Under the Crab-Apple Trees

“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” - Martin Luther King Jr

Erin woke up with a start. He had been napping when he shouldn’t have been. The stars had come out and Erin was late for his meeting with Tyrannel.

Ela! I need you now! he said impatiently. He had been told by Wren that Ela would sleep in a special phoenix stall next to Arletem. Both Menervan and Wren were back in his family quarters, so Erin wouldn’t be noticed.

Yes, Young One, said Ela. Erin could hear the distant sounds of wings beating through their minds. Ela swooped through the tree with remarkable speed and hovered next to the tree.

Thank you! Erin said. He took a deep breath and made a flying leap onto Ela’s back.

Take me to the princess, he said and they soared off. Erin had not forgotten the thrill of flying, but still, the air rushing past was surprising. Ela’s wings cut through the air, soaring on the breezes of the winter wind. They found their way around the large oaks, birches, redwoods, and aspens. Every time they passed close to a road, Erin could hear the occasional snore from an elve. Finally, Erin spotted the landing pad on the largest redwood. They came gently to a halt. There was no one on the balcony. Erin was puzzled.

Are we really that late? he asked Ela.

No, I do not think so. Ela said. Her musical tone was puzzled as well.

Suddenly, Tyrannel came rushing around the balcony and into sight. She was panting.

“I apologize, Erindel, for my tardiness,” She said in her voice that was as clear as a stream. “The Un Dalen have reached some of our outermost outposts, and the Queen kept me at a personal briefing.”

“I accept your apology,” Erin said, but he was thinking otherwise.

This is all their fault! he burst out to Ela. They’re the ones who are getting the Lady executed! Erin sat stonily beside Ela and examined Tyrannel.

“So aren’t you going to tell me the True Meaning of My Name, or whatever?” Erin asked with fire on his tongue.

“No, I am not,” Tyrannel said. “The Queen decided it was not the right time.”

“The Queen decided it was not the right time,” Erin mimicked in a sickening impression of Tyrannel. “Well, guess what she did decide?” he said, with his voice back to pretended normal. “To execute the Lady!” he spat at Tyrannel.

“So that’s what you call her, ‘The Lady’” Tyrannel stung back. “No traitor should deserve that honor.” With that, Erin mounted Ela and flew away, in a fit of fury. The only thing they left was a golden feather that Tyrannel picked up. Erin did not notice that a tear was finding its way down the elve’s face. He jumped off Ela when they got back to his quarters. The unfairness of the world was overwhelming. He could not bear it. He flung himself into the hammock and promptly fell into a fretful sleep.

The girl did not enter his dreams the other half of the night, and Erin feared the worst when he woke up. He told Wren of her when they met at the magical restaurant for breakfast, but he only believed it was a dream. Even Erin, when the sunlight had touched his face, decided it was all a fantasy of his mind. He did not tell Wren of the argument he had had last night. They ate silently and then clambered down the now busy ladder to school. Erin was surprised to see Ela perched on a ladder above the school, her scarlet and golden feathers glistening in the golden light of the cold winter sun. More snow had fallen, but Erin did not fight back when Wren hurled a chunk of the fresh snow at him.

A stream of elves were entering the schoolhouse, and Wren and Erin followed them.

“What do you reckon it will be like?” Wren asked. Erin just shrugged.

“Tell you what,” Wren said, sensing his friend’s discomfort. “I’ll take you to Whiz Juice during lunch break, and we’ll have the time of our lives!” Erin brightened up a bit at the thought of spending time laughing with his best friend. When they got through the traffic and into the small door, Erin found himself looking at rows of school desks, much like the ones in the normal school that he went to before he fell into this world of magic, except they were made of twirling vines, with a slab of birch wood on top. At the front of the room sat a female elve with dark skin, curly black hair, and sparkling blue elven eyes. She was sitting behind a desk of oak adorned with carvings and a row of twenty quills and ink bottles. Behind her, on a board of birch, written in curly handwriting was: Welcome class! I am Mrs. Wood, your teacher for your thirteenth year!

