𝐅𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐊 - 𝐖𝐞𝐝𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐀𝐝𝐝𝐚𝐦𝐬

fourteen | summonings and solutions

-FOURTEEN-

Juniper lay in bed, her head in a whirl as she thought over the night's events. Her lips tingled as the remembered Wednesday's touch, and she smiled giddily to herself, feeling her ears grow pointed when she did. Unfortunately, her reminiscence was paused by a sudden pain in her head, which took her by surprise. The dull throbbing that had plagued her since after she thought of Liliope's riddle, enhanced to a splitting headache.

Whilst she gritted her teeth and tried distracting herself form the blinding pain, she realised that even Liliope and Goody Addams had been romantically involved with each other, and she was, now, romantically involved with an Addams, she slid out of bed and decided to contact the nature spirit. 'Might help with this headache,' she thought, though not very rationally.

She snuck out of bed, her backpack over her shoulder, as she made her way out of the school and into the woods. She decided to leave her familiar asleep, knowing that Elder dryad spirits were wary around dragons. 

She placed her bag down in a clearing free of dried leaves, and surrounded herself with white candles she'd carried with her. In a quick flick of her wrist, they ignited, and she kneeled in the middle of her circle, drawing in protective and summoning runes as well as sigils in the damp, but tight ground with a stick. Merging into her true form, she sat with a wooden bowl of of acorns before her, knowing that Liliope was an oak spirit. Beside her was a setting of offerings for all her deities, and her stomach churned nervously as she set everything out.

She called upon her true patroness, Iris, as well as her deities Artemis, Hecate, and Demeter with the help of a few silent prayers. She murmured in Greek, all the prayers she knew, devoting them to the four goddesses. Feeling an energy around her, she chanted a prayer and gave an offering to Persephone, for reincarnation, and finally to Gaia, the Earth Mother, allowing Liliope to finally emerge from the humming ground beneath her. 

"Young one," said the dryad, sitting in front of Juniper. "Why hath thoust summoned me?"

 "I require your guidance, Elder Lady Liliope," the younger redhead bowed her head, knowing better than to meet the dryad's eyes. "In matters of your riddle, and this mystery."

Liliope leaned forward and took an acorn from the bowl, looking at it before she popped it in her mouth. "Well," she said, "I am but like you. A dryad with a desire for someone everyone has ill will against."

"I have noticed that since my encounter with the beast that resides in these woods, my energy has changed towards it. I feel like someone familiar to me is connected to these killings." Juniper admitted, getting them on track.

"Ah, but of course. A classic tale of an acquaintance changed to a beastial shell of what they once were," sighed the dryad. "I am afraid only thou and thine anchor may find who it is."

 Frustrated, Juniper recited, "'Seems a friend but is a foe, they will betray all that you know. Find your anchor, meet your bind, a lover in them you will find,'" Looking Liliope boldly in the eyes, forgetting her etiquettes on summoning, she asked, "What in the damned hell does that mean?!"

Liliope laughed and sat back leisurely, saying, "I speak the truth, and what is foretold, young one. Prophecy needn't always be straightforward. The burden of foresight is rather heavy."

"I was honestly expecting you to say, 'Oh look, the most feared girl in Nevermore is in love with you,'" scoffed Juniper. "Why is it me? Why is this riddle associated to me, and what is its relevance to this mystery?"

"I'm afraid I cannot tell you that," said the Elder dryad. "Time and future is a fragile thing. One slip, and everything can crumble."

"Respectfully, get to the point," muttered the younger dryad.