Post by Dark Beauty on Mar 24, 2007 19:33:09 GMT -8
((It is the real thing now! The first bit!))
There was a slight breeze in the trees, wafting the beautifully colored leaves to the mossy forest floor. The warm orange sun was shining directly overhead, radiating its shimmering light over the swaying trees. The shadows danced mysteriously, and the few leaves that still clung desperately to their branches rustled in a nervous behavior, as if they were reluctant to fall from their safe havens on the branches to the soft turf below.
Dark Beauty watched these sights from the rough branches of her favorite oak tree, her raven- black hair floating about her fair face in the soft breeze.
She loved autumn. The colors were always bright and eye-catching, and the intense blue of the sky beguiling. The early morning fog was so fresh and clean to breathe in, and the smell of the crisp air made her wish that autumn would last all year. She enjoyed watching the birds fly to the south. Sometimes she would talk to them, but most times during this season they were so excited about leaving that they twittered away a bit too rapidly. Besides, when birds are exhilarated they tend to speak of complete madness. Now she would patiently wait for spring to come along, the season when the birds would finally be sensible again. Spring would come soon to her anyway. Being an elf had its advantages sometimes.
Dark sighed, and, being careful not to snag her flowing white robes on a branch, descended to the leaf-covered soil. When she made it to the forest floor, she looked up into the trees, her piercing blue eyes capturing all of her surroundings and etching them into her memory. The trees of the Dryad Forest were nearly bare, with the exception of scattered evergreens in the dense woods. There were a small number of bare nests resting in the cradling branches of their trees, and many small animals scuttled around them.
Dark smiled to herself as she watched a squirrel scamper to one of the empty nests, its cheeks stuffed with acorns. It emptied them into the nest, then turned and disappeared behind the tree trunk.
Having nothing else to do, the elf began walking slowly through the woods, listening to the crunch of the leaves beneath her soft elvish boots. She noticed with a slight hint if annoyance that the hem of her white robes had become muddy again. For some reason, she had taken an interest in just walking idly through the forest, and she had been walking since early morning. Nobody ever walked with her. Why should they? She was a sorceress. To her tribe, she was an outcast.
Dark shook her head sadly. She was one of the first elves in the world to become a student of magic. The people in her tribe of Wood Elves had backed away in disgust when she had been found teaching herself sorcery. Any type of supernatural talent, after all, was seen as a sin and abomination to the three races of elves, the Wood, Plain, and Sea Elves. The people of Dark’s clan had cast her out, no longer trusting her and calling her a disgrace. She’d been hurt badly, and had ventured out into the human lands to explore the ways of the world. She had gone to the human land of Antera, and there she studied and learned the ways of the mages. She had received her white mage’s robes after a strenuous test of skill at the School of Magic in the southeast corner of Antera, about six thousand years ago now. She was wiser than most of the elder elves because of her adventures, and she was not inexperienced with her power, either. Sorcery was quite easy to master really - as was simple magic. Sometimes she wished that she had been born to the Sea Elves, who did not get too upset about the use of magic. But then, the Sea Elves hardly came out of their place in the water anyway.
After a while of her reflective walk, Dark Beauty found herself in a large clearing. She noticed a few stumps of trees here and there, which looked like they were a result of deliberate felling. Dark wondered why there would be cut trees in the middle of this forest, for they were special trees around this area. Just as she was thinking of the first possible reason, there was a strange whistle that sounded from the surrounding trees. She heard girlish giggles and a few loud whispers. Then a voice rang out, echoing through the trees in the language of the dryads.
“Hey everyone! It’s Dark Beauty! Dark’s back!”
There were excited squeals of delight, and before the Wood Elf knew it, the trees were alive with the small forms of dryads. Their short fairy-style dresses were mostly green, but an occasional brown could be found. Their hair was the color of autumn leaves, making it almost impossible to see them during this time of year.
The dryads dropped to the ground, laughing and talking excitedly to one another. Dark could feel them tugging on her robes and wanting to lead her somewhere. She was actually quite used to this and allowed them to guide her to exactly where they wanted her to be. Dryads can be very stubborn and fastidious sometimes.
