Being a Green Mother Read Free Page B

was as if her feet were glued to the trunk, allowing her to walk at a right angle to it. That was impressive.
    In a moment the dryad stood before them. She was no taller than they were, but was more finely proportioned, more like the sprites. Her hair was green and leafy, and her body, though unclothed, had ridges resembling bark. She was pretty in the way a tree was pretty, and in the way of a woman, too.
    “Hello,” the dryad said tentatively, as if not expecting any favorable response. She was poised for instant retreat.
    “Hello,” Orb responded.
    The hamadryad responded with a smile so brilliant it was like a shaft of sunlight reaching down to touch her. “You
are
his child!” she exclaimed.
    “Uh, no, not exactly,” Orb said. “That’s Luna. I’m Niobe’s child.”
    “What?” Luna asked, perplexed.
    “She got us confused, that’s all,” Orb said.
    “How do you know?” Luna asked.
    “You heard her! She called me the Magician’s child.”
    “But she didn’t say anything!” Luna protested.
    “What?” Orb asked, in her turn.
    “She did not hear me,” the hamadryad said sadly.
    Orb turned to Luna. “You didn’t hear her?”
    “Hear what? She only moved her mouth.”
    Now Orb realized. “It’s like the music! I can hear it and you can’t.”
    “Well, you can’t see the auras, smarty!” Luna retorted.
    “She sees auras?” the hamadryad asked.
    “Oh, sure,” Orb said. “I hear things, she sees things. Mommy can’t do either. But Daddy can hear the music, so he said we should come see you.”
    “Who is your father?” the hamadryad asked.
    “He’s Pacian Kaftan. He makes magic music.”
    “Yes. So did Cedric, his cousin. The first time I heard it, I almost fell out of my Tree!”
    Orb pictured the dryad falling out of the tree and she started to laugh. The dryad laughed, too.
    “What’s so funny?” Luna demanded.
    Orb realized that she would have to translate, or there would be trouble. Usually she was the one who got mad and threw a fit, but Luna could do it, too, when she tried. “She says when she heard Grandpa Cedric’s magic music, she almost fell out of the tree!”
    Luna giggled. That
was
funny!
    “But then he died,” the hamadryad said. “It was so sad. The Magician was right here with me, just a baby then.”
    “A baby?” Luna asked when Orb translated. “My father?”
    “Yes. He could hear the music and see the auras, but he couldn’t make them. But he was very smart and he wanted to learn, so I taught him the natural magic.”
    “Can you teach us?” Orb asked. “Daddy can make such wonderful music, and he says maybe I can, but I can’t!”
    “Come into my Tree,” the hamadryad said. “Perhaps I can teach you.”
    “Oooo, goody!” Orb cried, clapping her hands.
    They scrambled up into the spreading branches of the tree, unable to walk the trunk in the manner of the hamadryad. Orb scraped a knee a little, but she was used to that.
    Above, the leaf foliage closed in about them, forming a pleasant bower. The branches twisted this way and that and had knots and boles that were like chairs, and they sat on these. Speckles of sunlight came through, making it pretty.
    “Ooo,” Luna exclaimed. “The aura brightens where the sun strikes!”
    “That’s because the light is the life of my Tree,” the hamadryad said. “Light and water and soil and air—four mundane elements.”
    Luna’s brow furrowed as Orb translated. “I thought there were five elements.”
    “Yes. We call the important one spirit, or magic.”
    “That’s why my father studied magic!” Luna exclaimed. “ ’Cause you told him that!”
    “Yes. He wanted to help the natural things, as Cedric did. We dryads are magic, but we don’t have much power over unnatural things, so I thought maybe if he learned …”
    “I guess he’s still learning,” Luna said. “He and Mommy spend all their time with it.”
    “Let’s see what we can do with your own magic,” the hamadryad said,