The Dryad 102 Tides That Bind

Ivy, seeing me collapse, ran over. The horror on her face was apparent as she saw Mist falling apart. She would not be able to help in this work. She lacked the skill to do anything near this intricate, nor should she be able to directly interfere with spirits. It was up to me. But the harder I struggled the less progress I made. I did not spare Ivy or the fire another look and just minded the bowl. The fire could wait. I was not losing Mist even if I never gained my strength back. I had not tried to directly manipulate the energies of the word in eons. I felt it was wrong. But now I was wishing more than anything I had listened to Tide.

Tears were clouding my eyes to the point that I was not even sure why I had them open any more. I knew Ivy was near and that the fire was growing closer and closer, but that did not matter. I had to concentrate. I had never lost at anything. There is no way I could now, I kept telling myself. But as if to mock me Mist continued to worsen.

I then felt a surge of energy and some ripples in the water. I wanted to wail. How could she have lost control of her energy? What happened? Trying to figure things out I looked again and saw Ivy had her hands in the water trying to help. Unlike me she was not trying to tie the strings back together but had simply covered her hands in a dense layer of energy and was trying to hold Mist together. What is the use? I thought. But then I noticed that even though Ivy could not grab onto the strands unwinding from Mist or even directly touch the water energy that was Mist, the water strands seemed to be repelled by the incompatible energy. Ivy was keeping them from escaping. Since they did not have anywhere else to go they stayed by Mist's center.

How could I not have thought of this earlier?? I yelled at myself. But this was not the time for that. Using all the energy I could I made a barrier around Mist. I kept pulling the energy tighter and tighter around Mist, layering it as densely as possible. It did not take long until a glowing green ball, so bright that no one would even need spiritual sight to see it, was holding onto Mist.

The energy was so dense that I could not see inside, but through the surface of the bubble I could feel Mist moving. Never had such a short time felt so long as I waited, feeling Mist struggling to gain control. I wanted to see how she was doing. To help her. But that had already failed. I did not have the skill that I needed. Making this bubble for her was the only thing I could do.

Ivy and I sat there for what felt like centuries, but the sun showed that only a few hours had pa.s.sed. Why did I take Mist with me? She would have been just fine if I had left her at the pond. She was right, I should have never gotten a sprite involved in this. I was such a bad friend. Faun was gone because I didn't want to deal with something annoying. Now Mist was dying.

My mind continued to swirl in despair. As my emotions were storming inside me my power started to slip. The bubble that was holding her began to quiver. No! I could not let this happen. I needed to be strong for Mist and Faun. I forced my self-loathing out of my mind and focused on what I needed to do now. I needed to concentrate.

The hours continued to pa.s.s. As Ivy and I had focused on Mist, I could feel that we were being watched. For a fleeting moment I spared a look with my physical eyes, keeping my spiritual awareness on the bubble. The first thing that I noticed was a field of mushrooms that had sprung up now that my restriction stopping them was gone. Scattered throughout this field the fallen logs were beginning to smolder.

In the middle of the charred wreckage of the forest was the cause of this whole mess. A lady. Her red hair was billowing slightly in an updraft and her bare skin was glowing through the haze that was starting to thin. Her figure would be very alluring to males, with much more defined curves than other spirits I had met.

She was just standing there watching us and made no move to advance further. I could tell that there was anger in her face. Her anger startled me. What I ever did to anger her I did not know. I started to wonder, if she was so angry at me, why she did not act now that I could not stop her. Then the small part of my mind that I could spare realized that she could not advance further because I had removed her food. She was in a cage and could not get out. I felt a small satisfied relief. Our efforts had worked.

I let out a small sigh and tried to ignore the fire spirit but my mind would not rest. She was just distracting me from what mattered. I could deal with her in a day or two. I am sure she would realize that her 'food' was limited and show some restraint. If not she would have to deal with that herself.

If I could trust a fire a spirit at all, my woods could easily sustain one if it just slowly roved over my woods. But how do you expect someone who is ravenously hungry to just take small bites of the food that was right in front of them? Shaking my head, I turned back to Mist and cast any further thoughts of the fire spirit out of my mind.

The day had sunk and several hours of the night had already pa.s.sed as I felt Mist struggle inside the sh.e.l.l that I created for her. No, I needed to give Ivy the credit for this. She might not be able to pull it off as skillfully as I had done. But there was no denying that this was her idea.
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Slowly, I could feel the struggling slowing down. Fear gripped my heart. As the middle of the night pa.s.sed, all movement stopped. I knew at this point my restrictive sphere was doing Mist no good. I was terrified that it was too little too late, that she had fallen apart and would dissipate the rest of the way when I let go. It was agonizing. Even though I knew nothing would change by holding it longer, I simply could not let go. If I lost Mist I would be alone.

Tears were rolling down my face as I tried to deny the inevitable. But after an hour of feeling nothing from Mist, there was no more denying that there was no more use for the bubble. The lack of movement from her was devastating. It made me fear for the worst. I released my tight hold on the sh.e.l.l, watching it crumple as my tears fell into the bowl. Mist was there, motionless and drained. I had never seen her in such a sad state. I watched her intently, not willing to miss anything. It was the only thing I could do for her. I had failed her completely, but I would be with her at the end.

As I sat there watching her, I started to wonder why nothing had happened. She should have dispersed by now. There was a faint flicker of hope in my heart. Was she no longer struggling to hold herself together? The only other option I almost couldn't allow myself to hope, that she was better and only resting.

"Shouldn't we bring her back to her pond? She would be able to wake up much sooner there," Ivy said, practically waking me up. She was right. Mist was equivalent to what mortals would call being pa.s.sed out. She was no longer at risk, but needed to get back home so she could get the power she needed to wake herself back up. I could not describe the relief that flooded me at the realization that Mist was going to be alright. There were no words, but with renewed energy the tears began to pour into Mist's bowl.

After a moment I took a few shaky breaths and managed to say, "Ivy, can you take her?" I really wanted to go with her and stay by her side. But if I did not finish up what I came here for, I would not be able to be with her when she woke up.