《A God's Purpose》


 Prologue: An Old Dream

    Beneath a certain sky, south of a certain mountain and east of a certain forest, there exists a small land. To many this land may have seemed unremarkable, the plains within the same as the plains which bordered it, the view of the sky the same as everywhere else, the same water, the same grass, and the same animals. Indeed they would mostly be correct, but those with a more discerning eye, and those more sensitive to nature, would realize that this place is actually rather special in a few ways.


    The first thing that these individuals would realise would be the trees growing in this land. Although it was subtle, in fact the trees in this land grew taller and stronger than their neighbouring brethren. Not only that, the green leaves and brown bark of these trees seemed to have a very small hint of a reddish hue to them, and once again although this was slight enough that if one were to not look for it most would never know, it still seemed to give the trees an appearance of greater vitality, especially when combined with their increased size.


    For those who noticed these small abnormalities, there may be a few who seek to understand where these features come from, and some of these few may look down towards the earth. For those with appropriate expertise, they may then discover perhaps the most abnormal thing about this land: its soil.


    Indeed the soil here seemed bursting with both the strong energies of the earth and benevolent energies of life, and that it was in fact these energies which had diffused into the local flora, granting them their unique vitality. Traces of these energies could be found in all inhabitants of this land. As for where these energies came from, one might notice that the deeper the soil the stronger they become, and that whatever possible source the energies have was deep, deep beneath the earth. Far too deep for any mortal being to possibly reach, at any rate.


    Of course, the energies of this land were not evenly spread out; the further into the land one travelled, the stronger the energies locked in the soil would become. Nearer to the centre of the land the trees would become even larger still, and the tint of red in the trees would become more pronounced. In fact, at a small area near the very centre of the land, the trees seemed like an entirely different species to their family which lived without the sustenance of the unique soil, almost twice the height and the colour was entirely red, like a bloody yet beautiful sunset. Not only this, but the bark of the trees is almost as strong as iron, as are the jaws of the insects and critters living amongst their branches. Even the birds are tougher as result of their diets.


    But none of these instances of flora or fauna could hold a candle to the true king of this land, for if one were to locate the exact centre of this land, where the soil was richest and energies strongest, they would find a small hill, on top of which grew only a single tree, but this tree dwarfed all others.


    For whilst the largest of the other trees would only reach twenty or twenty five meters at most, this one towered above them , over six times their height, its expansive canopy ensuring that the hill bearing the great tree is shrouded in shade for most of the day. An observer would note that the tree seemed surrounded by an imposing, indestructible aura, giving the feeling that destroying this tree was a task akin to destroying a mountain.


    These observations in fact are not far off, for the bark of the tree has long since exceeded the strongest existing steel in terms of toughness. Even siege weapons would be brushed off as if it were only a slightly stronger breeze to this Great Tree.


    Because of this immense toughness the critters and insects which live amongst the smaller trees surrounding the hill cannot be found amongst this Great Trees branches. The only life present within its branches are birds which make their nests here and a single species of insects, a cross between a firefly and a wasp, which had always lived amongst its branches. As these insects have always lived off of the great tree grown alongside it, they may well be the only species of insect in the entire continent with jaws strong enough to feed on the great tree. At night the light given off by these insects can be seen flitting to and fro amongst the branches of the Great Tree, glowing like magnificent red stars, painting an ethereal picture which contrasts strongly with domineering appearance of the hill during the day.


    But none of this can be said to be the most remarkable aspect of the Great Tree, that would have be the great tree¡¯s mind.


    Indeed, unlike its siblings living around it, this tree was unique in its intelligence. This said, saying that the tree is conscious is perhaps incorrect, for although the tree observed, remembered and had some understanding of the land around it, really its experience would be better described as a dream.


    From the day it awakened to this intelligence it had observed its siblings living below, the wildlife living amongst their and its own branches, as well the changes from day to night, the cycle of the seasons, yet it did not care. It understood these things to some extent, that day would turn to night, winter to spring, yet it did not care. All that the great tree cared about was basking in the rays of the sun and absorbing the energies in the soil, day after day, year after year.


    One day, whilst basking in the suns rays, the Great Tree observed an unusual creature entering its domain. This creature was different from the common inhabitants, not only was it larger, it also walked in an upright posture on two legs, and each movement of the creature¡¯s body was full of strength.


    As the great tree was sensitive to the energies in its surroundings, it also noticed that the aura of the creature was tinged brown like the earth, immovable and resilient. This Earthen One, as the Great Tree would have referred to it, if it cared at all, hunted a small animal living within the forest and then, after staying the night, left the next day.


    As time passed the Great Tree continued its basking, indifferent to the goings on around it. The Earthen Ones, after the first visit, continued to appear. Sometimes, like the first time, only a single one would appear, other times small groups of them would travel into the Great Trees territory. Their visits also begun to happen more frequently, until there was normally at least some presence of the Earthen Ones in the surrounding woodlands and plains all year long, even if none of them permanently settled there.


    Once more, time passed, and although the Great Tree didn¡¯t notice it, in fact many lifetimes went by for the Earthen Ones, until one day, another strange creature entered into the Great Trees senses.


