They just stared into each others eyes for several minutes. One of the men must have noticed his chief not moving an inch for a longer time and called over, "Is there anything, Chief, or why are you doing nothing, while we do all the work for you ?". Several men laughed. It was not mean, Toreth saw, it was just a joke among them. She thought he would now give her position away, but he did not, he said simply, "No. There is nothing.", and walked away to help the men set up a camp.

When night had approached Toreth slowly came out of her hiding. She watched the men talking around the fire, laughing and two of them were even dancing.

Eventually they all went to bed and she started to head for the camp. She walked among the tents, not making a sound, and stopped right before one. Slowly she opened the entrance, the man was asleep already. Moving slowly she got near him. She swung a leg over his form, now she was standing above him. Slowly she got down to her knees. She moved on her hands and knees until her face was on one level with his. In one fast movement she held her hand over his mouth.

He awoke in an instant by the sudden weight on his face and looked in her eyes with shock-widened eyes.

She held a finger in front of her own mouth, "Shhh...". Then her face got down next to one of his ears and he heard her whisper: "I just wanted to come thank you. There are not many humans like this.", thinking about it she added, "You might know, two months ago I saved a girl from a swamp and carried her back to her friends. The girl had your eyes." .

Hesitantly he moved one hand up and uncovered his mouth, her skin felt cool like fresh water. Now he was whispering in her ear, "Who are you?", to secure her stay he moved the hand over her hand and this way pinned her face to the ground. She shrieked a little, but answered silently, "I am Toreth, the last of the dryads in this world, and who are you?", she ended with a small chuckle. "Hakoda, chief of the Southern Water Tribe. What are you saying about a girl that had mine eyes?"

"I said what I said. I saved her in the swamp, she will be save among her friends, do not worry about her."

"Of course I worry about her,", he said a little angry, " What would you expect, I am her father.".

Toreth suddenly sat on him, looking down on his laying body, "My own father did not care the slightest about me, he told the Fire Nation, where my mother was.", there was a tone in her voice, sounding like a hundreds of years old tree, an angry tree.

"If I meet him I would let roots grow all the way through him."

"You can do that? Making plants grow?", he tried to ignore the part of his body she sat on.

"Sounds like a great wonder in your words. Yes, I can make plants grow and I can heal things, plants and people, but as it happens, more plants than people and never myself."

"If you can heal, why are you the last of your folk?"

"They burnt us."

"The Fire Nation?"

"No, the Earth Kingdom as well. They do not trust us, they say we could hypnotize men and let them do sins."

"Sins?"

"Yes, sins.", okay, he tried, but his evil self had won as her mouth came near to his again.