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Chapter 17

Danger

Morning light glared in through the window on a new day, and Lilli sighed as she turned her head side to side and gazed at her reflection. Her once long, curly hair, which she always treasured as the pride of her body, was now reduced to a short bob of curls.

“Is everything okay, Lilli?” She turned her head to give a droopy-eyed look to Ethan. The human boy stood on the other side of his bed, his hands buttoning his red-and-black flannel shirt together.

“I know this is going to sound silly, but I feel so different without my hair,” she replied, “I mean, I understand that I should be grateful that we even survived the night, and that me losing my hair was nowhere near the worst thing that happened. But I feel like I lost a part of who I am…”

Ethan bent down to his knees and folded his arms across the comforter. “You went through a lot of pain that night, in more ways than one. It’s not shameful to talk about what’s bothering you. But just know that you’re the same Lilli you always have been, long hair or short hair.” He ended his sentence with a smile.

Lilli bent forward as she sighed, feeling an aching weight ease off her chest as she took in Ethan’s words. When she looked back up at him, she returned a tiny smile of her own. “Thank you.”

Ethan’s smile melted and he titled his head to the side. “Are you sure you’ll be okay here with Poppy alone?”

“Yeah, don’t worry. We have the food and medicine you gave us, so we should be fine. Plus, I need some time to think. You go off to school.”

“Okay,” Ethan said as he rose, “I’ll be back as soon as I can.” He turned slightly towards his desk to face Poppy, who lay in her cushiony bed of tissues. “See you later, Poppy. Rest up, okay?”

The tiny animal lifted her head and squeaked as the tip of her tail swished back and forth. Though many of her cuts remained bandaged, a little more of her former energy returned with every day that passed.

And with that, Ethan walked out the door and quietly closed it with a click.

***

Ethan’s eyes stared straight ahead, but there was no focus in his gaze as he walked to school.

I wonder if this means Lilli is going to stay. Knowing her, she would probably be happier living somewhere else. Then again, she hasn’t said anything about leaving.

A sudden force pulled on Ethan’s shoulder and he stumbled back out of the crosswalk.

“Watch where you’re going, kid! The light’s still red!” An older man’s voice berated him. Ethan glanced across the street to see the red stick figure glowing inside the pedestrian signal.

“O-oh, you’re right. Sorry, I was just thinking about something,” he responded, though the man simply scoffed in response.

Guess there’s no use in worrying about it now, Ethan concluded as he focused back into the present. When the light flashed green, he crossed the road and headed into the final stretch of road between him and school. As he walked, he passed by the tree he and Lilli had visited only a couple days earlier. But this time, he saw a large, white sign now standing next to it. He took note of the bold red letters at the top of the board:

COMING SOON

Springville Apartment Complex

Construction to begin early April

Apartments? Wait a minute, that means… Ethan thought. He peeked around the side of the bulletin and glanced at the area where the new complex would stand. Just as he feared, the section of forest that would be cut down was the same section of forest where Lilli had ran to and seen members of her kind.

Oh no… Grim thoughts dawned in Ethan’s mind, and, without a second’s hesitation, he dashed in the opposite direction back to his house.

-----

Lilli nearly jumped out of her skin when the door burst open and Ethan came stomping inside, only to crouch into a puffing mess.

“E-Ethan?” Lilli asked in her induced timidity, “are you okay?”

Ethan heaved a few more breaths before gaining back some of his composure and speaking. “Lilli…there’s trouble…”

“What’s wrong?”

“On my way…to school…there was a sign, and…Lilli, they’re tearing down the forest.”

Lilli felt a frigidness shield her body. It took a moment of hesitance before she asked, “What do you mean?”

Ethan sat on the bed, though more for her comfort than his own. “The town is building more apartments, and they’re tearing down part of the forest in order to do so. They’re going to start in a month.”

A cold shield of emotion built up around Lilli’s body as she asked the question to which she dreaded the answer. “Where are they tearing down the forest?” Ethan only responded by staring with a solemn expression in his eyes. Lilli felt the weight from his eyes and eventually collapsed to her knees right where she stood. “This can’t be…”

A moment of deep silence filled the air. “Is there any chance that you could do something? Maybe try talking to your people about this?” Ethan eventually asked.

Lilli shook her head without lifting her gaze from the floor. “I don’t see what I can do. At this point, the whole colony probably doesn’t trust me.”

