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him. He just seemed grateful that someone had found him before he died. Nia flew in and settled down beside him and shakily took his hand. Finally, his eyes seemed to focus and then they grew wide. I offered him another sip of water. and he weakly spoke to Nia.
    “Neafauliateenix, you honor us with your return.” He smiled warmly through the pain. “Hopefully, this isn’t the delusional dream of a dying pixie.”
    “I am here, Elder,” Nia whispered. “What did this? A Dragon?”
    He shook his head and whispered raggedly, “A strange beast. It attacked for no reason, but we gave him a fight he won’t soon forget!” He coughed roughly, gasping for air and then determinedly shook it off and patted Nia’s hand. “Young lady, we - meaning the whole tribe - have followed your exploits at Xarparion and your triumph in the Wizards’ Tournament with a scrying pool. You have made us all proud to be R’dontha again. The entire clan is so very sorry for the way we treated you. We were stupid and ignorant and very, very foolish. The King was in the process of drafting a letter to invite you and your human companions to visit us so we could hold a feast in your honor…I guess that’s not going to happen now.”
    What few tears Nia had left were pouring out now. “But why? Why did you sacrifice yourselves, when you could have run away? It’s not normal for pixies to stand and fight. What caused this madness?”
    He wheezed and his whole body was racked with small spasms, but his face remained strangely serene, and he smiled and said simply, “You…without the Mother Tree to nurture our race, we were doomed anyway. We learned of the great odds you overcame to become the “Combat Pixie”. Your bravery and the love of your friends, inspired us all. If Neafauliateenix could accomplish so much when life handed her so little, how could an entire village run away in cowardice and allow our Mother Tree to perish? The world will someday know that the R’dontha were a proud people who stood for something in the end, and you are the best of us. You must pass this tale on to the next generation…your children.”
    Nia’s mouth dropped open. “My children? What children, Elder, the Mother Tree is no more? What are you talking about?”
    He chuckled and winced as he stretched a desiccated hand into his short coat and withdrew an orange-colored, inch-long, dry bean shape which he held up proudly in front of his face. “Seed pod,” he grinned triumphantly, before a coughing fit overtook him. Handing it over like it was the most precious of gems, he looked at Nia and whispered, “One last request…bury me under the old tree.” Nia started to protest, but he shook it off. “You know what you need to do, Neafauliateenix. Do it well and remember, at the end when it counted, we were all proud of you.” Another fit seized him, and at that point, my mage sight showed his little heart gave up for good.
    Julia looked at each of us with tears in her big blue eyes and shook her head sadly, saying, “Now I’ve been blessed to know two brave pixies in my life.” She paused and then asked a question, “Nia…as a druid, I have to ask, why the animals?”
    Nia didn’t answer for a long time, lost in her own thoughts; but finally she remembered the question and answered haltingly, “Another name for our people is ‘small spirit of the forest’, a pixie clan in residence basically ‘owns’ its forest. It draws its magical power from the forest. When the pixies are in mortal danger, the forest tries to defend us as well. It’s not something we can control, but I’ve never seen or heard of anything like this.”
     

Chapter 3
    The trip back up the mountain was easier than the descent, but a lot quieter and more introspective. Before we left, Jules summoned Reginaldo and asked him to have the ground receive all the charred bodies of the defenders in the clearing so they wouldn’t be dishonored by scavengers, and the pixie elder