Truffula Tales

Fiora's Song

Once-ler returned from another failure from selling his Thneed. He was on the brink of giving up. Covered in tomatoes, his clothes red and covered in seeds.

A mingle of anger...and his eyes wet from being nailed in a tender spot painfully, he wiped the tomatoes off his face. He pulled off his stained clothes and in a clean pair. Might as well do laundry, he thought, holding the dirty clothes in his arms.

He went outside towards the wash bucket with a scrub brush in hand, he placed his clothes, grabbing a smaller bucket to get water from the lily pond. He filled up the wash bucket and mixing in laundry soap in the tub, he cleaned his clothes, getting the tomato stains.

He heard the most beautiful, silvery voice vocalizing somewhere. This was new to him! He went to see where this beautiful sound was coming from...he found Fiora, sitting in the sun...surrounded by the animals of the forest, just vocalizing to them.

It was the sweetest sound he had ever heard. Never had he known Fiora could sing! He suddenly felt...so...no words could describe it. He might as well melt into a puddle right there. She sounded like an angel. Even her beauty was like one too. Her cherub-like, heart-shaped face pale green with vines with tiny leaves embedded in her cheeks and the sparkling specks on her cheeks. The flowers in her flowing multicolored hair enhanced her beauty, especially water lilies, her favorite flower. Her eyes were the greenest he had ever seen with thick lashes. What he loved was how tender and loving she was. Her voice was soft and kind, soothing like a whispering wind.

Once-ler wasn't used to soothing sounds...mostly it as teasing and laughing from everyone. No. When Fiora laughed, it was a silvery and appropriate. Of course, there was the time she laughed at him when she tried to drive him out...but of course...she did apologize for that. He never had been apologized to before...and he found himself, though unused to it, liking it.

He heard the sprite's song...

Sweet swomee-swans
Let your song take wing
Sing anything
Let your song ring

Dear little bar-ba-loots
Serenade your love
In the trees above
Let your song ring

Humming-fish
Harmonize your hums
Let it take wing
For it makes my heart sing
When I hear you
Sing

While lost in the sprite's musical voice, Once-ler lost his balance...clumsy him for disturbing this beautiful scene that he was watching. He heard Fiora's startled gasp, then girlish giggling.

Fiora saw the young man lying there flat on his face with his grey hat over his head in a tangle of arms and legs. He always was falling down a lot every time they met. It was funny.

"I...I'm sorry...was I interrupting anything?" he stammered embarrassed, fixing his fedora that had fallen over his eyes, dusting himself off with red speckled cheeks.

"Not at all," she said. "You seem to always be falling down. Is this normal for humans to do so?"

"Er...not really...that's just me. I'm just plain clumsy...that means I'm just a big awkward bundle of giant left feet."

"Your feet seem fine to me," she said with a shrug.

"Oh...that's just a fancy saying in the human world."

"You humans have so many fancy ways of saying things. Is this also normal?"

"Mm...yea. It's how we express our words."

""Come and sit," she said, gesturing to a sunny spot, which he did. "How was your...er...sale?"

"Mm..." he just said. He didn't feel like talking about it.

"Oncie, you got something on your face," she said, seeing a red streak.

"Huh?"

Fiora reached towards Once-ler's right cheek near his ear. He scrunched a bit since he was uncomfortable being touched by a girl. She wiped it and looked at it for a moment, curious, then smelled it and tasted it. She looked a bit puzzled. This was certainly a new taste to her: it was soft and fleshy with a bit of mush, yet it would've been delicious had it not been for the unpleasant taste...a rotting kind.

"What is that?"

"It's a tomato. It's a like a Truffula fruit...but red and it's from the human world. We eat them for food."

"Why would you have these tomatoes on your face?" she asked. "Were you eating them?"

"No," he said. "People threw them at me..."

"But...why?" she said; she felt sympathy towards Once-ler, yet she was confused. Was this normal in the human world? It seemed cruel.

He wasn't sure how to explain this custom since it kind of added insult to his injury. But it wasn't her fault for being curious.

"Well...it's meant to insult people..." he said. "It's a form of humiliation." Another puzzled look from the sprite. "Humiliation is just a fancy way of saying 'embarrassed'."

"I don't understand," Fiora said. "Why would humiliation be embarrassing? I thought embarrassed meant 'making a person uncomfortable.'"

"Yea, it is. They're two different words. Embarrassment means it's uncomfortable, but it's funny later on. Humiliation is a type of embarrassment but it...hurts the person's feelings...you know, makes them really sad."

"Oh, I see. Is that why you're...sad every time you come back from town?"

He lowered his head. It was too painful to admit that he was a failure. He could only imagine coming home...his family laughing at him. Painful memories began to spring up from when he was at home. Now this was happening to him when he was trying to sell his Thneed. Already almost a few weeks away from home and he was experiencing the cruel reality of the world while his dream was slowly getting crushed.

"Don't be sad, Oncie," she said. "Surely you'll do better next time."

"I don't think there will be a next time," he said defeated, plucking a blade of grass and flicking it.

She couldn't figure out what to do to cheer up this sad human. He was always so optimistic. It always seemed that every time he went into town to sell his invention...he'd come back sad...only to go back again. It didn't make sense.

"Perhaps...a song?" she said. "I always find singing cheers me up when I'm sad."

"Nah. I don't feel like it really," he said.

Fiora felt sad...surely there was a song that he would like to hear. After all, he did serenade her at the campfire in front of his house. She closed her eyes, thinking of some words and music in her mind...

Dear Oncie

Shake the clouds from your eye

Do not let the rain come

Smile, do not be shy

"You...don't have to do that," he protested...but was weakening at the sound of Fiora's song.

Dear Oncie

Let Fiora's song mend your brokenness

Let those sky eyes shine

With joy and happiness

Like the Oncie I know

Dear Oncie

Dry those eyes

Smile, don't be shy

Let the sunshine show

Upon thy speckled face

Like the Oncie I know

Once-ler felt his heart melting...the sadness dissipating as he heard the sprite's voice. He felt...soothed...his blue eyes were brimming with tears and a smile stretched across his face...just as she did in her song.

Fiora could see the sunshine in Once-ler's face. She liked that he was happy. How his eyes lit up.

"Your eyes are wet," she said. "Are you sad?"

"N-no," he said, wiping them away...a bit embarrassed. "Sometimes people cry...when they're happy too."

"Hm, makes no sense to me." She saw Once-ler was hiding his face, turning it away. "You're hiding. How come?"

"I'm just...embarrassed...for crying..."

"Why would you be embarrassed to cry?"

"Well, in the human world, it's considered...weak for a man to cry."

Fiora knit her eyebrows. Humans had strange thoughts. "Why would they think that?"

"Well, men are supposed to be tough and strong in the human world. They're supposed to protect their families from danger. If you cry as a man, you get teased."

"Teased?"

"It means...you hurt the person's feelings."

"Oh, I see. Well, there's no humans here, Oncie," Fiora said. "You can be yourself...and you don't need to be embarrassed. It's just me...and the trees...and the animals."

"How 'bout Mustache?" he said, uneasy...knowing that he teased him a bit.

"Don't mind him," she said reassuring. "I will make sure he doesn't."

Once-ler had to admit he liked that Fiora didn't think like other humans. She didn't see him as weak, a failure or weird. She saw him just as a person. He felt normal around her while everyone else didn't think he was. Well, Fiora wasn't human...still, it was good she wasn't. He liked that he was appreciated here in the Truffula forest. This felt more like his home than anywhere else.