    This new being was rather similar to the Earthen Ones, but its body was smaller and did not seem to contain nearly as much power. The aura of this new creature was also different from the Earthen Ones, although the size of the aura was about the same, it did not have the brown, earthly hue of the Earthen Ones, indeed, its rather plain aura did not seem to lean towards any particular property at all except a small sliver of light circulating within its body. These Plain Ones also generally travelled exclusively in small groups of around a dozen individuals, whereas for the Earthen Ones, although similar sized groups could be seen on occasion, most of the time they were in groups of three or four.


    Upon the initial appearance of the plain ones, very quickly they also came to be found frequently in the forests and plains surrounding the Great Tree, although they never reached the numbers of the Earthen Ones.


    Soon after the arrival of the Plain Ones, there was another presence that could be found exclusively in the woodlands surrounding the Great Tree, shying away from the open plains. These new entrants were much rarer than either the Plain Ones or the Earthen Ones; sometimes none would not enter the domain of the Great Tree for months at a time.


    The bodies of these new entrants were similar to the Plain Ones, but somewhat leaner and lighter. Their most significant feature however was their aura, which was tinged a vibrant green, giving the feeling of being full of life. These Green Ones moved stealthily in small groups of two or three, seeming far more at home amongst the trees, and were able to consistently avoid both the Plain Ones and Earthen Ones. Of course, they were unable to hide their auras from the acute senses of the Great Tree.


    As time passed, a common scene in the plains and forests surrounding the Great Tree was groups of Earthen Ones and Plain Ones encountered one another, which would often end violently. Although the Earthen Ones were on average physically stronger, to such an extent that it would take several Plain Ones to defeat one, they usually also had far fewer numbers in each battle so more often than not victory would go to the Plain Ones, at a price. Of course to the Great Tree these battles only amounted to a few auras flickering out of existence, and as always it showed no interest.


    After some time the Earthen Ones set up a few settlements on the outskirts of the Great Trees domain, where it could barely sense them. The skirmishes continued as usual, but Plain ones didn¡¯t dare attack these settlements where many Earthen Ones dwelled.


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    But then one day, a very unusual sight could be seen travelling from the west, towards the Great Tree.


    A large group of Green Ones, almost a hundred of them in fact, could be seen travelling through the woodlands. Such a large number did not go unnoticed, but the Earthen Ones let them be, and the Plain ones were unable to threaten them, so they continued their journey.


    The path these travellers took coincidently led them straight towards the Great Tree, and upon finding themselves within a clearing from which they could see the Great Tree, they stopped their journey.


    A dozen or so Green Ones broke off from the main group and journeyed up the hill, seeming to want to investigate first-hand the immense tree. One of their number, a male with a particularly bright aura, laid his hands upon the Great Tree, sending some of his aura into his trunk. Although previously sometimes Plain Ones would make direct contact, sometimes even attempt to cut its bark, the Great Tree had never felt these interactions different to the perching of birds upon its branches, or the buzzing of insects among its leaves, but it had never experienced anything like this.


    The aura of the Green One caused ripples within the Great Trees own aura. It was strange, but not uncomfortable or painful, and stopped after only a few seconds. The Green One then retracted its touch, and, seemingly deciding that there was no danger, the group shortly returned to their companions.


    After a couple of hours, the large group of Green Ones settled down and seemed to begin constructing a settlement in the clearing, using their aura to change the surrounding otherwise sturdy trees to suit their needs. As for the strange experience with the Green Ones aura, like with all things, the Great Tree held no interest for the event and continued its leisurely existence.


    Once more time passed, and the group of Green Ones soon grew used to their new home. Soon after they were joined by other, smaller groups, also travelling form the west. Soon enough, there were almost 200 of them in their small colony, with some much smaller auras appearing, which usually denoted younglings if the wildlife the Great Tree had observed was anything to go by.


    Of course these numbers were not without issues; they soon became victims of attacks from Plain Ones, and occasionally Earthen Ones too. The main colony was safe from these, but when smaller groups of them left they made far easier targets.


    One day one such group of about half a dozen Green Ones left their colony and started travelling through the forest. Although the Great Tree did not know their destination, it did observe that further up their path, amongst the trees was a well hidden yet particularly large group of Plain Ones lying in wait.


    The travellers walked straight into the ambush, and one of their auras winked out almost immediately. Certainly the Great Tree realised that, based on its past observations of similar events, soon all of the Green Ones would be killed or subdued by their attackers, but during the fighting one particularly small green aura seemed to escape into the forest, chased close behind by a large plain aura.


    At first the distance between the little aura and its pursuer was increasing, but soon after the little green aura began to slow down, presumably due to growing tired, whilst the plain aura maintained its speed. Coincidently, they seemed to be heading towards the Great Tree, and after some time the little green aura reached the base of the hill upon which it stood.


    Although the Great Tree was capable of sensing energies and auras for a great distance around it, mainly due to the auras of the trees acting as a sort of shroud, it was only upon reaching this close a distance that its senses would be precise enough to get a direct picture of something; to ¡®see¡¯ something, and so it was only upon the small Green One emerging from the thicket of trees and bushes surrounding the hill that the Great Tree was able to get a good view of it.


    Its physical size was barely half the height and much less the mass of other Green Ones which the Great Tree had seen. A large gash could be seen on its left arm, as a result of which its entire arm was bloody and hung to its side, with each step blood dripped from the arm onto the floor, leaving a trail for her pursuer.


