Note: Please review, and don't spare my feelings; I can take any scathing invectives you can dish out. If you flare me out of pure spite, I will be forced to retaliate in a way not at all pleasing to the addressee. But if you honestly have a problem with something I have written please email me (or review; ) and I will address it as soon as possible. Constructive criticism is welcome, as always.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of Tamora Pierce's characters, plots, settings (etc.) and do not intend to pass them off as my own.

Neureleine

The tree she was standing in was unlike any seen anywhere else than in the Vale. It had a large round trunk that would take two adults to reach around, progressing slowly into a smaller, smooth, and circular trunk with no markings at all. About twenty feet up, branches shot out at angles no other tree could manage. The long branches sprouted tendrils that reached the forest floor, ending with small, glass-like orbs, delicately swaying in the still air.

To the girl, the appearance of a tree that moved on its own was not unusual in the least. In fact, she stood as if not bothered by the fact that falling from the branch would mean almost certain death. Her carefree attitude seemed to be caused mostly by the knowledge that, even now; the silvery tendrils of the tree were looping up her long legs to hold her in place.

She looked around from her perch and sighed. Soon she would no longer be free to run the forest, taking in every change, loving every flaw. Soon the pond that reflected her innermost thoughts and feelings could not be her haven; soon, she would be married. Neureleine Sithael would marry Gallo Nucke, the son of the tribal leader, in two weeks.

At seventeen, she was still considered a child by some, but, ironically, old enough to marry the man that would be the future of the village.

"He's a good sort of man, but can you really see me the wife of the future leader of the tribe? I can't either," she questioned the water nymph that surfaced at the edge of the pool when she finally climbed down the length of the tree.

Neureleine was a restless person without the sense of sacrificial duty, characteristic to the woodland tribes.

The tiny blue woman with flowing raven-black hair, giggled mischievously and ducked back in the water.

Neureleine looked around for the source of the nymph's laughter and saw Gallo hesitantly approaching her.

"I see what you mean," she said, cringing in exasperation at the irony in the timing.

The girl turned back around, pretending not to see her husband-to-be. She leaned back to the ground and stared up through the treetops, carefully maintaining her demeanor of complete unknowing.

Gallo Nucke stopped ten feet away from her and watched the faint breeze rustle the girl's simple green dress against her body.

The birds chattered overhead but the man in his early twenties seemed unable to voice his thoughts.

Neureleine glanced over and feigned surprise. At the look he blanched and seemed about to run for cover when Neureleine said, "Gallo, what troubles you?"

A practiced look of worry came onto her pale face when Gallo didn't respond but only sat, feet away from her.

Neureleine looked back at the water, anticipating what he was going to say, to save herself the pain of surprise and disappointment.

"Neureleine, we are to be wed in two weeks, yet you continue to hide from me. I must admit, I do not understand you. Not to be blunt, but, I asked you to be my wife and you accepted. But you have yet to trust me as a wife should her husband. Why do you insist on hiding from anyone who might want to get close to you?"

Neureleine gaped at him in surprise. "I do no such thing," she snapped. "You know very well I have close friends; a group that I thought included you!"

"Very well. Name one."

"Mally!"

"Mally does not count; she is your foster mother and is not even human." Neureleine paused and thought for a moment, then retorted, "I am not hiding, people just don't take to me is all. I am just as friendly as anyone else!" But even as she said this, she knew it was not true. She was a secretive person but with reason; she had a secret she couldn't trust anyone but Mally with. Her awareness of this fact had somewhat prevented her from becoming intimate with any of the village.

Gallo watched her pace furiously back and forth, then said, "You do not want to marry me." A wave of sorrow passed over his face, then cleared. "It is as plain as anything and I'm surprised I didn't see it before. I release you from your promise. I will inform my father. I am truly sorry, Neureleine." He watched her for a moment, watching her muddy brown hair ripple across her pale, freckled face into her piercing emerald green eyes and left.

Neureleine sat with her knees drawn to her chest with mixed feelings of relief and regret confusing her too much to do anything but sit.

The Nereid surfaced again gave out a lonely cry of sympathy for the girl.

"Why does this sadden me? This is what I've wanted. I never really wanted to marry him from the first." Then why do I feel as if I've been rejected?

The young woman stood and skipped a stone across the surface of the pool.

"Mally isn't going to be happy. Maybe I'll just stay here and not go back for a day or two until she cools down."

She was about to lay back down when the water faerie gave her a very reproachful look.

"Okay, okay. I didn't think so, either."

The girl slowly started to walk home.

"What's the matter with you?!" the Dahme faerie screeched. "I let you out of my sight for one minute and you come back with your sweetheart run off. What did you do to him?!"

Neureleine stared at her foster mother for a moment, dismayed at her tone.

At the hurt she saw on her daughter's face, she apologized for her rash words. "I'm sorry, darling. I just don't see how you get yourself into these messes. What happened?"

Neureleine explained what happened at the pond. She told Mally of her anger at his accusations, watching the frown lines in Mally's forehead deepen.

"Oh, but sweet, he's right. Don't be so hard on him. He can't have known. Forgive him, sweetling." After a pause in which Neureleine dried her angry tears in her foster mother's shoulder, she asked quietly, "Do you love him, dear?"

Caught by surprise, the girl looked up with wide green eyes, anger flaring. "What does love matter? Does any woman in this village marry for love? I'm like them, I will marry for stature!"

"But sweet, you are not like them and no matter how you try to pretend, you cannot hide it or make it go away."

Neureleine stood, anger etched in every line of her face with her body seeming to glow emerald, the contrast against her pale skin, dazzling. "How can you say that, when all you've ever taught me is that if I want it badly enough I can be whatever I want?!"

She stalked out of the hut located on the edge of the village and started walking between her beloved trees.

Mally watched her leave, one lonely tear rolling down her tanned skin, her green hair, blowing.

She stood and said "Soon I'll have to tell her," and started to cook their dinner of wild roots and hare.