I put the girls out of my mind and got back to resting. The fastest way for me to recover my strength was to become one with the plants, not in a physical sense but an emotional one. I needed to let go of my awareness as a sentient being and just breathe and feel the wind and the sun.

The light was growing weaker and the plants were starting to burn the energy stored during the day when I could tell from the gra.s.s outside the house that people were coming. Bringing my mind back to my body I heard Gray call.

"Emily is everything alright?"

"Yes dear. Leafy and I were just getting some things packed. Why do you ask?" Emily said with a cheery voice from in the house. Apparently at that point she looked out the window. "Oh my. I guess this is what happens when Aunt Laurel takes a nap."

It looks like Emily as least was able accept me while I took a rest. It seems they have already gotten to the point of nicknames. I liked the name Leafy. I wonder if I could call her that too. Part of me wished I could have spent time with them, but recovering my strength was my first priority. I looked around the garden. It was not so much to learn what changed, but to see the difference with my eyes. All the plants were several inches taller and a vibrant green color like spring. Much of the garden was in full bloom. I could not help but smile. Some of them might even get to seed again, if Emily did not cut them to sell or make her medicines. For those that would come back next year, they would have deeper and stronger roots to let them grow quicker in the spring.

I walked around the house from the back where I had been resting. The first things that I noticed were the five horses happily grazing on the freshly grown flowers. There were six elves with Istan and Gray. Most of them were quite elderly and a few I felt I might recognize from 100 years ago. They did really well getting here this quickly for there age.

As I approached a little closer, the elves noticed me. The elves all fell to the ground and bowed low. "Oh Great Forest Mother. We are Honored to be of service to thee." The eldest of the elves spoke, but never once made eye contact.

I rolled my eyes in exasperation. As I looked over at the four who were still standing, my human and elven companions, I could not hide the wry smile at their reaction to the elders. Gray was a little shocked while Istan was in a similar solemn atmosphere to the elves on the ground. But Emily and Leafy *cough* Leafia, both started to suppress laughter seeing my reaction. I quickly got my face under control before talking. "Please rise."

"We would not dare face thee at the same level."

"Should I lay in the dirt so that you have no choice?"

"Our G.o.ddess! You must not do such things!"

Emily could not restrain her laughter any more. She was probably the only one here who understood how convoluted this threat was for a dryad. I had just spent the last few hours lying in the dirt to regain my strength, but to the elves and humans being in the dirt was the greatest way to show humility. Leafia was already close to laughter and when Emily lost control Leafia could no longer keep hers under control. This earned Leafia a hard look from the elders. I was sure they were thinking 'how could she mock this sacred occasion.' I would much rather all the elves act like Leafia.

The elders, however, were not about to yield their pretentious notions. "How could we allow your dignity to be tarnished by allowing any dirt to touch the pristine figure of your holiness?" I am a plant spirit-what exactly is wrong with dirt? I love the stuff! This was exactly the att.i.tude that caused me to hole myself up in the pond for the last 500 years. I was in no mood to put up with this now. For once I was going to tell them how I felt.

"What gives you the right to tell me what I should do and should not do? You call me your G.o.ddess and yet you have now repeatedly ignored my command." I let out my power on those elves. I focused much more this time so Emily would not experience the same backlash as last time. The elves started shaking in fear. "Do not think for a moment that I am dependent on you. If you truly feel that I am your G.o.ddess, it would be wise to heed my words the first time." I then reigned in my powers and asked kindly for them to stand back up.

The Elves did so. "How much have you already heard?" I did not want to take the time explaining everything from the start. It turned out that Istan did a good job getting the elves up to speed while they were securing the horses. I noticed that he left out most of the detail about Emily and Gray for now. That was a wise choice. Who knows what kind of commotion that news would cause? It also was not truly his to share.

"Forest Mother, please let us accompany you on this quest."

"No" I didn't even need to think about it.

"We could be of a.s.sistance to you."

"Are not Istan and Leafia the best hunters and trackers in the forest? What could you provide for me better than they? Also, I need you here to watch over my domain."

"You are letting these humans come with you. We have been your loyal servants for generations. Why let these people who show no respect to you accompany you?"

"I am getting really tired of listening to you. How am I supposed to blend in with the humans if I know nothing about how the humans act? Also, no one is more worthy to accompany me on this quest than my niece." I loved the shocked look on their faces. I could tell that none them believed my words.

Ignoring the elves I turned to Emily, who promptly gave me a status report. "Everything is ready for tomorrow. We should be ready to go any time."

"Good. Let's get some dinner ready. We will head off at first light." Emily, Leafia and Gray headed to the house to prepare our meal while I turned back to the elves. "I had Istan bring you here to inform you what I would like you to do for me. I will be leaving these woods unattended for some time. This is the first time I will be stepping out of these wood for any length of time in many thousands of years. I need you to watch over these woods while I am gone. Take good care of them. If there is any problem beyond your ability or news that I should hear, contact Mist, the water sprite who lives in the pond where I resided. Also tell the fairies. I believe you saw their new home on the way here."

"Forest Mother! Fairies and Sprites cannot --"

"--You will not say another word. They are my friends and my family. They are also immortal spirits and have a much stronger connections to the powers of nature than you do. Your prejudice against them is only caused by your own ignorance." I released some more of my power to make sure they know they were about to cross a line while I said that. I then gave them the best smile I could and said, "Do not worry. If you really cannot find a way to live in peace with the fairies and sprites, you can always find a place to live outside the forest. After all, this forest is the home Faun and I built to share with our friends."

For some reason it seems like the elves were more scared by what I said with a smiling face than when I suppressed them with power. Why on earth could that be?

*Cough* Enough pretending to be ignorant. "You may stay here tonight if Emily allows it, but tomorrow go back to the wood. Do not wait for things to go really wrong before seeking for guidance. The earlier you catch the problem, the easier it is to fix the problem."

***

I decided to eat dinner with everyone else. I figured this would be good practice for when we head out to the next town. It was not so much that I did not know how to eat, but that I wanted to make sure the others were used to having me around the table with them. The elf elders were making a bit of a fuss over everything. I did my best to ignore them and told Emily to do the same. It did not seem that they were going to start wors.h.i.+ping her as Istan was thinking. They were treating her more like a religious leader who needs to be respected.

After dinner I told everyone to go to bed since we were leaving early. The real reason was that I did not want to put up with the elders any longer. There was some complaining from them when I went out into the garden to rest but I just walked out. There was no need for me to hide who I was here. Why would I not make myself comfortable resting against a nice tree? Luckily my resting earlier was not enough to reverse the effects of Fall in the trees. Their leaves still remained in their bright fall colors and they did not start to put out new growth. I would not be stuck having green hair tomorrow.

However, there were no oak trees in the garden. My choices were a birch that had turned yellow or a maple with bright red leaves. Since there was still a touch of green in the maple, I chose the birch. Thankfully, very few people got a good look at me today, so I don't think that anyone will notice that my hair color changed overnight.

I spread out my senses once again tonight. I wanted to make sure that we were right and that the person causing the blight really had left the town. I spent the whole night searching as I stored up what energy I could. I could not find any trace of the man. It looked like we had no other choice but to follow the clues that he left us and hope we would find Faun.