The effervescent girls lead the elvish sorceress to a stump in the middle of the clearing, all asking questions at the same time and crowding about her, their bright eyes wide with the happiness of seeing their beloved Dark Beauty again.
After a few seconds of unintelligible babble from the dryads, Dark raised her hand, and the little creatures quieted almost immediately. There were about a hundred or so, all patiently waiting now for an instruction or comment from the woman they admired most in the whole world.
“I am happy to see you all again,” Dark informed the group of them in perfect dryad. “I did not bring any sugar this time, because I did not know I was going to encounter you today.” There were quite a few disappointed moans from the crowd. Dark continued with a warm smile. “However, I do have a few stories that I can tell.”
The dryads all clapped their hands and jumped up and down excitedly, forgetting their distress instantly. Dryads loved stories almost as much as they loved sweets. They were a very curious race, and wanted to know everything they could about the outside civilizations.
They all quickly sat down, chattering happily to one another. As soon as Dark cleared her throat, however, they all became silent, and Dark could almost feel the anticipation buzzing through the colorful sea of girls.
Dark began to tell the dryads of the recent visit she had just made to the human village of Eren, which, she explained, was not very far from the forest. She would have mentioned that it was located northeasterly in the human land of Chevar, but the dryads had no idea what the directions of a compass meant, so why bother? Besides that, they had no perception of the different lands on the continent.
Dark was a very gifted story teller; she could act with her voice. For example, she could make something seem extremely frightening when really it was not. She could craft the tale in such a way that the dryads would tense, and then, when she made a sudden change in voice, they’d all jump. She was at one of these moments in her story.
“So,” Dark told the group of girls, “when he tried to take me by surprise, I turned around and pulled out my boot dagger.” She reached down in a flash and unsheathed a hidden jeweled knife which was kept safely in her right boot. The dryads gasped and their eyes became wide. “I turned to him, held my dagger to his throat and said, ‘if you so much as put one finger on me again, there will be great unhappiness on your part. I will never tell you where the dragon eggs are hidden, and I will not allow you to try to find them, either.’ ”
The dryads clapped and cheered, ecstatic over the depth of the elf's story. Dark let them continue with their applause. She never told the dryads something disturbing because she did not want to frighten them. That particular story did not end very favorably; the human man had tried to kill her after the statement she had made, so she had moved quickly and gotten him first. Dark did not like to knife people, but she would if it was necessary to do so in self-defense.
One of the dryad girls stood up. Her flaming-red curly hair and deep green eyes made her stand out among her kin, and she was one of Dark Beauty’s favorites.
“Dark! Hey Dark!” The little girl bounced up and down on her bare feet, wishing to seen.
Dark smiled. “What is it, Chyenne?”
The little dryad girl giggled childishly at being called by name, and then she jumped up in excitement. “Will you please make some of those butterflies for us? That is my favorite trick!”
Dark smiled warmly. She should have guessed that Chyenne would ask to see magic. The other dryads were agreeing and nodding their heads vigorously. Dark stood up and raised her hand. The dryads cheered and then quieted, knowing that Dark Beauty would need all of the concentration she could assemble.
Dark set all her thought on her trademark creation. She formed them in her mind, making sure to include every detail. If she missed the simplest feature, something might go wrong with the whole command, such as a deformity or a color change.
Once she had exactly what she wanted formed in her mind, she drew in the energy that is found in the air by sorceresses and other magical beings. She could feel the energy pulse through her body right along with her blood. She loved the feeling of nature’s power warming her, and the tingling sensation that it created. Once she had all the energy she needed, she whispered a single word. “Fly.”
This word was the key to the door that kept the power inside her. Dark felt the energy leave her in a massive rush. It felt like a weight was pushing against her, trying to make her topple. However, this did not show on her flawless face except for a tightening of her closed eyelids. She’d felt it so many times that she was nearly immune to the pushing force.
