"I just want to sit with the tree for a while before I go, is that okay, Sky—er, I mean— Torgney?"

You're my prrroxy! I'll be right here.

Ciara sat on the stone slab with its winding roots, her back against the ancient maple. She breathed the air of the immense valley. It all smells so sweet. Everything's different. Each living thing here has it's own smell.

"And color," she thought she heard Walter squeak.

Am I starting to hear you now, as well, Walter?

Useful, she heard.

Thank you for your strength in the Council chamber.

She heard and felt a rummaging inside her bag.

"I suppose I should have given this back. Do you suppose I should worry? This is a library bag."

Ciara heard nothing. Soon Walter's head popped out. His tiny paws held something between them.

"What's that? Do you want to come out?"

Walter ducked in and Ciara gingerly pinched the outsides of the opening to pull the string wide. She put the bag gently onto the surface of the slab seating. Walter plopped through.
"What do you have there?"

Walter struggled in an awkward fashion but managed to drag the bright glittering object along her rock surface, to the point she could see.

"Its a crystal! That's beautiful. Is it a gift? That reminds me, I forgot to leave my moghorse brush for Skye with Sadie! I might have to go back? Thank you for this." She inspected the crystal.

"Leave it to me," Walter squeaked.

"Oh, dear—I really can hear you."

You will need quartz, "squeak."

"Thank you." She looked closely at the crystal. "I can see inside of it. There are bits of color, frozen and floating. I can see white. Whitestuff! Is this where he is?"

How, "—squeak."

"This is how to get to Whitestuff?" Ciara looked at the rat. "I thought Torgney was going to take me—?"

Crystal—

"Crystal is needed to get through the tree?"

"Squeak, squeak," Walter cried and jumped off the stone, clutching the bag.

Ciara startled and then watched as Walter and the awkward library bag, with the moghorse brush still inside it, disappeared through the grass. After a while Walter was so far down the alcove that only the tops of the grasses wavered.

A coyote rummaged along the ridge, then lay in the sun. She sat and she watched as the breezes came up. She remembered Skye's words in the clouds. She thought of all the instructors and students and her friendship with Sadie, Alphonse and Magtha, and now of all the others in Aulde Mountain School, hidden away from the world on top of the skyline. I am a tracker, I guess.

Okay, Skye!

Are you ready to go and track something now?

I guess, yes I am—Thank you.

Ciara took a last breath full of smells. I wonder if somewhere there are moghorses breathing this air?

White wings? asked Skye.

White wings—

Ciara clutched the crystal from Walter. She closed her eyes. She breathed—in and out—
And after that she didn't remember.

~~~

Wait! I think she's coming to!" Arvid called to his mother, frantically.

Bets came right away. She walked in wiping her wet hands on a towel. "Is she—?"

They heard a moan and then Ciara moved in her bed. "She is! She's waking up!"

"Mom?"

"Ceecee!" Bets sat on the bed and clasped Ciara's limp hand. "Go, get your father!" she hurried Arvid out to the orchard.

"It's all right, Sweetie, you're home."

"Home?"

"You were hurt when you fell from the tree. You hit your head and swam to the far side of the river, but it's all right now. You will be fine. You just lie still."

"But it can't be! I was—" She struggled to sit up.

"No, you stay where you are. We can do everything for you. You don't have to go to school tomorrow or for a while."

"School. There was magic—"

"Hah—how nice. I'll bet you were having some pretty good dreams there."

"No, it can't be—"

"Just rest, Love. It all will make sense in a few days."

Arvid showed her his latest projects and her dad just sat in the chair smiling, not saying a word. Her mother made dinner and they all pulled their own favorite chairs round her bed. The Runyons all sat in her room eating and chatting, until it was late.

   ˜ ˜ ˜

Still, Ciara lay awake watching the moon through her skylight, thinking. It can't be—not real—She only slept a few hours and then crept from the house, just as dawn slipped in to rush the wide marsh.

She softly stepped along the driveway, pausing and looking around when gravel crunched much too loudly. I'm a tracker. I should be able to do this. She slowed down, and moved her feet carefully from the outside edge, rolling each foot inward, until she was further away from the house. She had to get to the tree.

"The moon is still up! Thank goodness for moons!" Is the moon where you are, Skye? But there was no answer.

The gravel became packed mud with holes from tire tracks and soon she slipped away and in through the trees to the side. With the help of trunks and shadows of branches, plus the sound of the frogs—she made her way to the maple.

There it stood looking exactly the same. Are you real? Did I only just leave you?

She put her hand onto the bark and closed her eyes. The tree seemed terribly solid. Are you out there, Magtha and Skye? Did I only dream you?

She listened to the heart of the marsh—it croaked like thousands of frogs. She tried to hear the heart of the tree—and as she reached a leafy new branch brushed up against her. This wasn't here before! It's covered in dew. She peered between all the trees and she could see the colors of sunrise.

I know this! It's the heart of the world. It's everywhere when I listen.

Ciara sighed, I wish that I knew—I'm sure I've really just been there!

She sat on the ground for a very long time, picking at grass stems, wishing there was some way she could find out for sure.

I better go back to the house. Dad is up early. He'll only worry again. I shouldn't get cold. She stood up. She heard the sound of something that hovered. Her head twisted up to the leaves. She could see over the marsh with the new light of day just slowly beginning to climb. A mass of hovering insects was out there, too!

She stepped back and tried to find the hovering sound up in the tree. It was there! It was white.
"Whitestuff!"

She moved to see up into the branches, close to the trunk. Both her  hands touched the tree. "I love you," she whispered.

Her fingers gripped into the bark, but then they felt kind of funny. Something is here. Has my tree been damaged? She stepped back and looked.

As just the crown of the sun rose up to meet the horizon, first slivers of light pierced over the marsh lighting million of wings and on through the forest. The beams struck the trunk where Ciara now stood.

Her mouth hung wide open. Whitestuff rattled above—giving off an expectant shiver.

There on the trunk of her favorite tree, carved in the bark, long in the past—or maybe the future—was a gigantic heart. Inside the heart were scratched the words—The DS Guild has need of you, always!

Ciara sat down and cried.

How much time had passed here or would have passed there? Was this from her past or her future? Skye had said she could now come and go, using white wings.

Should I go now?

She thought about all she wanted to do. She thought of Arvy. She thought of her dad. She thought of her mom. Even if she didn't go to school right away, there'd be school still in the spring.

She was at home now. Her egg-song was here!

No. The guild can wait for me. I can pick my right time to go visit in Mearth. Meantime I'll train with Whitestuff—and investigate here on my own. Afterall, I am a tracker.

What might be here in this world of times that could later lead to the need for Skye's journey? Perhaps I can change some of that too.

I will help Skye and Sadie, and Alphonse... and Magtha and all of them, too, but there isn't a rush. 

I'd like to be a tracker here first. I know that I can! And I can do both! It will wait till I am ready. Mearth is my future also!

THE END

~~~/

for Ethan,
and for my family and friends,

—to the end of days, I'll always be found in the heart of the world or a hole in the forest!