• Chapter 4


    ~Charlie (Gray’s dad) got worried when Gray said that she was going to the crawl space. Because they didn’t have one, especially not on the second story. He ran upstairs but she had already gone. He ran to her closet and looked at the floor. There it was a shinning spot on the floor. He couched down and tried to open it. It wouldn’t budge. The only thought running through his head was “If they find my girl, then she is in trouble. They will do to her what they did to her mother.” He finally decided that she would come back when she could, and that there was nothing they could do. He walked slowly to the phone to call his sister and tell her that Gray had gone to where her mother came from, the land of Murmurs.

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    ~I woke when I heard something scrabbling at the nest. I stuck my head over the side and saw Vidon trying to crawl over the side to get back in. I reached over and grabbed her under her arms and helped to pull her up. She was very light. “Ahhhhhh!” I moaned in pity. Her whole back and the backs of her arms and legs were all bloody where she had been whipped. “Get a rag.” Vidon commanded. I crawled over to the 1ts little covered area and took a rag. I grabbed some ointment she had in there too, and started to cleanand bandage her back.
    ~About an hour later Vidon was bandaged and in a different dress. She looked up at the sky. “It’s almost sunrise… time to get breakfast. Come” She signaled for me to get on her back. For the little time I had been around her, I could tell that her personality was a commanding one. I got on, and she practically flew over the edge of the nest. I really wanted to scream, but I didn’t want her to knock me out again, so I kept my mouth shut firmly.
    ~“We will have to teach you to climb soon. It will be very useful.” She said, thinking out loud. “We’ll work on that after breakfast.” I wanted to tell her that I already knew how to climb. But, a second look at those trees and how high the nest was, I wanted those lessons. She took my hand and started running toward the sound of water. “This way!” she announced happily. Her hand felt cool to the touch with a slight rough edge to it… Like an unpolished stone almost.
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    ~About a half hour later I had my head in a bush and felt like a complete moron. Vidon had found a lot of berries and even a couple fish… I had not been so lucky. I found a thorn bush. I got a few sweet berries from it, but it was not worth the trouble. I did find some normal berries, but fell in the river too. And then to my extreme luck, found a nice and very buzzing bees nest… Vidon saved me from that one. She looked up from her bush and saw my dive into the river to escape, and ran over to me. She dove in to and stabbed me with a needle again. Then she hopped out of the water and took the hive. Later she told me that what she stabbed me with made me sweat this one scent that bees stay away from… in other words, she shot me with some bee repellent. We ate the fish over the fire in the nest, and then mixed the honey from the hive and the berries for later.
    ~As we got done eating Vidon stood and looked me over “You stand out to much in those clothes. And they are now sopping! We will go see a friend of mine and get you something better.” I couldn’t imagine what her ‘friend’ must look like, or if it was really her friend, or just someone she knew. This time she carried me only half way down the tree. We were still high up though. “We will start your climbing and moving lessons now.” She stated. “But we’re so high up! What if I misstep and fall?!” I said terrified. I did not want to die on my first full day in Murmurs. She stood to her full height, which was about 5’4”. “I will catch you if you fall.” She said so matter of fact, that you just had to trust her. “Now, this is what you do.” And my lessons began.
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    ~A very bruised and painful hour or two later we came to Vidon’s ‘friend’s house. Or more, her hut. Along the way we had seen a few more nests above us, in which Vidon said all of the outcasts lived. You either fled to the trees, or you stayed on the ground and was killed by that red haired woman’s men. Whenever I asked about her and what she meant Vidon just brushed the questions away.
    ~“Hello!” Said a rough voice from the door of the hut. “Who is it out there?” “It’s me, Vidon, and I brought someone to meet you!” Vidon said into the doorway. Out walked a woman who looked to be in her mid-forties or something. She had a scar down one eye making it look a little lazy. She was also missing two fingers from her right hand. And one from her left. But even through all of that she seemed to be an optimistic type. “Oh! And who is this lovely little lady?” She said as she rumpled my hair like you would a little child. “This, Tyna, is Gray Flower” She said with and emphasis as if there was something they knew that I didn’t. “How wonderful! Well, don’t stand out there all day! Come in, Come in!” Tyna said.
    ~Her hut was a simply furnished place. It looked as if she was a tailor or something similar. She had a sheet pulled separating the toilet and her private quarters from the rest of the shop. “What size is she?” Tyna inquired to Vidon. “I don’t know, but it took about 12mL of the pink to knock her out.” Vidon said tilting her head to the side. “Ah! A strong willed one! I know what you, girl, would look nice in, so come over to me and let me take your measurements!” Tyna said pointing to a slightly raised platform. I walked over while she studied how I moved when I walked, and then she measured me.
    ~“I think I have something.” Tynea said as she went over to a chest of dark wood. “Just needs a little fitting” She pulled out a pretty grayish blue dress and held it up to me. “Put it on.” She ordered. I went behind the screen she had and put it on. It fit almost perfectly. “Hmmmm.” She said looking it over when I was done. “I’ll take it in a little” She got out her sewing box and started undoing seams, then fixing then back up, slowly taking the dress in. “She will lose weight while she’s here.”