In the tropical forests of the south, where most of the world's shae folk lived, there was a certain type of wasp that laid its eggs in the bark of a certain type of tree. As the larvae hatched and burrowed into the tree's wood, they produced a hormone that caused the wood to swell up into a spongy mass that the maggots found easier to digest. The shae folk who lived in these forests had found a way to cultivate these insects and to infect a single tree with thousands of them. After careful nurturing that might last as long as a hundred years, the original smooth and straight tree was transformed into a lumpy, rounded object about the size of a house which, once the interior had been hollowed out and doors and windows cut, was exactly what it was. The tree remained alive, even with a family of shae folk living in it, and would continue to grow, eventually allowing further rooms and storeys to be added.

     The oldest trees could eventually grow to the size of castles and mansions, although this could take several thousand years, and trees this size were very rare. Those there were, hidden deep in the very heartlands of their race, were the subject of special awe and reverence to the nature loving shae folk. The main advantage these living houses had over the ordinary brick, stone and wood houses of the other races, was that any damage they suffered, due to storms, the actions of grazing animals or whatever, would eventually heal over as new wood grew over the wounds. This made them far superior to ordinary houses made from dead materials that would only age and decay as the years passed, but the time needed for them to grow meant that only the long lived shae folk had taken to them in a big way.

     The shaewoods of Lexandria Valley had about twenty such trees, ranging in size from small ones whose hollowed out living areas were about the size of a large garage, to larger ones whose bulbous bases, according to rumour, covered areas the size of a netball pitch and which had two complete rows of windows cut into their bark, with a few more cut into some of their swollen, lower branches to form partial third storeys. The trees did not stand side by side but were separated by more ordinary trees as well as patches of open ground into which the soft, golden rays of the yellow sun slanted down at an angle, illuminating patches of carefully tended grass dotted with blue and yellow flowers.

     Derrin and Lirenna cried out in joy and delight at the beauty of the scene, but Thomas could only stare in awe and wonder, barely able to believe what he was seeing. So this was how the shae folk lived! No wonder they saw humans as grubby troglodytes, barely fit to be called civilised. He remembered the squalor and filth of some of the human cities he'd been to and felt an almost overwhelming sense of shame as he imagined what a shae man, accustomed to living in a beautiful forest like this, would think upon entering one. No wonder members of the fair race were hardly ever found outside their own homelands. And the real wonder was that most humans had no idea what they were missing. They might live their whole lives surrounded by bricks and slate, crushed by the milling crowds of other people and up to their ankles in mud, sewage and rotting fruit and have no idea that beauty such as this existed. It was almost enough to move you to tears!

     It was small by the standards of a human cottage, but apparently about average for a young dwelling tree. They would certainly be cramped and crowded living in such a small thing, much more so than they would have been living in one of the teaching buildings, but Lirenna wasn't concerned with living space. After all, they had the whole outdoors to stretch out in if they began to feel cramped. Shae folk always considered the whole forest to be their home, with the indoors part of it used only for sleeping and sheltering in bad weather. They were outdoor creatures, and both Lirenna and Derrin were more shayen than human in this regard. No, the size of their new home was unimportant. It was its beauty that sold them on it.

     The silvery bark was smooth and flawless, seemingly able to stretch as much as necessary to cover the swollen, porous wood beneath, and fat roots spread out into the thick, loamy soil in all directions. Above, half a dozen major branches supported a lush, green canopy that quivered and trembled with birds and squirrels. Some of the branches drooped low to the ground, giving them a close up view of the serrated, oval leaves and tiny white flowers, and a few ragged clusters of last year's seeds hung here and there, each seed having a pair of butterfly shaped wings that would catch the wind and allow them to be carried miles from the parent tree.

     Five openings had been cut in the tree. One for the door, shayen size, which would require Thomas to stoop a little to get in and out. Three little round windows, barely a foot wide and filled with several pieces of clear glass held together by thin strips of hardened tree gum, were spaced four feet above the forest floor and a narrow chimney stuck out at an oblique angle from the side of the tree, covered by a small conical lid to keep out the rain. Some kind of climbing plant unfamiliar to Thomas climbed all over the lower parts of the tree, covering half of it with thousands of tiny blue flowers.

     A herb garden lay under the kitchen window, overgrown with weeds but with the tall, serrated leaves of parsley and bantroot still holding their own in the tangle, and a small well stood a short distance away; a small circle of red painted bricks topped by a tile covered winch from which a simple wooden bucket hung. The whole scene was so exquisite that the newcomers could only stare in stunned delight, even Thomas whose human soul wasn't nearly as sensitive to the natural world as that of a shae, and one glance at Lirenna was all he needed to tell him that she'd fallen instantly in love with it. Even the normally restless and energetic Derrin was silent for once, his huge blue eyes wide open and staring as he drank in every detail of the fairytale scene.

