Preview Of Sapling's Orbit by Spencer Rose

Chapter One

In the moonlight, the bright red sand of the planet Prema looked purple. I stumbled, gasping for breath, leaning over my knees as I inhaled. A tear was working its way up the hem of my dress. My footprints were scattered across the purple sand behind me, mirroring my wild and desperate footfalls across the desert. Sand was in my socks now, gritty against my feet.

I couldn’t see the forest anymore, only the achingly long purple landscape and silent mining machines.

Ahead of me was the faint yellow glow of the train station in the moonlight.

My stomach tightened as I thought I heard voices shouting behind me. Hunting. Searching for us.

My heart was pounding in my chest.

Mila pointed to the platform across the desert, “We need to get there before they do!”

Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale.

I nodded to Mila and started running again. Running for my life.

Four days earlier

I balanced one foot in the tree branch and the other in the bough, pausing to keep my balance. My fingers tightly gripped a vine that I had looped about the tree trunk as a brace. Looking across the forest canopy, I squinted in the dawn light. My breath created little clouds in the chilly morning air as I sought landmarks. There were tall twin firs to the south, the mountain peak to the north. I recognised a dip in the forest to the east that was the river. To the west stood the city of Tevinter. It was all glass, metal, and skyscrapers. The forest ended abruptly, like a giant had drawn a line between the city and forest as far as the eye could see. I always used the tallest tower in Tevinter, shaped like a bird’s feather, as my landmark reference.

I pulled a map of waxy paper out of my hessian backpack and looked where we were in relation to those landmarks. We were right where we were meant to be.

I called down to Perse, far below me, “It’s got to be here!”

“What?” the old woman called, straining to hear.

“We’re in the right place!” I confirmed as I slung the vine that I was using for support down the tree trunk. I leaned my weight into the vine, and I began to walk down the trunk until I reached the next branch down.

“Where is it then?” she called. Then, pursing her lips, she muttered, “Let’s do this the old-fashioned way!”. Perse sat right down in the leaf litter of the forest, letting out a groan as she sat on her bad hip.

As I clambered down, my long woolen skirt began to block my view of the branches for footholds. I grabbed the brown fabric and twisted it between my legs, tying a large knot. I remembered the way Sabine had used to tease me, “Just wear trousers!” she’d say, leaping from branch to branch. “It’s what everyone off-world wears!”

“I don’t care what everyone off-world wears!” I’d shot back, “I like my dress!”. It was times like these that I regretted not trying trousers even once.

As I reached the lowest limbs of the tree, Perse was meditating below me. She sat cross-legged, eyes closed, in her own blue wool-spun dress. I hadn’t noticed the flower she’d tucked into her tight grey bun until I was standing above her. She sat silently, breathing steadily. While I couldn’t see it, I knew she was linked with the forest, following the connections between the trees all around us.

“Aha!” she cried sharply, her eyes snapping open. Perse pointed to a tree a few metres away, with a vine wrapped about its roots, blocking the base of the tree. “In there!”

I jumped to the forest floor and looped the vine about my waist should I need it later. I helped Perse stand. She let out a soft moan as she put weight on her hip. Perse grabbed a nearby branch as a walking stick and hobbled over to the tree she’d pointed to. She cleared away the vine, revealing a hollow in the tree roots. Inside were seven yellow-veined mushrooms, larger than my hand.

“Perfect!” she whispered.

She started to lean over to pick them, but started exhaling sharply, clutching her hip.

“Addison? Can you–?” she gestured to the mushrooms.

I crouched over the mushrooms. I plucked just two and placed them in Perse’s basket.

“And why didn’t you take all of them?” she quizzed me. I rolled my eyes because I was old enough to not need lessons anymore. But dutifully, I responded.

“We only take what we need,” I recited her lessons, “And so the mushrooms will be here next year,”

She nodded sharply, then asked, “And how many credits does one of these mushrooms get at the markets in Tevinter?”

My skin became hot. “How many… credits?” I asked, ensuring I heard her correctly.

Perse nodded, keeping her eyes fixed on me.

“We—we don’t use credits,” I stammered. Was it a trick question? My mind raced. When we were young, we went on a school trip into the city of Tevinter to visit an art museum. We saw people tapping devices together to exchange ‘credits’. But in our village of Nimbaii, we didn’t use credits. We did occasionally trade at the market, yes, but not for credits.

“We don’t use credits in Nimbaii,” Perse agreed, “Because the forest provides for us. We look after it, and it looks after us.” she gently patted the trunk of a nearby tree. “But when we leave the village, we have to use credits to buy food and shelter. And having some idea of how much things cost is a useful skill.”

