Summer Loving with Dryad

When I was burnt out from being inside of the cabin I would go for walks in the woods. I didn't make it back to the tree until the third day. I decided to go for a walk in the woods as I was mulling over how to resolve a couple of plot lines in my story. I followed the same path that I had gone down a couple of weeks ago, and also had gone down so many times over the years. The path seemed oddly different as I walked down it, it took me a bit of time to realize why. The path seemed less cluttered with overgrowth and overhanging branches. Just like the dirt road that lead to the cabin, the branches didn't look like they were trimmed, overhead was just as thick with branches if not thicker with them and none of them bore signs of recent cutting. I wasn't sure if I could believe my eyes, but it almost looked as though in a few weeks the branches had grown in in different ways so that they no longer crowded onto the path.

As I turned down the smaller path that lead to the oak tree in the clearing, it was more noticeable. The branches that I had to push my way through a few weeks ago were now all intertwined overhead so thickly that they blocked out the sun. I walked under the branch archway, not believing what I was seeing. I made it through in half the time it had taken me last time. The clearing looked almost the same as before with the field of flowers growing around the tree, but now there was a path. I looked around for signs that the clearing seemed different then when I had seen it a couple of weeks ago. There was a narrow path in the wildflowers leading from where I stood at the end of the clearing up to where I would sit against the tree. I knew I had been careful not to step on any of the flowers the last time I was here. I looked down at the path and it seemed as though all of the flowers along the gap had turned outward to make it easier for me to walk through. Someone wanted me to move forward. The thought was a crazy one, no one could have done this, yet as I walked down the path the evidence seemed to be pointing to exactly that. I thought about turning around, about not letting whatever did this to lead me on so easily. I was close to doing that, but my curiosity won the better out of me.

I made it to the tree and sat in my usual place. Nothing happened. When I put my back against the tree this time, I fit into it perfectly like I did as a child. I was confused, when I had sat against it just a couple of weeks before, the hallow in the tree was too small, but now it was a perfect fit. I sat waiting for something to happen. After I got bored of waiting I pulled out my laptop from my knapsack and my notebook and started to write. I had been stuck on a section of the story since before I moved to the cabin and had tried multiple times to make it through it but I always got bogged down. I checked my notes, and found a few pages that was the first step in getting me to come up with a solution. Now it all started to click as I wrote. I wasn't the best typer, but my fingers sped up rapidly as the story started to flow out. There was just something about this place that seemed to lead to me being more productive. Every now and then I had the feeling that I was being watched, but when I looked around I could never see anyone.

After three hours of nonstop typing I finally had to call it a day. I put my stuff away and leaned back against the tree with a contented sigh. If I could be even half as productive as I was today, then I would have my book finished by the end of the summer with maybe even time to edit. I closed my eyes and inhaled the woodland scents around me, savoring the smell of pine, oak, and flowers.

This started a new routine for me. I tried to do my writing in the cabin, and while I had gotten over my writers block and could get some work done there, it never matched how easy it was for me to write when I was in my clearing. I could go for hours when I was at the clearing, but when I was inside I was more aware of time and would need breaks. I fell into the routine of eating breakfast, doing some maintenance around the cabin before it got too hot, doing some research for a bit and enjoying some down time, and then around 2 pm I would pack a lunch and my supplies and hike up to the tree in the clearing. In two weeks I got more work done then I had in almost six months. The story was flowing out almost quicker than I could keep up with writing it.

At the start of my second week there I was so eager to get started writing that I woke up early to get my chores done and headed up to the oak tree clearing around noon. My physical stamina was increasing from doing so much hiking and physical work around the cabin, and my writing stamina was increasing as well. Each day I found myself able to sit for longer periods of time underneath the tree. I had ordered a cushioned lap desk to help with the cramping I would get from having to balance my laptop on my knees and bag. With the lightweight and comfortable surface to write on I was able to write even longer.

