Chapter 2

We sat upon the rock that jutted out above the ocean. I hugged my knees tightly to my chest with James sitting next to me, his arm pulling me closer to him.

 

We hadn't spoken of what we had found yet. James had seemed troubled, but whether about what he found or my tears, I couldn't tell. I almost didn't want to tell him about the tree. It was scary to begin with, and he might be jealous that the tree called them my people. But he was James, I was going to have to tell him sooner or later. 

 

I watched the sky as the stars started to disappear and the first bright yellow rays of sunlight shone above the woods. My stomach did a turn. What if my parents noticed that I wasn't at home? I hadn't told them where I was going.

 

"James, can I borrow your phone? I have no minutes left on mine, and I need to call my parents."

 

"Uh, yeah. Sure, here." He took his phone out of his pocket and handed it to me. 

 

"Thanks." I dialed my house phone and heard the *burr burr* on the other end before I got the answering machine.

 

"Hi, you've reached the Lazeren house. Please leave your name and number after the beep. Thanks." I heard my own voice as the message clicked off and there was a pause before a low toned *beeeeep* 

 

"Hi, mom. Hi, dad. I'm just calling to let you know I'm with James. I'll be home later today. My phone has no minutes left, so either text me or call James' phone, his number is posted on the fridge, that'd be great. See you later. Bye." I hung up the phone and handed it back to James.

 

"You always leave a note." He looked at me questioningly.

 

"Well, I forgot, and I only had five minutes." I shrugged my shoulders, feeling the tears on my cheeks dry completely.

 

"So, why were you crying?" He asked me, satisfying curiosity seemed to be what he was after, but I knew it was more as well.

 

"Well, you remember the tree, right? How there was the glowing orb of red light, and the way the roots made the ground tremble?" I asked him cautiously, staring down at the rock, not making eye contact with him.

 

"Of course I remember it, how could I forget? I hated that tree, it's like it had a face, but could never speak to us. Bound and silent forever." His eyes grew dark and settled on the tops of the trees that were now lit almost completely by the rays of the morning sun.

 

"Well, the light isn't red anymore." I looked into his eyes to see that he was surprised. I continued, "It's blue now, and the silent tree with a face?" I kept staring at him, watching his eyes grow wider in astonishment. "It wasn't silent anymore. I walked up to it, remembering the quakes in the earth from its roots, seeing the red light. Then, as I approached, she asked who I was. I told her I was Dezzoray, and-"

 

"You told it who you were?" He sounded outraged. I jumped away from him as I saw a glint of fire in his eyes. 

 

"Of course I did!" I stared at him, letting the fear show in my eyes.

 

"Uh, oh... I--" He stumbled over the words as he tried to get them out, "I'm sorry. I--" He stopped looking at me and looked back at the ocean. "I didn't mean to scare you. I'm sorry. Please, continue with your recollection of what happened." He gestured with his arm for me to come back in to it, but I only scooted a little closer. I sat crisscross-applesauce in front of him before I continued.

 

"It didn't recognize me as Dezzoray, it remembered me as Danielle, my nymphonian name. I told her that her people called me Danielle. She corrected me, saying that they weren't her people, they were mine." I looked at James, expecting him to be shocked, but all I saw was a look of complete and utter confusion. "It didn't say anything else, but then the light changed from red to blue."

 

He turned his gaze to his hands. The fingers on his right hand fiddled with a string that was tied to his left wrist. I hadn't noticed the string before. On it were six colored beads, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. The colors of the rainbow, except for red, which seemed to be missing.

 

"It's happening." He said it in a whisper barely audible, even from the short distance at which I sat from him. His gaze lifted from the string around his wrist and settled looking straight at me. "Do you want to know what happened to me?" His gaze wasn't soft, nor was it loving, or friendly. It didn't feel devilish, or mean. It was stern, and sorrowful.

 

"Of course I want to know." I shook my head, looking at him like he had gone crazy.

 

"When you stopped staring at me while I jogged towards the beach," I felt my face go red as he continued, "I took a detour and went into the grove of flowers by the beach. You know, the one with the bench we used to sit together on?" He paused, his gaze softening and a smile slid across his face. "I remembered how last year we had though we heard voices over there, so I checked it out. I found three of the Dryad houses. One of them recognized me, and flew up to sit on my knee as I asked it questions.

 

"I asked him what he could tell me about the light, and the tree, and the events that have happened since Danielle and Jordan left. He gave me an entire history lesson." He shook his head at me, then plunged on. "It had been exactly 100 years since they, we, left. During those years the Nyrom died. The Nyrom was Raelick, you remember him? He was the one that explained all the funky language to us, like Nyrom being like a king? Well, he died approximately 10 months ago."

 

I scooted closer to him and gave him a hug as the tears started to form in my eyes again. This time I didn't let them fall. "He was such a good Dryad." He rubbed his hand up and down my back, returning my hug.

 

"I know. This Dryad continued with his story, telling me that after Raelick was gone the nightwolves had nothing to be scared of. The nightwolves are like... werewolves I think. I tried to get him to explain them to me but all he could say was that they came out everyday, and that when to moon was full they got hungry. They eat Dryads." I looked at him in horror. These poor creatures have been through so much pain.

 

"He said there is no way to make them not like Dryad blood, but I think there is. Anyway, he continued with the fact that there have been constant uprisings about who should rule the people, and that recently they decided that Danielle and Jordan would rule as the new Nyroma and Nyrom." He looked deep into my eyes, looking for something.

 

"Dezzy, they made us the king and queen." 

Reviews

[charlotte talley]

this part is fine. are you going to put this in a script? or is this just going to be a novel? I will read the rest when you finish it. But this does sounds promising.