This story is intended to be fairly wholesome and for most viewers. However…
*This story contains LGBTQ characters and concepts.
*Mentions of domestic problems and depression can be found.

Book of the Dryads – Chapter 6
Festival of Rising

Emily’s Notes – April 1^st, 1903

With the days now longer than night, it seems the dryads celebrate with a weeklong festival of feasts and gift-giving, the Festival of Rising, as they call it. It’s a spectacular affair, meant to celebrate the reawakening of the dryads with green skin, who suffer from a semi-hibernation like state when the night lasts longer than day. It’s proving even bigger this year with their new human neighbors! I haven’t seen anybody that isn’t smiling today, and we still have a whole week left!

And there’s more to celebrate, too, with the completion of the tunnel linking Grovewall to the grove. It was finished later than anyone would have liked, nearly on the New Year. But after that, people from both sides started regularly traveling between the settlements, seeing as it cut the travel time by an hour (and it was a lot safer, given the weather this winter). There are talks right now about adding railways and railcars to perhaps make it even faster…

As for me, I wound up spending my winter taking care of Lilac. It was a time where the dryads were less active anyway, so I wasn’t going to learn much throughout the season. Instead, while I tended to her needs, Lilac told me all sorts of stories about the dryads from ages past, many of which were memories from her own past. There was much insight to find in them, and I’ve committed what I can to this book…

Still, the day of the first snowfall gave me something to think about. For months, I’ve been struggling to answer this question: how long do I want to stay? What kind of life do I want to live? I may live for hundreds of years if I stay within or near the grove.

I finally have an answer to this. It seems this festival is a good time for me to reveal what I decided…

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Lilac finished her bow to the crowd, gathered to watch the ceremonial passing of the eldership power back to her after one of the most eventful winters the dryads had seen in decades. There were several strong snowstorms that buried the village several times over. But at the same time, once the tunnel to Grovewall was complete, humans were able to ferry over and help the dryads dig themselves out. Just having the humans there was an event in itself.

Many from Grovewall got the message about the Festival of Rising, and they were eager to participate. Among them was Brice, now official mayor of Grovewall (by a near unanimous vote). As Lilac rose to meet the crowd’s gaze, she immediately locked eyes with Brice’s stoic face. He nodded with approval; a smile could be seen.

Emily was also there. She was closer to the front, as she had finally come up with an answer to the existential crisis she found herself in at the beginning of the season. She wanted Lilac to know first, seeing as she had spent all that time with her during the winter, not once having an answer as to whether she’d be staying in the grove for a long time or not.

As the crowd dispersed and returned to their activities, Emily came up to Lilac. “Hello, Lilac! Do you have a minute?”

Lilac turned to her. “Of course. Is something wrong?”

“Ah, no. It’s about my decisions heading forward…”

“Oh? I know Asterosk mentioned you became pretty quiet after learning about how long you could live here in our domain. In fact, it sounds like you mostly spent your time with me and your mother during the winter… Not that it wasn’t appreciated, of course!”

“Likewise! But, I will admit, when the idea of everlasting life suddenly became real, I freaked out. I didn’t know how to take that… I didn’t have an answer for months.”

“I sense you do now?”

Emily nodded. “I had to remember that I came here to get away from my old life. I was sick of the trappings of the society of the rich. It was a life rotten to the core. Honestly, I think I was dying on the inside.”

“I don’t know what that kind of life looks like, but from your tone, it sounds like it was toxic to your spirit.”

“And you heard what my other mother and my stepfather were like…”

“Indeed, I remember Amy complaining about feeling intense negative emotional energy from here. Between that and yours and Skyla’s story, it seems that kind of wealth and power comes at the cost of the spirit. I sense you value the spirit highly.”

“Indeed. I wanted to get far away from all of that, and to tie up loose ends in my life. After that, I didn’t know… Or really, care, what happened to me after that.”

“Emily, I’m sorry to hear that…”

“But it’s okay now! I found Skyla, who’s now living her best life! I found this wonderful place, and your wonderful people! And the other humans out here have been friendly and helpful! Really, I think coming here saved my life. As such… I’ll be staying!”

“That’s wonderful to hear, Emily!” Lilac said, while smiling and clapping. “Certainly, we were a bit hesitant about you in the beginning, but over the last few months, you’ve proven yourself a friend and valuable member of our grove! We’ll be more than happy to have you live among us, for however long you please!”

“Thank you, Lilac!”

“You’re welcome! And I just wanted to thank you again for all of your help during the winter. As much as the other dryads have helped in the past, it was nice to have you attending to me. You had a real knack for knowing what I needed before I did. It was also nice hearing stories you had from your life outside the grove!”

“Thank you! I appreciated you telling me about stories from your life as well. Umm, if you don’t mind…”

“’Can I add them to the book?’ Of course you can! If it will help humans understand us better, then by all means!”

Emily smiled. “I think I learned a lot from you. It may have even helped with my decision just now… I’m certain your insights will be valuable to others in the future!”

“In that case, you’re welcome!” Lilac said, smiling.

“Anyway, I want to find my mom. I got something to talk to her about too. Speaking of tying up loose ends…”

“Alright. I’m certain she’s somewhere in the grove, probably in the square with the rest.”

Emily smiled and nodded and set out for the grove’s square. It’s more of a clearing than a town square from a human settlement, located in the center of the dryads’ settlement, but the clearing was the best place to host big events. The Festival of Rising was the biggest one of the dryad calendar, more than any solstice or equinox or other holiday.

It was there Emily was able to find Skyla, who was busy enjoying a very colorful sandwich with some sort of meat filling.

“Hey mom!” Emily called out to her.

