He was gone. For a full ten minutes there was complete silence as if his vow had been somehow transferred to every citizen of Polsax. Then, all at once, the hall exploded.  People were talking louder and louder to hear each other over everyone else’ talking and Ally was pressed in on all sides.

“Ally! What in the middle and between?” Asked Leandra.  Madame Florin demanded to know what kind of outrage the fool girl was in the hub of and to stop in immediately while Ally’s mother questioned her sharply. In fact, the crowd of people asking the same questions of Ally was growing larger and louder until she simply ran away. Strangely enough, nobody even seemed to notice her absence.

She climbed the Grand Tree and sat on a limb swinging her legs. She tried to order her thoughts but they were too scattered. There was only one thing she knew at that moment. She knew only that she was fully determined and ready to take the vow that the Silent Watcher said he took so long ago. Even though she didn’t really understand everything, she knew as if it had been etched into her being that this was right and even what she wanted. And yet, she couldn’t explain it.

She looked out at the surroundings. The Grand Tree was in the very center of Polsax and she saw from her branch what she supposed she would look at for the rest of her life. She felt a drop as if of rain on her hand. She looked up from habit. But it was dark and everything above was just a tangle of branches.

~*~

He left in a sweep of his cloak before anybody moved and stalked out the door. Finally, he was free. Of course, his freedom left the whole of Polsax in danger but that couldn’t be helped. He was getting far too old and needed to be replaced. How he hated to put his pain on the shoulders of so young a child. In a fluid motion, he lifted himself into the tree he had planted all those years ago and climbed to the highest branch that would support his weight.  After centuries, he was used to being hidden.  The darkness and the branches wrapped around him, making him feel comfortable. He was free. For a moment, he let himself forget everything else and just relished the feeling of freedom. Something that he hadn’t known for a long, long time.

~

“This is for you, Aiden!” Maddie held out the gift. His brow wrinkled in confusion.

“A tree? What do I do with it?” He reached out his hand to accept it.

“We’ll plant in right in the middle of the settlement we can tell Mr. Yown that it’s a gift to grow with the town but-” Maddie lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper, “We’ll know that it’s a symbol.”

The little boy’s eyes widened, “A symbol? Of what?” He leaned in so as not to miss anything of what his older friend was telling him.

“A symbol of now, when I was 15 and you were 9. When we are old and our bones creak more than an old door we can see this huge tree that’s grown up with us. And see the symbol of how much like the wind we felt and we can feel that way again.”

He was confused again. “We feel like the wind? How?”

“You know what it feels like when you run through the field chasing a hawk? You feel free and so full of life and like nothing can ever stop you right?”

“Yes!” Now that she spoke of it, that was exactly how he felt, he had just never thought about it before. He hugged the little sapling to him, just starting to grasp how precious it was.

~

He reached out and grasped the branch he was holding more firmly, holding onto the vivid memory. Somebody else was down below him, but, through the tangle, he knew he was hidden. It was the girl. The girl who had given it all up.  Oh how he wished things could be different! That he could have remained a child or even grown old enough for his bones to creak. He had lived to see the tree grow far larger than he or Maddie had ever dreamed either of them would see it.

He looked down at the girl again. He shoulders were firmly set and her chin strong. With every passing moment he knew more that she was the right one.  Was that why it hurt so much to do this to her? He wasn’t even making sense anymore. He just wanted to go back. Why did his freedom have to hurt someone else?  A single tear fell from his eye as he looked down upon her. She looked up, as if sensing him above her. Her eyes seemed to look into him. He held still.