"Crazy Day" by Jennifer L. Post

"This is all your fault Bremen!" I exclaimed. "You just had to go flying over Morgdan's Forest didn't you?" we were standing in a clearing that was ringed by fog. I had tried peering through it once but stopped trying since it was a waste of time. Bremen snorted.

            "It isn't my fault that some stupid knight shot me in the wing and I couldn't land anywhere but right here is it?" he asked.

            "Well I guess not." I admitted reluctantly. "But we may be stuck here for days until your wing heals. Those trees move around so that you end up going in circles." Bremen nodded and tried his injured wing. I had broken and pulled out the arrow, and the wound wasn't bleeding; but I knew it would start to if Bremen tried any flying or moving about.

            "I think," he said after a moment of consideration. "That if you could find some bindwort to put on it, I could fly us out of here."

            "But there isn't any growing around here! Do you think there could be some out there?" I asked him pointing to the tree line. If I hadn't been so nervous I would have remembered what I already knew; bindwort grew in almost any forest as long as there was grass.

            "How should I know? You’re the herbalist!" he replied with an annoyed tone in his voice. Now I remembered but I was afraid of going out among those moving trees alone.

            "How will I find my way back here?" I wondered aloud.

            "Do you have any string in your pockets?" asked Bremen.

            "No I don't." I replied.

            "You'll just have to trust to luck then." he said with a deep sigh.

            "You'll be ok here alone?" I asked doubtfully.

            "Certainly, I don't think that the trees come into the clearings." he told me. I walked to the clearing edge, hesitated a moment, and then plunged into the forest.

            It wasn't so bad once you got in. The trees never moved while you were looking; although I often thought I could see them doing so out of the corner of my eye. There was hardly any underbrush and the thick, green moss was like a carpet; so my progress was rapid. As I walked, I scanned the forest floor for the bindwort's sword-like leaves.

            I don't know how long I walked amidst those disturbing trees, but a long while seemed to have past when I saw another clearing up ahead. I ran toward it; thinking that it was the one Bremen and I had landed in. This forest did make you go round in circles didn't it? When I reached the edge of the trees I stopped in amazement.

            In the middle of the clearing was a cottage! It was neat-and-tidy looking and gray smoke rose from the chimney. And there in the space surrounding it, wonder of wonders! Hundreds and hundreds of plants with sword-like leaves!

            "Bindwort!" I breathed in awe.

            Of course I couldn't just TAKE the bindwort; that would've been stealing. So I threaded my way carefully through the plants towards the cottage and knocked on the door. It was opened by a little old man with a snowy beard flowing nearly to his waist.

            "I am Morgdan, keeper of this forest. How may I help you my daughter?" his voice was like the wind in the trees; late and rustlely.

"Yes sir, there is." I said politely. "My friend Bremen got shot in the

wing by a knight an-"

            "You have befriended a dragon!?" Morgdan exclaimed in obvious

surprise. "What is your name?"

            "Kylana Drago" I told him.

            "Hmm..." the old man replied. "So your friend is injured and you would like to take some of my bindwort for his wing, so that he can fly you out of my forest. Is that right Kylana?" he'd changed the subject but I pretended not to notice.

            "Yes sir, if you don't mind." said I.

            "I don't mind at all! Take as many as you like." said he. "They're more like weeds than plants the durn things!"

I thanked Morgdan and went into his yard to pick some leaves off of the bindwort plants. When I was done, Morgdan gave me a sack to carry all of them in and I thanked him again.

            "You don't have to thank me Kylana." he told me with a merry twinkle in his eye. "You just come back and visit me again. We can talk; it gets kind of lonely when you’re a feared wizard with a strange forest at your command. For some reason, friends just stop dropping by!" I agreed for I liked Morgdan a great deal already and didn’t think he was quite a fearsome as people said. As I stepped back into the trees, I waved good-bye to him.

            "What a nice new friend I've met today!" I said to myself. Friends were scarce in this crazy world. Most people lived only for themselves and laughed at others, like myself, who had higher moral standards.

            The trees didn't seem quite as disturbing as I walked back through them carrying my burden happily along. It also didn't seem to take as long as I thought it would to find the clearing where Bremen lay napping in the sun. He woke as I approached, he was a lite napper.

            "Were you bored while I was gone?" I asked him, checking the suns position. I'd been gone a little more than an hour.

            "No, I napped the whole time." he replied with a yawn.

            "I got the bindwort." I told him, holding up the sack.

            "That's great!" he cried. He extended his wing and I began wrapping the bindwort leaves tightly around where he'd been shot. The leaves stuck to each other like glue. As I worked, I told Bremen all about my talk with Morgdan.

            "It's always good to have another friend." he said sagely when I had finished wrapping his wing. I nodded agreement and then climbed up onto his back. Then, with a mighty spring, we where airborne.