thehometree | Glimmer, glitter, shine...

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Glimmer, glitter, shine...

One by one, new adventurers now arrive in the Tree. As one gain wings and rises to the second floor, another light brings in the next person. Soon, a steady stream of people from all kinds of worlds, times and realities come to join the others. Whether confused, angry, excited or scared, your arrival is welcomed with nothing but joy as the fireflies and glow worms descend to greet their new friends.

The Tree offers no explanation and no reason, but the truth is undeniable.

As you will soon realize, it isn't easy to be tiny.

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He looks up when he feels the weight on his shoulder, successfully comforted by the contact. Yogi does that at times and it's not half bad.

"Yeah... Yeah! And if they're going to come here too, then I'll wait for them. If I stay here, it'll be easier for them to find me." Or so he's been advised in the case he's ever separated from his chaperones.

Now, a slight look of curiosity. "Student?"

"That's probably good advice. Better than getting lost." Nai seemed a little... weird. Like he'd been raised under a rock or something, though even Kaoru wasn't rude enough to actually say as much. Why didn't he know what a space colony was? Or a student?

"It's someone who studies things. You do that with Tsukumo, right?"

He nods and smiles, happy to know hear Kaoru's agreement. Then the explanation gets a look of understanding out of him.

"Oh! Yeah, she helps me study. It's hard but I like doing it." 'Student' or 'school' are foreign terms to him. There's simply Tsukumo, a friend generous with her time who agrees with the rest of Nai's company that he's in dire need of basic education.

"What kind of things do you learn about?" At this point, Kyle would agree; Nai really did need some sort of education. He wasn't sure what sort of circumstances would leave someone his age in this state, but...

"Um, she teaches me new words every day. And numbers and math. Math is really hard when I do it by myself, but Tsukumo makes it easy. And then she told me about the names of all the days and months. That's called a calender." Very, very basic education, but he seems happy to recount those activities.

"I see..." So in terms of a formal education, Nai was more like an elementary school student?

"Usually people learn those kinds of things before they reach my age. Where did you grow up? Didn't your parents teach you?"

Nai perks up. A question regarding 'parents' is something he's been asked before, by Gareki, but he couldn't answer it then. And despite knowing what parents are now (sort of), he can't really answer it this time either.

"I lived in Niji Forest with Karoku! I don't have parents, I think?"

Oh. That actually explained a lot.

"Rainbow Forest?" Kaoru smiled; seemingly, this was something of a rare event. "That sounds like a nice place. I lived in a house by the forest for a little while. It was hard, but I was with... friends. Some of them didn't have parents, either."

While Nai can't understand the deeper meaning behind not having parents, he is happy to hear that Kaoru's lived in a forest as well. He even had the pleasure of being with friends.

"Me and Karoku lived in a house too, but it's not there anymore. But the forest is really warm and pretty! And there's always lots of rainbows. How did you know there were rainbows?"

"Because that's what 'niji' means. Rainbow." In Japanese, anyway.

"We lived in a house, too. It was called Everyone's House. We built it up in a tree by Fairy Lake." Kaoru looked a little embarrassed. "...Sharla named them. She wanted to write stories for a living."

ANYWAY, back to Nai. "What was your forest like? Aside from the rainbows."

His eyes widen in wonder at that bit of trivia, like it's the most interesting thing he's heard today. "Wow! Kaoru's really smart."

As for the rest of the conversation, he listens attentively and with a smile. "Sharla is your friend? She gave them nice names." In other words, he doesn't think Kaoru has any reason to be embarrassed. Now, he seems happy to talk about his former home.

"There are lots and lots of trees, and lots of animals, there's a big field with flowers that are all different colors. Me and Karoku would go there and sometimes we'd fall asleep in the grass. And there's water near our house too. Um..." What was it called again? "Oh, the ocean!"

"Yes... there were several of us." Nai was absolutely right; he didn't have any reason to be embarrassed because he didn't come up with the names.

"A forest near the ocean? Where did you get your water from? The sea is too salty to drink..." Yes, clearly that was the thing to focus on here.

He nods a few times but isn't sure how to answer the other questions.

