FORM

Chapter 9 : rescuing the child

She entered the village by way of her grove. She used to think of it as his grove, her silver boy's, that's what Inor called it. But today she had to save her son all by herself. The silver boy didn't seem up to making a cameo appearance, not that she thought he would help her at all, he probably had more important things to do. There was no one in her grove, it was early and still a fair distance from the small Blue manors of the village. She stopped for a moment beside her Tree of Change, nagging thoughts and sparks cindered at her thread of thought, but she focused on the distant village and moved onward. Leaving the ever-shrinking grove behind her. Her son had been born there, and from there she would set out to save him.

It looked to be a picnic day. There were children scurrying and grown-ones making all the arrangements, most of them carried a knit Blue picnic blanket over a shoulder or under a free arm. Every one of them, no matter how busy they had seemed, stopped short and stared at her as she approached. She was well within the village outskirts now. Conscientiously she chose a place close enough where a large audience could gather to watch, yet far enough to keep them more curious than afraid. She glimpsed her father there, in the back, asking someone about the commotion. When he looked up she saw no hint of recognition. So much for them recognizing or remembering her. That would happen soon enough, no point in worrying.

She was calm, she had seen these people easily millions of times before, she had danced, sung, performed before each and every one of them. They all had watched her, if only out of the corner of their eyes, but she remembered the feeling of their only just- unvoiced approval. Ki and Li turned wide graceful circles about her arms and legs, leaving her vision unhindered. The children pointed curiously at the little birds who flung themselves about so energetically. They all stared, she saw, no one hid their eyes or faces, no one feigned a lack of curiosity. They waited with near-unmoving patience, for something to happen, for her to do something. The time would come, every face out there knew that. No one could recall such a midnight Blue visitor before, something intriguing would happen and they all starved with this burning hunger, so hot and so fierce that they gave no thought to their own safety. But really, what would they have to fear? They had not spoken face to face with a colorless devil, nor soared above the Great White Wall beyond the Forbidding Forest. Most of them didn't know that any of it actually existed.

It was time for a tale, a tale greater than any she had ever known or told. One that would illuminate and fascinate, one that would excite and enthrall, and, from somewhere in an everpresent recess of her mind, "one that will save my son." It was time for a tale.