After a certain point, Willow had to be blindfolded, which Willow thought was dumb. After all, what would she be, a spy?

“We’re here. And if you tell anyone about this, I will personally hunt you down and murder you and the person you told.” Unknown name said, taking off the blindfold.

“That can't be legal.” Willow did not know what to expect, but certainly not this. It was a tree. Their hideout was a TREE. What the-

“I guess you’re right, but you won’t tell. Yes, I know this is a tree, but you’ll see why.” She did some complicated stuff which consisted of knocking and banging. “There we go! We should be in in a second.”

A couple minutes passed. “A second, eh?”

“Oh come on, you can’t blame me for that.”

“Yes, yes I can. Did you do it wrong?”

She looked offended. “Me, the leader of this thing, would not do it wrong!”

A few more minutes passed. “Fine. Maybe I did it wrong.” She repeated the sequence and changed a few things. A piece of wood resembling a door opened up almost immediately. Willow smothered a snicker.

Ms. No-name shot her a glare. “If you tell anyone I will be very mad at you. Now, come on.”

“Alright, all right.”

“Hey, C! We’re here!”

“Okay, closing, boss!” An gruff, invisible voice replied.

Their hideout was massive, despite the fact it was in a tree.

She rolled her eyes. “Anyways, we better add you to The Book.”

“The Book? What is that?”

“The Book is a journal where we keep every member's (past or present) name or nickname! That way, if they” she visibly cringed, “betray us, we will know their name! Also, it helps us know who we are with.”

“Makes sense.”

Knock, knock, KNOCK. Willow heard come from the door.

Ms. Unknown peeks through a small peephole. “Random stranger,” she mutters. “I wonder what they know.”

“Hello. I am here because I saw your poster and sort of realized it was true?” The stranger said, probably not meaning it as a question.

Willow cocked her head at the leader. “You told me you would kill me if I told anyone, but you have POSTERS?!”

Ms. Unknown blushes. “Come in.” She said skepticaly.

A blonde girl wearing a shy smile waves to us. “Hi.”

Ms. Unknown sighed, shaking her head, muttering, “Two new people account for! Isn’t this a day.” She shook her head and walked to an indented part of the place.

She scrawled the names in The Book and then gestured for them to explore the place. Willow hadn’t gotten a chance to really look around, so she took the time to see what it looked like.

It had what felt like hundreds of thousands of books lining the walls, and some chairs with a few books, all of which had notes or paper somewhere nearby.

The floor had a ginormous rug that covered the whole place.

“What is your name?” Willow queried the new person. “I haven’t seen you in school anywhere.”

“My name is L-Lily. What is your name?”

“My name is Willow!” Willow said with more energy because she could tell the new girl - Lily - was nervous.

“Pleased to meet you, Willow.”

Willow noticed Lily was writing in a journal. “What are you writing about?”

Sapphire closed and pulled the book away before Willow could get a good look at it. “N-nothing!”

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

“Please can I see?”

“No! A-and that’s final!” She took a quick glance around the room before stomping out.

I wonder what that was about, I never did anything! And now, she doesn’t have a good impression of me! Willow sighed.

Willow followed her, but the girl was too fast, and the girl was gone.

She headed back to her dorm and saw beautiful aqua leaves in the window of her relatively drab room. What? She thought, walking over. She heaved open the window for a clearer view. Sure enough, there was a massive aqua tree, just about 60 feet away from the nearest building, with its aqua leaves dancing in the wind.

The leaves enveloped the tree, looking like an umbrella. As she was on the first floor, Willow dove through the window, and awkwardly speed-walked to the tree.

When she arrived, she pushed through the leaves, and it felt like her own little hideout! Well, it wasn’t little, but it was still a hideout!

The leaves mostly protected her from the wind outside, meaning it felt homey. She sat on the thin, soft grass next to the trunk and leaned her head against the wood. It was soothing in there, with the leaves around her, and just her.

She started humming a tuneless song and soon forgot about all her worries.

The evening sky eventually got dark, like all things do, so Willow stood up, pushed open the leaves, and ran back to her dorm.

By the time she got back, it was already dark. She hopped back inside, feeling better than she had felt then she had in her whole life. That tree was life-changing.

The next morning when she woke up, had her breakfast, and skipped happily to school.

“You’re in a good mood,” Grey commented, startling her. Willow stopped, turned around, and blushed.

“Well, yeah, I guess.”

“Why?”

“I… Don’t know!”

“How do you not know?”

“We better get to class.”

“Yeah… This isn’t over!”

They entered their class, where the current subject was ‘What to do with the egg when the dragon hatches?’

In the extra time after the lesson, Willow and her class check on their eggs, and maybe check the other dragons out. Willow checked on her egg. Still the same color, aquamarine and coral, except maybe it was a bit more transparent, not translucent yet, though.

Maybe that means it is closer to hatching! Willow thought with a smile.

“Mine’s hatching! It’s hatching!” A voice yelled excitedly. Willow turned towards the noise. It was a short brown-haired boy with a pale green egg. Sure enough, the egg was shaking, and everyone was so deathly quiet, the crack was the equivalent of an explosion as the green dragon burst out of the egg and looked directly at his owner! Everyone clapped!

The boy looked at everyone with a wolfish grin. “I’m gonna call him grass!” Everyone recoiled. He laughed. “I’m just kidding! I’m calling him..” He looked closely at the baby. “Emerald.” Everybody nodded, accepting the name.

“It’s better than Grass,” A few people said. The other children dispersed, and the teacher told the boy, “You can now bond with your dragon and take care of it. Today you can take off classes.”

“Yes!” He skipped away with Emerald in his arms.

Willow felt good for the boy, yes, but also kind of jealous. She wished her dragon would hatch. Again, she wondered what her dragon would look like.

At the end of the day, Willow watched Lily to see what dorm she had, so she could talk to her and apologize for making her mad. Instead of Lily going to a dorm, she went the opposite way of the dorms, towards the forest next to the school, something she hadn’t paid much attention to.

What’s over there? Willow said, glancing at the forest, populated with tall redwood trees. It’s been a while since I have seen redwood trees. And my home. When will I go home?

She turned toward her dorm, thinking she should tell Ms. Unknown.

She arrived at her dorm, a bit earlier than her dormmates, and went into the fifth person’s room.

“Yes?” Ms. Unknown said when Willow entered.

“You know that other person?”

“Yeah, Lily, wasn’t it?”

“Come to think of it, how did you know her name?”

“That is for another time and off-topic.”

“Right. When we left school, I saw her go into the redwood forest next to the school, not to a dorm.”

Ms. Unknown paused, as if gathering her thoughts before replying, “Go see where that forest goes, would you? I want to know before making any decisions.”

“Okay.” Willow said, angling for the door before pausing. “Have you ever been to the big pink tree behind our dorm and the school?”

“Mhm, what about it?”

“What kind of tree is it?”

She smiled. “A willow tree.”

“Is that why it soothed me, because it has the same name as me?”

“I don’t think so, it calmed me down too.”

“Thank you, see you in a bit!” Willow walked out of the room.

“Excuse me?” Amber said as Willow stepped out of Ms. Unknown’s room, “What were you doing in there?”

“Talking to her.”

“How do you know her?”

“No idea, but I’ve got to go!” Willow sprinted to the door and was out before anyone could say another word.

She sprinted to the redwood forest, looking for signs of Lily passing through. Luckily, she didn’t seem to think anyone was following her, and left an obvious trail.

She followed the trail all the way to… the palace?