Wind Walker

ood!” thundered Daiga, the tree spirit. She planted a huge root on top of her mate's and raised herself higher to stare directly into his eyes. “Keep talking!” Porphiro blinked, “We wish to recognize the work our females do.” His eyes met his mate’s amber. “We honor your ability to cleanse the waters with your roots, straining and refreshing them, while clearing the forests of too much clutter.’ He bowed gallantly towards her, “We are so tired of our smelly homes, love.” Straightening his trunk leaning dangerously close to hers, he vowed. “We will cherish and share the nurturing of all our offspring. We respect all the infusions and medicine gardens our females plant and tend with great care. We have suffered without your knowledge of these gardens only passed from mother to daughter. We have suffered so,” he complained. Wind wailed once again. “Other terms?” Saz called above the racket. Porphiro sighed so gustily, Sazani’s cloak billowed around her and leaves rattled across the ground. “I am to listen to all our female’s complaints and terms without comment. Furthermore, we agree to all the terms set down by wise Avee.” Agree to all and anything, he had been told by masculine voices both snarling and grudgingly accepting. Grake had threatened to whomp them forever if they did not promise, on their honor, to uphold their vows. Now, Porphiro added, “And we do solemnly swear to uphold those terms forevermore.” “Daiga?” Sazani watched more roots, male and female, writhe and twirl in ever growing numbers. “Daiga!” she called sternly. “I insist you pay attention. Must I remind you of protocol?” “Great Goddess!” tittered Daiga, bark quivering and leaves trembling. Hidden spikes in her mistletoe arose, forked in two and exploded in bloom. More flowers popped up all over her branches. “Yes. Where was I?” “Your females’ terms?” The voluptuous Ae Shenn Elm drew herself up, pushing a swath of fragrant vines away from Porphiro’s appreciative green-branched face. She moved her knotted face into stern lines. “We the females hate your constant, malicious ways of creating more fights than we can resolve peacefully. The carnage from your violent wrestling and fighting wreck our groves. You glorify war yet belittle your seedlings! We left because we felt you were not a good influence on our young, male saplings!” Her eyes softened as she breathed into her mate’s knotted face. “But we did not realize how much you were also preparing them to protect and shelter us from storms and predators alike. We did not realize how much you were teaching them about being a male Ae Shenn. Those trips into the swamps with the grandfathers taught them more about being a male than we could ever know. The male saplings with us spend their time chasing the females without a clue what to do when they catch them! Oh they will play with the seedlings, but refuse any responsibility or cooperation with us!” “And the saplings staying with us,” Porphiro grumbled, “do nothing but wrestle and destroy our groves. They have no teaching from the grandmothers about nurturing seedlings, loving the land or clearing the pathways. They hunger only for battle just to best one another. They become nothing but bullies!” Daiga nodded, “They have no idea what grounds them, what makes them a loved and wanted part of the circle. They don’t understand where they fit, how their roots can enrich their lives as well as the sacred groves.” Sazani blinked when Porphiro moved forward and deliberately scraped a slow branch down Daiga’s trunk. “Your bark is still the softest in the forest, my love.” Heavily laden pollen shoots sprouted in vigorous rows along his branches. “And yours is much thicker than before.” Daiga’s branches were conducting their own explorations. Sazani cleared her throat, glaring at the two. “Anything else Daiga, Speaker for the Ae Shenn?” Daiga blew a gusty zephyr then fluffed her trailing vines and flowers with a supple branch. “We need to be recognized for our roles as healers and cleaners of the forest. And most importantly, as official, equal partners with our males!” “Now,” Sazani snarled at the sloe-eyed Porphiro whose gaze never wavered from his root mate’s. “Do you Porphiro, as representative of the male Ae Shenn…” “Oh yes,” he sighed, plucking one of Daiga’s flowers and sniffing it reverently. “On behalf of the male Ae Shenn, we agree to honor our females, to listen and help them with each and every problem or issue that arises. May they never have cause to leave us again. We will love and cherish our mates, mothers, sisters and daughters forevermore.” His branches wove intimate patterns with Daiga’s equally busy limbs. Sazani huffed out her displeasure, muttering, “This is beginning to sound like marriage vows!”