Eerie by Gibson Michaels

Author:Gibson Michaels [Michaels, Gibson & Michaels, Gibson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Artistic Origins
Published: 2021-09-07T04:00:00+00:00

The Haunted Forest

Mid-August, 81 A.D.

* * *

Aryn did exactly as Lomar suggested, feeding both himself and Frisky in preparation for their long trip back to his cave. He and the grumpy 12-foot pixie, hidden behind the ring of lilac bushes, held a quiet conversation while he worked, as it helped to help keep her awake. He wasn’t exactly sure whether a pixie that had taken a nasty bump on her noggin might be susceptible to the same kind of sleeping sickness that sometimes-afflicted humans, but it didn’t hurt anything to take precautions.

He checked the level of water remaining in his canteens and wondered whether there was enough left for them both. Just as he determined there wasn’t, and decided to give all there was to his horse, a three-foot water sprite popped into existence nearby. She was almost transparent, with the fluid features of her element. It was a bit difficult to understand her when she spoke, as her voice gurgled like the sound of a babbling book. Aryn thought she said her name was Rinkla, but he couldn’t be sure. Rinkla poked a finger into the ground at her feet, and when she pulled it out again a small fountain of icy cold water shot straight up out of the hole, about as high as the length of Aryn’s foot. He quickly filled Frisky’s watering boot and hung it over the horse’s head. Then refilled all of his canteens before kneeling down to drink directly from the magical spring. When he finished drinking his fill, he sat back on his haunches and marveled... the water wasn’t spreading out over the ground, but sank immediately back into the ground, less than the length of a knuckle beyond the splash.

Lomar didn’t return until near dusk, but was accompanied by a small army of other types of wood nymphs, representing almost every type of tree found anywhere on Éire. Most resembled Lomar, except for the texture of their bark-like skin and the shape of the leaves that compromised their clothing. But the strangest of all those that accompanied Lomar back to Rhoslyn’s lilac ring was a creature Aryn had only heard about in legends — a dryad.

Although Aryn had never actually seen one before, there was little doubt this had to be a dryad... there was nothing else imaginable that it could possibly be. It was about four feet tall and looked to be comprised of multiple bunches of small sticks, all about the diameter of Aryn’s finger, arranged into a vaguely humanoid shape. Each of those individual sticks was covered with differing kinds of bark, representing virtually every kind of tree that Aryn was familiar with. The face even had recognizable features, comprised of cleverly arranged sticks. The creature’s voice, however, was even harder to understand than the water sprite’s had been, as it was the soft sound of leaves rustling in the wind.

Dryads were the most powerful of all tree spirits, much like air elementals were far more powerful than sylphs.

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