The Forest

Chapter Thirteen

` This place looks cool. ` said Phillip breaking the heavy silence that hung somewhere in their heads.

The house was cluttered in a wonderful mess, a chaos that made a handsome symphony, something familiar and close to the heart, something delicate and sweet. The stuff that was there was ancient and you could tell by rubbed borders, style of it, that was just beyond the reach, the smell of old times and the time that passed over those things in a intricate feathery layer of dust. You could meet the old paintings face to face and those fancy old chairs, too heavy and too ornate to be comfortable.

They were not there for sitting but for looking and enjoying in their grandness and what they meant. The riches were scattered all around - not like at Tilia`s apartment but with meaning and certain logic, with intent for them to be there, belong there but at the same time they looked like they wanted to escape that rusty cottage and run away into the great world and bigger places where more eyes could lay upon them, because that`s what those things were for, examining and watching, just like that their key. It belonged here with all the beautiful but foolish and useless things.

` It is. There`s stuff in here that has been here for ages.` said Cross.

They all thought about what that meant. They could feel the ghosts of previous Council men and women roaming in their trinkets and through the tastefully decorated rooms, looking upon them, caressing their things and life they once had. They enjoyed every breath their new guests took, having fun with their appearances, so different from their own.

Time has left a significant trace on the fashion, behavior and ways of men. It amused them to know what happened beyond their grave, on the world they once walked and whose goods they used.

` Yes, generations have gathered all of these things. This has been in the possession of The Council ever since the first people, those who found it. ` said Caddie. She could remember the stories, she could see the old ones, building this secure spot, putting their thoughts and dreams right here. She could see them, under the same rosy light, pulling lumber of chicadoor trees, working on their thick crust and beige wood under it, building walls and floors and all that furniture inside.

` Cool. ` said Phillip picking up a big and strange sea shell, with it`s swirly top and wide and pearly bottom, a wonderful little thing, full of life even though it was empty and dead, he could hear the waves in it`s insides, he could pinpoint the exact spot where it as once found, by a person so old and with such good eyes that it could spot it`s sandy yellow in the sand.

` Therefore you must be careful with what you touch. Don`t destroy anything. ` said Cross, who loved nice things, who loved to hold and own expensive artefacts, who thought he was the only one who could appreciate what it meant to own and to hold. He watched them walk around, touch and trace with tips of their fingers, caress with their eyes and find wonder at every corner of stacked things, of books and vases, and papers once important now gone. He watched them enter his world, something he cherished and held dear to his heart.

` We`ll try not to. ` said Philip. It was a wonderous place, full of something they haven`t seen yet, of old times and older things, collected over the centuries before. There was a table, old, rustic, well scrubbed, with a vase where a flowers should be and below it were dried leaves, so dry that only one touch could turn them into dust and destroy their fragile shape. There was no place there for harsh moves but only genteel and thoughtful. It smelled like old books.

` Hey, try harder kid. ` said Caddie as Phillip dropped his shelf. She never appreciated kids in small spaces. But then she remembered that she first came there with friends when she was just a kid. She watched as the shadows of her past fill the room, and she felt like a little girl again, full of hope for the new fun times ahead of her, and her new friends. She used to love what she was and what she did. She watched her past disappear in a breath of air, in a blink of an eye.

` Sorry. ` said Philip, picking it up ad on the shelf where there was a special, dusty spot for it, where it was for a very long time. He looked at Tilia who smiled back at him. He remembered her hand in his and that soft touch. She thought of the same thing and searched for truth in his eyes. They were one of those people whose eyes never stop shining.

` The book is in here somewhere. It has to be. ` said Maria who was searching the house eagerly because the mystery was her reason for traveling this far, because she loved dreams and new things and she wanted to be the one who finds out what happened and let the world know. She already looked through all the shelves and nooks and crannies, but it was crowded and she couldn`t see. She thought that the place could use a good cleaning.

` Where would she put it? `asked Tilia. She looked around for something that could look suspicious and strange. But everything in that house looked like that. It was hard to pinpoint a specific place where it could be but it was of great importance to find that book right away since that is what they came for. Someone could come at any minute and interrupt their search.

` Look, how young we all are in this picture. `said Caddie reminiscing the past she had with the council. She loved it with them. She had fun and laughter, something that she so rarely had these days.

