Dryad Ritual

"It started with fire, more fire, and then more of the same. Every conversation was kindling, every mistake was a branch of green that sparked, and the split wood, crossed, that framed it all kept the restless flames fed.

Tonight he'd used branches from her Sacred Pear Tree. It was a place that birds from everywhere came to visit and seek peace. It was thoughtless! The branches were alive, and hurt when disconnected from the trunk to both the parent and child. She imagined what terror and pain the children of the forest had felt to see limbs ripped from their temple. Lives had been lost. It was a disaster. For nothing! His distraction! The Pear Tree was a promise of comfort and peace, and now it was a promise broken by her lover, the sky.

Sky tried to deny it, and say the branches had fallen themselves. What dryad worth her roots wouldn't confirm such an obvious lie? Her commune with her roots told her the answer in the three moments it took him to shake his head in false denial. Her eyes narrowed. Nature seeped and seethed with heat and betrayal. The woods began to fog, and water boiled.

Often he could amuse her, and with playful songs and stories where he was the fool who listened to the wise words of a goddess and barely escaped a punishment. He reached for her, clever hands and fingers looking to capture her in a warm embrace that would cool to phosphorous embers. He could feel her soften under his chest, hands curving over his hips instead of pushing him away. When she glowed, no one could resist her, he said. "There was nothing like a cool night to hold the fire of two bodies under the stars."

"But what do they feel when I am incandescent? Stars are fire, enjoyed from a distance, but even the humans brave fireworks to experience the feeling up close." Earth took hold of his seed bag, squeezing until he gasped and held his breath. She released her hold as his lungs let go of the gust, and dragged her fingertips over every inch of him.

"Forest fires hurt your trees..." He murmured and also grunted as she found other places to squeeze and stroke. His lips found an ear, words dripping into it until she shivered. "But I have something to sacrifice to that energy. I'll lose my soul into you, fill you with spirals and dust. Cover you, protect you, and..."

"Destroy me," Earth moaned, and opened fully to the sky, like the flower to the sucking beak of a hummingbird.

He could bring fire too, and make it consume everything on her lands. It was a bolt of purpose, the creator's fire, and when it penetrated and released inside her... new life and elements began to breathe. They eventually took her for granted, and there was a reckoning, but they were so very grateful and adorable at first.

There was always evidence of their joining. Surrender, struggle, surrender, and a crash into bliss. Things were destroyed. Things evolved. Things survived.

The earth loved the sky. The sky loved the earth. Between the two of them, they could create enough novelty to last eons and across time and space. "

A grandmother rocked herself in a chair before the fire, arms outstretched like the wings of a partridge to hold, then rock the two cradles astride her. The twins each had a giggle that was like the different notes pf rung bells.

"But tonight, on this blue moon on the 21st of the vine, your parents chose to create you. They made offerings of money, wine, prayers, blood, and mind to their household gods of earth and sky. Your mother walked to a temple of Artemis and found on the shore beneath her arches two spiraling shells. Two storks stood in the wetland before her, confirming it a sign from the messengers of healing and spirit. When she got back to the house, she buried them under Mycroft, your Grandfather Oak."

She hummed a moment, eyes open but blind to all before her. "Your brothers swore protection. Your sister promised wisdom, and wished for you as earnestly as your parents. Me... I just get to be forever delighted by you."

The hearthfire warmed the scene and story in a rosy glow that we remember our best memories in. The twins carried that moment in their hearts throughout their lives, and found it to be a limitless resource for their spirits. Love was an arrow could brave so many elements, enfold so much energy, and the heart was a perfect place to end one's journey and rest.