This story is meant to be fairly wholesome and for most viewers. However…
*It contains numerous LGBTQ characters.
*Depictions of xenophobia can be found.

Book of the Dryads – Chapter 9
A New Elder

Skyla and Emily rose early the next day. Lilac’s sanctum was filled with ancient dryad knowledge from centuries ago. It seems Emily wasn’t the only one writing about the dryads… Although these volumes, they found, were the collection of dryad history, told by many authors over the centuries, many previous elders of groves long lost.

“Wow, there might still be a grove in Europe… Something about the Black Forest… Got anything over there, Emily?” Skyla asked as she flipped through a book.

Emily grabbed a tome. This wasn’t your average book. The leaves and vines that comprised the strange books were alive, filled with magic. As Emily hoisted the heavy tome up, small lively green tendrils wrapped around her wrist gently, like a light embrace. When she opened the book, the letters on the leaf pages rearranged before her eyes, translating them perfectly to English.

“Woah… I can read this!” Emily muttered.

“Seems the dryads before us considered language barriers. They have magic to help us translate them!”

Emily looked through the pages. This one recounted encounters with other magical beings. “So… There are merfolk too? And dragons?”

“Really?”

“Yeah, it’s all here. Wait, genies!?”

“You’re kidding!” Skyla dropped her book and ran over to peer over Emily’s shoulder. She read the page recounting a dryad who traveled to the Black Forest to meet with the dryads living there. Along the way, he was injured, but a kind woman nursed him back to health. The dryad noted magic, and the woman revealed she was a genie by the name of Eris. This happened about 300 years ago.

“Apparently not,” Emily muttered.

Skyla grabbed the book. She thumbed through the pages slowly, trying to absorb it all. “You know, we keep hearing about this Department of Magical Resources and whatnot. We already know wars with humans nearly destroyed the dryads. And they seem to be the type that would wage war against any magic folks that resist. We might be in trouble as the years go by…”

“What are you thinking?”

Skyla thought deeply about it. “Emily, could you meet me at the Lake of One’s Truth in an hour or so? I have some people to find…”

“Sure – but can you tell me what’s going on?”

“Hopefully, the beginning of my style of eldership…”

=======

Emily decided to wait by the lake. She was eager to see what Skyla meant. In time, others arrived. First was Asterosk, a warrior by trade who took over for Lilac a lot in the winters past. Another former warrior in Pendra, who showed Emily the way in and out of the grove, arrived a few minutes later. As Emily had learned, she was a better navigator than a warrior. She had since put down the spear in place of helping with mapping the area. (Of course, her natural bark armor proved helpful against both wild animals and the occasional hunter.)

Brice and his daughter soon arrived. While he seemed to know what was going on (probably by guess, knowing him), Alice looked around with wide-eyed wonder. She spent most of her time in Grovewall, so she wasn’t as familiar with the grove as Brice. There was another, scrawnier-looking man with glasses, one Emily was less familiar with. But he looked like the descriptions of a banker that recently joined Grovewall, Harvey. He was absorbed with his books. He reminded Emily of herself in a way… Except he was much quieter. He was said to usually gesture, mutter a word or two, and be done. But he wasn’t cold, just one not to waste words.

Another dryad, one clearly older than most came into the clearing. While Lilac was the elder, Emily learned she wasn’t the oldest dryad in the grove. That might belong to this one, Oaklen, whose name was derived from the ancient tree species. Rumors had it he was almost 3000 years old, and he knew the history of the dryads better than any.

Finally, Skyla arrived with Victor in tow. “Everyone, I’m glad you could make it!” Skyla said, waving and smiling.

“What’s that th-“ Oaklen began angrily.

“Play. Nice. He’s here at my request, as you are,” Skyla replied sternly. “I chose all of you because I value your opinions, skills, and knowledge. I’m young for an elder, I admit that. I don’t know everything. And I will admit I need help. That’s what you are for. Victor here has insight into the kitsunes and their world, something we probably need to know more about. That’s why Lilac chose to leave, to learn more herself. And to put aside her hate for them,” Skyla added at the end, glaring at Oaklen.

He turned away from the intense glare. “Then why am I here?”

“That’s because you have far more knowledge about the past than any of us. We have volumes of the dryads’ history in Lilac’s sanctum, but there are gaps. You can help us cover some of those. IF you’re willing to work with a kitsune. If not, I can find someone else less qualified.”

Oaklen looked at Victor. per Skyla’s request, dryads had done work healing him, but the scars from his wounds were still apparent. It may be that the gashes and holes in his fur coat would be there for the rest of his life. Proof this being went through more than Oaklen ever did in his long life. If anything, he had to respect that.

“Alright, I can try to get along…” Oaklen sighed.

“Good. Brice, Alice, you’re here because of the fact you both help run Grovewall. You have the human perspective that I’ve probably lost over time…”

“Don’t sell yourself short, Skyla. You should know better that dryads and humans are basically the same. A human’s perspective will probably look a lot like a dryad’s, given enough time. Or a bear or two,” Brice suggested with a slight grin.

His joke got the group to chuckle.

“I’m flattered that you even decided I was even needed,” Alice replied. “I help my dad out with Grovewall, and I might take over for him eventually, but-“

“That’s why. That, and you carried Victor over here to us when he collapsed in front of you yesterday, without hesitation. I think someone said you asked if he was okay before you even knew what he was… We need more like that, who can see past skin, fur, or whatever else we could encounter out there to see people as just that: people,” Skyla explained.

Alice blushed.

“Obviously, my daughter here would be there to document things as they progress. Harvey is here for the same reason, but on the monetary side of things; we need to take stock of what we have, in case we need to make trades and deals,” Skyla continued.

