From a Forest of Bone and Blood | Part Four
I remember my mother. She was a tall tree with a laughing smile and eyes that held the greatest love for me - for all her saplings. She held my seed close to her breast until it was time to let me go, and then she released me on a spring breeze, where I floated until I found the place I was meant to take root. I grew in the outer reaches of an ancient forest, where I could protect the new trees that grew and someday release saplings of my own.
I am a dryad.
Life was peaceful until the dragon came. It arrived on an early summer gale, flying overhead and casting its shadow on my forest. The dragon was massive and beautiful, with scales that ran a gamut of colors from midnight blue to deep bronze to striking, peridot green. The creature was also exhausted and so it settled down in the fields to the east, beyond the boundaries of my wood.
It did no damage to the earth and I felt no threat, so I left it be - not that there is ever any animosity between our kinds unless the dragon were to set our protectorate ablaze. No, this dragon had no business with my forest and slept in the fields, panting out great puffs of breath as it struggled to regain its strength.
It was not long after that the army arrived, and attacked. Now this was a threat. Armies are not careful with the earth and growing things when engaged in battle, and the dragon they fought was not able to care about its surroundings either, not when it was fighting for its life. And fight it did, for this was no simple army.
In the midst of the melee a lone wizard stood, flinging spells of destruction at the magnificent beast who breathed fire in return. Several spells missed, ranging into my trees and causing wither and ruin.
This would not do. This I could not allow. It was my duty to protect this forest.
If the need is great one can call on the Earth Mother to lend us her power. This must only be done in times of great peril, for the price of the Earth Mother’s magic is high and paid in blood and sap. I knew this. I’d known this since I was a sapling, but the beast was backing closer and closer to my trees and I knew that I had to do something. This battle would decimate my forest.
The dragon was unusual in that it had magic of its own which it was throwing back at the attacking wizard - that was, when it could between attacks from the human soldiers in the army. Still too weak to fly, the dragon was done for, any fool could see that. It saddened me, for it was a wonderful, beautiful creature and hadn’t done any harm to the land with its presence. What more could a dryad ask for from a dragon? Certainly it had never harmed me or my kind.
I flitted from tree to tree, watching the battle rage. I watched as the dragon tried in vain to escape and let loose a great plume of fire, setting several soldiers aflame. The fire this time had come exceptionally close to the tree line of my forest. Now was the time to act. I closed my eyes and felt my roots sink deep into the Earth Mother, asking desperately for her help.
She responded with a power I’d never imagined could exist. It flooded my senses and I exploded with power, so much power that it was visible - even to those humans in the field who were trying to kill something that should be revered. The power filled the forest to overflowing and I directed it toward the battle, not knowing what this power would do. Would it kill the dragon and the soldiers or simply move them somewhere else? Would it freeze them in place? Truthfully I didn’t care what it did to them, as long as it stopped them from entering and decimating my forest. I’d grown up with the terrible stories whispered to me by the other saplings of the northern forest of Wraithwood, a wretched place were no trees could grow and no animals could live. I would not let my forest end up like that! I sent the power rushing into the fray just as the wizard sent a burst of spell-craft toward the dragon, who reared back and responded in kind, and at once all three magics collided with a sound that seemed to shake the very ground.
The night turned bright blue, accompanied by a symphony of screams as the earth seemed to turn over. We were swallowed. The dragon, the army, myself - all of us were swallowed and smothered and spit out by the earth.
Reformed.
I remember drawing breath, and then the world went black.
Chapter Three | Chapter Five
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