The power did her will. Beautiful, brightly-colored butterflies appeared from nowhere. They glowed with faintly tinted light and left a trail of it behind as they fluttered about. They sparkled and glittered like fireworks, yet they were definitely real butterflies.
The little dryad girls squealed with delight and chased the magical butterflies, looking quite like a large group of kittens trying to catch a dangling string.
Dark ignored the slight weakness that always followed sorcery. She laughed at the way the dryads jumped and ran, trying to touch the butterflies. The sparkling insects dodged and darted through the maze of raised, child-like fingers.
There was a happy shout from across the clearing. “I’ve got one! I’ve got one! Oh… isn’t it so pretty? Look at it glow!”
Chyenne had managed to catch one of the butterflies. She was squatting down, her two tiny hands cupped over each other and one of her eyes pressed against them. The spaces between her fingers ejected a soft magenta glow.
The many other dryads stopped chasing the butterflies and skipped happily over to Chyenne, chattering all the way. They all crowded around their sibling and tried to look into her hands, straining to see the magical creature within.
Dark chuckled as Chyenne released the butterfly unexpectedly into the crowd of dryads. They all squealed in surprise, and then laughed. Dark waved her hand once through the air, and her creations disappeared. She walked over to the group of girls, who were working on calming down, for whenever the creations disappeared, they knew that Dark wished to talk to them. She waited patiently until they stopped laughing to speak.
“All right girls, I let you have your fun. Now may I ask you all a question?”
The girls all nodded. There were a few scattered statements such as “of course” and “anything.”
Dark’s face was rather serious. She directed her question to a brown-haired dryad named Shanei. “Where are all of the trees?” The dryads’ glad faces darkened as Dark finished her question. “Why is there a clearing here?”
Shanei’s bright blue eyes flashed in anger. “Human men. They came in and started to cut them down. We heard the trees cry out in agony and came to see what had happened. By the time the first few of us reached this place, two of them were already felled, and somewhere in these woods, two of our sisters had also died.”
Dark was truly worried by this. She knew that the dryads all had a tree of their own. That tree was connected to the dryad, and if it was killed, the dryad would also die. “Well, why weren’t they cutting at the edge of the forest? Isn’t that where there are no Dryad Trees?”
Shanei shrugged. “We asked them that, but they didn’t answer. They just pushed us away and called us ‘dumb little children.’ ” The little dryad’s face became frozen in remembered anger. “That comment got us all a bit upset.”
Dark nodded. “I understand. Well, what did you do?”
Shanei blushed a little bit in embarrassed confession. “We’re archers, Dark Beauty. And, as you know, when we become angry we like to… uh… show our talent off.”
Dark raised an eyebrow. The dryads all shifted their weight and lowered their eyes.
“Oh really?” Dark sighed when there was no answer. “All right then. How long ago was this?”
Shanei raised her head in relief of a change of subject. “It was about a year ago. We’ve not seen you for quite some time.”
Dark nodded and let the matter pass. The bodies of the unwise humans were probably buried by now; she did not bother asking where they were. Even if they were not buried, they’d be gone by ways that the sorceress did not want to think about. She was a bit surprised at the dryads, however. She knew that they were very good archers. In fact, most of the girls had their bows strung across their backs there in front of her. She was just surprised that they would kill a man that fast. Dryads were all girls; they needed some way to have their children.
Even though they all were from different parents, the dryads all called each other “sister.” Each tribe was made up of their years, so there were many siblings to keep track of with the dryads. But, the tribes did not really talk to each other. There was no reason to. They all lived with the girls that were born in the same decade as they were.
Dark sighed deeply. “Well, I suppose there is nothing else I need to know about it then. I’m going to speak to the human villages around here and find out why they are cutting down the trees inside the forest instead of where they are allowed to.”
The dryad girls muttered an agreement. Chyenne then could be heard over the muttering. Her voice rang out in an almost panicked manner. “What? You mean you are leaving already?” The other dryads, finally recognizing this as a true statement, turned to Dark and started to protest. “Oh please stay with us a little longer!”
