#ZattyWriMo 2022

The travelling merchants set up their booths and tents and soon the impromptu market was underway. It wasn't a large market, because their caravan was the only wagons in the glade. But a few of the dryads who lived there had built stalls too, selling bread, fruit and mushrooms. The evening sun was sinking lower on the sky, shining through the branches. The earliest bright green leaves had appeared on the trees recently, and a lively chatter filled the glade.

Katla sat on a small three-legged stool behind a precisely laid out table of herbs, teas and medicinal plants, everything intricately labeled in handwritten ink on small brown pieces of paper fastened to the table. Hers wasn't the busiest stall, but there were visitors and browsers most of the time. From time to time, someone asked about the various plants, and while she could answer the simplest question, she often - too often for her own liking - had to ask the elderly lady managing the neighbouring stall for help.

Some time later, Katla realised her stomach had rumbled for the third time in a short span of time, and as she looked around at the other stalls, she saw most of them was busy eating. Her confusion about how she was supposed to fetch food without leaving the stall unattended left her locked to the spot. But luckily the same confusion must have been clear to read on her face, because shortly after her best friend Solvi appeared out of nowhere.

"Katla! Why aren't you eating yet, aren't you hungry? How are you doing on your first market as a travelling merchant?"

"Oh, Solvi, you're a sight for sore eyes. I didn't realize it was dinner time already, the dryads just kept visiting and asking questions and..."

"And now it's time to eat! Good thing I kept an eye on you. You know what, I'll look after the stall while you go fetch something to eat for the both of us. I'll take a portion of the same as you"

"Thanks, you're always so kind, Solvi. I saw that there's a couple of dryads selling local food over there. Do you know if there's more local options? I bet they have some delicious recipes with fruits and what not"

"I think there's a few around the corner over there. Now get going before my stomach starts rumbling too. Hurry up!" Solvi waved her off and settled down on the stool, as Katla went looking for interesting foods.

"I hope she doesn't get too distracted," Solvi mumbled to herself after Katla disappeared around the corner.

A while later Katla returned with two thin wooden plates of food, and she found Solvi chatting with a dryad.

"There she is," Solvi said as Katla came near enough to hear their voices.

"Were you talking about me?" Katla asked, "if you needed to know anything about the plants, I'm afraid it's unlikely that I can help you."

"Oh, it's not the plants I need help with," the dryad said, "I need your help with something completely different."

The dryad was of indeterminate age, somehow both youthful and wrinkly, almost bark-like in her skin. She was dressed in a long tunic covered in swirling leaf patterns in red and orange autumn colors, despite the spring forest around them.

"Let me start by introducing myself. My name is Violanatheruna, and I know your mother well. I'm the creator of the.. medicine you take every morning"

"That's you?!" Katla exclaimed, "Somehow my mother never mentioned you were a dryad. I didn't expect to meet you like this. Let me just say that I'm so, so very happy for the work you do. It's a wonderful potion, really, and there's hardly any side effects except from an ache in.."

Katla blushed as she stopped talking mid sentence, and then caught herself and continued, "Anyway, you need my help? If there's anything I can do for you, I'd be thrilled to repay your kindness."

Violanatheruna smiled and said, "Yes, I can see the results are everything that could be hoped for. Have you even told the other traders? I imagine they wouldn't notice anything. But let's not sidetrack ourselves. Yes, there is something you can do for me, but please hear me out before deciding. It's not a small thing I'm about to ask of you."

Katla took a deep breath, "Okay, I'm listening. What sort of quest are you about to send me on?"

"You make it sound so grand," Violanatheruna replied, "and I suppose in somwas it might be. You see, years and years ago, I knew a man. I was very fond of him, and he of me. But our companionship was a challenging one, because he was a traveller, and I, by my nature, can't travel very far."

She paused for a moment and opened the bag she was carrying over her shoulder. From it, she pulled a thin necklace chain with an intricately designed amulet of gold and green. The golden strands swirled around a central gemstone, holding it, but somehow seeming to have been grown around it. She held it forward for Katla to see, and Katla picked it up gingerly.

"This," the dryad explained, "is a magical amulet. It was crafted as one half of a pair. The other belonged to him. With them, we could signal each other and send short messages.

But one day.. he disappeared. The amulet went dark. And it's been dark ever since, until this morning.

I'm not sure what it means. I don't know why it went dark in the first place, I just assumed the other amulet had been destroyed somehow. But if it lights up again, that must mean the amulet is out there somewhere, right? And if the amulet is out there... He must be too."

Violantheruna's words stopped as she sighed and slumped down, sitting on the ground where she had stood moments before.

"I don't know if I dare hope. But I want to ask of you, since you're travelling north, will you look for him? I can give you a drawing and you can take the amulet with you. If the other amulet is still whole, you might at least be able to track that down and bring it back. Then I'd have something of his."

Katla and Solvi stood there, lost for words after the dryad's speech. Katla held the amulet and looked between it and the dryad. Solvi looked to Katla and studied her face for a reaction, a clue to what she intended.

"I'll find him," Katla said after a long silence, "If he's out there, anywhere, I'll find him."

Tears velled up in Violanatheruna's eyes.

"Thank you, Katla. I hop that you will find him, if he is out there to find. I'm tired now. I need to go to rest. There's more you need to know, but I can tell you avout it all tomorrow. Can you meet me for lunch?"

The dryad saw the look on Solvi's face, and added, "and your friend is welcome to join us too, if you want."

The next day at lunch, the three of them gathered around a table in a different part of the dryad village.

The two young women sat in respectful silence as the dryad told the tale of the last day she had seen her beloved.

It was a bright day in the forest, birds were singing, and flowers were blooming in all the colors of the rainbow. Bees were buzzing from flower to flower, and a group of young deer was jumping through the woods.

Violanatheruna had said goodbye to her sweetheart shortly after breakfast and was now cleaning up after the dinner party they had held the night before.

As she was clearing away the last remnaants, one of the other dryads came running into the clearing.

"Hide! Run! Flee!" She yelled at the top of her lungs, "raiders are coming, we have to hide!"

Violanatheruna looked around for any valuable items still out in the open. Two quick glances, everything important was hidden away. She started running. Running towards the center of the village. Same direction as the other dryad had been heading. Running to warn everyon else.

The raiders trampled through the forest crushing rotting branches and blooming flowers underfoot. The dryads hid in the trees. They were the trees. The raiders saw only the forest and no dryads.

Minutes passed. Hours passed. The empty spaces between the trees were eerily silent. Even the wind seemed to hold its breath.

Long after the raiders had passed, the dryads emerged. They gathered in a single clearing and discussed what they could do, bound as they were to the trees and the forest.

They couldn't send scouts or messages to uncover the destruction in the wake of the raiders. In the end, they decided to wait for words from the outside and prepare medical help for any wounded survivors.

It was during these preparations that Violanatheruna discovered that her necklace had not only gone silent, it had gone completely dark. It had used to have even a little flicker of a glow even when dormant for days, but now it was completely dark with no light to be seen. Violanatheruna feared the worst and grief hit her with the force of a falling tree.

Days went past without any outsiders entering the forest, but finally a visitor came from the nearest village. She described how the raiders had burned and pillaged their village, and while most of the people had fled, a few had been taken as thralls.

Solvi and Katla sat in shock and silence as the dryad finished her tale of those dreadful days.