The Tree with a tongue

Chapter 3: The Street of the lifted Lorax

'Well, this is it.'

Ted got up at the brink of dawn. He picked up the piece of notebook paper that had the poem which were his only means of directions and a list of things the Once-ler supposedly wants in exchange for his tale about trees,

"Let's see...15 cents, check." He put the dime and nickel in his pocket, "A nail, check." He put the nail in his pocket as well, "And...the shell of a great great grandfather snail." He placed the snail in a small jar and put it in his backpack. Helmet in one arm and piece of paper in the other hand, he slowly crept out of his room. He made it to the bottom of the steps and attempted to turn the knob at his front door,

"Ted?"

Ted nearly jumped out of his shoes, "Uh, hey Mom."

"What are you doing up so early?"

"Oh uh, just going for a morning bike ride."

Ted's mother stared at him sternly, "Why can't you ever wake up like this for school? Besides you know the town's curfew doesn't end until 8am, you have to wait a couple more hours before you can go out riding."

Ted groaned, "But Mom…."

"Oh dear," Grammy's voice came from upstairs, "I seemed to have misplaced my teeth, can someone be a dear and help me find them."

Ted's mom sighed, "Coming Mom."

Ted watched her drag her legs down the hall and disappear into one of the rooms, with Grammy fidgeting innocently right outside said room. She then gazed over the railing and smirked down at Ted,

"Go, hurry." Grammy whispered.

Ted had the urge to laugh, but only a big smirk came out, "You're the best Grammy," he whispered and with that, he disappeared through the front door.

He kept his bike at a low speed to keep the small engine from making too much noise, he gazed around the walls of the town looking for an exit.

"Come on, whatever comes in must come out right? There has to be an exit somewhere." He then caught wind on the pipes that were installed along the metal walls, he followed.

The pipes continued to the darkened back alleys of the town but before he could venture back there, he gasped when the O'Hare delivery guy drove by on his small truck; he quickly hid behind nearby inflated bushes. He peeked out and watched him replace the old bottle of air with a new one, humming an enthusiastic tune in his head. Once he drove away, he pushed his bike back on the side walk and disappeared into the dark alley.

The metal head that posed to be an alley dog poked out of garbage can, gazing it's piercing red eyes at Ted.

The pipes finally stopped in the heart of the alley, steam occasionally spewing out of its sides. Ted noticed a doorway higher up and out of reach. Looking around, he noticed a little compartment revealing a large red button inside, he jabbed it and a flight of metal steps swiftly shot out of the wall.

Ted smiled, "Sweet."

He adjusted his helmet, gently guided his bike up the stairs and entered through the door, unaware of the red flashing light above it.

o~~~~~~~~~~~o

"Here's your latte Mr. O'Hare!"

O'Hare sighed and rubbed his hands together with anticipated delight; nothing starts the morning better than an extra foam vanilla latte. As he was about to reach for it, his office began to flash red.

He snarled, "What's going on?"

The big screen began to roll down behind him. He whipped his leather chair around, smacking the latte out of the intern's hands, its contents spilling all over him. O'Hare gazed tensely at the screen as it played live footage of the same suspicious kid now riding through the sewage system that flowed between the town and the outskirts of town.

'I thought I told those two idiots to keep an eye on him!'

He heard his two bodyguards charge into his office, 'Or they're just really slow,' he thought as he rolled his eyes. He watched Ted again as he discovered another doorway that lead to the outside, his frown slowly grew into a sly smile. He turned in his chair, waving dismissively at his two guards,

"No cause for alarm."

His two guards stared bewildered at him. O'Hare continued,

"Think about it, all of the scouting vehicles I've sent out there had the best surveillance and survival equipment money can buy and they have never returned. What chances does that kid have out there? He won't last five minutes…"

The guards stared at him uncomfortably finding out their boss was not concerned at all for the kid's safety. Catching hint of what they were thinking, O'Hare merely shrugged,

"Hey, I'm a busy man; I'm not liable for anyone who chooses to leave on their own. I give warnings all the time on what happens when they do, if he wants to leave then by all means, let him leave."

Officially dismissing the issue, he turned back to the intern who was dripping with coffee and holding an empty cup. He snarled, "Well, what are you standing around for? GET ME ANOTHER COFFEE!"

o~~~~~~~~~~~o

"Whoa….."

He always anticipated that the outside would look scary, and it did. But there was something else added to the feeling, a sad feeling.