“Please line up in front of my desk so I can assign you seats!” Mrs. Wood said over the ruckus of the young elves talking. She had a beautiful voice like swishing leaves. Erin hastily lined up with the nineteen other elves in front of the dark oak desk.

“Myale, Astrid, row five seat B,” she said to a girl with pretty cloud-white hair.

“Starr, Wren, row two seat E,” she said to Wren.

“Finn, Erindel,” she said. She paused momentarily and looked back at her sheet. A surprised look came over her face. Erin shifted uncomfortably. He was not used to the fame that the prophecy gave him. “Row two, seat F,” she said. Erin took a green folder that the teacher handed him, and walked to the seat next to Wren. They exchanged grins and opened their folders. Inside the folders, they found cream colored papers with the same curly gold handwriting on them, asking questions like, ‘Where is the start of a circle?’ and ‘What is faith?’. Erin looked around at the elves surrounding him. Some friends were chatting, and some were just looking at the creamy papers. To his left sat Wren, and to his right sat an elven girl with tan skin and blonde-tan hair. His eyes met hers, and he quickly looked away. He could hear the girl giggling with the elve next to her.

“Quiet, class!” the teacher said, rapping the desk with her ruler, calling for attention. She snapped her fingers, and the golden letters on the board erased themselves, and new ones appeared reading: What is faith? In the same curly hand.

“I want you to write two paragraphs with your answer,” she clicked her fingers again, and fresh pages of parchment arranged themselves in front of the students. Then the ink bottles and quills zoomed over to the tables one by one. Erin awkwardly picked up the feather and dipped into the blacker than night ink.

He watched other elves balance their quills on their parchment, and start whispering instructions to it. So Erin balanced his surprisingly light quill on the paper, and whispered to it,

“Faith is trust and compassion without complete understanding. Faith in a person places your trust in that person. To have faith is to believe and trust without any hesitation.” To Erin’s surprise, the quill scribbled the words on the paper. Erin took a breath. He scooted the pen down to the next paragraph.

“I placed faith in the Lady when she told me of the world of magic, even though I didn’t completely understand,” he said to the quill, his heart speaking for him. A pang of numbness washed through his body. “The elven court was not willing to place their faith in the Lady’s word, so even if their actions are wrong, they have faith in what they are doing. In my opinion, no one should have faith in killing.” He told the quill to stop and handed his paper to the teacher. When all the papers had been turned in, the teacher went to each elve and commented on their paper. When she reached Erin, she only said, “See me during break.” And moved on.

Erin didn’t know what he had done wrong. Well, that was untrue, he thought. His political opinion could’ve been unwelcome with the teacher— but still, it was only a writing assignment. He bowed his head in shame as Mrs. Wood made her way through the rows of students like a snake, praising them for their abilities. Once she had finished she snapped her fingers and the words erased themselves.

In their place, a large golden circle had appeared.

“Class, can you tell me where the beginning and end of this circle is?” she asked. Erin tentatively raised his hand. He noticed that all the other elves had their hands up as well, waving them in the air like a flock of odd birds.

“Yes, Erindel?” the teacher called him, waiting for his answer.

“There is no start or end to a circle,” Erin said. “It is infinite.”

“Thank you, Erin,” the teacher said, plastering a fake smile on her face. “Excellently phrased.” Erin did not know how he knew a circle’s infinity, it was just there all the sudden, in his head, an epiphany. It was like that for the following questions, Erin raised his hand, the teacher called on him, even though the rest of the class had their hands up as well. And when Erin answered the questions, he did not know how he knew what the answers were. He started hearing whispers of, “Teacher’s pet,” and “Show off.”

Finally, break came and he was free from the uncomfortable classroom. He and Wren were about to cheerily run off to Fizz Juice, when Mrs. Wood strode in front of their path, blocking their way.

“Mind if I join you?” she asked. Both Erin and Wren shook their heads.

