Reunite 2 [61]

(is this what they call Mazephobia?!) Egam thought while fearing for her life

[Note]

Mazephobia is the fear of being lost or getting lost and happens more often than you would think. This phobia also falls under hodophobia which is a fear of travel. ©the more you know lmao®

She walked around a tree, possibly to calm herself down from all the stress building up inside her. Unlike the rest she didn't walk towards a random direction, instead she gave up and simply waited while pacing around a tree. She bit her fingers out of the sheer stress she has, her teeth chattered uncontrollably as if her body was at a cold temperature.

She finished a lap around the tree once twice thrice four times five times six times seven times eight times nine times and then, while looking at the ground she bumped into Sarya and Sieg. This definitely startled her to the point that she hugged her knees while covering her head using her arms.

("!!" wow she looks devastated!) Sarya thought with suprise

Sarya quickly called out for her using her name and Egam slowly realised that it was Sarya and not some creepypasta forest monster like slender man. Out of nowhere, Egam tightly hugged Sarya like a small cat grabbing you by the pants.

""!" well we have our own phobias" Sarya awkwardly said while patting her head

***

(it's been one hour already.. They are pretty quiet back there) Kai thought while still walking

Not once did he turn around to look at his rear and still to this time he didn't, he kept walking until the rest of the party came out of nowhere from behind a tree in front of him. He was shocked of course but not with the same reasons like the rest, Sarya quickly got Kai to hold hands with her so this situation won't happen again.

"looks like we are all here, make sure to not let go alright?" Sarya informed the others

Some could say that the view of them holding hands together looked like a family, they walked only forward and waited for an outcome. They walked and walked and finally they got something, a really wide open area similar to a football field that's composed of mainly dead leaves. In the middle was the lost child and a woman playing catch together like a father and son.

"oi, what is this" Sarya exclaimed while staring at the weird situation in front of her

"hey! Looks like you made it" the woman said while looking at their direction

Her hair was the color orange like the dead leaves littered around the open area, her head had decaying antlers attached to it. She wore a hide robe that covered her most of her body, Sieg quickly knew who she was but he wasn't sure so he was a bit hesitant.

"I thinks she's a dryad...I can't believe I get to see one atleast once in my life" Sieg said in awe

"sorry for making you guys wait, I had to buy some time so I could play with that boy over there" the dryad said to them

Sarya was a bit triggered at her but she gradually cooled down. While the dryad walked towards them a particular hummingbird appeared from the forest and into the dryad's antlers, if you look closely enough you'd find that the hummingbird had a color pallate similar to the dryad.

"George, you're back" the dryad said while trying to look up to check out George but it was a little awkward since everytime she looked up, her antlers moved with her head so it was physically impossible for her to look at her own antlers.

"you know, you wasted one hour of our lives right?" Sarya said with a bit of annoyance sprinkled in her tone

"sorry about that... hey kid run a lap around that tree"

"what tree?" the kid questioned

She pointed at a land beside the kid that had no tree but in an instant a tree suddenly grew rapidly out of thin air, the boy then ran a lap around the tree but the moment when the boy went behind it he was gone.

"he should be back with his parents now.. it may look like an one hour had passed but only a few minutes passed so don't worry" the dryad said

"so why did you brought us here?" Sarya asked

The dryad slowly walked towards them, she went face to face with Sarya only to poke her in the nose. It may not look like it from afar but when she got close to Sarya, her height was very noticeable. She was tall, her sheer height dwarfed Sarya as if Sarya was only a child to her. Sarya felt a little intimidated so she backed off a bit.

"I brought you here because you're the hero obviously... I've been watching you for a while now" the dryad said while casually poking her in the nose

"... Anymore?" Sarya said while grabbing the dryad's finger from touching her nose

"honestly nothing much" the dryad casually replied

"we were supposed to rescue that child for some cash, but it looks like our rewards will be gone" Sarya said to her while smiling

With a simple hand gesture from the dryad, the ground suddenly gave birth to coins. Copper, silver and gold erupted from the ground like a money fountain. Sarya and the rest were caught off guard by the amount of money being launched in the air like nothing.

"Im the dryad of this region, I watch over all of the nature here while my sisters watch over the other regions... Yeesh so many forgotten coins left in the forest, all yours by the way" the dryad said while she was also caught off guard by the amount of money that was left in the forest

"all of this for us?!" Sarya shouted

"I don't really need money, I'm a dryad after all.. What I need is nature" She answered swiftly

Soon the fountain of money stopped.

"I'll just watch you from here. a desert or a cave doesn't matter, I can always watch you but I won't help you... well.. If your in a money crisis I might as well help" The dryad said with a soft smile

It wasn't much of an encounter but Sarya happily took her time to pick up each individual coin littered on the ground.

"I'm the dryad Ptosi, you can meet my three sisters if you happen to travel across the Arctic cross"

"Arctic cross? I've heard of it but I never really payed much attention" Sarya said while she was busy picking up coins

"you'll learn that in a better time but for now I'll take my leave. If you wanna leave the forest then take a lap at that tree I made earlier alright? " Ptosi informed to the party

The giant dryad walked away and a strong wind appeared without warning, her body slowly transitioned into countless of dead leaves which the strong wind carried to the skies. While they watched the dryad's leave Sarya yelled at the rest to help her pick up the coins which they happily followed since the coins numbered in hundreds, who wouldn't want to help, all the coins combined could last a year if spent correctly.

[End]