Mistakes

Chapter 6

Birch's POV

I frowned at her crumpled form on the tarp. I felt a bit sorry for her, but I had a job to do, and if making a tree branch fall on her head was a part of it, then I had to go ahead with it. This wasn't my idea, mind. I didn't want to knock a poor girl out and drag her into a magic portal, especially when she was unconscious. And also, the nerve of threatening me with fire! Fire has been a threat to my tribe for centuries, millenia, even! Just the very thought of being confronted with it by a mortal is confounding in itself, but her? I could barely begin to think of a reason why my tribe leader would want to capture her, purely because I could see no way for her to be useful to us- or to anyone. She seemed lazy and arrogant, not at all a daring quester or plotting villain. But I made no complaints. It was not in my place to do so, after all.

I dragged her off the tarp, and through the bark toward a giant banyan tree at the heart of the park. It looked quite painful to be dragged across the floor, but she was too heavy for me to carry, and I really couldn't think of another solution. She was unconscious, after all. She probably didn't even know.

After dragging her for about 15 minutes, we reached the roots of a looming tree that twisted and turned up and up until it faded into the darkness of the midnight sky. I closed my eyes and deep concentration and whispered out a spell- a spell that would create a portal to the home of the deer people. I opened my eyes and was greeted by a swirling mass of purple and black dust. I looked down at the girl, Juliet, and began lugging her step by step up the twisting roots. She didn't even flinch. I guess I liked her better with her mouth shut. We reach the portal. I slowly walked in, dragging Juliet behind me. The portal vanished behind us, leaving nothing but a small scatter of dark purple ashes on the roots of the tree.