Chaley Manytrees

"*Look at that, Mosk, their new leaves grow in bright red! Isn’t that beautiful?*"
―Chaley Manytrees[[The Ice Plague: Book 1 - The Forest of Fire, Chapter 18: Sparks of Revelation]]

## General details

### Relatives

Amaley Manytrees (mamatree, deceased); Imshiel Manytrees (papatree, deceased); Im Manytrees (brothertree, deceased); Shiel Manytrees (brothertree, deceased); Chert Manytrees (brothertree, deceased); Ela Manytrees (sistertree, deceased); Leaf Manytrees (brothertree, deceased); Himshi Manytrees (brothertree, deceased); Mallem Manytrees (brothertree, deceased); Mosk Manytrees (brothertree)

## Physical description

### Hair color

Blonde-green

**Chaley Manytrees** was an Unseelie Aur dryad, the eighth child and second daughter of Amaley and Imshiel Manytrees, and Mosk Manytrees' dearest family member.

## Appearance

#### Pronunciation

* Chay-lee (the Ch is the same sound as that in 'chair'). Haley/Hayley, but with a C in front.

Chaley 'grew creamy-white flowers of lanceolate Eucalyptus behind her ears' in 'her curling blonde-green hair', along with 'eucalyptus nuts . . . at the sides of her head', and had 'vibrant golden eyes'. Mosk said her eyes always seemed to be laughing. The flowers 'smelled richly of pollen and nectar, giving her a soft fragrance'. She had a 'bright smile' and 'vibrant laughter'. She had 'short, round . . . warm' fingers. Mosk noted that she preferred clothing in bright 'colours, in vivid lime and neon greens. The very brightest of the new leaves.'

## Personality

When bees flew to the flowers in her hair, 'she’d let them crawl on her fingers and coo to them.' Mosk said that Chaley 'always knew what to say. She knew when to be silent. She knew when to laugh. She knew when to gently tease or take things seriously. She knew how to be soft and gentle with words, or be hard and firm when she thought Mosk needed that too. Everything she said was always just…the right thing. . . . She was vivacious and full of life'. Mosk also said that Chaley was 'easy to talk to' because she liked him and would ask 'lots of questions about things. What [Mosk] was doing. What [he] thought about the owls nesting so close to the home. Whether [he] thought Shiel and Chert would ever fight properly, or if they were just sniping at each other.' She gave Mosk 'warm sympathy that felt like pity at times', and believed in him.

Chaley 'love[d] the idea of love . . . all she wanted was someone to focus all her care on. She would have been so good at it.'

Some of Mosk's siblings lived separate from the main home when they found their Aur tree, but would come home sometimes. It's unclear where Chaley fell on that spectrum. Chaley and some of Mosk's other siblings worried about him living away from home before he'd started a family of his own, since Aur dryads are supposed to live at home until that point.

## Life

Olphix and Davix wanted to know if they could create a seventh son of a seventh son themselves, rather than accidentally stumbling upon one, in order to 'augment it, tune the world towards a species and there, grant a son we could sunder and use.' So Olphix poisoned the Aur forest. The Aur dryads failed to heal it themselves, and finally sought aid from the School of the Staff (not knowing Olphix had poisoned the forest to start with), and the School sent Olphix to help. He offered to heal the forest in exchange for the Aur dryads' then-non-existent seventh son of a seventh son. Amaley and Imshiel only had two children at the time - Im Manytrees and Shiel - and assumed they would have no more, so they agreed, thinking the promise would never be fulfilled. When they continued having children, they used magic to try to only have girls, which wasn't that successful. Of their seven children born after Shiel, only two were girls. They tried to stop having children entirely after Chaley, but went to a party, and conceived Mosk.

Chaley bonded to a jarah tree. Since Aur dryad roles stop after the seventh child, she had no fixed role, and she focused on having fun. Mosk thought she wanted a partner.

Mosk used to ask 'if he could arrange the leaves in her hair' and would promise 'to find the best tree with the best sap for her to feed from.'

Initially, the family supported Mosk attempting to escape his fate. Since Mosk had not made the debt, this would not break it. Amaley gave him a bow and arrows to train with, so that he could fight Olphix when the time came. He was still forbidden from leaving the Aur forest or having any friends or connections.

Chaley would show Mosk the gum trees in the spring, and took the newer branches the trees didn't mind losing, and wove them together into a crown to place on Mosk's hair. 'They’d walked together, hand in hand, and she’d said how nice it would be if his Aur tree was a eucalyptus too.' After their parents banned Mosk from practicing the bow, Chaley helped him 'hide it in the canopy' so he could continue practicing.

Olphix murdered Chaley along with the other Manytrees family members, save Mosk, when Olphix came to collect Mosk. Mosk heard all of his family screaming as they burned to death.

Mosk found a skull in the ruins of the Aur forest, and though he couldn't be sure, he liked to think it was Chaley's.

## Special Abilities

All Aur dryads possess an ability to communicate with all trees, even without touching them, and they have a unique ability to process the voices of thousands of trees in a forest at the same time. This allows them to automatically know where water is, as well as pathways, other fae, other homes, animals, and sources of danger.

Aur dryads can tell the health of a tree directly from its sap, including its age, whether it's sick, whether it's large or small, and the species.