That day was hotter than usual and the heat took more of a toll on me, but I was able to make it to the clearing without too much difficulty. I untied the lapdesk from my bag and got to writing. My fingers danced across the keys as I typed nonstop.

Hours later I let out a sigh and closed my computer. My hands felt numb from all of the writing I did. I took a long drink out of my water bottle. I don't think I drank any water for hours. I leaned back against the tree, still in shock at how much writing I got done. I rested my eyes, and before I knew it I was drifting off to sleep. Normally I was a deep sleeper, but before I could fully fall asleep The sound of leaves rustling and something light falling on my nose pulled me from my slumber. I slowly came too, but was fighting my awakening and kept my eyes closed in hopes of slipping back to sleep. I was starting to, when I heard the sound of movement in the trees above me.

I woke up having that feeling of being watched again. I lay still, unsure what to do. I only lay there for a couple of minutes, but that time felt like much longer with my heart pounding in my chest. I heard the rustling again. I cracked my eyes open and saw a pair of eyes looking down on me. They were a bit wider than a humans, looking like the proportions halfway between human sized eyes and a cartoon's eyes. At first I thought that it might belong to some type of animal, but as I looked up at the eyes I could start to make out the shape of a face and facial features. They were hard to make out because the face seemed to blend in perfectly with the tree. At first I thought maybe I was hallucinating or having a night terror, but the longer I looked at the face in the tree, the more real it seemed. When I opened my eyes fully and started to move the creature pressed itself against the tree and seemed to mold into it, because one second it as there, and the next it was gone. I grabbed my stuff and jumped away from the tree. I backed away down the clearing, keeping my eye at the spot on the tree. When I made it out of the clearing I started to run.

The light from the setting sun didn't pierce through the thick trees so it was like nighttime had fallen instantly. I ran down the path, confident that I knew the way to the cabin. I was proud of how long I was able to run, after just a few weeks of being more active my stamina was noticeably improving. Unfortunately I used my new found speed to get lost in the woods. I had thought I went the right way, but instead I must have went down one of the wrong side paths. The trees started to close in around me and night fell even harder. I tried not to panic, but being lost in the woods had always been one of my biggest fears as a child. It was something that also intrigued me because I devoured any book I could get that featured someone getting lost and surviving out in the wilderness. I stopped frantically moving through the forest to catch my breath and calm myself. I knew that the worse thing I could do was panic and get myself even more lost. Knowing what I should do and actually doing it are two different things.

Once I finally calmed down I looked around and tried to get my bearings. I checked my cell phone, it was half charged but there was no service out there. At least I could use it as a flashlight for a bit. I took in my surroundings and tried to figure out where to go. With an educated guess I started down one of the paths thinking I should be back home in no time. I wandered the woods in the dark for hours, getting increasingly upset as it took me longer to make it back home. My throat was parched, I drank the last of my water hours ago. I don't remember when I decided to sit down against a tree, only that once I did I felt my exhaustion catching up to me all at once. I closed my eyes and slept, my last thought was of how it would be easier to find my way home in the morning.

***

I bolted awake, confused that I was in my bed. My body protested at the sudden movement, it felt stiff and sore, but not as if it was yesterday, but instead it felt as if my body was at the tail end of recovery. I thought back on last night, trying to retrace what happened. I remembered writing under the tree, falling asleep, and then waking up to seeing a face looking down at me from out of the tree, and then how I had gotten scared and ran off into the woods and got lost. I knew that it all happened, but if it did then how did I end up in bed with no memory of how I got there?

I climbed out of bed, deciding that I could start to figure things out better once I woke up more. When I placed my feet down on the hardwood of the cabin floor, I noticed something peeking out from under my bed. I bent down and pulled out an oak leaf.

