23 Communication

Ivy seemed to be thinking about my statement that she did not need to be afraid of being hurt by the elves. After a few moments pause she said, "Okay, I will trust…. wait. You just said I don't need to be afraid of getting hurt, but you did not say I shouldn't be afraid!" She caught me. All I could do was smile innocently.

To my surprise Leafia was the one to respond first. "It seems that she has spent the last 500 years avoiding us because we did not give her enough privacy." I could tell that Leafia was a bit bitter but at least it did not seem to be directed at me. It seemed to be more at life in general.

I do not know if Leafia's words convinced her or shocked her to the point she lost concentration, but there was another shimmer of power. The young girl once again appearednext to me. "Five hundred years. Are they really that bad? Should I still go run away?"

"Five hundred years is not all that long for me. Don't worry. They are not that bad. Just a little overbearing. But you will learn to ignore them once you get used to them." I said eyeing Istan who was still on his knees and mumbling about how to arrange holy pilgrimages to this sacred ground. "And have you not stayed holed up in your woods for the last 700 years? It is basically the same thing. It's just that I asked them to stay out."

"But I did not know there was anywhere else to go until last night," she said, slightly frustrated.

"I would figure that you would have heard something from the birds about other woods." I realized my mistake just a beat before Ivy practically flew at me.

"You can talk to birds?! Would you please teach me that too!?"

"I am sorry, I can't. I do --"

"--Why not! Is it that I did not believe you earlier. Please forgive me, I will never do it again!" She got on her knees and looked at me with big watery eyes.

"It has nothing to do with how you acted earlier. I can't talk to birds myself, so how could I teach you?"

"But,--"

"Didn't I already tell you that I am looking for the animal spirit that lived with me? That is how I communicated with birds. I got so used living withFaun for so long that I forgot that you might not live with an animal spirit. Dryads do not have the ability to talk to animals."

"Then how am I going to do it? I have never seen an animal sprite, much less a spirit," she said whilepouting with a face full of disappointment. I guess I was like that when I was younger too. It took a few thousand years for Faun to gain intelligence after I was formed, and Ivy is only seven hundred years old.

"I'm sorry, I forgot that you are still so young that that your woods would not have had time to form an animal spirit yet." I bowed my head to her as an apology. "I can tell you that there are many other dryads throughout the world. Or at least there used to be. I have not seen another of our kind in many years. The last time I left my woods they had all shifted further apart and I failed to meet any." I could not help but feel a little lonely. I missed the days when spirits were free to roam, before humans started shaping the land. "From talking to my companion that is in the nearby village, it seems like several are struggling due to the actions of humans." The elves faces turned downcast as I said that. It seems like my last statement ruined the atmosphere. Ivy was especially affected as she started to shiver and the color drained from her skin.

"If you ancient dryads are struggling dealing with the humans, how am I supposed to survive? I am so much weaker than you." She already was afraid of humans. My comments were just making things worse.

"Are the humans harming your forest?" I asked.

"Every summer men come and start cutting down my trees. They don't even ask me for permission and when I tried to stop them they started swinging their tools at me." She said with a shudder, recalling her traumatizing memories.

"Are they cutting trees to the point that it impacts your strength?" I asked her out of concern.

"It has not affected me yet, at least not that I've noticed. But they always take my trees away.

what gives them the right to take my trees. This is my home, and they are almost like family." Her eye started to well up with tears and her voice became unsteady as she continued to talk. .

"If you are not noticing a decrease in power, then you can just think of it as part of the natural process of your forest. From what I saw when I stretched my power last night, your woods seem very healthy and stable. It just seems to be a little smaller than most forests that sustain dryads." After pausing for a moment I continued, "I am guessing that is why you appear to be younger than the rest of us. If you are concerned about the size of your forest, invest some energy to the saplings on the edge of the forest and help them to grow. I would mainly focus on areas with few humans. If you try to grow trees in their fields, they will just cut them down. Sometimes even more than you grew," I finished with a bitter expression remembering my early years of trying to keep the humans from damaging my home.

"But what if the humans become more aggressive?" Ivy asked full of concern. "How could I possibly face them and fend them off by myself?"

"When it got the to point where I would have to start fighting with the humans, I asked for help from the elves to negotiate instead."

Ivy slumped even lower to the ground, "But I don't have any elves in my woods. Who would help me? I guess I am not really destined to be an immortal. I will just live a few hundred years and the die like everything else."

"Ivy if that kind of trouble ever happens, then you can come visit me," I said with a smile. I loved the way Ivy's eyes lit up at the offer. "I could ask the elves in my woods to help you. Or, if you would rather, it would not be hard to portion off part of my woods about this size. The northwest corner of my woods is barely controlled by me. You could stay there awhile if you ever had the need. There are some sort of human-like animals there, but they seem to be living peacefully with the forest. I really should check them out when I have the time." It would be a hard journey for her at her current strength level but she should be able to make it.

"You could give me an area of your forest this size without a second thought." Ivy said in astonishment. "How big are your woods?" The last part she said under her breath so I was assuming that it was supposed to be rhetorical.

Anyway our conversation was interrupted a loud growl that sounded to come from some animal that must be unique to these woods, while Leafia turned bright red.

"I think I should start making breakfast," she said as she hurried away. I did my best not to laugh. I was partially to blame for them getting a late start. It was not her fault she was hungry.