Page 23 of Earth-Bound

I waited. He was building up to something. He never normally visited me twice in one day.

“I was wondering if you wanted to come down to the café? For dinner? Do earth spirits even eat?”

“We can eat. It’s not necessary, though. I live off the earth.”

“Right.”

He was shuffling around, looking uncomfortable, and he’d come all the way out here to ask me, so it seemed rude not to accept.

“I’d love to. I might be a bit slow walking, though. I get weaker the further I get from my tree.”

“Oh. Do you think you’ll make it all the way down to the village?”

All day, I’d felt Joe walking around. He moved nearer and further away as he worked but I managed to keep my sense of him wherever he went. And I knew he’d headed down to the village.

Steeling myself, I nodded. “I’ll make it down there.” At least I’d be near my mate.

Randall gave me a little smile. “You know Joe’s there, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“He’s coming to the Honey Pot for dinner.”

“He’s eating honey for dinner? Is that healthy for humans? Shouldn’t he have a more varied diet?”

Randall was already shaking his head. “No, no. The Honey Pot is the name of Marcia’s café. He’s going there for dinner.”

“Right.”

Heat flooded my body as though the warm sun had been blazing on it for hours. I was about to see my mate again. He hadn’t come near the tree all day.

“I shall take you up on your generous offer to dine with you tonight,” I said. “Perhaps I could lean on your arm?”

Randall was smaller than me but he gamely let me lean on his arm as we walked. He began to chat. I was glad that he’s gone back to being himself, after his embarrassment at realisingI’d overheard his conversations with the tree, or rather, that Iwasthe tree, but he became less and less shy as we walked.

By the time we reached the café, he was chatting in exactly the same way he always had. And I learned a lot. About the village and the people – it had been ten years since I’d been there, although it seemed that this sleepy little place hadn’t changed much in that time. And I learned about my mate.

“How do you know Joe?” I asked.

“He used to work for my grandmother. She wasn’t, um, very nice. She doesn’t like people who are different.”

“Like earth spirits?”

“Yes. Or trolls. Or people who are gay.”

“Like you?”

“Yes.”

“And like me.”

Randall nodded. “Joe left when he found that out. I think he travels a lot.”

A tiny beat of worry pounded in my heart. My mate travelled? That was going to be awkward. Earth spirits didn’t like to travel. Once we found our home, we stayed. I’d found my home with these fields and these trees and the animals that came and went with the seasons, and I had burrowed deep into the soil here, made my home in that apple tree… It would be hard to leave it and follow my mate around. My power would fade, if nothing else. An earth spirit not attached to the earth would wither and die, eventually. That’s what Mulgrave had been trying to do to me. It was only because I’d burrowed inside my tree that I’d survived.

Randall looked up at me. “Are you ok, Terrund?”

“Just thinking, that’s all. How long has Joe been here?”

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