Darin thought about how Ridahne had spent her time. That was good. It was good that Ridahne was making friends. She hadn’t been doing that as they traveled though her goal wasn’t really to make friends while Darin’s was. She supposed that was to be expected. It was like Ridahne had said. Darin had found herself drawn to the farmers as they traveled. It was easy to volunteer to help in the communal fields that seem popular among the Eluri. Thankfully she had had the good sense to not do a repeat of her first performance with the rain. Darin hadn’t even tried to influence water or anything else like that since then. It still slightly scared her. Still she couldn’t stop the animals. Even now a few of the uloia landed on her. She absently brushed them off, but they still hovered.

Darin thought about Ridahne’s question, “There is one I heard. But it wasn’t really a story. It was more like a chain of thoughts. The thoughts being that the first Sirens came as the first drops of The Tree’s Sap hit the ground as carried by rainwater. The Elves happened as the first of The Leaves flew into the wind, and the humans came as the first Apples fell to the ground.” She shook her head, “Except that’s not right. I know that’s not right. The Tree is older than all three species, but The Tree had nothing to do with their creation. The Tree is older than anyone living, but It did grow with Astra. Its planting was Astra’s first days.”

There were other stories that people back home and in Lively and that the traders told, but Darin had never really paid much attention to them before. Now she wished that she had. She hadn’t felt the need back then. She had just been a farmer worried about the next day and the day after that. She never thought that she would ever be in a situation where she would basically be carrying all of Astra on her shoulders. If her plan to make friends failed, she would have to shift into learn all she could about Astra and its culture and history. Luckily trying to make friends meant she was already asking a lot of questions. It would be an easy transition.

Then another thought struck her. Ridahne said autumn; that they would get to Azurei in autumn. It was harvest time now; or it had been when they had gotten to The Farm. It was probably closer to winter now. It was going to take almost an entire year to reach the next portion of their journey? Darin stopped as she tried to fathom that. She almost couldn’t. When she had started this trip, she thought it might take a year or two at most. Then she learned that she needed to make friends and her estimate had increased to three maybe five years. How long would it be? She had no real sense of Astra’s size, and it wasn’t like they were being deliberately quick in this journey. Darin wasn’t sure how long it would take, but she knew it couldn’t take too long. She had to move on to the final phase of the journey before The Tree entered the very last stages of Its death. Did she have that long? Could Darin afford to basically try and meet as many people as she could? Should she focus on leaders of people rather than persons? She wasn’t sure and a hand slowly creeped up to cover her mouth as she tried to avoid being sick.

Her voice was a quiet whisper; tight from the fear that suddenly struck her, “Just how big is Astra?”

The worse part of it all was Darin didn’t know when The Tree’s finally days would be. Ravi didn’t know. The Gardener hadn’t known. The Tree Itself didn’t even know. The only reason why The Gardener knew that that he was going to die when he gave The Seed to Darin was because he had deliberately chosen to give up his life to give The Tree more time. Who knew how much time that had really brought? Who knew how much time Ravi’s actions were buying? The worst part of not knowing how long this trip would take was the fact that she was racing against the clock and she didn’t even know how much time was on that clock. It was all so overwhelming and all the peace she had gotten from seeing the sky again had vanished.

She took a few staggering steps towards her traveling companion before stopping again, “How long is this going to take?” Her hand moved from her mouth to tug desperately at her hair, “Do you know? Do you have any guesses?” Her breath was coming in short and painful gasps, “Ridahne! How big is Astra? How long? I don’t have forever! I don’t …! Ridahne!”