     "Would you like to see inside?" said Toranda, pushing open the door. It had no lock, of course. It didn't even have a doorhandle, being held closed by a spring in the hinge, and it opened either inwards or outwards with a simple push. The shae held it open for them and Lirenna led the way in, walking as if in the middle of a wonderful dream.

     The interior of the dwelling tree was as exquisite as the overgrown garden surrounding it, with furniture made from some of the very same wood that had been hollowed out from the interior. It had two main rooms, separated by walls where the living wood had been left in place, along with a third room that was small and dark and only used for storage.

     The front door led into the largest of the tree’s two main rooms, the room that took up most of the tree's internal space. It contained the kitchen, with storage cupboards, surfaces for food preparation and a framework for hanging a cooking pot above the fire. Further back was the dining area with a table and three small chairs while furthest from the front door was the snug where three comfy chairs sat in a circle facing each other. There were two windows. One behind the kitchen workable and the other behind the dining table.

     The snug area also contained storage cupboards and bookshelves on which a few books and ornaments still stood, left behind by the previous occupants. It also contained the door into the cramped and crowded bedroom containing a double bed, a clothes cupboard and a small bedside table on which stood a beautifully carved oil lamp in the shape of a tallon flower. The house’s third window, behind the foot of the bed, overlooked a tiny wash basin that was filled with rainwater funneled in through a small duct up near the ceiling. It was currently dry and empty, though, as it hadn't rained in some days. Everything in the house was shae sized. They were going to need a larger armchair for him to sit in, thought Thomas, and he and Lirenna were going to be squashed close together in the bed. The thought made him smile with anticipation.

     All three windows were rather small making it dark and gloomy inside, but shae folk didn't need a lot of light, since their infravision enabled them to see in the dark. The windows were to let them see outside and didn't need to admit a lot of light, as the windows in human houses did.

     One room seemed to be missing, though, and Thomas mentioned it hesitantly and apologetically, hating to bring a note of practicality into the surreal, elysian scene. Toranda merely smiled, though, and led them back outside and around to the other side of the tree. There was the missing room, carved out of a bulge in the side of the tree and just large enough for a single seat that stood over a hole in the ground. The door to this room had a bolt, to ensure the privacy and modesty of the occupant.

     "That hole goes all the way down to the tree's roots," explained the shae man, "so that our solid wastes will fertilise the tree and keep it strong and healthy. A colony of a special kind of earthworm lives down there, helping to break it down and release the essential nutrients, and they also help to reduce considerably the smell that would otherwise emanate from it. For the sake of hygiene, though, we still like to keep it separate from the rest of the house."

     "Of course," agreed Lirenna, nodding her head.

     "On no account, however, should liquid wastes be disposed of down that hole. That would poison the tree. Use that bucket there, and then dispose of it in some convenient spot away from the house and the well."

     They strolled back to the front of the house, where Derrin and Lirenna gazed at it in rapture and adoration. "I will now leave you to get settled in," said Toranda. "I will come back tomorrow an hour before sunset to show you how to care for the tree. I regret that you'll have to get your food and other supplies from the University. It's not a long walk, just a few hundred yards. You can either eat in the University kitchens or prepare and eat it here. The choice is yours."

     "You've been very kind," said Thomas. "Thank you very much for your help, and please confer our gratitude once again to the people of your community for the very great honour they are doing us in allowing us to stay here."

     "It is we who should be grateful to you," replied the shae. "By looking after this tree for us, you are saving us much work, and as a result we can keep the other trees in much better condition. It is astonishing to me that this solution was not seen before, or perhaps it was just dismissed out of hand. I know that, had your wife..." He bowed to Lirenna to avoid the impoliteness of speaking about her as if she were not there, "had not been half shayen, you would have been treated the same as any other human who entered our wood. That fate may still await you if you enter the centre of the wood, where the rest of us live. Be very careful if you venture out after dark. Without our infravision, it would be easy for you to lose your way."

     "We understand," replied Lirenna. "We will not violate your trust in us."

     "I am certain of that," said the shae, smiling. "And now I will leave you. Expect me tomorrow, an hour before sunset."

     They all bowed to each other again, and then Toranda left, raising a slender hand to them as he vanished silently into the forest. They watched until he was out of sight, and then Lirenna spun around and dashed back into the tree with a shriek of pure joy and delight.