The Tree of Memories
READ BEFORE CONTINUING!
You might already know that this is a Wreck-It Ralph fan-fiction. I am writing this brief
introduction to inform the reader that this fan-fiction may impede on some individual ideas
already being formulated about Ralph's actual backstory. This is my take on the story that could
have possibly taken place before the Nicelanders moved in and for now, it will be very brief.
Later, I may add more parts to it. However, I am not going to make this one of the romance fan-
fictions, since this is mainly dealing with Ralph's attachment to his stump. I will also be breaking
this into small chunks called "Memories", since they will be about Ralph's life that may have
taken place around that tree.
Memory 1:
The Patch of Fireflies
A young boy with dark-red, short, messy hair, bushy eyebrows and dark eyes set close to
one another above a huge, slightly reddish nose was sitting and waiting eagerly on a bench
during a game of football in his helmet, shoulder pads and bright white uniform with the number
8 on his back, located just above his name, R. Ralph. He stood up with hopeful excitement as
one of the players on his team was taken out, thinking, "Alright! Maybe I can finally get a
chance to play!" and a wide grin spread across his face like wildfire. The season before this had
been extremely uneventful for him, although his team was great at playing. The coach usually
asked him to fetch the ball if it went out of bounds or past a goal, or he was usually asked to
retrieve towels and water. It never seemed they were too eager to allow him to join in, but this
just might be his chance to show them that he could play just as well as anyone else.
The coach stood up to take a look at the remaining available players who were not either
injured in some way or taking a breather. It seemed the only one to choose was Ralph. Ralph,
the Team Trouble-Maker. As Ralph peered up at him with a hopeful look in his eyes, the
coach's expression softened up a bit and he said, "Rekkit, you had better do us proud out there.".
At this, Ralph jumped with joy and took off out into the field , yelling back to his coach, "Yes!
You won't regret this, sir!". Now, the game was on.
Ralph stood crouched directly in front of the kid who had the ball, determined to be the
first to snatch it from him. The other boy looked extremely tough, with grass stains all over his
uniform and a small bruise directly under one of his pit-like eyes. Before the whistle was blown,
the kid made an arrogant smile and said, "So… Your name's Rekkit, huh? You think you can
take one for the team, buddy?". Ralph's eyebrows came down in focus and his smile twisted
slightly before replying with "Wanna bet, grass-butt?". Challenge accepted. Ralph was not
going to show any mercy.
The whistle blew and everything flew by in a blur. Ralph kicked off as hard and as
quickly as he could to gain force, as well as momentum. It seemed as if he was almost breezing
past all of the opposing players as he began to single out the kid who caught the ball and was
running with it towards the field goal, when, in reality, his force was knocking them aside and
putting a few into a brief shock. He even bounced off of a few of them, gaining him even more
force due to speed. Within a few seconds, Ralph was upon the unfortunate target, raging toward
him at top speed. The impact was not going to be pretty.
Ralph realized what he was doing just a bit too late. He tried to dig his shoes into the
grass to slow himself down before he really could injure the other boy, but it failed. Ralph
collided headlong into the other player, who, may I add, was much shorter and smaller in stature
than Ralph. A split second before the collision, both boys looked each other straight in the eyes
with an expression in which they were both united- fear. Something must have clicked in
Ralph's mind, because in this instant, he forgot to take the ball and both boys fell hard to the
ground with a loud thud, disturbing a cloud of dirt and dust as well as a few clumps of grass. A
moment later, Ralph recovered and took a good look at the other kid as the coach came running
up to see if there were any injuries. This kid was scrawny, weak-looking, had a nose similar to
Ralph's own, had light, brown hair under his helmet (the helmet had come off slightly during
the impact) and he was carrying a golden hammer in his belt, which, oddly enough, he wore
over his uniform. Uh-oh.
The coach was half-way to where they were and Ralph panicked. He knew that the kid he
had just knocked out was Felix Junior, the most popular kid in the town, which meant that he
was about to get into some serious trouble. Aw, man… What to do? What do do?! Ralph chewed
his nails, so to speak, as he quickly glanced at the coach, back at Felix, back at the coach, back
at Felix. Just before the coach arrived, Felix faded out and reappeared, refreshed and ready to
play again, with a huge, friendly smile plastered on his face, as usual. "Well, that was quite'uh
force ya showed there, m'friend! Congratulations!" Felix grinned and extended a friendly hand
for Ralph to shake. Ralph was absolutely dumbfounded.
