For a moment, I was frozen in place. This was… unexpected. How could this be me?
I had been born Without. I didn’t have magic. This wasn’t me. It couldn’t be me.
Could it?
Cursing colorfully, Xander reached for his sword. Before he could do more than wrap his fingers around the hilt, the tree limbs pressed his arms against his side. Xander’s hood fell off his head, and his silver-white hair streamed down his back like a flash of light as the tree bound him against it.
As I watched Xander struggle, a fierce desire to save him filled me. It was unlike anything I had ever felt before. I had no idea what was happening, but I knew one thing for certain. Xander needed my help.
“Stop!” I screamed as metal sang. Its song clashed with the stillness of the evening. I looked down, surprised to see my hands gripping my twin daggers. I’d drawn them without conscious thought. Running towards the tree, I shouted, “Let him go!”
This insolent male was attacking you, Protectress.
This time, the voice wasn’t in my head. It was swirling all around me, carried by the wind.
I watched with wide eyes as hundreds of leaves, grass, and twigs lifted off the ground. They swirled in the air as a brisk wind blew my hood back from my face.
Long tendrils of red hair flew all around me, and I huffed. Wrenching my wayward hair away from my eyes, I blinked once, then twice as I tried to comprehend what was standing before me.
A lithe, female form made entirely of the forest itself stood mere feet from me. Her moss-green eyes were unblinking as she extended a leafy hand in my direction. She was naked, but what was a little nudity when your entire corporeal form was nothing more than leaves and twigs?
“Greetings, Protectress of the Woods,” the leafy female said. Her voice sounded like the whisper of the wind late at night as it swirled around me.
“What in the seven circles of hell is that?” Xander hissed. His already pale complexion was as white as snow.
“You can see it too?” I asked over my shoulder, never taking my eyes from the green female.
Xander rasped, disbelief lacing his every word. “I can. I can’t believe it, but I can see it.”
“Who are you?” I called out to the leafy form as I tightened my grip on my daggers.
The creature opened her mouth, and the wind carried her words to my ears. “I am Myhhena. Your pain has awoken us.”
I stared at her… at least I thought it was a ‘her’. “What are you talking about?”
“You summoned us, Protectress.”
Narrowing my eyes, I sheathed my daggers as I approached the leafy female. Shaking my head, I reached out a hand to touch her and then thought better of it. “I didn’t mean to awaken you. I don’t even knowhowI did it.”
“And yet, you did.” The female swept into a sweeping curtsy, which was a feat considering she was made of leaves. “The hands of fate have determined that now is our time. You called me. Your sorrow echoed through the forest, awakening me and my sisters from our slumber.”
“Okay.” I sighed, pushing my hair behind my ears. I was tired, and this was a lot to deal with. “It’s Myhhena, right?”
“You are correct,” she replied in an ethereal voice. “I am one of the Twelve who reside within the forests of Ithenmyr. It is an honor to be summoned by you, Protectress.”
Xander huffed. “Why are you calling her that?”
The winds began to swirl once more and Myhhena’s voice grew louder. “Silence! I will not be spoken to in such a disrespectful manner. Certainly not byyou.”The last word was dripping with undisguised disgust as Myhhena gave Xander what I could describe as a look of contempt mixed with utter hatred.
I opened my mouth, but before I could question the odd way Myhhena addressed Xander, she turned back to me. Her voice echoed through the forest as she said, “What would you have us do with this ill-mannered male? His kind has a history of being a menace in the woods.”
His kind? Humans?
Based on the fires I knew were burning throughout Ithenmyr to keep people warm at night, I couldn’t refute her claims. But the way she spoke about Xander irritated me.
Yes, he was rude and obnoxious and hard to deal with. But this… lady made of leaves had no way of knowing that.
Crossing my arms, I glared at her. “Don’t talk about him like that.”