Chapter Text
The weeds were protesting, as they usually did.
“Shh now, I know you don’t like it, but we can’t have you here choking up the plants that need this space,” Sylvan murmured to them. “Besides, it's your time now, isn’t it? Your time to become part of the earth again, as all plants do.”
The plants' protesting softened to a flatter kind of humming, though they did not silence. It was enough, though, for he’d been starting to get a headache. He gathered the last of the weeds and put them into the bucket and walked over to the composting bin. Lifting up the bucket, he murmured a little prayer for the plants, something usually said at Crow Moon memorial ceremonies but adapted slightly. Strictly speaking, it wasn’t necessary for him to do that, but he always did it anyway. It felt rude to not acknowledge the life of plants in some way, not when he’d listened to their complaints and whining thoughts, even the plant-version of laughter. That, and since he’d checked it wouldn’t upset the balance, he didn’t see the harm in it.
He watched as the modified prayer made the air twinkle a rich, mossy green for a moment before it faded away. The humming of the weeds finally turned into silence, but it was immediately replaced by the quiet hums and buzzes of the other plants in the garden, most of them in a state of rest. The only exception was the lemon tree that grew at the very back of the garden. As Sylvan first scattered the peel from the banana he’d had as a snack earlier and then poured in a small vial of potion to aid the composting process, he talked aloud in response to the lemon tree.
“Well, there’s still a while until spring, but it’s not so far away really….ah, I’m sure you will become taller, although you’re a great size already. Yes, I’m sure your lemons will be as shiny and yellow as they were last year…me? Oh, I don’t imagine I will grow all that much taller. There’s only so much a human can grow, after all. I do not mind; I am tall enough for this life. I do not know if I will be here next year. At least, I might not be here all of the time. However, if that is the case, I promise to come and visit…”
On and on he rambled, until he had finished tidied away all the tools he used-both his own and the ones belonging to the owner of the house-and he was near enough ready to go. It had been a long day, and he still had the grocery shopping to do. But rather than head back into the house to retrieve his cheque for this month’s work, he paused and then walked right to the back of the garden, and pressed his hand to the bark of the lemon tree, closing his eyes. The humming from the tree intensified, yellow as the fruits it bore in the summer. It was not words; it was never words. But the particular lilt and rise of this humming was one that his mind could pull together into something that made sense, clear enough as if they were actual words.
And those words?
If you do go, I will miss you.
“Yeah, I’ll miss you too. Don’t worry though, I’ll tell you if I am going.”
I’ll miss you, I miss you.
“Yes, I know, Lemon Tree.”
Will you forget about me?
“Don’t be silly, how could I? I named my guild after you, you know? Not that you know what a guild is. Or what a video game is, for that matter. But, I’ve got to go now, alright?”
Farewell for now.
Sylvan smiled, shook his head and then headed back inside. After a brief conversation with the owner of the house in which she asked him about his studies and what he’d be doing the next year, he received his money and was able to leave. First, he headed to the bank to deposit the cheque before then going to do his grocery shopping. His shopping list had unfortunately ended up buried underneath all his school things, and there wasn’t anywhere he could go to the side to dig through without getting in anybody’s way, so he just had to get what he remembered and hope for the best.
Luckily, apart from that, the shop went smoothly-the queues weren’t too large, and for once the self-service machines cooperated. He was able to leave quickly, and that put a spring in his step as he walked the rest of the way home. His father wouldn’t be home for another few hours, so he’d have to make dinner, but he’d probably be able to get his sister to help. If he was lucky and Maren was still in her ‘I want to be a chef’ phase, then she’d make some of it herself. That’d leave him some time to get his homework done, and if he was even luckier, he’d have some extra downtime. Hopefully enough downtime to get in a little DIM:Break gameplay. It had been a few days since he’d last ben able to log in, which was a bit embarrassing as the leader of the guild he played in. Still, he knew they’d understand, since they were all his age and had all sorts of backgrounds-even if he didn’t know much about all of them.
When he got home, he called out:
“I’m back!”
He knew full well that Maren should be home by now, so the silence that followed was a little disconcerting.
“Maren?”
Still, no response.
“Maren, I’m home! Come and help me with the shopping!”
He dragged the bags into the kitchen and saw why there had been no response. Maren was sitting there, headphones on as she stared at something on her second-hand tablet. Peering over her shoulder, he could see that it was most definitely not homework of any kind.
