The Tree Shepherd's Daughter

by Gillian Summers

  Captain Dandy Randy nodded. "True pirate at heart. Drank several tankards of mead with me and the crew. We'll miss him. We're here to send him off."

  Knot hopped into the cab of Dad's pickup. She spun around. "Hey, I'm riding shotgun, furball."

  She turned and smiled at Captain Randy. "Congratulations on your program."

  "Thank you." She saw a shy young man under the pirate personae. He lifted his head and smiled at her.

  "Are you going to New York?"

  He shook his head. "Maybe. Lady Raven will be working on the marketing for me new program."

  Keelie smiled. "Cool. Well, if I don't see you in New York, I guess I'll see you next year." He saluted and turned around, then stopped and gazed at Keelie with those lusty pirate eyes. He said, "What the hell?"

  He walked over to Keelie, wrapped his arms around her, lowered her back, and planted a kiss on the lips-a deep kiss, with swirly tongue and all. There were more whoops and whistles coming from his fellow pirates.

  He hoisted her back up. She stood, stunned. "Remember me, lass," and he swaggered back. All the pirates cheered him. Captain Randy cranked his truck and drove away in a plume of dust.

  Keelie said, "Wild."

  Dad was beside her. "What was that all about?"

  She shrugged. "Pirates. You never know with them."

  She strolled away, humming "Yo, ho, ho."

  Dad yelled out, "Well, stay away from them."

  In the truck cab, Knot sat on the passenger-side seat next to the window, as if he was ready to travel to New York. The kitty kerchief was gone.

  Keelie walked over to him. "Take your spot in the new food chain, kitty. I'm going to ride next to the window. If I don't, I'll get carsick, and I might throw up all over your fur."

  The cat lowered his body onto the seat, tucked his front legs beneath him, and began purring. It sounded like a challenge.

  A California Airlines truck drove up and came to an abrupt halt. Keelie felt a shiver of anticipation trill up her spine. Her luggage. It had to be. She wanted to jump up and down, but instead leaned against the truck's cab. No telling if Sean might walk up.

  The delivery man sprang out, and Keelie knew from his open-mouthed reaction that he'd never seen anything like the camper.

  He looked at her, then back at the wooden house on the back of Dad's truck. "That looks like a ski lodge on wheels."

  "I know," said Keelie. "Go ahead and yodel if you want to.

  If Raven was here, they could break into a song from The Sound of Music, the musical she and Laurie had performed with the drama club last year.

  "I've got a delivery for Keelie Heartwood."

  "That's me," Keelie said. She wanted to scream "Yes!" and pump her fist in victory. Her luggage was here.

  Her dad stuck his head out of the camper window. "Is that what I think it is?"

  The delivery man unloaded several large boxes with stickers of different ports of call, then asked her to sign his electronic clipboard.

  Keelie signed, but her eyes were on her father, who surveyed the number and size of the boxes. His face turned pasty pale. Ha! He might have to trade in his house on wheels for a Winnebago. She envisioned one like the rock stars traveled in, with a shower and a television. She wondered if they were hard to drive.

  The delivery man pointed toward the camper. "Man, that's a work of art. I've never seen such detail in wood."

  Dad's color returned to normal. He stood up straighter. "Thank you, good sir," he said, bowing courteously. The delivery man gave him a weird look.

  Visions of satellite television and rock-star tour bus luxuries faded away as her dad commandeered space in other campers for the boxes.

  After the delivery man left, Janice, Sir Davey, and Scott all arrived with their campers and trailers to pick up boxes before hitting the road. Sir Davey did drive a Winnebago, a nice new one. She pointed it out to her dad.

  "That's what I'm talking about. Modern comforts."

  His answer was a disdainful eyebrow lift.

  Janice drove up in a Jeep Wagoneer. Raven had a pissed-off expression. Plus, it was early in the morning. She exited the Wagoneer.

  "What's wrong with you?" Keelie asked.

  "Mom. We're going to some forest to pick some wild herb. Oh boy, a week in the woods stooped over, digging up some pungent green plant to make some stinky tincture."

  Keelie tried not to laugh. It was hard to envision Raven out in the woods.

  "Look," Keelie said. "There's Cameron. She has Ariel and Louie. She's got all the permits and stuff to carry them across the states."

  Cameron was driving a huge RV a lot like Sir Davey's, except hers had flying raptors airbrushed on the sides. She stopped. Keelie stood on tiptoes, peeking, hoping to get a glimpse of the hawk. "How's Ariel?"

  "Missing you, but she'll be fine. Okay, kiddo, we'll see you in New York," Cameron said.

  Dad stepped up. "Cameron, we'll rendezvous with you at the Wildewood Festival."

  "I'll see you two there," Cameron said.

  Keelie and Dad backed up. "Bye, Cameron. Bye, Ariel. Bye, Louie," shouted Keelie as the raptor bus disappeared in a cloud of dust. Keelie tried not to be sad; she would see Ariel in a couple of days.

  Dad had quickly loaded most of the boxes, except for the smallest, which he put in the Swiss Miss Chalet. Keelie couldn't wait to dig out Mom's pictures and Boo Boo Bunny.

  Sir Davey contemplated the back of the overflowing Swiss Miss Chalet. He rubbed his goatee with his index finger and thumb.