Dark Beauty shook her head, and the dryads became quiet and pouted. Dark frowned in thoughtful worry. “I need to find out what is going on as soon as possible. I am very sorry that I cannot stay with you any longer than this.”
Some of the dryads started to hiccup in result of silent sobs. Dark shook her head again and smiled, silently laughing at herself for thinking that she could get away with that. “Alright. I will stay with you until the end of the day.”
Some of the dryads looked up at her in joy, but others sat there staring blankly, as if to say “and…?”
Dark checked a sigh of annoyance and defeat, and then edited her sentence. “Fine. I will spend the night in your village. Are you content now, Chyenne?”
The dryads all immediately stopped crying and pouting. They began to jump up and down in happiness instead. Chyenne’s flaming red curls could be seen bouncing along with her as she called out, “Yes, Dark!”
Dark still sat in the clearing; the dryads were all huddled around her in the bright light of the autumn sun. They had managed to get the elvish sorceress to tell them more stories of her adventures in the big world outside the forest. She had been reluctant at first, but after a hundred little girls began begging and pleading with her, she had finally given up and muttered an unladylike curse to the power of pouting faces.
The dryads were all listening attentively to the story that Dark Beauty was relating to them. Actually, it was an explanation of an animal that the humans cared for called a chicken. The girls found the concept of caring for a bird that could not fly or talk as a very unintelligent thing to do. The small dryads had never seen most of the animals that Dark would mention in her stories, so most of the “story time” would be spent in multiple explanations of one animal or another.
All of a sudden, the beautiful elf stopped in mid-sentence. Her eyes gained a distant look. The little dryads muttered to each other. This had happened a few times before, and they knew that Dark was talking to someone with her mind. “Who do you s’pose it is this time?” one of them asked the large group. There were shrugs and a few scattered “don’t know” s. They all waited for the sorceress to tell them what was going on.
After about twenty seconds, the glazed look left Dark’s eyes, notifying the dryads that she was through talking. In one voice, they all asked, “Who was it?”
Dark smiled. “It was Silvaria. She’s coming to visit.”
The dryads all gasped and talked to one another in excitement. Silvaria was Dark Beauty’s silver dragon.
Chapter 1
There was a slight breeze in the trees, wafting the beautifully colored leaves to the mossy forest floor. The warm orange sun was shining directly overhead, radiating its shimmering light over the swaying trees. The shadows danced mysteriously, and the few leaves that still clung desperately to their branches rustled in a nervous behavior, as if they were reluctant to fall from their safe havens on the branches to the soft turf below.
Dark Beauty watched these sights from the rough branches of her favorite oak tree, her raven- black hair floating about her fair face in the soft breeze.
She loved autumn. The colors were always bright and eye-catching, and the intense blue of the sky beguiling. The early morning fog was so fresh and clean to breathe in, and the smell of the crisp air made her wish that autumn would last all year. She enjoyed watching the birds fly to the south. Sometimes she would talk to them, but most times during this season they were so excited about leaving that they twittered away a bit too rapidly. Besides, when birds are exhilarated they tend to speak of complete madness. Now she would patiently wait for spring to come along, the season when the birds would finally be sensible again. Spring would come soon to her anyway. Being an elf had its advantages sometimes.
Dark sighed, and, being careful not to snag her flowing white robes on a branch, descended to the leaf-covered soil. When she made it to the forest floor, she looked up into the trees, her piercing blue eyes capturing all of her surroundings and etching them into her memory. The trees of the Dryad Forest were nearly bare, with the exception of scattered evergreens in the dense woods. There were a small number of bare nests resting in the cradling branches of their trees, and many small animals scuttled around them.
Dark smiled to herself as she watched a squirrel scamper to one of the empty nests, its cheeks stuffed with acorns. It emptied them into the nest, then turned and disappeared behind the tree trunk.
Having nothing else to do, the elf began walking slowly through the woods, listening to the crunch of the leaves beneath her soft elvish boots. She noticed with a slight hint if annoyance that the hem of her white robes had become muddy again. For some reason, she had taken an interest in just walking idly through the forest, and she had been walking since early morning. Nobody ever walked with her. Why should they? She was a sorceress. To her tribe, she was an outcast.
