Arrow

by Samantha M. Clark

  “What’s wrong, Guardian?” He hugged my trunk. “What’s happening?”

  I didn’t want to tell him the truth, even though he would discover it soon enough. But Petari’s father had been right—untruths pollute us, and this forest had enough pollution from the outside world.

  Petari and Val hurried to my side as well.

  “What is it?” Petari asked.

  “I am too weak, Arrow,” I said. “I have been giving my nutrients to help the younger trees. Ones that were burned. Ones that were suffocated. Ones whose soil is more scorched than mine.”

  “But I’ll help them,” Arrow said. “We’ll help the other trees, right?” He turned to Petari, Val, and the rest of the children. They nodded, murmured, “Yes” and “Of course.”

  But that would not be enough.

  “They need help that only I can give,” I said. “And if I don’t help them, they will die.”

  “But you’re too weak.” The pitch of Arrow’s voice was getting higher and higher, filled with panic. “If you help all the trees in the forest, you won’t have any nutrients for yourself. You’ll die. You can’t die, Guardian. Please, don’t die.”

  Petari gasped. Tears sprung to her eyes.

  Tears were in Arrow’s throat and voice, and now flowed down his cheeks.

  “It’s all right, Arrow.” I tried to make my voice as gentle as possible. “I have lived for many, many, many rings. More than you will ever see. And I will never fully be gone. Many of the trees in this forest grew from my seeds. I will be in them and in every animal that has lived in my shade and every insect that has feasted on my leaves.”

  “But—”

  “Listen to me, Arrow. I was wrong about the humans.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Not all humans are like the Imposters. And even when humans make mistakes, they can change,” I said. “You trusted that they could be good. You believed in them, Arrow. When you believe in someone, you open a door and hope they’ll step inside. I had forgotten that, and how much the forest needs humans to be a part of our lives, just like humans need the forest. When we live together, we are better than when we live separately. I hope that one day, the curtain will no longer be needed.”

  Arrow smiled, a tear-filled smile, and hugged me tighter.

  I pulled on some Anima, wriggled a few of my roots, and lifted them from the soil. Wrapping them around my boy, I hugged him close.

  “You are the very best thing that has happened to this forest for many rings,” I told him. “You, Arrow, are our magic.”

  Tears streamed from the children’s eyes. Curly leaped into my branches and wrapped her arms around me. Petari flung her arms around my trunk. Then Val. Then Safa. Then Storma, and Luco, and… all the herd piled up to hug me.

  “I love you, Arrow,” I said. “You are strong. You are good. You will protect this forest.”

  “No!” Arrow screamed. “Don’t die.”

  But my end had come. The last of my nutrients and knowledge passed through my roots to the other trees and flora in the forest.

  My rest…

  came…

  now…

  33

  “Arrow…

  “Arrow, can you hear me?

  “Arrow, are you there?

  “Arrow! We have work to do.”

  Arrow doesn’t look up. He’s still sobbing by my mother’s side, arms wrapped around her trunk.

  But there is movement among the children. The girl, Petari, pokes her head above the others and says, “Did you guys hear that?”

  “Petari,” I say. “You can hear me?”

  She pulls herself out of the huddle of children and glances around. “Whoa! Who said that?”

  “It is me, the Guardian.”

  Her brother looks up at her then, eyes wide, heart thumping. “Tell me you just said you’re the Guardian.”

  “You heard it too?” A slow grin breaks out on Petari’s face. “Does that mean…?”

  “It’s nice to meet you, Petari. And you, Val. Could you tap Arrow on the shoulder for me?”

  Petari, eyes still bigger than the sun, does as she’s told. “Arrow! Did you hear that? The Guardian’s not dead. The Guardian—”

  Arrow lifts his head and blinks in the sunlight.

  “Hello, Arrow.”

  “Guardian?” he says. “But you’re not—”

  “No, I’m not the Guardian you know. Not the Guardian who brought you here. I am the new Guardian of the forest.”

  Petari gasps, but Arrow frowns. “New Guardian? We don’t need a new Guardian. We need…” He breaks into sobs again.

