The One Tree of Luna by Todd McCaffrey

with them?”
    â€œWhat makes you think he won’t see them?”
    â€œI don’t think he’s ever heard of flying men,” I told him.
    â€œDo you know who he is?” My mom asked in surprise.
    â€œNo,” I told her, “but I’ve got an idea what he is.” She gave me a skeptical look and I moved close to her. “Mom, trust me, please?”
    â€œThis is the last tree, Jenny,” my mother said slowly. “We can’t lose it, there are no seeds.”
    â€œThis is my tree mom,” I told her. “Dad didn’t know what to look for when he was little but I do.”
    My mom gave me a long look and then she surprised me by stepping back toward Mr. Ostermann. “Jenny’s got it, let’s go.”
    Mr. Ostermann had known me a long time, pretty much my whole life. I guess he saw the same thing in me that my mom did because he nodded toward me and smiled. “Good luck!”
    â€œThanks.” I was going to need it. If I was wrong or if I fell asleep, my tree was going to die.
    Â 
    â€œJenny,” a voice came quietly in my ear and I startled, surprised that I had nodded off. It was Stan. My face chrono showed me that it was 4:13 a.m. so I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised. “From the northeast.”
    â€œRoger,” I replied. “Show time.” I sounded calm, I knew it. But really, truth to tell, I was shaking like a leaf. Which was probably a good thing.
    â€œNano-suit overload in ten minutes,” a computer voice warned. Yeah, I knew. The nano-suit was overworked, overloaded, generating a shutter that flickered over six hundred times a second — the fastest I could get it to go.
    I was pretty sure that whatever was coming for my Hama — well, I had to call her something! — was flickering in the same ghostly manner as my tree’s Hamadryad. I guessed that was why no one had noticed it — it was flickering too much for our regular cameras to catch it.
    There! “Target acquired, confirm lock.”
    â€œLocked,” Stan’s voice was the first among a dozen to reply.
    â€œEngaging —”
    â€œJenny, are you sure?” Stan cried out. He sounded worried about me. Stan Morgan, the best flyer on Luna?
    â€œâ€” now,” I finished, standing up and moving from the tree toward the approaching figure. There was no time for worries and there was no second plan.
    He was dark-haired, dark-eyed and incredibly handsome. He was Japanese, just as I’d guessed. He looked middle-aged, maybe younger. He smiled at me.
    â€œDid you miss me?” he said, moving toward me.
    â€œAre you going to kiss me again?”
    â€œIs that what you want?” he asked, smiling. I could see the hollowness in his eyes and my skin crawled. Whatever he was, he was not human. Some sort of spirit, a creature of darkness or of void — I didn’t know which.
    â€œDon’t listen to her!” Hama cried as she burst into view. “She’s an impostor?”
    â€œAm I?” I said and, on cue, all twelve flyers swirled into view, each adding their own voice, keyed to match Hama’s. “Am I?”
    The dark-haired spirit looked desperately from one to the other of us. Hama tried to move toward him but I stepped in front of her as did Stan and Crissie while Moira and Kevin pulled Hama back behind them, executing a quick shell-game even as the rest of flyers interposed themselves.
    I shifted out of my flickering just before my nano-suit’s power failed.
    â€œThis tree is mine, you may not have her,” I told him.
    â€œWhat are you?” he cried, backing away from me in awe.
    â€œThe Greeks called me Artemis,” I said advancing toward him. “I guard the Dryads, the Kodama , the Ghillie Dhu and no jiang shi will defeat me.”
    I must have guessed right for the dark-eyed thing winced at the name I gave it.
    â€œYou have killed too many, you must depart,”