* * * * *
In the safety of the enchanted forest Oraden stopped to allow his passengers to dismount. They immediately headed for the river to quench their thirst. The sprites, after all their screaming, were just as thirsty as Tahir and Oraden. They sat along the riverbank gulping the cool water and talking about their narrow escape. Tahir took his shoes off and dangled his feet in the current.
“That was close. Do you think she will follow us in here?” Figg asked.
“No, we should be safe now.” Meelix answered. “I do suggest we stay out of the desert for a while.”
“I’ve learned my lesson today,” Tahir said. “Diamond told me that curiosity can get you into a lot of trouble. We could have all been killed.”
“But we weren’t and we didn’t do anything wrong,” Sudlin explained. “We were just going for a walk. We didn’t look for trouble.”
“Yeah, but how is it that trouble always seems to find us?” Tahir pondered.
“Not always. It was an adventure though, wasn’t it?”
They laughed and listened to the story retold from each others’ perspective. The sprites described how frightening it was to hold on to Oraden while he was invisible. They knew he was still there; they could feel his muscles underneath them and the coarse hairs of his mane in their hands.
Abruptly, the sandy turf began to heave. Beneath the surface, something barreled toward them. Tahir jolted to his feet and staggered back. The ground cracked open and a gnarled hand made from a tree-trunk emerged and slapped the boy to the ground.
Nayani!
Uh oh.
Vines shot out and ensnared Oraden; the unicorn kicked but was quickly entangled until he couldn’t move. Cages of leaves and branches captured Meelix and each of the sprites.
“We’re sorry! We’re sorry!” The sprites shrieked.
The tree-woman rapidly emerged from the soil. One by one branches thick with leaves stretched out and reached for the sky.
“Foolish sprites! Do you have any idea of the danger you put yourselves in?”
Tahir was amazed at the sight. He found himself in the clutches of a tree-women; too frightened to even struggle against her branches. He remained in awe of her voice; so soft and yet menacing at the same time. She moved like a dancer. Her leafy hair swayed in the breeze like palm fronds. Her giant branch-like hand squeezed tightly and lifted him off the ground.
“Were it not for Alexander, you’d all be in the clutches of the Brotherhood. The boy is ignorant, but you sprites know better.” she hissed. “I cannot protect you if you don’t stay within my realm.” She tightened her grip on them all; the cages shrank, threatening to crush the tiny people. The vines around Oraden’s neck squeezed until he could barely breathe.
“Oraden, how many times must you be warned not to leave the protective barriers?” Do you believe invisibility and invincibility are the same? Your disobedience may one day cost more than you and your friends can pay.”
“We’re sorry, Nayani!”
“We didn’t know!”
“We won’t do it again!”
The sprites cried and begged while she lifted the cages high into air and spun them in a whirlwind of increasing velocity.
“You’ve done nothing but work against us, sprites! Why should I give you another chance?”
“Stop it!” Tahir shouted. “They didn’t do anything wrong!”
“Human arrogance! What makes you think you can command a dryad in matters of which you know nothing?”
“They’re my friends!” Tahir said through gritted teeth. “That’s all I need to know!”
“As you wish, Tahir.” she gently lowered the cages to the ground. “I will release you all. But know this, Tahir; we are at war, and the enemy is powerful. Be careful who you call friend. She glared at the little sprites. “Even friends can unwittingly bring about your demise.”
The cages opened and the vines that bound Oraden released their grip and shriveled away. She slowly set Tahir down gently.
“Heed my warning. Stay out of the desert. There are powers at work that you do not yet understand.” She spun in a strange dance and shriveled back into the sand. Her words echoed over them even after she disappeared.
“What was that?” Tahir asked, rubbing his chest. “And what war? Who is Alexander she was talking about?”
“Oh that’s just Nayani,” Sudlin explained. “She’s always going on about wars and danger and things like that.”
“She’s always so dramatic!” Bennie threw his hands in the air in disgust.
“So, is she good or bad, because that was really confusing?”
“She’s good,” Oraden jumped in. “Dryads are guardians of nature with very powerful magic. She’s the one that guards Elysi and keeps it hidden from predators. She decides who can enter and who cannot. I’ve heard she can even move all of Elysi if she needs to. I’ve never seen her like that before, she’s usually really nice.”
“Maybe to you.” Bennie said as he stooped to pick up the pieces of dried fruit that fell from his pockets during his spin with Nayani. “She’s always mad at us for some reason.”
“And you have no idea why?” Tahir asked.
“Probably because we don’t want to help with their stupid war. They’ve been at war since the beginning, and it never ends! Why should we bother with it?”
“What’s the war about?” Tahir asked.
“Who knows, it’s been so long.” Sudlin said with a wave of his hand.
“I never heard of a magical war.” Tahir scratched his head.
“That’s because it’s a secret war between a handful of wizards. The whole thing is silly.”
“Yeah, don’t worry about it Tahir.”
“Right. I’ve heard that before.” Tahir rolled his eyes.
