A Child Among the Leaves (Family SBI)

Chapter 11

And so time passed.

Day after day Tommy would wait by the window till the robin came and beaconed him into the woods.

He came to recognise it's call, and despite telling himself it was impossible, he could've sworn that sometimes it actually talked to him.

Once he'd been scaling the garden wall as usually when suddenly there was a soft whisper of "Stone" above him.

He whipped his head upwards, startled by the possibility of another person being there, yet he was met with nothing. Just the site of the bird on top of the wall cocking it's head at him, a small pebble in its mouth.

He'd shaken it off, but similar incidents had only continued occur.

By now it was to the point where he wasn't sure if he was imagining it or down right insane, and he didn't know which was worse.

He remembered asking Wilbur about it during on of there escapades, casually remarking "Does your bird talk?"

Which did nothing more than earning an odd look and a, "I don't think so?"

Even if he was insane, he was far to distracted by his daily new discoveries to do anything about it.
He had only been exploring the forrest for two weeks, but it felt like he'd lived there his whole life.

He knew so much about it already! With a little assistance from Wilbur and Techno of course.

Wilbur loved the water. He'd continued to teach Tommy about the river, showing him every nook and cranny between the rocks, and gently pulling out little creatures for him to look at.

When he found out Tommy couldn't swim, he swore he'd teach him. Promising when the weather got warm they could all bring swimming costumes and travel down to the deeper water during the day.

Tommy didn't own a swimming costume, but that was a problem for future him.

He'd also found out that the weird hand gestures that Techno did was something called 'sign language' and it was a way for him to talk without using his voice.

He'd began to learn it himself. Though he wasn't best, he had started being able to understanding some of the things that Techno signed.

"Guess I'll have to find other way to exchange secrets" sighed Wilbur dramatically a smile tugging at his lips.

Tommy grinned, "I'm just too good, you'll have to share all your secrets with me now!"

Techno rolled his eyes, sighing 'No way gremlin'.

Which Tommy immediately demanded to know the meaning of as Wilbur burst out laughing at his side.

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It was late in the evening during one of the group's elaborate games of 'kingdom', when as usual  came the telling call of the robin.

They had been building, for lack of a better word, a tiny shack. However, in there current game it was a great impenetrable castle.

Wilbur groaned, "Aww come on! We're almost done!"

Tommy looked at their work, it didn't really look done at all. But then again, he'd never built a castle before.

"We can finish it tomorrow" he piped in, going to put down handful of twigs he was holding.

Wilbur was silent for a moment but then straightened up. "No"