Three days later, and the strawberry plant isn't working anymore; of course, the whole idea was like putting a bandaid on a bullet wound. With Sage's health going downhill fast, we needed answers. Luckily, Ruby was on the job. She spent every spare moment researching what was happening to Sage since she started getting sick. She found out that Green witches live with nature magic coursing through them pulled directly from the earth, and they need that constant flow to keep up with their magic and to keep them healthy. Apparently, all green witches are descendent of a witch and a nymph. Nymphs are more extreme. They die without the connection to nature since it is their life force. Sage apparently won't die, but she will significantly weaken to the point where you think one fall and she is a goner. The strawberry plant worked while it could since it brought in that natural life force, but since it was no longer connected to the earth in its pot, eventually, the magic ran out.

So here we are making the best bad decisions we can make. I have a tent, sleeping bag, strawberry plant, and some snacks. Sage is leaning on me, I usually would be fine with her being near, but I wish she was not leaning on me because the wind can blow her off balance. I wonder if it is just not touching nature that has destroyed her. I wonder if all the things that she has lost built up to the point that she can't fight anymore. Wave after wave of loss and pain have been slamming into Sage her whole life, and I know at that moment I am never going to let them hit her alone again. I can't promise that she won't feel pain or that I can take all the hits for her even though I want to, but I can promise that she doesn't have to go through it alone.

"Thinking hard or hardly thinking," Sage asks, looking up at me with the mischief that I know she is trying to maintain.

"Hardly thinking, of course you know me," I answer; she doesn't need me to tell her that I am concerned about her. She already knows.

"Where are we going?"

"My dad is going to send a fire message with a picture of the campsite he picked out. You think you know what to do when we get to the forest?"

"Ruby explained it to me. She said that it is something all green witches do at least once a year or when they need it." A small fire appeared in the sky and fell towards us. In my hand, it turned into a satellite picture of a heavily wooded area. "I'm ready when you are."

"of course you are." I kiss the top of her head and pull her close. She isn't strong enough to shadowstep anymore. I well up as much strength as I have and take the step. We land next to a large oak tree; in fact, we are surrounded by oak trees, and the ground is covered in leaves that haven't decayed into the earth. "I'll set up camp and keep a watch while you are busy."

"Don't let anyone cut me down." She tries to pull away, but I hold on, not ready to let her go. She reaches up with her shacky hand to my face, "I can do this, and then I'll come. Back to you."

"I never had any doubts," but I still pull her to my chest and rest my chin on her head before letting go. Sage walks on her own to the oak tree we landed next to and puts her hands on it. Being here gives her color to her eyes and is healing her; just being here isn't enough. She presses harder into the tree, but nothing happens. A frustrated noise leaves her mouth.

"I'm too new to magic and not trained as a green witch. I don't think I can do this." She leans her head against the tree in frustration and exhaustion. I wrap my arms around her waist, pulling her up so she doesn't need to hold the weight with my face near her ear.

"Do you need to think about it when you make a plant grow? Or when you lit up the nature magic in that garden?" I wait. I can't tell her the answer. It is something she needs to find herself.

"No, but this is different."

"Is it? You are nature magic. It is just as much a part of you as bone and blood. How do you make the plants grow?"

"I feel them, or I feel it... Something like that."

"Then feel," I whisper. I am still holding her but not as tightly. If she needs me but not forcing her. Sage touches the tree again, pressing her hand to the bark, but this time it is different. This time I feel her magic coming alive. I let her go and back away as Sage sinks into the tree. Gone right before my eyes. I know that the Roseblom family does this every year during the midsummer celebration but seeing a stranger merge with a tree and seeing Sage are two different things. Now I need to wait. I turn to set up our tent when I see him.

"I was beginning to think she wasn't going to do it." Hollis is standing by our things, a smug smile on his face. Looking at him now, I can tell we are about the same height, but he is built bigger than me, and I'm not exactly known for my fighting skills. "Now I need to cut that tree down if you don't mind," he starts to move towards her tree, but I send a spell tossing him back on his ass. He stands and gives me a 'you shouldn't have done that look.' Fire flies from his hand towards me, and I deflect it to the side. Unfortunately, we are surrounded by the dead leaves that light up at the first spark. I have to protect Sage's tree, and the fire is getting too close. Before I have a plan, Hollis Decimates a tree, not hers, thank the goddess, but he sends all the pieces that look like javelins at me. I change the spears to paper airplanes that then also catch on fire. Because, of course, they do. I notice that the fire is getting too close to that tree, and I don't see any water around, unless. Focusing on the earth, I reach for water in the ground. It isn't the easiest because you have to pull against the earth, but I try anyway. Hollis is, of course, not done yet. Shadows fly towards me, then halfway reveal to be blood bats in mass. I ignore it since it isn't an immediate threat to my life, but they land bite after bite on my skin, ripping and pulling, trying to break my concentration.

I scream out, unsure if it is frustration at the water or pain that a bat just ripped off my part of my ear. Whatever it was, that was the last kick I needed as the water swirls around me, smacking the bats away until they flee from the onslaught of the water. I then toss the water on the fire, which just started licking at her tree. I'm exhausted; I'm not trained for this, and Hollis knows it. Hollis takes the water that I fought so hard for that is not just soaking into the surface and freezes it. The spikes fly towards me. Reacting as quickly as I can, I pull up a wall of the earth for the ice to smash into. I can't hold control of my wall, so Hollis takes it from me as smacks me like a fly with a fly swatter. I land at the base of Sage's tree so hard something must have broken or more than one something.

"You know this might be easier than I thought. I can feel her trying to get out of the tree to get to you. Do you know what happens to a green witch if they leave the tree before they are done?" I don't answer, but I do put my hands on the tree, trying to send 'I am fine' vibes to her. "When a green witch goes into the tree, she opens her power like a conduit. All the power of nature is flowing through her. Right now, she is part of the ecosystem, but if she leaves before she is ready, her connection to nature will break, and she will lose her abilities forever. She will still be a witch, just a spell-bound one. All that power will be broken, and so will she." Hollis snarls at me and goes to take a step closer. When he does, a shockwave hits so hard that he slams into a tree, almost a football field away. The ground lights up green, and gold lines burn across the land, connecting a circle of trees around this one. Light shoots from the ground where those lines burn and into the sky. It lights up all the different colors I know and then some I have never seen before.

The magic doesn't stop there. The lines continue to burn along the ground connecting tree to tree. I realize it is following the roots; the trees are talking to each other. A second circle of protection forms on the next ring of trees. Whereas the first is steady around me and Sage's tree. The second pushes out and pushes Hollis away with it, and for a minute, I can breathe. I feel the natural magic in the air and the earth around me, but I can feel her more than that. Somehow Sage found a way to protect me inside a tree. It reminds me that Hollis was right about one thing Sage does have a lot of power inside of her, a passion she doesn't even know exists. Sage's presents tells me that she and I are safe and that it is okay for me to rest. So I close my eyes.