“So you won’t tell them?” Ethan asked with genuine curiosity. She stood back and looked up at him with a stern glance.

“No, I have to at least try. Even if I’ve been shunned away, they’re my kind, and I can’t just leave them to die without helping at least a little bit.” Her words lifted the seriousness out of Ethan and the corners of his lips turned up.

“When will you leave?”

“As soon as possible,” Lilli responded as she turned on her heel, “but I have to prepare first.“

“If you’re going, I’m going with you.” Lilli jerked to a stop at Ethan’s words, and she lifted her eyes to meet his.

“Ethan, I don’t think that’s a good idea. My people are very untrusting of humans. If they so much as smell you—“

“The last time you went into that forest, you two were captured, and they nearly killed Poppy. I don’t ever want to see that happen again. Even if I just have to wait on the sidelines, please let me at least be close enough to help you if things go wrong again.” A dark shadow cast over Ethan’s eyes, as though he just remembered a past memory he deeply regretted. Lilli felt a kind warmth bloom inside her heart, and she nodded at him with a tender smile.

“Okay, if it makes you feel better.” His face immediately brightened and he flashed a rejuvenated grin. “Just give me some time to prepare.” She slid out through the cracked opening of the window and jumped onto the rooftop, out of sight.

Ethan sat patiently on his bed, not keeping track of the time. When he saw tiny traces of movement from the corner of his eye, he turned and stared at a transformed Lilli. She replaced her tattered, dirty dress with a strapless bodice of grass blades wrapped around her torso and a fan of tree leaves flared out around her waist like a skirt. Attached to the leafy belt were three safety pins, which dangled from her right hip. With the combination of the floral attire and her chopped hair, Ethan stared at her with wide eyes as if he were meeting her for the first time. For the first time, she truly seemed like a creature of the wild, and it was amazing to see her in what felt like her truest sense.

Shifting shyly beneath his gaze, Lilli said, “if I’m going to face them again, I figure I should at least look a little less ‘human’, y’know?”

Ethan broke away from his spell with a nod. “Not a bad idea.” Suddenly, a scramble of panicked noises broke through their conversation. Both Lilli and Ethan turned to see Poppy attempting to stand, all the while squirming her way off her cushioned bed.

“No, no! Poppy, don’t!” Lilli called as she jumped down to Ethan’s bed. She dashed across and, with a small boost from Ethan’s hand, jumped over the desk’s edge. Once on the flat surface, she hurried to her friend’s side and knelt down next to her. “Listen to me. I want you to stay here where it’s safe.”

Poppy whined and groaned, putting her paws on Lilli’s thighs and staring at her with wide, glistening eyes. Lilli responded with a smile and gentle pats across her head.

“I know, and thank you for being worried for me. But I don’t want to risk you getting hurt again. Stay here, and I promise I’ll come back.”

“Don’t worry, Poppy,” Ethan chimed in, “if anything happens, I’ll be there.” Poppy’s eyes darted between the two for some time. Eventually, she slowly let her paws slide off Lilli’s thighs and relaxed back into her bed. Lilli wrapped her arms around the animal’s head and held it gently for a moment.

“I’ll be okay,” she whispered. Poppy purred at her words, giving Lilli the assurance to let go.

Lilli stood and turned on her heel to face Ethan, her eyes steeled. “All right, let’s go.”

***

With Ethan leading the way, getting to the edge of the forest took only a matter of minutes. Lilli sat upon Ethan’s shoulder, one hand clinging to his shirt collar for balance. Every so often, she took a deep breath to calm her heart from beating so quickly.

After stepping past the initial wall of trees, Ethan followed a narrow path as it weaved through the trees. He only managed to take a few steps into the depths of the forest when Lilli noticed a strange series of knocking sounds coming from treetops. At first, it sounded like a group of woodpeckers all pounding at the trunks in unison, but the rhythm of their beats was too close to truly be anything accidental.

She reached over and placed a hand on the human boy’s neck. “Ethan, stop. I think we’re being watched.”

Ethan halted just as she commanded, thrusting Lilli’s upper body forward at the sudden stop of his large form. “What do you mean?” he asked, turning to face her as best as he could.

“Listen,” she said as she lifted her head up to face straight towards the sky. Ethan followed suit, and then he understood what Lilli was saying as he heard the beats echo above them.

