Chapter Text
Once upon a time, in a far-off kingdom there was a wandering knight who fancied himself the smartest, bravest, strongest, handsomest, and knightliest knight in all the land. His name was Ferdinand von Aegir, as he liked to tell everybody, but most people just called him Ferdinand.
Ferdinand was, in fact, quite clever, strong, handsome, and brave, but he liked to talk about himself, and show off just how much he was the perfect knight. This was why he was in the woods today, chasing after a dragon said to be threatening nearby villages. But the dragon was clever, and was able to fly, and so Ferdinand found himself lost in the woods.
He had never been this deep in the forest before, so deep that the open trees became strange tangled plants with grinning mouths that dripped burning nectar. What sort of wicked witch or wretched hag lived in these parts of the forest? It did not matter, for her was Ferdinand von Aegir, and he would rid these woods of evildoers!
Ferdinand made his way through the woods, until they opened up into a glade. All around him were bright purple flowers with shining hairs. They grew in a wide circle around a single willow tree, whose leaves seemed to glimmer in the sunlight.
A figure sat in the willow tree where the branches forked. Ferdinand stepped closer and saw it was a woman with skin of bark and hair of leaves.
A dryad! A spirit of the forest! “Hello!” Ferdinand said. “I was not expecting to see another person here! Is this your tree, and your glade?”
The dryad squeaked and vanished into her tree, and did not return until Ferdinand left.
The next day Ferdinand returned. It was not every day that one met a dryad all alone! In all the stories he heard, dryads lived in forests together. Why was this one all alone? Perhaps something was wrong, and he could help! But when he went to apologize, the dryad vanished again before he could finish.
He did not understand! Perhaps another forest spirit would know what was wrong, and so Ferdinand went to ask one.
There was a large lake on the edge of the forest, and the spirit of that lake was a water nymph named Dorothea. She and Ferdinand were friends, and they liked to sing together. Today, Dorothea did not sing with him, but lectured at him.
“Why did you think it was okay to scare Bernadetta again?”
So the dryad’s name was Bernadetta. Ferdinand was grateful to learn that, but also very embarrassed and upset that he hurt her, and he said so. “I scared her so badly the first time, I wanted to apologize. I did not want her to think I was a threat, and I did not want her to think a threat existed where there was none.”
“So you scared her again,” said Dorothea, and she was quite cross with her friend the knight. There were many bad people in the world, people who took what they wanted and did not care about they harmed in the process. Ferdinand was not one of these bad men, but he could be a careless man, and sometimes did not realize he was causing harm unless he was told. “You do realize that was very unnoble, right?”
“You are right.” Ferdinand was ashamed of himself, for when trying to make Bernadetta feel better he did not consider how she would want to be approached, and made things worse. “How can I make Bernadetta feel better, and fix my grievous error?”
In many cases the right thing for Ferdinand to do would be to leave Bernadetta alone and never bother her again. However, Dorothea was Bernadetta’s friend, and knew the silence would also make her nervous. So instead, Dorothea said, “I will speak to Bernadetta, and see what she wishes you to do. You will not speak with her, or try to see her, until she says you may.”
Ferdinand agreed, for her wanted nothing more than to make Bernadetta feel better. He also greatly wanted to see her again, but he would obey whatever her wishes were.
Dorothea left soon after that. Her lake was partially underground, and one of its shores was in Bernadetta’s glade. She spoke with Bernadetta and told her of Ferdinand, and his apology. Much to her surprise, Bernadetta did not wish Ferdinand to leave and never return.
“He’s a knight, so he could have easily gotten soldiers and taken me from my grove,” Bernadetta said, and the leaves on her tree rustled with her words. “And I’ve heard him singing with you, I think. I would not mind meeting him, if you were there to make sure it was safe.”
“I will bring him, and I will be with you the entire time,” Dorothea promised. “And though we are friends and sing together, if Ferdinand harms you I shall drown him in my cold waters.”
Ferdinand accepted, for although he was not a bad man he had acted like one, and now he had to prove he was not. When he saw Bernadetta up close, at her hair of violet leaves from eastern maple trees, at the smooth bark of her skin, the way she moved in time with her woods, he thought she was beautiful. But he did not say anything, not yet. Instead they talked about other things—the songs they enjoyed, the life in the woods.
They met again and again, and shared stories again and again. Bernadetta gasped at Ferdinand’s bravery, and Ferdinand marveled at her creative skill. One visit Bernadetta carved images of her willow tree into Ferdinand’s saddle. The next visit Ferdinand sang her an aria from an opera in the capital.