    Because its body was not as developed as other Green Ones it had seen, it was difficult for the Great Tree to determine the gender of the being before it. Glancing at the small creature¡¯s face which appeared more feminine, it was concluded that it was likely a female, but the oddest thing the tree felt was that the pale face with its bright green eyes, despite much being covered by pale blond, almost white hair, seemed familiar.


    This was a completely new feeling for the Great Tree, and was made especially strange by the fact that it had never had any reaction whatsoever from observing the faces of other Green Ones.


    As the small being continued moving forward, it could be plainly seen that the small girl was exhausted and weak from the long chase. This was further complicated from her wound; she would not be able to carry on much longer.


    ¡­save  her¡­


    Just as, the Great Tree was about to retract its focus from the small girl, it both heard and felt a strange voice within its mind. This voice was only but a whisper, many would question whether they heard anything at all, but for the Great Tree, this was a hugely startling event. Never in its long life had it felt or heard another being truly communicate with it in such a personal way. For the first time the tree was truly curious, and utilizing its powerful senses, searched throughout the entirety of its domain for the source; yet it could find nothing. For the first time it felt another emotion: confusion.


    Whilst the great tree was confused, the small girl continued. At first it seemed she wanted to go around the hill, as the colony of other Green Ones was waiting in the clearing on the other side. Yet she realised she was close reaching her limit and would be incapable of finishing the journey between the hill and the colony, so desperately begun to climb up the small hill. As she came closer, tears could be seen on her face, unknown as to how long ago it was that they began flowing.


    Just as the small girl reached the top of the hill, rustling could be heard from the thicket behind, and her pursuer exited the forest. It was a male, seeming little different from other Plain Ones the Great Tree had observed in the past, and apart from slightly heavier breathing than usual seemed none the worse after the chase. As it looked up the hill and saw the small girl in her weakened state, struggling forward, a smile appeared on its face, and it yelled something unknown before leisurely walking up the hill.


    Save her.


    Once again the voice resounded in the mind of the Great Tree, but this time it was far clearer, with a hint of urgency in it. The voice, no longer a whisper, could be made out as that belonging to an adult male. It was deep and gave the feeling of the owner being reliable, completely free of malice yet at the same time ready for violence should the need arise. Indeed the myriad of feelings the voice was capable of evoking was surprising just by itself.


    Once more the Great Tree expanded its mind outward, trying to sense who or what was speaking to it. It concentrated, exercising its mind more strongly than it ever had before in its efforts, yet as before, it found nothing. Frustrated, the Great Tree tried something new, fusing its mind with the earth through its roots; its senses expanded further than they ever had before at the sacrifice of the precision of its senses above ground. Like this it once again looked for the owner of the voice, but soon realised there was nothing to be found. Depressed, it extracted its mind from the earth and returned to its common state.


    At this time the small girl had reached the base of the Great Tree, and was trying to squeeze into a hole formed from the Great Trees roots. It had just managed to enter the hole when its pursuer reached the top of the hill and began walking towards it. Although the hole was too small for the man to enter, it would take only a short time to get a good grip on the child and pull her out. Just as it once more began to move towards the girl and the Great Tree¡­


    SAVE HER NOW!


    The voice boomed throughout the mind of the Great Tree, and as it did so the very earth itself began to shake. Although it was only for a moment, the man still almost tripped as a result, but after a short pause ignored the strange occurrence and continued towards the girl.


    As for the Great Tree, its mind continued to rattle and the voice continued to echo. Never before had it felt urgency like it did now. For a moment it was confused, then angry, then scared. Then, suddenly, something seemed to shatter, a haze lifted from the Great Trees mind, as if this was the first that it was truly awake in its whole life.


    Ah, the Great Tree thought. That¡¯s my voice.

 Chapter 1: A Rude Awakening

    Most beings, upon having an experience such as what the Great Tree was currently going though, would have been completely disorientated, their minds sent reeling. After all, although it was only simple thought, this was nothing like the simple observations of the past. When compared, this new state was like an explosion of thought the likes of which those past experiences could never come close too.


    However, there was no hesitation in the Great Tree¡¯s thoughts. There was no time for confusion, or the chance to become used to this new state of being.  Only one thing mattered, a single thing which was the focus of the entirety of the Great Tree¡¯s newfound consciousness to concentrate on.


    I must save this child.


    Why it felt this was unknown. It had never felt any compassion for another being in its life, whether it be other Green Ones, its brethren Trees, or even itself. But this was of course completely irrelevant at this moment.


    Utilizing its newfound powers, the Great Tree at once began to analyse the situation. The small girl was hidden within a small hole made up of its roots, whilst its attacker, the male Plain One, was less than 10 short metres away and closing.


    Firstly the Great Tree began to try to manipulate its body, moving its great roots and branches, which by themselves were greater in thickness than cousins¡¯ entire bodies. Yet, even whilst straining its new mind to the maximum, it was unable to move them faster than barely a centimetre every few seconds. However, it did find that the thinner roots were far easier to move, and so it focused on trying to move those instead.


    To the Great Tree¡¯s dismay, however, it found that the only roots it could truly manipulate at any great speed were tiny, wire like ones. Although, like all of its body, these tiny roots were very tough for their size, they were so thin that despite this it was unlikely they could truly trap the Plain One.


    Sadly, this will have to do.