“It almost sounds like…drums,” he commented.

That’s it! Lilli realized. The rhythmic beating sounded exactly like several drums beating in time with each other. She noticed how, as the beats traveled farther into the forest, they responded to the earlier ones, almost like…

“It’s a signal,” Lilli thought out loud, “they must be warning the colony that there’s a human in the forest.”

“Wow,” Ethan commented, “with a sound like that, it sounds natural enough that most humans wouldn’t be able to notice.”

Lilli turned to look at Ethan’s face. “I think this is where I need to go in on my own. Otherwise, there’s no way I’ll be able to talk to them if they know a human is too close to their home.”

Ethan turned to stare back at her, his closer eye catching her face. He stared at her for a second before saying, “I’ll come in after you if you don’t come back in two hours, okay?”

Lilli nodded with a smile, her face reflected in the window that was Ethan’s beautiful blue eye. “Okay, I’ll try not to keep you waiting.” Ethan crouched down to his knees while trying to maintain an upright posture with his upper body. Once he was close enough to the ground, he lifted an open palm to his shoulder. Lilli hopped off and stood in a braced stance as she was gently lowered to the earth. With one last smile back at her human friend, she hopped off and jogged into the direction of a familiar grove of trees.

As she proceeded, the drums rhythm continued like a steady fall of raindrops on a rooftop. Despite their ominous hidden message, Lilli took in each beat as a fuel to the fire now burning in the pit of her stomach. She maintained a slow and steady pace, but her hands clenched into fists. The sound continued to follow her every step until she crossed over the top of hill-like root. Once she stepped to the ground on the opposite side, their beat stopped.

Lilli looked up, squinting her eyes to peer through the sunny gaps. As her eyes focused, she saw a group of tiny shadows jumping amongst the branches steadily approaching. In a flash, five tiny people landed on the ground, each carrying a spear decorated with crudely sharpened stones. When they lifted their faces to stare at Lilli, she realized they all had masks of acorn shells covering their heads and eyes with only thin cuts allowing them to see.

One of the soldiers took a couple steps forward and threw a strong, open palm up as a barricade between them and Lilli. “You’re not allowed any closer.”

Lilli shifted her weight to one side and placed a hand on her hip. “I assume you all were warned about me?”

“Captain Blaze told us of the traitorous girl who escaped several days ago. He said you’d be back with humans in tow, and it looks as though he was correct.”

So Blaze isn’t here, she thought. She cocked her head to side and slowly moved her half-lidded gaze to stare at each solder.

“Why doesn’t your captain come out to face me himself?”

“Captain Blaze is far too busy to deal with the likes of-“

“Listen,” Lilli’s broke in with a near growling voice, “tell your captain that I have something I need to say straight to his face. I don’t have time to deal with his cronies.”

All five soldiers stepped into a squatted battle stance with their spears pointed directly at Lilli. “How dare you speak so bluntly, you insolent—“

“Hold your ground, men!” Lilli’s cheeks flared at the sound of an irritatingly familiar voice. The five warriors slowly stepped to the side to allow Blaze to make his way between them. He stopped right at the front. Both he and Lilli glared directly into each other’s eyes. “I was going to just watch and let my men take care of you, but I won’t allow you to insult them like that. They’re at least decent enough to protect our people, while you claim to be one of us and bring a rotten human so close to our home!”

Lilli clenched her fists so tightly that she felt her nails starting to pierce through her skin. Just as she was about to spit out an angry reply, she remembered the reason for her visit and bit the vile words back. With a deep breath, she loosened the tenseness in her chest and spoke in her natural tone.

“I didn’t come here to start any trouble, Blaze. I only have some information to pass on.”

Blaze’s eyebrows flicked up slightly, but he quickly wheeled around and tossed a hand over his shoulder. “Not interested. Come along, men.” The five soldiers followed suit with their leader.

“You don’t understand,” Lilli implored with a rising voice, “your people are in danger.”

“Yes, yes, I’m sure we are, as long as you’re—“

“The humans will tear down this forest!” Lilli shouted with all the power her lungs could produce. The six males stopped in their tracks, but only the masked warriors rounded back around to face Lilli. Though their masks concealed their eyes, their mouths all dropped open. With their attention finally focused on her words, Lilli continued to yell. “In a matter of weeks, these forests will be torn down to make room for new human homes! If you all don’t leave now, you’re going to die!”

