'Idalia!'
They looked up at her with panic in their eyes, in a state she rarely saw in the normally carefree fauns.
'Idalia!' they chorused, and began to babble.
She quelled them with a glance, then looked around and spotted several she recognized. 'Jakar—Redmouse —Malky—what do you need today?'
All of them started talking at once.
'The Lady—'
'The Lady in the Woods—'
'The Oaklady—'
'She's hurt—'
'The treelady's hurt—'
'Lightning struck her—'
'Struck her tree—'
'The Oaklady's tree—'
'And she's hurt—'
'Come, Idalia—'
'Will you come—'
'She needs help—'
'She needs healing—'
'You're a Wildmage Healer—'
'And she's hurt—'
Idalia was used to interpreting the fauns' chatter, and she had no difficulty in extracting from their babbling the information that, somewhere in the woods, an oak-dryad's tree had been struck by lightning and she had sent the fauns for help.
By now, attracted by their clamor, Kellen had come from his own work to see what was going on. Today he was involved in the delicate task of splitting the logs that would become the cabin floor and then planing their surfaces until they were as smooth as possible. Once the log planks had been fitted into place, there would be more smoothing to be done. Though last night the violent thunderstorm that had lashed the Wildwood with wind and rain had made it seem as if the end of the world had come, the day had dawned clear, and that heavy tarp had kept the wood dry enough for Kellen to work.
The sennights of hard physical work had put a great deal of muscle on his long lanky frame, just as the constant exposure to sun and wind had darkened and weathered his skin even as it added streaks of gold to his curly brown hair. Idalia doubted that any of his City friends would recognize Kellen these days, dressed as he was in nothing but a pair of deerhide trousers and his heavy leather moccasins, and with his long dark gold hair tied back in a length of buckskin.
'What's going on?' he asked curiously.
Did he need to know how serious this was? Probably not. 'An oak-dryad's been hurt, and you can't move a dryad too far from her tree, or she'll die. I'm going to go see what she needs,' Idalia answered briefly. 'There's no need for you to go. You stay here and keep on working. I'll send one of the fauns back for you if I need you.'
Kellen grinned, his teeth white against the new darkness of his skin. 'And here I thought I was going to get a rest.'
'A change is as good as a rest, so if you want a rest, brother dear, you can finish chopping the kindling. Or charge some of those keystones. Both need doing,' Idalia answered tartly.
'I think I'll stay with the logs.' Kellen waved, and headed back to the sawhorses. Idalia went into the cabin
