's a big bad wolf behind you!"
Areon pet mister Puff Puff on his head as he nuzzled with him before responding.
"Oh, you don't have anything to be afraid of, this is mister Puff Puff, he's a good friend of mine."
"..."
"..."
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
The girl was in immense trepidation and out of her confusion she looked at Areon like he was a certified lunatic, while Areon shrugged it off and continued to talk.
"You don't have to pet him or anything if you don't want to. But whenever you feel like it, you can. He won't bite you, he's actually really kind."
"You're such an odd child."
Areon ignored the comment.
"So what's your name?"
"...Keeva."
"I would say nice to meet you Keeva but you're kind of annoying."
"Hey! What was that for?"
"For being annoying."
Keeva began to raise her voice, feeling mistreated by the boy's words.
"Well that was just plain mean!"
"Sorry, I just wanted to see how you'd react."
Areon began to chuckle to himself while Keeva slowly joined in on the laughter.
"You're not half bad Areon."
"Likewise."
The two sat together while watching the green pond reflect the moonlight, as the flowers billowed in the wind.
"...So, the wolf. Can I pet it?"
"Sure."
She reached her hands out and gently skimmed the surface of mister Puff Puff's forehead. Keeva felt compelled to acknowledge how comfortable the wolf was.
"He's so fluffy!"
"I know right!"
Before long Keeva was petting mister Puff Puff more than Areon.
"It's like she enjoys his company more than me…"
"So why did you come out here for the flowers?" Areon asked.
"I don't get a lot of time outside of the house, I usually spend all day studying so it's nice for me to be able to take a break whenever I can to watch, it's the only part of our land that's not broken down yet anyway. What about you?"
"I was bored, couldn't really sleep and needed to stretch my legs. I don't really like staying in one place for long."
"Right! That's my favourite part of flower watching! Sometimes I wish I was a flower petal. And imagine that I'd just go wherever the wind takes me. Doesn't that sound like the life?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Ya know, like being able to go wherever you want, whenever you want. True freedom! That type of life beats being cooped up in your room studying all day, am I right?"
"I guess so."
"That's so unenthusiastic, you don't get it, let me try again! I mean, like I want to be able to travel the world and live anywhere; like the mountains or deep inside of the forests, defend myself against the wild animals and monsters. Maybe you don't get it because you're a little kid but that sort of thing is just really… liberating."
Keeva's expression began to lose its livelihood and vigor as she stared deep into the green pond, she was slowly being pulled back to her reality that lacked the thrill and adventure of the fantasy she just described. Areon noticed her change and was saddened by it, so he tried to cheer her up.
"You really wanna be a flower petal that bad."
Keeva began to chuckle.
"Ugh! You don't get it all, nevermind!"
"Okay."
"...Do you have a favourite flower here, Areon?"
"Huh?"
"A favorite flower, do you have one?"
"Uh, to be honest, I've never really been flower watching with someone else before, or even alone at that. I'm used to just fighting
… It's funny you mentioned the mountains earlier because that's actually where I live right now, and I'm usually just training with my pops whenever I can. And I love it, but…I like this too. I wasn't expecting something so simple to end up being so satisfying."
Keeva started laughing at Areon.
"Look at you trying to win me over! Don't you know I'm too old for you! You don't have to lie to me ya know, this is a safe space. Like hell you go and train in the mountains. You're just saying that cause I said that haha."
"...Sure."
"Still though, I get the gist of what you're saying. You don't have to sugarcoat anything, it looks like you're over extending yourself to live out the dreams of your dad."
"That's not at all where I was going with it!"
Areon was shocked by how misunderstood he was but chose to let her continue anyway, it seemed like she had a lot to get off of her chest.
"I get that, all I do is stay at home all day and study cause my grandpa wants me to. But life gets too boring if you're just following the whims of adults. That's why I value sneaking out to watch these flowers so much."
Immediately Keeva placed her hands around her mouth, it was clear that she didn't intend to let that last part slip so casually. Though Areon just laughed.
