After I had brought the horses back with Gray I went into the house to 'help' Emily and Leafy pack up. It was not long before I felt Istan walk through the front gate of Emily's garden, followed by his two companions. Feeling them enter the garden, I stepped out of the house to greet them and to see why Istan brought company. I noticed that his companions were two female elves. The two elves looked almost exactly the same, except that one was middle aged and the other appeared to be the same age as Ivy.
"It really is her. It is the Mother of the Forest," the girl said upon seeing me leave the house. She was bouncing on her feet pulling on the sleeve of the older woman.
"Yes, yes. Please calm down," the older woman said, following just a little way behind Istan to stop in front of me.
"Forest Mother--" Istan started to say but was cut off by a cough from myself.
"But you said you were not going in disguise any more!" Istan protested. Grrr. I growled silently to myself. My excuse for stopping Istan from calling me Forest Mother was gone. It was of course him that figured this out. But after all this time just calling me by my name, did he really have to regress now? His voice was uncharacteristically strained, and I wondered if he seemed a little more harried than usual. But still… 'Forest Mother,' had to stop.
There was only one way I could think of to get him to stop. But I was not sure I was ready for the consequences. I hesitated before deciding trying was better than the alternative.
"Istan, after all we have been through don't you think you can just call me by my name?" I tried a halfway approach.
"I would not dare to." It seems like my partial attempt was immediately rejected.
"Istan, we are friends now. Calling me Forest Mother feels so cold," I said, trying to imitate the pleading look that Ivy had learned so well.
It seems like this look works well. I could see several different emotions contorting over his face. In the end it seemed like the prospect of being called my friend was greater than his completely misplaced need to worship me.
There was a cough from behind Istan and I noticed a disquieted look on the woman's face. Istan seemed to take this cough to mean something, "Miss Laurel…" his face seemed oddly flushed calling me by name. Why would that be embarrassing now? He has called me by name hundreds of times before. The smile that the woman behind him had managed to plaster on her face again soured a little seeing Istan's flush. He glanced at this sour expression, then continued in a rush, "Please let me introduce my wife Allana and my daughter Bay."
It was my turn to have my face contort. They did not name their daughter Laurel. But it was hard to think of a way they could be any more blatant that they named her after me than Bay. Schooling my face, I said, "It is a pleasure to meet you." I then turned to Istan and said in a low voice, "Why is your family here? You know we can not take them with us. We do not have enough horses. And you daughter looks much too young to take somewhere so dangerous. You know what Maximus has done."
"I was not planning on taking them with us. It's just that…" Istan trailed off. It was clear that he did not want to say what he was about to say.
"He promised us that he would take us to meet you." The girl Bay said, once again bouncing on her feet. But this bubblyness quickly turned to disdain as she turned to her father with a piercing look.
"Nice to meet you," I said with a smile. This effectively pulled Bay's eyes back to me. She quickly started to gain a bounce again. I am not sure what he did to deserve this derision but I figured I would give him a hand and take the girl's focus for a moment.
"He missed out on Bay's birthday and preparing the autumn stores," his wife said, shooting a bit of a glare at him. I guess that would be why they were upset with him. "And is now not going to be here as we try to get the house ready for winter. I thought the least he could do was show us the reason behind his absence."
If I was a human I am sure I would be sweating buckets right now. B-but dryads don't sweat, not one little bit. I knew Istan had a family but it never really processed in my mind what it would mean to take him away from his family for a few months. "I am sorry for taking him away from you. I did not mean to cause you any trouble. Is there something I can do to make it up to you?" I said looking at the women. Bay had a birthday right? Maybe I could do something for her. I think birthdays are important to mortals. "Bay, is there something I could get you for your birthday?"
"You already have, did you forget?" Bay said cheerfully, seeing that I was not processing what she said she started to laugh. "You gave me this cloak. Father said you asked him to give it to me for being away." I looked over Istan and saw a pleading look in his eyes. It seems that his family was truly a force to be reckoned with. The least I could do was help him out here. But before I could speak Bay continued, "I love the way it smells. To think that a dryad would smell of flowers."
What are you talking about? I said dryad's don't sweat, I yelled inside myself. Istan and his wife seemed to notice the panic I was trying to suppress. I quickly shook it off. I did not want to dwell on the topic of how I smell. So before either of them could speak, I said, "I am glad that you like it. I won't be needing it anymore. I am happy you will be able to use it." This did not seem to be quite enough to sidetrack Allana's thoughts and I spoke up again. "I am sorry for taking your husband from you again. He really has been helpful in my travels."
It seems my words did not please her for some reason. "Why do you even need him in the first place? What is so important that you had to take my husband away from me? Away from our home?"
I blinked a few times. How did she not know what this was all about? Looking at Istan I saw him shrug a little and mumble. "It seems the village elders decided not to tell the people about what happened. They thought that it would cause a panic if people knew."
"But the deaths of the guards?" I asked not seeing how that could be hidden. This however just earned me a shocked and concerned look from all three of the elves. I let out a growl. These elders were the source of so much of my troubles. If it was not for them I would have never needed Faun to investigate the forest for me. And now instead of getting me the help that I needed by spreading word about that worthless vile excuse for a mammal they were too afraid to tell people because someone might get nervous.
I let out a sigh to calm myself. "My home… our home is in danger. I need Istan's help to get my friends back. If we do not find them the woods will suffer," I said feeling slightly melodramatic with my words. But given his increasingly subservient attitude toward his family as this conversation went on, it seemed that Istan needed some help explaining why he had been away from home for so long. And it was true. I had been avoiding thinking about it but Mist and Faun were important for the health of these woods.
"Your friends?" Allana puzzled "Why are the woods in danger just from some people missing? Didn't they just get lost?"