“Oh, hey there, Emily!” she replied, wiping some sauce from around her lips. “Here to enjoy the food? I’m pretty certain you haven’t tried a sandwich with “rising rainbow” sauce, something the dryads make specifically for the Festival of Rising! It’s amazing!” she swooned.

“Maybe later. There’s something really important – to me, at least – that I wanted to do with you first…”

Skyla sat up more intently. It seemed a bit more serious than she was expecting. “What is it, Emily?”

“Can you… Take me to the riverbank where I washed up in the fall?”

“Sure thing, Emily…”

=== The riverbank. ===

The two brushed aside the bushes to get a good look at the river. To their right, the mountains upriver, where Grovewall laid. On the left, the big curve that caused Emily (and Skyla, twenty years earlier) to wash up onto the dryads’ doorstep.

Skyla started. “I know you were struggling with the idea of living for centuries for a while there. Did you make a decision on that?” she asked hesitantly.

“I did.” She leaned up against Skyla’s arm and smiled contently.

Skyla realized it, and she rubbed her daughter’s head. She was smiling too. “I’m glad. That will give us so much more time together! I can make up for all those missed years, and then some!”

“Hehe! Yeah. This place is amazing. Magic and wonder and kindness. The air smells fantastic, and beyond the effects of the grove, I just feel healthier than ever! You remember what it was like in the cities back home?”

“Uck, it was like breathing in gravel, compared to here!”

“I want to be here. For you. The dryads. And to protect this place, if I can. That’s what the book is for, and I’m not even sure a normal lifetime is enough to make the book just right.” Emily pulled out the tome. “I’m going to make sure this paints the dryads and the places they live in the best light I can, so that people will protect it and the dryad’s society.”

“I’m so proud of you, Emily. Before winding up here, I thought gold was the only thing that could save my family. Turns out, it was the opposite; it destroyed my family. It was knowledge that I needed to save my family. Knowing that people were important…”

“Not that you didn’t already know that. You came out here to help us have a better life.”

“True! But I also didn’t know how to accept myself for who I was, and I was throwing myself into danger because I didn’t care about myself. In hindsight, I should have known Tomas was dangerous, but I don’t think I cared enough to pay attention. I was existing, not living.”

“But look at you now, mom! You’re so beautiful and amazing!”

Skyla blushed.

“You’re everything I remember about you when I was a little girl. Kind, compassionate, loving. But you practically glow now, every day! You’re so much happier than I remember ever seeing you! I’m so happy for you!”

Skyla’s eyes were now watering. “Emily… Thank you…”

“I guess I wound up having my own journey like that. Mary and Tomas, they just cared about wealth and their standing in society. I don’t think I ever saw them smile once in the twenty years you were gone. They kept flaunting their riches in hopes they could buy their way to happiness. I saw something clearly wrong with them. I think they were in so deep, they couldn’t see how much they were suffering themselves… And that affected Hank and I too… We suffered because they suffered. They really neglected us as they tried to get richer and buy more luxurious things. And because I was a girl, Tomas just saw me as a bargaining chip towards that goal. I was another thing to try to buy happiness…”

Skyla hugged Emily. “I’m so sorry, Emily…”

A couple of tears were running down Emily’s face now. “That’s probably why Hank was drowning himself in every hard drink you can imagine. That’s why I came here too. I was running away from all that. I couldn’t take it anymore. I heard the frontier was dangerous, and I didn’t care… I just wanted to tie up the last loose end I needed an answer for…”

“Me…” Skyla answered. She knew, but it was still painful to hear in this context.

“I didn’t have a plan after finding you. I was just… Existing. Finding you, alive, and the people who helped you probably saved me too.”

“I’m glad. And I’m glad we got the chance to see each other again. I missed you so much, Emily!”

“Me too!”

They continued to hug each other, smiling and crying at once.

“Is… Is that what you wanted me here for?” Skyla asked.

“A little. This is where we both found our way to the dryads and to our new lives. I figured this was the place to tie up the last loose end I needed to deal with…”

“And that is?”

Emily pulled out the picture she had of Skyla, when she was still Steven, her father. “I brought this with me everywhere. I didn’t want to forget you. In fact, I had to save this from Tomas and Mary a few times. But now…” Emily looked up at Skyla. “I want to forget him, and remember just you, as you are now! This is the last tie to my old life. You, the dryads, Grovewall, and the grove itself, that’s my life now. I want to be in the present, rather than the past. I don’t care how long the present winds up being, as long as it’s with the people I care about!”

Skyla grabbed her hand with the picture in it. “If that’s what you want, Emily. And if I may, I look unhappy in the picture anyway. Perhaps it’s best to let it go.”

“Can you… Help me with this?”

“Of course, my sweet daughter!”

The pair walked into the sands of the riverbank, both holding hands with the picture in Emily’s palm. They knelt down to the water and gently opened up their hands in the water, letting the picture sail down the river. They stood up and watched the last image of Skyla’s old life float downstream, Emily leaning against Skyla, hugging her mom. Skyla hugged back as she rubbed her daughter’s head.

Both of them smiled as they turned back around to put that life behind them and enjoy the festivities. They had a new life to live.

The picture continued its perilous trek down the river, slowly coming apart as the currents and the water did their work. For the briefest moment, one might have seen the picture distort in such a way that it appeared as a woman, smiling instead. A final reflection of the subject’s truth before finally succumbing to nature and coming apart completely. Steven was no more.

And Skyla and Emily wouldn’t have it any other way. They’ll replace it one day, with Skyla’s true self rather than the old mask.

That old life, that old unhappiness, came apart with the picture. Skyla and Emily would now be able to focus on the future, one that filled them with hope and happiness!

CHAPTER 6 END.

By CrystalSeaDragon44