I paused, rubbing the sweat off my brow. We had probably only been walking for twenty five minutes but they were going fast and my bags were heavy. I wasn’t really willing to leave them back at camp unattended. Plus I hadn’t eaten.

“You okay?” Hina asked.

“More proof you're a noble in hiding,” Hana said.

“But I’m-”

“No one’s here, your secret is safe with me,” Hana added. “Or do you have an explanation for being good at the arts, while bad at physical labor for a young man?”

“Just because I don’t have a good answer doesn’t mean your conclusion is the right one,” I said with a sigh.

“I found one,” Hina said as she pointed. Looking I noticed the tree. The bark wasn’t especially unique, neither were the leaves. It kind of looked like an apple tree but instead of apples it had flower buds on it. They were fully closed and mostly white or cream in color.

“My mother told me that spirit trees are grown over the corpses of lycanthropes,” Hana said. “It’s the next stage of their life!”

“What? That’s… something else,” I said. I had to remember my common sense may not apply here. “I guess they would be rare then.”

“Wanna do the spirit tree rite with me?” Hina asked.

“Huh?” I said with a blank face. She didn’t expect me to know this, did she? I didn’t even know what a spirit tree was before today.

“Bitch!” Hana said as she punched Hina in the face. “I was going to ask him!”

“Wait wait, what? What even is the spirit tree rite?” I asked.

“It’s a ritual that is quite common to Yumeji,” Hina said smiling. “I would be delighted to do it with you. Given our relocation. I was afraid I wasn’t going to get a chance this year.”

“What about me!” Hana shouted.

Hina turned to face her sister. “You were too slow. Plus, I am the one that found this tree!”

“What is the spirit tree ritual?” I asked. “Like saying it’s a ritual common to Yumeji doesn’t tell me much.”

Hina pulled out a knife. “We each carve a line in the tree and place our hands over it. The tree sucks up our mana and dreams. Six months from now, during the early water season, the tree bears fruit. The fruit tastes sweeter based on the dreams of the two that fill the tree in the early fire season.”

Mana? Water season? Fire season. I needed data! “So, in essence, you want me to cut a line in the tree and place my hand over it?”

“Yes!” Hina said with sparkles in her eyes.

“What about me!” Hana shouted.

“I mean, if we can find another tree, then we can do it too, can’t we?”

Hana smiled and stepped aside. I took it to mean she wanted us to hurry up. Whew, hopefully that meant no more violence today.

With her blade out, Hina carved a diangle line in the tree and then handed me the knife. It didn’t have a guard and was just a sharp piece of almost rusted metal coming out of a somewhat sorry handle. I carved a line across Hina’s creating an X in the tree.

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She closed her eyes and I decided to do the same. I instantly noticed my hand feeling warm. Right, I’m supposed to think up sweet dreams. What did a tree wanna dream about? A tree that was once a werewolf apparently.

I paused. I got nothing. I decided to think about what I wanted to dream about. Christmas, a decorated tree. Presents. Mom’s honey glazed ham. I could hear my stomach growling in response. Maybe a tree would like the idea of a wonderful dinner. If I was a tree I’d be curious what ham tastes like.

“So much mana,” Hina said as she moved her hand a bit. “That was way more than I have ever seen someone do before.”

“Huh! Is that bad?” I asked.

Before any words came Hana pulled my arm. We were off deeper into the forest. Gosh this woman was on a mission. I wondered why? Like how culturally important was this ritual? She’d run through the forest even though by all accounts we should probably be heading back for breakfast.

“Wait,” I said.

“Huh?” she asked.

“Is that one?” I pointed. I recognized the bark and tree. While it didn’t seem like anything special to me, it wasn’t that common amongst the other trees here.

We walked a bit to the direction I pointed and then we both realized. This one is dying. It wasn’t dead yet. It had leaves but so few of them. The branches were pretty shriveled too. It was a lot wider than the first tree. This one felt much older. Looking at Hana I saw her crying.

“I may sound dumb here or be asking a bad question, but can I ask what’s so important about this ritual? You seem pretty interested in this ritual amongst the chaos.”

“It would be the first year I missed it,” she said clenching her fist. “I remember my first time. I was just four years old. Mother did it with me. Father did it with Hina. Spirit trees are abundant in Yumeji, but only two can do the ritual. So trees fill up fast. I’d always plan who I wanted to do it with a month ahead of time. But this year,” she trailed off.

I didn’t know what to say. Her struggles as a refugee were intense for sure. I was surprised to be honest, why was she confiding in me? Wouldn’t her mother… oh. I see.

“Can we still do the ritual on a tree like this?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” she said. “I’d like to try. I don’t want to regret anything ever again.”

“Why me?” I asked.

She turned and looked at me. “I can’t say. Not that I am trying to avoid it or anything. I just feel something special about you. It’s how my mother and father met, if you can believe it. My mother was traveling to meet with her grandmother for winter. There were only a few spirit trees open. She found a local boy and suddenly asked him to be her partner. He was so stunned. I want to be able to tell them about my own story one day.”

“Hina is the only family you have left, isn’t she?”

She nodded.

I put my arm around her. “I’m sorry.”

She hugged me. I could feel her tears soaking up my shirt. So this is why she was so anxious to ask me for marriage last night. I assume the part about them thinking I was a noble was a factor. After losing everything, I could hardly blame her for wanting some stability and comfort. But I was an Earthling. I didn’t even know how I got here. I couldn’t help her in that regard. No, not in that regard.

“Well, we don't have a lot of time, right? Wanna do it? The ritual?” I asked.

“Yeah,” she said. She took out her own knife and made the first cut. I followed after and we put our hands over the cross.

Dream. This time I did have one. I want you to heal, heal for Hana. Because in six months when she comes back, I know her heart will be aching and your branches, leaves and fruit will leave her with some much needed comfort. Heal and make the sweetest fruit you can! My hand was warming up even faster than last time. Not just faster but even stronger too. It was almost too intense. Is this my mana?

“Woah,” Hana said. “So warm. So wonderful.”

I guess the heat was natural then. I decided to ignore the pain and just keep letting my mana flow. The burning got hotter and I could feel the individual pieces of bark beginning to sizzle against my skin. Hana began to back off and my hand with hers.

“Your hand!” she said. “Its hurt, but how?”

The world was beginning to spin and I fell to my knees. “I dunno, never done that before.”

She touched my hand. “O Ruler of Wolves, grant my prayers for healing my friends. Tier Two. Heal!”

I felt more warmth on my hand but the pain faded with it and looking at it, I was fine. So healing magic. Way cool.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

I nodded. I couldn’t move but that was fine. I just… felt tired. A minute to breathe and I would be fine.

“I’ll finish the ritual while you rest,” she said. She began carving something above and below the X. The one below was much longer.

“What did you carve?” I asked.

“Wow, you must be out of it,” she said. “It’s our names.”

Huh. Interesting. I began walking with Hana. It only took us a few minutes to find ourselves back to the first tree. Looking I noticed Hina had carved the same name on the bottom. Just a slightly different one on top. I asked to stop for a moment to look at it. I sneakily took out my phone to snap a picture. Knowing how to write my name would be useful.

With that done, I began trailing behind the girls through the forest back to camp.