“Who’s there!?!” I asked, at the same time tucking the paintbrush into my shirt. I stood up, and looked around, expecting to see some daring vendor that wanted revenge. But I didn’t see anyone.

“Maybe I imagined it? Or was it an echo?” I reasoned.

“Hey, down here!”

I looked down. All I saw were some twigs and a shell.“Wait, is that shell a hermit crab?”; was the hermit crab talking to me? 

Just in case, I decided to say something back.

“Who are you? Are you the one talking?”

“What, never seen a talking crustacean before? Name’s Hermit, and i’m a hermit crab, in case you were wondering.”

“Well…um... that’s a fitting name!”, that was me, failing to be polite.

“Don’t mock me boy!” he chuckled. “Anyways, i’ll ask you again, what are you doing with that paintbrush?”

“Wha-What paintbrush?”, I stammered, admittedly a pitiful attempt at lying.

He laughed aloud, “You can’t hide a precious artifact from me! I know it’s in your shirt! Don’t worry, it’s not like I wanna steal it or anything. Even if I did, I couldn’t!”

“W-Wait… this is a precious artifact? I mean it does hold sentimental value for me but… and what do you mean you couldn’t steal it! D-Do you know about the thing I always see in the river when I hold this!?!”

That… was embarrassing.

“My that’s a lot of questions boy! Tell me, where did you find that paintbrush?”

“Well, my mother gave it to me.” I replied, carefully sparing the details.

“Didn’t she teach you anything then?”

“She died right after she gave me this okay!!”, I blurted, struggling to hold back tears. Whoops, spilled the beans! Luckily, he (pretty sure it was a he) didn’t press for details.

“Well, i’m sorry for your loss boy. I’m sure your mother was a kind and loving person. At least she left you a keepsake, and a powerful one at that!”

One look at my face, and he must have known that I was utterly clueless. “Looks like i’ll have to teach you a few things then!” he sighed, although I thought I could see a shimmer of excitement in his eye.

“Come on, we’ll go to my cave!”

I was a bit reluctant, but I decided, if Hermit knew about my mother or the paintbrush that she gave me, I wanted to know more. So I followed him. It felt really unusual and a bit demeaning following someone more than a meter shorter than me, and even more so since this someone was a hermit crab! A hermit crab!!! 

He led me along the river, and we stopped at a giant tree. And I mean GIANT! It was almost five meters in diameter, and about 35 meters in height! As my eyes followed the trunk all the way to the top, I almost tripped and fell on my back! There weren’t much branches near the bottom, but there was an abundance near the top!

“Welcome to my cave, boy!”

I was clearly confused.“There’s no cave anywhere near! Or is it hidden? Maybe the old crab’s memory or vision is deteriorating?”I thought.

He must have read my mind through my face, because Hermit laughed aloud and said, “I’m not old enough for memory loss yet! Come on, i’ll show you the cave!”, as he lifted up a deerskin flap cleverly camouflaged with tree bark on it, revealing a “cave” inside the tree! It was a literal tree house!

“Wow.” I said, slack-jawed. “This is ingenious. I never imagined a house in a tree like this before.”

“And don’t forget about the automatic electricity generator I installed! The light bulbs you see on the ceiling can actually work! I also carved a fully functional ventilation system!” he boasted, grinning from ear to ear.

I looked up, and sure enough, I saw 3 rusted light bulbs, spaced out across the ceiling. Each had a set of red and black wires that led into another room, where there was a loud humming noise. I guessed that it was the room with the electrical generator. There was wood carved furniture too! A low wooden table, some stools, an impressive metal stove top with a large tin can beside it, a wooden bed covered with some kind of fur, lots of drawers, some with intricate carvings on them, and some that looked very sturdy and practical. There were obviously tons of wires, especially from the stove top to the generator room. The place wasn’t very elegant, but instead it felt homey and comfortable. And big; very, very big. I definitely wanted to live here. The most (and possibly only) elegant part of this place was a polished and sturdy shelf, with wooden statues on it.

The statues looked like rough carvings of a human holding a stick in one hand. My eyes followed one statue to the next. They seemed to flow, one to the next, like an animation. I figured it was probably some set of martial arts movements, although it looked way more peaceful and smooth than the normal martial arts I was used to seeing.

"Now, no more sightseeing! It's time you learned a bit about colours; and of course, your paintbrush!" exclaimed Hermit.