Chapter 23: A City in the Tree

Rildie did not knock or announce her presence when she arrived at the house Rienna was in. She just walked right through the entrance and up to the bed Rienna was resting in. Holding up a small bag, she said, “Get up. I have some of the supplies.”

Rienna groggily sat up in the bed and grabbed the bag as it was handed to her. Peeking inside, she saw rope, flint, and a thin blanket. “Thanks,” she said with a yawn, dropping the bag next to her backpack.

“Great,” Rildie said. “Now, let’s go.”

“Wait-” Rienna said, standing up. “Where?”

“Svervaria just finished; we have an hour before the chaos of the evening market, and another thirty minutes after that before you need to meet with Måren again. During this time, you need to get more clothes, maybe a dagger, and definitely a bath,” Rildie said, scrunching up her nose.

“What’s Svervaria?” Rienna asked, ignoring Rildie’s bath comment as she followed her out of the room.

“Rain time. Svervaria only happens for an hour on what you call Wednesday. It basically rains all day on Sunday, which would be ironic, but we don’t call it Sunday,” Rildie explained as she pushed aside the curtains that represented the front door. “The actual sun-day is tomorrow, not that you’ll be here long enough to really experience it.”

“Oh,” Rienna said and she inched her way down the branch path. “So… um…” she glanced downwards and took a deep breath before finally stepping onto the main path. How can they live like this? She thought. “Måren causes it to rain at specific times?” she finished.

“Technically no: the Almin faction of the Islevati control the weather. However, the Islevati are just channeling Måren’s magic; so, yes.”

“The Islevati,” Rienna repeated.

“Måren blesses certain people and family lines with the ability to channel some of her magic. Didn’t I tell you this?”

Rienna thought back to how Rildie had stopped the wyrvens in the strange clearing. “Right. I knew that. Are you an Almin?” Hopefully this time she would give an answer.

“Yes,” Rildie said simply.

“Huh.” Rienna was too stunned to say much else. I wonder what it’s like to have magic… Especially with how young Rildie was, it seemed unlikely that she was personally gifted with magic. It must be her family line then, Rienna thought.

They walked the path to the center tree and climbed back down the spiral staircase. The market was less crowded than before, and Rienna was able to actually see the items that vendors were selling. There were colorful fruits, wide-brimmed hats, orchids, and even someone claiming to sell items lined with wyrven scales. Rienna really wanted to see that one, but Rildie led her right past it and into a small hut that branched off from the main tree trunk.

Inside, fabrics and leathers hung from branches on the walls and people wandered about inspecting the different qualities. Rildie immediately went to the corner of the shop with leathers that looked more practical than for show. Most of the clothing was sized for adults, but Rildie managed to find a pair of pants and a long-sleeved shirt that looked to be about Rienna’s size.

She silently handed the clothes to Rienna and walked over to the barely noticeable portion of the store containing skirts and dresses. She quickly grabbed the only small enough skirt and handed it to Rienna before suddenly moving on to another wall to grab a shirt.

Finally, she walked over to a woman seated in the front with a pouch of coins and chatted a little in a strange language before giving her a few coins and pulling Rienna out the door.

Rienna held her new clothes tightly as she followed Rildie through the marketplace and into another shop. This one was full of gleaming metals ranging from swords to daggers, to basic cooking utensils.

“Why do I need a knife?” Rienna asked, eyeing the weapons warily.

Rildie picked up a dagger with a bird carved into its hilt. “Because they’re useful and you might need it,” she said, putting the dagger down and examining another one.

“What would I need it for, though?” Rienna gingerly picked up a dagger with a blade the length of her forearm.

“Not that one,” Rildie said, plucking the dagger from Rienna’s hands. “Try this one.” She shoved the hilt of a knife into Rienna’s grasp.

“Um… Okay.” The dagger in Rienna’s hands was about half the size of the one she had picked up. A flower was engraved in its hilt and the blade had markings etched into it along the spine. She turned it over and saw that on this side there was an engraving of a rainforest cat instead of a flower and that the markings on the blade itself were different also. It was beautiful, but it felt strange in her hands. Even though it was a perfect size, it just seemed weird to be holding a blade. She hardly was allowed to handle knives at home; having her own personal dagger felt… odd.

“It suits you,” Rildie said, interrupting Rienna’s thoughts.

“Really?” Rienna asked looking up. “When am I ever going to use it though?”

“You’d be surprised how useful a blade can be,” Rildie said vaguely. She tossed Rienna a sheath with a matching flower and cat engraving and gave the shop owner a small handful of coins before marching out the door.

Rienna ran after her, careful to hold the clothes around the sheathed knife.

They stopped by a few more vendors on their way back to the central tree, grabbing a belt, a coat, and a pair of shoes. Rienna had sort of forgotten her lack of footwear before Rildie commented on how gross her feet looked. She was somewhat surprised she hadn’t noticed during her time running across the jungle floor. Not wearing shoes now felt normal. Not that it mattered how Rienna felt about shoes since Rildie refused to let her wear any before cleaning herself up.

Rildie led Rienna back up to her temporary house to drop off most of her new items before showing her to a river where she could wash herself. It was stunning. The river ran from the jungle floor and up a twisting tree before pouring gently down a slightly sloped wooden canal. Giant leaves grew off plants whose roots tied themselves to the tree branches, granting separate private spaces.

Rildie left, and once Rienna finished cleaning herself and her clothes, she made her way back to the neighborhood wearing her new shoes and one of the outfits that Rildie bought. She had decided against wearing the leather since it just seemed weird to her, though she knew she would have to try it on eventually.