Silence hung in the air as no one made any movements. Lilli waited in hopes to hear some sort of favorable response. Finally, one of the men turned back towards Blaze.

“Sir, what if what she’s saying is true?” All eyes turned towards him. Blaze quickly closed the gap between him and his subordinate as he charged towards him.

“How can you possibly think what she’s saying is true?” Blaze implored.

Though the guard shifted under his captain’s question, he maintained eye contact through his acorn mask. “I mean, it’s true she doesn’t have any proof, but what reason would she have for lying?”

“It…it must be some sort of trick! Some means to get us to come out of hiding so that—“

“Would you get this through your thick head all ready?” Lilli yelled, her fury flaring back into full force, “I have no intention to trick or hurt anyone! I want to help you, as a fellow member of your kind!”

“No!” Blaze shouted back. “I can’t believe you! Not until you’ve provided me with some sort of proof that what you’re saying is true!”

“You want proof? Fine, I’ll give it to you! But when I do, will you even believe me?”

“Enough!” One of the soldiers jumped between the two tiny shouters with open palms stretched out to both of them. They kept enraged eyes locked on each other despite the third person standing between them. The masked solider turned towards Lilli.

“If what you say is true, I think it’s best for you to speak to our Elder.”

Blaze tore his gaze away to gawk at his comrade. “What? Redwood, how can you even suggest that?”

“If what she’s saying is true in any way, then this is a matter that doesn’t concern just us. The rest of our colony deserves to hear the truth and decide for themselves what to do and what to believe. And the first step in doing that is telling the Elder.” Blaze continued to stare with an open mouth and dumbfounded eyes, but as the words sank in, he regained his original composure. He turned back to the rest of his soldiers, who all nodded at their captain. Blaze then turned back towards Lilli.

“Well, looks like that’s the unanimous decision. We’ll take you to see the Elder.” He lowered his head before speaking gravely, “I hope for your sake that you’re telling the truth.”

Lilli began walking forward. “Believe me, I wouldn’t have returned to this place unless it was for something important.” The six tiny people turned and marched back until they disappeared into the depths of the mammoth tree’s roots.

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Chapter 17

Danger

Morning light glared in through the window on a new day, and Lilli sighed as she turned her head side to side and gazed at her reflection. Her once long, curly hair, which she always treasured as the pride of her body, was now reduced to a short bob of curls.

“Is everything okay, Lilli?” She turned her head to give a droopy-eyed look to Ethan. The human boy stood on the other side of his bed, his hands buttoning his red-and-black flannel shirt together.

“I know this is going to sound silly, but I feel so different without my hair,” she replied, “I mean, I understand that I should be grateful that we even survived the night, and that me losing my hair was nowhere near the worst thing that happened. But I feel like I lost a part of who I am…”

Ethan bent down to his knees and folded his arms across the comforter. “You went through a lot of pain that night, in more ways than one. It’s not shameful to talk about what’s bothering you. But just know that you’re the same Lilli you always have been, long hair or short hair.” He ended his sentence with a smile.

Lilli bent forward as she sighed, feeling an aching weight ease off her chest as she took in Ethan’s words. When she looked back up at him, she returned a tiny smile of her own. “Thank you.”

Ethan’s smile melted and he titled his head to the side. “Are you sure you’ll be okay here with Poppy alone?”

“Yeah, don’t worry. We have the food and medicine you gave us, so we should be fine. Plus, I need some time to think. You go off to school.”

“Okay,” Ethan said as he rose, “I’ll be back as soon as I can.” He turned slightly towards his desk to face Poppy, who lay in her cushiony bed of tissues. “See you later, Poppy. Rest up, okay?”

The tiny animal lifted her head and squeaked as the tip of her tail swished back and forth. Though many of her cuts remained bandaged, a little more of her former energy returned with every day that passed.

And with that, Ethan walked out the door and quietly closed it with a click.

***

Ethan’s eyes stared straight ahead, but there was no focus in his gaze as he walked to school.

I wonder if this means Lilli is going to stay. Knowing her, she would probably be happier living somewhere else. Then again, she hasn’t said anything about leaving.

A sudden force pulled on Ethan’s shoulder and he stumbled back out of the crosswalk.