“Erin, I must apologize for picking you to answer each time,” she said guiltily. “I was instructed by the Royalty to find out if you were really an elve.”

“Of course I’m an elf!” Erin burst out, confused.

“I know that now.” Mrs. Wood said primly.

“Well, how did those questions help?” Erin asked curiously.

“The answers of those questions are second nature to elves,” Mrs. Wood said. “So it was an easy way to tell if your were an elf.”

“Now if you don’t mind, I’ll be going,” she said. She was about to turn her backs to them when Erin protested.

“Wait!” he said annoyed. “What about my writing assignment?” The teacher stopped. It looked like she had been dreading this moment.

“Erin, I have to agree with you,” she said sadly. “No one should place faith in killing, but in the court’s case, they don’t have faith. They only have a dim hope that it is the best for the world.”

“Well, they’re wrong,” Erin said, barely holding back his anger. He and Wren sped away down the path to the ladder in the distance, leaving the shocked teacher behind.

“What was that about?” Wren asked as they reached the ladder. Other elves were rushing past them, their tunics swishing in the light breeze. Erin didn’t say anything, for he was near tears of frustration.

“Tell me later?” Wren asked placidly. Erin nodded, thankful for Wren’s understanding. They climbed down the ladder in silence. Soon, they reached the snow-covered ground, shining like thousands of diamonds dropped from the sky.

“Which tree is Fizz Juice in?” Erin asked, breaking the silence.

“It’s in the Spice Tree,” Wren said, grinning boyishly. “I bet a Kern you that’s where everyone in our year is going to be, the Spice tree is home to the best candy shops in all of the forest!” Erin grinned. He was looking forward to the outing.

“Hey!” he said, suddenly struck by a thought. “We could visit Aria! She lives in the Spice Tree!” The two agreed that they would send Genervan to find Aria, and bring her to them.

They reached the Spice Tree, which a laurel tree of incredible size, the golden light of the sun could not penetrate its leaves, so it cast an eerie green light on the snow. The ladder was smaller than the one on their own tree, with room enough for only three elves to climb up. Erin thought he spied some Fairies watching him, their yellow eyes peeking out from behind the green leaves of the tree. That was something odd about Ysterra, Erin thought. Never even in the cold winter did the green leaves of all the trees change color and fall. It was as if they would live forever, watching the seasons slowly slip away through the ages. It was magical, Erin decided, freezing Ysterra’s trees in their summer colors.

They reached Fizz Juice on the third floor a short while after they started climbing. The streets were generally empty, except for the occasional afternoon shopper, and the birds who were belting out their songs in full chorus. They walked down the empty dark wooden path, and as they walked farther, they saw more elves, surrounding the bright windows of candy shops, laughing as they licked lollipops in the beautiful shapes of birds or butterflies. Erin saw a young girl drinking a bottle of what looked to be Fizz Juice, giggling as she swallowed the glowing golden liquid. Then, she blew bubbles out of her mouth like some queer dragon. They were of all different colors, and as Erin watched, he began to realize that they were under the girl’s command, swooping and gliding, making hearts and stars and other pretty things.

The children were not much different the children in the Above World, Erin thought. At least they behaved in the same way around candy as the children Erin knew in the town.

Wren led Erin into a bright neon green painted shop, with drawings of bubbles and the ocean on its windows, and— Erin could not believe his eyes! They were moving, the waves of bubbles were crashing, and the bubbles were floating around the window like lost birds with jubilant hearts. The door jingled as the entered, and they found themselves inside a small shop, with a counter at the back adorned with all types of candies, some were in a cage, for they were trying to fly away, some were shaped like castles, and Erin thought he caught a light flickering in one of the windows. The shop smelled faintly like sugar and fresh mint chocolate. Erin smiled, for he had never seen anything as appetizing in his life. He and Wren went up to the counter where a teenaged elve sat, twisting her black hair into intricate buns.

