At The Heart of Tale Kingdoms (COMPLETED)

5. RAIE RON - Forest of Grenn

As they walked, Egrea asked him to take off his shoes so he could feel the peace of the forest. Around him, the mossy grass was cool and soft. The trees he saw had huge thick trunks and wide leaves of a width he had never seen before.

The roots occasionally pierced up and rose out of the ground to return to the soil, leaving root mounds behind them. The branches grew like rays of sun, spreading through space, making the light in the forest sufficient for sight and life without being harsh.

As they strolled, he noticed spreading bands of insects that were similar to fireflies though bigger, shining light in the dim forest. As the small creatures came closer he could see some were indeed fireflies, others butter flies, grasshoppers even illuminating birds. He almost stepped on a snail whose shell was a lamp. Everything around him looked like a dream from a child's innocent mind.

"Are these insects real? I have never seen so many that could produce light." Raie asked Egrea too loudly, the forest made him feel like a drop of water in a cup.

"They are real, the reading forest is their home. They came with Grenn Grenly and haven't left ever since. They stay where they are needed, elsewhere you have the sun."

"You have the sun too." Egrea wrinkled her nose.

"Yes, but too much sun would bleach the books, the trees know that."

"How can they know?" Raie asked her

"I don't know, they must have noticed. If not why would they grow to protect the books?" Egrea smiled at him, looking satisfied with her response.

As they walked thirty feet into the wonderland, Raie found that the outer trees hid more than he could have imagined. There were hundreds of children roaming through the forest's floor. A few were swinging on the branches with books in their hands, others passed them wearing huge shiny overcoats, holding transparent cups with various colored liquids.

None of the children paid attention to him, a few glanced at his direction but not long enough to start a conversation. Raie had always thought children to be inquisitive when it came to newcomers, but most of these tried to avoid him.

The forest of Grenn was a lively place, noisy with smells of fresh plants and occasionally burnt food that Raie saw came from a soot covered boy of nine who was baking at a large square stove under a tree.

"He wants to be the head baker but he uses coal stones for fire and they burn too hot" Egrea whispered.

Raie stared at a little girl who held a book almost larger than herself when suddenly a boy fell from above and hung before them with only a string still holding him upside down by his right leg. The boy was unaware of what had just happened and still fast asleep.

Egrea took an apple from the sack hanging on his shoulder, bit a piece, spit it then shoved it in the sleeping boys mouth. The boy started chewing instinctively, opening his eyes. He looked around to realize he was hanging upside down and looked back up at where he had fallen from. He turned ahead at them, took a little while to study Raie then shifted his attention to Egrea with tears already forming in his eyes.

"It's Scholar Nimb, her session ended an hour ago but she won't leave." The boy grumbled.

"Get him back here." Spoke a young girl's voice from above them.

Raie's eyes widened in amazement. Above him was a class on a tree. A large branch had split into ten small boughs whose ends grew in a form of desk and chair. A larger desk had grown in front of the rest where a short girl dressed in a well fitted pair of blouse and skirt stood.

She wore the same set of eye transparent shells he had seen on the boy earlier at the carriage. The girl scholar stood on the desk drawing on the shoot in front of the class. The other children previously on their chairs stood and gathered to pull the fallen boy back up the tree.

"She teaches the hard stuff. The ones with numbers, letters and signs which don't mean a word. I could never understand her, even if she wrote a history book about it." Egrea muttered at him as she grabbed his hand again.

"Let's be quick before Scholar Nimb sees me. I disappeared from her class last month and never came back." Egrea giggled

She took the apple sack from him and gave it to the failing baker. Egrea returned with her head bowed and cheeks blushing, evident through her paper thick skin that appeared to be a common feature with all the reading children. Raie judged it was because of the lack of sun in the place.

"Can you carry me on your shoulders, it's a long time since I have been carried," she asked, suddenly very polite. Raie almost felt shy himself. Her huge eyes were peeping back at him through her well combed kinky fringe. He smiled, bent down, picked her up and placed her on his shoulders.

"Where will my Uncle and our companions be?"

"O, you will find them on the other side of the forest when you leave. We couldn't let the Exoroch pass through Grenn. They are exiles who are banned from all lands of Erdunia but still spy on its states. And your Uncle, well, he has a greedy nature." So, Exorochs were Exiles not explorers. You had me Uncle.

"I see. Are you children or are you adults in children's bodies." Egrea giggled again.

"We are children but we don't grow or change any further. Only our brains can expand with knowledge." Raie nodded, surprised his question garnered a serious answer and confused as to how anyone could not grow.

"Why is that?" he asked as they moved further into the active grounds where groups of children sat in circles watching tricks or discussing books.

"We chose to. We have another purpose and growing up crowds the mind with unimportant things, age makes people wither while their minds turn melodramatic." Egrea pressed her hands on his temples then spread them, she proceeded to hold his eyelids open as an imitation of his brain being suffocated. Raie laughed heartedly.

"That is true," he agreed between chuckles.

"Let's go eat. Go straight and we will arrive at our playground. Jegina promised to make red jellies. She didn't talk to me yesterday because I made her late, but we became friends again after supper."