Soul Bound

Chapter Four

Chapter Four

Dunn and Hicks drop us off along the main road in the Refuge, Dunn using the excuse that he needs to wash the Hummer of kid grime. But I know it's that I've hurt his feelings. The set of his jaw as he says he'll be back soon is a warning not to get up to trouble. He trusts me not to do anything stupid with the kids around.

Niki runs ahead on the path then turns and watches me intently as we pass into the little stretch of woods along the shortcut to my house. I stretch my arms out to both sides and close my eyes, worried that the souls are still giving me the cold shoulder. But when I open them, tendrils of life and light reach out to me. I release the breath I'd been holding and glide my hands through them. Through what, to Niki, is only air.

"Are they around us?" he asks, looking from tree to tree. He extends his hand toward a pine tree, feeling the air for whatever I'm feeling.

"They're always around us," I say.

The souls of the woods—the pines, the oaks, the elms—are finally back to their normal, friendly selves. Their tendrils of life caress my arms and legs. I breathe them in. They're healthy and bright today. The forest is aglow with them.

"If you stand still long enough you can almost hear them, little whispers on the wind," I say.

Niki stands completely still then searches the air with his hand one more time before dropping it with a sigh. "I can't see them."

"That's okay," I take his and T.K.'s hands, "they can see you."

We reach my little clearing between the two massive banyans. The kids named the giants Ban and Yan. Clever.

T.K. crawls on the banyan roots, telling Ban and Yan all about her day at school. She starts howling, grabbing Wolf's attention.

"Can you be Wolf now? Will we get to see her?" Niki asks.

"I really can't be Wolf," I say, trying not to make it too obvious that I'm avoiding his question. "She's a soul—like—her own being. Not a shape like the others. She just has to live in my body."

He nods his head along with my words, but frowns. He caught the hint. No Wolf today.

"Hey, little girl playing in the dirt, you're getting your skirt dirty!" I laugh, watching T.K. busy herself by digging a hole. "Come in and have a snack. Then we'll do some gardening."

Niki rushes through the door to my saplings on the windowsill. Their young souls glow when he approaches, but aren't old enough to reach their tendrils outside of their physical form yet. "Can I water them?"

They've always had a compassion for the natural world. That began with their mother's influence. I'm trying to continue what she started. The more humans with a love for nature, the better off nature will be. "They'll love it. Go ahead."

T.K. joins her brother. "Baby trees," she says as she touches the furry top of the pine sapling.

"Come on, T.K. Let's go fill the watering can." Niki takes her hand and they rush out the back door to the rainwater barrel.

Watching them through the window above the sink, I start to wash the wild blackberries I picked yesterday. Wolf is there in the back of my mind, quiet but antsy. My foot starts tapping.

Stop it. I know this is hard.

Out.

No. Finn said we can't. I'm sorry.

Pups.

I know...

Her sadness envelops me. She loves these kids as much as I do and she's never not been allowed to see them herself. We watch with a heavy heart as they come running back inside, both holding the watering can, which spills water onto the floor with each movement. T.K. jumps up and down with excitement as her big brother struggles to lift the can to each of the saplings.