Rest in Peace, page 21

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Bark peeled away from a part of the trunk as a face pushed its way from the tree. The dryad’s head and upper body fully emerged, drawing mossy hair behind it. Vines and flowers sprung from the vibrant green hair that clung to the trunk.

Charsen, now less preoccupied with his rage, looked at the tree spirit’s hair with a perplexed look on his face. He turned from the others and opened his silver locket to affirm the similarity between Elaana’s cut hair and the dryad’s form. His finger ran along a tiny, unwilted golden flower curiously before he closed the locket and looked back at the dryad.

“Is that… your hair?” Charsen’s hand dropped from the locket and moved to gently touch the moss that draped between the dryad’s head and the tree trunk. His words were childish to the creature, no doubt, but he was mystified.

The tree spirit’s eyes looked over Charsen and then turned back to Elaana. “You should go back to your home now,” she whispered directly to Elaana as she melded back into the tree trunk.

An explanation was not offered, and so the troupe returned through the labyrinthine hedge, passed the overgrown hole that spied upon the empty tower earlier. Reynard and Elaana pulled apart a section of the hedge and pulled the others through, back to the town of Dinal.

They buried the rest of the bodies together and returned to Teufeldorf the next day.

Turn back a page.

25 March 08