    These were after all the only tools immediately available to the Great Tree, and so, exerting itself to the maximum, it focused its mind into the thin roots within the soil beneath the Plain One. The roots trembled for a moment, before exploding out of the soil like so many tiny whips all around the man.


    For a moment immense shock could be seen on the man¡¯s face, but the Great Tree did not care. Instead it focused all its effort on controlling the roots. Immediately they flew forward, targeting the limbs and neck of the man. Although initially successful, bogging the Plain One down like so many piles of webbing, this success was short lived.


    The man soon reacted. At some point a sharp metal blade had appeared in his right hand, which he soon used to parry approaching threadlike roots and chop down on those already binding him.


    Although the Great Tree controlled its roots well, tying down the arm with the blade, the man simply passed the weapon to his other hand and continued cutting down on his bindings. Soon he was mostly free and, after yelling out some unknown words with obvious frustration on his face, once more begun moving towards the hole holding the girl.


    As the man moved forward more roots became available for the Great Tree to use, yet these were still only capable of slowing him down. This was especially the case as the Plain One was now on guard; many roots fell before even reaching his skin.


    I cannot allow the Plain One to reach her, but I am unable to restrain him. At this rate it will not be long before he reaches the hole. In this case, I¡¯ll simply block the opening!


    Diverting some of its mind to continue slowing the man down, the Great Tree now changed its focus to its roots which were surrounding the girl. It tried to control these roots, moving them into an arrangement so that they would completely surround the young girl. But sadly, it soon realised how unrealistic this plan was: the roots were simply far too slow.


    Although the branches and roots the Great Tree initially experimented with would have been able to move at a speed to complete this task in a fairly short time, short enough that it would be done before the man reached them at any rate, these roots surrounding the girl were among the oldest and strongest it had. As such, moving them was also a far harder task, and even given a far greater time it would still have been difficult to complete this task.


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    Frustrated, the Great Tree was forced to utilize the thread-like roots again, whilst slowly moving larger roots toward the surface for future reinforcement. The small threads weaved onto the opening of the small hole, masses of them forming a strong barrier in front of the girl.


    Until now the girl wasn¡¯t observing the situation, curled into a ball from the fear. Even when the Plain One started yelling after the roots burst form the soil, she had remained in this position. Yet now, with the roots moving so close to her, she couldn¡¯t help but look, and when she saw what seemed to be the tree sealing her within itself, an even more horrified expression appeared on her face.


    I¡¯m sorry, but deal with it for now.


    The Great Tree was unable to truly communicate with her, but after a silent apology in his mind, immediately turned his attention away from the girl. Preserving her life was what was important, she could be comforted later.


    At this point the Plain One had reached the opening, and was hacking away at the barrier of threads blocking his way. Although his progress was slow, he would eventually break through, at which point saving the girl may prove impossible. Furthermore, at his current rate, the larger roots that the Great Tree was planning to use to reinforce the barrier definitely wouldn¡¯t make it in time


    Once the Great Tree realised this, it immediately began looking for another way to deal with the man. Knowing that its physical body had likely been exhausted of its usefulness for the moment, it tried looking toward other options, one of which was the energies which flowed through its body.


    It had always observed the world more through these ethereal energies, as opposed to sensing physical objects. Indeed, the names the Great Tree had subconsciously given the various beings it had encountered were mostly based on its perceptions of their auras, which were precisely made of these energies.


    The Great Tree¡¯s own aura was huge in comparison, understandably so considering its long years of absorbing energies from the soil, as well as its huge body to accommodate them. It was also a strong blood red colour, and gave a feeling similar to that of the earthen Ones, yet also very different. If their brown aura was akin to the soil of the earth, its own aura was like strong steel, unbreakable and potentially dangerous.


    The Great Tree quickly discovered that the reason its body was so strong compared to other creatures was precisely due to these energies; they seemed to directly imbue the body with various properties when present. Realising this, it attempted to circulate its aura, concentrating large amounts of it into a single spot at once. Although this seemed possible, it was also immensely difficult, as the energy would flow like water, and just a moment of loss of concentration would cause them to spill out.


    The Great Tree quickly decided that, although it was just barely possible at this point to compress additional aura into a small root, this would take all of its concentration, and even if it somehow empowered the root, controlling the root and the compressed aura at the same time would be absolutely impossible. But this was not all for naught, as the Great Tree noticed something else which could be of use.


    When the energies were moved into one area, the surroundings would obviously have a lower density of said energies, and in these areas, the bark would noticeably weaken. Not only this, but creating an area with few of these energies was far easier than compressing them, and so a plan begun to appear within the Great Tree¡¯s mind.


    If I cannot defeat this enemy by strengthening myself, then I shall do it by weakening myself instead.

 Chapter 2: Violence

    Having decided on a course of action, the Great Tree got to work. Although it had learned a great deal during its experiments, only a short time had passed. The man had been continuing to slash away at the barrier protecting the girl, but it would be some time until he broke through.


    Several minutes passed. The barrier had several holes in, and the man and girl were able to make eye contact. All the while he had been constantly shouting to the small girl, and although his words were unknown, they were obviously taunts.


    Behind the man could be seen a great deal of larger roots which had emerged from the earth; despite their snail¡¯s pace they had after all been moving for several minutes now. The Great Tree¡¯s preparations were almost done, but there was no more time left to wait.


    It¡¯s now or never.


