Beech - Legend of the Dryads, Book 2

Chapter 4

Jayne awoke in a cold sweat, her breathing coming in pants. This wasn’t unusual.

A forest. A soft wind. A spark. A blaze. Then, nothing. Jayne lay helplessly as memories of the latest dream flew far away from her reach. She knew by now that trying to remember the details was futile, and that in a few short hours’ time, she’ll have forgotten it all.

There came a knock at the door. The sound made her jump. “Jayne?” said Sue’s muffled voice from the other side of the door. “Jayne, are you alright?”

Jayne let out a strangled sound, then sat up and cleared her throat before trying again.

“I’m fine,” she said, placing a hand over her cantering heart in an attempt to calm its beat.

“You sure, dear?” Sue’s voice was laced with concern. “I heard you scream.”

She’d screamed?

Pushing herself up from her soft mattress which had suddenly become unbearably uncomfortable, Jayne rubbed her groggy eyes, peeking between her fingers at the clock beside her head. 7:20am! How had she overslept so much? She was going to be late for school!

In a similar hurry to the day before, Jayne threw on her uniform, cursing once when she accidently put her shirt on inside-out.

With just five minutes to spare, she glimpsed the small, black box that held Fabien’s gift to her. So tired had she been when she’d returned home last night that she had completely forgotten about it! Deciding that she had enough time to kill, Jayne lifted the little square container from the desk top and, with perhaps more care than was necessary, pulled the lid back on its hinge. She didn’t recognise the emblem on the front of the box – must have been from one of the little home businesses a handful of the villagers on the isle had established. They were great places to get presents from; that is, if you could afford their prices!

Inside the box, seated on a little cushion, sat the most beautifully delicate pendant Jayne had ever seen. The shape of a willow tree swaying in a breeze, its size not much bigger than her own thumb nail, hung from a dainty chain. It was so small and looked so fragile, she was afraid to pick it up.

How perfect! A symbol of something that linked the two of them together, that told of a secret they both shared. The image of the tree did not make Jayne recoil in repulsion as she would have expected, but instead elicited a strange sense of calm within her. Perhaps she was overcoming her trauma already!

After only a few moments of fiddling with the tiny clasp, the necklace was securely around her neck, and with no time to call Fabien now, she hoped he’d wait until school to hear her gratitude.

“Where’s Mum?” asked Jayne to her grandmother after popping two slices of bread in the toaster for a quick breakfast. Sue was up and emptying the dishwasher of the various cutlery and crockery from the party the previous day, whereas it was usually Helen who took it upon herself to perform this duty, you know, seeing as she had been banned from the cooker.