Xerena's comment

Hi, my name is Xerena. You are right, I'm a Dryad. Of course, I have a tree, and it looks like this one. tree

I guess you read the whole story of Garion and Ce'Nedra and all the others. I read it all, including Belgarath's and Polgara's books. Of course, there was something I knew already - Ce'Nedra told me. In some sense, I'm a little bit disappointed. People have lots of misconceptions concerning Dryads, and I hoped these books could help to correct them. Unfortunately, they don't. What you can read about us is scarce and contradictory at first glance.
One of the points people usually fail to understand is the close connection to our trees. Possibly you know about the fact, but hardly you have thought your way through it. There are people who believe that all Dryads live very long because some trees do (great logic, indeed). A human could live several hundred years as well - if he manages not to die much earlier. The same is true for trees and Dryads. Trees are often killed. Just think about what a single thunderstorm can do in a forest. However, a tree can die from a desease or from parasits, too. That's why we are very careful with our trees in the Wood. The Dryads born and raised in Tolnedran cities sometimes get careless with their trees. Most of them don't live long enough to realize that this is a mistake.
On the other hand, a Dryad can die from an illness your children most probably would survive. She could be poisoned by some rare Nyissan venom or by your ordinary food. Naturally, her tree would die, then. "A Dryad lives as long as her tree does."
Travellers in our Wood are really a problem. If they come from the Tolnedran side, Borune patrols usually give them some instruction. Unfortunately, the travellers tend to forget about it. They litter garbage, cut off limbs of our trees (very pleasant feeling for a Dryad...) and are careless with their fires. I literally see you smiling - that superstituous fear of fire... That's complete nonsense, of course. In front of a safe fireplace in a stone building in Tol Honeth I feel perfectly comfortable, especially in winter. A fire in the Wood is another story. Hardly you can even begin to understand, what a Dryad feels when her tree is burning.
There's another more delicate point. Yes, we need those travellers for reproduction. Just a few people find that faintly disgusting, including some of my sisters. But there's not all that much we could do about it. It wasn't our idea, after all. The Gods made us, and I really don't know what they drank that day. Relg will find it offensive (how can I write this about the Gods?), but it was UL who rebuked his sons that they made this world as a "plaything". We were among those "strange and unseemly creatures" the Book of Ulgo spoke about. In a world where even marriages between various human races are discouraged, it is regarded unseemly to need males of another species for mating. UL found "beauty and worthiness" in all of us, though it took him some time. Most humans have no problem to find beauty in Dryads, but concerning worthiness... Usually, the human males we catch in the Wood do what they are supposed to. Nyissans are sometimes disappointing, for various reasons. In any case, it's not easy for a Dryad to realize later that the expression on their faces most probably meant contempt. Some of my sisters think that human males are even beneath animals. However, I don't agree with them. I'll explain my reasons to you in due time.

You will wonder how I could read all those books and how I could write this. I was born in the Wood, but I learned how to readand write in Tol Honeth. Maybe you thought that the connection between the Borune line and the Dryads had the only purpose to produce the Queen of the World and is obsolete by now? This would mean you are not very bright. The alliance between Borunes and Dryads is too important for us to let it slide. Varana is now Ran Borune XXIV, and his son is the heir of his throne. Our treaty with the Borune House has no expiration date, after all. Belgarath is a living legend for Dryads, as well, but for other reasons than you might think. One of these reasons is that he suggested the agreement between the Dryads and the Borune family. I've studied history in the last few years, and I suspect that we owe him our survival. We might very well share the fate of the Marags. There were just a few Tolnedran merchants dreaming of the profits from cutting down and selling our oaks. Princess Xoria was proud enough to say that we could handle the problem of woodcutters, but she was clever enough to see that Belgarath was right.
Now our Wood is inviolate forever. The treaty with the Borunes has influenced our culture. We have a symbol of marriage, now. Of course, we didn't need anything like this before. Princess Xoria didn't even know a word like "husband", and many Dryads don't understand it even now. Others have Borune husbands, and most of them are happy. These books we are speaking about were written down by Alorns - at least they are full of Alorn prejudices. Tolnedrans are greedy, swindlers, and their religious attitude is towards money... I hope you don't really believe that this is the whole truth. You could have learned that already reading about the monks of Mar Terrin. They risk madness when they try to comfort the spirits of the Marags, and they would never lie to anybody. Do you really think they do that for money? They would go mad immediately thinking of gold in Maragor.
Just remember how Ce'Nedra's father died. His last wish was to see his wife again, and when Garion showed him Ce'Vanne's image, Ran Borune died - smiling. He loved her more than his life. All Borune husbands love their Dryad wives. My husband is no exception, though he is not a Borune from birth. As many Tolnedran nobles, he has a higher military education. I don't really approve those violent war games men are so fond of. However, I admit that some physical training makes their shape differ favorably from that of a fat merchant. Unfortunately, my husband is not as tall as Garion is, but he is very strong, and he looks rather good in his armor (and even better without it).

Of course, my sisters liked Belgarath even before that historical treaty. He knows very much about Dryads, and he understands us. It has to do with his great respect of all living. After the Alorns destroyed Nyissa, Belgarath was in horror. He didn't miss the Nyissans - but he saw almost all of their jungles burning. Honestly speaking, I had nightmares for a while when I read this part of his book. And Belgarath never approved that the Sendars cut down trees in Sendaria. Why did they kill things that lived for thousands of years just to plant turnips? Belgarath prefers to create, not to kill. It might very well be that he never killed anybody. He mentions a few dead Murgos now and then - but that's not necessarily true. For some reason, he wants people to believe that "Grat is not nice". Believe me - he is a very nice old man, though it could be a mistake to trust him. He can give you his word, and then say that "some promises can't be kept". What he said to Xoria, however, turned out true. All the Borunes are vigorous, indeed.
Belgarion is even more powerful, than Belgarath. Of course, all sorcerers can make flowers, but essentially they make dead copies of dying plants. Belgarath made an apple tree out of a twig, but there were apple trees in our world, before. Garion made a new flower, and it will live now in our world forever! I think this was far more important than just to kill a crazy God. And I have it from the best authorities that the Dals see it in the same way.

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Hans-Jürgen Fischer, last modified Fri Jul 21 2000