Aki

Aki

~ Wise | Mysterious | Leafy ~

Many more days dawn. Sometimes the forest is quiet, and we move about, scavenging the insects still foolish enough to crawl on our bark. Other days the creatures fly overhead, making us freeze, nothing more than trees to their eyes. I puzzled over why we must remain a secret, but I learned to keep my beak shut around the others. They did not like unnecessary mention of the strange beings that flew over our treetops.

One evening, as we were milling about, I heard the familiar signal. Coming to stand silently in a bush, I reached my wings to the sky, allowing the tips to fall around my head. A perfect tree. My eyes were the only things to move, darting to and fro, trying to get a glimpse of the creature.

I nearly jumped, disrupting my perfect camouflage, as something big and heavy landed on my mother's wing. I recovered, and peered through my leafy feathers at it.

It was the creature.

I admired my mother's steadfastness, staying completely still even with this thing on her. It seemed to suspect nothing, testing the weight of the branches under it. Mother took the opportunity to sway slightly, causing it to shift, launching into the air again in search of a more stable branch. Unfortunately, a second too late I realized I was its next target.

"AAAGH!" I lost my balance as it alighted on my head, toppling me over onto the ground. It remained on my back. A twist of my head revealed the image of what was behind me. A tall, slender creature with four legs and wings, much like me, but not as leafy. Its mouth hung open in utter disbelief.

My glance flicked back toward my mother, who was gone. She must have silently disappeared along with the rest of the tribe when I was discovered. The only thing left to do was find out the answers I'd been looking for all my life. I took a deep breath.

"What ARE you?" we both blurted in unison. I clamped my mouth shut, as did it. We were both too stunned to reply to either question.

It recovered more quickly. "You've... really never seen a dragon before?"

"What's a dragon?" I asked stupidly, before realizing he must be referring to himself. "Oh, sorry. Well, I've seen your kind before, but... I've never gotten the answer as to what you are called."

It blinked a little, apparently still stunned by my cluelessness. Eventually it asked its question again. "What are you?"

I was not at all surprised, as we like to keep secluded from many creatures. Nevertheless, I found myself stumped (haha)-- mother always urged me to stay silent, and never explained much of anything. Besides, we were forbidden to share information with these strangers-- Dragons? Whatever they were.

Glancing toward the trees, I realized I'd never be let back in anyways. I had been discovered. There was no way to undo that. I sighed, telling the stranger all I knew.

"So..." it started, "You remain unseen, pretending to be trees in harmony with the forest?"

I nodded. It was odd to move in the presence of a Dragon. The sheer rebellion of it filled me with excitement and dread.

"Well, enough of what you are. Who are you? What's your name?"

I cocked my head. "Name? Oh! You mean what kind of tree I am. I'm an Autumn Sassafras, like my mom."

"That's not really what I meant. What do they call you?"

Nobody called me anything. We were just there, silent in the trees. "Do dragons have these... names?"

It seemed to become more and more confused. It finally realized it was still sitting on my back, and jumped off, murmuring apologies. "Well, yes, dragons have names. I'm Tanglang. I didn't realize that was strange or anything."

Tanglang sounded nice. Tanglang. Tanglang, Tanglang, Tanglang. Tonggg, longgg. It seemed like a treasure, something personal and special that only you kept. I looked at Tanglang, excitement in my eyes. "How do I get one???"

Tanglang seemed amused. "Um, well, I can give you a name, I guess, if you want it that quickly."

I nodded vigorously.

"Well, let's see. The best names mean something in some tongue far away. Like my name means Mantis. Well, let's see, it's fall right now, and you've got orange... leaves? Feathers? Yeah, those. I think I remember that 'Aki' means fall, and that sounds pretty nice. How would you like that?"

"It's perfect," I whispered. "Thank you."