It was nothing but endless smog, the dark clouds too thick for a single ray of sun to get through, an occasional bolt of lightning ripped through them. Ted wasn't sure why, but he felt somewhat heartbroken when he observed the ruined environment, it's like he could almost hear the land crying out and he wanted to help it. He took a deep breath to gather some courage, though he quickly regretted it as all he breathed in was smog. He let out a violent cough,

"Ugh, gross! Alright Ted, you can do this. The Once-ler won't eat me, it's all just made up, Grammy would never let you venture straight into your doom." With that, he carefully began taking his bike down the crumbled brick road. Everything was so quiet and dead that Ted didn't expect what had happened, something popped out of the ground and through the smog. He cried out and fell off his bike; he curled up in a ball and covered his head with his arms,

"PLEASE DON'T EAT ME ONCE-LER! I TASTE BAD!…What the?" He slowly lowered his arms and looked up at the supposed attacker. It was an image of the monstrous Once-ler that he had grown up seeing in all those scary stories, but something was off.

He got to his feet and got a closer look, "It's…it's a cutout."

Sure enough, it was a wooden cutout of the monster, sloppily painted on. He slowly walked behind it and saw the rusty spring that pushed it up. He gazed down at the contraption that held the spring and saw something engraved on it.

Property of O'Hare Air Enterprises

Ted could only stare at the label, his Grammy's words coming back to him, "It's a shame that horrible short man has told so many lies about him."

"Why would Mr. O'Hare set this all up? It's like he wants us to be scared of him."

He shook out of his thoughts and rushed back to his bike, he had to focus on the task at hand.

He continued down the path, gazing at the stiff old stumpy looking things that sprouted out of the land and the rivers of black water bubbling at the surface. He treaded up the hill and noticed the single road ended at the very top, forking into several more roads. He gazed up at the several street signs, each one pointing at a different road. He jumped when suddenly the street signs sank down into the road, obviously operated by machinery, they then popped back up but now they were switched around. Ted watched with wide eyes as the signs still continue to switch around, like watching someone shuffling cards.

When they finally stopped, he began to grow nervous of which route to take, but then he suddenly remembered the poem. He ripped the piece of paper out of his pants pocket and unfolded it, "Okay, let's see uh, past the first patch of grickle grass, you'll find a hill's highest pitch, it is there you find the first road called North Nitch." He looked up nervously at the signs, hoping that they wouldn't change on him again.

"There it is, North Nitch. Alright, here we go." With that, he continued onward.

As he approached the second set of street signs, they did the same thing as the first set. It amazed Ted just how much work was put into this. He remembered another thing his Grammy warned him about,

'Remember dear, the Once-ler doesn't want to be found, he will do whatever it takes to steer you away. Remember the clues in the tale and you will be fine.'

When Ted took the left on the Weehawken sign he noticed it got rapidly darker. Looking back he realized since the town was so bright on the inside, it gave off plenty of light pollution, now that he was far away enough from it, he saw the wasteland the way it really looked. His nerve left him, he felt his insides begin to turn and his hands beginning to tremble, making him grip his handlebars tighter. He took deep breaths,

"Come on Ted, you're making progress you can't stop now. So far nothing bad happened."

Of course, if karma had been against him this whole time, it didn't feel like it until now. Not too long after he said that, something in front of him began to shine against his front lights. When he got close enough, his eyes widened with terror.

It was the blade of an axe.

Quick reflexes kicked in, he leaned all the way back, barely missing his head getting chopped off as the bladed axe floated by; the blade scraping against his helmet. When he got his balance back, he cried out when more of them began to appear in the smog. He kept dodging each one left and right, when the tip on of them snagged his shirt and tearing it, he fell off his bike. His bike skidded a good distance from him, the only thing he could see from it were the front lights. He looked down at the tear in his shirt, then up at the axes that seemed to be floating with the smog.

He gripped his head, "Oh man, I'm in way over my head. If this guy's willing to decapitate whoever comes close, I don't want to know what he'll do when he actually meets someone."

He crawled over to his bike, picked it up and decided to walk alongside it, he was lucky with just his shirt getting torn, he wanted to make sure it only went that far.

Finally it seemed that it was all over, with that he got back on his bike. Before he rode off, he looked back and noticed an outline of a rusty old machine; its whole structure seemed to be hollowed out with age but apparently still stable enough to hold a long branch of axes.

"What the heck is that thing?"

A bolt of lightning struck nearby, causing Ted to jump and cover his ears. He quickly reared his bike into gear and steered forward, "Good enough answer for me!"

Ted squinted and noticed another set of street signs. He fumbled for the paper in his pocket, took it out and read it, "Let's see; 'sharply you turn right on South Stitch.'"

He slowed down on the street signs and as expected they began to shuffle around. Once they held, he found the one that said South Stitch he pressed down on the pedal and began to make a loose right but cried out when he noticed beyond the signs…there was a chasm.