    Just as it was about to fall, the barrier of threadlike roots trembled. Suddenly, they exploded outwards towards the man, like a wave, trying to throwing him backwards. Although he stumbled, he was able to keep his footing. But the roots didn¡¯t stop there.


    They continued forward in attack, but unlike before, where they attempted to snare their opponent, now they were truly being used as whips. Although this did sacrifice many to the man¡¯s blade, they were successful in forcing him backwards. They also surrounded him, and seemed to be herding him backwards toward the field of roots behind.


    Throughout his attack on the barrier, and even when attacked by the wave of whip-like roots, the man hadn¡¯t looked behind and so was unaware of the very uneven terrain brought about by the slow moving roots. As such, as soon as he reached them, he immediately tripped onto the floor.


    Phase 2.


    The thread whips changed back to their earlier behaviour, once again aiming to snare the limbs of the man. Now that he was floored, he made a much easier target, and the roots were able to keep him down and in place. Of course, the Plain One struggled, constantly cutting away at the roots whilst yelling angrily. He would soon be free.


    It was at this point that a faint, yet ominous cracking sound was heard overhead.


    Pausing what he was doing, the man felt a chill go up his spine. Looking upwards, towards were he thought he heard the noise came from, he was greeted by a strange sight.


    Far, far up above, were the colossal branches of the Great Tree. One particular branch, one directly above the man in fact, had a section of itself coiled around by several of its neighbouring branches. Indeed, this was what the Great Tree had been working on as the man had been slowly braking through the barrier.


    Of course, this was a great distance up, and the man was not able to see precisely what was going, yet despite this, he was still filled with a great deal of dread, as if there was a dagger held against his throat. Hence, he quickly resumed his cutting of the binding roots, whilst yelling as he had before, but now there could be heard a certain franticness in his voice.


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    Very quickly though, more cracking noises could be heard from up above. The one branch which was wrapped in its brothers experienced a slight tremble. These noises, being so high up, were quite faint by the time they reached the ground, but to the man they could not be clearer as they resounded through his mind.


    At this point, although he didn¡¯t quite understand what was happening, the man was truly afraid, and madly sliced at the few of his bindings that remained. Very soon all the thread roots would be sliced to pieces, at which point he would be completely free, and this moment couldn¡¯t come soon enough. Indeed, it did not come soon enough.


    Up above, there were a few more cracking sounds, after which there was a short pause. Although the usual sounds of the forest continued, the small roots continued to make whipping sounds as they moved, and the small girl could even be heard sobbing lightly, to the man this short pause seemed as if everything in the world had gone silent.


    This pause was abruptly broken by a loud crack, which was far louder than its predecessors. This crack seemed to echo in the forest for a few moments, and at the same time a very slight tremble could be felt through the earth before everything returned to silence.


    Phase 3.


    The man had only a short moment to look up to see the huge wooden object hurtling towards him before everything went dark.


    At this point, although he didn¡¯t quite understand what was happening, the man was truly afraid, and madly sliced at the few of his bindings that remained. Very soon all the thread roots would be sliced to pieces, at which point he would be completely free, and this moment couldn¡¯t come soon enough. Indeed, it did not come soon enough.


    Up above, there were a few more cracking sounds, after which there was a short pause. Although the usual sounds of the forest continued, the small roots continued to make whipping sounds as they moved, and the small girl could even be heard sobbing lightly, to the man this short pause seemed as if everything in the world had gone silent.


    This pause was abruptly broken by a loud crack, which was far louder than its predecessors. This crack seemed to echo in the forest for a few moments, and at the same time a very slight tremble could be felt through the earth before everything returned to silence.


    Phase 3.


    The man had only a short moment to look up to see the huge wooden object hurtling towards him before everything went dark.

 Chapter 3: Safety

    It was just past dusk, the silence of the forest only disturbed by the clicking of insects and the occasional birdcall. A small breeze flew past, the trees responding with a light rustling of their leaves alongside the hushed calls of their inhabitants. At this late time, just as those who had been foraging throughout the day were preparing for sleep, the land painted a tired, ephemeral picture.


    This gave rise to an atmosphere of fatigue; what little sounds that remained of the day forming a gentle lullaby, at the same time rousing the dwellers of the night from their slumber. Soon this transition would be complete with the sun being replaced completely by the moon, and the night would reign until the dawn. However, unlike most days, this transition was not fated to be quite as smooth as usual, nor the night as inactive.


    CRRAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSHHH


    All of a sudden a great thundering reverberated throughout the lands, shattering the tired mood present. Alongside this disturbance, a short rumbling could even be felt within the earth, further disturbing the tired wildlife, which could be seen panicking, fluttering toward the sky or jumping amongst the trees in an attempt to escape some unseen threat.


    The original sound was actually rather short, but its echoes could be heard bouncing off of hills and over treetops with wild abandon for some time afterwards. Even when these echoes had finally run out of energy, the wildlife took no comfort in their end. The previously sleeping or tired beings were full of life, as well as fright, resulting in a cacophony of birdcalls, bestial howling¡¯s and more, filling the land and showing no signs of stopping anytime soon.


    Of course, the cause of this disturbance was the struggle between the Great Tree and a certain Plain One, who was now little more than paste beneath many tons of wood. This result could hardly be considered surprising; the branch of the Great Tree dropped upon the man was itself the size of a common tree, and after falling from such a great height, it had reached a very high speed. However, regardless of this, the scene atop the hill was still shocking.


