FanStory.com - Tree Walkingby davisr (Rhonda)

Background
After a fire, 5-year-old Echo Jones finds herself stranded in an ancient forest behind her farm. She is discovered and tended to by a mysterious boy who seems to know more than most his age.

From the last chapters:

Summary: Young Echo Jones is overlooked by first responders as she hides in a wheatfield during a house fire. Both parents presumed dead, she escapes into an ancient forest behind her home. Alone and afraid, she meets up with a young boy from mysterious origins that tends to her while searching for help.

End of Last Chapter:

When she awoke, she found her new friend still sitting beside her and whittling a stick much as she had seen her father do before. He looked at her and smiled with the warmth of childhood innocence.

"Did anyone come for me?" Echo asked.

"Not yet," Theo said, "but if you wait here, I'll go further in the woods and look around."

Echo picked up Cindy and smoothed her pink dress, her tiny hands stroking the soiled teddy bear.

After a bit she said, "I'll wait, but please don't be gone long again. Cindy gets scared."

"I promise to hurry." Theo patted her head, then bounced into the closest tree as easily as one could step onto a curb.

Mesmerized, Echo watched him go. She had always loved climbing trees, but the way he was doing it was ever so much cooler.

*********

New Chapter:

Echo didn't have long to wait before Theo reappeared in a tree above her head. She giggled as he swung from a branch by his knees then dropped playfully to the ground beside her.

"Kyria mou," he said bowing low.

"What does that mean?"

"My Lady, in Greek."

"Is that the language you speak?" Echo had learned about other languages in school. There was a boy from Italy in her class, and another from Sudan in a class across the hall.

"Just a few words my father taught me," Theo explained. "I don't know many. What about you? Do you know any other languages?"

"No, but I think it's cool when people do. Did you find if my grandparents were looking for me?"

"I didn't see anybody, but I'm sure they'll come soon. Why don't we play while we wait?"

"I'd like that," Echo said. "Do you have any toys?"

Theo pulled out a figure from one of the pockets in his overall shorts and handed it to her. "I have this horse I carved while you were sleeping."

Echo rolled it around in her hand and stared in disbelief. "It's perfect. He looks so real I think I could ride him."

"You like horses?"

"I love them," Echo said. "Do they have many where you come from?"

Theo chuckled and gave her a wink. "Absolutely there are. You might have to come visit me after all."

"I wish I could," Echo said. "Can you make another one so we can play together?"

"Yes, if we wanted to spend the time, but I've got a better idea. How would you like to learn to walk in trees?"

"You mean up there?" Echo cocked an eye towards the closest tree.

"Yep. You wouldn't be scared would you?"

"I'm not scared of anything... much, but are you allowed to teach me? I mean, you know, your secret world and all that?"

"No one's ever said I couldn't. Come on, let's give it a try."

"Okay." Echo slipped the horse in her pocket and placed Cindy against the trunk of a tree. "Wait here, Mommy'll be right back."

Echo followed Theo to the base of the tree he had climbed earlier.

"The first step," he said, "is to pick just the right tree."

"Like it would have to have low branches?"

"That's part of it, but there's more. It has to feel right."

"Feel right?"

"Yeah, it'll make more sense later. We'll start with this one. Just watch me and do what I do."

Echo locked her eyes on her new friend, studying his every move. She watched him stand, a bronze arm barely touching the branch above him, and focusing his intense green eyes upward. Then in a movement so fast and so smooth she almost missed it, Theo swooped onto the limb above him.

"How'd you do that?" she asked.

Theo's gentle laugh floated down and tickled her ears. "It's easy. You just have to relax, feel yourself light as a summer breeze, and then move with the energy of the tree. It'll lift you up into its strong branches. If you pick the right tree, it won't let you fall."

"And if you pick the wrong one?"

"Then you'll never make it up without some serious climbing, and then you're on your own as to whether it dumps you off or not. But for now, don't worry, I'll tell you the right ones."