He screeched his bike to a halt, almost tipping over the edge. He gripped his chest, his heart feeling like it was going to leap out of it. He reluctantly gazed down at the edge, seeing nothing but darkness. Observing the roads closer, though all the fake roads led you off the cliff the South Stitch was nothing but a very narrow pathway along the wall of the chasm.

Ted gulped, "Wow, they really mean sharp right." With that he carefully, very slowly, guided his bike along the narrow path, bits of rock occasionally gave way under his weight. He smiled in relief when the pathway began to widen.

He really needed to stop celebrating so soon.

He cried out as he felt himself plummet downward, the road went down what felt like a fifty degree angle. He felt his crotch slam uncomfortably against the seat as the hill went upward again, the sheer speed his bike was going when it went down send him flying up in the air when the ground evened out. He landed hard, causing him to bounce up and off his seat, his feet scrambling against the dirt. During his struggle to get back on his bike, he noticed the road had begun to turn in a different direction making him drift off course.

He grunted, taking a huge leap back onto his bike and steered hard towards the road, "Come on Ted you can't drift off, stay on the road!"

After everything calmed down, he began to slow down on his bike; his mind and body completely exhausted from this whole trip, he wasn't sure how much more he could take. He decided to stop and take a quick breather, Ted knew that he had to be close, or at least he hoped. He heard the sound of crows squawking in the distance, lifting his head and squinting through the smog he noticed a huge flock of them are gathered around a rock and sitting on said rock was a figure. Suspicious, yet extremely nervous he slowly got off his bike and walked carefully towards the figure and the birds. The figure was dressed in a green suit with a hood that had an optimistic shade of pink, he had a pair of green gloves set beside him so he could tug the out of tune guitar strings with his long ash colored fingers.

'Could…..could that be?' Ted brought up the courage and cleared his throat, "E…excuse me?"

The crows squawked aggressively and scattered away as the figure sharply looked up at him, a pair of blue eyes could barely be seen under the hood that were filled with panic. Ted couldn't help himself; he let out a scream and in turn, the figure screamed as well. Ted turned heel back to his bike, nearly tripping on his own feet. He was preparing to take off when he looked back and saw that the figure was gone, he was all alone.

"What the…where the heck did he go?"

He got back off his bike, the fear from earlier had dissolved. He jogged up to the rock and looked around for any sign of the figure, he shouted out into the distance,

"Hey! Where did you go! You know, I'm the one who's supposed to run away here, not the other way around!"

He could then hear the crows not too far ahead of him. He walked through the smog and noticed the crows were settled on top and around the final street sign,

'STREET OF THE LIFTED LORAX'

"I did it…..I found it." He whispered. Ted fought the urge to throw his fist up in the air in victory; he took on a lousy wooden cutout, a forest of dangerous cutlery and a deep chasm that would probably take him to the end of the world and won! He looked up ahead and saw a tall Lurkum with a dimly lit boarded up window at the top. He smirked, "Alright, time to get Audrey a tree." He took a step forward, but grimaced when the crows squawked threateningly at him, "Whoa! Easy I'm not here to cause any trouble, I just want to talk to your friend. I mean, I'm assuming you guys are his friends."

The crows simply sat there, glaring while tilting their heads. Ted face palmed, "Why am I talking to crows? I think all this smog is getting to my brain." He shook his head and continued forward, shielding his arms as the crows flew from the street sign and dived down at him before they flew away. He could feel the stiff grickle grass and pebbles beneath his sneakers as he approached the front step, up on the rotting wooden door he saw rusted gold engraved letters bolted on it 'The Once-ler'

Swallowing the lump in his throat, Ted spotted a doorbell, 'Does it still work?' he thought. He flexed his fingers to unnerve himself a little, hesitantly reached and jabbed the button. It gave off an unpleasant tune; like it was his final requiem cause for all he knew, this would be the last thing he would ever do. The door began to shake violently, causing Ted to take a step back, the door suddenly flipped forward until it was upside down revealing a contraption built on it involving a mallet, a piece of string and a pair of scissors.

"What the….."

The scissors came to life, closing together its blades and severing the string, the mallet struck down. The next thing Ted realized, he was rocketed high up into the air. To the side, he noticed a metal claw emerged from the side of the Lurkum and it clamped down around his waist. Ted cried out in fear, desperately prying the claw to loosen its grip on him, but it was no use. He found himself being lifted up at the dimly lit boarded up window and stared in anticipation, his breathing had become labored.

"Who are you! What are you doing here?" The figure's face was practically touching the boards of the window, his face hidden with the exception of his fear filled blue eyes, "How did you find me?"

