The Dryad - Chapter 92

A greater spirit had just entered the woods. This brought me some comfort but I was also confused. The comfort was from the fact that these woods were no longer without a greater spirit to watch over them. Mist was still here and she would be a greater spirit someday, but for now she was still a young sprite. This was the first time in as long as I have been alive that both the forest mother and the animal mother have been away from the wood at the same time. I felt so exposed, with their absence leaving me as the most senior spirit. The confusion was because the greater spirit that entered the woods was not a spirit I had ever felt before. I have known a few dryads so I could tell it was one, but this was not one that I had ever seen.

There was not much point in us fairies trying to hide our presence from a dryad so I put a little effort in and started broadcasting my spirit as much as I could. Since I could not hide I might as well tell her where to meet me. I was proud of my spiritual strength. I was able to get to the point where even a few of the elves might have been able to feel something, but Mist and the new dryad were there only ones I could feel a response from. I have only ever seen a few elves that knew how to use spiritual powers beyond the level of a fairy a few seasons old. I would not be surprised if none of the elves were even able to respond. I had to laugh at how great they thought they were.

It did not take long, only a few hours, for this new dryad to get to our tree. We had been taking good care of it since Laurel gifted it to us. The fall was coming on strong and it would soon be bare, but our hard work at keeping the tree strong have paid off. Several of the white lily flowers near the tips of its drooping branches were still open and the tree still had most of its leaves.

As the mysterious dryad stepped out of a gap between some trees, I was a little surprised at what I saw. This greater spirit did not look like a woman that had reached maturity but looked more like a girl still growing into adulthood. As she saw me she said, “Thank goodness I found you. I guess you must be what Laurel called a fairy. I am in some big trouble,” she said, letting out a sigh of what I could only assume was pent up stress. ” Oh, I am Ivy by the way.” She said with a little dip of her head. “Laurel told me to come here if I was ever in trouble and look for you and her pond uhh….” It seemed like her mind had stopped working in the middle of her sentence as she just kept uttering uhh. I gave her a few minutes to start functioning again. It only took about one for the noise to stop but she still did not seem to be processing.

I flew up a little closer to her and started waving my arms in front of her eyes.

She shook her head a little and said “I see the tree Laurel made for me was not her first adventure into crossing plants.”

for visiting.

I had figured this was the cause of her freezing so I smiled. “I am guessing that you took a liking our home. Laurel made it not that long ago.”

“A lily and a willow. I have to think it was quite pretty in the summer.” She said analyzing the tree. I wanted to say that I had not been able to see it in the summer yet buy Ivy continued before I got the chance. “It seems she has a habit of mixing flowers and trees together?” Her tone made it hard to tell if it was a question or a statement.

“I guess you might have a point there,” I said being derailed from my earlier thought. “Her first successful hybrid was a cross between a dandelion and a tree.” I could not help but shudder a little remembering all the clean up that we had to do after her ‘success’. I was very young at that point, but I remember having to go all around the forest searching for seeds and sprouts of this tree for Forest Mother. How did the elders expect a fairy only a few decades old to work so hard? “I take it you have experienced her handiwork first hand.”

Ivy grew very excited and said, “It was the most wonderful thing I have ever seen. I did not even know that it was possible. She mixed a red leafed maple tree with a violet. She even changed to color of the leaves to match nicely with the flowers. And that is just the beginning of.” She stopped once again mid sentence, leaving her arms spread wide from her gesturing. She then quickly began to pat herself.

After a moment she smiled and said, “It would be better to show you than to try and describe it. Do you know a good place for me to plant the seed from the tree she made for me?”

I was excited to see Laurel’s new work. She really had learned a lot from her first ‘overwhelming success’. “You said you wanted me to take you to the pond, right?”

“Oh yeah.” She blinked a few times. “I was in some trouble and got here as fast as I could. Laurel said you and the water sprite could help.”

“If it works for you, I think it will be best to save the explanation of why you had to run to these woods till Mist is with us. There is not much fun in telling a story twice, after all.” I said seriously, then added with excitement “I think that might be the best place for her new tree to go. That will make everything easier. I will show you the way.”

“I can’t wait to show you this new tree. I bet you have never seen anything so wonderful,” Ivy said full of excitement.

Things have been rather dull for the last few hundred years that Laurel has locked herself away. Everything seems to have just slowed down in her woods since then. That was especially true now that she had left the woods. The energy of this young dryad and a new tree is just what we needed to brighten things up. “Come on, follow me,” I said turning around. But now it was my turn to stop in my tracks.

My movement must have been too sudden for Ivy as she crashed into my back. This little bump did not hurt but it did interrupt my flapping sending me tumbling to the ground. Crashing from this height would not harm me, but I was still grateful that she caught me before I hit the ground so that I did not need to dust myself off. “Thanks for catching me,” I said with a little bow while standing on her hand. “Sorry, I froze for a minute there. Which reminds me, after you froze earlier, I forgot to introduce myself. I am Rine. The reason I stopped is to ask a favor of you. Laurel was in a rush when she grew this tree and she did not have time to make any seeds from it.”

She looked at the tree a little closer. “This tree does not seem very stable.”

“Mother was in a hurry when she made it,” I said a little sadly. “She did not take as much time as normal.”

“That’s a little sad,” she said walking over to the tree. “I don’t think I can fix that, but I should be able to make a seed.” The other fairies were nervous at her approach but once they saw her growing a seed they quickly surround her in excitement. It took her much longer than it would have for Laurel, longer than I was expecting. I would have grown the seed myself but we fairies have been spending most of our spare energy keeping the tree healthy. I did not want to risk growing the seed and causing the tree harm, but with a dryad here, that was not a worry. Ivy did not spare much attention for the fairies around her; most of it was taken by making the seed. I wonder if she even noticed the fairies that started to dance around her in the air?

After several minutes a seed pod grew and ripened. “There, that should do it,” she said grabbing the seeds.

“Good,” I exclaimed. “We should head to the pond and plant them.” I took the lead, flying off toward Laurel’s pond. “And let’s talk to Mist about that issue you had,” I said calling over my shoulder.