A man of few words, he gave a light nod.

“Asterosk, Pendra, you have experience we need. I know Asterosk is one of our better warriors, and Pendra’s navigation is peerless. I was looking for Amy, but…”

“She said something about going to the flower market in Grovewall today. We got some new varieties in she wanted to look at,” Asterosk explained.

“Sounds like her. She never did stop being a florist. I’m assuming it’s her heartsight ability?” Pendra asked.

Skyla nodded. “I’m noticing it’s a lot more powerful in her than we’ve seen in other dryads. She can feel people’s emotions at a distance, no matter their strength. We may have to help her train it, get a handle on it. She said yesterday she was getting sick from the raw, intense emotions.”

“I may be able to help with that,” Oaklen replied. “She isn’t the first to develop heartsight that intense. I know some ways that can help her manage the intensity. If only she had someone she could bond with…”

Emily blushed and looked away from him. Before last night ended, she had shared a kiss with Amy. He still noticed and smiled slightly.

Skyla chuckled from the display. “But yes, she may have to help us with sensing the state of mind of those we may encounter next,” Skyla explained.

“Next?” Asterosk asked.

Victor nodded. “She explained it to me on the way here. She heard a little about the DMR, the Department of Magical Resources, from our conversations yesterday, but I filled her in with as much as I had learned in my travels.”

“And I’m worried,” Skyla replied. “If they come in force, they have the backing of the United States government. We might not stand a chance against them, if dryad magic wasn’t enough hundreds of years ago. Technology has improved since then. And that’s before we remember I’ve been here for fifty years, not venturing much outside the grove. We need help, if there is any out there.”

“You mean other magic folks. Merfolk. Dragons. Others that can be found,” Oaklen realized.

Skyla nodded. “If we can ally ourselves with other magic beings out there, maybe we can form an alliance that could stop the DMR from coming in… And likely burning this grove to the ground… It’s just a theory. The books on the other races are ancient. We don’t even know if they’re still around…”

“But we can try finding them!” Emily suggested. “I mean, we have knowledge on where they were encountered. We can go where the dryads last saw them, and maybe we can contact them!”

“Well, if they’re as reasonable as the dryads have been – for the most part – this could work…” Brice agreed.

Oaklen sighed. “I hate to argue with you, but no alliance has ever been formed between magic folks. Ever. We’re so different…” But then he glanced at the humans in their midst. “But then again, we’ve never allied with a human settlement before. Maybe some sympathetic humans here and there, but never anything as large as a whole village of them. And the dangers we face are greater than ever. Even I have to admit we need to give it a try.” He looked at Victor. “Even against our own long-held beliefs.”

Victor nodded. “Thank you.”

“Thank you, all of you, for understanding. Let’s give it a week to prepare, then let’s meet here again, discuss a more in-depth plan,” Skyla suggested.

Everyone nodded.

“If meeting here will be a regular thing, perhaps we should construct a place around here for that?” Asterosk suggested.

“Not a bad idea,” Skyla replied.

“I can find the dryads for the job…” Pendra suggested.

“And I can get some help from Grovewall,” Brice added.

“I can oversee that when you’re ready. Let me know when you are,” Skyla replied.

Pendra and Brice nodded, and knowing the group meeting was over, they dispersed, going their separate ways. Skyla slouched forward as she let out a deep sigh.

“You okay, mom?” Emily asked.

“That went a lot better than I thought it would. I was fairly certain Oaklen was going to be at Victor’s throat,” Skyla admitted.

“You handled that very well. And I think him getting a good look at Victor got him to back off. Staring down the ‘big bad kitsune’ and instead seeing someone vulnerable instead probably did him some good.”

“Thanks, that was the hope. Now, to hope that we keep having that luck… I’m still thinking, but I think the merfolk will be the easiest to reach out to first.”

“Ocean-dwellers, right?”

“Exactly. We’re not too far away from the sea. In fact, we could probably make it by boat from the river that runs through this very grove…”

“If we can figure out how to build one that can survive the trip.”

“I heard the way out is a lot less dangerous than the way in…”

“Of course it is…” Emily muttered sarcastically.

“Well, I should probably head out to Grovewall to get Amy up to date,” Skyla replied as she started to turn around.

Emily grabbed her arm, getting her to turn around quickly. “I-um, how about I do it? I mean, we’ll probably be working together, right?” Emily was blushing deeply as she asked.

Skyla recognized it for what it was and chuckled. “Alright, alright. I’ll let you lovebirds talk it out,” she said with a wink, getting Emily to blush deeper.

“Ha ha ha….” Emily chuckled nervously.

“Don’t worry, if you make each other happy, what more is there that I need to say? Just make sure you tell her about everything today, and we’ll be good. And if you want to talk about more than that, I’m not going to stop you!” Skyla replied, smiling at the end.

Emily nodded with a smile – and a beet red face – and headed towards the village to make her way to Grovewall.

With that taken care of, Skyla turned around and peered at the lake. Decades ago, this reflected a face different from her own back to her. It was a different time, a different life. But it showed her who she really was on the inside. Ever since she decided to join the dryads, she’s been a happier, warmer person. And luck or fate would have it that her daughter would join her and love her for who she is. She wouldn’t trade this for anything.

But as she gazed upon her reflection, she saw the weight of her new duty resting on her face. Being the elder was not an easy task in the best of times. She inherited the position as dark forces were crawling their way towards the grove that gave her a life to be proud of.

She knew she had to protect this place and all it stood for… Even if it meant doing things no dryad had ever done before. It was time that the dryads sought help from the other magical beings of this earth.

CHAPTER 9 END.

By CrystalSeaDragon44