Tahir stood up and started throwing rocks into the river; the sprites joined him. Of course their rocks didn’t go nearly as far as his, but that didn’t stop them from making a game of whose rocks traveled the farthest.
“Let’s make this fair.” Tahir said, lifting a large rock.
“You’re not going to score anything with that one.” Meelix pointed out.
Tahir heaved the rock; but rather than making a splash, it only made a thud. To their surprise, Jeverre’s massive head popped out of the water.
“Will there always be danger when we meet?” he sputtered.
“Hey, Jeverre! How did you find us?” Tahir asked, as he and the sprites jumped up and down.
“I went to where I met you before, and some of your friends told me that you were taking a walk along the river bank to look for me. So I decided to back track.” Jeverre explained as he swam closer to the bank.
“We waited most of the morning before we decided to go looking for you. That was a big mistake,” Meelix said.
“Look Jeverre, this is my friend Oraden. I told you about him yesterday. He’s the one that brought me to Elysi.”
“Hi, Oraden.”
“Hi, Jeverre. Tahir told me about you yesterday too, but I only half believed him. I wasn’t aware of any Dracara around here before.”
“See Oraden, I told you Jeverre was real. I can understand Roddy not believing me, but you?”
“So beat me with your slingshot,” Oraden joked.
They all laughed and teased Tahir about how he used his slingshot to beat off their attacker. They told Jeverre how they once again had to flee the fangs of an angry predator.
“You guys like to live dangerously,” Jeverre laughed. “I don’t think I’d be so brave if I were so small.”
“It wasn’t our fault this time!”
“We’re not small, you’re just big!”
Jeverre laughed at his small friends. When he waded onto the shore, his gargantuan, clawed flippers slapped the sand. He stretched his long body out and basked in the sun. None of them actually saw his entire body before, just his head and long neck periscoping from the water. Oraden cantered along the full length of his body.
“Wow, Jeverre! You’re a giant!” he exclaimed as he circled back and jumped over the Dracara’s tail. “How could something so big be in this river without me ever knowing it?”
“I don’t usually come around here much,” Jeverre explained, “but lately I’ve been seeing mers up this way, so I figured if it is safe for them, it was safe for me too.”
“That’s right! You were supposed to take us to look for mers today,” Tahir remembered.
“Uh, there’s been a change of plans.”
“Why? What’s the matter?” Sudlin asked.
“Nothings wrong. It’s just that something happened on the way here this morning. That was why I was so late.”
“So tell us, what happened?” the sprites all asked at once.
“Well, I realized there was no real way to bring you to the mers. But I thought, maybe I could find them and bring them to you. So I went looking for them. But when I couldn’t find them, I got an idea.” Jeverre’s face lit up as he excitedly spoke. “While I was looking, I came across some humans in this floating contraption. I think they called it a boat. If you guys had a boat, you could go wherever I go!”
“A boat!” Tahir exclaimed. “Yes, I know about boats. I’ve never been in one, but that would be perfect! Meelix do you think the gnomes would help us build one?”
Meelix rubbed his head as he thought about it. “It’s hard to build something that you’ve never seen. Is it like a tree-house that floats?”
“I don’t know what a tree-house is, but a boat is just something that will float and move along in the water,” Jeverre explained.
“Actually, it is kind of like a tree-house,” Tahir explained. “The only difference is the shape and that it is able to move on its own.”
“I’m sure we could build it, but I don’t know how to make it float or move on its own.”
“The gnomes wouldn’t want to help us build something that serves only as entertainment,” Bennie pointed out.
“You’re right. We’d have to convince them that there was something advantageous about building the boat. But what could that be?”
“Maybe it doesn’t have to be able to move. Jeverre could probably pull it along with us in it. Then it would only have to be able to float,” Oraden suggested.
Sudlin turned to Jeverre excitedly. “Oh! What about our baskets? “We’ve got these baskets that we use to haul supplies up to our tree house. We could make a bigger one, large enough for all of us to fit into. We would make any alterations necessary to make sure it floats. That should be easy enough. Then all we would need is enough rope to tie around Jeverre so he could pull us. What do you think?”
“It sounds like the beginning of a very good plan.” Meelix said, contemplating the idea.
“What if we made the basket to fit onto Jeverre’s back? That way instead of pulling us, he’d be carrying us. With him carrying us, it wouldn’t matter if the basket could float or not,” Tahir suggested.
“Yes, I like that even better,” Jeverre agreed. “I have seen what happens when boats tip over in the water. The humans don’t usually survive very long. But if you make a harness of sorts, tight enough and secure enough, you wouldn’t have to worry about it tipping over or floating.”
“So our only problem now, is to figure out how to get the gnomes to help us.”
Meelix scratched his head in thought, “I’ll figure that part out. I’m sure there are plenty of ways that being able to travel over the water would be useful to them.”
The sprites were beside themselves with glee. They held hands skipping in circles while singing,
Useful!
Useful!
A boat would be useful!