Javorora’s tree was about a mile from Kaitlyn’s hut. It was truly a beautiful behemoth of a tree, even in a forest of massive trees. It dominated the area around its roots. When Kaitlyn visited the first time, she was taken on a tour around the tree by her dryad friend.

The tree itself was large enough that four people could stand around the narrowest part of the truck and might be able to touch fingers. It wasn’t the tallest tree, but the branches spread out to keep the bulk of the tree clear for sun.

Javorora could enter and leave the tree like it was air. She flitted in and out of the bark, showing off the birds’ nests one moment and then some mushrooms around the tree’s roots another moment. Fapallo had joined the pair on this visit, but disappeared soon after they arrived.

“Come in, come in,” Javorora said, tugging on Kaitlyn’s hand.

“In?” Kaitlyn asked.

“Yes, I want you to see my house,” the dryad gently tugged and Kaitlyn let herself be led to the trunk of the tree. Kaitlyn looked over her shoulder and saw a thin line of smoke above the trees.

Javorora put a hand on the trunk of the tree and disappeared. An instant later, Kaitlyn found herself in a pretty little space, something between a sitting room and a dining room. The floors, walls, and ceiling were all wood, but instead of boards, it was like the grains of wood formed to almost-straight lines. It made Kaitlyn slightly dizzy if she stared at it.

They went out the “back door” and stepped out onto one of the branches high in the tree. Kaitlyn gasped and for a moment struggled to balance. Javorora caught her wrist and said, “Calm down, I won’t let you fall.”

“We didn’t…. we didn’t go up,” Kaitlyn said quietly.

“The doors in my tree go where I want them to go,” Javorora said, “that door technically goes to my bedroom and my dungeon.”

“Dungeon?” Kaitlyn stared at her friend in horror.

Javorora laughed and crinkled her nose, “Not really a dungeon, but I do have a spot in the roots where I have put people who tried to hurt us before.”

“Who would try to hurt you?” Kaitlyn asked.

“Well, there was a banshee,” Javorora said, “that one was probably the most dangerous. I think she might have wanted to eat some magic, but dryads don’t work like that. I think humans are the most common.”

“Humans?” Kaitlyn looked at her friend.

Javorora smiled and said, “Monster hunters occasionally try to take dryad branches. It isn’t wise. I leave them in my little dungeon for a few days until I can get someone to remove them from my premises. I’m a very good client of Master Garthis’s in this way.”

“Client?” Kaitlyn was surprised.

“Oh yeah, I give him leaves or find rare herbs for him and he helps me out sometimes with that sort of thing,” Javorora said. “Come on, I want you to see this.”

Javorora led Kaitlyn across the branch until they reached a branching of the huge bough. There, nestled between the two smaller branches looked like a fruit. It was about the size of a small melon. Javorora said, “The last human merchants I met were very nice. This will be my daughter.”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“Oh wow,” Kaitlyn said, sitting down to straddle the branch and look closer. It looked like a carving of a human about the size of her hand. “When will she be born.”

Javorora tilted her head and counted with her fingers. She then said, “Another…. three years probably.”

“Three years?” Kaitlyn exclaimed.

“Dryads must grow on their mother for nearly ten years before they are ready to bud,” Javorora said, “she will stay near me another four or five years and then go and seek out her own bond tree. This will be my third daughter.”

Kaitlyn looked at her friend. She sometimes forgot the creature who looked like a little girl was much older than she appeared, or acted. The dryad grinned as she looked at her human friend, “You know, you could aim to have a daughter so they could grow up together. You’d need to get started soon though.”

Kaitlyn gave her friend a bland expression and said, “Yes, because I have so many suitors.”

“You don’t need a suitor silly,” Javorora said, “just get Master Garthis to scry for some traveling merchants.”

“Are they common?” Kaitlyn asked. She felt she should know something like that, since her own travels through these woods were on the premise of traveling merchants. That had been the reason Claus had come to her town in the first place.

“They used to be,” Javorora said, “Something has happened among the humans and they don’t pass through our forest as often. Master Garthis keeps better track than I do. I think he said something about the kingdoms fighting.”

“I mean, I know there was a border war about a hundred years ago, but that was a hundred years,” Kaitlyn said, “the third princess even came and married the prince. But she’s now the queen mother, probably grandmother now. Before I left home the prince was already married.”

“Like I said,” Javorora said, “I don’t really know. All I know, is that there used to be a good set of traders that passed through and they are gone now. The ones who come now try to get through the woods as fast as possible, they even re-cut the road and built a stone bridge to avoid this part of the forest.”

“It’s probably a good thing,” Kaitlyn said as she looked up through the leaves, “I don’t know if I’m ready to meet new people yet.”

“Why not?” Javorora asked.

Kaitlyn paused and then admitted, “I don’t know who I am.”

“You are a witch!”

“Thanks. But I’m not old,” Kaitlyn said, “and I don’t know very much yet. Javorora, I can barely control my magic and if I stay away from my hut too long I’d probably die.”

Javorora flitted into her tree and reappeared behind Kaitlyn, wrapping her arms around the human, “You’ll figure it out.”

“I’m trying,” Kaitlyn said, letting the tears slide down her cheeks. “But I’m scared. I’m scared all the time.”

Javorora listened as Kaitlyn spoke, holding the human girl with silent support while Kaitlyn cried. Javorora listened as Kaitlyn listed the many things she missed from home – not the least her family.

“My mother….” Kaitlyn said, looking at the dryad daughter growing in Javorora’s branches, “is the most amazing woman. She can sing. She has the most beautiful voice in the whole town, and she sings all the time. Seriously, all the time. She’ll sing the recipe as she cooks. She’ll sing while she washes the laundry. I think if people wouldn’t laugh at her, she wouldn’t ever bother speaking. Everything would be in song.”

Javorora grinned and said, “You sure you aren’t part siren?”

“My mother might be,” Kaitlyn laughed, “most of the rest of us can barely carry a tune and my older brother is deaf as nail to music. “

“An older brother, eh?” Javorora said teasingly.

“Yeah, Fikri and Theobald,” Kaitlyn said. “Fikri is the one who can’t sing. Theobald can, but he doesn’t do it very often.”

“You miss them,” Javorora said, “if there were more merchants, maybe you could get mail from them.”

“Maybe,” Kaitlyn said, “I don’t know what I would tell them. Oh hi Mother and Father, I have been cursed. That man I thought I fell in love with beat me and nearly killed me so he could murder a unicorn. Then a unicorn who has killed hundreds or thousands of people lay a curse on me. Don’t forget I’m a witch now! All my love to Fikri, Theobald and Adeliz.”

“Is Adeliz a cat?”

Kaitlyn laughed and said, “No! She’s my little sister. She’s two years younger than I am.”

More tears fell and Kaitlyn turned to Javorora and said, “You would adore her. She is so talented.”

“I adore you,” Javorora said softly, “you are also talented.”

Kaitlyn didn’t reply, instead she turned and buried her face against the dryad’s shoulder. Kaitlyn wasn’t even aware when Javorora moved them from the branch back to one of the roots on the ground. The moss on the root was soft and comfortable. They sat for a long time in the quiet under the canopy. When the pain began to set in, Kaitlyn forced herself to walk back to the hut.