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When Ryan was little, he met his first nonhuman friend though as an adult, though he highly doubted that was the case.
His parents had moved to the country side once his grandmother passed away as they had inherited the house. It was all so strange and weird for Ryan and he threw temper tantrums all through the weeks after moving in. It was after one such fit that his mother had had enough and yelled back at him to just stop it already! Silence fell over the two before she moved her hand to her mouth, shocked. Ryan gave her the most intense glare he could for being eight before stomping out the door and into the backyard.
The property itself was quite massive, including several acres of forest. The large county house sat in the middle of a grass field with a few willow trees placed here and there. Swiftly, little Ryan ran towards the forest in hopes of taking out his anger there.
Past the treeline he ran, picking up a stick on the way and using it to hit the trees. Ryan ran and ran, not caring where he was going. He just wanted to get as far away from his mom that he could.
It was only a matter of time before a tree root was unseen and Ryan tripped and fell over it. He fell and tumbled down, rolling a few feet in front of the root. Staggering, he rolled over and looked at his hands and knees. His hands were red with spots of blood and his left knee in his jeans was ripped, a bit of blood there as well while his right was just stained with dirt and leaves.
Ryan stared at his hands, the blood smeared across them before opening his mouth and crying.
“Aaaaahhhhhh. It huuurts. Mommy, it hurts!” he cried out, holding his hands to his chest. He sniffled as his nose started to run and started to cough a bit. His coughing fit finished and he heard a quiet, hesitant voice behind him.
“U-uh. E-e-excuse me. But are you….are you okay?” it whispered. Ryan rubbed his eyes with the backs of his hands and turned to see who was talking. Ryan gasped.
There was another boy about his age, but he did not look like a boy at all. He had the body structure of a boy, and the face of a boy but there was not-boy parts to him as well. His ears were pointed to start off with, and he had small antler like structures coming out of his head. Also covering his arms, legs and chest was something that reminded Ryan of bark of a tree. He wore next to nothing, just dark green shorts-like clothing. Which, to Ryan, looked really good with his bright red hair and shining blue eyes.
“Who are you?” was all Ryan replied. The other boy looked at him before holding out his hand.
“I’m Jack. Who are you?” he replied with a small smile.
“My names James, but I hate it! Mom and Dad call me Ryan, ‘cause it’s my middle name.” he whispered, shaking his hand before sniffling again. Jack crouched down in front of Ryan.
“You got some pretty bad cuts. Come with me and I can help heal them if you’d like? Jack asked, “And, if it counts, I think James is an awesome name.” he finished with a laugh. Ryan looked at the boy and smiled through is tears.
“Ok.”
Together they walked further into the forest, Jack pointing out different trees and saying different names. It all amazed and confused Ryan. This carried on until they came to a small tree.
“This is my home! My oak tree!” Jack said proudly. Ryan looked at the tree. It was small and young, from what he would tell, with a small handful of leaves on it.
“I know it’s not much, but it’s mine. It will grow with me mama said. It’s a part of me and I need to take care of it.” Jack whispered before reaching up and grabbing a leaf. “Here.”
Jack ground up the leaf in his hands and spat in it, before taking a few steps towards Ryan. He lifted the mixture up to Ryan’s hands and his knee and put some on, covering the cuts completely. Ryan felt his cuts tingle before the pain started to fade fast. He looked up to Jack amazed.
“Wow! Can you teach me that?” he spoke loudly with excitement. Jack stepped back, a bit over whelmed.
“Mama says I can’t ‘cause you’re a human. I shouldn’t even be talking with you, but….you were hurt and I wanted to help.” He trailed off.
“’Cause I’m human? What are you then?” Ryan questioned, his eyebrows furrowing a bit.
“I’m a dryad.” Was all he said. Ryan just looked at him confused before a faint voice reached his ears.
“Ryan? Ryan honey come home! Where are you?” a woman’s voice cried out. Ryan looked up.
“Oh no. Mom’s calling me. I should get going but…”
“But what?” Jack poked.
“I’m lost. I don’t know where I am or how to get back home.” Ryan whispered, tears coming to his eyes again. Jack grabbed Ryan’s hand and started to pull him along.
“Come on! I’ll show you the way. I know this forest inside and out.” He exclaimed, grinning. Ryan grinned as well and together, the two boys ran hand in hand back towards the treelines to Ryan’s house.
They slowed down before they reached it entirely.
“I can’t go much further. I have to stay in the forest.” Jack spoke softly. He let go of Ryan’s hand. Ryan looked between Jack and his house, where he could spot his mother walking around looking for him.
“That’s ok. I’ll come back and visit!” Ryan shouted. Jack laughed at him before an idea came to him. He reached down to his shorts and found a small acorn.
