Elena extended his right hand forward, just to the front of Darius’ face. He saw the most extraordinary light show. Her palm was facing up and her fingers curled inwards as if she was clutching something. Then, it shone in bright yellow, glaring like she was holding a little sun in her hand. Darius reflexively flinched and looked away but to his surprise, the glare did not hurt his eyes. In fact, it was rather soothing like taking a mint drink in a hot day. Then, something bubbled up from the centre of the little sun, turning into golden dust and hovered just above her hand, each twinkling like a little star. Soon, they became a golden cloud and they flowed spirally outwards into the surrounding like little rivers separating into different paths as they flowed. It was a constellation of stars right here in the forest. They flowed into the trees and into the ground, and dissipating into the air. The whole place became magically charged, glowing like gold.

He felt the ground shook. She’s stopping the river. She’s blocking it. She’s opening a path on the riverbed. We can walk across. How magical is that?, he thought. The damming of the river by an invisible wall.

Then, Darius saw a few roots growing out from the earth. It was the roots of the trees nearby. As they grew longer, they grew thicker. They intertwined. They grew towards and over the water. They formed an arching bridge. They grew all the way to the opposite forest and into the ground. They grew thicker still, each of them thickened, as thick as Darius’ arm. When the bridge was complete, the sun in her hand faded and was gone. The arching bridge of roots was complete.

“I thought you were blocking the river.”

“And where would the water go? It would flood the whole forest, my dear.”

“Then, just dam it all the way up, with the banks and all.”

“That’s costly, and a magical dumdum like you’d never understand,” she said while tugging his ear with her dainty fingers. “Now, walk carefully on the bridge. And don’t tell me this isn’t great.”

“Err, well, this is spectacular too.”

“Hmm. Besides, I don’t have any power over water.”

The elf with the dryad on his back walked onto the bridge of roots, slowly, step by step, fearing that the roots would be unstable or slippery.

“You need to be quicker than this,” Elena told him. “Are you admiring the scenery?”

“You told me to be careful,” retorted Darius and he picked up the pace, skipping here and hopping there, and soon, he was on the other side of the river. Turning back to admire the creation again, the bridge of roots withered and crumbled into the river.

“Why do you have to destroy it so quickly?” Darius asked because he had noticed the withering on Elena’s finger. As soon as she had lighted the fire, the branch withered.

“Cost efficiency, my darling. Magic is expensive. As soon as it has served its purpose, it should be gone. The longer it lasts, the more energy I have to invest.”

“Can’t you make it last forever? Then, everyone will have a bridge to cross.”

“Nothing is forever. You have to get this notion out of your mind. I can make it last longer but not forever. They’re organic. Withering is the natural course.”

“But you are forever.”

“If, and only if, I continue to take in the Essence.”

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“And. what is that?” he asked, without really wanting to. Another magical knowledge that he did not know and even if he knew, he could not have.

“It’s a kind of energy that exists naturally in the environment. It’s emanated continuously by living beings. Some places have more, some places have less. If there is such a day that these Essence stops to exist, I will die. So, even dryads are not forever.”

“Here’s an idea. Why don’t you do make a bridge out of stones? That will stand for centuries.”

“I don’t have power over stones. I’m a dryad. I can only control organic matters. Even that, I cannot control all types of organism. But let’s go. I don’t like to stay here. There might be other crocs. They have come further up. They used to hunt further downstream.”

She descended from Darius’ back and headed into the forest. “Thank you for carrying me. You must be tired. Now, it’s alright. I can walk. It’s not wet here. Come on.”

Darius was slightly disappointed. Really, he did not mind at all. He was not tired. He had carried heavier things before. During his military training, he carried big logs and forded the rivers, many times. He also carried a big sack of rocks on his back and hiked up the hills. Elena’s weight was nothing. But he could not bring himself to ask. Hey, no problem, I can carry you anytime. How he wished that she could read his mind now. So he just followed her from behind, enjoying the view of her swaying buttocks and the smell of her pheromones.

“What’s your power then? Make things grow, I guess.”

“Yes, you’re right. This is a dryad’s natural born power, to make plants grow. That’s it. Pretty limiting huh.”

“Just plants?”

“Yeah, I’m not that effective with animals or beings, like you. So I can’t grow another head out of your body. It’s too complicated. No guarantee that it’ll work. And it’s very exhausting to push the limit.”

“You get exhausted from doing magic? But isn’t it just chanting, uttering some spell, doing something mental thing, like counting.”

“Well, that’s still doing. Actually it’s just like you making that jump over the river. You were panting after the jump, weren’t you? You were tired.”

“Of course I’m tired. Do you know how much that took out of me?” said Darius indignantly.

“Exactly. When you jump, you use the energy in your muscles. When I use magic, I use my magical energy. I get tired from doing it.”

Darius had never thought of it this way. Magic for him was a free ride. It just happened when it was wielded and that was it. No cost whatsoever. That was because he had never interacted with any magical beings before. At this age, the elves had lost all traces of their mages. Magical education was completely eliminated, a forgone path, a forsaken way. And there were no writings about them in the books that he could find in the Library of Galderon. His knowledge about the magical world was very limited, more to the legends and the myths.

“I’ve never known that using magic can be tiring. Are you tired now? You want me to carry you?”

“No, that was nothing. Just a little trick.”

“Oh. That’s a pretty big magic for me. I’ve never seen magic or thought that magic was possible. What else can you do?”

“I can only make things grow. But a lot of things are actually growing, like really growing, becoming big and tall kind of growing, and fruiting, leafing, rooting, healing, seeding. They are all growing. Making new cells. And I can also control some animals and insects and ask them to do certain things. That’s all.”

“That sounds like a lot. And, what is this magical energy?”

“It’s the energy we need to do magic. Like we need the physical energy to walk, to run, to live. The spells, the charms, they are just instructions. Without magical energy, they cannot be performed. But you’ll still need a lot of practice to carry out the instructions perfectly. I’m sure it’s the same as your fight-art. That’s why you need to train. And some instructions are very hard to learn and carry out. Not every magician can do them, even if they have the energy. Sounds familiar?”

“Make sense. But I don’t know much about the advance art. I’m not in them yet,” Darius said rather sadly. His whole situation back home made him felt like a mediocre.

Elena could tell his feeling by simply looking at his face. “Oh, Nemo. Don’t feel sad. You’re still so young, still a teenager. There’re many journeys in life that you still haven’t go through. I’m already four hundred years old. I’ve four hundred years more knowledge and experience than you.”

He felt better after listening to her. Her melodious voice always had that uplifting effect. “You certainly doesn’t look four hundred years old.”

“I have forever youth. That’s one of the advantage and also a disadvantage of being a dryad. It’s a blessing which at the same time also a curse. You don’t know how long is forever. But anyway, it’s much better to be a grown-up that live forever than a little girl that live forever.”

“Yeah, you’re so beautiful and so attractive. Who wouldn’t want to be you?”