“Maren? Hey, Maren Pearl?”
When he tapped her on the shoulder, she shrieked and flailed, but then giggled as she pulled her headphones off.
“Sylv! When’d you get here? And did you just use my middle name? Am I in trouble?”
“I like how you heard that, but not me calling you. Why are you here and not in your room?”
“Dunno, just felt like it.”
“Alright then, help me sort out the shopping.”
“Ugh, fine.”
But she got up willingly enough, with a bounce in her step as she darted around the kitchen, putting things away speedily.
“Oh, by the way, some fancy looking letter came for you. It’s on the pile with all the others. All of the others are for dad.” Maren remarked as she put away the last few fruits. “You should check it out.”
“Where’d you leave it?”
“In the living room.”
“Alright then.”
Sylvan left briefly to go into their small living room, spotting the letters on the side table. The one Maren had been referring to was right on top of the pile, and he picked it up, noting that the envelope was made from very expensive-feeling paper. But his heart stopped when he flipped it around and saw not just the return address, but the distinctive seal holding the letter closed.
Carefully, he eased the envelope open, and pulled out a letter. There were other things in the envelope, but it was the letter that he looked at. He read it a word at a time.
“So, I’m really going away, huh?” he murmured to himself as he reached the end.
“Hey, Sylv, what are you doing?”
Maren came into the room and peered over his shoulder. Then, all of a sudden, she burst into tears.
“W-what? Maren?”
Dropping the letter, Sylvan spun around as Maren threw herself at him, wailing. He patted her head in bewilderment, while again asking her what was wrong, but it took a good few minutes before she caught her breath enough to say:
“Y-you’re gonna l-leave me! I don’t want you to go!”
“We talked about this, remember? It’s a good opportunity for me, everyone says so.”
“I-I know! It’s really cool and everything and it’s good that you passed but everything’s changing!” Maren said between renewed sobs. “I’m gonna be in middle school and Kumi and Iris are moving schools and then you’re going to be going away too!”
“It’s not as if I’m permanently going to be gone. I’ll come back for the holidays, and I’m sure if we save up you can maybe come to visit on the weekends? Besides, I’ll phone or whatever.”
Maren sniffled.
“It won’t be the same.”
“No, I know it won’t. I’m a little scared too, you know?”
Maren sniffled again, then gave him a suspicious look through her watery eyes.
“You are?”
“Of course, it’s a big change for me too. But change is just a part of the cycle of life, isn’t it?”
“Yeah…”
“Besides, the important things won’t change, right? Like us always being alright?”
Maren pulled a face, before flinging her arms around him and hugging him tightly.
“You sound like Dad when you say that.”
Sylvan laughed and returned Maren’s hug before gently disentangling himself to pick the letter up. Maren sniffed, then grabbed a tissue from the tissue box on the same side table and blew her nose loudly. She took another tissue to dab her eyes, then made both the tissues disappear.
“Can I look at the letter?” she asked.
Sylvan handed it to her, watching as she read through it. She then handed it back and smiled at him.
“It is still really cool that you got into Kawaakari Academy, you know. Did you know my teacher from fourth grade went there? She teaches the other sixth grade class now and they were talking about it, apparently. Maybe I could go there when I’m old enough, even if you’ll be graduated by then.”
“Perhaps you could, if you work hard enough, but let’s think about that later. We don’t need to worry about all the changes at once, do we?”
“No! Hey, Dad’s gonna be so excited when he comes home from work and finds out about this, right?”
Sylvan nodded, and Maren’s grin got wider:
“Cool! Anyway, I’ll make dinner-I saw a really cool pasta recipe online! You can go upstairs and chill, since you’ve got this letter. Play that Dumb-breaking game.”
“Now you sound like Dad. But yes, that would be nice-thank you, Maren.”
Maren gave him a thumbs-up, then raced out of the room. Sylvan smiled, then tucked the letter back into the envelope and propped it up against the box of tissues in the hopes that their father would notice it first. It was only as Sylvan left the living room to head upstairs that Maren’s words fully registered with him. Wait a minute…
“HEY!! IT’S CALLED DIM:BREAK!”
Maren’s laughter followed him as he headed upstairs, and as much as it annoyed him, he decided not to rise to it. After all, deep down, he hoped that her joy would be one of the important things.
One of the things that would never change, no matter what else did.