I wrinkled my face in confusion. I didn’t fully understand what Caelestis had said, but I somehow felt reassured that there was a good reason that she wouldn’t have helped the poor Dryad.
“But let us not dwell upon that,” she continued. “As reward for passing your test, let Me gift you.” She waved a hand, and a rush of golden-colored energy sparks crackled thickly around me.
I saw with astonishment that my body, dirty from everything I’d been through today, became as clean as if I’d just stepped out of a long, hot shower. My hair lay in dry, loose waves down to my shoulder blades. A scent teased my nose, and I lifted my hand to smell lavender on my skin. My clothes had been transformed into something I might wear to a Renaissance faire: a big sleeved white shirt under an embroidered green twill bodice, with sturdy brown pants tucked into knee-high leather boots. Around my waist was a beautiful leather belt with a heavy belt-box on one side and a long scabbarded knife on the other. A hooded green and brown cloak sat upon my shoulders. Even the handkerchief in my hand was clean and fresh again.
“Th-thank you, Caelestis! Thank you very m-much!” I stuttered, opening the belt-box to tuck the handkerchief inside.
It was full of gold and silver coins.
The goddess nodded once as she said, “You are most welcome. But now you have a choice to make.”
My face screwed up in confusion. “Choice? What choice?”
Caelestis said, “I cannot stay and be your companion, and these woods are no fit place for Humans to live. Therefore, you must leave them and make your own way in this realm.”
Wait, what? My heart raced at the thought of being abandoned. “My–my own way? But–but …!”
Caelestis held up a hand to silence me. “Yes, your own way. You may do so alone, or ….” Her words trailed off suggestively.
I grasped at the conjunction. “Or?”
“Or you can be offered more if you choose a Deity to worship, and perhaps even serve. You are very special and could prove to be a help to those in need if you wish it.”
“Special? Me?”
She nodded. “Yes, you. In fact, there is something that I desire to see happen, and were you to assist Me in this, I would feel less concern about its outcome. But in order for you to assist me, I would need to be able to assist you from time to time. To do that, you would need to worship Me. Or perhaps even become a representative, or Champion, of Mine.”
I gaped. “Worship? Represent? Champion? What? Why would you want me? What would I have to do?”
Images of blood sacrifices on red-stained altars filled my mind, and I shuddered at them.
Caelestis held up a hand to stem the avalanche of questions that wanted to tumble out of my mouth. “Worship consists of belief and prayers. You do not have to worship Me, or any other God or Goddess, if you do not so wish. If you choose to worship one of Us, then there is Someone to hear you and perhaps perform actions on your behalf from time to time. It also gives you more of a connection to this realm. But if you choose to serve one of Us as well, then that is a deeper commitment of time, energy, and love. However,” she smiled more broadly, “We do tend to take care of the ‘specials’ who serve Us a little better because We require more of them. The choice to do this, however, is yours alone.”
She paused for a moment as if to gather her thoughts. “Let Me introduce Myself more fully to you: I am Caelestis, and My domain is the sky. I am a protector of the Wind-riders and the two varieties of Surface-elves since My especial people, the Winged-elves, spring from a combining of those races. I watch over those who worship Me as a mother watches over her little ones, and I help take care of those who cannot take care of themselves.”
A sudden thought occurred to me. “If I do this thing you want for you, can you take care of me by getting me back to my world and my parents?”
Caelestis’ beautiful face turned unhappy. “Analise, I am filled with sadness to know you are in a pain that neither I, nor any other, can soothe. I sorrow that your mother and father will feel as bereft as you. As a mother I do understand all too well. But without Human agency the mist gate cannot be opened again.”
“Are there more of these mist gates anywhere else?” I persisted.
She became pensive. “I do not know for certain how many others there are. We have no way of discovering this from here.”
Sadness filled me and tears overflowed from my eyes down my face again. To comfort me, Caelestis took my two hands in her own.
“I will vow to you this: when the next mist gate opens, I will keep it open for you to return through. This, despite the risk of having others from your realm end up here,” she said. “Can you find some comfort in this?”
“But you said it’s never been done before!” I exclaimed. “How do I know it will ever happen again?”
“Believe in the power of threes. Two more gates will open, or at least will have the ability to be opened in the Human realms, though I cannot predict where or when. Can you believe?”
I gave her a tiny nod.
She sighed. “Perhaps I should depart and allow you to think for a period of time. I will return when you next wake. But so that you do not go hungry until then ….”
She waved her slender hand, and a picnic basket on two soft red woolen blankets appeared at my feet. Delicious smells wafted from the wicker as I stared at the dinnerware that was already arranged for my use. To its left, a plump water skin lay next to a feather-patterned cloth napkin. I looked up to try and frame a thank you of some kind but didn’t open my mouth.
The forest where Caelestis had stood was empty.
CHAPTER 4
When Caelestis left, the rest of my energy went, too. I sat down unsteadily, my body tired from everything I’d done, and my head whirling from everything I’d learned. Being alone made me aware I was hungry, so I reached without thinking for the basket’s handle. As soon as I touched the wicker, warning bells went off in my mind from remembered stories about the dangers of eating food in fairyland. Usually the protagonists in my stories were told that if they ate anything there they could not go home again, but Caelestis hadn’t said that to me. I drew back my hand and let the basket sit in front of me as I tried to weigh the various dangers.
