Chapter 2 - Getting Lost with a Whisperleaf (Part 2)

Jade talked about many things with his cousin while they were in the forest. Ever since he arrived, he hadn't been able to completely relax yet, having too many things on his mind. He couldn't change the fact that he didn't truly belong in this house. He didn't want to stay for too long, but his issues were things that needed time to figure out. For the first time, he was able to forget about everything and simply look at the leaves and listen to the wind.

The ringing of his phone disturbed the quiet of the forest, dragging him back to reality. He would have loved to enjoy the atmosphere a little longer. With a sigh, he took it out to see it was his aunt, and immediately realized they'd been out there for much longer than they planned, enjoying their outing too much to notice the time flying by.

He reassured his aunt and promised her they'd be back soon, but when he looked around him, he suddenly felt like the forest looked the same everywhere.

"Olive... do you remember which way we came from?"

Taken aback, the girl looked around, then lowered her head. She also forgot. Well... it runs in the family I guess, Jade thought, bringing a hand to his face.

"Well, in this case, the best thing to do is stay put and wait for someone to come get us. I'll call auntie and– hm? Did you say something?"

The girl shook her head, and he only realized after the words left his mouth that it was a strange thing to say; whatever he heard, it couldn't have been her.

"Must have been my imagination..."

He took out his phone again, but before he could call his aunt, faint words drifted to his ears. He looked around, then turned to his cousin.

"Did you hear that?"

She shook her head again, but started listening closely. The forest was silent.

"Is it really my imagination...?"

Olive scribbled something on her board. "Maybe it's a ghost?"

"Yeah, right, ghosts don't exist... nevermind, maybe they exist, all things considered."

After all, the only reason he didn't believe in ghosts so far was that they couldn't be explained with science; but maybe magic could explain ghosts. In that case, he wouldn't mind believing in them. He didn't believe in magic previously, but here it was, right in front of him, and he couldn't possibly deny that when he could see it with his own eyes, even if he didn't understand it yet.

Another whisper echoed under the trees.

"Again!"

The voice was too subtle to understand what it was saying, but this time he was sure that he heard something.

Olive nodded; she heard it too.

"Probably someone's voice carried by the wind. If we could hear it better, we might be able to get help..."

This time, there was a chuckle. Both searched their surroundings, but there was no sign of anyone nearby. Is it really a ghost after all?

Olive tugged on his sleeve. She pointed to some low leaves he hadn't noticed before; they had a mint green shade, with a darker spot at the center. Intrigued, he crouched in front of them. Giggling sounds echoed in his ears, now clearer than before.

"Are these leaves... laughing?"

Olive nodded, looking at them with stars in her eyes. The leaves laughed again.

"Are you lost, child of the vines?"

His eyes widened in surprise. He couldn't answer, voice caught in his throat. Child of the vines? Because our family is called Vinesong? He wondered.

"Follow our laughter, and you'll be home before twilight," the leaves said in a whisper as more laughter echoed in the forest.

Following the sound of giggles in the leaves, the two of them found their way home in no time. Aunt Laurel was waiting for them in her garden, sipping warm tea and enjoying the last moments of sunlight before the evening. She stood up to greet them.

"Sorry, auntie, I didn't pay attention to the time."

"It's alright, I wasn't paying attention either!" She replied with a laugh.

It really does run in the family, Jade thought.

Aunt Laurel looked at them both and smiled. "What's important is that you two had a good time."

"About that, you won't believe what happened–" he started, then realized that wasn't right and corrected himself. "Nevermind, you're definitely going to believe this."

Olive wrote on her erasable board. "We were having such a good time that we got lost."

"And then some leaves started laughing at us and showed us the way home," Jade continued. "Seriously, are all magic plants like this? A cactus that walks around, and now leaves that make fun of people getting lost."

"Were those leaves pale green and darker in the center by any chance?"

"You know what plant this is?"

"Oh my! How delightful. You two ran into something truly rare."

"Really?"

"It's called a Whisperleaf," she explained. "It shows up when people get lost and tells them the way home."

Jade blinked in confusion. "What do you mean, 'it shows up'?"

"Exactly what it means. The Whisperleaf is just not a plant that will still be where you remember the next day."

"Is it another plant that moves around? Like the Wanderprickle?"

His aunt shook her head. "It's a little different. It's a rather elusive plant that only appears when someone is truly lost and needs its guidance. In fact, it's so difficult to observe that very little is known about it. There should be a page about it in one of the books I gave you."

Now that had definitely piqued his curiosity. He was itching to go and check his books to see if they had more information. This Whisperleaf was the most interesting plant he'd learned about since the Wanderprickle – alright, to be fair, maybe others would have caught his interest if he had looked more closely at their pages, but so far he had only paid close attention to the Wanderprickle.

"Damn, if I knew it was so rare, I would have picked some."

His aunt chuckled. "Why?"

"I can't?"

"No, of course you can. If you can find it. I was just surprised to see you so interested in a magic plant. Do you like them?"

Suddenly faced with this question, Jade didn't know how to answer. Of course, he didn't dislike magic plants; but to say he liked them? He certainly liked his prickly desk companion, at least, but he felt it was still too soon to say. They were new to him and full of wonders, so of course he wanted to know more – he was a scientist, after all.
But he didn't know what kind of answer to give yet. They might just be something cool to learn about and pass the time while he stayed here. They might also become a new passion, something he'd keep studying the rest of his life.

"Don't rush," his aunt said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "You can take all the time you need to figure it out. If you like them, it won't hurt to study them; your life doesn't have to revolve about magic plants just because you took an interest in them. You're young, take your time."

"... I'll think about it."