“Watch where you’re going, kid! The light’s still red!” An older man’s voice berated him. Ethan glanced across the street to see the red stick figure glowing inside the pedestrian signal.

“O-oh, you’re right. Sorry, I was just thinking about something,” he responded, though the man simply scoffed in response.

Guess there’s no use in worrying about it now, Ethan concluded as he focused back into the present. When the light flashed green, he crossed the road and headed into the final stretch of road between him and school. As he walked, he passed by the tree he and Lilli had visited only a couple days earlier. But this time, he saw a large, white sign now standing next to it. He took note of the bold red letters at the top of the board:

COMING SOON

Springville Apartment Complex

Construction to begin early April

Apartments? Wait a minute, that means… Ethan thought. He peeked around the side of the bulletin and glanced at the area where the new complex would stand. Just as he feared, the section of forest that would be cut down was the same section of forest where Lilli had ran to and seen members of her kind.

Oh no… Grim thoughts dawned in Ethan’s mind, and, without a second’s hesitation, he dashed in the opposite direction back to his house.

-----

Lilli nearly jumped out of her skin when the door burst open and Ethan came stomping inside, only to crouch into a puffing mess.

“E-Ethan?” Lilli asked in her induced timidity, “are you okay?”

Ethan heaved a few more breaths before gaining back some of his composure and speaking. “Lilli…there’s trouble…”

“What’s wrong?”

“On my way…to school…there was a sign, and…Lilli, they’re tearing down the forest.”

Lilli felt a frigidness shield her body. It took a moment of hesitance before she asked, “What do you mean?”

Ethan sat on the bed, though more for her comfort than his own. “The town is building more apartments, and they’re tearing down part of the forest in order to do so. They’re going to start in a month.”

A cold shield of emotion built up around Lilli’s body as she asked the question to which she dreaded the answer. “Where are they tearing down the forest?” Ethan only responded by staring with a solemn expression in his eyes. Lilli felt the weight from his eyes and eventually collapsed to her knees right where she stood. “This can’t be…”

A moment of deep silence filled the air. “Is there any chance that you could do something? Maybe try talking to your people about this?” Ethan eventually asked.

Lilli shook her head without lifting her gaze from the floor. “I don’t see what I can do. At this point, the whole colony probably doesn’t trust me.”

“So you won’t tell them?” Ethan asked with genuine curiosity. She stood back and looked up at him with a stern glance.

“No, I have to at least try. Even if I’ve been shunned away, they’re my kind, and I can’t just leave them to die without helping at least a little bit.” Her words lifted the seriousness out of Ethan and the corners of his lips turned up.

“When will you leave?”

“As soon as possible,” Lilli responded as she turned on her heel, “but I have to prepare first.“

“If you’re going, I’m going with you.” Lilli jerked to a stop at Ethan’s words, and she lifted her eyes to meet his.

“Ethan, I don’t think that’s a good idea. My people are very untrusting of humans. If they so much as smell you—“

“The last time you went into that forest, you two were captured, and they nearly killed Poppy. I don’t ever want to see that happen again. Even if I just have to wait on the sidelines, please let me at least be close enough to help you if things go wrong again.” A dark shadow cast over Ethan’s eyes, as though he just remembered a past memory he deeply regretted. Lilli felt a kind warmth bloom inside her heart, and she nodded at him with a tender smile.

“Okay, if it makes you feel better.” His face immediately brightened and he flashed a rejuvenated grin. “Just give me some time to prepare.” She slid out through the cracked opening of the window and jumped onto the rooftop, out of sight.

Ethan sat patiently on his bed, not keeping track of the time. When he saw tiny traces of movement from the corner of his eye, he turned and stared at a transformed Lilli. She replaced her tattered, dirty dress with a strapless bodice of grass blades wrapped around her torso and a fan of tree leaves flared out around her waist like a skirt. Attached to the leafy belt were three safety pins, which dangled from her right hip. With the combination of the floral attire and her chopped hair, Ethan stared at her with wide eyes as if he were meeting her for the first time. For the first time, she truly seemed like a creature of the wild, and it was amazing to see her in what felt like her truest sense.

Shifting shyly beneath his gaze, Lilli said, “if I’m going to face them again, I figure I should at least look a little less ‘human’, y’know?”

Ethan broke away from his spell with a nod. “Not a bad idea.” Suddenly, a scramble of panicked noises broke through their conversation. Both Lilli and Ethan turned to see Poppy attempting to stand, all the while squirming her way off her cushioned bed.