  "You know, Zeke, you may need to talk to that friend that I bought my Winnebago from when you arrive in New York. You've got to remember that Keelie is going to need lots of room."

  Keelie bent down and hugged Sir Davey. "Oh, thank you. I sure don't want to share a bunk with Knot. He sheds. Worse, he drools."

  "Sure. And nobody wants to share anything with Knot." Sir Davey wiggled his gray eyebrows up and down. "And Knot's not big on sharing."

  Dad rolled his eyes heavenward. "I can expand the camper to increase the room inside."

  Janice placed her arm around Keelie. "Zeke. At least consider talking to Dave's friend in New York." She squeezed her, then whispered, "We'll see you soon."

  Raven rolled her eyes heavenward. "Think of me in nature. We're definitely going shopping when I return to the real world."

  Keelie nodded.

  Janice sighed. "Get in the car, Raven."

  "I don't want a cavern on wheels," Dad said.

  Keelie stopped. She had to consider that last comment. Did Dad literally mean that? Dwarves liked the Earth. Did the inside of Sir Davey's Winnebago look like a cavern? She looked at the big Winnebago, dying for a peek inside.

  "He's got deals on Forest Glades with all the modern comforts," Davey said.

  Dad threw his hands up in surrender and then glanced at Keelie. "We'll talk about it on our way there."

  Keelie skipped over to him and kissed him on the cheek. "Thanks, Dad."

  Janice honked her horn, and Raven leaned out the window and waved as her mom drove away.

  Keelie waved back.

  Sir Davey loaded up three of Keelie's boxes, and she saw that he was a little misty-eyed.

  "I'll see you at the Faire," she said. She bent down and kissed him on the cheek.

  He smiled. "Take care of yourself and Zeke. He's mourning the loss of your mom, too. He loved her, and don't let anyone tell you different-like some high-minded elves we know."

  "Sir Davey, is this the camper my mom and dad lived in when I was a baby?"

  He nodded. "That's why your dad is having a hard time letting go of it. Your mom loved the gingerbread trim."

  He hopped into his Winnebago, cranked it, and drove away.

  Keelie looked at Dad's weird camper. She watched her dad lock the back door and smiled. She'd lived in this camper with her mom and dad as a family. She could live in it a little longer.

  "Hey Dad, so what can you do to expand this ski chalet?"


  Her reward was an answering smile and a look of relief. I could have gotten that Winnebago, she thought, watching him. I was this close.

  Dad came to Keelie. "I have something for you. You remembered when you asked me to save it?" He pulled an aspen branch from the back of the ski chalet. "I found it when Scott was packing up. It was leftover after we made the chair."

  She said, "Thanks." The slender stick was dry and worthless, but Keelie had something in mind. It was perfect for the experiment she was thinking of. "Dad, I need a few minutes.

  He nodded. "I'll be here."

  She hurried to the meadow. The crater left by the lightning blast had been backfilled by Admin, leaving a big raw patch in the grass. Keelie walked to the middle of the blackish brown area, so alien in the middle of all that green. She felt the trees watching her, and the others, the forest folk. She stuck the twig into the ground, deep enough that it was only thigh-high.

  "Hrok, I've brought you a companion. I hope." She grasped the dead twig and with the other hand held the charred heart, which hung around her neck. Sean had given her a new chain when he'd said goodbye. He'd kissed her and told her to hold his kiss in her heart till they met again. She thought of the Queen Aspen's sacrifice. Had she brought the tornado and the lightning down upon herself?

  The tree's heart warmed in her hand. She pushed the energy down her arm. It grew easier each time she did it. The hand that held the twig tingled as the life-giving force sizzled down through the twig and into the ground. The dirt around it moved, and hundreds of rounded threads poked up, unfurling into grass.

  Keelie was disappointed. She'd wanted the wand to take root and be a companion for Hrok, a piece of the Queen Aspen come back to life. At least she'd greened up the place a little. The dirt patch had been like a scabbed knee, ugly and painful to look at.

  She walked away, stopping to run her hand over Hrok's bark. Goodbye, my friend. See you next year.

  Fare you well, Keliel Tree Talker. May you grow many rings.

  She felt him in her mind, the energy in his sap, his branches upheld to the sun, and the tickling of his leaves in the breeze. And around him, the others of the forest. And one more, a new one, though not a baby. She turned, mouth open. A single leaf had unfurled from the tip of the twig.

  The Queen Aspen's branch lived.

  As they left Colorado, Keelie saw Uncle Harry Mac's Tattoo and Body Piercing Shop, its bright neon lights muted in the sunlight.

  Half-Elven she may be, but the California girl that was her mom's daughter hadn't forgotten the belly button ring.

  There had to be a tattoo and body piercing parlor somewhere near the Faire site in New York, and she would make it her quest to find it.

  About Gillian Summers

  A forest dweller, Gillian was raised by gypsies at a Renaissance Faire. She likes knitting, hot soup, costumes, and adores oatmeal-especially in the form of cookies. She loathes concrete, but tolerates it if it means attending a science fiction convention. She's an obsessive collector of beads, recipes, knitting needles, and tarot cards, and admits to reading InStyle Magazine. You can find her in her north Georgia cabin, where she lives with her large, friendly dogs and obnoxious cats, and at www.gilliansummers.com

  Look for Book II of the Faire Folke Trilogy in Summer 2008.