Wind Rider (Return of the Dragons 2)

I felt myself moving, and then I was ou

tside, in the air, the sap absorbing into my lungs, my mouth filling with air again. I coughed once and gasped, blinked in the sunlight. I looked down at my hands and saw the sword in my right and a light brown shield in my left. Something light and hard pressed against my chest. My sword went back in its scabbard.

Around me I could feel every branch of the tree, the life in every leaf. Down on the forest floor the shrubs, the plants and the smaller trees raised their voices together in song. I could feel the life in every plant, the potential for growth in every seed. A tear welled up in my right eye and fell, hitting the branch below me. I looked down. There where my tear had fallen the dark bark turned green, and from it burst forth a new branch, and I reached out and touched it and heard the last words of the tree mother: Go forth now, Anders. Your group awaits you as the Dark Lord gathers his forces.

I caressed the new branch one last time. Then I walked down the tree. A group of tree folk who had gathered to watch — perhaps to see if I emerged alive and whole — parted as I approached, and whispered together words that I could understand now. “Farewell, tree friend.”

Then I felt Ulrike’s hand on my shoulder. When I turned and stared at her, it was as if I were seeing her for the first time. She no longer looked transparent. I wondered at her green beauty. I stared at her for so long without blinking that her face turned red and she turned away. I stopped you so you could wave farewell and bless the tree-folk and their tree mother, not so you could stare at me, tree-friend.

I stare at you because my eyes have been opened. Your beauty is blinding.

Enough. Bless them and let us move onward.

I nodded and the words bubbled up from my mouth before I had time to reflect on them, on what it all meant. To me it was just melodious sing-song, tree-folk speech, and I did not listen to the words. Later I would wish I had, for a blessing is always a blessing.

I was transfixed by her beauty until she touched me once more on the shoulder. My shoulder tingled, but I stopped staring and I listened. She told me in tree-folk speech: “Later, if you want, we can talk. Now the sap speaks in you. Let us go down and meet the rest of our party, before they begin to worry.”

Tree-sap or blood, I did not know what made it so hard for me to stop staring at her. But I touched my sword, and felt energy and a message rise up from Carolina. Get going, Anders!

I walked then down behind Ulrike. The song of the tree that surrounded me and the running sap faded to a dull roar, and I felt my head clear a little bit. The bright plant life that surrounded my companions was blinding. But the plant energy was not just around my friends, it was in them — we had all been marked by the tree mother. As my eyes calmed, I tried to look only with my two outer eyes but it was no use. Everything was bright with aura and the inner eye would not close.

My companions came forward to look at me and touch the shield that I carried still in my hand. Kara fashioned silently for me a kind of sling, so I could put it on my back. I had difficulty focusing my vision. Although Kara glowed when I looked at her she was nothing compared to Ulrike and her cousins, who glowed liked beacons. “It’s too much,” I said at last, and by the look of Elias and Woltan, I realized I must be speaking in Tree-tongue.

Ulrike spoke to me then in the same language. “I will try to help calm your sap and your inner eye, Anders. But then you must focus on the tasks at hand, which are many.”

I nodded.

I wanted to grab her and pull her to me, to squeeze her in my arms. But she was grabbing my head, and pulling my head to her lips, and she kissed me, not on the lips, but on my forehead, in the very center, where my inner eye was blinding me. With my inner eye I saw her lips come to me, as she spoke a word: beruhigen. Then I saw no more — the eye was closed.

I had difficulty letting her go, and the whole thing later was very embarrassing.

Kara slapped me gently on the cheek. I looked at her and saw her as I had before the sap had run through me. I let Ulrike go, then, and she pushed away. The cousins were smiling at us, and everyone else looking confused or amused.

I realized that Ulrike had not closed my inner eye but only calmed it. I could still see everyone’s auras, and the plant life that glowed all around me. I could see now and think more clearly, and I realized I could open the eye fully later, when needed. Perhaps later someone would teach me to open and close it at will.

So it is with our people when they convene with the tree mother. Anders is the first male for many years, but I remember much of the same feeling when I was chosen, last year.

I thought I could see Kara’s face soften a little, once she heard Ulrike’s thoughts, but she still seemed to scowl a little bit, although everyone else seemed to find it amusing.

Elias especially seemed in good cheer. You’d best shield your thoughts for awhile, Anders. You’re likely to make one of those two women angry, otherwise. Remember strong emotions leak more.

I did feel embarrassed then. I had forgotten to renew my orange sphere of protection. When I reimagined it, I saw a leaky dirty brown sphere, little larger than my head, with cracks in it, from which thoughts came out. I remade it larger, strong and brilliant orange, and doubled it on the inside. And then I remembered to make it receptive to friendly thoughts but not to intrusions.

Elias smiled. Wow, Anders, the earth mother must have strengthened you a bit. I don’t think anyone could pound their way through that.

VII

Ulrike’s sisters came to say goodbye, and her Aunt was there to bid farewell to her cousins, loading the twins and Ulrike and me with provisions for the next few days journey. Cullen, Woltan, Elias, and Kara had all been outfitted as well.

Erik was there to hug his daughter, and his nephews. Then he hugged Hans Arboris, and gave him a great staff of living wood, at least six feet long, that the Tree Mother herself had made for him. Hans started to weep, and he reached out and hugged the trunk of the tree mother and her branches shuddered. I heard a great groan that hurt me deep inside.

Then, at last, we were walking, and Hans Arboris led us. The mossy road felt soft under my feet, and I could feel the energy in the moss underneath. It was growing increasingly dark, but the rain was gone, as if either nature or the dark lord had decided to storm elsewhere. I walked in the back with Woltan and Kara. In front of us walked Elias and the smith, in front of them Ulrike with her twin cousins on either side, following Hans.

Woltan whispered then. “We can all see the plants, can’t we? Even the moss on the road beneath us lights the way.”

I nodded. “It blinded and deafened me at first. I expect Hans and Ulrike have similar gifts.”

The smith spoke then. “I am surely the least magical here, sire. But I can see the path as if it was painted with fireflies. Like this we can walk all night.”