Leo couldn’t wrap his head around what was wrong with the high dryad. With how friendly she was last night it was completely unreasonable for her to turn into a complete stranger in the morning. He did try to be as friendly as possible, but the mood swings of this woman were not explainable by the common sense. She didn’t greet him or even smile a little, but after sending a condescending look his way went down the mountain trail.
Even though he was confused, Leo was not going to run after her. Since the madam was not in the mood, he turned to more pressing matters – after waking up he was so hungry it felt like he could eat a whole snake headed beast alone. Sadly he only had few of their eggs and some meat, therefore he decided to use the provisions sparingly and had only an egg for breakfast. Yes, it was huge, but it disappeared in his mouth within moments as if he were a greenlander beast.
Izel wasn’t absent for too long. She already explained she couldn’t stay in the mist for prolonged periods and Leo wasn’t worried she would leave, but after return she was still not in the mood to talk and went back inside the pavilion.
She came out only after sunset, naked, beckoned for Leo to come over to the sacred pool and ordered, “Do your thing!”
He was confused at first, but when she climbed inside and turned around, it was hard to not to guess her intention. Leo, of course, was delighted by the change in the attitude since clearly she enjoyed the short moment of closeness as much as he did. But for some reason few heartbeats later she returned home without saying a word.
This time the youth wasn’t going to be bothered with it and fell asleep on the lawn with a smile on his face. But the next day the scenario repeated except the new addition was a couple of elderly dryads who during the day brought them fruits and flowers to eat and for some reason were surprisingly unfriendly – towards Leo, of course.
The next two of days went by in a similar fashion and Leo began to ponder whether he should take the poison pearl and leave, but somehow it felt bad, especially because Izel had to cleanse the next high dryad. The sect master’s orders to find a poison pearl meant nothing compared to a young girl’s life and Leo was not so selfish to cripple a child’s prospects because of his own greed.
There was another reason Leo didn’t leave. While the moody madam ignored him during the day, he had nothing else to do but cultivate. Obviously it was fine since one could never be strong enough, thus he was willing to train no matter what.
And even if he wasn’t – already the fact that the Qi up here was pure and rich, and was incredibly easy to absorb would have been enough reason to stay, but after practicing for a while, he noticed peculiar changes within. During the time Leo cultivated here he noticed his dark purple core getting brighter and more pleasant to ‘look at’ and realized there might be a real hope for him to one day transform it into a golden core after all.
Motivated by the thought he didn’t mind the lack of attention during the day and diligently cultivated, in the late evening did his pleasant chore as a husband and then soundly slept through the night. This way eleven days flew by in an iffy, except there was one serious downside to the leisure lifestyle … the crying.
It was probably Leo’s third or fourth night staying on the mountain when he suddenly woke up to someone’s soft sobs. Obviously there was only one person around that came to mind, but no matter how much Leo wrecked his brains, he couldn’t think of a reason.
He was being friendly towards her and dutifully did her every night according to her orders. During the day she was the one who ignored him therefore the fault definitely wasn’t his. It was unlikely the regular dryads upset Izel so much she had to cry – after all she was the high dryad and everyone called her ‘master’ around here. If anything, she would be the one to bully the rest and not the other way around.
In the end Leo decided to blame everything on his own bad luck. First Maya with her unreasonable nightly requests and now the moody Izel. For some reason the Greenland women he met were all weird. He had spent quite some time in the Dryad mountain city and almost never heard anyone cry and if there was such occasion it happened when a person was injured and cried because of physical pain. But for some reason he always managed to land up with moody crybabies ...
On the evening of the twelfth day Leo was left waiting at the sacred pond alone. He spent half the night staring at the pavilion, looking for signs of life, but in the end gave up and meditated till the sunrise. During the next day Izel did show up, but as always she didn’t pay any attention to him and in the evening didn’t come out again.
After four lonely nights went by Leo began to wonder if he should take it as a sign for being unwelcomed and leave, but then she showed up again only to confuse the youth even more.
Before the signature ‘Do your thing!’ she said, “The stuff you give me … the fluids … are too poor!”
It clearly sounded like an insult and any man would become upset in an instant, but since Leo was already questioning his own behavior for almost half a month, Izel’s words made him think. Luckily he didn’t have too much time to contemplate and had to fulfill the husband’s duties, and the only solution that came to mind was to try to release some amount of Qi along with the other stuff. Of course, Leo had to pay attention to not discharge any lightning, otherwise not only he could burn and paralyze the high dryad, but hurt the ‘little Leo’ as well.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
The result stupefied them both. While the process itself was as short and dull as always, Izel yelped in surprise, suddenly feeling a wave of pleasant heat washing over her and for the first time actually enjoyed the brief moment of closeness.
Leo, on the other hand, couldn’t explain how he felt even if he wanted to. If normally there were only few pleasant convulsions, then for some reason the release of Qi resonated in his core and for an instant it sent ecstatic sensations to every cell of his body. The downside was … a heartbeat later he was already deep asleep.
