Chapter 14 #2
“Oh, yes, my tribute,” the sprite said, with what she probably thought was a nonchalant air… but in reality, she practically had Hand it over! written all over her face, her hands reaching out without her seeming to realize they were doing so. “I suppose I shall allow you to present it to me.”
Diana stepped forward, willing her hands not to tremble as the sprite seemed to move faster than should have been possible, seeming to disappear and then reappear right in front of her, getting up in her personal space. “This is the tribute that Calvin has chosen for you.”
The sprite examined the tribute closely, seeming to be confused. “A small tree,” she murmured, the condescending tone gone from her voice for once.
“It’s a birch sapling,” Diana said, trying to cover the slight shake in her voice. “I know that there aren’t many birches in this particular section of the forest, so we thought you might like something a little different to look at.”
She had taken a bunch of cuttings from her overgrown birch tree a month or two back, with the intention of selling them to fundraise for the playground once they were a little more established.
She and Calvin had hoped that the sprite would like one as a tribute, given what Sieval had said about how she would probably want something linked to the riddle’s answer.
But could a creature as friendly as Sieval really know what a self-centered sprite like this one would like?
The sprite looked the sapling over from top to tail, inspecting every inch of it. Diana held her breath. The sprite seemed interested, at least, which Diana supposed was a good start. Some of the snootiness had melted away from her expression, replaced by what seemed to be genuine curiosity.
And maybe she realized at some point that she’d let her facade slip, because suddenly the haughty veil dropped once more, and she straightened up, tilting her chin upward.
“It will suffice,” she snapped, pointing over to the other side of the glade. “Place it over there.”
Diana’s knees trembled. Phew!
Next to her, she heard Calvin let out a slow breath.
“Where should I plant it?” she asked, as she walked around the pond. She didn’t want to just go digging about, and cause a whole new situation to erupt.
The sprite looked confused. “Plant? It is already a plant.”
I guess she might not be used to deliberately cultivating plants. Everything here looks like it just sprang into existence through Mother Nature’s touch.
“To take it out of the pot and then place it in a small hole in the ground, so that it can grow,” Diana explained.
The sprite shook her head in a surprisingly human gesture. “No. Leave the – the pot.” Her voice softened infinitesimally. “I desire to keep it.”
Diana looked down at the pot in confusion. It was just a cheap terracotta thing – she and Ash had spent a weekend decorating a bunch of them with mosaics made from broken tiles and plates, with the intention of selling them with the tree and plant cuttings she was cultivating.
This one had jagged squares of various colors – deep reds, blues, greens, and golds – and was obviously one of the first ones they’d made, if the wobbliness of the mosaic was anything to go by.
But, Diana supposed, looking around the glade, it was something that the sprite would have likely never seen. Certainly it broke up all the different shades of green! It was hardly high art, but, well, if the sprite liked it, Diana wasn’t going to complain. And it did catch the sun nicely.
She placed the pot down, glancing up at the sprite to ensure that it met with her approval. The sprite nodded shortly.
Relieved, Diana made her way back to Calvin, who was watching her with an appreciative expression. She reached out and touched his fingertips, reassured by the mate bond when he squeezed back.
The sprite gazed at the birch tree in its pot, looking satisfied.
Diana wanted to ask her what she was going to do when the birch tree outgrew the pot, given that sprites apparently couldn’t touch solid objects, but decided that it would be best to refrain.
No point in introducing a potential annoyance!
Calvin cleared his throat lightly, and the sprite whipped her head around.
“I have brought you a tribute, and solved your riddle,” he said in a formal tone of voice. “I can only hope that this has been sufficient to please you.”
“Hmm?” said the sprite, glancing back at the birch in apparent admiration, before snapping back to attention. “Oh. The curse that I placed upon your head. I suppose that you would like it lifted?”
Calvin’s eye twitched ever so slightly, but he showed remarkable restraint as he lowered his head respectfully. “If you would be so kind, I would greatly appreciate it.”
“Then so it shall be.” The sprite raised her hand toward the sky, palm up, like a conductor telling their orchestra to play louder. A soft, silver glow grew slowly in her palm – before, suddenly, exploding in a blinding flash of light.