“No, no! Poppy, don’t!” Lilli called as she jumped down to Ethan’s bed. She dashed across and, with a small boost from Ethan’s hand, jumped over the desk’s edge. Once on the flat surface, she hurried to her friend’s side and knelt down next to her. “Listen to me. I want you to stay here where it’s safe.”

Poppy whined and groaned, putting her paws on Lilli’s thighs and staring at her with wide, glistening eyes. Lilli responded with a smile and gentle pats across her head.

“I know, and thank you for being worried for me. But I don’t want to risk you getting hurt again. Stay here, and I promise I’ll come back.”

“Don’t worry, Poppy,” Ethan chimed in, “if anything happens, I’ll be there.” Poppy’s eyes darted between the two for some time. Eventually, she slowly let her paws slide off Lilli’s thighs and relaxed back into her bed. Lilli wrapped her arms around the animal’s head and held it gently for a moment.

“I’ll be okay,” she whispered. Poppy purred at her words, giving Lilli the assurance to let go.

Lilli stood and turned on her heel to face Ethan, her eyes steeled. “All right, let’s go.”

***

With Ethan leading the way, getting to the edge of the forest took only a matter of minutes. Lilli sat upon Ethan’s shoulder, one hand clinging to his shirt collar for balance. Every so often, she took a deep breath to calm her heart from beating so quickly.

After stepping past the initial wall of trees, Ethan followed a narrow path as it weaved through the trees. He only managed to take a few steps into the depths of the forest when Lilli noticed a strange series of knocking sounds coming from treetops. At first, it sounded like a group of woodpeckers all pounding at the trunks in unison, but the rhythm of their beats was too close to truly be anything accidental.

She reached over and placed a hand on the human boy’s neck. “Ethan, stop. I think we’re being watched.”

Ethan halted just as she commanded, thrusting Lilli’s upper body forward at the sudden stop of his large form. “What do you mean?” he asked, turning to face her as best as he could.

“Listen,” she said as she lifted her head up to face straight towards the sky. Ethan followed suit, and then he understood what Lilli was saying as he heard the beats echo above them.

“It almost sounds like…drums,” he commented.

That’s it! Lilli realized. The rhythmic beating sounded exactly like several drums beating in time with each other. She noticed how, as the beats traveled farther into the forest, they responded to the earlier ones, almost like…

“It’s a signal,” Lilli thought out loud, “they must be warning the colony that there’s a human in the forest.”

“Wow,” Ethan commented, “with a sound like that, it sounds natural enough that most humans wouldn’t be able to notice.”

Lilli turned to look at Ethan’s face. “I think this is where I need to go in on my own. Otherwise, there’s no way I’ll be able to talk to them if they know a human is too close to their home.”

Ethan turned to stare back at her, his closer eye catching her face. He stared at her for a second before saying, “I’ll come in after you if you don’t come back in two hours, okay?”

Lilli nodded with a smile, her face reflected in the window that was Ethan’s beautiful blue eye. “Okay, I’ll try not to keep you waiting.” Ethan crouched down to his knees while trying to maintain an upright posture with his upper body. Once he was close enough to the ground, he lifted an open palm to his shoulder. Lilli hopped off and stood in a braced stance as she was gently lowered to the earth. With one last smile back at her human friend, she hopped off and jogged into the direction of a familiar grove of trees.

As she proceeded, the drums rhythm continued like a steady fall of raindrops on a rooftop. Despite their ominous hidden message, Lilli took in each beat as a fuel to the fire now burning in the pit of her stomach. She maintained a slow and steady pace, but her hands clenched into fists. The sound continued to follow her every step until she crossed over the top of hill-like root. Once she stepped to the ground on the opposite side, their beat stopped.

Lilli looked up, squinting her eyes to peer through the sunny gaps. As her eyes focused, she saw a group of tiny shadows jumping amongst the branches steadily approaching. In a flash, five tiny people landed on the ground, each carrying a spear decorated with crudely sharpened stones. When they lifted their faces to stare at Lilli, she realized they all had masks of acorn shells covering their heads and eyes with only thin cuts allowing them to see.

One of the soldiers took a couple steps forward and threw a strong, open palm up as a barricade between them and Lilli. “You’re not allowed any closer.”

