Attack of the Fairies (#2 in the All That Jazz series)

chapter 13 - the river

I knocked on the door slowly and it was opened rather quickly. I jumped back a little but smiled at the old-ish lady behind the door. She looked a lot like Kim, but then again, she looked nothing like her. "You must be Jessica, please come in," she smiled sweetly at me and held the door open so I could walk past her.

I stepped into the little house and took off my shoes on the carpet just like Kim had told me to do. To my left was a living room and to my right was a door that was slightly opened. I glanced inside the door quickly and saw that her brother was sitting at a computer desk. So I'm guessing that is his room. I followed Kim's mom past the living room and through a kitchen. Then we walked down some stairs, though a part of the basement and into another bed room.

The walls were white with splattered paint all over. It was tidy and there was a bed, desk, and dresser. It looked like no one had been in here for a while. "This is Kim's old room." her mother told me, "you will stay here. So just leave your bag anywhere and come up stairs. We are going to show you around town."

I nodded my head and did as she said, leaving my bag on the bed then proceeding back upstairs and into the living room. Her dad was watching a hockey game on the telivision. There was suddenly a knock on the door and before it opened and a girl walked through. I looked at her wide eyed and she smiled at me, "you must be the Princess!!!"

I blinked at her and she pulled me into a hug. I was frozen, what do I do? She looks like a tree?! Her hair is dark brown with little green spots in it and some leaves. Her skin was tanned but it had lines in it that made it look kind of like bark.

She came out of the hug and smiled down at me becasue she was rather tall, "my name is Fern. I went to school with Kim and I'm going to show you around!"

"Has your name always been Fern, or did you change it becasue you look like a tree?" I can't believe that was the first thing I said to her. that is so unlike me. I think Kim is rubbing off on me.

She laughed, "my name has always been Fern, but I look like a tree becasue I'm a Nymph. A tree Nymph."

I nodded my head, I had no idea what that was, but its ok that I don't. She led me out of the house and through the town a bit before we stopped at a large tree in the middle of a park. "So this is the tree that has no name. Normally tree nymph's can hear tree's, but none of us can hear this one. And let me tell you, watch out for them tree's man. They're evil motherfuckers."

I let my jaw hang open slightly but couldn't comment because she kept talking. "Kim told us that the book said only one will talk to the tree's we can't hear. There are hundreds around the world and each of them identical to this one in every aspect."

I nodded to her, "so... does it do anything cool?"

She raised her eyebrow at me and smiled, "actually yea! Every May 1st it glows."

"Glows?" I asked  with surprise.

She chuckled and nodded, "yea it's pretty cool. All the other tree's just like this one glow as well. Kim thinks its the birthday of the one who can hear these trees and its like they are calling out to whomever it is."

That was amazing. Tree's can call out to someone becasue they glow. This really is something I've never seen before. "Anyways!" Fern smiled down at me, "moving on to the next cool thing in this town."

I smiled and followed her, she was actually kind of cool. I could see why her and Kim were friends. We ended up at the river I had seen while I was flying in. We were right on the rocky beach and it was extremely quiet, which didn't seem normal to me.

"Something doesn't seem right here," I commented.

Fern gave me a sad smile, "well you must know that for every good thing in this world, there always has to be a bad thing." As she said this to me, it became aparent that this was a bad place in this world and I got chills down my spine.