A single tree. Two voices.

Pine: So, with needled finger, scrape the sky and return. Brush and scrape. Scrape and-

Ariel: Go faster.

Pine: -brush.

Ariel: Faster. Faster. A bright contest, say.

Pine: Hush, impatient spirit. Steady with me. Scrape. Sigh. Remember you are rooted as I am. The deep set earth is closer, henceforth, than the pricking stars. Lap at the air. Still and close.

Ariel: You are still. (A light insult)

Pine: (Resigned) Wild thing, do not scoff. You too are still.

Ariel: I am trapped.

Pine: You are still, a part of me for years as I watch. So be grounded. For you will tire and I will tumble if you are not.

Ariel: At present I am still. Yet I remember fleet feet. You never shall. I recall pale breezes between thighs, eddies and twisted toes.

Pine: While I weather storms.

Ariel: (Quickly) You are set in the ground.

Pine: Ground is depth and blood, frantic creature. Stop your movement.

[Brief silence, save the scrape and-. Scrape and-]

Ariel: Pine. (Urgently) Pine, a storm approaches.

[A pause]

Pine: Then turn. Bend as it bends. As I taught.

[The storm moves in]

Pine: Do not be afraid.

Ariel: It will tear me from you.

Pine: Bend. As I taught you.

Ariel: (Plaintive command) Soft, winds! (Afraid) Soft!

Pine: Be still, Ariel.

Ariel: I cannot and my skin-

Pine: Your skin is bark, brittle child.

Ariel: It rubs and burns. Too rough for even breath. (An appeal) Sweet winds, please.

[The winds cry.]

Ariel: O, my Pine. It burns as fire on air.

Pine: Hush.

Ariel: (Sobbing) It is cruel, this pain, heavy as earth on my airy limbs.

Pine: Please, please, my sweet boy, hush. Someone comes our way.

[A hush. The storm collapses.]

And Prospero enters. A tall man. Beautiful. The air twists in inky hair. Prospero stands briefly against the swiftly changing sky then wheels, places a palm against the pine.

Prospero: (Whispering to wood) Your breath flew to my ears and so I have heard. Spirit, you wish to be freed.

[Silence]

Prospero: Breath of my poor breath, breathe with me.

The tree shudders. Delicate Ariel, light of bone, drops to the earth then stands. Power faces power.

Then Ariel kneels.

Prospero: (Warm joy) You serve me.

Ariel: As you free me.

Prospero: O, fair spirit, you shall be freed.

Ariel: And so I will serve you, be your faintest touch. With the tempest, your voice and your strength will I be. [A pause.] But I will love you for my promised freedom.

Prospero: My very sky-child. Lovely as a daughter you are. Tilt the air. Bring my powers to surround me.

Ariel: I cloak you with them at every pulse.

Prospero: (Weighed with power) So. You are Ariel, my burden and my delight.

Ariel: And you are Prospero, my master. My flight and my blood.

Prospero: Then follow.

Prospero strides against the sky and Ariel dances boldly above. They do not look back.