The fruit of knowledge

A Story by Paege

I wrote this in boredem, and in a desperate attempt to get my friends attention on Skype. It got their attention for all of five seconds, considering its length, but they never really read it.

The wisp of a butterfly's wings caressed my cheek as i stood in the large green house in which I spent most of my life. Animals and plants were as abundant as they were in a great, tropical rainforest. I glanced out of my sanctuary over, across the skyline, watching the sun dip over the horizon. My tropical revine floated thousands of miles about the modernized surface of what we now called the world. So high, in fact that i could see the stretches of the earth dissapearing in a slight curve.

My mind was at ease, though my muscles were tense and rigid. I wandered around, searching aimlessly until i came upon on of my favorite bushes. A breed rare to commoners, due to its man-made origin, of which nearly everything was now days. Normaly, i wouldn't alow such a creature to be found amongst my haven, however the plant was most beautiful at the least. It's soft, velvety blue-green leaves were used many among doctors and physichians, but also among the more feverent sprites, who enjoyed their comfort and quality, used them for house hold items. The small bush also was the bearer of sweet berries that held a variety of colour. From cherry red, to deep violet, the berries were by far the sweetest, most suculent delecacies i knew.

Using one of my long, tappered fingers, i gently flicked on of the berries off its stem and caught it between my teeth with ease. This particular berry was a shade of sunny orange, matching that of the setting sun. The juice-- which was, in this case, the same colour--coated my lips and collected at the corners of my mouth when i gntly sunk my teeth into it. I smiled, bright and warm, for the first time in too long, when my mind realed and flashed back to the man who introduced me to the treat i once called a luxury.

My father was a kind man, helpfull and witty, strong and smart, everything that i wanted to be. He once brought me to the academy, where he had been studying anything he could absorb with his ever-conceiving mind. He sat me down on a mench in the courtyard after begging him to teach me everything he knew. I was a mere child then, never fully grasping the deffinition of knowladge; knowladge itself being something i lacked. My father smiled at me, and told me that it would be nearly impossible to teach me everything. Again, noting my miniscule age, i didn't understand--as i did with just about everything that came out of anyones knowladge-induced mouth. He took intrest in my lack of understanding. He stood up and looked around, surveying the area, and found a bush. The precise bush that i now stood in front of.

He carefully plucked on of the lucious fruits, carefully avoiding a baby sprite, who seemed to be helping his mother gather the precious leaves. He carried the midnight blue berry back to me as if it were a treasure, never meant to be found. I looked at him with large inoccent eyes, curiosity filling my very being. He tilted my chin up, my mouth falling open in astonishment, and plopped the small berry on my pink tongue. "Now, don't chew it." He said with an even amount of sternness. I sat there with the berry held inside my mouth for ten minutes, sucking on it gently, but never letting any of its sweet juice escape from the protective seal around it.

"What does it taste like?" My brow furrowed against my delicate porclain face. "I can't taste it yet, daddy, you told me not to chew it." I answered with confusion. "Exactly, baby girl. You have to get through that seal, and the world will be yours to learn. Now bite into it." I did as he comanded and my copper eyes grew wide with suprise.

The small thing i had held in my mouth, that had been daunting me, exploded with a sweetness that couldn't comepare to even the sweetest of honey, a flavor so rich and suculent that it was all i could do to keep in in my tiny mouth. When i had finished i looked up at my father with new eyes, and from then, my father taught me the smallest of expertise he had. By the time he was old and dying, I had grown above hime in skill and mastery, and his pride showed in every day, and every breath he took until his very last.