"Yes. That is the City."
"Is this all there is to it?" I asked. "It's so small."
Leo chuckled. "No. There are four different sections that make up the city: North, South, East, and West. Each of those sections are divided into smaller sections, each resemballing a force of nature. A spirit lives in the neighborhood that is the element of which they died, and the section of which the strength of their powers go best with. North is for the strongest, south the weakest. East is for those who are mediocerly strong, west is for those mediocerly weak. This small portion in front of us is like a town square. All the shops and services are provided here. Come on," he said leading me down the hill and closer to the gravel streets.
"Where are we going?"
"My house."
My feet stopped moving, my legs stopped functioning. Everything just stopped. I didn't think I'd be taken to his home, where he actually lived, this soon. I gulped. "You're house?"
He stopped walking and turned back to face me. "Yeah. My house. That's okay, isn't it?" He bit at his bottom lip waiting for my reply. I nodded, but the butterflies fizzling in my stomach didn't do the same. Actually, they barfed up more butterflies that repeated history. Cursed things. He let out a breath of releaf and rushed to say, "So, my family's weird. I'll put that out there now. They're loud, and crazy, and really annoying. I'm sure you'd hate them, and I wouldn't blame you. It's just my dad, me, and Remy. My dad, he--"
"Leo, it's fine," I said. My hand was placed gently on his arm, and I watched how he breathed in big breaths and only let half of it out.
He smiled, and his eyes glittered in the sun's yellow light. "Follow me, then."
We walked through the fog that circled its way around us. It followed us on to the empty road and flowed up the buildings like an upside-down waterfall. Voices echoed up ahead, and bodies appeared like shadows as they cross across an oil lamp in the night. Curious shades of blue and green and brown and violet reached out to me from the eyes on people's faces. They watched us as they went along, and they whispered, they spoke, and they pointed like we hadn't any eyes or ears or senses to notice them at all.
"Don't mind them," Leo's voice was in my ear. "They are just curious."
"Are these all the other nature spirits?"
"No. They're the dryads. They wander around the outside of the town to get the things they need for their bodies, the trees, and help protect us. They don't speak," he says after I wave to one, "At least not to us anyway. They have their own language that we can't understand. No one has ever learned or tried."
I slowed my step just a little to hear the words they said. They were garbled like their mouthes were filled with clumps of earth and hay. They motioned with their hands towards me. They're skin was nearly translucent, and their fingers disipeared into strips of smoke at the ends. If I squinted hard enough, I'd vaguely be able to see through their shadey forms. The colors of their skins were tinted green, and brown, and red like the bark of the trees that are rooted near here.
Their eyes probed over the length of my body. When they touched me, their skin was rough, cold, and filled with a greater sense of life than I'd ever felt before. "They're so. . ." my voice trailed off. When I found it again, I was able to finish. "Creepy."
He nodded in agreement. "Yeah. Look, up ahead." He pointed to a break in the fog where the cluster of bodies became more crowded. "Now those are the nature spirits."
This group of spirits were more vibrant this time, and more solid looking. The didn't stare as openly. They didn't gape or point. They went about their business, and only followed me faintly out of the corner of their eye.
Leo lead me by the hand through the streets. The fronts of the upside-down acorns were decorated with personal touches of flowers and vines and shop signs. Merchandise littered front windows, and bells rang as people entered and left. Kiosks sat along the sides of the roads waiting for attention. Shop holders called to the crowds advertising cloth and powders to help with force control.
We made our way down a side street with less people crowding around me and with a little more sun. Sweat dripped down the side of my brow and I swiped it away with a quick brush of my hand. Paths webbed out from here and combined with other ways. We followed this lead straight. A sign reading "North" was placed in the ground and faced us. My mouth gaped slightly as we passed. Leo's family had strong powers? I never thought he was weak, I didn't even know there were different levels of power really, but still. I'd have expected him to be one of those middle class families for some reason. He wasn't a stuck up donkey like high class people usually are.
"What?" he asked with a smile in his tone. "Not what you expected?"
I shook my head no. "Nuh uh."
His eye brows creased together, and his hand pawed at his heart. "You don't think I'm good enough?"