I knew why she’d brought this conversation up today. Because it was my birthday. Soon, I would need to understand how credits worked.

“So, how many credits is a mushroom worth?” I ventured.

Perse shrugged. “An ordinary mushroom? Might be a single credit,” she explained. “An apple might be two credits.”

She held up the mushroom in her hand. “This mushroom? Four hundred credits.”

I frowned. “Why is this mushroom worth so much?”

“Because something is worth more credits if it’s rare. This mushroom is tough to find. In fact, there are only two people on this planet who know where to find it.” She pointed to herself and back to me.

“Oh,” I said, understanding. “Because only biokin are allowed in our forest?”

She nodded.

“This mushroom is very rare. We’re the only ones who have access to it. And we could get a lot of credits for it if we sold it.”

“What would we need credits for?” I asked. “Don’t we get everything we need from the forest?”

“Well, almost everything,” she winked. “The elders do keep credits aside for some things. We can’t, for example, make our own navcomms.”

“But we don’t use credits, so we don’t need navcomms,” I said, thinking of that small device I’d seen people using in Tevinter.

“When you’re in the forest, you don’t need it,” Perse nodded, “But when you are off-world, you will.”

My breath left me. “So, I will get one? For my pilgrimage?”

“Yes, you will get your very own.”

My heart began to race. I wasn’t ready for my pilgrimage. Even though it was my birthday. I was meant to be prepared. But travelling on my own to another planet for a year? It was exciting, but terrifying at the same time. Like jumping off a waterfall and not being sure how deep the water was at the bottom.

“Perse?” I asked, my voice small, “What did you do on your pilgrimage?”

She stood still, her eyes lost in the forest. I was about to repeat myself, but then she spoke. “You’ve spent your whole life in this forest, Addison. At sixteen, you are old enough to see the universe and to find out if this life here, as a biokin, is what you want. You might want to find a new home out in the world. Or you might return to this forest. What I discovered out there was very different from what you may discover out there. But that’s the point. Everyone’s pilgrimage is different, but the purpose is the same. To find yourself.”

The chill breeze hit me then. For the first time in my life, I noticed how impossibly tall the trees were around me.

Perse looked up at the rising sun. “We’d better get going. You’ll be late for school. What’s left on the list?”

I pulled out the waxy map and saw two more plants we needed to find.

“Cat’s claw is next.”

“Thank the Ancients,” she muttered, rubbing her hip. It reduced inflammation, so I imagined she would start peeling the vine and chewing it as soon as she laid eyes on it.

“And what tree does the cat’s claw vine usually cling to?”

I knew the answer to that one. It had saved my life when I was twelve. I’d been out foraging, and I’d twisted my ankle. Finding the cat’s claw was the only way I could make it home. “Kember oak.”

“And where will we find it?”

“South of the mountain.”

“We might just make a healer of you one day!” she cried, grinning as she began ambling down the mountain with newfound energy.

I followed her, feeling like my heart had separated from my body. I could see my future if it was here in Nimbaii. I would become the village healer. I would be a good healer, too. I studied hard and did my best to learn as much as I could from Perse. But would I discover another life in the stars? I’d soon find out.

***

I sat in the leaf litter on the forest floor. I loved that earthy smell. The leaves felt like a blanket against the damp soil. I leaned my back against a tree, and the rough bark dug into my back. My woolen dress rubbed against my skin. The air didn’t hurt my lungs as it had earlier in the morning, but it was still cool. The breeze brought leaves and twigs down from great heights, and birds scattered at predators that only they could see.

I exhaled slowly. And then I inhaled, counting to three.

I settled my attention on my breath in and out. In and out. And I expanded my awareness to focus on the world around me. My body sank into the dirt as I listened to the forest. Rustling leaves, a bird squawking and flapping away, making a branch high above rustle. I had the smell of earth in my nostrils and the taste of my morning coffee on my lips. And I rested my fingers on the tree roots next to me. And I connected with the forest.

In my mind’s eye, the tree I was touching lit up like a firefly. I could see down into its roots in my mind, and I sunk deep into the soil and then I tapped into the tree next to it. And then the one next to that. Even the tiny vines springing from the forest floor lit up, phosphorescent.

I was listening to the forest. It sighed and swayed. I knew which trees were craving sun and which plants were hounded by bugs. I knew which saplings were getting strangled by vines. I saw which evergreens were strong and tall, ready to share their nutrients with the plants around them. It was like I was being bathed in sunlight when I linked with the forest.