Once again Izel didn’t know what to think. For a split moment she caught a glimpse of happiness, or maybe it was only an illusion, but it gave the feeling that even if the man she chose was a complete dumbo, there could actually be something more about him. Of course, the fact that he immediately passed out ruined everything and after withholding a kick in his smug sleeping face, she went inside the pavilion. That night she didn’t cry though.
In a blink of an aye another dozen days passed by. Leo continued to cultivate during the day, but in the evening had a bit of fun doing the ‘regular chore’. He kept increasing the amount of Qi discharged in the process, but even though the sensations became increasingly pleasant, the haughty madam seemed to become more distant by a day.
It would’ve been one thing if they were strangers or simply neighbors, but for a married couple to barely communicate and for the most used phrase to be ‘Do your thing!’ was not fine! Even though it was long time ago, Leo remembered Lyam to be nice to all of his mothers and they in return were similarly loving and polite. In comparison to his father’s, Leo’s own relationship turned out to be a complete disaster.
In the end, Leo couldn’t take it anymore.
“You know, with how cold you have been to me – for the last few days I’ve been contemplating of taking the moonstone and leave.” Leo honestly said one morning.
When he saw the full moon last night he realized it has been a whole moth since he came up the mountain, but apart from the short, pleasant experience at night which already became a routine, the stay here was rather unpleasant. Of course, sunrises and sunsets were still beautiful, but after witnessing them a dozen times he stopped noticing the beauty of the nature. Instead he felt cold within from the local madam’s attitude despite the weather being rather warm.
“Good!” Izel said, “I was just about to suggest that. With the last night’s full moon you finally succeeded and I don’t need you anymore. Take the moonstone, if you wish, and go!”
‘What? Succeeded? Don’t need me?’ Leo was baffled by her words, ‘What exactly she needed me all this time for? It’s clear she doesn’t like me, but since when did she ‘need’ me?’
“You know I can’t take the thing.” Even though he couldn’t read this woman one bit, he didn’t want to hurt her or steal from her – especially a priceless treasure, “You need it to cleanse the next high dryad and who knows when another moonstone will appear.”
“Don’t you worry about that.” She said with a sad smile putting both palms on her belly, “The next high dryad will be fine – she has been cleansed already. And the moonstone … will be born soon enough. Go! We’ll never see each other again!”
“Oh? Is she below with the old dryads? Can I meet her?” Leo actually got curious.
While it didn’t matter much personally to him, the high dryad was a big deal to locals. He spent the past month up on the mountain and he kind of regretted he missed the process how the next leader of the tribe was chosen. Just like the strange matrimonial ceremony, it would’ve been an interesting cultural experience.
“I’m sorry, you’ll never meet her.” Izel coldly said and turned around to leave, but Leo could swear there were tears in her eyes.
Her crying wasn’t anything new so it didn’t bother him too much and since he hadn’t done anything wrong his best guess was that the process of choosing the next high dryad didn’t go as planned and the current one was upset about it.
“Too bad.” Leo sighed.
He couldn’t explain why, he suddenly felt sad for not being able to see the little girl. Obviously it didn’t make any sense, but with such prolonged conversation with Izel he was already walking on a thin ice, thus he chose to not pry.
Suddenly he got an idea and took out another Divine tribulation tree fruit from the amulet. Somehow it felt it would’ve been more proper to give it directly to the next high dryad, but since Izel was already sending him away, there was not much he could do.
“Then I’ll ask you for a favor.” He said, “Could you pass this thing to her? You ate one so you know it’s sweet and a child will definitely like it.”
Izel’s shoulders trembled as she stopped in her tracks. For a moment it seemed as if she was taking deep breaths for some reason.
Then she turned around, took the fruit and said with a plain expression, “Where did you …. alright! Now take the moonstone and go!”
“Are you sure? That thing …” Leo began to say, but got interrupted.
“’That thing’ is good for two uses at best. And the moment you’ll take it away from here, it’ll turn into dust. The mist below is too toxic” Izel said.
“Wasn’t it supposed to turn into a toxic stone instead?” Leo was confused.
“You’re talking about the poison pearl.” He got a haughty explanation, “It is incredibly rare natural oddity, but the moonstone is a unique wonder that is only born in the sacred pool … but you don’t need to know the details since it’ll be ruined the moment you leave anyway.”
“Don’t you worry about that.” Leo smiled back, imitating her intonation from earlier, “I have my ways!”
‘Sure, you do!’ Izel looked at him dashing inside the pavilion and running out already dressed in tree bark clothing he got from who knows where. He arrived naked and had to leave that way, but for some reason things magically kept appearing around him. During the last month she had observed him magically summon water bottles and food while he thought he was alone. And just a moment ago the same was with the beautiful purple fruit, and not the clothing …
“Itzel … your father … is an idiot!” Izel whispered to herself.
Tears filled her eyes seeing Leo jogging towards the trail, but then he suddenly turned back darted over and … embraced her in a tight hug.
‘Was that so hard?’ Was all Izel could think of after she was left alone on the mountain top.