Trying to blink her vision back into focus, Diana heard the sprite’s offhand comment of, “It is complete.”
Is that it? thought Diana, her heart racing. Did it really work? Is Calvin free?
Looking up at him, she saw wonder in his face… and also a hint of fear. It obviously wouldn’t be a good idea to question the sprite’s abilities or goodwill, but Diana wasn’t going to believe that the curse had been lifted until she saw proof, and she knew that Calvin would feel the same way.
A flicker of light caught her attention, and she glanced down to see the Fitbit that Calvin had apparently put on this morning out of habit. Its screen was coming to life, and, while Diana had never used a Fitbit herself, she thought that it looked like it was working as it should.
“Look!” she gasped, and Calvin brought his wrist up in front of his eyes, his face full of wonder.
“Quick – here,” she said, pulling her phone out of her pocket and touching it to his arm before he could protest. The phone screen stared calmly back at her, displaying the date and time as it always did, seemingly judging her for holding it against someone else’s arm for no apparent reason.
“Is that it?” she asked. “Are you uncursed?”
“I guess so,” Calvin said, a wide, beautiful smile spreading across his face. He turned toward the sprite. “Thank you so much.”
“Yes, thank you,” Diana echoed, hoping that everything else that had been broken was now also working again. “We really appreciate it.”
“It was a mere trifle of my power,” the sprite sniffed, but Diana thought that she could detect something else in the sprite’s demeanor. Something… sad.
If I didn’t know better, she thought incredulously, I’d say that she’s lonely.
Well, it probably was pretty lonely, being an antisocial being in the middle of nowhere who couldn’t travel beyond a certain radius and who had a tendency to drop curses on the heads of those who did happen to pass by. Diana wasn’t sure she was feeling too sympathetic.
On the other hand… who knew how long the sprite had been here, all by herself?
Her curiosity was starting to get the better of her, and she just couldn’t help herself.
“What’s it like?” she asked, and the sprite’s head snapped around. Calvin also turned to look at her, obviously wondering what she was trying to get at.
That was a bit of an inane question.
She took a deep breath and tried again. “Being out here all by yourself, I mean. Doesn’t it get… I don’t know… lonely?”
The sprite huffed. “We sprites are solitary creatures. We are above such human concepts as… as loneliness.” She paused, then added, almost as an afterthought, “Once, I was worshipped as a deity. But now…”
She laughed, a bitter sound.
Diana felt her eyebrows going up in surprise… but, she supposed, it made sense. The sprite’s appearance and powers were pretty impressive – Diana herself was a bit in awe of her, and she knew exactly what she was and how to placate her. Unchecked, the sprite would be a force to be reckoned with.
“For some time, even though humans no longer worshiped me, they still brought me tributes. There was a blacksmith’s daughter, once, who was a worthy opponent in solving my riddles. But they are all long dead and gone, and the path to my domicile has grown over.”
She seemed to deflate, her regal bearing turning into a defeated slouch. “I have not seen a single soul for many, many moons,” she said. “Not until this oaf here sullied my waters.”
Diana bit back a biting remark. She was finally starting to feel like she was getting somewhere with the sprite.
“Even my object has faded, with no one to care for it,” the sprite went on, gesturing at an item nestled against one of the mossy rocks.
Diana crouched down to have a look, and saw that it was a sculpted, polished, pale green stone, perhaps jade.
It had been carved into the shape of a woman with leaves for hair – and, while it was beautiful, it had obviously been exposed to the elements for centuries.
Diana thought that the aging process had probably made it even more stunning than it was to begin with, but she could see why it might agitate the sprite.
“It’s lovely,” she said honestly, and the sprite seemed to perk up a little, drawing herself upright once more.
“Of course it is lovely!” she declared. “It is my object, after all!”
Diana laughed. She was starting to get the hang of how this sprite operated – flattery would get her just about anywhere.
“Would you like an occasional visitor?” she asked impulsively, even as she asked herself what the hell she was doing. Calvin’s eyes widened, and clearly it was only politeness that kept him from asking the same thing.
Steeling her resolve, she went on, “If you promised not to curse me, I’d be happy to drop in every so often to say hello. I could even clean your object for you, if you liked.”
