Awakened

Alsander first saw the dryad on the last night of spring. After a hard day of work, he had retreated to the private grove of Countess Annabel, to whom he was bound in indentured servitude, to lament lost love in solitude. Nearly a year had passed since his fair Veronica had caught the eye of a local noble, letting him sweep her away. It stung all the worse because he had left his home, traveled to a foreign land, and sold ten years of his freedom for her. Even the vibrant bloom of the grove in spring and his love of nature scarcely dulled the ache.

The sun vanished behind the trees and the forest quieted beneath the sparkling evening veil. He loved spending dusk in the grove, leaning against the lushly blossoming apple tree at its center. Better this than a cold cottage and an empty bed. Indeed, he visited the ancient grove more than anyone, even the countess who owned it. If one could own such a serenely sacred place. To him, it seemed to possess a life of its own, a certain… something making it more than a patch of forest. Eyes closed, he would listen as the breeze whispered secrets to the swaying branches and rustling grass.

On that half-moon night, when light and shadow ruled as equals, Alsander drifted into a peaceful melancholic sleep beneath the tree. And then he saw her. She first appeared as a playful shadow in his murky dreaming fog. She scampered mischievously between phantom trees, luring him deeper into the woods. Spellbound, he followed her sweet, earthy fragrance and sensuously hypnotic movements.

Will o’ wisps fluttered in the air and a faint chorus of laughter echoed from just out of sight. They came into a small moonlit clearing, and he caught a fleeting glimpse of pale green skin and earth-colored eyes. Long arms caressed him before she faded into a soft breeze of flower petals and leaves.

He awoke, startled yet strangely comforted. In his hazy waking moments, he almost felt the tree itself holding him in a tender embrace. The feeling faded, but left a sense of ease even as he returned home and drifted back to sleep.