Chapter One: The Wildling

So this is a little something I worked on last week and I really had fun with it and loved writing it. It's a short story, really short actually, but so fun to write and inspired by an idea or two one of my little brothers gave me. There's only three chapters, so next week I'll put out the second one and the next week after that I'll put out the third, and who knows? Maybe I'll continue Naomi and Robin's stories.

It was the end of August and the promise of Fall hung in the air, ushering in gold and red leaves, and smiling jack-o-lanterns and pumpkin spice donuts. But for Naomi Sky the Fall always brought with it the taste and touch of magic. Everyone in her small town of Hylan Hills waited year-round for the Fall to come. Yes, there was always magic in the Spring and Summer and Winter. Those seasons held their own kind of magic full of dew drop fairies awakening in the Spring and goblins causing mischief and trolls peeking from beneath bridges in the Summer and in the Winter the glorious snowling’s came up out of the ground, yawned and stretched and said hello to the world once more. But the Fall? Oh, the Fall brought such marvelous things.

Every September 22 on the first day of Fall the townspeople of Hylan Hills threw a big party with hay rides and pumpkin carving contests and a parade and lots of candy for all the kids to take home. They celebrated the first day of Fall to welcome the Wildlings and every year the Wildlings appeared during the middle of the parade like clockwork. Some of them rose out of the ground or grew up from the fallen leaves or mud. Others simply appeared, or were carried on the breeze. And they always wore masks, which was where the tradition of decorating and creating your own mask for the first day of Fall celebration came from. It was said that the Wildlings would think you were one of them if you wore a mask, but every year the Wildlings never showed any sort of indication if they even knew that the humans were there to celebrate them. They never acknowledged them and yet the humans found them infinitely fascinating and incredible.

The Wildlings followed the rest of the parade to the forest where they melted into the shadows and disappeared. To where? No one knew. Many have tried to follow them and all have gotten lost when they did or were spit back out of the woods. Literally. The ground and the trees would spit the person back out as if it couldn’t stomach the taste of human. Any other time of the year the townspeople could enter the woods, as long as they stayed on the trail. Those drifted and explored tended to disappear and never come back.

And yet every year they celebrated the Wildlings. But this year was different, because this year, on that day at the end of August Naomi Sky saw a Wildling.

She was sitting on the steps of the porch behind her house with her sketchpad in hand and a Capri Sun by her side. A rabbit had hopped into the small garden in the back of their yard and she’d wanted to draw it before it scampered off. Her mom would not be happy when she found out Naomi had let the rabbit eat away at her carrots and tomatoes while sketching it. She blew a strand of brown hair out of her eyes and glanced up at the rabbit, almost done with the outline sketch, when the rabbit perked up from where it had been nibbling on a stray leaf. Its ears shot up and twitched this way and that and then it bolted. Naomi sighed in frustration, setting her pencil down on her sketchpad. She could draw it from memory, but then she couldn’t guarantee that she would get all the details right. What could have spooked the little thing?

Grimacing, Naomi set her sketchpad and pencil down and took a long sip out of her Capri Sun, scanning the backyard for the culprit who had scared her subject away. Her eyes skimmed over the yard and then she nearly dropped her Capri Sun as she did a double take. That couldn’t be right! Yet it – he – stood right there, as plain as day. A Wildling! Naomi bolted to her feet in surprise, her eyes going big and wide with shock as her eyes collided with his.

He was a young Wildling, about her age, eleven or twelve with wild black hair atop his head. The kind of hair that would make any mom shake her head and tut her tongue and usher him in for a bath. He was barefoot and wore raggedy clothes. Pants that looked to be made of autumn leaves that just brushed his ankles and a matching shirt that looked a little too big on him as if he had raided a Goodwill without bothering to check the sizes.

But what stood out the most about him was his mask. It wasn’t like other Wildling masks. Other Wildling masks were made to look like animal faces. Wolves and squirrels and blue jays and crows and fish. His looked as if it had been made from Autumn leaves. A whole bunch of them and it took up his entire face. The only thing Naomi could see was his eyes. They were big and the brown of dead leaves and he was staring right at her.