Ted could only stutter; his fear had taken over again, "M…my name's Ted. A…are you the Once-ler?"

The Once-ler swiftly reached out and grabbed Ted by the shirt, pulling him closer. He took his other gloved hand and grabbed Ted's chin, observing his features, "You're not him…"

Ted tried to pry the man's grip from his chin, "Who?"

"No…." The Once-ler continued, "No, he's much shorter." With that, he released Ted and pulled a lever from inside his Lurkum, causing Ted to suddenly drop back down the ground, "I don't know how you got here, but leave! And never come back!"

Ted finally got his breathing under control once he knew he wasn't in any danger. He got back to his feet, "Wait! I wanted to ask you…..Ooofff!" He became winded when a large boot sprang out of the Lurkum and struck him in the gut, pushing him back several feet and knocking him onto his back. Now irritated for getting 'booted' he brushed the dust off his behind and walked back forward, "Okay, that was not cool! Look, I came here to ask you about trees!"

He could see the Once-ler's fingers cringe up, gripping the wooden boards, "T….trees?"

"Yes!"

"No," He said in a low tone, "You don't deserve to know about trees, nobody does!"

"Oh come on!" Ted whined, but then he suddenly remembered, "Oh, wait! I have something for you!"

The Once-ler laughed bitterly, "Your money isn't good here. You think you can bribe me?"

Ted didn't reply, he instead took his backpack off his shoulders and searched inside it for the jar. He walked forward, his hand now searching for his pocket, "Here, I have what you really want; 15 cents, a nail and a great great grandfather snail."

The Once-ler didn't respond, nothing but a dead silence. Ted curled his fingers around the items and tilted his head to get a better view in between the wooden boards on the window but didn't have much luck, "Uh, hello? Are you still there?"

Suddenly, a rusted metal pail was lowered down until it was beside Ted. Taking the hint, Ted carefully placed the items in the pail and watched it as it was raised back up to the window. A long green gloved arm reached out and grabbed the edge of the pail, pulling it up to the window and dumped the contents out onto his other green hand.

The Once-ler stuttered, "How….how did….."

Ted raised his left ear higher, "What was that?"

He replied louder and much harsher, "How did you know about this? Who told you?"

Ted laughed nervously, "Uh, lucky guess?"

Ted could see the Once-ler's blue eyes glaring down at him. He whimpered when he saw the boot slowly creeping out, "Alright alright! My Grammy told me. She told me about this old tale of the Once-ler and she said you were the only one who knows anything about real trees." He took a deep breath, "Look, I gave you what you want, don't you have to tell me or something?"

The Once-ler chuckled, "Kid, I don't have to do anything."

Ted groaned, this was going to be harder than he thought. He decided to take a kinder approach, "Please sir, I heard about real trees and I've been curious about them ever since, I really want to know. Please?"

The Once-ler sighed; the kid did everything right as far as he knew, but could he trust him? He pulled another lever and what looked to be an ear trumpet of some kind came sprouting out of his window and down to Ted. He spoke into it, "You have to promise me one thing first,"

"Uh, sure. What is it?"

"You have to promise me that you will not tell anyone where I am. You and your Grammy can never utter that tale, do you understand?"

Ted shrugged, "Okay." He jumped when the Once-ler shouted,

"I mean it! There are others who are looking for me; who are after me. They must never discover where I am."

"Okay! I promise, I promise I won't tell a soul."

The Once-ler sighed, "Thank you." He paused, "So you really want to know about trees huh? What happened to them…..why they're all gone?"

Ted leaned into the ear horn, "Y…yeah."

A pain he knew to be well familiar with began to swell up in the Once-ler's chest, his voice slightly broke as he whispered, "It's because of me."

He flinched when the boy yelled into the ear horn, "What was that?" Though it was probably unintentional, he felt the need to shout back in spite.

"IT'S BECAUSE OF ME!"

The Once-ler felt his spirits lift in amusement as Ted fell backward with surprise, aged dust from within the horn all over his face. He continued, "I'm responsible for everything you see around you; the smog, the dead rivers, everything."

Ted took that time to look at the ruined environment again, how could one person possibly do this? He straightened himself back up, "How? What happened?"

The Once-ler let out a deep sigh, wonderful memories began to flood him, "It all started a long time ago when I…"

"Uh excuse me?" Ted tentatively interrupted, "Do you think, maybe we can start not so long ago?"

The Once-ler glared, "Do you want to know about tress or not?"

Ted sighed, "Yes."

The Once-ler smirked, "Well then you better get nice and comfortable because the story starts a long, LONG, time ago…"

TO BE CONTINUED…