"Not at all," I smirked. "You good for nothing mentor."
"That hurts," he replied, but the look on his face contradicted his words and tone.
I teased, "You can't even keep a straight face."
"It's hard when I have to look at a face like yours."
I slapped his shoulder as if that and a scowl would stop his laughter. "You suck."
"Eh." He nudged me with his elbow. "It's okay as long as it's your lips. Takes sucking faces to a whole other level."
I smacked him again. "You're a jerk."
"I don't hear you denying it. I knew you enjoyed kissing me."
"Get over yourself."
He smirked at me, an expression that was evident all throughout his body. In his posture, his eyes, his everything. "No can do."
Scratch what I had said before; he was definitely a stuck up dokey.
As we walked, the houses got increasingly bigger and better and the acorns dissapeared altogether. These homes were fully grown trees that widened out at the bottom into the size of a large, pregnant house and stretched up into the crown of the tree. Vines climbed the sides in ornate patterns, and the windows were all stained glass. Some trees bared fruit, and their delicious scents filled my nostrils.
The path winded down into a dead end up ahead of us. The last house that stood cutting off the road had to be the most magnificent of all with emerald leaves and bedded heavy with orange blossoms. Vines climbed up the home's sides in a diamond pattern that spread into the limbs at the top.
As we neared closer to it, I asked, "Is that where you live?" gesturing with one hand at the mansion.
"No. But we're close. The one next door, actually."
Then my gaze was brought to the two plants flanking it. Another large house with fancy stained glass windows and flowers out front sat to the left. We veered to our right, though, and onto a cobble stone path leading up to... another acorn? This acorn wasn't like the others before it in subtile ways. Instead of clear glass windows or stained glass, a material that looked like a cloth spiderweb hung waving in the gentle breeze. Mountain laurels held the edges of the home off of the ground. And, the hard shell of the acorn was almost a honey color instead of a light brown. The bright red door sat ajar like they'd been expecting us to waltz in any moment.
Leo dropped my hand and it flapped down to my side like a limp fish to push the door open further. The smell of dirt and cinnamon and something else I couldn't quite place wafted from the entry way. Inside, the home was a mess.
In the center of the room was a round table, and the rest of the kitchen was arranged around it. Books, plates, shirts, quills, stuffed animals, bed covers, seeds, and everything under the sun and moon were littered across every surface. The light squirming through the webbed windows was dank, looked dirty. It cast a dust over the room.
I felt a tug at my sleeve and turned to face Leo. He nodded to a muffled scrambling coming from the next room over.
"We're here!" He called to the rest of the house.
To my left, a teapot whistled, and I jumped.
"My tea!" A man with sun colored hair tinged with gray and marvelous blue eyes stormed into the room. He settled his gaze on Leo, crying, "My boy!"
He wrapped his son in a hug, then gripped me in an embrace as well. "Cora, right?" When I nod, he snaps his fingers and smiles like it's the best achievement in the world. "I'm Martin. Lovely to meet you."
I give Martin's hand two good pumps. "Nice to meet you, too." And I mean it. It was nice to meet someone from Leo's family.
Martin shoved the mounds of possessions from three of the four chairs and onto the grimy floor. "Sorry about the mess," he excused himself. After we take our seats, he continues, "We've been rather busy around here lately. Leo tells me you're looking for Ciris."
"Yes, sir."
"That's tough, the way that man travels. He's very low key, you know. Especially these days with the clan trying to recruit him. Of course you know all this."
"Yes."
"Then you also know the chances of finding him are slim to none. When a nature spirit doesn't want to be found, he won't be found."
It was like a ten ton block of ice had just fallen onto my chest. The fear and anxiety gripped at me and pulled on me until I burst into the shreds of an old T-shirt-stained and worthless. My heart went running, and all I could think was If only Woodland Creek had a cross-country team; I'd so win.
"Yeah," I hardly choked out. I coughed to cover myself. "Yes, sir. I know."
He gave a tight lipped smile and nodded down to the table. "Yes." He met our eyes now, slapping the tables with his palm. "So! Y'all must be hungry. Want me to make something for dinner?"
