章 101: TreeHouse

ELIA

Elia's jaw dropped as Candace stepped into the wide, round room before them, walked to its middle, then turned to face her, looking a little bit anxious.

All Elia could do was gape. The house was a tree. She stood inside a tree that wasn't perfectly round, but more oval, and had to be almost fifty feet long and close to forty wide. This ground floor was snug with rugs, a small fireplace with soft chairs set around, a kitchenette on one side, and a table with four chairs next to it. Next to the fireplace, wooden stairs that looked as if they'd been carved out of the tree itself climbed to circle the outside and Elia followed them up, startled to find they climbed to a rectangle hole in what had to be the floor of the next level—as if this entire home had been hollowed out of a living tree.

"Candace, this is amazing!" she said breathlessly.