The One Tree of Luna by Todd McCaffrey Read Free Book Online Page B

looks of what I’d seen, if she aged, her tree aged. But what had caused her to age so much?
    â€˜ Three kisses ’ she’d said. ‘ Three kisses and I’ll be his forever! ’
    If she looked so bad after two kisses, what would she be like after the third?
    I jumped out of bed and rushed out into our living room.
    â€œMom! Mom, I’ve got it!” I cried. “I know what happened to the trees!”
    But she wasn’t there.
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    â€œStan, Stan, pick up, pick up!” I cried as I rushed outside, wrapping my nano-suit and willing it on me. My chrono told me it was past midnight.
    â€œHuh?” Stan Morgan’s voice came into my ear. “What? Jenny, what’s up?”
    â€œI need you to meet me at the forest,” I told him.
    â€œThe forest? Now?” He sounded more awake. There was a silence. “There’s a stage one emergency, you should stay home!”
    â€œI’m going out because of the stage one emergency,” I told him. I spread my wings but I already knew what they’d show — I’d four red bands and only two yellow. I was thirty minutes from the forest — I’d be ten minutes into the red by the time I got there. “You’ve got to meet me; I’m going into the red on this.”
    â€œInto the red? Jenny, you’ll get your license pulled —”
    â€œJust meet me there,” I told him, talking a quick set of steps and leaping into the air. I must have been more tired than I realized for I fumbled the first beat and nearly crashed. I had to work twice as hard to regain the lost height and I was breathing hard by the time I was fifty meters up.
    It took work to get to the nearest thermal — I usually launch from school which has a thermal close by — and I was grateful to be able to just glide for a bit in a slow turn as I climbed up to one hundred and fifty meters — just below the safe altitude limit.
    â€œJenny,” Stan called me. He sounded like he was trying to talk sense to me. I didn’t have time for sense so I ordered my comms unit to reject the connection.
    I glanced at my altitude gage and with a few beats of my wings climbed another twenty meters. Now I was right at the safe altitude but I didn’t plan on staying there for long, diving to exchange height for speed.
    I didn’t know what was happening or when but I knew if I couldn’t stop my Hamadryad friend from getting her third kiss she was going to die.
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    â€œWarning, warning, you are entering a secured area,” a voice spoke insistently in my ear. “You are in violation of Lunar regulations and penalties will be assessed.”
    â€œI know,” I said, even as I spotted my tree in the distance. It was surrounded by lights and people. I landed just in front of my mother.
    â€œJenny!” she cried. She was angry. Don Ostermann was next to her, his expression grim.
    â€œMom, I know what’s happening and I know how to stop it,” I told her quickly. Her eyebrows rose. “You’ve got to leave or he won’t come.”
    â€œWhat?” Mr. Ostermann said. “How do you know?”
    â€œBecause no one ever saw him,” I said. “He went after all the trees on Earth and no one caught him.” I looked back at the tree and said, “I’m not sure we’ll be able to see him.”
    â€œSo how are you going to stop him?” my mom asked.
    I told her. Mr. Ostermann looked at me wide-eyed but my mom merely took a deep breath and nodded. “She’s right, it’s probably the best way,” she said. “And you’ve got Stan on patrol?”
    â€œActually, I’ve got the whole air corps on patrol,” I told her.
    â€œBut you only said Stan —”
    â€œTrust me,” I told her, nodding up to the skies above as two, then three, four, and finally a dozen sets of wings came into view. “Mr. Ostermann, if you could coordinate