Current Events > Prologue to The Dryad and Her Prince, a tale of forbidden love and sacrifice.

(+) Yeah! (+)

This will be my first solid attempt at a novel. Prologue is short, but that's intentional.

Dryads are the most beautiful creatures in the Shadowbranch Forest. Human-like in their form, intelligent and capable of articulated speech, but they are for all intents and purposes a plant species. Ever elegant are the dryads, seldom seen by humans, and always female.

One foggy morning, a particular dryad was peering from a treetop through a far-off web of interwoven branches. Keen of eye as dryads are, neither the fog nor the branches prevented her from detecting the shape which moved on the ground. It was indeed a human, and a male. He was alone and visibly frightened no, terrified. Every step the man took was cautious, making no sudden movements except for his head as he glanced frantically all around him. A wasted effort. Humans are too noisy and cumbersome to sneak through the foliage, thought the dryad. She studied the poor creature, watched him stumble and clumsily regain his composure. He had eventually managed to reach a spot where there was no concealment between the dryad and himself. Incidentally, he was going the wrong way. There was little doubt he was trying to find his way out of the forest. Instead, he found an arrow in his chest. After all, Dryads are impeccable archers, and it was not mating season just yet.