Dark shook her head sadly. She was one of the first elves in the world to become a student of magic. The people in her tribe of Wood Elves had backed away in disgust when she had been found teaching herself sorcery. Any type of supernatural talent, after all, was seen as a sin and abomination to the three races of elves, the Wood, Plain, and Sea Elves. The people of Dark’s clan had cast her out, no longer trusting her and calling her a disgrace. She’d been hurt badly, and had ventured out into the human lands to explore the ways of the world. She had gone to the human land of Antera, and there she studied and learned the ways of the mages. She had received her white mage’s robes after a strenuous test of skill at the School of Magic in the southeast corner of Antera, about six thousand years ago now. She was wiser than most of the elder elves because of her adventures, and she was not inexperienced with her power, either. Sorcery was quite easy to master really - as was simple magic. Sometimes she wished that she had been born to the Sea Elves, who did not get too upset about the use of magic. But then, the Sea Elves hardly came out of their place in the water anyway.
After a while of her reflective walk, Dark Beauty found herself in a large clearing. She noticed a few stumps of trees here and there, which looked like they were a result of deliberate felling. Dark wondered why there would be cut trees in the middle of this forest, for they were special trees around this area. Just as she was thinking of the first possible reason, there was a strange whistle that sounded from the surrounding trees. She heard girlish giggles and a few loud whispers. Then a voice rang out, echoing through the trees in the language of the dryads.
“Hey everyone! It’s Dark Beauty! Dark’s back!”
There were excited squeals of delight, and before the Wood Elf knew it, the trees were alive with the small forms of dryads. Their short fairy-style dresses were mostly green, but an occasional brown could be found. Their hair was the color of autumn leaves, making it almost impossible to see them during this time of year.
The dryads dropped to the ground, laughing and talking excitedly to one another. Dark could feel them tugging on her robes and wanting to lead her somewhere. She was actually quite used to this and allowed them to guide her to exactly where they wanted her to be. Dryads can be very stubborn and fastidious sometimes.
The effervescent girls lead the elvish sorceress to a stump in the middle of the clearing, all asking questions at the same time and crowding about her, their bright eyes wide with the happiness of seeing their beloved Dark Beauty again.
After a few seconds of unintelligible babble from the dryads, Dark raised her hand, and the little creatures quieted almost immediately. There were about a hundred or so, all patiently waiting now for an instruction or comment from the woman they admired most in the whole world.
“I am happy to see you all again,” Dark informed the group of them in perfect dryad. “I did not bring any sugar this time, because I did not know I was going to encounter you today.” There were quite a few disappointed moans from the crowd. Dark continued with a warm smile. “However, I do have a few stories that I can tell.”
The dryads all clapped their hands and jumped up and down excitedly, forgetting their distress instantly. Dryads loved stories almost as much as they loved sweets. They were a very curious race, and wanted to know everything they could about the outside civilizations.
They all quickly sat down, chattering happily to one another. As soon as Dark cleared her throat, however, they all became silent, and Dark could almost feel the anticipation buzzing through the colorful sea of girls.
Dark began to tell the dryads of the recent visit she had just made to the human village of Eren, which, she explained, was not very far from the forest. She would have mentioned that it was located northeasterly in the human land of Chevar, but the dryads had no idea what the directions of a compass meant, so why bother? Besides that, they had no perception of the different lands on the continent.
Dark was a very gifted story teller; she could act with her voice. For example, she could make something seem extremely frightening when really it was not. She could craft the tale in such a way that the dryads would tense, and then, when she made a sudden change in voice, they’d all jump. She was at one of these moments in her story.
