The Dryad - Chapter 70

Mist’s POV:

Bored bored bored, I am so BORED. I have never been this bored in the more than one hundred years of my life. Laurel left me here in the pond all by myself. It was true that the first few days were kind of fun. I could slack off at practicing or make as much noise as I wanted. But I got tired of that pretty quickly.

I had always had someone to talk to, but now I had no one. Sure, Laurel could start to ramble on about some random plant for a few days. But that was not half as bad as this. When she got to talking, I would often have fun seeing how far I could get her distracted and off topic from her original point. One of my favorites was getting her to tangent from the life cycle of herbivorous insects, through the benefits of plant life in the water, to the symbiotic bacteria on the roots of oak trees. That whole series of conversations took over a week! What is even more amazing is that she did make it back to her original topic to finish her point! But she was not here any more to distract. Or was she distracting me?

Anyway, I could feel the Elves just out of sight. They have moved much closer to the ‘holy me’, the center of Laurel’s sacred home, but they did not enter. I thought about calling out to them so that I would have someone to talk to, but what if they were as bad as what Faun and Laurel said? Unlike them, I could not really run away. The creeks that fed my pond were not really big enough to sustain me. But more importantly, they did not lead anywhere. My pond was not connected to any other notable bodies of water.

I could leave the water for a little bit, but it was tiring. I have heard that it will get much better once I have a body. But that is still several hundred years away.

One of the biggest reasons that I was bored is because I had to save energy. I noticed the difference a week after Laurel left. She must have been providing much of the spiritual reserve in my pond. After she was gone, the magic power I used from the environment around me took much longer to fill back up again. The rate that the energy fills up has continued to decrease the longer she has been gone.

I am not too worried about my survival. I can tell that the pond is large enough for me to sustain myself. But if I was all on my own, I would only be able to increase my strength during the rainy season. It might take several thousand years instead of several hundred years to get a body at that rate. I could only shudder at the thought of what would happen if we had a drought.

I had spent several days contemplating ways to increase my pond’s spiritual reserve when I felt something change. A small spirit was approaching my pond. Finally I had something to do other than sit and think. I already knew, at least from stories, who this was, even if I had not met him before. So I did not bother to hide myself, but floated a little above the surface of the water as he came into view.

for visiting.

It looked like the elves did not notice this small spirit because they had made no reaction as the small man passed them and flew into the clearing. He landed on the stony shore of my pond and bowed to me. “My name is Rine. The leader of the Fairies in Laurel’s wood.”

“I figured it was you. I have heard about you from Laurel. I am Mist.” I was a ball, so bowing really would not be noticeable. Instead I squished myself a little flatter. It really looked nothing like a bow but it was the best I could do.

I knew I should probably engage in some small talk before I started asking questions. But there was one thing I had to know first. “Is there any news about Faun or Laurel?”

“We have not heard anything yet.” Rine said, not at all perturbed by my lack of manners. I could not help sinking into the water a little at this. “It has only been a few weeks. If she needed to travel she might still be on the trail.”

“I know,” I mumbled. “Well I guess I don’t know. The furthest I have ever gone is taking the stream to the mountains up north. That trip was only a day long for me.”

“I understand what you mean. We almost never leave the shelter of the trees. It is dangerous for Fairies in the open. But I have traveled across Laurel’s realm several times. Even that trip can take weeks.”

“But from what I have heard it is only a day or two from the Eastern edge of the forest to this pond. How can it take so long to cross?” I asked. Part of that question was curiosity, but most of it was really not wanting to be done talking.

“This pond is not the center of her realm,” Rine responded plainly.

“Trying to stay away from Mother Sea?” I ventured a guess. The little I knew about Mother Sea was that Laurel wanted to avoid her when she could.

Rine gave a wry smile at that and did not quite make eye contact. “It might have to do with her wanting to be by the humans and elves. They are the ones most likely to cause trouble.”

I noticed his dodge. I decided to see how far I could push. “Rine, what happened between Laurel and the Mother of the Sea? No one will tell me.”

“It is long in the past and everyone is just trying to protect you. You are still so young.”

“Young? How long is everyone going to be using that? If I was a human I would be dead already! Maybe even two times so. I should be coming on 120 soon… I think.” I had already lost track of years. Then I added quieter. “Or so I hear. I have never met any humans.”

Rine started to laugh at me. “Why are you so persistent?”

“Because I have nothing else to do,” I vented. “Sitting in one place all the time with no one to talk to is frustrating. It is not like I have a choice to move somewhere else. This pond is my prison. Have you ever tried talking to a fish? Let me just tell you it does not work out so well.” I started bouncing up and down in my frustration, sending waves across the pond. “Maybe Faun could do that. But she can’t breathe under water. So that won’t work either. I need a water animal spirit. Then I could talk to the fish.” Wait a second, did I really want to talk to fish that bad? My puzzling caused me to lose track of my indignant bouncing and sink all the way back into the pond.

Rine hopped back a little to avoid the waves but started laughing uncontrollably. Once he calmed down he said, “Fine, I will come visit you regularly and we can talk.”

“So will you tell me why those two don’t get along?”

He just smiled and said, “All I said is that we will talk.”

***

POV ???

I do not know how long I have been sitting in this same spot. It felt like it took forever for me to form a body, but now it feels like I have had a body forever. After developing my body, I had tried to leave this place. But I was never able to find something to eat. Maybe I would find something if I went on, but if I did not I would surely die, so I always turned back.

I had almost died once. That moment was etched in my soul. I do not know why she saved me from starvation. But she did it by trapping me here. I was both grateful and furious at her. Was being stuck here really any better than being dead? But fear kept me from taking the risk and finding out.

I saw something swirl by in the ever-present wind. A leaf! Such a lucky day. I quickly grabbed it before it was lost. This leaf was splotched and did not taste as good as I remember. But it was still a delicacy to me.