Chapter 2: The Story of Adan Pt2

After rushing to the chief, who laid in leaves, and telling him everything he saw, the chief and villagers immediately assumed they were witches as they began discussing plans for a witch hunt.

A wise owl, sitting atop a tree, heard and understood everything the humans said under their trees before flying to Adan to warn him of the danger, which would be upon him by dawn. The animal whisperer, Adan, kindly asked the owl for a favor, which she did without question.

Adan tried to quickly wake his parents, but by the time they were up, there was already the sound of heavy steps and yelling in the distance. To these sounds, they all ran as fast as possible to the mountains near the village. If they made it to the mountains, Adan said they'd be safe, for his favor would come into play.

The parents knew they'd not make it to the mountains, so they looked at each other with a tacit agreement. They each took one arm of Adan and swung him to the mountains before being brutally stabbed in their backs with pitchforks and spears.

Once the villagers arrived at the entrance of the mountains, the wise owl kept her word as she began rallying wolves and rams to keep the humans at bay.

Getting up, the boy limped through a tunnel, linking to a narrow valley. After taking his final decrepit step through the tunnel, a rampaging ram sacrificed himself to collapse it. Adan then wept and mourned for many hours, for he knew his parents were dead.

Wiping away his tears, the boy decided to walk down the path that lay in front of him. Looking up, Adan noticed he was in a valley, but he didn't know where the rocky walls led.

The boy would travel by day and rest by night. Finally, after three long days of traveling with no food or water, he stumbled upon what seemed to be a forest on mountains. The wise owl had already prepared the animals for Adan's arrival, so they'd composed his veggie meal beforehand.

Adan thanked the animals for the food and ate. After eating his dead-wood plate of carrots and greens, he was taken by animals to see a good witch who lived on the far side of the same Forest Mountain.

Sitting on her rotting stump, the good witch told the boy that if he ever felt sad or alone, or needed help with anything, then come to her. After spending little time with the witch, Adan was brought to a long-lived, but young-looking tree that'd been there since the animals first migrated to the mountains. None knew how the tree came to be, not even the beetles and bugs, who'd often asked the tree.

Adan asked the animals how to speak to plants so that he could ask the tree himself one day. The animals took a moment to laugh at the boy, calling him foolish for even considering such a thing; however, the laughter was soon brought to a pause by the wise owl, who'd saved Adan.

The owl's violet feathers gallantly danced as she flew to a nearby branch, and her pale violet beak spoke diligently. The forest animals greatly respected the owl, for she was the only one to receive the answerless tree's wisdom.

"To understand plants, you must first learn the language of insects, something an ignorant human could never hope to accomplish! By accepting our knowledge, you're accepting our ways and our trials. Though you may gain our understanding, you may never wish to achieve what you seek."

"After knowing this, dare I ask, do you still wish to proceed?" the owl asked, still looking down on them from the oak tree where she'd landed.

"I don't care what I must do! Even if the chances are slim, I still wish to proceed!" the boy replied without a second thought.

The owl did not expect such determination. "Then it shall be done," she said before flying off into the mountains.

The animals were at odds with the owl's decision but could not oppose her command as they would begin their teachings at dawn.

For the next five years, Adan would go through a series of trials: battling boars with bare hands, outsmarting foxes, studying and eating live bugs to understand their chemistry better, then making amends later on.

For another five years, he was taught by both animals and insects the properties and lifestyles of a simple plant. Finally, it wasn't long before he'd understood the simple plant well enough to speak with them; he soon understood plants on a more complex level after speaking with simple plants.

Ten years had passed him by, and he was finally ready to ask the unanswered question to the tree he'd slept under in his stay. He told himself he'd ask in the morning, but the tree opposed the idea.

Then, just as Adan was nodding off, the tree began to talk.

The first words that were ever spoken to him by the mysterious tree were, "You wish to know my age, do you? I must say, that's rather rude of you to ask, but I suppose I could oblige, seeing how hard you've worked for it."

The boy was startled but at the same time filled with joy, for he didn't think the tree would tell him outright. Adan replied with a 'yes, please'; thus, the real story began.

To start things off, the tree told the boy to stop calling her "it" and call her Clover, for that was her name. The boy apologized for calling her "it" all those years, which she acknowledged. Clover then said to him that she might have seemed like a young tree, but she was over 400 million years old in reality.

"Impossible," Adan thought, for he was sure that a tree couldn't live past the age of 10,000, let alone 400 million. Fortunately, the tree could see his confusion as he stood looking down in front of her, so she let him in on another secret. Clover told the boy it was because she was the first.

"The first what?" the boy asked in confusion, now looking up at the tree.

"The first tree," Clover announced with pride.

"I guess that makes sense," Adan mumbled as they continued their conversation.

Several conversations later, Clover and Adan found themselves becoming closer to one another. Several years later, they'd fallen in love and decided to get married through human methods.

They were happy to get married but sad they couldn't have a child.

Adan fell asleep on the night of their marriage, filled with sorrow but rose the following day with a joyous idea. He'd made up his mind to see the good witch that he'd visit when he was young. So, the boy set out by morning and arrived at her stump by night.

After Adan explained his situation, the good witch knew what to do.