Isildilia.(Book 1 of the White Lily trilogy)

Chapter 24- an unexpected reunion

   Isildilia woke before the dawn. She looked around the clearing to see that Valin wasn’t there. She sat up and listened. She could hear the sound of Valin’s flute. It was far away, filtering through the trees. She got up and followed the sound until she found him. He was sitting in front of a broken sapling; its life had almost completely ebbed away.

    He sat crossed legged, eyes closed as he played. She stood and watched, fascinated. As Valin played, she could also hear him humming deep in his throat at the same time. The sapling shuddered, and then the broken stem snapped back together. It gave another small jerk, and then its braches suddenly became embraced in a headdress of leaves. Isildilia thought that was all he was going to do, but he continued playing. The sapling suddenly started to swell at an incredible rate. Within seconds it was nearly as tall as the surrounding trees, but it continued to grow past, so that she could no longer see the top and its trunk was twice as thick as any other.   Its roots burst out and tore at the dry ground, forcing her to step back.  Slowly, it ground to a halt. The whole thing was over within a minute. She was impressed. No wonder Valin held his title.

      She looked around for Valin, but he was no longer on the floor. She ran right up to the newly grown oak and stared up through the branches

    She could just see him, nested on one of the larger branches, which she assumed had grown up directly from beneath him, taking him up with it.

   Once the tree had finally stopped growing, Valin stood up and took a tremendous leap to the floor, where he landed nimbly, as if the jump was no more than a few feet. When he noticed her he almost leapt back up again.

   “How long have you been there?” he asked, putting his hand across his heart in shock.

   “Not very long. What were you doing?”

   Valin placed a hand on the new tree, “if you must know I was growing a new guardian for this part of the forest, as it is part of my duty.”

   “Why that tree? Why not any of these ones, they seemed much stronger.”

   “I don’t just pick any tree. I’ve been sitting here for the last hour, touching the deep conscious of every tree in this area and found this one to be most suitable for the role.” Isildilia shrugged, confused by the whole thing.  Something shot over head through the network of branches. She couldn’t see what it was, but she heard it call out.

   “Nijli nathize unt tatk grόli.” To which Valin responded the same.

   “What does that mean exactly?” she asked. “I head you say it before to Jolkef but I only understood one or two words.” Valin thought for a moment, and then slapped his head in frustration.

   “How could I be so stupid, so forgetful? Here we are only a day from the mountains and you can't even speak out dialect fluently. Oh of all the things I chose to neglect. There’s been so much commotion that there hasn’t been time. The combat training could have waited, but this. Oh, what problem there’s going to be, when you can’t even fluently address your own people, or your parents for that matter? They will have my hide.”