Birthday Seeds

His eyes perked as he watched the torrent of rain against the window begin to dissipate. He placed the piece of cake in front of him into the napkin covering his lap under the table.

Carefully, he folded the napkin around it before securing it inside of his shirt. Glancing around the room, all the adults were engaged in various conversations, no eyes were on him.

He silently slid from his chair to the floor. Crouching, he crept backwards out of the room without a single person noticing.

The sound of the party began to fade away the closer he got to the back door. He slowly turned the knob, careful not to make a sound as he pulled the door open.

Stepping out into the hot, muggy air, he quietly shut the door behind him before running towards the surrounding rainforest.

He pulled himself up on a branch and began teetering across the limb with his arms extended before jumping to a larger branch. Securing his balance, he ran towards her.

Her ears twitched as she heard the thud of his feet against the bark of a tree as he came towards her.

"Hello Cress." Isa called out as she heard his step soften and slow.

"You heard me coming?" He responded as he moved into view on the branch.

"You are very loud." She smiled at him, "I brought you a present."

"What is it?" Cress quickly dropped down to her from a branch, excitement filling his voice.

"Something you want," she replied as she held a small pouch out to him. He snatched it from her and began unknotting the string tie as she growled. "Rude!"

"Rude?" He questioned, his hands stilled by the anger in her tone. "How?"

"You just ripped that out of my hand." She turned to the side, her arms folded, "That was rude."

"Oh, I..." he wrung his hands around the pouch, his eyes cast towards the ground, "I didn't mean to be rude." His eyes shot up to her. "I won't do it again."

Her eyes met his as she looked out the corner of her eyes towards him. "Promise?"

He nodded in agreement, "Promise!"

A giant grin spread across her face as she turned back towards him, "Okay, open your present!"

He pulled open the bag and dumped the contents into his palm. "Seeds..." his face twisted as he looked to her. "Thank you."

"You don't like it?"

"I don't understand it." He confessed, "Why seeds?"

"I thought you wanted your own personal pear tree."

"This is a pear tree!" He quickly dug a small whole in the ground and dropped the seeds in. "I can't wait to eat a pear."

She covered the hole with dirt and placed her hands over it. Green light began to trickle from her hand into the ground as she spoke, "I start it for you since it is your birthday but you'll have to come everyday to grow it."

"Everyday?" He questioned as he watched her hands turned green with smoke and light as she swirled them around the air. Little sparks of green lights flowed into the dirt.

"Only if you want the pears to have grown by the time I come back." The green light faded from her hands as she examined the unfolding sapling.

"We have to wait a full moon cycle before we can have pears?" Disappointment noticeably coated his tone.

"Of course not!" She smiled as she twirled her hand. Now holding a pear, she presented it to him.

"Yes," she answered before she took a bite out of the pear she made appear for her. Her eyes went wide as she tried to speak through her food, "you can't..."

"I won't tell anyone," he took a bite out of his pear as he spoke, "even if I did, no one would believe me, but I won't tell." He assured.

"Promise?"

"Promise."