Nature Girl

Human World

Present Day-Years after Day of Destruction

The old man looked out at the vast, desolate wasteland through the narrow space of the boards of the window. The darkness was broken by a lantern outside his home, a speck amidst the haze that hovered over the ground, hiding the ugliness of the land...though he knew what was there. Sharp, wooden splintered angles of tree stumps pierced the fog. The dark purple sky filled with toxic smog, all flora was gone replaced by dirt and rocks...what little plant life was left was brown dried grass and dead bushes that reached up like ugly, blackened clawed hands. No fauna lived here either except a few black crows that split the silence with harsh caws. The smell of pollution, smoke, and death hung in the air, making him cough now and then.

Try as he might to hide the sight of the land in a vain attempt to forget, the memories he couldn't forget. They burned in his mind for many years, especially one heart-wrenching...

All he could see were those eyes: pale, sunken filled with tears that expressed despondence, anguish and betrayal...staring up at him through small, lank strands of colorless hair...

The horror and remorse clawed inside him when the flash of those eyes came into his mind...hearing the despair-filled voice that echoed in his mind, as it spoke the most harrowing word through dry, cracked lips:

"Why?"

Tears flooded the old man's eyes, weeping as he touched the small, round object in his pocket...

******

Fiora watched as Once-ler walked away with his mule named Melvin to sell his strange invention. She had to admit after being in his house, she was fascinated by all the objects. She wanted to see more of this human's world.

She climbed through the window and explored some more. It seemed everything in the human world gleamed, hard, sharp. It made no sense. Yet, there were some things that were soft and warm that she liked. The human's bed certainly was. She squat down and looked at Once-ler's pajamas.

The Lorax chuckled to himself, watching his pupil explore everything in the human's home. There were objects that looked like rectangular rocks: hard on the outside, but smooth and white inside.

"What are these?" she asked the Lorax.

"They're books," the Lorax said. "Humans use them to gather knowledge."

She touched this new object and discovered it split open, making her gasp in shock!

"I think I broke it, Lorax!" she exclaimed.

"It's alright, kid," said the Lorax with a laugh. "It's supposed to do that. You just opened it."

Fiora stared in fascination at the book. There were black markings on the white expanse. It was smooth and flexible.

"What is this?" she asked.

"That's called a page. And the black markings on it are called words."

"Oh! This must be some kind of human language," she said, squinting. Fiora couldn't understand it at all.

She sat on Once-ler's bed and discovered the wonders of this new object. Aside from words, there were the strangest things, which the Lorax told her were pictures: it showed tall trees that shined like the sun. Strange things on circles. Unusual beasts she had never seen before. Lands she had never knew existed. Even trees! All shapes and sizes with different leaves!

"Everything in this human's world is so...interesting. It's like a whole other forest."

"It sure is," the Lorax said with a chuckle.