The Dryad - Chapter 85

Over the years, I was able to make it to those woods a few more times. But I never saw her again. The years passed and my trips grew farther and farther apart. My father had arranged a marriage with a second daughter of a Ducal family. I had met her a few times when we went to the capital. She was an agreeable enough lady, and it was a good connection with the family. Her name was Charlotte.

It turned out that marrying Charlotte was the only thing that let me keep my word to the dryad.

I was lucky in marriage. My wife and I did fall in love and were truly happy together. The strength of our relationship helped our houses grow even closer.

I was happy with these developments, especially after my father retired. That first summer after his retirement, I was summoned to court by the king. Charlotte travelled with me, as she often did.

It seemed His Majesty was was set on developing the forest between my lands and the rest of the kingdom. I was loudly and vehemently opposed to this plan. The king and courtiers could not understand my intensity, as they all thought about how this plan would ease trade.

The court session ended that day with no conclusion being reached.

My wife sat down with me that evening looking much more serious that normal. “What happened at court today?” she asked with worry written plainly on her face. “Father stopped by earlier and said he had never seen you so upset.”

“They want to turn the woods on the eastern side of our land into more farms,” I said bitterly.

“What is wrong with that?” I knew her well enough to know that this was not a criticism but that she really wanted to know.

This was the one thing that I had never told her, but she deserved to hear the truth. I took a deep breath. “When I was younger I made a mistake that has haunted me to this day. I was hunting in those woods and heard a rustle in the bushes. I thought that it was a boar and loosed my arrow. I hit not a boar, but a young girl.”

My wife’s eyes opened in horror as she let out a gasp. I was afraid because of her reaction that she would judge me cruel and turn away from me. I closed my eyes so that I would not have to see her rejection. The silence of that moment hurt. I could feel my heart break as she stood up and started walking. My Charlotte could not bear to be near me. I heard the door open and close and the despair filled my heart. I supposed this was my atonement.

“Ahhh!” I could not help but scream in shock as the couch next to me sank and I felt something grab onto me. My eyes flew open in shock, only to see my Charlotte with her arms around me. The adrenaline was making my heart race. Once I managed to calm down, I asked, “But I heard you leave the room?”

She then let out a small chuckle at my expense. “I have not seen you that startled in years. The maid came in to deliver tea, but I signaled her to leave. I would never leave you like this,” she said while hugging me tightly. “There is one thing I don’t understand. Why does accidentally killing a young girl mean you can’t cut down the forest?”

“I did not kill her, I only injured her. I hit her arm,” I said in response.

“That raises the question even more,” Charlotte said, looking at me in confusion.

“She was not a human girl but a dryad. She was the spirit of that forest. She ran away when my arrow hit, and I was never able to really apologize to her. I vowed that day that I would make things right for her somehow. When I heard that the king wanted to cut down those woods, I knew now was my chance to truly repay her.”

I then explained exactly what happened. I was surprised that my wife did not judge me. Instead she seemed excited that there was a dryad living in our territory. She wanted to help her, too, and supported my decision.

The court session the next day did not go well, to put it mildly. The king was not willing to back down, and neither was I. However, I was a marque and though I held a lot of power in the kingdom I was not the king. I think that if it was not for my father-in-law trying to make peace, I might have been tried for treason. Even with his help, I felt it was best to leave the capital the next morning with my family. I knew that the king was worried about upsetting the balance between himself and the nobles. But one thing I had learned is that trust among nobles was not worth much. They likely would side with the king if they thought it would benefit them.

I knew my wife had been corresponding with her father concerning the issue. I was not sure how much she had told him, but he was aware that she agreed with me on the need to protect this forest. A few weeks after I made it back to my territory, I received an urgent letter from my father-in-law that the king had raised a small army and had sent it to seize the woods from my control. His letter set my mind into panic, but Charlotte calmed me.

“The king has no claim on our land outside of times of war. This was part of the treaty that formed this country. Raise our men and defend these woods.” This choice had never crossed my mind, but as soon as I heard it, I knew she was right. Even if it was not for the dryad, I should not let the king encroach on my land. No one had to know the real reason for me raising the army.

I expected that there would be some resistance from the people. There was some patriotism for the still-youthful country, but not as much as I expected. After all, the Marque is older than Yana. We sent out some callers to proclaim how the kingdom was trying to take our land and soon had enough support to raise our battle forces.

There were some complications with moving troops through the forest, but we made it to the far edge of the forest a few days before the kingdom’s troops. I mentally apologised to the dryad for the damage caused by the movement of troops through her forest.
for visiting.

My nerves were fraught when I saw the king’s banners on the horizon. We readied our troops, but it did not seem that the king’s troops were going to move further today. They stopped to set up camp. I kept a heavy watch that night.

At dawn, I was again at the head of the troops ready for battle. As we saw the king’s troops moving, I could feel my heart racing. But just as they made it into formation, a horn called from the north. We saw a new banner rise over the small hill just north of the field of battle. These were the troops of my father-in-law, the duke.

His army was larger than either of the opposing armies and marched right between our troops, forming a phalanx facing both our armies.

For all this buildup, the resolution was very boring. The three of us just talked. Without the court present, the king was much more reasonable. I did end up having to tell the king and my father-in-law why I was so adamant that these woods needed to be protected. When they understood the reasons for my actions, all animosity left the table. In the end it was decided that I would become an independent vassal state. We would claim that the king, upon seeing these woods, did not see it as worth the expense to develop, and furthermore that this land was too distant to effectively govern.

The hardest part of the conversation was deciding what to call the new state. I voted just to call it the Franklin Marquedom, but my father-in-law said that was an idiotic name. The king wanted to call it the Franklin Kingdom so that he could rule the Yana Empire, but I did not like that idea. After a lot of back and forth, my father-in-law suggested the Franklin Dukedom. I complained that I was not a duke, but it was pointed out that my wife was from a ducal family so the claim was valid. In the end, Franklin Dukedom became the official name. I did have to agree that it sounded better than the other options.

Who would have thought that my chance meeting with a dryad in my youth would have led me to ruling my own land? Most important of all, I finally fulfilled my oath to the dryad. And when my time comes to meet my heavenly Lord, I can say that I kept my word.