{the birds & the trees} ~ [woodrow/yaa/open]

The moisture in the air and the smell of something foul tickled Kalina’s nose. The ever present odor slowly brought her out of her slumber to see nothing but darkness but could feel the foot of her younger sister, in her face. She grimaced and moved away from it as she stretched her body out and looked to the window. ‘Still dark out. Lotus, you do this to me all the time… can’t you learn to sleep right?’ Were her thoughts as she violently yawned and gave in to the morning appeal.

“The sun isn’t even up and I get woke up, feet first. Thanks a lot, Lotus,” Sitting up in the bed, she noticed her sister was twisted into the sheets with her body in the opposite position than when she originally went to sleep. She stifled a giggle and smiled. She covered her sister’s foot up with the blanket and fluidly was able to escape the bed without waking her up. Bending down, she kissed her on her forehead and grabbed a few articles of clothing out of her closet and closed the door behind her.

In the next room, Saffron lay sleeping in her bed, with their dog, Terren, curled up against her abdomen. The shaggy haired dog lifted his head as Kalina passed by, but it was short lived as the dog paid her no mind and forgot her quickly. Kalina went into the kitchen and noticed the two pails wrapped up with some meals inside. Usually, on working days, her mother, Mita, would already have the pails ready for her and her father. Naturally, curiosity got the better of her and she looked inside her pail, lifting the towel concealing the ingredients.

“Dried beef, some crushed pecan butter and a small chunk of bread. Well, isn’t this a nice meal. I’m gunna love this one.” She scooped up the pail quickly and set it outside the back door and continued to the bathroom. On working days, she never took long to make herself presentable for her job. She had no one to impress, so why should she waste her time in the bathroom with makeup and pretty things, when she was going to get her hair ripped out by a fir tree’s branch, scratched by a birch's bark or tear her shirt on a redwoods limb? Instead, her dark hair quickly went up into a high arching ponytail, a few strands hanging down to conceal her ears and she put on just a simple white shirt and dark colored light-weight jeans. Moments later, she started her journey to the pruning trees. That was where she was needed today.

The walk to the pruning area was past all of the downed lumber from the past few days, and a little further down than where they were cutting down the trees today. The tree’s she would be pruning today, would either be chopped down in the next week or at least by the end of the month. Until then, she sought refuge in them. The silence of growing things intrigued her. Every day, something new was happening. A new bud would appear or a branch blown down, a nest of eggs or a squirrel’s hideaway. This is what brought her out into these woods every day. Mother nature’s conversations.

The darkness she started her journey in quickly became lighter and the shadows of the trees elongated around her feet. Small light streams beamed through the trees as she continued her walk and from beyond the patch of firs, she could hear a few voices. ‘The crews must be coming out early this morning’ She thought to herself. Up until then, the quiet forest seemed to beckon to her to listen intently, that was until a deep, echoing WHACK penetrated her ears.

‘Someone’s already hard at work. Who would be so eager to start cutting this early?’ Her mind played with her to find out. Pruning could wait a little while, as again, curiosity got the better of her. She would just follow the sounds.