Every time I heard a rustle, whip or crack, I scanned the area around me. I knew I saw someone before. There had to be. I hadn't a clue what I was doing, but I couldn't just stand around and do nothing as Clara slipped away.

 I went to where Clara had been found. I felt as though the trees were watching me. Or perhaps someone in them. I turned my eyes to each tree that circled me. "I know you are there," I called. "Please. Please help me."

 All that answered was my echo in an acre of silence. I saw no distinct form of a living creature. I dropped to my knees. "Even if I speak only to myself, I am not leaving. The forest is going to hear me. Because she is a good girl. She doesn't deserve this." I held my arms to my chest, "Not little Clara. My Clara."

 Closing my eyes, I felt the trees were listening. I felt myself being swallowed under their shade. "Only I deserve this. Not one human, and not one mermaid. But I— I who am neither. I am just some unnatural thing. I am nothing."

 "Those are strong claims."

 I opened my eyes. The body of the sniveling voice stood over me. I drew my gaze over the root-wrapping formation of legs attaching to human feet. Then up the body that was clothed in moss and vines to the green face covered in darker green freckles shaped like leaves. Dazzling eyes cast down at me. Her dark lips parted as she said, "For one to call oneself unnatural, you must have done something unforgivable indeed."

 My tongue was in a twist as I continued to gawk. Part of me was elated that I had been heard. The other part, the curious part, couldn't help but ask, "Who or what are you?"

 She rose her back from its current bend with a dragged breath. "I haven't spent thousands of years in a forest to be regarded with such triviality. I know what I am. It is your pathetic unawareness that intrigued me into standing here."

 "Thousands of years, you say? You're immortal like the mermaids." A passage in the mythology book in Eric's library came to mind. "I've read of a creature like you. A der... dra..."

 "Dryad," she whispered.

 I nodded, "That's right. A dryad."

 "I know it's right. That's what I am." As she spoke with agitation, beetles and spiders scattered down her face from the bush that made up her hair.

 Slightly repulsed, I turned my eyes to the baneberry bush. "Clara— the girl that was here before— she ate these berries."

 "So?"

 My forehead tightened at her dispassion. "She's an innocent child!"

 "Yes, yes. As you have stated quite adamantly." She held up her hand at me. "That girl and her brute father have done nothing but terrorize my trees."

 It took me a while to understand her annoyance, "Terrorize? They don't chop the trees. They only move them."

 "They steal them. Which makes them thieves, and is that any better?"

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 "It’s not like you own the trees."

 "What was that?! If anyone can claim the wood, it's me!" The dryad turned her back on me. Slowly, the roots that made up her legs began to unravel, sinking into the ground. "I am beginning to be bored of this conversation, lady."

 I could see that she was starting to turn into a tree. She raised her ams, and they locked in place, morphing into branches. Her skin became bark, creeping up to her neck. Just before it reached her ears, I stood and shouted, “A girl is dying! Have you no heart?”

 The bark softened. And the tree base reverted back to legs. She turned to me, stepping close enough to put her face in mine. "My heart is made of wood. Ringed by all the ages I've spent observing the barbary of the humans." She gestured around her, "So no. I don't. At least not the kind you speak of."

 "But if you can care for your trees—"

 "It is only my nature to. What is your nature?"

 "To believe in the good of all."

 "But all don't believe in the same good."

 "Agh, I have no time for this! Please. Help me if you can. I'll do anything."

 The dryad's lips turned up mischievously, "Just what I've been waiting to hear." She stepped back from me. She picked the berries off the bush and held them out to me. "If you give your life for the girl, I shall have faith in your kind again. And I'll retract the poison from her with a spell."

 I stared into her palm. The memory of a similar interaction, resurfaced; the first time I had ever been offered a spell. But it was different then. That was for a selfish cause. This was not.

 I wondered what my life was worth. All I ever brought anyone was misery. My father, my sisters, my husband, and now Arne. For once, I wanted to bring something good, like hope. "I'll do it," I said, taking the berries in hand. "Just promise me you will follow through."

 "I shall start halfway with the spell. Only once you've eaten the berries, shall the poison be drawn out of her."

 "How will I know she is actually saved."

 "Well, I don't think you can afford not to trust me at this point. But if it makes you feel better, understand that I could have decided not to reveal myself to you at all. So that's something."

 I faintly agreed. "I'm ready."

 The dryad stretched out her hand at me. She walked in a circle saying:

Cyanide, Formaldehyde, Ricin, Oleander.

Since you've done a mighty work,

let’s do a work that's grander.

She gestured for me to eat. Without hesitation, I threw the berries into my mouth. My lips closed on fruit. As the berries crushed inside, a surprise was let free. Not a lovely surprise. Sharp crystals punctured my palate, my tongue. I opened my mouth again but the pain was too much to even cry. So I whimpered.

Berry Fractals,

baby's blood,

gone now is the pain.

But not to waste,

for now the curse

shall be another's bane.

A disagreeable feeling rose within me, and my belly expelled the berries along with acid and bile.

I stumbled onto my back. The dryad's body became a blur above me. She brought her face close to mine, her bright green eyes skimming my pained expression. "You have done it. The girl shall be saved. And I now believe that humans can be good." Her words gave me a sense of comfort and redemption. "Hush now."

I closed my eyes. The pain wouldn't end. I continued to take quick breaths through my nose. Then I heard something I couldn't have possibly heard. But I did. And I saw their faces. Auburn Attina, raven Alana, dark Adella, brown Aquata, platinum Arista, and gold Andrina. They were singing to me:

Tell them not

O' where I go.

Let me billow by.

Left behind thy heart below

for a chamber in the sky.

'Lert them not

that they might wake.

Let me below by.

T'was my time

and soul to take

to a chamber in the sky.