The forest of spirits had two kinds of trees that yielded fruit. The short, gnarled and yellow stink bushes, yielding spikey stink fruit, and the tall and elegant white wooded spirit trees yielding tear shaped blue and white soul fruit. The former populated most of the forest and for the colony's farmers, it was the easiest to obtain. Most of the animals avoided it because of its harsh, sharp textured skin and when opened it gave off a repugnant stench capable of knocking out the elderly, small children or those of weak constitution. It was begrudgingly the central diet for the people of the planetoid.

The soul fruit, on the other hand, was the most desired commodity on the planetoid for both humanoids and animals. It hung from towering trees and when devoured it enhanced the body and mind of whoever ate it. It required twice the work and twice the danger to obtain because of its location. Flying purple wolfhounds nested in the trees because the soul fruit would nourish their young while keeping them safe from harm. When farmers with wooden ladders, approached the trees in hopes of scoring the fruit themselves, the parents of the babies would fly towards them to protect their young. This is where Aya and Jeeg came in. They were the mediators, protecting both human and beast. Aya delighted in this, having learned to cherish the fragility of life at an early age.

Aya said goodbye to Flora after her friend walked with her to the spirit forest. Flora departed back to the village where she could remain wolfhound free in her mother's tavern. Aya met with the three members of the village council, Allons, Gully, and Myron, a fertilizer, a picker and a carpenter respectively. They were overseeing work on three separate spirit trees in their fertilizing period but remained on standby until Aya showed up. "Now yer the one who's late, Aya," Allons said in his thick drawl.

"Sorry, something just slowed me down," Aya tried her best to smile, "But I'm ready to protect everyone in this forest."

The red cheeked bald man, Gully, glared at her and held his hands a small distance apart. "You better do a good job. Last time I was this close to be gnawed on."

Aya flexed her arm while clutching her staff. She was utterly unphased by the man's accusations. "I can assure you I do everything to the best of my ability, Gully."

Jeeg strolled up to the group. He stood with his head parallel to Aya's shoulder blade. "The wolves are getting restless lately. I can sense their anguish but I don't know where it's coming from."

Myron adjusted his spectacles with a nonchalant expression. "I gathered more wood from a spirit tree recently. I had to patch up some leaks for Master Du Bois."

"Oh, I didn't know you did that," Jeeg responded as Aya's face flushed in anger. Mr. Du Bois, Flora and Buck's father was the biggest opposition to the nature centric ways of the elves and since his great, great, great grandfather was the founder of the village, he exerted the biggest influence on everyone. Aya knew Du Bois wouldn't want to prepare a whole ceremony for the destruction of a spirit tree, he just wanted to reap the benefit of its demise.

Rather than lash out, Aya flexed again and smirked. "I see Du Bois was too scared to consult me about the proper channels."

Myron raised his hands cautiously. "Now now, I'm sure Du Bois didn't mean anything by it. There's no need to discuss this anyway. We need your help Aya. And you too Jeeg."

"Ok,"—Aya dashed with great speed over to the trees—"Let's commence the gathering." Famers grabbed their tree trunk ladders, carved meticulously out of fruitless dark wood and laid them against the trees, making sure not to jostle them too much and awake any wolfhounds. Some gathered burlap sacks and just as the farmer nearby Aya grabbed his sack, it twitched. The farmer's eyes expanded and Aya quickly rushed to it, snatching it with a firm grasp and readying herself to react at any given second. Much to her relief, it was only young Buck who had hidden himself away in the sack. "Buck?" Aya's eyes expressed great curiosity.

"Aww crap, you found me," he shouted as he scratched himself from being in an itchy burlap sack.

"Is that the Du Bois' kid?" The farmer jostled Aya's shoulder. Aya nodded. "Yes, and he's about to tell me why he's here."

"Well...I knew when Flora got back to town she was going to make me do boring chores..."—Buck smiled sheepishly—"and well, I'd much rather be hanging out with you. Aquans are the coolest."

Aya felt her face redden. Embarrassment was rare for her, but childhood innocence was so disarming. She debated in her head whether it would be better to take him back to Du Bois or let him watch his hero in action. Aya—though the protector of all life on the planetoid—was not above a healthy ego massage. "Buck, if you promise to stay by me. I won't take you back to Du Bois."

Young Buck fist pumped the air. "Wow, you're so much cooler than my sister!"

The nearby farmer frowned in disproval but knew better than to argue with someone much larger than him. He instead grabbed a sack and began to climb the tree. "Guard me, Aya," he shouted down to her.