“Excuse me?” Wren said. “Can we have two Cherry Bomb Fizz Juices?” The elve nodded and fetched some beautiful red cherries from a bin with a top covered in frost. She took a pinch of golden powder and blew it over the cherries. Then, she put it in a shredding machine with razor-like blades, and a red liquid with golden swirls in it came out and gathered in a small tub. Then the elve took two cups, dipped them in the bowl, and handed them to Wren and Erin. They took the pleasantly warm drinks and sat down at a nearby table, which was made of wood in the shape of spiraling vines with a thin slab of blue granite on top, like a smooth blue water of stone. They sat on small stools and set the drinks (which were emitting a tantalizing flavor of fresh cherry and syrup) on the table. Erin took a sip. It was warm, not quite hot, with a perfect syrupy flavor, filled with bubbles that popped and fizzed on his tongue, filling the drink with a beautiful spice. When Erin breathed out, a stream of bubbles flowed out like a dragon’s fire. Erin’s thoughts had strayed to the apple he had picked that day that seemed so long ago, that had sent him into this world.

The bubbles took the shape of the apple and turned the exact golden color that it had had. Erin smiled. He turned his mind to the girl. The bubbles grew smaller and smaller. They duplicated themselves, and in front of Erin stood the girl, with her ruff cut hair, and phoenix helm. Wren stared.

“So she’s real,” he said, confounded.

“What do you mean?” asked Erin.

“The bubbles can only show real things,” Wren said, gaping at the girl. “Do you know what her name is?”

“No, I don’t,” Erin said, realizing the large gap in information he had. “I think she’s some sort of royalty.” Wren scoffed.

“And my Aunt is the Queen.”

They ate the rest of their Fizz Juice in happy silence and walked out of the restaurant. They ran all the way down the street to the ladder, for most of the elves were leaving, and that meant school was back in. Erin was about to climb down the ladder when Wren said, “Wait, there’s a faster way than that.” Erin looked quizzically at Wren.

“The zip-line,” Wren said, pointing out a cable attached to a branch that Erin hadn’t noticed before. Wren grabbed onto one of the many handles lined up on the zip-line’s end. He pushed himself off and went whizzing down the cable. Erin could see that it led to another tree in the distance. He summoned all his courage, took a handle, and went whizzing along. He felt like a bird without wings. He was flying through the trees, zooming through leaves of silver and green. He could see there was a stop on the tree he was approaching, but he did not let go. He whizzed around a corner and could see the Deer Tree approaching fast. He saw Wren let go of the handle, and nimbly land on both feet by the school. Erin closed his eyes, and let go. He came tumbling to the street in a large heap of green robes. When he got up, he was grinning.

“Is that the elves’ mode transportation?” he asked Wren as they strode into the school house. “Yes,” Wren said. “But some, like my father, prefer walking.”

Most of the class had assembled as they took their seats. A few more elves dashed into the room. Mrs. Wood did a head count, just in case. She seemed satisfied as she sat down at her desk and clicked her fingers. The board erased itself, and the curly handwriting assembled. It read: ‘Mentorship Instructions’ In a bold golden color.

“Now, class,” she said. “I would like you to line up, so you can receive your satchels, in which you will put your school work, which is in your folder, your mentorship instructions, and any tools of your trade that you require. I will be letting you out early so you can meet your mentors.”

All the elves lined up in front of the desk and Mrs. Wood handed out the satchels. One by one, like ants leaving a nest, the elves walked out the door, and into their new life. Erin’s satchel was made of a silver leather. It had two large pockets inside and two brown leather straps. Erin scooped up his school work and put it into the smaller of the two pouches, and left the room. Wren followed him, with his blue satchel slung over his back.

“I’m going to go fetch my bow,” Erin said to Wren.

“I’ll meet you in the school yard after our mentors are done with us!” Wren replied cheerfully. Erin watched Wren speed off towards the row of smith shops past the school, and then turned around, and saw Genervan, pacing around by the ladder.

What’s wrong? Erin asked.

She’s not there, said Genervan.

Was Aria at school?

She’s not anywhere. Erin was troubled.