` You look happy. ` said Tilia, picking up their picture, looking at their happy faces. Her grandma wore a green robe, so green that it only made her eyes look greener, even more beautiful. She looked proud and in love because the way she looked at her grandfather is a way they talk about in books and movies. He looks at her the same way, dressed in red, smiling and hugging his best friend who looked just as in love with Magda as he was. Grimm was dressed in gold and he looked like one of those rich kids that no one likes who finally found his friends. Cross looked like he was bored and happy, next to Caddie who was even shorter than she was now. And Vinnie, in the end, just as tall as he was now, just as big but younger, happier and he seemed like he was so proud of himself that he was there.

` We are. We were. Those were lovely times. We had so much fun destroying Snatchers.` said Caddie. She looked away in the distance, in love with who they were. But Tilia could see that they were a bit delusional since none of them were truly happy. Their problems were already there, they just couldn`t see it, they didn`t want to see them.

` You dressed weird, though. ` said Philip, laughing at their robes, thinking that cannot be how they dressed and that they can`t be as happy as they were in those dresses. They all looked at him, angry that he offended their clothes. They never thought it was silly, they just wore them and liked them.

` Those are our Council robes. Mandatory. You`ll wear them too someday. ` said Cross, smug that he will have to wear the same thing he once offended. Philip thought about all those colors and shapes and he didn`t like it at all, uniforms were more of his style. He never cared much for colors and preferred his uniform.

` Me? No way. ` he said then, waving his hand in front of Cross` face, wishing him away. He didn`t want that at all. But he wandered why would he need to be in the Council, he was just a simple man, no powers, no gifts, nothing special about him from what he believed.

` You know about the Snatchers - you are in the Council. ` said Caddie, she climbed up the stairs and disappeared on the first floor, lost in her thought. She wasn`t even bothered that he had to be in the Council.

` That`s all it takes? ` he asked, confused at this newfound information that he could be in the Council just because he knew the secret.

` Right now, yes. The Council has been in a crisis ever since… well, your grandma died. `said Cross, bowing his head and looking away. Tilia thought that her grandmother must have been so important that she left this world with them all apart, all broken, needing her desperately to survive.

` It started way before that and you know it. `said Caddie, coming down the stairs, slowly, as if she was just there all along, interrupting this conversation. She seemed angry at something and she wouldn`t let them know what it was.

` It did. ` said Cross, sad that it was so, sad that he couldn`t have fixed it.

` What do you mean? ` asked Tilia. She wondered what damaged the Council so much.

` You see, Council members are not supposed to marry each other, let alone have children together. But your grandparents broke that rule. ` said Cross, since he noticed that Caddie couldn`t and won`t talk about it.

` Why was that a rule? `asked Phillip, scared and now not wanting to go into Council if he is going to be forbidden from ever being with Tilia. He liked her, he wanted to be with her and Council was never going to be more important to him than her, he really wanted to be with her.

` Because, every member of the Council is supposed to have their own family so that one day their children and grandchildren can inherit their spot on the board. ` said Caddie, sad that it happened in such a bad way, in a way that was bad for the Council.

` Talking about nepotism. `said Philip. He didn`t want to be in the Council but the way they did things in a way so that no one new or more interesting can access it. He had a lot of experience with nepotism in his police station.

` Oh shut it boy. That`s how we do things. Gifts are inheritable. `said Caddie. And Philip realized that it was always like that, he realized that there was no fighting it, that`s even the way the nature is, their gifts can`t be transmittable but they are inherited.

` And where are your children? `asked Philip.

` I couldn`t have them. ` said Caddie.

` And yours? ` Philip asked Cross.

` I, um…` he started.

` Philip. That`s not nice. Leave them alone. ` said Tilia.

` Hey, I am not complaining. I am in the Council. ` said Philip.

` Not yet you aren`t.` said Caddie.

` Guys, let`s focus and find the damn book. `said Tilia.

` This place needs some cleaning first. `said Maria.

` You think? `said Philip.

` Let`s clean up then. `said Vinnie. They cleaned and moved things in order to find the book but all they could find was dust and they enjoyed seeing many fun new things scattered away in the house. The nightingale kept singing a fine tune that awoke only warmness in them but meant that there is danger and fear that they couldn`t even fathom.

` The book is in here somewhere. Your grandma would hide it in a plain site. `said Caddie.

` It`s just like her, to make us clean. She always did that. `said Vinnie.

` Hey guys, look. It`s right here. ` said Maria.