The Last Dryad

|01| Run

Silla

Silla dipped her toe into the icy cool river water. She shivered in excitement, pulling up her sewn leaf skirt to her stomach and stepping into the water.

Gentle swirls tickled her feet, and a smile broadened her face before disappearing as a sound came from the bushes.

Silla quickly hid herself behind a tree, her garb blending into its hues and making her invisible to an untrained eye. She looked at the bush cautiously. Had someone come to look for her so soon?

It rustled and shook, causing Silla to tense into the tree so that a branch poked her back. She peeked in between her hands. She looked all around, terne in her hiding spot, but saw nothing.

Something moved again.

She screamed and jumped as something touched her foot, clenching her eyes shut.

Please don't be a Lilliate.

She peeked one eye open.

It was a rabbit. The small furry creature nibbled on some of the foliage, unaware of the intense fright it had given the dryad lurking mere feet away.

Silla sighed. Laurelin always did say she was too nervous. Perhaps she was right. Just this once.

"Lilla!" A familiar voice called, using her pet name, from across the river, eliciting a smile from Silla. Laurelin had made it.

She stepped out from behind her tree, seeing the vibrant red hair and cloak that marked Laurelin as a Meliae.

"Laurelin," she said, smiling in greeting. "What do you have planned for us today?"

"Oh no, I won't tell you that easily. Today's trip is a surprise."

The Meliae extended a hand over the blue river. "Come on then, we don't have all day."

She pulled Silla across and began shoving her way through the brambles with her characteristic Meliae strength. The stories about male Meliae breaking trees with their bare hands weren't that far from the truth. Lord Dra had made sure that their superior strength was hereditary.

"Laurelin," Silla complained. "Slow down."

They turned a sharp left.

"Hide in the trees here," Laurelin whispered. "I forgot something back at my durra."

Silla sighed slightly, holding in a mildly amused smile. Laurelin could always be counted on to leave something back at her family's home tree; which she affectionately called "durra" after the ancient traditional language of the Meliae. Silla had been friends with Laurelin for so long that she had even started to call her own home a durra too.

Can it really have been only twelve years since Laurelin and I met? It seems so short a time since I ran into her at our stream, when she saved my life and I made my first real friend.

Silla remembered falling into the river while playing in some branches further from her home than she should have been. Laurelin had happened to be out walking when she heard the splash and rushed to help. Silla still recalled vividly her awe of the power and confidence that the fiery red haired Meliae had as she yanked her from the river. They later found out had both passed their five moon mark, similar to the years that the men of the village nearby used to mark the passage of age.

Silla's mouth curved in a dreamy half smile. Thoughts of the village always brought back thoughts of her trip there. And that led to thinking about him.

She chided herself. Thinking about village boys was a waste of her time.

But her mind had other plans. His handsome eyes twinkled in her memory, unbidden, as fresh as the day she saw him. It had been her first trip to the village, and she had been so distracted that she dropped the things her mother had told her to carry. She had always been wobbly on her feet. Sadly, Silla hadn't inherited her mother's graceful walking abilities.