It’s ok, he told the worried phoenix. We’ll find her eventually.

Then he sped off, up the ladder, and to his house. He took Zelynda off her shelf and strapped her to his side. He slung his quiver beside his satchel and took his bow in his hand. He left the armor where it was on its stand.

When he reached the first level again, the Menervan had left. Erin walked along the row of smithies. He thought he spotted Wren in one that was decorated with all kinds of silver castles, with lakes rippling at their feet like a rug come to life.

He found Inyelen’s place, a small building, with a single sign hanging above the door saying; Best Trackers, Hunters, and Warriors Since Time Began. Erin hesitantly pushed open the door. Inyelen was talking with a girl wearing a dark cloak, and grey-blue eyes peeking out from under it— it was Lark, he realized.

“Lark!” Erin exclaimed, wondering if he had seen wrong in the poorly lit room. “Why are you here?” Immediately, Lark rushed out through the door like a scared bird.

“Why was Lark here?” he asked Inyelen, confused.

“Oh,” Inyelen said casually. “You mean Cardinal? She’s one of my apprentices. Just gets a little frightened now and then. She’s Lark’s cousin.” Erin thought this was quite odd. He had never heard of a girl named Cardinal, but then again, he had never heard of a boy named Wren before he met Wren. He decided he would ask Wren about Cardinal.

“Today is not a good day for you to be here, Erin, I apologize for the inconvenience, I have a hunt in about an hour,” Inyelen said. “Scurry off now, and come back tomorrow.” Without another word, Inyelen slammed the door and his face, and Erin was left feeling shunned as if dropped from a bird’s nest. He shook himself, confused. He walked down the snowy road, the little white crystals shining like a cold fire in the light of the sun. He walked away, feeling downcast. He looked and found a zip-line hanging from a branch, the wooden handles lined up like little brown birds on the cable. He grabbed on one of them, and not caring where he went and sent himself fling into beyond.

The air was nice and refreshing. He breathed in the magic, and out his hopeless fears for the Lady. Everything was going to be okay. He hoped. He bumbled into the street and sent a young elf and her satchel cascading to the floor.

“Oh! I’m sorry!” Erin said. The streets were crowded, and the small elve was having trouble picking up her fallen herbs.

“It’s okay,” she said with a lopsided grin. She cocked her head. Erindel noticed a small hawk was perched on her shoulder. She had the Lady’s rich brown skin and shimmering black hair.

“You look like the boy I saw wandering on the outskirts of the forest a few days ago, with my mother,” she said.

“The Lady is your mother?” Erin asked, knowing that he was the boy she was talking about.

“Yes, she is, although I never really knew her well. She left right after your mother’s time ran out. Welcome, cousin, to the clan of Whisperers. Oh yeah, my name is Ardrieth,” she stuck out her tongue at Erin.

“I’m Erin,” Erin said. “How old are you?”

“Fourteen orbits,” said Ardrieth. “Mind if I join you?”

“No,” Erin said. “But I’m not really going anywhere.”

“Thought so,” Ardrieth said. “Then you’re in luck because I’m not either.” she smiled.

“Don’t you have to go to your mentor?” Erin asked.

“Nope!” she said. “I’m a druid. It works like this: I travel through the forest for multiple days with my mentor, and then I come home for a day or two, and I can do what I like. No school for me!” Now it was Erin’s turn to smile.

“Do you want to go to Fizz Juice?” he asked.

“Sure!” she said.

Ten minutes later, they emerged from a refreshing drink of Fizz Juice, which Ardrieth had never tasted before.

“Where is your phoenix?” he asked her.

“Oh, he’s probably flying around somewhere in the forest, keeping the elves updated on the approach of the Un Dalen,” she said. She paused for a moment. Her brow furrowed.

“I have to go, now,” she said. “It would be best if you went and strapped on your armor. Oh, and ask your friend Wren for a shield.”

Then she was off, weaving her way through the crowds of elves. Erin had a sinking feeling in his stomach. He thought he knew what her phoenix had told her.