Spirit of the Forest
Chapter 13

“Romelia!” Tanisha wrapped Romelia in a bear hug, once again squeezing the life out of her. “Oh, I’ve missed you so much!”

The silver haired girl chuckled at her friend’s childish behavior as Tanisha slowly rocked side to side. “I was here yesterday, Tanisha.” Romelia pointed out.

“Well… Yeah… But I don’t get much company besides Winfred and he’s a jerk!” She whined.

“That’s because you always jump to the conclusion he’s out to get you when he’s just trying to be friendly.” Tanisha gave her a funny look that was of confusion.

“What do you mean?” she asked. “Isn’t he?”

“No, Winfred is not-”

“You called, Princess?”

Tanisha inhaled sharply as Romelia looked to the side. There, beside the two the friends, was a man as tall as Tanisha, with dark skin that had the look of tree bark. His hair was dark green, like the leaves at the top of a canopy of trees. Some of is was clumped together, forming long, think, green strands. his eyes were like Tanisha’s but a bit lighter. This was Winfred, a tree nymph, who called Romelia Princess due to her relationship with Ordello.

Tanisha turned on him sharply. “What do you want Winfred?” she asked angrily.

“What did I do this time?” he asks, surprised that Tanisha is already angry at him.

“You showed up!” she snapped. “You shouldn’t BE here!”

Winfred gave her a confused look. “Er, I live here, Tanisha.”

“You live in the trees!!”

As they started to argue, Romelia walked to Cyri was sitting. Cyri was sitting a few feet away on a tree trunk that fallen not to long ago. She sat down next to him with a small smile.

Cyri watched the nymphs argue, mainly Tanisha. “Do they always fight like this?” he asked with a hint of amusement in his voice.

She nodded, resting her chin on the heel of her hand. “More or less.”

“Why? Is there a specific reason they fight so much?” he added, seeing Romelia’s confusion.

“Oh,” she said softly, “I think it’s because Tanisha likes him but doesn’t quite realize it yet. Winfred knows he does, he’s actually talked to me about it, but he doesn’t want her to know.”

“Why doesn’t he want to tell her?”

“He wants to get on her good side first.”

“Ah.”

Romelia kept going though. “It seems really stupid if you ask me. If they like each other, they should just say it. It’s pointless to just cause more pain from not speaking the truth.”

Cyri chuckled. “You sound much older than you are.”

“I guess so.” she said. Romelia smiled at Cyri, who seemed surprised before smiling back. “Well I-” She was cut off by a sudden coughing fit. It was a rather violent coughing fit, causing her whole body to shake with the force of her coughs. She held her hands in front of her mouth as she coughed. A few minutes later, when her coughing fit passed, she looked up to see Cyri looking at her with a worried expression.

“Are you alright, Romelia?”

She nodded. “I-I think so…” She coughed again. This time wasn’t as violent though.

“Maybe you should rest, Romelia.” Cyri suggested. “You might be getting sick.”

Romelia nodded. “G… good idea, Cyri,” she said weakly. “L-let’s go home…”

The two got up and walked back towards the house, leaving Tanisha and Winfred to argue. Cyri kept trying to help her walk, but Romelia insisted that she was just fine walking on her own. After a while, Cyri gave into Romelia’s persisting and eventually walked a little bit ahead of her to help clear her path to the house. Unbeknownst to him, Romelia began to sweat.

Feeling uncomfortably warm, she whipped the sweat from her forehead as she panted slightly. She looked at her arm only to become shocked. Her arm was almost entirely drenched in sweat. Romelia put a hand to her forehead to feel her temperature, worried that she was in fact getting sick at an alarming rate. Her forehead practically burned her hand.

Then, she started cough, much more violently than before. Romelia stopped, putting her hand to her mouth, in an attempt to stop her coughs. As she coughed harder, she felt her legs give out from beneath her. All she could hear was the sound of her own coughing and the slightest sound of Cyri calling out for her.