After hanging her wet clothes in the unused kitchen area, Rienna gathered the courage to go back outside to find Rildie. Despite what she had thought, the shoes somehow made her feel more stable on the wood than without them. The soles gripped the path, unlike any shoe she had worn before. All the shoes in Vieryen were mostly flat besides the occasional heel and were easy to slip in while walking on wet grass. Even if there had been shoes that were more practical in Vieryen, it was unlikely that Rienna’s family had enough money to buy them.

She walked back to the main tree and paused. She wasn’t entirely sure where she wanted to go. If what Rildie said was right, the marketplace would be pretty crowded by now. She wanted to go somewhere, though. She stepped into the stairway and looked up, trying to see where it ended. I wonder what’s over there, she thought, slowly stepping up the staircase.

She decided to just go with it and walk until she found the end of the staircase. She passed several doorways on different sides of the tree, most of them seeming to lead to more neighborhoods. Eventually, though, the staircase came to an end right in front of another doorway, this one with vine curtains blocking her view of what was outside.

Gently, she pulled away the curtains and stepped onto the path. She looked around in awe. The path went forward for about six meters before stopping on a large round platform. All around the path, many types of jungle trees grew within arms reach, as well as branches that sprung from the path itself and grew upwards as if trying to form trees of their own. There was a sign near the entrance, but Rienna didn’t understand the language written on it.

“Viewing port,” Xio said suddenly from behind her.

Rienna looked down at the kitten and tilted her head. “What?”

“The sign says that this is a viewing port.” He flicked his head toward the sign in emphasis.

“Oh.” Rienna had forgotten that Xio could speak or read any language shown to him. “Thanks.”

She slowly walked forward, staring at the trees above. The range of leaves and bark types was amazing. Some had leaves the size of plates, others had leaves so small that a single cluster looked to be a leaf on its own. There was even a tree with soft paper-like bark that pulled away with the slightest pull revealing another layer of flaky bark.

She looked up and froze, catching her eye on a large black bird facing away from her. It turned to preen itself and Rienna was able to see its large curved beak. It saw her staring and turned to face her completely.

She gasped loudly. The bird's eyes were large and white and took up almost its entire head. Its tiny pupils focused on her, which she realized were its real eyes and the white was really feathers.

It stared down at her, unmoving, calculating. Suddenly it broke the silence with a loud squawk.

“Gah!” Rienna yelped, stumbling backward.

“Gah?” the bird repeated, tilting its head questioningly, perfectly mimicking Rienna’s voice.

“Gah!” Rienna’s voice called out from behind her.

She spun around and saw another bird with the same curving beak and giant, unblinking ‘eyes’. She clapped her hand to her mouth to prevent herself from making any noise as her eyes widened in surprise. She felt as though her eyes must be the same size as the birds’ feathered ones.

“Gah!” the first bird said, hopping onto the path next to Rienna. She stepped backwards and into the other bird who had silently joined them on the path.

“Gah!” it exclaimed, staring up at Rienna resentfully. “Gah!”

Rienna startled and stumbled back. Too late, she realized that there was no path to step back on. She flailed her arms and legs, trying to catch a branch to stop her fall. She screamed and the birds peered over the path edge to watch her, squawking “Gah!” at her as she fell. If it weren’t for the fact that she was falling through the air, she would have been embarrassed by how her voice sounded when repeated over and over again by the birds.

Then, after being in free fall for longer than she ever had before, she abruptly stopped. She didn’t feel it; she hadn’t fallen onto anything. But, all of a sudden, she stopped falling.

Her voice caught and she stopped screaming and waving her arms around and turned her head to look below her. There was nothing, she was actually floating in the air.

She started to float upwards, back towards the path. The birds had disappeared from sight and were replaced by Xio and Xia looking anxiously down at her. As she approached the branch, she began tilting until she was completely upright and set gently down.

She sat down and breathed heavily. She hadn’t fallen off any big heights before. The few times she had fallen off an apple tree had been close to the ground; there had never been any chance of serious injury. Just then, though? Even if she didn’t manage to hit the bottom, she could have broken her back falling on a branch of another tree, especially if it was far down enough. She could have died.

“Ahem.” Rienna looked up to see Rildie staring down at her, arms crossed. “It’s time for you to meet with Måren again.”

Rienna slowly stood up again. “How did you know I was here?”

Rildie gave her a curious look. “Well, the shoocans followed by screaming made me think it was you.”

Rienna’s face heated. “Shoocans?” she asked, trying to hide her embarrassment.

“Those birds were shoocans,” Rildie explained. “They mimic voices, but they’re very friendly creatures. Evolved from toucans, I think.”

“Why are they called shoocans?” Rienna asked, wiping her sweaty palms on her skirt. Miraculously, she hadn’t gotten a single scratch. Just a minor heart attack, she joked to herself warily.

Rildie shrugged. “No one really knows. Except maybe Måren. There are two prominent theories, though. Both agree that the ‘-can’ comes from their relation to toucans, but they have different ideas about the ‘shoo.’ One thinks that it comes from how often they’re shooed away. The more popular one tells a story about a young woman who told a bird to ‘shoo’ and it repeated the words for weeks, yelling at random passersby.”

"That's interesting."

"Yeah, well, not as interesting as the story about the wyrvens, but I don't have time to tell you that one," Rildie said, "We have to go, Maren is already waiting."