Sucking in a deep breath, I withdrew my vines from Viola, relieved that she was safe, and braced myself for the dread that was setting in.
“What’s the matter?” Viola’s smile faded, her worried expression taking over as she stepped beside me, her hands clasped around one of mine. “Did something happen while we were drifting?”
“My prediction came true.”
I licked my lips and led her to the balcony door, which I opened, noticing how dark it had become since we had entered our hometree’s matrix. Thick dark clouds, heavy with rain, encircled our hometree, blanketing the jungle like a fog blanket.
Flashes of lightning crawled along the thick, fluffy blanket of clouds, highlighting them with blue and purple hues, as loud, deep rumbles vibrated through the air.
Our land’s plants were bracing for the worst, digging their roots deep into the soil and securing themselves from the torrential rains and floods. While our region was classified as a tropical jungle, I had still felt the need to devise a drainage system that assisted our plants by quickly rerouting rainwater to nearby rivers, preventing the ground floor from becoming bare and an impassable swamp.
“Night has fallen, and a fierce storm has crept up on us.”
A nearby boom shook the entire foundation as a gust of wind also shook the hometree, causing the balcony to sway.
Myluwaerilet out a shriek as her arms wrapped around my waist, her nails clawing at my skin as she hid her head beneath my arm.
“What’s the matter, Viola?” I asked urgently, wrapping my vines around her torso as I led her back into her bedroom, closing the door with two of them to seal us inside.
As I carried her to the bed, she whimpered, and my worried thoughts about our homeland quickly shifted to myluwaeri. There was a palpable fear in her body, as if she were clinging to me for dear life.
“Talk to me,Luwaeri,” I encouraged her as I struggled to free her from her death grip on my body. Clenching my teeth, I refused to wince as her nails dug into my skin as I picked her up and laid her down in the middle of the bed, brushing her disheveled hair as I drew away.
“Don’t leave me!” she screamed, pulling her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them. As her body shivered in fear, she buried her tear-stained face into her legs, her rainbow-colored hair creating a curtain over her arms.
Instead of the brave warrior, there was a female in more despair than the plants outside.
“I would never,” I swore, pulling her against me, wrapping my vines around her to comfort her and let her know I was still with her. “Luwaeri, please explain.”
She jerked her head up and peered at me, her reddened face hidden behind her hair. “The raging storm!” She made a wild gesture towards the balcony. “How do you avoid being afraid of the weather? Can’t you feel the hometree swaying like a ship on the sea?”
“I’m more concerned about our land’s ground floor than about how we’re swaying,” I replied, offering her a feeder vine to drink from in the hopes that my nectar would help calm her and place her at ease. “If our hometree didn’t sway the way it does, we wouldn’t be living here.
“It’s a must, or else the wind’s force will uproot or split the hometree in half. Its design allows for normal swaying during strong winds without jeopardizing the structural integrity of the hometree or the occupants and their belongings inside.”
“But you weren’t afraid when the balcony started to sway,” she muttered, her words muddled between sobs. “Instead of rushing inside, you appeared over the ledge to study the storm clouds.”
I cursed myself for my ignorance.
Viola lacked vines to help her balance if she became unstable from the swaying. She would have fallen to a horrible death.
It was a good thing she designed outfits and a secure system for her to swing safely across our property.
“Storms are nothing new to me. I’ve spent my entire life in hometrees,” I explained calmly. “And even if I were in danger, I have vines to catch me and keep me safe.”
“You’re not worried about lightning striking the house and setting it on fire?”
As another boom rocked outside, shaking everything around us, she gasped and jumped into my lap. She rooted her fingers through the leaves of my shoulders, burying her head between my pectorals.
“That’s because of the heartwood, the core of the hometree, and the living veins that run through them,” I explained, brushing her hair away from her face before offering her one of my feeders again, hoping to calm her nerves while she gathered some sustenance.
This amount of tears was dangerous if not stopped, and the last thing I needed was for her to pass out from nutritional deficiency.
Our hometree would be capable of reestablishing her, even while it was in the process of creating the inventions she had requested, but I would rather work through her sudden fears than have to place her in the Giving Pool.
“Almost every storm brews beneath this bedroom, leaving everything up here intact,” I explained, softly smiling as she slowly let go of my shoulders and accepted my offer, wrapping her hands around my feeder. It filled me with pride that she was willingly allowing me to care for her, as if she were gradually accepting me as her mate. “Because the rest of the leaves and bark are fire-resistant, the only damage our hometree may sustain is the loss of some of the younger branches.”
“You truly have a secure home,” she mumbled, staring at the living veins along the walls as she lifted the feeder to her lips and paused before taking a sip. “I still can’t believe something like this exists—a highly defensive smart tree capable of communicating and creating things using energy stored in its banks. On Earth, something like this would be impossible.”
