Love & Sprites

Chapter Six - Fruitless

  Blood dripped from the crevices of the tree and formed a pool before its feet of roots. Every now and then, leaves fell into it and sailed like a tiny boat over its surface before being submerged in the thickness of red. The air stunk heavily with rot and decayed waste. Strands of fur rolled away with the wind.

This was where the horrible smell was coming from. This was the cause of bones that littered the crypt.

This was a fruitless tree.

The famoling buried his face in his fragile digits. His mother patted his neck.

"So the myths are true." Efya mused. "The tree is real."

"Very much." I said. "And it has a wild appetite."

The tree waved her many arms of branches and swayed her leaves violently stirring the wind in terrible curls. My skin crept with the cold for the first time in forever. Efya hid herself behind me and the famocantratra hid herself behind her foot.

Suddenly, a series of cracks snaked over the surface of the age-old barks of the tree. A few moments after this did a terrible, old face emerge from its trunk.

Wrinkles lined her forehead and cheeks. She had a ball for a chin, and her eyes stretched open almost like forever, peeling off wood and spirogyra filaments.

"Who. Dares. Disturb. My. Sleep?" Echoed the tree with an impossibly deep voice for a woman that shook the field. I could have sworn I heard Efya swallow.

"We have no reasons whatsoever good enough for our disturbance." I said.

She scanned us with her large eyes of fury. "Then. Why. Are. You. Here?"

"We came for your fruit, great one." I said, genuflecting. I was unsure whether it was ideal.

"Mortals?" She said with bewildered eyes. "Tell. Me. Why. I. Shouldn't. Get. Rid. Of. You? Why. I. Shouldn't. Devour. You?"

"We are not all mortals, great one," the famocantratra said, slithering from behind Efya's feet. "I'm a sprite."

The tree squinted her eyes at the thing that spoke between Efya's legs for a better view.

"Ah. Ah!" The Umdlebe snorted in realization. "What. Then. Do. You. Have. To. Offer?"

"I believe this is enough." Efya lifted a red shimmering rock into the air.
The Umdlebe eyes stretched wider and her eyes reflected the glow as though she had fallen under its mysterious enchantment.

"The ruby!" I shivered. "Where did you get it?"

Efya shot a sly smile at me like it meant nothing. "On your corpse in Aàla. I thought you were dead, Gahiji. But you were alive."

"Why did you keep it from me knowing why I needed it?"

"I couldn't let you risk your life on a stupid cause. But I was wrong about you, Gahiji. Your resilience and determination to save a life is worth my time."

A tear threatened to fall from my eye. This had been the most beautiful thing she had said to me.

"Do me the honours?" She asked. I nodded.

"This is what we have to offer, great one!"

The famocantratra waggled her leaf tail with excitement. Her famoling was going to be healed of his deformities.
"Very. Well. Then." A branch snaked out of her hair of boughs and plucked the ruby from her fingers.

"You. Shall. Keep. Your. Mortal. Lives." She said. "And. Shall. Have. My. Fruit."
Another branch crawled out and reached for her.

I held the fruit in my hand. Succulent and soft to the touch. Finally, what I'd been searching for for days was finally in my grasp. Sola would be healed. She'd be well.