    Where previously the man was being held down could now only be found a wide crater; the impact of the branch was actually so great it had actually displaced the earth, throwing soil around in an explosive fashion. Within the crater could be seen the impressive branch, which was just barely able to fit inside. Presumably the ¡®remains¡¯ of the Plain One were also within, but finding them would be a very difficult task. Luckily the Great tree was able to use its senses to peer directly past the debris, swiftly verifying its enemy was indeed exterminated.


    As for the dismembered branch itself, the surface of its bark was twisted and covered in cracks. Splinters could be seen sticking out all along its length, and there was more than one location where the branch was almost further bisected, but in the end it could at least be said that it remained in one piece. After all, despite being disconnected to the Great Tree, it had still been nurtured for many long years, so retained durability comparable to steel.


    The atmosphere of the hill seemed to still be under pressure despite the seeming victory. Although the Great Tree had removed the immediate threat, it knew that the child was not yet safe. The Plain One¡¯s compatriots may have decided to head towards the hill, which would be disastrous for the child. Normally the Great Tree would have been able to simply check if this was the case, but unfortunately, it was utterly exhausted.


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    The extended struggle, controlling the thousands of thread like roots to bind whilst simultaneously manipulating its own aura to sever its branch was simply far to taxing. This was especially the case considering the Great Tree had only recently awakened to its new state of mind, with little time to adjust.


    In fact, the severing of the branch itself had also been very painful. Unlike the tiny threadlike roots which were severed by the dozen whilst trying to bind the Plain One, this was an ancient branch which had been a part of the Great Tree since shortly after its inception. The loss this time was equivalent to the loss of a limb, even if the Great Tree had dozens of similar limbs.


    Yet this pain was forcibly ignored alongside any thoughts of celebration by the Great Tree. In fact, after the severing the Great Tree had had virtually no thoughts, its determination and exhaustion had meant that it was only capable of pouring all its effort into a single action. Afraid that attempting to search for signs of further enemies would be the last action it was capable of, the Great Tree instead focused only on moving its roots making up the small hole the girl was taking refuge in, trying to close the opening, praying that this task would be complete before new enemies arrived.


    Thankfully, it did not have to wait long.


    The branches collision with the earth could be heard almost throughout the entire forest, but the nearby village of Green Ones, who were so close that they could actually see the Great Tree, quite literally felt the impact. It would be strange if they were to ignore such a startling event; a dozen or so of them headed in the direction of the sound to investigate the cause, with appropriate caution. When this group reached the top of the hill and saw the sight there, the crater full of shattered splinters and fallen leaves, they were utterly shocked, stupefied at the destruction.


    Meanwhile, ever since the impact the Green One child had been very quiet, with the exception of only a few nigh inaudible whimpers. She was in fact rendered almost catatonic from the fear produced by the deafening sound, the vibrations of which she could still feel in her bones. She was after all so very close to the impact, the small hole she had taken shelter in now actually opened into the crater itself. Luckily, despite her silence, she was quickly discovered by her Green One elders.


    When they found the small girl in a hole right next to the crater, shock was once again painted on the faces of the newly arrived Green Ones, but they quickly regained their senses and attempted a rescue. Far too little time had passed for the Great Tree to block the opening, so the girl was soon safely in their hands. Considering the average speed and strength of a Green One, at this point even if new enemies showed up it would be of no consequence.


    ¡­finally¡­safe¡­


    Ensured that finally the child was in safe hands, the Great Tree allowed its mind to fully fall from consciousness.

 Chapter 4: Observation

    Although the Great Tree had fallen into some kind of rest to allow its exhausted mind to recover, this state was not like the sleeping which it had observed amongst some of the inhabitants of its domain. Rather, this was almost exactly alike the state which the tree was all so used to. Its mind observed and recorded, but there was no thought present, no true consciousness. This familiarity was pleasant, so far as the Great Tree could feel pleasure at the time, however this state did not last long.


    After a short while the Great Tree ¡®woke up¡¯. Put simply, thoughts once again sprouted within its mind, as if it were always capable but did not bother to do so. Unlike its previous awakening though, this time the Great Tree had no impending crisis which demanded its immediate attention, so the confused mind was left to wander within its own thoughts.


    What has happened to me?


    Lost and without answers, the Great Tree quickly decided it needed to investigate this new state. The first thing it tried was to thoroughly inspect its body, but this time without the franticness which was present when it was looking for a way to deal with the Plain One. Instead, a great deal of time was used, utilizing a naturally present patience to take note of every leaf, branch and root. But very quickly, the Great Tree encountered a problem: it wasn¡¯t totally sure what its body was like before the transformation.


    Of course it had a rough idea; it had observed all things in its domain before its awakening, including itself. However it had never taken a great interest in anything either, which also included itself, and so was lacking more precise details.  Other than the most obvious feeling of its aura, and the general size and shape of its body, the Great Tree was unable to compare its findings to anything.


    Still, I can find nothing which seems an obvious cause for my new¡­ condition.