  “I understand how you’re feeling, Arrow. I’m also grieving. The Guardian, your mother, who brought you into the forest, she was my mother too. She had been the Guardian of the forest for more rings than I know. And I’d hoped she’d be the Guardian for many, many more.”

  Arrow nods slowly.

  “But she knew this time would come,” I continue. “And she knew that a life lived in the service of others is the best life of all.”

  Arrow presses his lips together. “So you’re…”

  I give him a breath. Sometimes we need a moment to let a new reality sink in. “I am the new Guardian,” I tell him again.

  “Yeah.” He sniffs. “But you’re the Guardian’s daughter?”

  This seems to make him the most happy.

  I laugh. “Yes, I am. I am her oldest. I grew from one of the first seeds she dropped as a new tree. She has been teaching me to be the Guardian ever since I sprouted, long before you arrived.”

  “This is incredible.” Petari gives a little jump.

  Arrow turns to her, understanding dawning on his face. “You can hear!”

  Petari nods rapidly.

  Val says, “Me too!”

  Arrow smiles, then turns to the others. “What about you? Can you hear her?”

  Luco frowns. “What are you guys talking about?”

  “The new Guardian,” Petari says. “She’s talking to us now.”

  Storma shakes her head, and I can feel sadness below her feet. “I can’t hear anything.”

  “Maybe it’s because we were connected to the Guardian before, when we saw the Stilts,” Val says.

  “I want to hear,” says Faive.

  “Yeah,” says Rosaman, Ruthie cooing in his arms as though she agrees.

  The others join in, and finally I say, “Children. Children!”

  Petari quiets them.

  “Right before she died, the Guardian told me everything that has happened in the forest, from the crash of the metal bird until now. You have all been wonderful, but we don’t have much time. The forest is not out of danger yet.”

  “What do you mean?” Petari asks, after repeating my words for the others. “The fire is gone.”

  “And the Guardian’s nutrients helped the damaged trees,” Arrow says.

  “Yes, but the forest was dying long before the fire. If we’re going to survive, we have to fix the Anima.”

  Val, who has been pacing around my mother’s trunk, stops and says, “It’s the pollution, remember? From Fenix.”

  Luco steps forward. “Fenix is polluting this place? Why am I not surprised?”

  “Those mutants don’t care about polluting,” says Storma. “But they put their factories out in the Barbs, not in the Stilts. Then the rich people don’t have to breathe in their disgusting fumes.”

  “Everyone breathes it in,” says Val. “It doesn’t matter where you are. Pollution travels in the air. The people in the Stilts are breathing it in, even if they don’t know it.”

  “They did create the problem,” says Luco.

  “And they should suffer for it,” Safa says.

  “Hold on!” Storma lifts her hands. “We can’t put all the blame on them. We’ve done bad stuff too. We threw out all that trash in the village. I know it hurt Curly, and I’m sorry.” She gives the monkey a weak smile. Curly sticks out her tongue, which makes Storma smile big
ger.

  Then Storma shakes her head. “No more ‘them versus us.’ I mean, look at this. This whole forest was almost destroyed because we were fighting them. And we were doing that to get what they had. What I’m saying is, it’s our fault too. I don’t know how we fix it, but I’ll do whatever you need.”

  “Thank you.” Arrow collapses onto his butt on the ground. “How do you stop something that’s so far away? And how do you fix something that’s been dying for so long?”

  The children fall silent, then Storma speaks up again. “You restore it.”

  All eyes turn to her. Hope spins across the ground, and I feel it grow inside me as well.

  “Before she died, my mom used to go to the dump and find old things people had thrown away and restore them, like tables, and cabinets, and benches. She used to say we didn’t need to build new things if we could restore and reuse our old ones. People thought she was weird.” Storma shrugs. “But what if we can restore the forest somehow?”

  “Yes!” Val raises his finger in agreement. “The pollution has been killing the soil, so we have to restore it. That’s it!”

  “Can we do that?” Arrow asks.

  “You showed us that the forest has everything it needs,” Petari says. “Like all those leaves and things that can heal us. Can’t they heal the forest too?”