I expanded the reach of my mind in a circle about me, tapping each plant as I went, seeing if I could find the dew twine plant. I expanded my search, tapping more and more plants, but not finding the tree. The forest lit up, tree by tree, plant by plant, as I extended my reach in my vision. I tried to expand my mind out wider—but I hit a mental block. I couldn’t reach out any further. I wanted to push wider—but my attention wavered, and my circle shrunk back a few metres as I struggled to hold it. I tried one last time, pushing my reach another metre, two, further and further, connecting with more shrubs until—yes!—the dew twine on the very edge of my consciousness. I could feel some warm sunlight from a gap in the trees above it. I could sense the plant was content, not yearning for water or sun. It was at peace—exactly how we wanted the plants in the forest to feel. My reach into the forest snapped back as, in exhaustion, I disconnected.

I opened my eyes, letting the real-world morning sun flood my vision. The trees ahead of me returned with a mosaic of leaf litter in reds and browns on the forest floor.

“Well?” Perse asked, sitting across from me.

“Up the mountain,” I said, trying to hide my exhaustion. “Near the big Markson tree.”

“Oh?” Perse raised her eyebrows. “That’s quite a reach.”

“I’ve been practising,” I shrugged. I didn’t tell her I had been sneaking out at night with Lian. He was convinced Sabine had left a stash of moonshine in a nearby cave. We’d each extended our reach in different directions, trying to map the underground. So far, we’d had no success, but Lian kept insisting we head out after dark.

I stood up, feeling a little lightheaded, and handed Perse her walking stick.

“Perse, where did you find the ship to take you on your pilgrimage?” I asked.

“Not that you’d believe these old bones,” she smiled wickedly, “But I used to be quite a looker. So, I walked right into the tavern on the edge of Tevinter—I think it was called The Fox Paw—and announced that I needed a ride out of the solar system. I had three offers by dawn—including one for marriage.”

“So, what happened?”

“Well, none of them turned up at the spaceport the next day! Too much cider, I suspect. So, in the end, I had to convince a wheat merchant to take me. I told him I could get rid of the rats on his ship if he gave me a passage to the next planet. He thought I could talk to the wheat, you know, and get it to ‘expel the rats’. I’m not quite sure what that meant considering we can only connect with living plants, but it got me a passage.”

“Could you find the rats?”

“I was a stellar aim with a slingshot; I’ll have you know.” Perse winked.

“I’ll watch out!” I laughed.

***

I sat at my school desk, squirming. It was childish, but the last thing I wanted to do on my birthday was to be in school. I was like a dog tied to a tree; all I craved was to run outside. I wished I could head down to the river with Lian and jump off the highest rock into the depths below. I would lie in the sun and daydream about what life would be like off-world. Outside the classroom window, the younger students were on their lunch break. They ran about the village, playing hide and seek in the square, darting amongst the houses, climbing trees, throwing a ball about. How I craved to be out there instead of in this classroom.

In complete contrast to my itchy feet, Lian was asleep right next to me. His head was in his arms, his light brown hair fell over his eyes as his enormous arms cocooned his face into a makeshift pillow. Some of the younger girls near me cooed when they saw him asleep, but I just rolled my eyes. If they knew how much of a dork he was, they wouldn’t be fawning over him. I’d once seen him strip off his trousers when a frog took refuge in there during a sudden thunderstorm, and I tell you what, there was truly nothing to fuss about. I imagined one day I’d find someone worthy of swooning over. I just wouldn’t find them here in Nimbaii.

I gently nudged Lian’s ankle with my foot, and when he didn’t wake, I kicked him.

He started, and some drool stuck to his notebook.

“We’re about to learn about the solar system,” I whispered with gentle sarcasm because every year a student had to do this same presentation.

“Oh, goody,” Lian said, blinking awake. “Are we learning about all of it this time?”

I shook my head, “Not likely.”

He’d been referring to Sabine’s anger a few years ago that we only learned about the planets with biokin on them. “How does this help us on pilgrimage?” she’d complained. “How am I meant to prepare for my trip if I don’t even know about other planets?”

At the time, I’d just shrugged, partly because I didn’t like causing a fuss and also because my pilgrimage had seemed a lifetime away. But, today, I had butterflies in my stomach because it was already time for my pilgrimage. And now I was wondering why we only learned about planets with biokin on them and not the rest of them.

Kimonee, a younger girl in the class, stood at the front, hands quivering. I strained to hear her quiet voice as she read in a monotone from her paper. As the senior students, Lian and I needed to at least feign interest so the poor thing could survive the stress of public speaking.

