The Seedsoul

Chapter 9

      Looking into the sky to see where she had gone, Jeremiah noticed a black cloud that emerged from the earth instead of falling from the sky. He felt the ground rumbling beneath him and the roar of animals quickly approaching. In a flurry of terror, flocks of birds and herds of animals raced by, leaving their homes behind. "What is it?" called out Jeremiah. "Where is everyone going?"

"FIRE," they screamed, "run for your life!" But the river was too high, and no-one could get across. They were trapped. Terrified of both the fire and the river, "Help us Jeremiah," begged the squirrel twins, knees knocking together, "do something."

Jeremiah didn't know what to do. He had never seen fire before, in fact, he didn't even know what it was. He reached far over the picket fence and rapped his branch against the cottage window. He could hear the merging fire and smell the fear disguised as charcoal smoke. Looking up, he saw the inferno coming closer and listened to the cries of dying animals and trees. The air thickened and breathing became nearly impossible. "Get out of the house," he gasped to Ginger and Melody. But silence was his only answer. The grass in the yard caught fire and then spawned up the walls and onto the roof of the cottage. Instantaneously, the house burst into flames. Natural reflexes caused him to jerk away. Love begged him to return. Swinging his branch back, he released it with all of his might. The kitchen window came crashing to the floor. Jeremiah screamed, "Get out of the house, now!"

Over-whelmed by the fire and unable to walk, Melody crawled onto his branch and allowed Jeremiah to put her next to the river with all of the animals.

"Where's Ginger?" he asked, but Melody didn't understand tree talk. Looking back at the house entirely in flames, he knew. "I'm coming," he yelled, "hold on." Jeremiah bent his body over into the river and scooped up a tree-full of water. Like a slingshot, he hurled it at the house, temporally dampening the fire's temper. Diving back in through the dripping kitchen window, he probed for Ginger. "Where are you?" he cried, but crackling ember was the only response he received. Sweeping his wet leaves across the floor, he frantically searched. "Ginger, answer me," he demanded.

Back at the river, he could hear the panic of the animals. "Hurry Jeremiah, the fire is coming back."

Feeling its heat scorching his body, choking back the smoke, he knew that his time was nearly up. "Ginger," he sobbed, "please be alive."

Then a fallen chair moved, and a badly burned aloe arm emerged from its cavity. Weakened by the fall and half dead from the smoke, Ginger choked, "Save yourself, my beloved. I will die soon, and you have a destiny to fulfill."

"So do you!" he gratefully breathed and snatched her up in the nick of time. Barely out of the house, it burst into raging flames which spread to one of Jeremiah's lower branches. With his body on fire, he tossed Ginger into Melody's outstretched arms and doused himself into the river. He then formed an aerial bridge to help everyone escape. After they were all safely across the banks, he sank the bulk of his body into the water and then flung the river's mercy out onto the fire. Over and over and over again until finally, the blaze was nothing but smoldering ashes.

Mindlessly exhausted, he fell limp to the ground. A roar echoed from the other side of the river as everyone cheered with screams of gratitude. Jeremiah was a hero. He looked at the crowd, and the love returned to his heart. It had all been worth it. Then the cheers fell to silence as the animals parted, and the heart-broken Melody stepped forward. She was cradling a frail, blackened aloe plant in her arms. With tears in her eyes, she fell to her knees and held Ginger out for Jeremiah to see.

"Oh no," his voice quivered as he reached across the river and took Ginger's limp body from Melody's outstretched arms. Embracing his best friend next to his heart, he rocked and swayed trying to bring life back to her breath. For just a moment, she weakly opened her eyes and said to Jeremiah, "I love you. Take my body and use it for healing, it was why I was born." and she breathed no more.

Searing pain pierced his body, unlike any he had ever felt before. If a hundred spears were thrust directly into his heart, the pain would have paled to what he was experiencing at that moment. He couldn't believe that she was really gone. "Wake up." he pleaded. "Open your eyes," but Ginger was no more. Trembling, he took her last leaf and applied it to his badly burned branches. "You will always be a part of me," he vowed. "We will always be together."' The medicine didn't work as fast this time, and he knew, her love had been the real medicine and her will was the way that it worked.

An eerie silence consumed the valley. Not a word was spoken. What seemed like an eternity passed until Jeremiah was able to lift up his head. Sadly looking about him, he saw only sorrow and destruction. The once beautiful meadow was now a hissing graveyard of charred memories. Homes had been destroyed and lives lost. "Why?" he cried to the earth. "Why?" he screamed to the sky. But the answer fell on deaf ears. "I have done everything right. I have followed your path! And this is what you give me in return?"

Crouching into a ball, Jeremiah retreated into the darkness of self-pity and blame. Unwilling to open up, he shut himself off from the world completely. He didn't want to look at it, he didn't want to help it, and he didn't want to live in it, not without Ginger.

The animals wished that they could help, but knew, there was nothing they could do but give him time.