The Dryad 19 Encounter

"Istan, do you know why this village needs so much grain? It does not look like it is big enough to need this much farmland."

"I am not sure, but I do know that humans often trade with each other."

"We can ask Gray when we meet up with them," Leafia suggested.

We continued to ride most of the afternoon in near silence. Istan still had too much respect for me waste my time with trivial small talk. I didn't like his zealous devotion, but I could at least understand it. Leafia was a little harder for me to figure out. She opened up a lot for Emily, and was being more open around me when we were all together. But now that it was just the three of us again, she seemed much more withdrawn. I was not sure how to bring this up so I was forced to just ride on in silence.

It was late afternoon when the forest came into view. I could tell from the energy of the plants that we were starting to approach it, but actually seeing the woods over a rise in the road brought great peace to my spirit. The road we were on traveled into the woods, but we were going to stop just outside the woods by the side of the road. It would seem odd for travelers to stop in the woods instead of the nice open field, or so I was told.

Once we turned off the road I could not resist any more. I released the restraint that I had kept in place on my aura since Emily explained that I was the one to blame for the magician running. I was careful to keep my presence to a minimum so that only the most perceptive would notice it. But it felt so good to stretch my senses through the trees again! I had missed the feeling of life from the forest so much over the last few days.

I learned while stretching my powers that these woods were not unattended. It would be rude of me to take power from someone else's home, so I limited myself to absorbing less energy than what the forest would gain from my presence. If this was a young dryad or a tree sprite who had not yet become corporeal, my presence here could hasten the speed of their development by many years. As Faun said, outside of Mother Earth and the Nyad of the great river, I have never met a spirit that is older than I am. Since there have been no major disasters in my forest, this age directly correlated into power as my forest has continued to grow.

Once I had restrained my power down to a level that would not make me an unwelcome guest I had a hard time noticing the spirit of these woods. I could tell that they were aware of me, but I was not going to use their own plants to find out more about them. This would not have harmed or taken power from them. It just felt improper.

We set up a simple camp near the edge of the woods. I did not need to set up anything for myself so I aided Leafia and Istan by finding some downed branches that they would be able to use for a fire. I did not really like fire myself but I knew that cooking food greatly helped elves and humans get the energy they needed from their food. I did not really understand the process. But when I was younger I watched them enough to learn this. To be honest, elves and humans are the greatest threat to us spirits. I realized a long time ago how important understanding their races would be to our survival. Faun and I had spent a good amount of time studying them. But really the last time that I looked into them was when they moved out of the forest and started to build larger communities. The Elves naturally respected the forest so I did not interfere with them at all. They would cut a few trees, but did not cause any more harm to the forest than the other animals that live there. And death is part of a healthy forest. Some trees need to die.

Humans were much harder to deal with. The reason I went to the human village 1000 years ago was to protect the forest. They had begun to clear too many trees and I could see the danger if they continued. It was not my intention, but my showing myself to them must have scared them away from the forest for several hundred years. It was not until five hundred years ago that they got out of hand again. At that point the failure of my last endeavor was still fresh in my mind. That is why I tried the different approach of asking the elves for help.

I knew my thoughts were getting sidetracked again. However, with Istan and Leafia getting ready to rest there was not much else for me to do so I could freely let my mind wander. I did not bother to eat anything again today. There was only us here and there was no point in keeping up appearances while wasting food that we will need for the trip. I did grow a good amount of the food that we ate. But having to produce less would save me some energy.

It seemed that Leafia and Istan were quire tired after today's travelling. They did not stay up that long after they finished eating and quickly retired to bed. Part of that might also have been some of the night time flowers that started to bloom. Several of them had a tendency to cause calming effects on humans and elves.

I enjoyed watching the twilight progress as the stars slowly shone out from their hiding places. I did not get to see much of the sky in my forest. There was only a small patch of sky that I could see over the pond. If I walked around the pond I would be able to see most of the sky. But that was not the same as seeing it all at the same time. I relaxed my senses as I enjoyed the calm night. From time to time I could hear small animals moving through the edges of the forest.

About two hours after the elves went to sleep, while I watched the stars and listened to the life of the forest and field, I sensed I was being watched from inside the forest. "You can come out. Those elves are fast asleep by now."

A small figure crept out of the forest. "Who are you? I have never felt another like me before."