Crushed, offended, furious at her cursed grades, she locked the door to her room and flung herself onto the bed. She could hear them getting ready, primping for their dinner with her mother's boss.
Figures, she thought, she won't allow me to go out but she does anyway.
Her bitterness consumed her. She didn't say a word as the thrown farewell was shouted from the mudroom. The front door closed with a click.
It was eight o'clock; the sky was dark but hazy, dotted with stars that eased Celeste's thoughts as she viewed them through the small window on the wall of her room that faced west. After minutes of frustrated thought she grabbed a sweater and ran outside. Her mother and stepfather had long since left as she rounded the side of the house, running to her favorite place in the world. She climbed a mere four feet into the perch of a single tree, deep in the woods behind the house. Curling up, she watched the stars for a few moments and, inadvertently, her surroundings fell away and her breathing slowed...
****
Where am I? She thought as her eyes fluttered open, blinking in the near darkness.
Why is my back so sore? No, my whole body. I must have fallen asleep...then what is this around me? Why is it so sticky?
She could barely move a muscle but nevertheless they hurt. At first she thought it was simply a matter of falling asleep in the wrong position. Celeste had done that many a time before, but this was different. She was being held in place by some sort of hard, sticky shell. Building up all of her strength, she pushed with her left arm outward.
There was first a loud crack; then a burst of light appeared out of what seemed like nowhere. Pushing her head back, and squinting her eyes, she parted the large enclosure and looked around. She noticing an odd purple shade to the sky, like premature lavender buds.
The Earth seemed so quiet. It was not as though there was a lack of activity to produce this silence. It was more like standing in a room full of people who were purposely not speaking. This discomforted her.
Looking down, Celeste realized that the tree had grown; what had formerly been four feet was now a terrifying 12! While trying to figure out exactly how she was going to get down, Celeste heard hoofbeats behind her. In the distance she could see a speck of white, slowly coming closer and closer to where she was perched. In a few moments a sunlit horse was standing at the bottom of the great oak, staring up at her.
Not as much heard but felt was a soft, "Climb down, little one."
What was that? Celeste thought in a daze. What is that horse doing here and why is it staring at me?
"Shoo!" she said aloud.
"Do not 'shoo' me; I mean you no harm, tree child. Climb down," she felt again but this time, as an after tone.
The wind rustled through the trees, sounding a bit like soft, fluid laughter. The horse shifted its feet and sighed.
Is that horse talking to me? Am I insane?! ran thoughts through her head.
"Yes, it is I, Lughnassadh, the stallion. Climb down; I mean you no harm, and I will explain when you reach dirt, tree child."
"Ooook..." Celeste said, thinking of why she should trust this telepathic equine (with a name, no less).
"You shall trust me because there is no one else left to," she felt warmly humming in her mind.
The feeling made Celeste jump in her seat.
She climbed down, rather awkwardly, but proficiently enough considering she was covered in sticky tree sap.
A flash went through her head... How long had I been asleep? What had happened? Had that tree grown?! Had it actually grown around me?
Celeste, now on the ground, stared up at the massive tree.
"Yes," spoke Lughnassadh and Celeste spun around, "you have been asleep for a very long time, tree child; this oak has grown around you while you slept. It has fed you, taught you."
Taught me what?
"Why, to speak of course..." he explained with a whicker.
Oh, she thought. But I could speak before...surely.
"Our speak, tree child, the language of the forest" he explained. He looked at her intently with his deep brown eyes.
You can not telepathic...wait, why do you keep calling me that?! This can't be real, how long have I been asleep for? In years!
"A legend is told", explained Lughnassadh, "of a female of the old race, who will fall asleep in the crook of an oak tree, before the great storm, for one hundred solar returns and after the silent enemy had gone, again wake, and be the speaker for our people."
"One hundred years!" Celeste gasped trying desperately to catch her breath.
Why am I not old and wrinkly? I look and feel just the same as before! She thought, as more questions streamed across her mind: my parents! They must be furious...no, dead! No, not dead! Why me? What great storm? What enemy?! I have an enemy?!
"Calm yourself child, you are young because the tree kept you youthful; stealing your years would have defeated her purpose of teaching, and the silent enemy has passed. It was that which the humans had created and began a great storm, a storm of fire that killed many and brought the silent enemy upon the ground. The earth shook, the old race fell, we ran, we hid, and now I and my people are the decendants of the few who were untouched. That is what changed the sky."
The horse looked up as she did. No wonder it had all seemed so strange....
What was this storm...?
So if I can talk to the forest, then why can I not hear the trees? thought Celeste. Wait...I have to go back to my house, I have to.
"It is not there, child...it was taken by the old race. As for the trees, they are quiet, they seldom speak but think in their own way; they are secretive teachers and students of the old paths." sighed Lughnassadh.
After she was done running all that through her head, Celeste paused and thought of the absence of people.
Why were there not people about?
"All of the old race left. The fire rained down and the silent enemy took them. They could not live here; they are afraid to come back..."
Another flash went through her mind: a war. There was a great war; they had to leave...leave because of the radiation... The trees! Oh, she understood now the burst in height, why all the trees in the forest now resembled redwoods. The radiation must have done something to their genetic makeup.
"Yes, child," he told her, "You are beginning to understand...but there is so much more, so, so much more. Come now and we shall rest..."
As he gestured, the tree child climbed onto the great Lughnassadh's back, still in a surreal shock. They rode off, off very far, and she never would see her house, nor anyone she had ever known, again...
