Huckleberries and Hope

I was picking huckleberries when I saw her. There she was, perched on a rock in front of me. I glanced around for the other members of my crew, but I was alone. Relieved I turned back to her.

The evening sun slanting through the pines created a soft halo behind her auburn hair, highlighting the green streaks. Her moss green eyes bored into mine. When she was sure she had my attention she looked meaningfully toward the trail where I had left my pack. She turned back, eyes full of tears, and held out her hands to me.

“Show me,” I whispered.

She clambered off the rock and trudged back toward the trail. The sound of the small stream I’d been hearing grew louder as she led me to a lone tree with reddening needles. I searched for water, but didn’t see any.

She stamped her tiny bark-covered foot and pointed to the tree. I laid my hand on its trunk then flinched back. The sound came from the tree. Not water, but thousands of tiny jaws chewing the cambium layer.

The dryad pointed toward my pack then looked at me imploringly, amber tears running down her cheeks. Her meaning was clear. Save her tree. Save her. Use the aggregation pheromone packets and my magic to drive away the pine beetles. It was too late though. The packets were a deterrent and my magic strengthened trees. Nothing could stop this level of infestation.

I gripped my carton of huckleberries. Maybe if I'd worked faster, hadn’t taken so many breaks to find the purple gold, I'd have reached this section sooner. Maybe I could have saved her. I knelt and poured the berries as an offering at her feet. She bowed, accepting the offering and her fate.

“I'm sorry,” I said. 

She raised her head and looked at each tree in the surrounding forest then placed her tiny hand in mine. Clean, pure, nature magic flowed from her hand into mine. For few agonizing minutes I felt the beetles eating away under my skin, then she collapsed. I gathered her up and cradled her to me as she died. 

I laid her on a bed of huckleberries and covered her with wildflowers. Twilight fell as I picked up my pack and went back to stapling the pheromone packets to trees. Maybe it wasn’t too late for the rest of them.