"Wind´s Lover" by Jennifer L. Post

It was a beautifully sunny day. The light shone a warm green-gold as it filtered through the myriad leaves. The forest was alive and cheerful. Squirrels hopped from tree to tree, totally undisturbed by the presence of the shaper girl and the elder.

          The girl looked about twelve and glided through the forest like a summer breeze. Her knee-length, cream colored tunic was belted at the waist. Her bare feet sank lightly into the moss carpeting the forest floor and her green, leaf-ridden hair swung loosely about her shoulders. Her brown eyes watched the elder. He was taking her to the testing place.

          The elder moved as easily in his brown robes as the girl. But his age was indefinable, apparent only in the gray-brown of his hair and the tired look in his grey eyes. He seeing the glade he was looking for up ahead, he motioned his charge forward.

          “That’s the glade Isha.” He said to the girl. Isha looked at him inquiringly. He nodded and she ran ahead of him into it. She stopped just inside and looked around her.

          It was a small glade, but wildflowers grew everywhere. Their scents tinted the air with sweetness. In the center of the glade was a spring. It bubbled ceaselessly from the ground, yet never managed to overflow its small pool. It was the most beautiful place she’d ever seen.

“This is the testing place?” Isha asked the elder. Somehow, she had imagined the testing place as dark, ugly, and scary.

“Yes it is. Beautiful isn’t it?” The elder replied as he entered the glade behind her. He directed her towards the little spring. “As you know, in order for a shaper to come of age, they must find both their true shape and their name.” Isha nodded. The elder continued as they reached the spring. “This is the place where the people of our village have gone for the age test. Here we will stay until you find your true shape and name.”

Isha’s eyes got big and round. “But what if it takes months? Or a whole year?” she asked worriedly.

“Don’t worry about time child.” The elder replied. “Simply shape and search.”

The elder became very still. His breathing slowed, and suddenly he began to change. His feet widened and branched out; sinking deep into the soil. He grew taller and wider, and his clothes and skin blended together becoming brown and rough like bark. His arms multiplied and grew thick like branches. In a matter of moments, an old, weathered oak stood in place of the elder.

Isha sighed, it was her turn now. The elder’s words echoed in her mind “Simply shape and search.” Isha stilled her body and slowed her breathing; but she did not change the same way the elder had. She shrunk rapidly. Her face flattened and her hair, turning white, joined into petals. Her body became thinner, her feet turned to roots, and her arms to leaves. Seconds later, Isha had disappeared and was replaced by a happy little daisy.

Isha searched through the shape for something, something of herself, something comfortable. But it was as if she was searching through a cold, dark cavern. She could almost hear water dripping from the ceiling. Obviously the daisy was not her shape, so she changed.

She lost track of time as she searched through different shapes. A rose, a violet, a willow tree, a blade of grass, a holly bush; these shapes and more she searched but always found the same cavernous emptiness as before. She could not seem to find herself in anything and she began to worry that she didn’t have a shape at all! This was silly of course.

Then Isha shaped a beech; tall, slender, gracious queen of forest trees. Suddenly, the caverns disappeared and she could feel things! She could feel the wind through her leaves, the sun on the white, cool crispness of her bark, her roots sucking up moisture and nutrients from the soil. She marveled at a bird landing in her branches, reveled in the smooth shape of her graceful trunk, and gloried in the swift passing of time; in which a day seemed only a minute.   She realized then that she had not shaped a beech, she had become one. It remained only to find her name.

Isha searched through her memories for all the songs and stories that she’d ever heard of Beeches. There were many. But the one which stuck in her head was a little-known song, written by a little-known beast-shaper bard who had once traveled through her village.

Lovely, gracious, queen among trees,

Your slender form many have eyed.

But always lonely you’ll be,

For you have given your heart to a rouge.

Yes you are Lilishana; wind’s lover.

But you wonder will he ever come again?

To sing through your leaves and wrap you,

In the strength of his loving caress.

She had loved the song and had thought of beeches as lonely lovers ever since. This was her name then.

Isha slowly left her beech shape and became a young girl again. She looked around; the glade looked the same as before. “How long was I shaping?” she wondered. “Well, I guess I won’t know till we get back home.” Isha turned to where the elder was also returning to human form. He smiled.

“Well done! Let us hurry back to the village now, so that we can prepare your coming of age feast!” the elder’s eyes brightened and the girl knew that he was mentally licking his lips. She barely held back a giggle. She was sad to leave such a beautiful place, but the thought of the coming feast did cheer her.

The elder looked at her suspiciously, but she only smiled.

“First though,” he continued, motioning for Isha to follow him out of the glade. “You must tell me your name so that I may announce it at the feast.”

“My name is Lilishana.” The girl said.

“Ahhh, wind’s lover, a beautiful name.” said the elder, smiling with approval. A faint breeze swirled around Isha’s legs and blew through her hair; as if it agreed.