Author: Goggle, Posted: Wed Mar 8, 2023 10:41 PM, Post Subject: [O] As the Crystal Trees Sing

Fieri strode through the trees, allowing her mind the freedom to simply soak in her surroundings. The forest she found herself in was beautiful, yes, but there was something off about it. The trees, objects of crystal, were clearly alive in their own way, but the dryad had yet to feel anything that resembled one of her own kin among them. In fact, the area she was in right now was almost eerily silent. She stopped, looking at the nearest of the trees, and reached out to touch it, closing her eyes.

She had begun her journey to this place not long after leaving the small fae who chose to be called Hed. Curious as he had been, he had been possessed of a certain amount of arcane knowledge, and had in turn directed her here. To the "place of the pretty trees" he had called it, while zipping about and trilling other things she could not quite recall now. Maybe she had been among the mortals for too long, but Fieri had felt out of place with her own kind, an outsider trying desperately to fit in. She wasn't an outsider, though. She was a dryad. She was of the fae, even if her tree had been stolen, her life with it. Even if she wanted nothing more right now than to find the one who had freed her, such a long time ago it felt like at times… Yet, in the grand scheme of things, four years was not long. A blink. A heartbeat. An eternity.

Humans had brought her most of the way, in a flying ship, which made her heart ache for the captain they had lost. Lost, to be recovered, not lost forever. She had to keep reminding herself they would find him. Any day now. By her bow she had sworn to do so. The quest had had many false starts, leads which were not leads, long journeys ending in disappointment. The rest of the crew all owed him though. They all had something to prove, by going out into the world and doing for him what he had done for them. There wasn't a member of the crew who did not owe the captain their life, except maybe Peabody. Nobody quite knew what the connection between the captain and Peabody was, neither of them had ever spoken about it. But Peabody had been the first. The first of the captain's companions. The first to join him in a journey which had seemed to only be getting started, but now…

Fieri blinked tears out of her eyes. She refused to be drawn into thoughts which could lead her to spiral into darkness. There were times, fewer now, since she had been taken from her home, when these spells would see her freeze in place for hours. Sometimes days. Her companions had always been there, though. This was her first time, truly alone. She had assured everyone she was ready for it, and everyone else was needed elsewhere. How could she ask for someone to come with her, when everyone had their own places they needed to be?

She bit her lip, lowered her hand from the crystalline surface of the tree, and moved on. After the airship there had been a ride in the back of a wagon, and then a search for a guide to bring her here, down among the trees. They had tried to tell her she needn't walk, they had some miracle of engineering which would take her from one end to the other. They didn't seem to understand that she wasn't trying to cross the forest. She was trying to find the heart of it. Somewhere, in this forest, was a tree which was rumored to have a spirit as old as the crater. A dryad, whose power and knowledge rivaled that of a faerie Queen. Someone who would know how to help Fieri find her captain.