Wasting Time
Chapter Thirteen: Strange Sightings
The next morning dawned bright and hot. It was fairly comfortable underground in the bonding complex, but wherever Riya went, he either ran into dragons making preparations for the ceremony that night, excited kits also preparing for the ceremony, or Mister Military, who seemed to be prowling around the complex like a restless wolf. Evola and Evoli were nowhere to be found; or, at least, they were buried deep in the dragonets' side of the dormitories, and Riya didn't really want to wade through all the other kits to find them. Besides, they were probably just as busy as the rest and didn't need him pestering them.
So, unwilling to spend his last day to himself holed up in his room but wanting to avoid all the bustle and noise of the complex, Riya found his way outside to the forested mountainsides surrounding the city. He knew that this close to Sanctuary, the forests were free of anything potentially dangerous, so he didn't worry about wandering freely, as long as he didn't stray too far.
It was cool under the shade of the trees, and quiet. Riya walked through them for nearly an hour, by his guess, before he found a tree with limbs low enough for him to grab a hold of and clamber up into. It was a strange sensation, climbing a tree; Riya had never done it before. He'd climbed buildings before, and walls, but never something as simple and natural as a tree. The bark was rough under his hands, but not rough enough to be uncomfortable, and the branches were at odd angles to each other, which made it quite a feat to get from one to the next. Still, it was an enjoyable challenge, so Riya kept climbing until he couldn't get any higher up-- and that was quite a ways, for like everything else on Avengaea, the trees were dragon-sized.
Settled there, snug between two close-growing branches, Riya could see the whole valley that Sanctuary was settled in, and beyond to the flatter country beyond the dragon city's ridges. Dragons rose from the buildings and the massive dome that he could see clearly even from this distance, taking flight and heading off in various directions with various goals in mind. From this distance, they looked like brightly-colored birds rising from a patch of stone flowers, all golden and fiery and shining white. Riya watched them contentedly for a while, leaning back against the tree-trunk and half-closing his eyes against the sunlight, until movement to his right caught his attention.
Turning to look, Riya frowned, for all he could see were trees and leaves and the occasional patch of earth between them. There wasn't enough of a breeze to cause the deliberate movement Riya had glimpsed. He was about to chalk whatever had moved up to his imagination, starting to turn back to the city with its comings and goings of dragons, when again something moved. This time Riya saw it, and had to grab for the branch at his elbow to keep from falling out of the tree in surprise.
Because what was moving was a tree, but not a tree like any Riya had ever seen. It was gnarled and twisted, but it split halfway down into two trunk-like legs, and two more branches twisted from what could have been shoulders into what could have been arms-- they even ended in twiggy hands with far too many fingers. Somewhere amidst the leafy boughs Riya even thought he could see small, glittering eyes. The tree-figure was easily as tall as a dragon, and it moved with a tedious slowness, as if the scraggly roots protruding from the thick... Riya supposed they must have been feet, as if they were trying to grip the ground even as the tree-figure drug them free with another step.
Riya scrambled around to try and see better as the tree-figure continued on and out of his immediate range of view. But by the time he had twisted around and gotten a secure seat again, he had lost sight of it among the real trees-- or, as Riya had the sudden erie suspicion, it had rooted itself down in a new place, lifted its arms, and shut its eyes, becoming indistinguishable from the real trees around it. Back on Earth, that thought would be preposterous, but here on Avengaea... well, anything was possible. The thought was a little disturbing-- but whatever that tree-figure was, it couldn't be dangerous, or the dragons would have chased it away by now. Right?
Only now realizing how late it was getting, Riya started making his careful way down to the ground. It took much longer to get down than it did to get up, especially since he kept pausing and looking around, trying to spot the tree-figure again. By the time his feet were on the ground again, his watch said he had just under an hour to get back to the complex for the light lunch prepared to tide them all over for the banquet. Then would be rehearsal for the ceremony, and then an hour to get ready before the actual ceremony. Riya would have to hurry to make it, so he put thoughts of walking trees out of his mind and focused on making sure he didn't trip in his haste and fall down the mountainside instead of walk.