Avalon Isn't What It Used To Be

Chapter 2: Stupid Squirrels

Birds woke me early the next morning, the first time I heard their morning song in 500 years. And the first time my rude awakening wasn't from Alm. But when my consciousness remembered where I was, I hopped up ready to start my day with enthusiasm. I wrapped my dress around me, grabbed a piece of bread, and climbed up to my lookout with wings at the ready. I sat there on the limb and watched the yellow star rise over the trees. When I finish my bread I put my hand down on the Willow.

I was free, content, excited, and not worrying about rules... "Thank you", I said to the Willow in my mind's eye, "you are a sanctuary". I could feel the trees happiness from my gratitude sink into my skin.

"Can I name you"? I asked aloud enthusiastically and the willow rattled an excited response. The thought to me seemed normal, but in Avalon I had never heard of anyone naming a tree.

I looked up and thought for a moment, "I'm going to call you Shae.. From the old language meaning Fae-Home, because Shae, you feel like home".

"Shae", The Willow whispered back to me absolutely delighted at its new name. Beautiful and kind spirits are the trees, though hardly as sociable as Shae. And I got this sense this tree was longing for company. Which would make sense considering it stood alone at the pond. I looked back up to the star that had risen above the tree line. It was time for exploring. I crawled back inside to look at my tools.

I attached my Fae blade and its holster to my ankle, and grab my green silk overalls that tied over my shoulders. It was loose, lightweight, and gave me the perfect camouflage for my area. And the legs went down to just below my knees so it hardly snagged on anything. I grabbed my empty pack and put the spider cord inside and draped it across my body.

I flew out through my entrance and turned toward the town. Sticking to the tree tops, I stopped on a branch about 4 yards from the ground. I had been flying for about 10 minutes at least, the town seemed closer than that ... The thought of how big the town was, now made me nervous. But not enough to turn me around.

"I'll just need to be extra careful", I told myself. Suddenly, a loud boom knocked me off my feet. I unathletically collapsed down onto the branch and covered my heart with my hand as if that would slow it down. I sat up slowly and looked in the direction of the loud boom. Curious, I flew to the right keeping safely hidden behind a tree. I peeked out and saw a gargantuan brick building. It looked old and falling apart, but it must have made some of those vines creeping up it very happy. The building was surrounded by a black road, and in the corner of the surrounding road where it met the tree line, was a huge... bin?

I ducked down when I saw the large being, though it was small in comparison to the bin. It walked out from behind the building with a pile of old wood in its arms and launched the pile into the bin with a loud boom. I jumped at the noise again before flying around to the other side of the tree.

"What's it doing"? I whispered to myself. It's unmistakably a human... Male... Lean... extremely tall... I studied him. He had short Brown hair and dark eyes. He was wearing blue pants, a white shirt that seemed dirty, and oddly, his feet were covered. I flew around the trees to land on the one that towered over the large bin. He was walking in and out of the building and tossing numerously diverse items in it. When he walked back inside he came out with a clear canteen of what looked like water. This time he didn't walk back into the building, instead he grabbed something from his pocket and made his way around the brick building to a large Brown cart... wagon?

I jumped again when I heard a metallic rumbling coming from the wagon and it wheeled itself down the black road and out of sight. I scratched my temple and waited for five minutes. He didn't return. No other humans appeared to be around, so I went to take a closer look.