    The investigation was not without fruit though. The Great Tree also experimented far more thoroughly with its aura, and was able to swiftly progress in its ability to control the energies, to the point where already it was many times more effective than previously. This was simply due to becoming used to moving the energies, and simultaneously the energies seemed to become more elastic, like previously they were asleep but now were becoming more used to being manipulated. Strangely, despite this newfound elasticity, the energies did not lose any of their feelings of immovability, or rather they could instantly switch between the two, flowing freely one moment, then solidify, giving off their usual mountainous, metal like feeling the next. This somewhat paradoxical property was strange at first, but did not at all feel unnatural.


    The Great Tree also found that, by controlling the flow of aura in a given branch alongside trying to move the physical body of the branch itself, the branches moved far more easily, reaching far greater speeds than previously, whilst also becoming even tougher so long as the aura was present. This also extended to the thread like roots beneath the earth, now if faced with another Plain One the roots could likely directly cut the skin whilst also being far harder to sever themselves.


    If only I was capable of this earlier, I probably could have completely bound that Plain One, and with far less effort¡­ sigh.


    In the end though, these new talents were irrelevant for the moment. What the Great Tree had set out to do was find the reason for its change, but was still no closer to an answer, so it decided to direct its senses outward. Immediately its attention was caught by the crater atop its hill and the dismembered branch within, the sight of which gave the Great Tree a huge shock.


    Before, the branch¡¯s appearance was exactly akin to the rest of its body; a vibrant red, bursting with life and giving a feeling of indomitable will, but now the branch was hardly a shadow of its former self. The bark may have been fractured and the wood splintered, but this was not what shocked the Great Tree.


    Its aura is so¡­ weak.


    Indeed, beyond the damaged physical body of the branch, what were far more shocking were the other aspects. The branches aura, which was exactly one with the Great Trees own aura not long ago, was now almost non-existent.


    No, that¡¯s not right.


    The aura was dead. Inanimate and motionless, although much energy was still imbued in the branch, the will of life and strength which was previously present could no longer be felt. Instead, it now felt like little more than a particularly tough rock. Even the red colour of the Great Tree, usually vibrant, had lost much of its sheen, becoming dimmer and darker.


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    Is this because I severed it myself? But to think that something which was a part of me¡­


    Being so old, yet full of life and without threat, it¡¯s not surprising that the Great Tree had little concept of mortality. It had observed the life and death of countless beings, yet had never given any consideration to its own end, a thought which had now been roused for the first time by the withered remains of its branch. Of course it never really had an opportunity for any such thought in the past, but that did not change the situation.


    This new perspective gave the Great Tree a hitherto unfelt respect for the various beings it shared the land with, all of which lived so much closer to death than itself. It also reminded it of the Green One child it had saved, who herself was in a life and death situation very recently.


    How is she?


    When the child had been taken by the other Green Ones, she had been silent and immobile from terror, and after being taken away she had left the Great Trees more detailed area of observation; only her auras position could be sensed. Even now he could still feel the small aura within the village. Currently she was in the presence of a three larger Green One auras, one of which was the strangely bright aura belonging to the Green One which had interacted with the Great Tree before the village was set up. There was also another small aura present within another room of the building, only somewhat larger than the girl¡¯s own.


    Her family perhaps?


    The Great Tree wished to investigate further, but was sure that was impossible. However, when it focused its attention upon the girl¡¯s aura, strangely the surroundings seemed to become clearer, as if the scene was previously on the periphery of its vision but was now being focused on. The girls own aura, as well as the three auras nearby, became more defined, and the energies in their surroundings also became somewhat more detailed in their shifts and flows.


    Curious, the Great Tree tried focusing all of its attention on the area. Quickly, the entire building became visible in just the same way that the area on and around the hill was also visible. Once this was done, it seemed almost obvious to the Great Tree that it could do this. It was as if its domain was everything within its line of sight, and the clearer areas were simply where it was looking at any given moment. After the pleasant surprise of this new ability, the tree returned its attention to the girl and her fellow Green Ones.


    The scene within the room held a depressing aura. The girl was curled up into a corner, still obviously shaken from the day¡¯s events, whilst the Green One with the bright aura and one of the remaining two, a female, were trying to comfort her, but it was obvious from their expressions that they too were hurting in some way. The final of the room¡¯s inhabitants was slumped on a desk with his hands on his head.


    It was only at this point that the Great Tree thought about how much time had passed. It had felt like a huge time had passed, so it expected that the girl would have recovered, perhaps even grown up, but in truth not even a day had passed.


    The Great Trees sleep had only lasted for only a short 4 hours, then after spending the rest of the night investigating its body throughout the night, sunlight could just now start to be felt upon its leaves. The reason for this discrepancy is of course that the Great Tree was still unused to its new state of mind; in the past often the entire lives of smaller beings would pass without even being noticed, yet now such a great time seemed to have passed but in reality not even a day had gone by. The Great Tree was actually hesitant to accept this, for a moment even confirming this was the same girl and not a descendant or something, but was forced to accept that indeed only a single night had passed.


    Returning its attention back to the frail girl, the Great Tree felt resigned; it had done all that it could, yet she was still obviously far from a good condition. The mental scars were not something it could fix, it was possible that they would remain for her entire lifespan.


    Now all that can be done is to wait and see I suppose.