“You should come with me to the capital some time,” Ferdinand said when he was done. “I know it is very different from your grove but you might enjoy the change.”
Bernadetta shook her head. “That is very kind of you, but I am perfectly happy here. And in any case, I cannot leave my grove.”
That was true; as a dryad Bernadetta was tied to her tree, but Ferdinand had read about the forest spirits and said, “If I take a branch of your tree with me, you can travel within it for as long as it lives. That is enough time to travel to the capital with me, more if I plant the tree and make it a proper sapling.”
But Bernadetta still said no. “That is very kind of you, but I am also safer here. You’ve fought off the monster in the forest, haven’t you? You are very brave to have done that, just to see me.”
What monster? Ferdinand had never seen a monster in all his travels through the forest. “Bernadetta, I would fight off a hundred monsters to spend but a moment with you, but I have not seen a single monster in all this time.”
“I promise you, the monster is real! I’m safe in my grove, but if I leave it will hunt me down!” said Bernadetta.
The monster was keeping Bernadetta trapped within her grove? That would not do at all! “Then I shall slay this beast which terrorizes you so, and you will be able to travel freely throughout the forest, and beyond!” With those words he ran off before Bernadetta could stop him.
For three days and three nights Ferdinand searched the forest for the mysterious monster, but found no trace of any beast. He had run out of food, and was too far away from Dorothea’s lake to ask her for water. He was tired and hungry, and his confidence started to wane. Had he done it again, been so eager to help someone the way he defined it that he trod over Bernadetta again?
Just then, as doubt crept into Ferdinand’s mind, something grabbed him and lifted him into the air! It was the monster, and it had found him! Ferdinand fought bravely, and struggled against the beast, but it was all in vain! Ferdinand was a brave and valiant knight, yes, but how could any knight hope to defeat a monster that they could not see?
All of a sudden, a gust of wind kicked up, and willow leaves danced in the air. They clung to the beast and outlined its form, its many heads and wicked claws, just enough to guide Ferdinand’s lance. With the shadow of the monster now visible, Ferdinand was able to drive it off, far away into the deepest depths of the forest. He shouted in victory, then turned around and saw Bernadetta.
The leaves swirled around her. She had left her grove, even though she was terrified, and used her magic to help him. The strange open-mouthed plants bent to her will and made a soft bed for him to lie down and rest on.
“Why did you fight the monster?” Bernadetta asked as she bound his wounds.
“Because you said the monster was keeping you here,” Ferdinand replied. “I could not bear the thought of you being trapped by a monster, or at all.” He closed his eyes, ashamed. “It took too long to realize that, once again and despite my best efforts, I did not properly ask you first.”
“It’s okay,” Bernadetta said, and it was, because Ferdinand was trying to do better, even if he was not as perfect as he believed he needed to be. “You’ll do better next time. That’s what I tell myself on the bad days, so it’s true for you too. Did the monster only attack you when you realized that and doubted yourself?”
“Yes? That is when it happened!” Ferdinand sat up in surprise. How did she know?”
The tale took a while for Bernadetta to tell. The terrible monster was a spirit of some kind, which was why she—a dryad, a forest spirit bound to a true—was able to see it where Ferdinand could not. The monster fed on the hurtful thoughts and feelings that people had towards themselves, things like self-hatred, fear beyond normal, the feeling of never being good enough. And Bernadetta had a great many feelings towards herself like that, enough for the monster to feast on her.
“But you’re so brave and confident, so no wonder the monster didn’t find you until now,” Bernadetta finished.
Ferdinand laughed. “I am not so sure. I am confident, yes, but it can be a very brittle thing. When my confidence breaks, it can be difficult to put back together. I have a friend, a powerful wizard, who knows exactly who he is. He is a true model of self-assurance, unlike me.”
That wasn’t true at all, and Bernadetta told Ferdinand so, and the plants in the forest rose to agree with her. “I’d like to meet your wizard friend someday,” she said.
“It would be my great pleasure,” Ferdinand said in return.
They kept meeting after that, in the dryad’s glade full of carnivorous plants and soft willow trees. Some days Bernadetta would travel to the edges of her forest to gaze upon the city beyond. She was not yet ready to leave the forest, but that was okay. It would come with fine, and Ferdinand knew not to push her too far. It may not have been the grand gesture of romance that Ferdinand always believed would happen, but it was more than enough. Though it was not quite a happily ever after, but a story of getting better a little bit at a time, that also left room for more stories to be told.