Theo hopped down gracefully and repeated his tree mount, this time slower, exaggerating his movements. Echo watched with rapt attention. When he came back down, she was ready to try it herself.

"Let's do it together," Theo suggested, putting an arm around her waist. "This is the way I taught my little sister, Rebecca. She's just about your age. Are you ready?"

"Yes."

"Okay, I want you to lean against the tree, touch its bark and feel its texture."

"Texture?"

"How it feels to the touch."

Echo shrugged her shoulders, reached behind her and ran her hand back and forth across its rough surface.

"Good, now let its scent, how it smells, fill your nose and surround your senses."

Echo breathed in deeply, absorbing the aroma of the tree.

Theo looked down at her. "You're doing great, now close your eyes and feel the energy of the tree wash over you like the waves of the ocean. Have you ever been to the ocean?"

"Yes, with my parents."

"Good, feel the ebb and flow of the energy of the tree."

"Trees have energy?"

"Everything has energy. Do you feel it?"

"Yeah, sort of."

"Good, now do what I asked."

Echo closed her eyes and relaxed against the tree. The scent, touch and energy of it washed over her. She imagined this almost intangible energy was water.

"I do feel it," Echo said. There was surprise and delight in her voice.

Theo made no verbal response, but his arm squeezed slightly. "The next time the energy comes, we'll jump with it just like with an ocean wave. It'll push us up."

Echo leaned against Theo's side, and leapt up on his signal. She gasped with excitement as they made a perfect landing on the lowest limb. Instinctively, she tried to sit, but Theo held her in a standing position.

"Don't cower on the branch like a leopard," he said. "You must be an eagle who doesn't fear to move around on its sturdy branches. Trees respect bravery."

Echo stood up firmly beside Theo, determined to be a stately eagle and not a skulking leopard.

"I'm going to tie a handkerchief around your eyes," Theo said, pulling a strangely scented cloth from the pocket on his overall shorts and tying it gently over her eyes. "This is to help you learn to walk on the branches without being afraid."

"I already told you I'm not scared."

"You will be as soon as we get up higher," Theo assured her. "Everyone is in the beginning. My mother says the main reason people fall from trees is because they expect to."

"What does that mean?" Echo asked, as she was wont to do. She pulled the cloth up and peeked from under it.

"It means that when you stop being scared of trees, you can learn to be their friend and then you won't fall. Now stop peeking, that's cheating."

"Okay, I won't, but you were talking to me."

"And I will keep talking to you, but you aren't supposed to look at me, alright?"

"Fine."

"Now close your eyes, even though they are covered, and listen to my voice. I will tell you where and when to step. When I let go of you, come to my voice."

"Is this a game?"

"Yes, and it's my favorite."

For the next hour or so, the two kids made their way around the trees close to the cave-like clearing. Theo would instruct and guide, Echo would follow with a combination of blind trust and an indomitable sense of adventure.

Before long, Theo removed her blindfold, and encouraged her to climb higher and higher in the trees, and to boldly jump from one branch to another. What would have taken an adult weeks to learn, young Echo was taught in one afternoon.

As evening approached, and she grew tired of tree climbing, she realized she was hungry again. The pair got down out of the trees, and Echo sat on the soft leaves to wait for Theo to go fishing again.

"I'll be back as soon as I have food," he promised, his green eyes shining with a light that came from within. "Wait here for me, just like you did before."

"Can't I go with you? I can walk in the trees like you, now. Maybe you can teach me to fish, too."

"You're tired," he said. "I'll teach you tomorrow when you've rested."

"But, aren't your parents getting worried about you? You've been with me all day, and I don't want to be alone again. It's getting dark outside."

"I've sent a message to my parents where I am and what I'm doing."

"But, you don't have a phone."

"I don't need one."

"I won't be gone long," he said, leaning down and kissing her cheek tenderly.

She looked at him in surprise. Why did the simple gesture of one child to another make her heart beat faster, and why did her cheek feel warm long after he had leapt into the tree to go find food?