Arthur: When A Tree Falls

Chapter 5: Lunch Behind the Tomato Soup Door

Elice caught Arthur, and helped him on the branch again. "Are you okay?" she asked, and Arthur nodded.

"Thanks for catching me." he said awkwardly, and she laughed. Finn had jumped to the next branch already and was looking up at them.

"Are you okay?" Arthur yelled back a 'Yes!' and got ready to jump again. Luckily, he landed the right way. "We have to hurry a bit, or we won't have a spot at Lunchtime. From this branch we can get to the Vinchman door the quickest, but we have to hope we don't run into any Vinchmans because they're not very nice." he said, and started walking over the branch. Elice and Arthur followed him in silence. Arthur looked around at some of the cabins that were bigger than the ones up in Uphlet. Most of them however only had one bed. Finn suddenly stopped. "I hear a group of Vinchmans. That's bad. We have to follow this branch but if we do run into them they'll probably hurt us, or throw us down. It has happened before. Vinchmans are the most aggressive of the bunch, which might be another reason why we don't get graded up. Uphlets tend to be polite." he said, and he continued walking.

"Evelyn, I've told you this before, I'm going to Silva with Ralphie. He asked me out. I'll go again with you next week." A voice said, and it sounded nearby. Another voice replied, but Arthur couldn't hear it properly, as it had a strong accent he couldn't decipher. As Arthur looked over Finn's shoulder he could see the large green door that most likely led to the staircase. Arthur was praying they wouldn't run into any of those Vinchmans before they reached that door, but with his luck, it probably was inevitable.

"Hey!" someone yelled, and Finn cursed under his breath. "Are you new Vinchmans?" Behind Elice, a boy stood. He was a lot taller than Arthur, and had red hair like Ella, but it didn't look as good on him as it did on her. "Wait a minute... You don't wear badges!" he said, as he looked at Elice, who had turned around to see who was calling out to them. "You're Uphlets!"

Elice rolled her eyes. "Craig, shush, let us get through and I'll give you one of my Griphlet bars." she said. The boy, Craig, seemed to debate that.

"I want two of them." he said. He walked towards Elice.

Elice, however, didn't want to give him two. "I'll give you one of them, I need them as well. I can't give you more than one." she said.

"It's two Griphlet bars, or no pass." he said, and Elice nodded slowly. "Good. Walk on, Uphlets!" he said, and followed the three over the branch.

As the branch spread in size it became easier for Arthur to walk on it. His boots had quite some grip, which was probably why he wasn't allowed to wear his slippery red boots. They neared the door and Finn opened it. Warm air blasted them in the face as they entered the tree. Craig waited for Elice to give him her Griphlet bar, which she did. After that, they descended the stairs further.

"So, you came through here, and this is the Staircase of Arboria. We walk here all the time. The first thing we'll visit is the door to the classroom hall, which is over there, near the entrance to Wulix. The classroom door is closed on the weekends, so it will be open again tomorrow." Finn said, as he continued descending the stairs. They stopped at a large green door. "So this is the entrance to Wulix." he said, and without saying much more he walked on. The amount of people walking down the stairs got bigger, and at some point Arthur awkwardly pushed himself through masses of people.

"Why is it so crowded here?" he asked, and Finn laughed.

They stopped at a large black door. "Well, Lunch time has just started. We'll be following them in a bit. But behind this large door - it's more a gate, really - are the classrooms. There are an awful lot of classrooms, but your schedule will be revealed shortly. They make sure you don't have to go from class AXT to CHB at once. Right, the system. Each classroom has a code. They sound kind of random, but aren't really. There are 3 levels, A, B and C, then there are different branches of those, XYZ for A, DEF for B, and GHI for C. Apparently, there was something that confused people with twice ABC, so they changed the A part for XYZ. I know it's confusing. Then for the last letter, that's the first letter for the class you have. T stands for Technology, as you need to know how to create things you can use out of nearly nothing, there's S for Sword fighting, A for Archery, but it depends on the classes you take, really. I for instance also take Balance, because Mr Qillian told me to on my Test. You'll figure out the system soon enough, right Elice?"