“Here. You can have this. It will remind you of me.” Jack giggled. Ryan took it and giggled as well.
“Thank you. I need to get going though.” He said, before looking at his wrist where his bracelet was. His grandfather had given it to him.
“Take this then too!” he shouted, handing it to Jack. Jack looked it at it wide-eyed before slipping it on. The two stood and stared at each other before Ryan’s mother’s yells snapped them out of it.
“Bye Jack!”
“Bye Ryan, though I like James better!”
That was the last time they saw each other for almost twenty years.
Ryan stood, strong and proud. It had been about twenty five years since he was last here and nothing had changed.
Once his other had found out he had gone into the forest, she forbade him from going back in again and by the time he was old enough, they had to move away because the house was just too much on them financially. Ryan had grown up in Georgia, going through elementary, middle and high school. He made friends and ha boyfriends in college, but his mind kept going back to his childhood, and to the wood-boy named Jack.
He heard from his old neighbour that his old house was up for sale once more and Ryan had jumped on it, purchasing it back into his family once more.
A gentle breeze picked up, the leaves around him swirly, rising and falling around him. His hair was tussled as well, and the fresh scent of water on tree’s hit his nostrils and he breathed it all in.
“It’s good to be home.” He said aloud. The wind blew again before dying down. Absently, Ryan brought his hand up to his neck, where his most treasured possession lay against his chest. A small, brown acorn tied with an old, worn out string. It had a few cracks on it from over the years, but it stuck with Ryan through thick and thin.
With determination, Ryan started a small journey walking towards to the forest once more. Years of fighting with himself, that what he remembered was real or not tore at him like crazy. Was Jack real? Or was it something his imagination had made up when he was hurt and afraid.
Minutes passed as Ryan tried to recall the way to that single tree. The small oak he remembered. It was hard as his eyes no longer had tears in them and he was not running like mad, but eventually he found it.
It was no longer the small tree he remembered, for it had grown as well. Twenty five years had done it good as well. The oak tree was tall, and wide. It’s canopy was full and thick, its bark looking strong and healthy as ever. It had a slight lean to it as a few of it’s branches reached back down towards the ground. He took the few steps forward and placed his hand on the trunk of the tree.
“Hello, old friend.” He whispered to the tree.
A snap of a twig interrupted him and he spun around. He saw nothing and turned around some more in confusion.
“Hello? Who’s there?” he called out, but got no reply. He looked back at the tree before taking sitting down on the ground and leaned against it. He pulled out two apples from his jacket pocket and started to eat one. He set the other one down beside him in front of the tree.
He heard another twig snap, this time to his left, and he tried hard to not turn his head and look.
“I don’t know if that’s you, but if you’re here Jack, please come back.” Ryan whispered after swallowing his bite of apple.
Movement cause his attention in his peripheral vision before a form sat down beside him. A crunch of an apple was heard before Ryan finally turned his head.
“What took you so long, James?” the form said, its voice deep and very similar to Ryan’s own.
Ryan didn’t reply for the longest time, instead silently eating his apple and taking in the others appearance. He had grown as well. The other person, Jack, had dark red hair and beard, which contrasted with his dark, tanned skin and deep greens along his body. The bark embedded into his skin had hardened up as well, looking more like a tree and had moss growing on it as well. His antler had grown a few feet too and had vines draping down from them. He had lost the form of shorts and instead had more greens covering him as to not fully expose his body. All in all, it looked like Jack belong and was one of the trees.
“You look…” Ryan trailed off, “Real.”
“Thanks I guess?” Jack responded. “You didn’t answer me. You promised you would come back.”
Ryan sighed and rested his head on the tree trunk. “I know but… things happened. My mother didn’t want me coming back and when I was old enough we had to move. I finally bought the house again on my own and this was the earliest I could come back. I need to see if you were actually real.”
“And why wouldn’t I be?” Jack accused, his voice sounding hurt. A glint of sunlight caught Ryan’s eye and he saw Jack still had his bracelet on him.
“Because I was just a child? And with an active imagination at that? How was I supposed to know what was real and what wasn’t! You know that people like you aren’t real to most of the world, they just think you’re myths and legends!” Ryan ranted, standing up to his feet and panting slightly. Jack looked up at him before standing up and taking a step towards him.
“James.” He started.
“My name is Ryan.” Ryan interrupted, huffing.
“James.” Jack repeated, his tone not budging, “All that matters to me…is that you came back. I’ve been waiting years to see my first friend again.” Jack said earnestly.
The two stared at each other before both broke into small smiles.
“Friend huh?” Ryan spoke. Jack nodded.
“I’d like that.”