15 The Orchard

Next day I woke up in my own hut but I bathed with my mother with excuse i haven't got water for myself yet. Today I had to go work in the orchards to get basic necessities for my home.

I walked to the village heads hut having a lot of thoughts in my head. Since its a orchard there should only be work like picking fruits. Though thoughts of climbing trees scared me I had confidence that I will somehow manage.

The village head was sitting outside his hut, Once he saw me coming he stood up and beckoned me with his hand to follow him.

He then turned left and went to the other side of the village. After reaching the first house on the street he shouted

" Tulga... Tulga!!!. Come outside. "

"Chief!!!. We will take care of the zukr today. No need to shout at me again"

"I am not here for that, look this is Gan. He just had his gifting ceremony till he learns about his gifts he will work in the orchard. Take him in to your group today and make him work. "

Tulga looked me up and down with doubt and reluctantly said " Ok Chief. "

The chief quickly left leaving me with her. Tulga looked at me and said wait outside I will eat and come. Tulga was a little odd to me as she is the only women with flesh in her body i have seen in the village.By this villages standards she can even be called voluptous. She look to be older than my mother with a blonde hair and fair complexion.

I thought if she has lhasa to eat in the morning compared to us who only have enough to eat once in the evening she must be having a pretty good gift.

Once she came outside she gave me a big clay pot to carry and started walking towards the Ilphyr trees. I wordlessly started following her. I have seen Ilphyr trees from the distance but once we started going near it I was shocked to notice how huge the tree is.

Looking at its red tree trunk and its light green leaves I couldn't help remember again that I was in a different world.Thoughts of the crystal tree again rang in my mind. Once i walked inside the orchard I had a indescribable feeling well up inside of me.

Tulga crossed into the orchard and started walking purposefully. After walking past few trees in the orchard, I started noticing a thin red vine that was covering the tree. Oddly the vine seemed to be growing from the ground and entwined the tree to the top of its trunk.

The deeper we walked the larger the vines on the tree were. I was gawking on this surreal environment when Tulga stopped suddenly. I then turned to look at the tree she stopped at.