Aur dryads have an ability to grow plants, as well as grow them faster than is normal. They also have an ability to heal plants.

Aur dryads can turn into their Aur tree when they change into true-form, however, they cannot change back into a human or hybrid-form after this, due to the fact that they lose all knowledge of themselves. As a result, turning into a tree is considered an end-of-life form of death, with a few trees in the Aur forest being Aur dryads that have 'died' and live out the rest of their life as a tree.

## Relationships

#### Mosk Manytrees

Chaley is the only family member Mosk had a truly positive relationship with, though he still loves all his family members. She cared for him, and stood up for him, and was supportive of him. Mosk thinks Eran Iliakambar would have fallen in love with Chaley rather than Mosk if they'd met. Mosk loves her deeply, and often thinks of her for comfort.

## Trivia

* Mosk noted that none of his siblings saw the sea before they died.
* Since Amaley and Imshiel used magic to try to only have girls after making the deal with Olphix to exchange their then-unborn seventh son of a seventh son for healing the Aur forest, and had only Im and Shiel at the time, it's possible that Chaley's birth was affected by the spell, though the magic didn't work very well.
* As Mosk is around 200 years old at the start of *The Ice Plague: Book 1 - The Forest of Fire*, and the youngest of his siblings, it is implied that Chaley was more than 200 years old.
* Mosk often thinks of Chaley when interacting with others. Julvia Dubna Vajat and Ondine of the Seas have both reminded him of her.

## Folklore/Mythology

'A dryad (Greek: Δρυάδες, *sing*.: Δρυάς) is a tree nymph or tree spirit in Greek mythology. *Drys* signifies "oak" in Greek, and dryads are specifically the nymphs of oak trees, but the term has come to be used for tree nymphs in general, or human-tree hybrids in fantasy. They were normally considered to be very shy creatures except around the goddess Artemis, who was known to be a friend to most nymphs.'

## References

1. ↑ not\_poignant. “The Ice Plague: Book 3 - The Ice Plague.” *Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 9 December 2021. https://archiveofourown.org/works/26266345/chapters/88760557. Chapter 21: Hungers.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 not\_poignant. “The Ice Plague: Book 1 - The Forest of Fire.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 7 January 2018. https://archiveofourown.org/works/12036105/chapters/30419052. Chapter 12: Empty Whispers.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 not\_poignant. “The Ice Plague: Book 2 - The Seething Seas.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 15 August 2019. https://archiveofourown.org/works/17959874/chapters/48027538. Chapter 12: A Liar and the Truth.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 not\_poignant. “The Ice Plague: Book 1 - The Forest of Fire.” *Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 30 March 2018. https://archiveofourown.org/works/12036105/chapters/32604021. Chapter 18: Sparks of Revelation.
5. ↑ not\_poignant. “The Ice Plague: Book 1 - The Forest of Fire.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 10 August 2018. https://archiveofourown.org/works/12036105/chapters/36302208. Chapter 26: A Familiar Blue.
6. ↑ not\_poignant. “The Ice Plague: Book 1 - The Forest of Fire.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 21 September 2018. https://archiveofourown.org/works/12036105/chapters/37471571. Chapter 29: Don't Look.
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 not\_poignant. “The Ice Plague: Book 2 - The Seething Seas.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 19 March 2020. https://archiveofourown.org/works/17959874/chapters/55596259. Chapter 28: Farewell.
8. ↑ not\_poignant. “The Ice Plague: Book 2 - The Seething Seas.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 21 June 2019. https://archiveofourown.org/works/17959874/chapters/45901336. Chapter 8: Stay Right Here.
9. ↑ not\_poignant. “The Ice Plague: Book 1 - The Forest of Fire.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 19 January 2018. https://archiveofourown.org/works/12036105/chapters/30758403. Chapter 13: Captured.
10. ↑ not\_poignant. “The Ice Plague: Book 2 - The Seething Seas.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 30 April 2020. https://archiveofourown.org/works/17959874/chapters/57536779. Chapter 31: Whatever It Takes.
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 not\_poignant. “The Ice Plague: Book 1 - The Forest of Fire.” *Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 29 June 2018. https://archiveofourown.org/works/12036105/chapters/34995836. Chapter 23: The Arrow's Path.
12. ↑ 12.0 12.1  not\_poignant. “The Ice Plague: Book 1 - The Forest of Fire.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 9 December 2017. https://archiveofourown.org/works/12036105/chapters/29615421. Chapter 10: The World Forest.
13. ↑ not\_poignant. “The Ice Plague: Book 3 - The Ice Plague.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 3 February 2022. https://archiveofourown.org/chapters/91940740. Chapter 25: Monsters Within Monsters.
14. ↑ not\_poignant. “The Ice Plague: Book 1 - The Forest of Fire.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 16 February 2018. https://archiveofourown.org/works/12036105/chapters/31475208. Chapter 15: Isn't This Better?
15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 not\_poignant. “The Ice Plague: Book 1 - The Forest of Fire.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 19 October 2018. https://archiveofourown.org/works/12036105/chapters/38607599. Chapter 32: Somewhere Safe.
16. ↑ "Dryad". Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dryad. Accessed 7 May 2021.