Naomi didn’t move. Everyone knew that Wildlings were easily spooked, though she wasn’t sure why. Humans weren’t that scary. They were pink and fleshy and didn’t wear masks to hide their faces and Naomi happened to be pretty short. She was the least intimidating person in the world. “Hello?” she called gently, waving at him.

He blinked, but didn’t have back. Naomi didn’t expect him to. Wildlings didn’t know how to wave. Sometimes on the first day of Fall when they all rose up they would clasp each other’s arms in greeting instead of waving or hugging each other. “Are you lost?” Naomi asked, stepping down one of the stairs. The Wildling flinched and blinked again, but he didn’t move. Maybe they were braver than the townspeople thought.

“You aren’t supposed to be here yet, you know… It’s not Fall. Not yet…” she trailed off and stepped down off the porch completely. Her sparkly pink converse hit the grass and she waited for the Wildling to scamper off like the scared little rabbit, but he didn’t. He held perfectly still, he didn’t even look like he was breathing.

Naomi cautiously took another step forward, her Capri Sun still in her hand. And then another step and another and still, he did not move. He blinked with each step she took until she was nearly right in front of him. Naomi Sky had never been so close to a Wildling. So close that she could touch one of them. Her curiosity won over and her fingers came up and she brushed his mask. It wasn’t made of real leaves, it felt like clay. The mask was so realistic and detailed that it looked as if all the leaves were real and freshly plucked from the ground.

The Wildling took a step back, the first movement he’d made since she’d seen him and Naomi quickly dropped her hand to her side, not wanting to startle him. “Sorry… I was just curious. That’s a cool mask you have on. Do you have a name?”

He cocked his head, his eyes looking confused. Maybe Wildlings didn’t speak human language. Maybe he had no idea what she was saying. Naomi pressed her free hand to her chest and smiled. “My name’s Naomi Sky. Sky is my last name but everyone always calls me Naomi Sky or just Naomi or just Sky… but usually Naomi Sky.”

She wasn’t sure if he understood what she was saying and Naomi started to rack her brain for something else to say, some other way to get him to understand that she was trying to introduce herself when he mirrored her by placing his hand on his chest. He leaned forward a bit and a weird swishing escaped his mouth, the sound of the wind whistling and swooshing through leaves and branches. Naomi grimaced and shook her head. “I don’t understand what you’re saying.”

“My… name… is… Robin,” he said. Naomi had to lean forward to hear and understand what he was saying. He had a thick, wispy accent, the kind of voice that Naomi imagined trees would have.

She smiled nonetheless. “Robin. That’s a great name. It’s nice to meet you Robin.” Naomi stuck her hand out and he stared down at it, cocking his head again in confusion. She laughed and grabbed his hand, giving it a shake. That only made him even more perplexed. “Humans shake hands. That’s how we say hello. It’s the polite thing to do.”

“That is… very strange,” he said again.

Naomi grinned in delight. She was talking and shaking hands with a real-life Wildling. No one, not even the adults or grandparents of Hylan Hills who have seen and been around the Wildling and magic of their small town for years, have ever touched or talked face to face with one. Naomi was the first and that thought made her beam with pride.

“I guess it can be if you think about it,” she let go of his hand and he pulled away, rubbing his hand on his pants as if she’d infected it with a disease. Naomi leaned forward, rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet. “So, why are you here? It’s not Fall yet.”

He shook his head, his wild black hair ruffling in the warm breeze. “I am lost."

“Lost? How does a Wildling get lost?”

Frustration flashed in his eyes and it made Naomi’s smile fall at the shock of it. A Wildling had never given her that sort of look before. The sort of irritated look that parents gave her when she was doing something wrong. Though a Wildling had never looked at her before she wouldn’t know how they looked in the first place. “How does a human get lost?” he snapped back. The harsh tone of his voice made Naomi take a step back as if she’d been slapped. Tears pricked her eyes, but she forced them down. She didn’t like being yelled at. She hadn’t done anything wrong, she hadn’t said anything wrong either… as far as she knew.

Naomi frowned and took a sip of her Capri Sun. “I was just trying to help,” she pouted when she was done taking a drink.

“I can… find my own way… home,” he sniped.

“Then why are you here? If you don’t need help, then why did you stop and scare that rabbit away? I was trying to draw him you know and you just came out of nowhere and scared him away,” Naomi said, gesturing at the now empty garden.

