Wind brushed through the long grass, prickling Kirilamei’s sunbaked skin. She laid in the meadow and basked in the warm light. A vibrant energy she gathered and saved for later.

Not all parts of the forest received as much light and required her tender care. Many dryads preferred the simple life as a gardener, tending to the needs of their lot and watching it grow lush and filled with life over time.

Kiri, however, stared into the milky sky and wondered where all the stars hid and what might await there. The clouds crawled away, revealing the face of a young man. He looked off in another direction but took notice and turned to meet her.

The man had light skin and at first she thought him to be sick but then grew to admire his beauty. His lips moved to silent words. He narrowed his piercing blue eyes, brighter than the sky, that seemed to invite her to join him.

Startled, she shot upright and laid a hand to her breast. Her heart beat frantically against her chest. She glanced up again, but the man faded and vanished after a few sparse seconds.

“Feeeeeeeeed usssss,” the grass moaned, stirring Kiri from her day-dreaming.

Kiri rolled onto her belly and took in the bushels of dark green with golden spikelets. “You’re getting pretty spoiled,” Kiri said, raising a brow.

Still, she didn’t want to deny the grass a nice breakfast after sun bathing for a full hour. She dipped her fingers into the soil until she felt the stirring roots beneath her. The hairs on her neck tingled as she yielded a sliver of energy into the soil. Every nymph held bio-ethereal energy inside of their basin located under their lungs and use it when needed.

The stems stiffened as they sucked in the energy and let out a satisfied squeak. “Thaaaaank yooouu Kiiii,” they chanted in unison.

Kiri stood, brushing off her knees and readjusted the rose petal skirt wrapped around her lithe waist. At eight-hundred years of age, she’d only just become a full member of society and contributed to the world. The years prior had given her a greater freedom to explore the corners of Amazon and spy on the various life forms that cohabited her home. An eagerness that kept her out of the Grove on most days.

A dark figure crested the nearby hill and headed her way. After her encounter with the centaur’s, Kiri couldn’t face the Elder Dryads and sent Ajalla with the news. They smiled and rushed into each other’s arms. Kiri felt herself at ease, now that Ajalla returned to her. Being alone wasn’t natural. They were seedlings, both born of the same fruit and spent their entire lives together.

“They gave us another assignment!” Ajalla tightened her embrace and lifted her off the ground.

Assignments were the initial step in becoming a Warden and traveling to distant worlds. She failed the first by not holding to the rules of the Alseid. The image of the man lingered in the back of her mind and sent her heart into a flutter.

“Come on, a second chance!” Ajalla pulled away and studied her face. “You seem a little off. Did something happen while I was away?”

Kiri evaded her seedling’s deep gaze, knowing full well she wouldn’t last long against her interrogation. Heat rose to her cheeks as she fumbled to find words. “I thought I saw a face in the sky.”

“That was probably just a sky nymph,” Ajalla said with a grin. “Nephelai are quite the pranksters and think they can get away with everything only because they walk the winds.”

“No, it wasn’t a nymph but a man,” Kiri added tentatively.

“Ohhhh, I see. That could be nothing or…”

“Or what! A messenger from Artemis?”

“I met a ten thousand year old iboga tree, and she told me you see the person you’re destined to be with the moment your fates are set to cross.” Ajalla perked her lips together and shrugged. “She also told me some pretty gruesome stories about people that got caught in the moor and sunk to their death, so I’m not sure how reliable her information is.”

“That’s horrible.” Kiri waved her hands in the air. “The moor I mean, not fate.”

Ajalla crossed her arms in front of her chest and knitted her brows together in a concerned expression. Kiri envied her short frizzy hair. It was simple to keep under wraps unlike Kiri’s that grew longer and constantly blew in her face. She meant to cut it on several occasions but couldn’t quite get herself to part with it.

“Well, now you’ve angered the gods,” Ajalla said, shifting back to her grin. “Before we get caught up searching the sky for handsome men, I need to tell you about our assignment.”

“The centaurs are off limits and Lefaljac can’t make me. I’m not going to risk being abducted by a band of wild horsemen again.”

Despite her wish to become a Warden, she heard enough tales during her childhood about nymphs being swept away to warrant caution. Most of the stories came from Ajalla who liked to tease her but Rhaecus was close enough for her to keep distance to the centaurs.

“Relax. Lefaljac wants us to inspect the cove. There have been a series of unplanned transfers and she wants us to see who’s traveling to other worlds.”

Kiri perked up, balling her hands into fists and closing the distance between them. “Really? That’s great. I won’t—we won’t let them down.”

Ajalla frowned for a moment before returning to her broad smile. They relied on each other to help drag the other up and keep a high morale. “I haven’t even told you all of it yet.”

“The cove, hmm,” Kiri began, tapping her finger against her lips. She’d kept her distance from the coast for most of her life. The ocean had an unsettling amount of power behind each wave and she feared being dragged out to sea. “That’s not around the corner, so it’s best if you tell me the gist on the way. We don’t want to keep them waiting.”

“What about the man in the sky?”

“He … well,” Kiri recalled his sharp features and paid a little too much attention to his lips. She squeezed her eyes shut in a vain attempt to shove those thoughts aside. “It’s not like he’s about to come falling down at our feet.”