Aya motioned to Buck to stand behind her as the farmer headed for the fruit hanging from the long draping rainbow leaves of the spirit tree. He shuffled it, and heard a small yipping—a baby wolfhound crying out for help. A much larger wolfhound howled in response and began soaring around the tree with its elongated wings. It snarled and snorted from its dragon-like muzzle. Quickly, Aya twirled her staff before pounding it on the ground. It began to glow from its white wood, and the white color began to extend to the tree itself. Aya smiled as the pure color began to enrapture the tree and a soothing calm fell over the yelling farmer, the baby crying and the much larger parent. The latter flew to the tree, and perched on it, watching the farmer scour the fruit like a domesticated animal. Aya loved watching how the wolfhound's demeanor changed when she soothed them. It was a satisfying feeling that resonated throughout her whole body and made her eager for her next opportunity to feel it again.

"How'd you like that, little guy? Uh Buck? Buck?!" Aya turned around to notice that Du Bois' child was nowhere to be found.

Aya began to search around the spirit tree, until she felt a small tap on her shoulder. Turning around, Aya looked to see Flora clutching her heart and out of breath. "I can't believe my luck, Aya. I get back to town and all my siblings are accounted for but stupid Buck. Dad's going to kill me if I don't..."

Aya knew she had to own up to her friend about her missing brother. She didn't want to since Flora panicked easily over everything, but perhaps her friend could help her amend this problem. With an outward breath, Aya said, "Buck snuck over here. He wanted to see me do my job, but it's hard to watch a child and perform at the same time."

Flora placed her hands on Aya's shoulder blades and shook her frantically. "Oh please, Aya. You need to help me. My dad already thinks I'm worthless as it is."

Aya reached her hands out to her friend's to stop them from convulsing. "Gotcha. I don't like old crimson suspenders either so I'll be happy to help."

"Thanks, my friend," Flora sighed. "Let's just get this over with. The spirit woods give me the jitters."

Aya alerted everyone about the missing child; the farmers ceased from their harvest as a result. Everyone had a mutual consideration for Buck, not just because they cared for him, but his heritage would allow them to gain the favor of the house of Du Bois. They moved around the forest, checking every stink bush and spirit tree they harvested from, but success had not dawned on them. As Aya and Flora paced around the same grove of trees, Flora began to whimper and tremble, "I just realized something, Aya. What if he went...there."

Aya's long ears twitched when she heard the ominous way Flora phrased things. "You think he went to the Hallow? Why would he go there?"

"It's just a premonition, but he always bragged and said when he got older, he'd pick the finest soul fruit in the forest. You know where that grows right?"

"The Matriarch tree," Aya responded immediately.

The two said no more and headed back to the harvest area where the three leaders stood with Jeeg. A much taller man with neatly combed ginger hair gelled up with spirit tree sap and an equally orderly mustache stood with them. His hands were crossed and he looked upon everyone with distain. The three leaders cowered in fear over this man with his dapper suit and suspenders. "Flora, Aya. I hope you know that my son is not accounted for," said the man with a caustic voice. "And by the words of these men, it is your fault."

Aya glared at Jeeg who put his hands up in the air and then pointed at a bush. "Don't look at me. I was sleeping peacefully when these fellows woke me up," the old man responded.

"Dad, I'm so sorry," Flora carried on. "I was just heading back to town when I found out Buck was gone."

"You had one job, Flora," Du Bois said with a scowl, "and it's much less difficult than the one these men have. You have no excuse why you'd be slacking"—Du Bois turned to Aya—"And you, earian, I wish you'd stop hanging around my daughter. She doesn't need to share your lax attitude."

Aya pursed her lips like she had devoured a mouthful of stink fruit. Aya absolutely loathed when she was called an earian-something people started calling her and Jeeg when they first came to the planet. For prejudiced people, her ears were a point of mockery, but to her, they were a symbol of pride. She bit her tongue, wishing to honor Jeeg who had long convinced Du Bois' father to honor nature, and instead spoke up in defense of Flora.

She knew that Flora was heading to retrieve Buck before her stress disorder was triggered by the baby wolfhound. Mr. Du Bois only ever wanted to see what he wanted to see, and if it didn't align with his view point, he disregarded it completely. "Please don't take it out on her," said Aya, "We know where Buck is and we're going to retrieve him."

"We do?" Flora asked.

"Shhh," Aya said, "He's at the Matriarch tree. Let's all go right now and forget about the blame game."

The trio of leaders, Jeeg, Flora, Du Bois and Aya all made a beeline to the Hallow where the Matriarch tree stood tall. Its trunk was white with blue swirls formed around its large knotted burls resulting from immense age and stress. They formed stepping platforms that twisted and turned around the tree, allowing even a child to gain leverage when climbing them. Despite the danger, this tree was the perfect playground for a young adventurer like Buck.

