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Chapter Thirteen- Part 1

            “Sounds good.  I’m going to go sit in Isabella’s for a while and read. Be back in an hour.”

            The coffee shop wasn’t busy. She found a window seat at the long coffee bar and settled in to her novel. Halfway through her sandwich she realized the person beside her was staring.  The slight young man sitting next to her had a large chocolate brownie in one hand and a huge grin on his face.

“Hiya.”

            Alice nodded cautiously. “Hello.”

            “You’re very pretty you know.”

            “Um…thanks.” Alice lowered her book, raised it again, blushed and tried to pretend she was reading. She forced herself not to check if he was still staring. Why do I always get the weirdos? But the young man hadn’t noticed her uncomfortable reaction.

“My name is Bryon. I’m an Ash Dryad.”

            “A what?” She knew it was the wrong thing to say as soon as it was out of her mouth. He lit up like a Christmas tree and began talking at astonishing speeds.

“I’m the spirit of a tree. Most people think Dryads are girls, but they’re not all girls. I’m not a girl.”

            “I see that…”

            He continued like she hadn’t said anything. “My tree is a tree in the park, and I probably shouldn’t have told you that, because they always tell you not to say where your tree is because maybe someday someone will hate you and they’ll go chop it down. But I think you look like nice person and you wouldn’t ever chop a tree down. Would you? That happened to my cousin once.”

            “Oh, I’m sorry…”

            “He was kind of a jerk, that’s why it happened. He probably ticked off the wrong person. I think it was a Wizard, or maybe a Woodcutter, I don’t know. It was a long time ago and the story is kind of foggy now. Dryads don’t remember things really well. We have short memories, or being a tree would get really boring. People think we’re really wise and stuff but most of us aren’t. Do you have a boyfriend?”

            Alice blinked. He had said it all in the same breath, and the last question caught her totally off guard.

“I...don’t…yes. Yes I do,” she lied.

            “That’s too bad.” Bryon the Ash Dryad looked at her critically. “Are you sure you have one, because he’s not here. What does he look like? Is he as good looking for a guy as you are for a girl? What’s his name? Is he old? I look young but I’m not. I don’t even know how old I am anymore. If you cut my tree you could count the rings but then that wouldn’t help me because I would disappear. That happens to us you know, if someone cuts our tree we disappear. Is your boyfriend very old?”

            Alice was staggered, she sputtered. “I…my age.”

            Bryon tilted his head on one side, looking for all the world like a cat about to pounce on a piece of string. “Are you sure you have a boyfriend? Sometimes girls invent boyfriends just so they don’t have to talk to me. That’s not very nice, is it?”

            Alice blushed bright red. The Dryad was smarter then she’d thought. “No, that’s not nice at all.”

            “Hey honey, you started lunch without me.”