The House in the Cerulean Sea (Cerulean Chronicles, #1)

by T.J. Klune

“I have other things to think about. Like tomorrow. Why is it that I must always worry about tomorrows?”

“Severed heads?” Linus asked in a strangled voice. Lucy sighed. “Just representations of my enemies. The Pope. Evangelicals who attend megachurches. You know, like normal people have.”

“So, no heads?”

lmao

“Populus tremuloides,” Phee said again. “I read about them in a book. Quaking aspens. If you ever see them, you’ll find them in large groves. Their trunks are mostly white, but their leaves are a brilliant shade of yellow, almost gold. Like the sun.” She looked off into the forest again. “Almost like sunflowers.” “They sound lovely,” Linus said, unsure of what else to say. “They are,” Phee said. “But it’s what’s underneath that’s most important. The groves can be made up of thousands of trees, sometimes even in the tens of thousands. Each of them is different, but the secret is that they’re all the same.” Linus blinked. “How so?” Phee crouched down to the ground, her fingers leaving trails in the loose soil. “They’re clones of each other, a single organism managed by an extensive root system underneath the earth. All the trees are genetically the same, though they each have their own personality, as trees often do. But before they grow, their roots can lay dormant for decades, waiting until the conditions are right. It simply takes time. There’s one clone that’s said to be almost eighty thousand years old, and is possibly the oldest living organism in existence.”

pando! <3

“The mayor?” Talia asked. “Do you do everything?” Linus had to agree. He hadn’t expected that. “You would think so,” Helen said. She glanced at the door, still swinging on its hinges. “And apparently that includes cleaning up after men throwing their snits. Honestly. For all their bluster, I’ve noticed that men melt so very easily. Little snowflakes, they are.”