“A long time ago, all biokin were on one planet,” Kimonee stuttered, “We lived in harmony with nature and were protected by the Ancient Tree. But then, one day, the biokin saw an asteroid nearing their planet. The tree told them to shelter in the roots, and it grew cocoons for all the villagers–”

Lian raised an eyebrow at me and whispered, “This is getting a little into the realm of mythology, isn’t it?”

“Oh, lay off it, Lian, she’s trying,” I whispered back.

“–and when the asteroid hit, all the biokin were scattered across the galaxy, protected by the cocoons. We landed on several planets and grew into peaceful communities like the one we live in here.”

Our teacher nodded enthusiastically, and Kimonee continued, “I will now share a summary of all the planets that biokin live on, starting with ours.”

“Oh, come on. We live here. We know this one!” Lian muttered. He rolled his eyes and folded his arms into a makeshift pillow again.

I truly began to wonder then, with a pang of anxiety, what was on the other planets. I didn’t know much about them at all. Some were habitable and had humans. While we learned about the other biokin planets, hundreds of other worlds were in this sector. Where would I go on my pilgrimage? What would I see? Perse wasn’t helpful at all when I asked her about her time off-world. I sighed. I supposed the only way I was going to find out what life was like offworld was to go. The knot in my stomach tightened.

***

The bonfire was taller than me, even standing on my tip-toes. A plume of smoke wound up to the star-studded night, and music filled the air. Smoke filled my nose with an earthy, sooty smell. I loved that smell. It reminded me of midnight dances, laughter, and family. 

The bonfire was across the town square, and our village surrounded us. In the moonlight, our homes might have looked like they were strange trees from the heart of the forest. A passerby would not guess that the living buildings started as saplings woven together to grow into beautiful homes over a generation. My mother worked in the village as an architect, helping grow a new set of homes that would, in a few years, be the homes of the next generation in the town. We had drawings all over our house, including designs and city maps from Tevinter. She always said that just because we didn’t live the same way as people outside the forest, there was no reason we couldn’t learn from them. She also hoped, I suspected, that they would also one day come to learn from us.

I looked back toward the bonfire, and in the coals, one of the elders of the village roasted beets, mushrooms, and spiced chickpeas in an enormous cauldron. He served the feast out into small clay bowls, handing them out to revelers.

Most of the village was here for the celebration, including Perse. My parents danced together by the bonfire like they were young again. I rolled my eyes but secretly loved how they always made each other laugh with their dancing.

I sat by Lian on a log overlooking the fire. I was eating the spicy warm beets with relish.

“Did you get anything for your birthday from your parents?” He asked, picking at his own bowl, avoiding the chickpeas.

“I did,” Leaning over, like I had a secret, I whispered, “I got a navcomm.”

His eyebrows rose. “Seriously?”

I nodded, beaming. I had attached it to a leather cord and wore it as a necklace tucked into my dress. I pulled it out, showing the small metal device, no larger than my thumb. “It’s for my pilgrimage.”

“Do you have any credits on it?” He asked, eyes wide.

I nodded. “I have two hundred credits. Dad says that’s enough to get a fare off-world. Or get some warm clothes if I go somewhere with snow. It’s enough to start until I find a job or something and I can get more credits.”

“Where will you go?”

“Well, absolutely not one of the biokin planets,” I answered, rolling my eyes. “Kimonee’s report was so detailed that it was like being there, so I don’t feel the need to go at all.”

He laughed, and as I met his eyes, my heart jumped to my throat. Fear. Fear of leaving him. Of travelling to the unknown.

There was a commotion across the bonfire. Someone was hitting a spoon to a saucepan like a bell. My mother stood up on a log, clearly intending to make a birthday speech for me. I flushed but knew that this was part of birthday traditions. I walked over to her and stood by her as a circle stood by to listen to the speech. Lian and my father hovered nearby.

“Thank you for attending our little celebration,” she said. “I cannot believe my baby girl has come of age!”

My father lifted his glass with a cheer, “Happy birthday, Addison!”

“Now, we know Addison is due to leave soon on her pilgrimage, and she’ll be gone a whole year! I cannot wait to hear of her adventures and see the person she becomes after her year away.” My mother’s voice cracked as she inhaled. “But she isn’t leaving just yet! The first step of the pilgrimage is to get a ship off-world—and she doesn’t have one yet–”

“Do you, Addison?” My father asked cautiously.

I laughed and shook my head, “Not yet, Dad,” and he theatrically sighed with relief.