“So,” Dark told the group of girls, “when he tried to take me by surprise, I turned around and pulled out my boot dagger.” She reached down in a flash and unsheathed a hidden jeweled knife which was kept safely in her right boot. The dryads gasped and their eyes became wide. “I turned to him, held my dagger to his throat and said, ‘if you so much as put one finger on me again, there will be great unhappiness on your part. I will never tell you where the dragon eggs are hidden, and I will not allow you to try to find them, either.’ ”
The dryads clapped and cheered, ecstatic over the depth of the elf's story. Dark let them continue with their applause. She never told the dryads something disturbing because she did not want to frighten them. That particular story did not end very favorably; the human man had tried to kill her after the statement she had made, so she had moved quickly and gotten him first. Dark did not like to knife people, but she would if it was necessary to do so in self-defense.
One of the dryad girls stood up. Her flaming-red curly hair and deep green eyes made her stand out among her kin, and she was one of Dark Beauty’s favorites.
“Dark! Hey Dark!” The little girl bounced up and down on her bare feet, wishing to seen.
Dark smiled. “What is it, Chyenne?”
The little dryad girl giggled childishly at being called by name, and then she jumped up in excitement. “Will you please make some of those butterflies for us? That is my favorite trick!”
Dark smiled warmly. She should have guessed that Chyenne would ask to see magic. The other dryads were agreeing and nodding their heads vigorously. Dark stood up and raised her hand. The dryads cheered and then quieted, knowing that Dark Beauty would need all of the concentration she could assemble.
Dark set all her thought on her trademark creation. She formed them in her mind, making sure to include every detail. If she missed the simplest feature, something might go wrong with the whole command, such as a deformity or a color change.
Once she had exactly what she wanted formed in her mind, she drew in the energy that is found in the air by sorceresses and other magical beings. She could feel the energy pulse through her body right along with her blood. She loved the feeling of nature’s power warming her, and the tingling sensation that it created. Once she had all the energy she needed, she whispered a single word. “Fly.”
This word was the key to the door that kept the power inside her. Dark felt the energy leave her in a massive rush. It felt like a weight was pushing against her, trying to make her topple. However, this did not show on her flawless face except for a tightening of her closed eyelids. She’d felt it so many times that she was nearly immune to the pushing force.
The power did her will. Beautiful, brightly-colored butterflies appeared from nowhere. They glowed with faintly tinted light and left a trail of it behind as they fluttered about. They sparkled and glittered like fireworks, yet they were definitely real butterflies.
The little dryad girls squealed with delight and chased the magical butterflies, looking quite like a large group of kittens trying to catch a dangling string.
Dark ignored the slight weakness that always followed sorcery. She laughed at the way the dryads jumped and ran, trying to touch the butterflies. The sparkling insects dodged and darted through the maze of raised, child-like fingers.
There was a happy shout from across the clearing. “I’ve got one! I’ve got one! Oh… isn’t it so pretty? Look at it glow!”
Chyenne had managed to catch one of the butterflies. She was squatting down, her two tiny hands cupped over each other and one of her eyes pressed against them. The spaces between her fingers ejected a soft magenta glow.
The many other dryads stopped chasing the butterflies and skipped happily over to Chyenne, chattering all the way. They all crowded around their sibling and tried to look into her hands, straining to see the magical creature within.
Dark chuckled as Chyenne released the butterfly unexpectedly into the crowd of dryads. They all squealed in surprise, and then laughed. Dark waved her hand once through the air, and her creations disappeared. She walked over to the group of girls, who were working on calming down, for whenever the creations disappeared, they knew that Dark wished to talk to them. She waited patiently until they stopped laughing to speak.
“All right girls, I let you have your fun. Now may I ask you all a question?”
The girls all nodded. There were a few scattered statements such as “of course” and “anything.”
Dark’s face was rather serious. She directed her question to a brown-haired dryad named Shanei. “Where are all of the trees?” The dryads’ glad faces darkened as Dark finished her question. “Why is there a clearing here?”
Shanei’s bright blue eyes flashed in anger. “Human men. They came in and started to cut them down. We heard the trees cry out in agony and came to see what had happened. By the time the first few of us reached this place, two of them were already felled, and somewhere in these woods, two of our sisters had also died.”
Dark was truly worried by this. She knew that the dryads all had a tree of their own. That tree was connected to the dryad, and if it was killed, the dryad would also die. “Well, why weren’t they cutting at the edge of the forest? Isn’t that where there are no Dryad Trees?”