The sprite stared at her with unnerving, unblinking eyes. Diana wasn’t sure if it was deliberately trying to intimidate her or if that was just its way of thinking things over, but she stood her ground.
“Would you promise to solve a riddle on each occasion?” she asked, and Diana tried to cover her wince.
“If I could, I would,” she said slowly. “I’m terrible at riddles. But, I do know someone who loves them. I could pass them between the two of you, if you would both like that?”
There was no way she was going to introduce Ash to the sprite face-to-face at this point!
But if it meant that he had someone to burn off his riddle energy with, and the sprite had someone to share her riddles with, then she was happy to suggest a kind of riddle pen-pal scenario to Ash and see what he thought.
And she would be happy to come out here to this lovely glade and spend some time with the sprite – provided that she behaved herself.
The sprite appeared to think her proposition over, before nodding. “I should like that.” Her voice softened. “I should like that very much indeed.”
Gesturing imperiously, her voice taking on the haughty tone once more, she added, “I suppose that your friend here may visit as well.”
Diana smiled. “Thank you…”
She trailed off.
Not knowing her name is getting really awkward!
“Do you have a name?”
The sprite frowned. “Not one that you could pronounce.” She looked over at the birch tree in its pot for a moment before turning back. “But you may call me Betula, if you like.”
“Betula,” Diana said. “It’s nice to meet you. I’m Diana, and this is Calvin.”
Calvin gave a little wave. “Hi.”
Betula turned her nose up. “Indeed.”
Diana couldn’t help but laugh. Betula probably wasn’t the kind of person – or being, anyway – that she would want to spend a ton of time around, but she was interesting, and Diana thought that a lot of her attitude was just for show.
Presumably being worshipped for centuries had warped her a little!
But the thought of coming out here again was just too appealing.
Perhaps one day, she could even offer to bring Sieval’s object here so that the two of them could meet… but perhaps not. She wasn’t sure how either of them would feel about that. Maybe she could ask Sieval at some point down the line, and see how it felt.
Diana shook her head. She was getting way too ahead of herself.
“In any case,” Betula said, breaking into her thoughts, “I tire of you both. You roused me earlier than I wished to be awake, and now my day cannot go to plan. Begone.”
Diana exchanged a look with Calvin, both of them trying not to laugh. Betula certainly didn’t have any problems making her opinions known!
“Thank you for your hospitality,” Calvin said, bowing his head. “I really appreciate that you lifted the curse.”
“It was lovely to meet you,” Diana added.
Betula merely jerked her head at them, making a shooing motion, and Diana and Calvin duly left the glade and started trotting down the path.
Diana chanced one quick glance over her shoulder – and saw Betula moving closer to the potted birch, examining its leaves with great intensity.
All’s well that ends well, she thought, as she and Calvin emerged from the overgrown path and stepped out onto the main trail.
Before she could even think any further, she leaped forward and wrapped her arms tight around Calvin’s neck, bringing their lips together in a searing kiss. He spun her around, his hands firm on her waist, and Diana had never felt so happy in her life.
We did it!!! I can’t believe we actually did it!!!
And she didn’t just mean breaking the curse.
She had a new addition to her family, and he completed her in ways that she had never even realized she wanted or needed to be completed.
He was handsome, kind, strong, brave, smart – even if he wasn’t much good at riddles!
– and absolutely devoted to her and her son.
What more could she ever want from life?
And he’ll probably help me keep my air conditioning bills down as well, she thought with an internal laugh.
Or maybe not so internal.
“What are you laughing about?” Calvin asked – but he was laughing as well, sweeping her up in his arms and carrying her down the path.
“Nothing. Everything,” she said giddily, burying her face in his neck and enjoying his warm, masculine scent. “You. Me. Our lives together.” She raised her head, looking into the depths of his gorgeous dark eyes, noting the tiny smile lines that framed them.
I want to be the one to put more smile lines there.
The thought was almost overwhelming in its suddenness. But it was true. She wanted to spend her life laughing and having fun with Calvin. She wanted to get old with him.
And she knew, more than anything else she’d ever known in her life, that her wish would come true.