The Tree's Heart

XVII

It was the late afternoon when Clover and Willow returned to the cabin. The walk had been exhausting, but it hadn't been too bad for Clover. She went to take a short nap, after they had come back, while Willow was preparing some tea and some food. When Clover woke up again, the sun was setting and Willow was placing a cup of tea and a small plate with food on the table, as if she had known that Clover would wake up right then.

Clover was still wearing the dress the nymphs had given her which didn't really hold up well away from the mild climate of the island. Despite the fire that was crackling in the fireplace, she was shivering a little and grabbed an old throw to drape around her shoulders, before making her way over to the table.

Willow was sitting down and clutching her cup of tea. She looked much more nervous than usual, and Clover almost felt bad for her. But she had promised her answers and she had to deliver on that promise. Clover didn't really have a plan for what to do, if she didn't answer her questions, but she'd make it up along the way.

After she had sat down, Pooka hopped up onto her lap and curled up, continuing to sleep. Clover took her cup of tea that was pleasantly warm and smelled of all kinds of nice spices – clove and cinnamon and ginger. She closed her eyes as she inhaled the steam that was coming off the tea, before resting her eyes on Willow who was looking small and fragile now. Willow looked up and sighed.

"Alright then. Ask away. What do you want to know first?" she said quietly. Her voice seemed weak and shaky.

"Why did you go into the forest? Did you tell me the truth back then?" Clover asked her, before taking a sip of her tea.

"I was telling you the truth. I went into the forest with... with Nora, my girlfriend, to see if I could draw on all the ancient magic in this place. That, and to get some rare ingredients you wouldn't find outside the forest. It was purely to make my magic stronger. And it was a mistake, I know that now, but we were young and stupid at the time. We thought we could do anything, but it turns out that... some things are better left alone."

"What happened to your friend... Nora?"

Willow leaned back and took a few more breaths, her eyes fixed on the fire. She didn't seem to be able to look directly at Clover, as she was talking about her girlfriend. And she seemed to prepare for a long answer.

"I... Nora and I had been together for a year at this stage. She was... She is the love of my life. I still love her after all this time. She was just as interested in magic, as I was, so of course we would be going into the forest together. It was never a question whether she was going to come with me or not. But Nora... well, Nora was an air person. Always dreaming, always having her head in the clouds. And she got so easily distracted, a bit like a leaf in the wind. We had been in the forest for three days at that point, when the forest took her." Willow explained. Clover tilted her head. Were those tears on Willow's cheek?

"What does that mean? How did the forest take her?" she wanted to know. This seemed to be painful for Willow to talk about, but Clover just wanted to understand what had happened. Why Willow was so afraid of the forest.

"She turned into a tree. We were just walking and talking to each other. She had started forgetting herself already and I was anxious to get out of this place. She... I walked ahead and when I noticed that she wasn't following me, I turned around to see what was going on. She couldn't move anymore. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know how to stop it or change things, or... I could just stand there and watch. Watch her turn into a tree. It was... It was terrible. Her skin would turn into bark, her hair into leaves. She'd start growing... it took maybe half an hour until she had completely turned and all I could do was watch."

Clover sat back. She didn't know what to say. She didn't know that had happened. It finally made sense why Willow was so reluctant to talk about what had happened. It made sense that she was being vague. And her talk of becoming part of the forest made sense as well. This was worse than anything Clover could have imagined, but at least she knew that Willow hadn't killed her girlfriend over something.