"Yeah," Leo replied, while I said, "Yes, please," in unison.
Martin stood up and made his way to a row of wooden cabinets mounted on the wall. "Anything in particular you want?"
A gush of breath left my mouth, glad to have something else to focus my worries on. Food was always good for that. "Anything's fine."
"Where's Remy?" Leo asked. Under the table, I felt his hand on my knee making little circles that sent shivers through my body.
"He should be on his way."
His face took on a playful, childish disposition. Like the sun peaking through the clouds, his eyes lit. "He better be! He wasn't here earlier."
"Guys, chill," a low voice flowed from the door like music. "I'm here now."
He was like Leo and Martin, only taller, tanner, blonder, and looked like a god. His facial features were sharp and well formed. Long lashes framed his light green eyes. He was the most beautiful man I'd ever seen. If it weren't for the pressure on Leo's hand on my leg, I probably would have never turned away. Not that Leo'd noticed much.
"That's Remy," he announced. "Remy, this is Cora."
I moved to stand to shake his hand, but he gestured for me to sit back down. "Don't worry about it," he said with a slick smile. He gently pulled my hand to his lips and pressed his lips to it. "Pleasure."
My cheeks burned, and I turned to Leo for help.
"It's been a long time," he said. "I'd appreciate it if the first thing you did wasn't hit on my girlfriend."
My face subcomed to an even deeper shade of red, but couldn't help the smile that came to my face. Being called his girlfriend was like being crowned Queen of the World.
Remy smirked, something deadly handsome and mocking Leo's own signiture expression, only his had a slight wickedness to it, danger. That was the main difference between the two that I could instantly tell. Leo's sweeter, softer, and Remy was fierce and should be wearing a caution sign.
"I didn't mean any harm." He winked, causing Leo to tense slightly.
"You find out anything about Ciris?"
"No. Not yet. But I will." Remy sounded so sure of himself, so confident, that I felt like I could believe him. His brother smiled, and I knew he believed him, too.
"What's the plan," I asked, "to find him?"
Remy shrugged, then looked to Leo. "Ask around, I guess. See what people know. The records at the library's been no help at all. They'll show migration patterns and where the Cravers like to eat, but nothing that could really help us."
Leo nodded like he'd heard this all before. "Have you talked to anyone yet?"
"No, he hasn't," Martin butt in. "He spends all his time sweet talking that girl working in the library. Oh, what's her name? Carmen? Carry?"
"Cameron," his son corrected him. His cheeks were tinted pink under his sun kisses skin like the sun peaking over the horizon of his cheekbones. "And I'm not sweet talking her."
"Oh, sure you are. And you just won't take the hint that she's not interested."
"Dad."
"Remy."
"Guys," Leo all but hissed with a quick glance my way. "Can't we get back to talking about our nonexistent game plan?" His fingers tugged at his hair as he ran them coarsely through.
Martin gave me a polite smile. "Sorry."
"So, what're we gonna do?" Remy asked after nodding his agreement.
Leo rubbed his eyes with the heels of his palms. Sighing, he said, "This is what we'll do. Tomorrow me and Cora will go to the library, and review the books and search the internet. Remy, you and Dad can start asking around. After that, we can all meet back here for dinner."
Martin banged a spoon on the side of a pot which caused bits of a yellowy sauce to splatter the walls, but made no objection.
However, Remy looked down at his feet, and his mouth pulled into a thin line. His brow creased together into a frown above his eyes in a way that made him look thoughtfully angry and confused. "I-" he began, then stopped. Starting again, he proposed, "Could we go to the library instead?"
"Do you really think they would actually talk to us with Cora around. Most of 'em don't want anything to do with her."
"Why?"
Leo looked at me, and his eyes portrayed worry and his discomfort. "Most people aren't on board with the whole finding Ciris plan. They think the less Cravers around, the less problems. Which is true, but they don't realize we're taking him with us."
"Oh," was all I could say, like the stupid fish out of water I was.
His hand patted my knee lightly. "It's all going to be okay though."
"I sure do hope so," I answered, and they had no idea how much I meant it.