To her Village
Paul stared up at the village that towered some fifty feet above him, woven through the branches of trees large enough around to make the sequoias he’d once seen appear as saplings. If the trunk nearest him was under a hundred feet in diameter he’d eat his hat.
“Come! Come!” Mirrsola called, scampering up a rope nearby with the agility of an acrobat. Paul watched her ascent with amusement and awe.
“Okay, apparently she doesn’t have any fear of heights.” He chuckled to himself. He eyed the rope doubtfully, but started ascending the rope carefully like he’d been taught to do in gym class.
Ouch! He winced. Apparently gym teachers always thought you’d have good sneakers on instead of fur above your skin. Taking a deep breath, he released his feet off the rope and began ascending hand over hand. He found himself going up rapidly with very little effort. He felt his eyebrows shoot up, he’d never had the strength to do this before!
As he neared the top, he could hear the excited murmur of voices. It sounded like a lot of people, and he briefly wondered how many people the village could hold. Well, he’d find out in a minute.
Hands escorted him over the lip to a small plaza made of tightly woven branches covered by actual wooden planks sanded smooth. Up close the houses had a very natural feel to them, almost as if they were grown out from the trees rather than added on later.
Paul couldn’t notice much of the village around him, however. His attention was focused on the hundred or so people looking at him with varying expressions of guarded curiosity and even a little fear.
An old man approached, hunched by weight of years, his golden fur nearly white with extreme age. He looked at Paul and blinked, then at Mirrsola.
When Mirrsola knelt on the ground at his feet, Paul wondered if he should do the same, but some hint of American stubbornness held him back. He wouldn’t bow to no one, dammit! He tried to ignore the murmurings that swept the crowd around him. Briefly the thought came that they could simply kill him for offering insult to their chief, but he maintained his defiance.
Written by Snore23 on 28 June 2017
