Gentle Touch
This is part of my unfinished book
She ran.
Howling sounds echoing off of tree bark.
Out of breath. Panting.
“Oh?” May said as the little girl tripped and fell at her feet. “Are you alright?” she asked, kneeling down.
“You need to run!” the girl screamed. “They’ll catch up soon.”
“Who will?”
“The humans, they’re running around with the white wolves.”
“I see. Then you did well,” May said, reaching out to pet her on the head, stopping just shy of it with a sudden twitch of her fingers. “Right…” she said to herself, closing her fist and letting it drop to the ground.
The girl seemed confused, but she kept quiet, making herself small as she looked around her.
“Hey, dear,” she said, her eyes wide open, staring at a ground she couldn’t even see and dragging her fingers through the dirt. “Can you go scare off whatever might be chasing her?”
“Are you sure, May? I thought we weren’t supposed to get involved with humans.”
“Those things are not humans, dear. All they do is sit around waiting for another sheeperd child to fall from the great tree. All so they could get their hands on that precious white wool they love so much.”
“Should I kill them then?”
“No,” her voice soft as a whisper, “just make sure they are not anywhere close to that tree.”
“Alright, May.”
The girl listened closely as they talked, trying to look anywhere but at them, and anxious as she was, she reached out, grabbing him by the leg with both hands. “Wait!” she screamed, her voice cracking. “I heard them,” she said, closing her eyes as she looked down. “There’s too many of them out there.”
“Worry not,” May said, still dragging her fingers through the dirt as she tried making some sort of shape. “No man or monster living around this place would dare walk close to him.”
“Is that true?” she asked, looking up at him.
He leaned down, tugging a strand of her wool-like hair behind her ear, trying not to scratch her with his claws. “Listen to what May tells you,” he said, turning away and running into the forest.
“You’ll be fine then?” the girl yelled after him.
“I will.”
“Now then,” May said, cracking a little smile. “Shall we talk for a little while?”
“Mhm,” she said, nodding.
“Tell me, do you like to draw?”
“I do.”
“Does this look like the Aneth tree to you?” she asked, tracing the scribbles she’d made on the ground with a thin strand of fire. “Has it changed much since the last time I saw it?”
She looked at it, eyes wide as she watched it take shape. “How are you doing that?” she asked, planting her hands on each side and hovering above it.
“Are you curious?”
“I…” the girl said, leaning back. “Maybe a little.”
“It’s a secret,” May whispered, as she held a finger in front of her lips.
“That’s not fair!”
May giggled. “I can not teach you how to do it, but I can show it to you as many times as you want. How is that, little sheeperd?”
“Fine,” she pouted. “And it’s Ann, not little sheeperd.”
“Little Ann it is then.”
“Just Ann!”
“Alright, alright, then will you draw the Aneth tree for me, Ann?”
“But the one you drew already looks pretty good,” she said, glancing between May’s drawing and the massive tree casting its shadow over the whole forest.
“Does it now? How about just the branch you live on then? Can you do that?”
“Hmm, okay,” she said as she eagerly picked up a stick lying around and started drawing next to what May had made. For a while, she stayed quiet. Hiding her fears somewhere deep inside and pouring all her focus into the dry dirt beneath her.
“Hey, so…” Ann said, her hand slowing down almost to a stop. “You said you’ve been to Aneth before, didn’t you?”
“Yes, we have.”
“Was your friend with you too?”
“He always is.”
“So…” she paused, lifting her head to look at May. “What did you do there?”
“We were merely an escort for another sheeperd.”
“Really?”
“Yes. He was another fallen child, just like you. But he was not lucky enough to find his way back to Aneth. So he lived his life here, on the ground, even after he grew old enough to return on his own.”
“May!” his shout echoed in the distance.
“We only met him when he was already long past his youth, ready to put an end to his journey.”
“Are you talking about Yule?” she asked, eyes lighting up as she stared at May. “The explorer?”
“Have you heard of him?”
“Of course I know him! He wrote so much in her journals about how life on the ground is. Everyone knows him.”
“May!” he shouted again. “You still around here?”
“Was that your friend?” Ann asked, looking around to find where his voice came from.
“See? I told you there was nothing to worry about.”
“I chased them out of the forest, May,” he said, walking back from between the trees, chewing a lizard tail.
“Ahh!” the girl screamed, stepping back.
“What? What’s wrong?” he said, looking in all directions.
“What are you eating!? That thing’s still moving!”
“Dear?” May asked, confused about what was going on.
“Oh, this?” he said, swallowing it in one gulp. “I tried catching one of those things crawling on the trees, but this was all I got.”
May sighed. “Please stop trying to catch lizards, dear. You are scaring poor little Ann.”
“Ann, huh? It’s a nice name,” he said, crouching down in front of her as she sat on the ground, leaning back on her arms.
She looked up at him from behind her lashes, still struck by what had just happened. “You…” she paused. “You shouldn’t eat that!”
“I shouldn’t?”
“No!”
“Fine, fine, I’ll stop,” he said, catching a glance of the drawings left on the ground. “Oh? Did you draw this?”
“Right,” May said, getting up and grabbing her cane before sparking Ann’s drawing with the same thin strings of fire she had shown her earlier.
“Whoa!” Ann said, quickly making her way to stare at it closer.
“Will you tell me what branch it is that she drew, dear? Can you tell?”
“Hmm, I think it’s one of the higher ones. Looks pretty close to the top.”
“I see. Shall we go then, Ann?” May said, closing her eyes and turning her head back toward the little girl still staring at the fire.
“Go?” she asked, getting up. “Where?”
“Home.”
Her eyes grew wider as a smile spread across her face. “Yes!” she said, running to pass between them and walk in front. “Home!”
Thanks for reading until the end.
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Twitter/X: @RobertViorel_