“While she’s still here, let us all celebrate this day and make the most of our time together! Let’s dance and enjoy the feast!”

The crowd applauded, and as they dispersed, Perse pulled me aside.

“I’ve got a little gift for you for your travels, Addison.”

She handed me a small envelope. Inside was a set of seeds. Some I recognised, and I knew they were rare. “May these help you on your journey. Remember that we all change. It can be hard to grow and change. Sometimes we feel like nothing is happening, but all that energy results in a beautiful transformation in time. Like a seed into a sunflower. Be open to the transformation.”

“Thanks, Perse.” I tucked her seeds into my pocket and gave her a long hug.

“Okay,” she said after a moment, “This old duck needs to have her beauty rest.”

I clasped her hand. “Thanks, Perse. For everything.”

“Don’t wait too long to go on your pilgrimage, Addison. It’s better for the soul to do it sooner rather than later.”

The drumming circle started again. My father pulled my mother into a dance again, and as I watched them, they offered for me to join the dance. I shook my head. Tonight, I did not feel like dancing. I headed back to my spot by the fire with Lian.

“You know, I have a gift for you too,” he said, voice taut.

“You do?” I asked, surprised. “It’s not beetles again?”

He shook his head, noticeably silent, eyes averted. He handed me a small cloth bag. From inside, I pulled a thin, woven bracelet. It was blue with red stones threaded through. The stones sparkled in the firelight.

“It’s beautiful! Where did you get this?” I held out my wrist so he could tie it fast.

“I made it,” he said sheepishly, fumbling with the tie. “I actually only just finished it at two this morning. It’s to give you something to remember me by. Or remember, um, the village. You know. When you’re away,” he stammered. 

“Oh, Lian!” I cried, giving him a hug. “How could I forget you?”

“Well,” he shrugged awkwardly, “just in case.”

I flushed, feeling that this hug was intimate in a way we hadn’t ever been before. I broke off the hug and sat up, feigning another look at the bracelet.

“I don’t even have transport off-world,” I reassured him.

“I am glad you’re not leaving immediately,” he said quietly.

I sat, watching the bonfire sparks rise to the sky.

“It’s not like you’ll be here on your own without me for long anyway,” I said. “You’re almost sixteen, too. You’ll be on your own pilgrimage in a few weeks.”

He let out a long, slow sigh, like the sigh of life racing along before we were ready.

“Are you scared?” he asked, and it sounded like he was asking more for himself than for me.

“A little bit. A little excited, too. Mostly just worried that I won’t know what to do. That I’ll make a silly mistake and end up in trouble.”

“Like what?”

“Like, everywhere else uses credits, and I don’t even know how they work.”

Lian’s eyes lit up, “Let’s practise!”

I laughed, “Practice? Practice what?”

“Using credits,” he leapt up and grabbed a nearby stick. “Here, here, buy this from me!”

I couldn’t help but laugh and looked about the bonfire to ensure that no one was close enough to witness this embarrassing charade. “Okay, okay, um, can I buy that stick for, um, ten credits?” I asked, holding up my navcomm on my lanyard.

Lian frowned. I laughed even harder. “You need a navcomm. And we tap them together to transfer the credits.”

I found a rock of adequate size and handed it to him. “Here, that’s your navcomm.”

He laughed, and we gently tapped the navcomm and the rock together, meeting eyes. My heart skipped a beat.

“Thanks for your business. Please come again,” he said, handing me the stick.

He pointed to some mushrooms on my plate. “Can I buy that mushroom for, um, one hundred credits?”

“No, no,” I said, remembering my conversation with Perse. “A mushroom is only one credit. But you can pay a hundred if you like,” I winked.

“How do you know how much things are?” he asked, looking cheated as if I’d been studying in secret.

“Perse told me this morning,” I explained, “But only about mushrooms and apples.”

Lian folded his arms. “This is so unfair. What if I did that for real? If I bought a mushroom for a hundred credits instead of one. I’d be out of money in a day! Isn’t there somewhere we can go and like, buy an apple, and see how it’s done?”

Only Ancient Ones know what inspired me to say what I said next. Perhaps it was the high of my birthday celebration. Maybe it was the fact that I was on the precipice of change, anyway.

“There is a place,” I said, keeping my voice low. “We can’t buy an apple, but we can buy an apple cider.”

“I’m listening,” murmured Lian, keeping his posture casual, his eyes remaining on the fire as if we were discussing the weather.

“We’d need to sneak out because it’s outside the forest. It’s called The Fox Paw."

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