The Wildling glanced over her shoulder at the garden and then back at her. “I was… curious.”

“Curious of what?”

“Humans. You. I did not understand what you were doing.”

“I was drawing him. Stay right here and I’ll show you,” Naomi dashed off, his snappy comment and frustrated expression all but forgotten. She glanced over her shoulder, her brown hair flying in the breeze, and when she was sure he wouldn’t move she traded her Capri Sun for her sketchbook and ran back over, holding it out proudly to him. The Wildling snatched the book from her hands and turned the page this way and that, examining it. “You captured a rabbit,” he stated, not exactly amazed, but also not unimpressed.

Naomi nodded eagerly and took the pad back, flipping a few pages to the one she’d finished a few days in preparation for Fall to begin. She held the page up to his face. “I draw lots of things. I even draw Wildlings.”

His eyes widened and he took the sketchpad from her hands again, scanning the page. “That is Toulouse,” he said.

“You know him?” Naomi asked, coming around to stare at the page too. She’d drawn one of the Wildlings that she had seen last year. He’d worn the mask of a blue jay and had had blond hair and blue eyes and he’d worn clothes made of bird feathers. Naomi had liked all the blue on him. Blue was her favorite color.

“Yes. He is an advisor to the Green King,” Robin said, handing her the book back.

Naomi’s eyes widened as she closed her sketchpad. “The Green King?”

Robin nodded. “Yes. He is the king of us, the Wildlings as you call us and yes…” he said suddenly, ducking his head as if in shame. “I… am in need of assistance. I have never taken this journey before. I left early and have gotten lost and I do not know how to get to where I need to be.”

“Oh… well, I’m sure I can help you figure it out. I’ve been in the forest lots of times. On the trails, of course… well, most of the time. A few times I went off the trails when my parents didn’t know about it. You’re not supposed to go off the trails because the forest doesn’t like that and people usually get lost, but I did and I found my way home just fine. I know lots of things, like which bridges have trolls under them and where the goblins are (you want to avoid those spots) and the dewdrop fairies and oh! I know someone who can help you. Probably. He knows a lot of things,” Naomi said, perking up at the thought.

Robin stared at her as if she had a pumpkin head. “Do all humans talk this much?”

Naomi grinned and shook her head. “Nope. That’s just me. My mom says I’m a chatterbox and I talk too much, but I’m quiet when it counts. I’ll go get some snacks and be right back then I’ll take you to the Forest Prince!”

Before Robin could say anything else or refuse her help Naomi grabbed her sketchpad and Capri Sun and rushed inside, slamming the back door behind her. Her dad was working and her mom peeked out from the kitchen. “Where are you off to?” she called as Naomi zoomed past.

“I’m going to have a picnic in the woods. Don’t worry! I’ll stay on the path!” she called as she rushed up the stairs and grabbed her Adventure Backpack. She called it her Adventure Backpack because it had purple and pink map all over it with sparkly sequins and looked very adventurous. Plus, she kept all of her important Adventure Things in it. A flashlight and notebook and spare pencils and a compass and her pink camo hiking boots.

Naomi hurriedly pulled her hair into two braids on both shoulders, her tongue sticking out of the side of her mouth as she concentrated and glanced out her window. Robin still stood just inside the forest, hidden in shadows. He was waiting for her! He was going to let her help him!

Once she’d tied up her braids she grabbed her backpack and rushed downstairs and past her mother in the kitchen. She opened a cabinet and shoved a bunch of granola bars inside and two water bottles. One for her and one for Robin. Then she zipped it up and slung it over her shoulders. Her mom was busy cleaning up the counters. “Don’t go too far and stay on the trail!” she said. “And be home by dinner.”

“I will! Bye!” Naomi shouted, slamming the back door behind her and running through the backyard toward Robin with her Adventure Backpack swinging behind her.

She grabbed his hand and pulled him toward the worn path leading out of their backyard and into the woods. “C’mon! I know where the Forest Prince’s hideout is!” And together they both walked into the woods to get Robin back to where he belonged.

To Be Continued...

I hope you guys had fun with the first chapter! Come back next week for the next one! Have a great weekend everyone!