Everyone scanned the rainbow leaves of the beautiful and ancient tree hoping to find the child. They called out to him. "Buck! Buck!"

"Listen, do you hear that?" Aya said.

"We don't have ears the size of the wolfhound's ears," Gully muttered under his breath.

Aya disregarded him. "I hear the breathing of a small child. It's coming from above us." Aya dashed to the knots in the tree and quickly leapt from one to another, traveling up the towering trunk at a fast rate. She did not slip once; as a youthful Aquan she had greater coordination than a human being. She reached the branches level and looked down to see everyone watching her.

The nimble girl gave a confident smile, looking down on them and quickly noticed the contents on the large rainbow palm leaves. Her smile softened as she saw the young boy sleeping in the trees alongside a large blue soul fruit, and to her surprise, a silver wolfhound pup. Both were equally young and docile, with Buck resting his head on the creature's soft furry body. Aya sighed and dreamed that this could be the relationship between all humans and animals.

She didn't want to wake them so she slowly inched herself along the palm leaves. She aimed to do it fast since she had no idea if the palm leaves could support her large body like it held the two tiny ones. She moved in on her knees and stretched her long arms out to grab the boy; but when she laid her hands on him, his eyes shot open and he let out the loudest scream. Aya flinched and her body cracked the branch. She quickly yanked Buck forward and as the branch fell forward she leapt to the closest burl with the boy hanging from his shirt. Buck was still screaming, but Aya tried to soothe him "Buck, it's me. What were you doing up there?"

The boy's chest convulsed and he was clearly out of breath from yelling. He spoke in short sharp bursts. "Aya...I wanted...to...get...a spirit fruit...for you...but I was so tired from climbing...I fell asleep...with...my new friend." Buck looked down at the cracked branch and gasped. "My friend..."

Aya quickly leaped down the burls with Buck in tow and she ran to where the branch had fallen. Everyone gathered around Aya and Buck. Mr. Du Bois was the first to talk. He towered over young Buck, who shuddered in his presence. "I heard why you were up there." Without the subtlety of a man dressed as dapper as himself, Du Bois slapped Buck. "Listen to me next time I forbid you to do something. All of my rules are for your own good."

Buck looked like he was about to cry, but he instead sped away from Mr. Du Bois and ran towards the downed branches. Tears began to roll down his face as he looked upon the injured wolfhound. "My friend."

Everyone followed Buck around the branch and saw the wolfhound softly crying as blood soaked its fur. Allons gently chimed in. "I've never seen a beastie like that before. Them baby wolfhounds are usually pink."

Aya and Jeeg ran to accompany Buck as he crouched beside the animal. Jeeg softly spoke to the boy, "That's the elder wolfhound's child, the future matriarch, and it looks like she's in pretty bad shape."

Buck cried to Jeeg, "Is there anything we can do for him?"

Jeeg rubbed his goatee and closed his eyes. He then reached for the downed soul fruit and a rainbow palm leaf. He used the rainbow leaf to wrap the cut the creature was enduring, and whipped out a small knife before dicing the fruit open with precision. The elderly Aquan placed a small piece inside the creature's whining maw. "The best thing for recovery is nourishment and proper medical treatment."

"Oh...oh." Buck nodded his head in agreement. "Please heal her." Buck's tiny voice was interrupted by a loud snarl from the sky. Everyone looked up and saw the shadow of a large beast blot out the sun. It was twice the size of the average wolfhound, and its fur was blinding white. It had a two scars cut across its eyes. "The elder wolfhound." Jeeg exclaimed. It spread its lengthy white wings and took a dive over the crowd of people. Everyone ducked, diving into the grass to avoid the incoming attack from the elder.

"Is everyone ok?" Allons asked after everyone rose up.

Flora began to take a head count. "I think so...wait, where's Buck?"

Everyone looked to the attacking beast and saw the small boy saw hanging from its mouth.

"Buck." Flora yelled.

The boy hung from his shirt and began to scream loudly but his words were incomprehensible and terrified. The beast took to the sky, and began to head towards a mountain further past the soul tree. "Where is he taking my brother?" Flora asked, about to have another panic attack.

Jeeg shook his head. "Did you see her eyes? Her vision is damaged and she may have mistook your brother for her child."

Aya grimaced and kicked the ground, looking away from everyone else. She blamed herself for Buck's kidnapping and the injuries caused to the wolfhound baby. She knew in her heart she had to put aside the dread of the past, and focus on righting the wrongs she caused.