p style="text-align: center;"2/p
p style="text-align: left;"It started out as a low throb in my head, a background noise. Not even a hard throb, just there. After a while, though, it turned into a buzz. The buzz turned into whispers. And these whispers sometimes turned to voices if I talked to them. Which I did./p
p style="text-align: left;"I went back to the woods and talked to these strange voices. They heard me, and answered back. This seemed so unusual at that point, so that the first time one answered me, I fell off the stump I had been perched on. After I got used to talking to the trees- that was what they were- I found them very helpful. /p
p style="text-align: left;"They knew the way back to the village, and could tell me which plants were edible. I saved many a tree from a strangling vine, and I took care of the forest. When the other villagers found out, they took it in their stride. Nothing surprised them anymore. I was sent on errands to gather plants for food. /p
p style="text-align: left;"The plants could talk to me too, but it was usually emyes/em or emno/em. They obeyed what I told them to do, and answered my questions. It was miraculous, and our village turned into a happy place, full of joy and safety./p
p style="text-align: left;"It was only a matter of time before somebody found out./p
p style="text-align: left;"We were one of many tiny villages in the mountains. Never incredibly happy, never distinguished. When our village blossomed into a happy and distinguished place, people began to come to find out why. By the time I was eleven, the village was a great trading route. I taught the other children about the plants./p
p style="text-align: left;"Nobody knew about my hearing besides the villagers, and they weren't too keen to tell. So all children learned which plants were good, which were rare, which not to touch, and so on. Everyone was happy. /p