"Um...I don't know. It's just there." Though now, since he's thinking about it, his smile fades. His most recent memory of the water isn't a good one, as it's connected to the last time he ever saw Karoku.

"But the water Karoku gave me wasn't salty." Granted he only learned what salt and 'salty' even were when he joined up with his now-friends.

Naturally, Kaoru totally misunderstood why Nai's smile faded and figured it was because he didn't know how to answer the question. Hmm... maybe it was better to ask about his friend?

"...What kind of person was Karoku?"

Misunderstanding or not, Nai seems a little happier to talk about this particular topic.

"Karoku and me were always together. He's kind and warm and he gave me tasty food everyday. ... But then he went away. I'm looking for him now." Nai lifts up his wrist, not the hand holding his gem but the one with a thick bracelet over it. "This is Karoku's. When I find him I'm going to ask him if I can give it to Gareki because he wants it."

"It's best not to give it away before you find him," Kaoru agreed, wondering how much the 'tasty food' part of Nai's statement rated compared with Karoku's other positive traits.

He looked at the bracelet. "But why would Gareki want that? Did he know Karoku before he left?"

Nai shakes his head. "No, but Gareki likes it, and Karoku's nice so he'll say it's okay!" There is more to it, naturally, but sweet trusting Nai isn't privy to such things.

"But when I find Karoku, he can become friends with everyone. Kaoru can be his friend too!" he says with a cheerful smile.

Nai, you sweet summer child... Kaoru couldn't fathom why a bunch of dudes would be so interested in some bracelet, but eh. None of his business.

"That would be nice. I don't know if it'll happen, though. I have a difficult personality." Was Kaoru joking. Was he serious. The world would never know.

"Did you already get something to eat? You should do that before everyone else gets hungry."

While unsure of what he means by 'difficult personality,' Nai shakes his head and smiles again.

"It's okay because Kaoru's nice!" And that's that, it seems, since he goes right into answering the question posed to him. "I didn't eat. I was looking for my friends first. Ah, maybe they're hungry too!"

Kaoru seemed a little taken aback by the statement, like what the hell Nai. Don't call him nice!! So he was going to respond in the maturest way possible: by quickly changing the subject and pretending it never happened.

"...Then let's hurry and grab something. There's a lot of different kinds of food there, so you can choose the ones you like best."

Unperturbed and even excited about the change in topic, Nai goes right along with it. He's more happy about the fact that he's made a new friend already in this strange place. Once they're done eating, he's definitely going to help Kaoru find his own friends. They've got to be around here somewhere.

"Okay! Everything here is really big, bigger than the food at home. Gareki's says that when I eat, I have to finish everything." This is going to be difficult, and even if Gareki isn't here to yell about getting enough food into his skinny body, Nai will certainly try.

"...Don't make yourself sick." Nai seemed like he might be in danger of doing just that -- trying to please others and ending up ill in the process.

"You can always save some for later. Come on." Actually, that was probably a good idea, hmm... in any case, he started off for the banquet (was it a banquet? in their honor?) table.

"I've never seen a tree this size... not even in the Eastern Woods."

Nai shakes his head and says quite confidently, "I won't!" before trotting closely behind Kaoru. Still amazed at how big everything is, Nai's eyes sparkle at the sight of the beautiful array of food laid out of them on the table before glancing up at Kaoru.

"I didn't know you could be inside a tree. The trees in Niji Forest aren't big like this one."

"There were trees on Earth that were 11 meters in diameter," said Kaoru, picking up an oversized berry and considering it before putting it aside. He picked through a few more before handing an adequately ripe one to Nai. "Or trees that you could drive a vehicle through. Here, this one is better."

Of course, that was a long time ago, before Earth had become uninhabitable. "What were they like? Your trees."

He takes the incredibly large berry, even bigger in his little hands, with his eyes still wide with curiosity. At the question, he livens up and smiles.

"They're big and fluffy and warm." Naturally. "Sometimes when it's really hot, me and Karoku sit under them because they cover us. We can still see the rainbows too, but only a little bit. I thought they were all broken because the trees are taller than them, but Karoku said it was still pretty, so I like them now." It's all right if Kaoru can't make sense of any of that because Nai tilts his head with a question of his own now.

"What's diameter? Kaoru's trees are small?"

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