A Nymph of the Ossian Forest

The Truth

My body was electrified from the roots of my hair to my fingertips. Thoughts and memories were buzzing around my head so fast I could barely track them.

The dryad of the Ossian Forest...

Everything that happened to me in the last days flashed in front of my eyes, from the moment I got into the Creones' trap. All this time I tried hard to find a reasonable explanation for what was going on, and it all came down to mere fight for power, desire for victory and revenge. Unlike in the tales I read in my father's books, it seemed that there was no place for magic and enchantment in this story.

So perhaps I was just seeing another dream?

"But... how?" The question that escaped my lips didn't reflect a thousandth of what I wanted to know.

"Ossian Forest is my home." Surprisingly, it sounded as normal as if she said she was going to take a walk in the woods.

"But Kalista... the Creon girl said she had invented everything to trick Valentinus..."

"Has she?" Mother raised her eyebrows. "She invented the ritual, but she was perfectly sincere when she told you how she was cured."

I faltered, wondering how mother could possibly know everything in such details: I was sure I hadn't told it to her.

That was too much information to handle at once.

"So it's true?" my heart was racing. "The nymphs do exist?"

Mother smiled warmly.

"I'm afraid I'm a living proof that they do. I'm sorry, Arian."

I couldn't help thinking about my father.

"So when dad found you on Sowing day, you..."

She nodded.

"I wasn't a girl from some distant village. When your father saw me, I knew my life was connected with his forever. I chose him over the forest and let him take me to the village with him. I chose you both."

Pieces of a puzzle were arranged in a perfect picture in my head. There was more than one reason why Kalista acted so weird around me. First, like she had said, was that she guessed that I possessed some valuable information for her campaign. But the second reason was that I resembled my mother, who was no one but a real living nymph. If Kalista had seen one (and now I didn't doubt that she had), my looks must have reminded me of her savior.

It even explained my strange illusions and dreams I had in the forest. It was as unbelievable as it made perfect sense. Nymphs of the Ossian Forest existed and I was looking at one of them: my mother.

"Are there many of you?" I asked briefly. She shrugged as a reply.

"There might be as many nymphs as there are trees, rivers, and stones in the forest. Even I don't know for sure."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

She smiled at me softly and I knew the answer to my question. She hadn't told me because I wouldn't have believed her. I would never have thought it might be true unless I had taken the journey to the center of the Ossian Forest myself.

"I'm telling you now."

"Is it true, then?" I started impatiently, in rush to ask all the questions that buzzed around my head. "A nymph can heal people and save them from death? If you bring a nymph to a Forest Temple, you..." I faltered. The very idea of such ritual had seemed brutal to me from the first time I had heard it, but knowing that my mother could really face such danger gave this image totally new colors in my imagination.