I skipped my morning routine and got ready to hike out to the oak tree. I didn't plan on doing any writing, but brought my writing bag out of habit. The hike to the oak tree passed in a blur as I thought about all of the weird things that had been happening. If I was smart, then I would pack up my car and drive away from here, but I was too curious, besides I was feeling like a real writer for the first time ever with how much work I was getting done. This summer was the perfect chance for me to start making my dream into a reality.

When I was approaching the clearing I found a spot to hide my camera and pointed it at the tree.I made it to the edge of the clearing and hid an old camera so that it could watch the tree. Afterwards I stood staring up at the oak tree, preparing myself for whatever was going to happen next. I started to slowly walk through the field of flowers, and stopped short of the oak tree. I looked up at the part of the tree where I had seen the face.

"Hello?" I waited a moment to see if there would be any movement. There wasn't. I waited longer. I decided to try and trick whatever creature was living in the tree out into the open. If it didn't work then I would have probably started looking up doctors to prescribe me some strong drugs. I sat down in my usual place and started to work. At first it was slow going as I tried to keep an eye out for whatever I had seen before, but as I got into my work, I stopped thinking as much about yesterday and more about my writing. I was almost a quarter of the way done with my book by that point, and while I knew it was going to need extensive editing, for the most part I was proud of my writing. Before moving here, writing often felt like pulling teeth and was slow going, but here I felt like things were finally coming together. Nothing happened that day.

After an hour of writing I started to get that feeling that something was watching me. I wanted to look up at where I had seen the face the day before, but I felt like it was too soon, I remembered how quickly that face had disappeared before, so I decided to wait longer before looking. I kept on working aware that I was being watched. After a couple more hours of writing my body and mind finally called for me to stop. I put away my laptop and notebook and leaned back against the tree. Originally I had been planning to pretend to go to take a nap under the tree, but once I laid against it, I began to feel my lack of sleep from the night before. If I didn't spend my night running through the woods, then I at least spent it tossing and turning. Sleep came quickly for me.

I woke up feeling rested so I knew that I must have been asleep for at least a few hours, I hesitated to open my eyes, what if the creature in the tree was looking down again? What would I do? What would I do if there wasn't anything there and when I check the camera footage I realize that there was never anything there to begin with? I didn't think I had been isolated out in the cabin long enough to go crazy, especially with my frequent trips into town, but I knew that a crazy person doesn't know if they are crazy. I slowly opened my eyes. There was nothing there. I stretched as I stood up, put on my backpack, and walked out of the clearing. I tried as discreetly as possible to pick up the camera that I had left half concealed in a bush. I wanted to check the camera right then to see if it had picked up anything, but it had died while I was asleep.

I made it back to the cabin and put my camera on its charger and made a quick lunch. When I was done eating I turned it on and watched the video. It felt a little weird to be watching myself as I wrote. I started speeding up the video and was half way through the footage when I saw movement suddenly at the spot in the tree where I had seen the face. With fast forwarding the video it was too fast, so I rewound it and started the video right before the movement. Even being played in real time I couldn't believe what I saw, one moment there was nothing there, and the next moment there was a face peering out from the tree. At the distance from the tree it was hard to make fine details, but as more of the creature emerged I saw that it looked like a girl. She had pointed ears, wide eyes, a small slightly upturned nose, and a small mouth. At first it looked like a trick of the light, but the more I looked and she emerged I saw that her skin had a light green tint to it, and her hair looked like it was made out of moss and leaves. She twisted her body out of the tree in a graceful way, and sat on the branch that was directly above me. Her whole body seemed to have that green tint to it. She was completely naked. Even from a far her body looked amazing. I paused the video, watching her as she watched me. I knew the term, for what she probably was, but there was a disconnect in my knowledge from learning from books and seeing one in real life. She was a dryad. I let the video play again at a sped up rate. She wasn't just staring at me which was good, she was just looking out and every now and then looking down on me. It would have been too creepy if she was just looking down at me the whole video. I got near the end of the video and saw myself start to wake up, she took one last look at me and pressed herself against the tree and vanished.