Shanei shrugged. “We asked them that, but they didn’t answer. They just pushed us away and called us ‘dumb little children.’ ” The little dryad’s face became frozen in remembered anger. “That comment got us all a bit upset.”
Dark nodded. “I understand. Well, what did you do?”
Shanei blushed a little bit in embarrassed confession. “We’re archers, Dark Beauty. And, as you know, when we become angry we like to… uh… show our talent off.”
Dark raised an eyebrow. The dryads all shifted their weight and lowered their eyes.
“Oh really?” Dark sighed when there was no answer. “All right then. How long ago was this?”
Shanei raised her head in relief of a change of subject. “It was about a year ago. We’ve not seen you for quite some time.”
Dark nodded and let the matter pass. The bodies of the unwise humans were probably buried by now; she did not bother asking where they were. Even if they were not buried, they’d be gone by ways that the sorceress did not want to think about. She was a bit surprised at the dryads, however. She knew that they were very good archers. In fact, most of the girls had their bows strung across their backs there in front of her. She was just surprised that they would kill a man that fast. Dryads were all girls; they needed some way to have their children.
Even though they all were from different parents, the dryads all called each other “sister.” Each tribe was made up of their years, so there were many siblings to keep track of with the dryads. But, the tribes did not really talk to each other. There was no reason to. They all lived with the girls that were born in the same decade as they were.
Dark sighed deeply. “Well, I suppose there is nothing else I need to know about it then. I’m going to speak to the human villages around here and find out why they are cutting down the trees inside the forest instead of where they are allowed to.”
The dryad girls muttered an agreement. Chyenne then could be heard over the muttering. Her voice rang out in an almost panicked manner. “What? You mean you are leaving already?” The other dryads, finally recognizing this as a true statement, turned to Dark and started to protest. “Oh please stay with us a little longer!”
Dark Beauty shook her head, and the dryads became quiet and pouted. Dark frowned in thoughtful worry. “I need to find out what is going on as soon as possible. I am very sorry that I cannot stay with you any longer than this.”
Some of the dryads started to hiccup in result of silent sobs. Dark shook her head again and smiled, silently laughing at herself for thinking that she could get away with that. “Alright. I will stay with you until the end of the day.”
Some of the dryads looked up at her in joy, but others sat there staring blankly, as if to say “and…?”
Dark checked a sigh of annoyance and defeat, and then edited her sentence. “Fine. I will spend the night in your village. Are you content now, Chyenne?”
The dryads all immediately stopped crying and pouting. They began to jump up and down in happiness instead. Chyenne’s flaming red curls could be seen bouncing along with her as she called out, “Yes, Dark!”
Dark still sat in the clearing; the dryads were all huddled around her in the bright light of the autumn sun. They had managed to get the elvish sorceress to tell them more stories of her adventures in the big world outside the forest. She had been reluctant at first, but after a hundred little girls began begging and pleading with her, she had finally given up and muttered an unladylike curse to the power of pouting faces.
The dryads were all listening attentively to the story that Dark Beauty was relating to them. Actually, it was an explanation of an animal that the humans cared for called a chicken. The girls found the concept of caring for a bird that could not fly or talk as a very unintelligent thing to do. The small dryads had never seen most of the animals that Dark would mention in her stories, so most of the “story time” would be spent in multiple explanations of one animal or another.
All of a sudden, the beautiful elf stopped in mid-sentence. Her eyes gained a distant look. The little dryads muttered to each other. This had happened a few times before, and they knew that Dark was talking to someone with her mind. “Who do you s’pose it is this time?” one of them asked the large group. There were shrugs and a few scattered “don’t know” s. They all waited for the sorceress to tell them what was going on.
After about twenty seconds, the glazed look left Dark’s eyes, notifying the dryads that she was through talking. In one voice, they all asked, “Who was it?”
Dark smiled. “It was Silvaria. She’s coming to visit.”
The dryads all gasped and talked to one another in excitement. Silvaria was Dark Beauty’s silver dragon.