Lilli shifted her weight to one side and placed a hand on her hip. “I assume you all were warned about me?”

“Captain Blaze told us of the traitorous girl who escaped several days ago. He said you’d be back with humans in tow, and it looks as though he was correct.”

So Blaze isn’t here, she thought. She cocked her head to side and slowly moved her half-lidded gaze to stare at each solder.

“Why doesn’t your captain come out to face me himself?”

“Captain Blaze is far too busy to deal with the likes of-“

“Listen,” Lilli’s broke in with a near growling voice, “tell your captain that I have something I need to say straight to his face. I don’t have time to deal with his cronies.”

All five soldiers stepped into a squatted battle stance with their spears pointed directly at Lilli. “How dare you speak so bluntly, you insolent—“

“Hold your ground, men!” Lilli’s cheeks flared at the sound of an irritatingly familiar voice. The five warriors slowly stepped to the side to allow Blaze to make his way between them. He stopped right at the front. Both he and Lilli glared directly into each other’s eyes. “I was going to just watch and let my men take care of you, but I won’t allow you to insult them like that. They’re at least decent enough to protect our people, while you claim to be one of us and bring a rotten human so close to our home!”

Lilli clenched her fists so tightly that she felt her nails starting to pierce through her skin. Just as she was about to spit out an angry reply, she remembered the reason for her visit and bit the vile words back. With a deep breath, she loosened the tenseness in her chest and spoke in her natural tone.

“I didn’t come here to start any trouble, Blaze. I only have some information to pass on.”

Blaze’s eyebrows flicked up slightly, but he quickly wheeled around and tossed a hand over his shoulder. “Not interested. Come along, men.” The five soldiers followed suit with their leader.

“You don’t understand,” Lilli implored with a rising voice, “your people are in danger.”

“Yes, yes, I’m sure we are, as long as you’re—“

“The humans will tear down this forest!” Lilli shouted with all the power her lungs could produce. The six males stopped in their tracks, but only the masked warriors rounded back around to face Lilli. Though their masks concealed their eyes, their mouths all dropped open. With their attention finally focused on her words, Lilli continued to yell. “In a matter of weeks, these forests will be torn down to make room for new human homes! If you all don’t leave now, you’re going to die!”

Silence hung in the air as no one made any movements. Lilli waited in hopes to hear some sort of favorable response. Finally, one of the men turned back towards Blaze.

“Sir, what if what she’s saying is true?” All eyes turned towards him. Blaze quickly closed the gap between him and his subordinate as he charged towards him.

“How can you possibly think what she’s saying is true?” Blaze implored.

Though the guard shifted under his captain’s question, he maintained eye contact through his acorn mask. “I mean, it’s true she doesn’t have any proof, but what reason would she have for lying?”

“It…it must be some sort of trick! Some means to get us to come out of hiding so that—“

“Would you get this through your thick head all ready?” Lilli yelled, her fury flaring back into full force, “I have no intention to trick or hurt anyone! I want to help you, as a fellow member of your kind!”

“No!” Blaze shouted back. “I can’t believe you! Not until you’ve provided me with some sort of proof that what you’re saying is true!”

“You want proof? Fine, I’ll give it to you! But when I do, will you even believe me?”

“Enough!” One of the soldiers jumped between the two tiny shouters with open palms stretched out to both of them. They kept enraged eyes locked on each other despite the third person standing between them. The masked solider turned towards Lilli.

“If what you say is true, I think it’s best for you to speak to our Elder.”

Blaze tore his gaze away to gawk at his comrade. “What? Redwood, how can you even suggest that?”

“If what she’s saying is true in any way, then this is a matter that doesn’t concern just us. The rest of our colony deserves to hear the truth and decide for themselves what to do and what to believe. And the first step in doing that is telling the Elder.” Blaze continued to stare with an open mouth and dumbfounded eyes, but as the words sank in, he regained his original composure. He turned back to the rest of his soldiers, who all nodded at their captain. Blaze then turned back towards Lilli.

“Well, looks like that’s the unanimous decision. We’ll take you to see the Elder.” He lowered his head before speaking gravely, “I hope for your sake that you’re telling the truth.”

Lilli began walking forward. “Believe me, I wouldn’t have returned to this place unless it was for something important.” The six tiny people turned and marched back until they disappeared into the depths of the mammoth tree’s roots.