  Luco nods, picking up on the thread Petari has begun. “Yeah, I see what you mean. We have to figure out how to restore the soil the way the forest would.”

  Petari smiles. “Exactly.”

  I like how these children think.

  Val shakes his head. “Good soil takes a really long time to make, like years. Rocks have to break down; then worms eat pieces and poop them out in another way so plants can use them.… It’s a whole thing. That’s why Fenix makes their chemical fertilizers, to speed it up.”

  The group’s hope begins to fade, but Arrow slowly stands, excitement growing around him. “But what if the forest can speed it up?”

  “I will do whatever I can,” I tell them.

  Val turns to Arrow. “What do you mean?”

  Arrow grins, like he knows a secret. “I just asked the river to flood the entire forest to put out a fire, and it did. Maybe we can ask for what we need to make the good soil faster.”

  Val’s eyes light up. “Yes! That’ll do it.”

  “Was what you said about the rocks and worms and stuff all we’d need?” Arrow asks.

  “Ummm.” Val studies the ground. “I’m not sure. I can’t remember everything Dad told me. But microbes, grubs, and worms decompose leaves and dead stuff, and that gives nutrients. Some plants have roots that go deeper than others, and they can bring up nutrients from below. Oh, also, when rodents bury themselves and dig, they turn the soil over, which helps too.”

  Delora scrunches up her nose and picks up her feet, eyes watching carefully for any moving bumps across the ground.

  “I’ll bet those snakes slithering around help to spread the leaves too,” Petari says.

  Delora’s eyes roam for the creatures.

  “Anything that will help,” Storma says. “What do you think, Arrow? Will this do it?”

  Arrow shrugs. “The Guardian didn’t teach me about this stuff, but maybe it’ll be enough to push away the pollution. We can try.”

  He gets onto his knees and places his arrow arm and his palm on the soil again, just like when he worked with my mother to call the river. Closing his eyes, he sucks in a deep breath. Then I feel his pull on the Anima. He puts what Val has told him into his head and makes the requests, infused with his love for the forest.

  His requests dig down deep into the ground. Worms wriggle faster. Leaves shrivel up and release their nutrients. Trees and other plants spread their roots. Rats race through the soil to turn it over.

  And buds and leaves begin to peek out from dying branches.

  “It’s working,” Petari shouts. She points at the coconut tree near her whose leaves had drooped. Now the leaves have pulled up, up, up until they’re rising proudly above their trunk. Buds start to sprout on a heliconia bush. And the camu camu shrub begins to brim with baby berries.

  The children gaze around them, watching the transformation, eyes wide and hearts blooming.

  “Keep going,” Val shouts, eyeing the dried orchids on branches. “It needs more.”

  I can feel that he’s right. The Anima has only reached the smallest part of the forest around my mother’s trunk.

  Arrow begins to shake, gritting his teeth.

  “Come on, Arrow!” Petari says.

  But sweat pours off his brow and down his back. It is taking too much out of him.

  “Stop,” I tell him. “It’s too hard, Arrow. Stop.”

  “AAAAHHHH!” The scream races through him, filled with frustration, disappointment, anger with himself. “I can’t do it.”

  “You tried, Arrow,” I tell him. “You were great. You helped a lot.”

  He curls forward, his arms hugging his belly. “The forest is too big. I’ll never be able to fix it all.”

  “We’ll do little parts,” I tell him. “We’ll keep it up.”

  Arrow shakes his head. “The pollution will keep coming in. What if I can’t clear the forest fast enough?”

  Sadness rolls around each of the children as they watch Arrow. Then Petari looks up.

  “Why don’t we try it?”

  “What do you mean?” Val asks.

  “We can hear the Guardian now,” Petari says, looking at her brother. “Maybe if we can do the same thing Arrow’s doing, we can cover more ground.”

  Arrow’s eyes light up. “Yes, let’s try it.” He looks at the other children too. “Let’s all try it.”

  Storma points at her chest. “Us too? We can’t hear the tree.”

  Arrow shrugs. “So what? Do you believe that the Guardian and the magic are there?”

