Spirit of the Forest
Chapter 9

Come on, come on! Cyri thought as his legs wobbled, threatening to give out from beneath him. I’m almost there!

“Hi!”

The sudden sound of a sudden girl’s voice made him yelp. The golden haired teen also lost his concentration, making him fall into the pile of leaves below him. After he spit the leaves out of his mouth, Cyri lifted his head to see that he was almost 20 feet away from the stump where he was heading for before the voice made him fall.

“Dang it!” Cyri punched the ground in frustration.

Sitting on the stump, kicking her legs happily, Romelia leaned her hand on the heel of her hand while tipping her head to the side. She regarded him in a curious manner.

“You don’t seem to be very good at this game,” she observed with a shy smile.

Cyri sat up right, leaning his back on a tree trunk. “No,” he said, “I guess I’m not. You seem to be pretty good though, way better than me.”

“Well, that’s only because I’ve played it a lot more,” she said nodding slightly, “But I’m not as good as Tanisha. I’ve only won against her a few times when we played.”

“Really?” She nodded again. “Do you play often?”

She nodded once more. “Once or twice between every moon cycles.”

“Huh?” Cyri tipped his head, confused on what she meant by moon cycles.

“You know,” she said, “how the moon changes shapes every night and every full cycle, it disappears.”

“Oh! You mean a month!”

This time, Romelia was the one who tipped her head. “A month? What’s that?”

“A month is basically a full moon cycle divided up into weeks and days.”

“Oh, I get it.”

A silence enveloped the two that Cyri occupied by rubbing his sore legs while Romelia just looked up at the sky. A flock of large, white birds had just flown over the meadow when Romelia finally spoke again.

“Hey… Cyri?”

Cyri looked up from where he sat. “Yeah Romelia? What is it? Is there something you need?”

“A little,” she admitted. “But I was just wondering… If… If in your old life… Before you came here… D… Did you ever see… Something called an ocean?”

“Yeah… Of course I have…” He looked at her with a befuddled look. “Why do you ask?”

“I-It’s embarrassing…” she said, twiddling with her thumbs nervously.

“You can tell me Romelia,” he said, “We are friends.”

“Well,” Romelia moved a piece of hair from her face, “I’ve never seen anything other than the forest. Tanisha said something about an ocean once, but she didn’t say much. Ever since she talked about it, I’ve been wanting to see one.” She sighed heavily. “Father never wants me to leave the forest. Occasionally though, I do climb to the top of my tree and look out onto the lands, imagining what they’re like.”

Cyri blinked, surprised by what she said. He had never heard her say anything like that in the short time he knew her. He didn’t know that she felt that way.

The teen let his head lean back in the trunk as he spoke. “Large blue waves as far as the eye can see.”

“Huh?” Romelia had her head tipped even more as she asked him.

“Oceans,” he answered with a soft smile. “That’s what they’re like. They’re wide- as far as the eye could see, and probably larger than anyone could ever see at once- and they’re deeper than any valley I’ve ever seen. It was dark blue mixed with sky blue patches that were scattered about at random. The scent of salt almost overpowered every other scent…”

As he continued to talk, Romelia sat next to him, hanging onto every word he said. It was like she wanted to soak up as much as she could before she could forget it or he stopped talking. Cyri began to wonder why he was doing this, telling her about the ocean, when he felt the way he did about water. He hated water, there was a reason to this, but he did not want to remember why, and his greatest fear was drowning, there was a reason for this as well, but again, he he did not want to remember why. Describing it to Romelia though… it made him feel happy almost. Even if it was in a small way, he wanted to make it up to her for all the things she had done out of the kindness of her heart.

By the time he finished, the sky was starting to turn orange and red from the sun setting. Romelia was looking at the sky, as if she was imagining what he had just spent hours describing. Cyri even began to get lost in thought before she sighed.

“That sounds lovely,” she said with a wistful tone, “I wish I could go there someday…”

“Why can’t you?” He turned to her with a questioning look.

“Because my father believes it’s safer for me to stay in the forest,” she answered as she leaned back. “And I don’t want to hurt him by breaking his rule. Father usually lets us do what we want. As long as we don’t break the major rules. Even if we do, it’s just a slap on the wrist most of the time. You were the only exception and that was only because I wanted to help you.”

An idea came to Cyri’s mind after a few moments of wondering what he could do to help her. “So?” He sat up a little bit so he could look her in the face. “Can’t you be rebellious for once? Be a little bold? Be… be… be awesome! A… a… a badass!” By this time, he had grabbed her hands so she’d look him in the eyes. “If you did, you could see the ocean! You could have fun while you could!”

She was still looking away, looking at the ground. “I can’t Cyri. My father has always known what’s best for me. He’s always been kind, even when he was scolding. He’s always loved me and the herd without any conditions. He once told me when I was asleep that he’d fight off countless armies to protect me. To leave…” She shook her head. “It’d break his and my heart. I’d be lost without his guidance.”

“Then why not ask him to leave?”

“I know he wouldn’t let me,” she answered looking back at the sky, “and I don’t want to leave him quite yet. I already told you that.”

Cyri looked at her, feeling a soft smile make its way to his face again. He knew how she felt and he was sure, that if his life had been just a little different, he would have felt the same way about his parents. Soon enough, he came up with another idea to make her feel better.

He released her hands with a smile and spoke, “Tell you what, I’ll take you to the ocean one day. When you’re ready and Ordello will let you.”

Romelia beamed at him with hope and happiness. “Really Cyri? You mean that?”

“Yeah,” he said while widening his smile.

“Oh thank you!” She glomped to him in a tight hug. “Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you Cyri!”

He chuckled, patting her back affectionately. “It’s no problem Romelia. It’s the least I could do after all you did for me.”

She hugged him a moment more before letting him go. The silver haired teen was practically bursting from happiness. Cyri grinned as Romelia began to go on about what she was going to do once she got to the ocean. Meanwhile, Cyri made himself a promise. I will take her to the ocean. She deserves that much at least.