//------------------------------// // The Long Walk // Story: The Ancient Heart of the Everwood Dragon // by Grey Faerie //------------------------------// She walked. She walked. She walked. Heartwood walked through the forest. The trees bended and shuffled out of her way. Her mossy footsteps grew into the ground. The brush swayed from her movement. The birds flew up to the tree tops on her back. The animals crawled through the underbrush on her wings. The treetops of the forest ruffled as she passed. How long had she been walking? How long is forever and a day? A night? The forest opened up to her. The canopy intermixed with her own. A stream flowed by her roots. Her tail laid a trail of seeds the squirrels and mice were quick to pick up before the birds flew in. Her head swayed as she walked. She remembered walking. She remembered the smell of the changing seasons. How many had gone by? Her head shook in a fashion of speech. A clearing reached her senses. It was bare and ground up. She stopped walking. Heartwood leaned down, the trails of vines and branches reached out as well to the torn up ground. She sniffed. This was not natural. There was no seem of decay. Or of a passing fire. It seemed as though the trees and plants had been ripped from their home to the sky. The chips of bark and inner wood littered the ground. This was a battle field. A field of empty graves. The holes in the dirt left screaming and cold. She leaned up and looked around. It was too clear. Too empty. She turned back to the crowded forest. Its trees warm and comforting each other. They reached out to each other in fear of losing its neighbor. The trees by the edge of the forest shivered. Their roots searched the dry dirt only to find nothing in its place. What had happened here? Heartwood walked out into the empty burial ground. She walked to the out most center and shook. A rain of seeds and seedlings feel from her head. A flap of wings gave off the small bushes growing onto each other. Her tail flicked, encouraging the trees out. Young and curious saplings wandered their rooted bodies over to the clearing. They settled down in a hollowed out space of ground. Their roots curled and wiggled, pulling earth over their chilled roots until they were snuggled down deep. The seeds sprouted and the barren ground became ripe with new greenery. She smiled and walked on back to the forest. Such a sight it was. She looked at the bare ground. It had been so rich with new life when she came last. Now, it was dead again. She walked out and shook. Her tail encouraged the fearful trees out to the clearing. They whimpered at the call. She felt a feeling fall over her. A strange need to call out in sound her distress. The moist ground had been clawed through. The earthed turned up onto itself. The smell of the healthy dirt was there even as it laid exposed to the harsh sun. Such a crime it was to have ripped apart the fledgling trees she felt that need to call out in sound again. Full grown trees shook in rage and ventured forth. They shifted their massive roots into the fresh dirt. It was soft and lively. She smiled and walked on. How strange it was. The new forest had been torn up. The earth once again left clawed free and turned up to the sun. She walked out to the barren ground only to see movement on the horizon. Small creatures ventured out. They screamed at her. Their howls called out to their others. A few walked bravely out to the clearing. They chattered at her. She cocked her head. They chattered and chirped angrily. She paid no mind to the chittering creatures. She shook her head and let fall the new seeds. They made their new homes in the fresh soil. The small animals chittered like a squirrel with its hollow of nuts being disrupted. They howled out to each other. She paid them no mind still. They were drowned out like the chirping birds that made their nests in her twisting limps. Something hit her. Another something struck her again. She looked toward the creatures. They threw lights that pained at her. She cocked her head. Her rooted feet reached out and swatted the light thrower. Best to teach them to behave. A wolf left to gnaw on her roots will soon take to tearing them out. They howled some more. Only more fearful this time. They wouldn't leave? They ran around and hide behind dead wood. More came running. They would stop and shake. More of the light throwers came. They shot at her. She shook off their light and turned around. Her tail flicked. The trees of the forest shuffled along tangents of roots and fibers. Their bark groaned in anger. The creatures threw light at them. The trees moaned as they fell. Some righted themselves and dug into the earth. There was a strange feeling as they were pulled by the air out of their place. They fell over on to the ground with a thud. They groaned in dull pain. Heartwood ached at the sight. She turned around and walked to the creatures. They were termites then. Pests to be cleaned out of her roots. They scattered and screamed. She held them in roots and pulled some down to a place in the earth. They struggled and screamed more in a strange call. She pulled them down until the call was drowned out by earth. There, their call was mixed with the roots of the seedlings. The roots grew towards the call. It made its place in the hollows of the creature. Wounding its way through the hot cavities of the inner most parts. Moisture filled the ground and soaked up to the top were the grass drank at it. The strange call was more urgent now. It howled and they fled away, back to their nests of dead wood. The new trees and plants crawled across the dirt. They settled down in joy. These creatures would know better than to gnaw on the roots again. Heartwood smiled. She had taught the little creatures to behave. She turned and walked back to the forest.