When the video was done playing I just sat there staring at the screen. I had proof now that something supernatural had happened to me. I wanted to show someone else the video to see if they saw it too, but I felt protective of the girl in the tree. She saved me from out in the woods, it wouldn't be a fitting thank you if I posted a video of her and got other people to come and ruin her woods. I started the video around the middle of it, and took some screenshots as she emerged from the tree and when she was sitting above me. I couldn't stop looking at her, even though the image quality wasn't the best she looked beautiful. I couldn't help but be aware of her nudity, even if the shadows obscured most of her body.

I looked up all I could about dryads. After skimming a wikipedia page I found a greek mythology website that had a lot of stories about them and a bestiary of greek monsters. What I read seemed to confirm what I had observed so far about how they liked to tease men but were also very elusive and how they were usually shown living out of a tree.

Now that I knew she was there for real I decided to go back to the tree, I couldn't just sit around the cabin now. I made it back to the tree faster than I ever had before. Now as I walked under the trees that had changed how they were growing it made sense, a dryad would be able to do that, but it would make more sense for her to shape the trees to block my way rather than open up the path. I thought about the flowers in the clearing too, she must have made a pathway for me through them. Why? Dryads were supposed to avoid human contact, why make it easier for me to make it to her?

I marched down the path right up to the tree. I wondered if she would be confused to see me so soon again. "I know you are there, I saw you," I said. I tried to sound confident but not threatening. I'm pretty sure i succeeded on the latter, but failed on the former. I held up the camera and started it playing from the point in the video that she first emerges from the tree.

"I have you on camera, since I know you are there why don't you just come out? Please," I decided it couldn't hurt to be a little polite. I stood up at the tree and waited. When she didn't come out I sighed and turned around to leave, planning on who I could show the video to see if they saw her too so that I could prove to myself that I wasn't crazy.

"Wait," a voice called out from the tree. I turned around, not believing that I had really heard her voice. She stepped out of the tree on ground level. For a moment her skin matched the tree bark exactly in color and texture, but then over a couple of seconds that smoothed out and took on a light green tone. Her hair was a darker shade of green and was made of overlapping leafs and moss. There was a few flowers bloming in her hair.

We stared into each other's eyes, hers were bigger than a humans and were jade green. Her big eyes darted back and forth, she seemed nervous to me which was crazy. "You're real?" I asked, still in disbelief.

"Yes, I am," she said.

"My name is Adam," I said.

"I am Helenaa."

"Did you save me last night?" I asked.

"Yes," she said. She looked down.

"Thank you, I don't think I would have made it out of the woods if it wasn't for you," I said.

"You are welcome," she said. Her voice had a unique sweet lute to it, almost as if it was somehow a combination of the sounds of birds singing in the morning and the sound of wind gently blowing through the trees. I was hanging on every word she said, which made it such a shame that she seemed to speak in so few words. She said something else, but had mumbled so I didn't pick up what she said.

"What?" I asked.

"Why did you get scared and run from me," She looked up and made eye contact with me. I could see moisture welling up in her eyes.

Seeing her on the verge of tears pulled at my heartstrings. I had never been able to see a girl cry and not want to do everything I could to make them feel better. I guess that also extended to supernatural girls as well. "You just startled me. I wasn't expecting to see someone watching me from up in the tree."

"So you don't think I am a monster?" She asked.

This was strangely starting to feel like the times in the past when I had to reassure girlfriends when they hit a patch of low self esteem. "Not at all, you certainly don't look..." I checked out her perfect nude body and gulped. "You definitely don't look like a monster. And if you were, would you have saved my life?"

"Exactly," she said.

"So, are you a dryad?" I asked.

She smiled, "Yeah. Humans still know about us?"

"Some do, but they know about greek mythologies in stories. You are supposed to just be a myth,"I said, still not over the fact that I was talking to a dryad. I doubted that I would get used to talking to her anytime soon.