The longer I sat there, the more the warm, fragrant smells coming from the picnic basket tempted me. When my stomach growled, I gave in. I opened the picnic basket and discovered inside several pretty covered dishes containing a warm, seasoned chicken, hot garlic mashed potatoes, and a green, tube-shaped vegetable that reminded me of a cucumber but wasn’t one. There was also a loaf of bread on a small wooden cutting board, something that looked like a white cheese, and apples. My mouth watered.
“You should eat,” said a somewhat familiar voice.
I looked up to see the green-haired Dryad sliding out of the large oak on the right. I smiled in relief that I wasn’t alone.
“Yeah, I guess Caelestis wouldn’t trick me, especially since it seems she wants me to help her somehow. Won’t you please join me? My name is Lise, Lise Baxter.” I quirked a smile for my inadvertent James Bond-like introduction.
She looked pleased at the invitation. “Thank you. I do not eat the way your kind does, so I will just sit here and keep you company. And do not worry; you need not fear any plant while I am here. My name is Oakalyn, and I have never met anyone like you before!”
She sat down on the spread out red fabric and curled her legs under her.
I blinked at her statement. “‘Not fear any plant’? What do you mean by that?”
“As a Dryad, my powers will keep you safe from any plant in the area that might otherwise harm you.”
I remembered from my research that Dryads had command over all plants, but looking around I didn’t see anything threatening. Then I felt silly—if there had been anything threatening I probably wouldn’t have seen it, so I might as well not worry.
Changing the subject, I asked, “What do you mean ‘like me’? Do you mean human?”
Oakalyn nodded. “You have the round ears that I’ve heard are on Humans, your body seems squarer than a Surface-elf’s, and your blue eyes are small and rather straight. But the biggest reason I know you are Human is because I was listening to your conversation with Caelestis from inside my tree.”
I raised my eyebrows and smiled jokingly at her. “Eavesdropping isn’t considered good manners, you know.”
Oakalyn just looked back at me. Apparently, she either didn’t know or didn’t care about social niceties. I changed the subject.
“I certainly didn’t think you were a Dryad when I first saw you. I also didn’t think upon waking up today that I would be chased through Central Park, leave my world, have a deadly fight with a weird psychotic guy, meet someone who calls herself a goddess, and end up picnicking with a fairytale creature in a magical forest!” My voice rose higher and higher with each word, and my hands started trembling.
I gripped my fingers together and took a couple of deep breaths to calm down. After all, Caelestis had made a vow to me that she was going to hold open the next gate so I could go back home. I had to hold tight to that promise.
Oakalyn gave her green hair a violent shake. “Oh, he was not just a ‘weird psychotic guy’, as you called him. He was an evil fairy creature ….”
“Evil fairy creature?” I interrupted. “Caelestis called him a Redcap, right? Was he really one of those?”
“He was,” she confirmed.
“I had no idea they were so ugly looking!”
“His outer appearance most certainly matched his inner soul. That is why he looked the way he did.”
“Oh.” I thought a moment. “Does everybody’s outer appearance match their soul here?”
Oakalyn laughed. “Unfortunately, that only works with some. It would make for knowing with whom to associate and whom to avoid easier if it was always true.” She waved her hand in the direction of the wicker basket. “But you should eat and regain your strength.”
I tried one bite from everything in the basket and discovered it was some of the best tasting food that I’d ever had. It was even better than Grandma Elizabeth’s Sunday dinner, and that was saying something. True to her word, the Dryad did not eat any of the food, although she drank from the water skin when I offered it to her. At Oakalyn’s prompting I told her of how I’d come into her world.
“Though I do not understand everything you have said, I am sorry for what you have gone through today,” she said with sympathy when I had finished. “But I am grateful you managed to stumble through that gate, else wise ….” She gave a delicate shudder.
“When a Redcap captures someone, I’ve read that he murders them, dyes his cap in the victim’s blood as a trophy of his kill, and then eats them. Is that really true?” I asked.
Oakalyn swallowed. “Y–yes.”
“But, if as a Dryad you have the powers to make the plants safe and make trees move, why didn’t you have them save you by, I dunno, grabbing at him?”
“Because the iron metal hidden in the core of the wires of the trap hindered my magical connection to the trees. I was only able to summon up enough power to have the branch drop near you, and then later to cause that root to come up out of the ground and nearly trip him for you,” she explained.
“That was you? Oh, thank you, Oakalyn!”
She dimpled. “No, thank YOU.”
I remembered the chicken in my hands and took a bite, and then another. Eating Caelestis’ food made me think about the goddess’ request, so I decided to ask about it.
“Say, Oakalyn, why would Caelestis ask me to worship her? Do deities over here go around asking for converts or something on a regular basis?”
The Dryad looked perplexed. “But everyone worships Someone.”
I took another bite, and swallowed. “Why?”