  Luco laughs. “After seeing what happened with the river and the roots hugging you? Dude, I’d believe it if you said fairies lived in the forest.”

  The children chuckle. And I can feel warmth filling the air, the ground, the soil.

  I like it.

  Arrow picks up his feet, like he can feel the warmth too, then he gazes at the group again. Children who were lost or abandoned like him. Children who have made a family together.

  “Why didn’t I think of this before?” he murmurs to himself, then says louder, “That’s it!”

  Petari frowns. “What?”

  “Us. The forest. Us and the forest.” Arrow waves his arms to show them the trees and grubs and monkeys. “The Guardian always said that everything has its place in the forest, everything has a job to do. Whether it seems like it or not, each living thing helps the forest as a whole. That’s like you and your group. You each have jobs that help everyone.”

  The children smile at one another, happiness forming waves around them.

  “Until Crankas crashed and I met you, I’d been the only human here for my whole life,” says Arrow. “But the Anima was so broken, I couldn’t fix it all by myself. Just like the old Forest Dwellers who lived here, we all have to work together to save the forest.”

  Storma steps forward. “I’m ready. Tell me what to do.”

  Luco does the same, then Safa, Petari, and Val. One by one, each of the children steps forward to join in. Even Ruthie gargles as Rosaman nods in agreement. Some are filled with trepidation, nervous pulses thumping against the ground, but excitement sparks in the air around them too.

  Arrow grins, and his nervousness thins out and dissipates. He has found his place, bringing people together.

  “Let’s hold hands,” he says. “So we’re connected to one another. And sit on the ground so we’re connected to the forest.”

  The children quickly move into a circle, Rosaman tucking Ruthie into his lap. Petari gives Arrow a warm smile as she wraps her fingers around the end of his arrow arm. He smiles back.

  “Val, you say what we need out loud,” Arrow continues. “The
n we’ll all ask for it from the forest, in our hearts. But…” He pauses, looking each of them in the eye. “Let the forest know how much you care.”

  The children nod. Storma lets out a loud, “Whoop!”

  “I like this plan, Arrow,” I tell him. Then I prepare to do my part too.

  Val clears his throat. He’s nervous—it drips into the ground below him—but he peers at the circle of children, all ready to follow him, and his heart lifts.

  Together, the children call on the worms and the grubs. They ask the monkeys and sloths to throw ripe fruit onto the ground. They ask the snakes to push through the leaves, the fish to stir up the water, the birds to scratch at the soil. They ask the plants to reach in, to dig deep, to pull up nutrients.

  The children put all their care of the forest into their thoughts, and soon, love builds and spirals within their circle. With each request, it grows stronger and faster, building and building until there’s a whirlwind of love sparkling with magic rising from within them.

  All around, dying trees and bushes spring to life. Leaves bud then grow bigger, some going their full cycle, then dropping to the ground to be digested quickly and turned into more nutrients. Roots twist and lengthen, pulling up the nutrients from below to the roots that need them.

  I can feel the Anima building and building; then suddenly the earth below the forest ripples around me. Waves of magic push outward, turning the soil and feeding the plants all the way to the edges of the forest.

  The leftover stumps from the trunks the machiners tore down find new life growing within them. The burnt tents and machines are turned over and kneaded into the ground. Grass and bushes twirl up in their place, strong and bright.

  All around the circle of children breathing their love and life into the forest, flowers bud, then grow, then bloom.

  As far as the humans can see, every tree and branch has a brilliant orchid smiling at them. And they all glow as brightly as the sun.

  34

  IN THE NORTH, PALM SEEDS SPROUT. IN THE EAST, BUDS POP ONTO A MALVA BUSH. IN THE WEST, A NEW BROMELIAD UNCURLS. IN THE SOUTH, A WIMBA TREE STRETCHES OUT A NEW BRANCH. BEES RETURN TO POLLEN. ANTS RETURN TO NECTAR. ANIMALS VENTURE FROM THEIR HIDING PLACES. ALL OVER THE FOREST, NEW LIFE BEGINS AGAIN.