"Well, it's not like I can say I followed all the rules myself."
Keeva cracked a smile.
"I'm glad I ran into someone this laid back. You're one of the cool ones, Areon."
"Don't sell yourself short. You're not so bad either."
Then Keeva began to wear that same gloomy expression that was etched to her face earlier.
"Ya know, truthfully I'm a bit sad that I'm viewing these flowers today."
"Huh, why?"
"Because, once the mother tree dies this will all be over. Then everything in our village will be reduced to dust. This might be the last time that I get to look at these flowers ya know?"
"...What's a mother tree?"
Keeva paused before looking at Areon with a disappointed expression.
"How do you not know about that? Well, the mother tree is what gives life to all the plants in this village. From these flowers to our houses, they're all given nutrients from the mother tree. Because long ago this land endured countless battles and made it too barren to sustain plants regularly, at least that's the gist of it. So basically, once the mother tree goes down, everything in this village goes down."
Areon began to scratch his head.
"Okay that solves that, but why is the mother tree dying?"
"Are you one of those delinquent students that don't pay attention in class? What kind of an elf are you?"
Areon blankly blinked out of confusion before realizing that she thought he was somehow an elf this entire time.
"Is that why she hasn't freaked out and been nice to me so far?"
"The ogres! The ogres left a curse on our mother tree!"
Keeva took a look at the clueless expression that Areon had and anticipated his next question.
"You're gonna ask what the ogres did aren't you?"
Areon nodded his head.
"Well I don't remember exactly how it started but there was an eastern tribe of ogres that caused a scuffle with our elf tribe and it began to be a huge problem for the last couple of years. And soon they found out that our mother tree is the source of all life in this village. Of course this didn't stop our tribe because of our elves superior understanding of the element stones."
"I see, so what happened?"
"In the end, when our elves were defeating the opposing tribe and chasing the last of those dirty ogres away, they left a parasitic plant on our mother tree out of spite. They called it the 'Maimo'. That plant has been stealing most of the energy that was supposed to be going to the rest of our village."
"Wait, so you guys didn't lose? Then what's stopping you guys from removing the plant?"
Keeva smacked her head out of frustration.
"You think if it were easy we would be living in broken down houses like this? People have tried to remove it but no one's done it successfully. They all just return… broken. Now everyone's too scared to go."
"Broken?"
"Yeah… it's… nevermind."
Keeva's gaze was stuck on the shape of the pond. It was not a secret to Areon that prying further would cause the girl to remember memories that she did not want to resurface.
"Things were better when we had Gera as our chief."
The boy watched closely as Keeva's eyes lit up, just by the mention of his name.
"He was one of the strongest elves to ever live. 'The strong will fight for themselves but a true warrior risks his life for the stranger.' You don't seem like a smart elf so you probably don't know that old saying of ours, but Gera used to live by that. He was a beacon of safety for anyone who was in danger. He used to jump into battle and fight a hundred ogres on his own and still win! If he were still here, no way the Maimo would be a problem for the likes of him. He was a true hero for us."
"About that, I'm not really a-"
Keeva briskly cut Areon off while continuing her tangent.
"Now all we're left with is my grandpa, sometimes I wonder if he even cares about the tree!"
The boy shook his head and shrugged after giving it some thought.
"Nevermind, I don't even know if she'd believe me anyway."
"Well at least your grandpa is still here with you, he's not that bad is he?"
"Don't take his side on these things, that guy is an elf who only cares for himself! If Gera were still here, he would fight with every last bit of energy he had until that Maimo was destroyed, he wouldn't sit around like grandpa and let the elves on the streets go hungry!"
"This got awfully patriotic."
An exasperated sigh left Keeva as she began to calm down.
"I'm sorry I got so fired up, it's just that I'm so tired of it all. I dont… I dont wanna run away from home because of a war again."
It was in that moment that Areon had made the decision for himself. Even though he was trapped, he refused to leave this village. Not without saving their mother tree. He wanted to give Keeva the gift to see these flowers one last time.