“Because ….” She trailed off, puzzled. “That is just the way it is. We see Them act, we hear Them talk, we feel Their presence and power when They are near. Through the Gods and Goddesses we live, and can get the means by which to live. How can we not be thankful for that?”
“What about babies? How can they worship anyone?”
She gave a slight frown. “I would imagine they are brought up in the worship of their parents. But as I have seen many different types of beings belonging to each of the deities pass through my woods, I would also imagine that at some point when an older child or even an adult finds a deity who is more comfortable than the one they were brought up to worship, he or she changes over.”
I cocked my head to one side. “Is that a problem for the deity who is abandoned?”
She shrugged. “I do not know. I am not a deity, nor a priestess.”
“But you haven’t answered my first question: why would Caelestis ask me to worship her?”
“Deities work through belief and being connected to their worshipers. If She ever wanted to help you She would need that connection from your worship, or so I would believe.”
“Do you worship anyone?” I asked, curious.
“From almost the moment I became self-aware I have worshiped Sylvanelle, Goddess of the Forest.”
I recognized that name—it was the one Caelestis had mentioned. But the whole idea of actual worship still seemed kind of weird to me, since my parents and I really didn’t have a religion. I was pretty sure that I, at least, was a Deist—meaning that I thought something bigger than us humans was out there because of the interconnectedness of the world, but didn’t know exactly what that was. Oh, sure, my parents and I celebrated Christmas, but that was more for the presents than anything else. Over here, people knew that there were things bigger than them that existed, because those things sometimes came down and talked to them. Yet another way the fairy realm was different from home.
After I’d eaten as much as I could hold, I felt calmer, and tiredness slipped up on me. I opened my mouth in a yawn that seemed like it would crack my jaw.
Oakalyn said, “You are tired. Since you shared your courage and companionship with me this day, Lise, let me give you a safe and comfortable place to sleep tonight.”
I nodded. I was almost too tired to be amazed at the magic the wood spirit now did, but not quite. With a wave of her hand, the roots of the huge tree rippled out of the ground and created a small wooden cave slightly below the level of the forest floor. Ferns flew in from the surrounding forest to make a colorful, springy mattress for me in the hollow. I stared, and felt another tingle across my skin as it all happened in front of my not-quite-disbelieving eyes.
“You may sleep safe and dry there, Lise. No one will see you, or bother you, while you are inside.”
Grateful, I said, “Thanks so much. I’m in your debt.”
“No, no you are not!” she replied vehemently. “What is a night’s sleep in exchange for a life? Nothing. However, you may exchange the favor of saving my life against a future request should you come back to my woods again.” Then her large pupiled eyes partly closed as she looked at me and said throatily, “Unless there is something else you would like? Perhaps to stay with me for a while?”
The smell of Pine-Sol from her intensified.
“Uh …,” I stuttered, taken aback.
All of a sudden I remembered from my stories that Dryads liked to keep men as pets for a time. Did that include women, too? The blood drained from my face a little and my heart started pounding.
Oakalyn laughed at me. “Go to your rest, Lise, and sleep without care for as long as you like. And whenever you depart tomorrow, do not stray from the path you will find until you leave my woods—only by staying that course will you be safe.”
I felt weak with relief since it seemed that she had been joking about me staying. My sleepy eyes widened when the trees shifted to create a path to the left of the clearing. Oakalyn smiled at my expression, kissed me once more on the head, and melted into the tree above the wooden hollow. I stood up and was overcome by another huge yawn. It was getting darker in the woods as the sun set beyond the thick
branches overhead. Though I never usually went to bed this early, I felt like I could sleep for a week. I was too exhausted to do anything other than to blindly trust the strange women I had met today. Pulling the picnic blankets inside the hollow, I layered them on top of the fern mattress. Then I packed up the basket and brought it inside with me as well.
It was comfortably warm inside the hollow, and the smell of freshly cut wood surrounded me as I slipped between the red woolen blankets and loosened my clothing. I lay with my hands folded beneath my head and tried to remember as many stories of human/deity interactions as I could. I wondered what it would be like to worship in a religion that had a goddess that showed up in the flesh. I also wondered what my English teacher would make of it all.
Thoughts of him made me remember my computer, and then my duffel bag.
“Oakalyn! Oakalyn!” I called out.
“Yes, Lise?” She stuck her face and shoulders out of the wall above me.
“Would it be possible for you to check and see if the bag I was carrying is still in that clearing?”
“Surely.” She disappeared, and in a matter of moments came back. “I am sorry, Lise, but I do not see it. Perhaps Caelestis removed it when she removed everything else.”
“Oh,” I said in a small voice. “Thanks anyway, Oakalyn. Good night.”
“Good night,” she replied, and melted back into the tree again.
My last physical link with home was gone. That bag had been given to me by my parents when I had started at Crosstown Academy. My parents—what were they doing now? Were they with the police, going over surveillance footage from the buildings around the Park? Were they part of a search force going through Central Park looking for me? Or were they sitting at home, thinking that a kidnapper was going to call and ask for ransom for my safe return? Tears came again to my eyes for them and for me, and I cried myself to sleep.
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