Chapter Text
There is something sacred in holding your hand out to a branch or low-hanging vine. As if offering the residing dryad the dance you promised them when you were young. I do this now, throat tight, eyes painfully dry. It used to calm me. Now it just reminds me of how painfully and utterly alone I am. To have sought comfort from a hope that died out an age ago. Pathetic, truly. Yet, that is the core of what makes any mortal, pathetic. The entirety of the term could be explained in that single word.
I have been done crying for a long while now, though I wish I could spend eternity in utter silence. I would scream until my throat broke down, bones and cartilage melting into my sister earth, leaving behind only the nothingness formerly known as “pain”. Then, at last, I might find some peace in this ill-begotten world. For now, I simply stand and turn to face the figure at the shadowed mouth of my cave, my home for so many decades now.
“May I help you, oh pale one?”
They look taken aback at the direct query, but instead of running, or even pausing, they take a step closer, as if trying to discern my true nature with a glance. I laugh, a harsh, cruel thing, that burns my throat as it claws its way out. Back to their battle-ready stance, I tap my foot on the dirt floor, fingers playing with the tresses of my loose hair.
“What have you heard?” I melt into the vines that hang the walls in an instant, letting them embrace me, my voice echoes throughout the small space, “Have I been seducing villagers again? Massacring cattle? May perhaps I have even stolen a child or two and replaced them with something that is wanted by none.”
From my vantage point on the ceiling now I look down upon them....her? She’s tense but has cocked an ear slightly in my direction, and after a brief moment, begins inching her way deeper into my domain. I stifle a chuckle, she’s got guts, that’s for certain. Yet, she doesn’t seem the type to charge into a situation without a plan, or at the very least some back-up. Though as I watch the muscles on her back ripple with the unsheathing of one of her swords, I can see exactly what’s backing her up in this particular situation.
Well, she’s handsome.
Her voice, rough at the edges and all business, comes at last, “They say you’ve been setting traps in the forest. Catching what little game the villagers had to live off of.”
“Hmmm,” I slid from the greenery and to the mouth of the cave, rustling the hanging foliage with my entrance back into a mortal form. She spins around, sword in a defensive position, as I drink in the display.
“So?” She’s glaring now, obviously trying to figure out, and oh she has it , glancing from the mass amounts of plants adorning the cavern and its surroundings, back to me, and again.
“So what, dear heart? Do I look like I need what little game roams these parts? Those hapless fools down the mountain have overused the land. The few animals that once roamed these hills left months ago, once they starting tearing out the trees and hunting for sport.”
She gave me an indiscernible look, before shaking her head in disgust, “Figures. Well, I apologize for the intrusion,” she looked over my shoulder, and back to my face in one swift motion, yellow eyes gleaming in what little light shone through the doorway.
I giggled, a sound that instantly put her nerves on end. Regretting it immediately, I held my hands up in supplication, still unable to chase the thought that it was I who was intruding on this white wolf’s cave, not the other way around.
“Sorry, just…” A wicked thought crosses my mind, “Well do you really think you can just leave without paying for your insolence?”
I let my hair snake around me in flicking tendrils and sharpen my grin. I could even be described by some as “intimidating”. Then she focuses her glare on me, hefting the sword into an offensive stance. I nearly lose control of my fierce expression, as terrifying as she is, before carrying on.
“I require tribute.”
“Do you accept payment in silver?”
Brawn with a brain to match.
I shake my head slightly, both to answer her question and rid myself of the irritating commentary my brain is providing.
“Dear heart, whatever makes you think I want to fight you?”
She raises an eyebrow in the direction of my still unfurling tresses, sharp teeth and blackened hands. We wait in a stand off for what seems like ages before I shrug, dropping the act completely.
Ah, but it was fun while it lasted.
“I want you to take me with you.”
Her snort reverberates around the room. I can feel myself jutting my lip but do little to stop it, considering it a ploy at this point.
“What?”
“Take me with you!”
Her eyes lock on mine, and she looks me up and down before shaking her head and walking towards me, sword still unsheathed.
“I’m a very busy person, and I have little time for the whims of forest spirits.”
I slide into the foliage and drop behind her. Draping my form over her back, and reveling in the muscles that tense in surprise.
“I assure you, dear heart, I am so much more tangible than any spirit you’ve ever encountered.”
“Felt some pretty tangible blows from a few in my years,” comes the grumbling reply.
I move closer to whisper in her ear before I’ve shoved away, sword tip at my throat. Quickly melting into the nearby leaves, I return to the back of the cave, fully pouting at this point. She shakes her head, moving to trudge out into the now darkening forest, and sighing at the sight of the sun going down. I smirk, before watching her push aside the last of the branches and march out into the dark.
“Wait! Hey! You, why you absolute fiend!”
I’m skipping from tree to tree, and skidding to a stop in front of her, choosing to ignore the menacing way the silver sword edge gleams in the dim light.
“Get out of my way.”
“Not until you agree to take me with you.”
“Ridiculous.”
“What’s ridiculous is you denying the request of an ancient being, after intruding in their home and threatening them at swordpoint--”
“You’d weigh me down.”
I scoff and she looks at me with an exhausted expression.
“I think if anything I could help you.”
Silence.
“At least let me host you for the night and we can talk it over?”
“And be killed in my sleep by you after denying your request one too many times? Thanks, but I’ll just walk back to town.”
“Why didn’t you bring your horse?”
“How’d you know I-” she sniffs her shirt, “Oh.”
“Come on, you of all people should know that dryads, no matter how old and utterly bored have little interest in killing random people. Town is at least a two hours walk from here, and while I don’t doubt you could handle yourself,” I eye her bicep straining through the thin fabric, “It would be a comfort to me, knowing that you’ve gotten some food in your gut and a good nights rest before braving the drowners that have made their home a little way down the river.”
She grimaces, presumably at the thought of having to take them out before she leaves. Finally, she huffs a sigh.
“What’s for dinner?”
I grin and grip her forearm, tugging her back to my cave.