Ralph opened his mouth to say, "Look, Felix… I'm really sor-" when the coach
interrupted with a loud, booming voice, yelling out," What were you trying to do, Rekkit?! Kill
Felix?! I mean, look! I know he's not on our team, but you know you can lose points in this
game if you injure another player! What were you thinking?!" and he grabbed Ralph's arm with
fingers of steel, causing a great deal of pain to rocket up through Ralph's nerves. Ralph's eyes
watered up with tears as he made an attempt to pull away, answering "I was only trying to score
for the team, coach! I tried to slow down! I really did! Look, I didn't mean to hurt him!".
"And what did you mean to accomplish by sacrificing our points, hmm?" the coach
snarled slightly at Ralph and pulled him in closer, appearing as if he was about to beat up Ralph
to show him how it felt, no matter if Ralph already knew or not. Ralph covered his face and
clenched his teeth in fear as a few tears rolled down his cheeks. "Umm… Sir? May I just add
that I don't think Ralph was tryin' ta kill me? I mean, it might soun' absurd, but that look in 'is
eyes before we crashed…" Felix meekly attempted to speak up to defend Ralph to stop whatever
violence was about to take place. "Felix, you should just stay out of this, alright? This is
between me n' my boy!" the coach interrupted, frightening Felix back into silence and forcing
him to leave. Felix slowly sulked off, stopping only once to glance back to see poor Ralph
getting smacked around a bit and trying to yell over his dad's voice, attempting to talk sense into
him before taking off running out past the field goal and into the night. Then, he could not help
but notice that the crowd had gone dead quiet.
Ralph kept running, blinded by his own tears and misguided by a broken heart. He bolted
through the town park, over the fence, past the forest, over the dump and then a blinding light
caught his attention. He wiped his eyes on his forearm and as he peered out into the night, he
could see a small orb of golden light dancing on the wind a short distance from himself. Ralph
was still quite upset on the inside, but he suddenly felt extremely curious about this tiny little
creature and decided to try to catch it to see what it was.
He followed it for some time and it seemed as if all of his worries and fears had simply
washed away, carried off by the winds, much like the little ball of light. A small, but pure smile
found it's way back onto his face as he happily chased after the insect, cupping his already huge
hands together in an attempt to capture it. This little game continued for an amount of time
unknown to Ralph, who had found bliss in playing with this small creature and before he knew
it, the little flyer landed against a flat, upward surface and flitted it's wings as it cleaned it's tiny
face. It's little greenish light flickered once or twice before it realized that Ralph's hands were
about to lock it in a huge, dark abyss and not even a second before his hands closed around it,
the little guy took off into the night.
As darkness yet again descended in the wake of the tiny creature, Ralph began to
remember why and from who and what he ran away from. He quickly twirled on one foot and
fell into a slump up against the surface from which the insect took off. Too distraught to take
notice of where he was, he again buried his face in his hands, pulled in his knees and thought to
himself, Why am I always the bad guy? Why is it that every time I have an accident, it's a crime
and every time someone else has an accident, it's a friendly get-together?. As he began to sob
again, another bright light illuminated his entire body and he then looked straight up into the
sky.
There, among the summer leaves, were a thousand fireflies, some clinging in huge groups
to single leaves, some standing alone and many rushing through the aerial speedways created by
the branches to illuminate the entire tree and everything under it's greenery. One extremely
small firefly descended and made it's landing right on Ralph's nose, causing him to look cross-
eyed at it. It looked him straight back in the eyes and tilted it's head slightly, as if out of concern.
Ralph smiled for a split second before looking away and closing his eyes with an expression of
deep sadness on his face. He waved his hand in front of his face to shoo the firefly away and it
took off into the leaves of the tree, only to return with a group of four others, each of a different
body size and shade of light, all of which were not among friends up in the top of the tree, and
they each landed on Ralph's shoulder. Ralph then opened his eyes to see them sitting there and
said, "Come on, guys. You don't want me as a friend. I might accidentally destroy you." in a
low, slightly grumbly voice. The fireflies made no audible reply and refused to budge.
Ralph peered up again at the colony of fireflies up in the branches and it occurred to him that maybe
these ones were outcasts just like him. He took one last look at them, yawned and smiled as he
reclined against the firefly-tree and drifted off to sleep.
End of Memory 1