 Chapter 5: Investigations

    It was the third day since the Great Trees awakening. The Green Child, as the Great Tree had come to call the girl, had spent the entire day after the incident refusing to eat, drink or sleep, obviously incredibly traumatized. Of course, such a state could not hold up indefinitely, and towards the end of the day, almost twenty-four hours since the attack, she had finally succumbed to exhaustion and fell into a deep sleep. Since then she had improved somewhat; although still eating very little and having experienced night terrors in what little sleep she got, this was still a definite improvement to the complete inactivity of previously. Given time, she should recover enough to at least properly function.


    In the meantime the Great Tree had continued to explore its new capabilities. It had learned a great deal about the land it lived in, noticing that the familiar energies within the soil, which nourished itself, grew weaker the further they were from its hill, as well as sensing that the energies seemed to come from deep beneath the earth. Curious, the Great Tree fused its mind into the earth, sending its consciousness as deep as it could. Soil turned to stone, the energies present becoming stronger and denser. Eventually, at the very limits of what it could sense, even flame was beginning to appear, the earth growing soft from the heat, but still the Great Tree could not find whatever the source was.


    One thing which it did find very odd however was that its own roots pierced down even deeper than this point, beyond its own senses, at the same time funnelling up vast amounts of earthly energies. Evidently they had either found the source of these energies, or gotten close enough to absorb vast amounts. What was really troubling was that a part of its own body was beyond its own sight, but in the end they had been like this for many hundreds of years without consequence, in fact bringing many benefits, so at least for the close future it would be safe to put this problem aside.


    Another strange point which had occurred to the Great Tree was the behaviour of the Plain One himself. More accurately, why was the man so determined to get to the Green Child? Thinking back to the behaviour of all Plain Ones it had observed in its many years, it quickly noticed a pattern.


    When Plain Ones encountered Earthen Ones, if the odds seemed against them then more often than not they would quickly retreat. On the other hand, when they obtained victory the strongest few Earthen Ones would be killed in the battle but quite often the weaker individuals would be captured and brought with the Plain Ones when they left the Great Trees domain, the same direction from which they arrived. In fact, after some thinking about their behaviour, it almost seemed that the purpose of many of the Plain Ones entering these lands was exactly to capture Earthen Ones. These activities caused a new word to emerge from deep within the Great Trees mind.


    Slavers.


    Although it wasn¡¯t sure where this term came from, the Great Tree did know what it meant. If this hypothesis was true, it also explained the hostility between the Plain Ones and other inhabitants of the land; even though it did not seem that all of the Plain Ones were slavers, it would certainly still give them a bad name.


    This could also explain why the Plain One was so determined to capture the Green Child. Normally in battle the Green Ones were very elusive and just as deadly as Earthen Ones, so long as they were within the forest anyways, and as such, taking them alive was almost impossible. But this was not the case for children. If Green One slaves were as rare as the Great Tree believed then it was likely that they were highly valued just based on this alone. As such the determination of the Plain One slaver to capture the child, even when faced with the resistance of the Great Tree, could be understood. Sadly, in the end there was no immediate way to find out for sure if this hypothesis was true, and the Great Tree had more immediate concerns.


    How should I deal with the Green Ones from now on?


    The first day after killing the Plain One, the Great Tree had observed several Green Ones arriving upon its hill from their village. At first it was confused, why they would return to a scene where such violence had taken place; most wildlife would simply avoid seemingly dangerous areas. Soon though, it realised that they were trying to investigate more precisely what had actually happened that day.


    Presumably, some of what had happened was gotten out of the child, but even something as simple as ¡°roots attacked the man like snakes then a tree fell on him¡± would certainly raise more questions than answers. The branch happening to fall directly on her pursuer and miraculously saving her could be considered luck, but that wasn¡¯t all that happened, and the Great Tree was sure that the Green Child wasn¡¯t completely unaware of her surroundings no matter how scared she was. If a more detailed statement was given to her brethren that would just confuse them even more.


    Hence, the Green Ones decided an investigation was in order. It was also at this point the Great Tree was reminded once more that these creatures were far smarter than simple beasts; this was obvious just from the fact that they had a spoken language, in fact they also buried the corpses of the slain from the battle which the Green Child fled from, holding a small ceremony, but in the end everything seemed so small in comparison to itself and so such things were often forgotten. This also reminded the Great Tree of something else.


    I should probably learn their words pretty soon.


    Back to the topic at hand though, once the investigation team had arrived the first thing they had done was, rather cautiously, approach the dismembered branch. Quite some time was spent focusing just on probing the branch, at one point they even tied a rope around it in an attempt to extract it from the crater. They failed of course, rather terribly in fact; from long years of nourishing, even after being severed the branch was still immensely tough and similarly heavy. The Green Ones couldn¡¯t even budge the branch, nor separate it into smaller parts, which they also tried.


    In the end, other than taking some of the severed thread-like roots which littered the ground and a few splinters of the dismembered branch back with them, they did not accomplish much. Still though a few more also visited on the second day, probably from curiosity.


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    Now it was the end of the third day. Again a few Green Ones had visited throughout the day, but it seemed the interest had almost worn off at this point. Night was arriving and the Great Tree was sure that its interactions with the Green Ones would end soon, but then, just as the sun was about to set, something unexpected happened in the nearby village.


    Normally by now, the Green Ones would have retired and begun preparing to sleep. This was not out of necessity; the Green Ones seemed almost as good at traversing the forests during the night as the day, instead they simply seemed to prefer sleeping during the night, with only a few of their number keeping watch as an exception. But at this moment, a group of eight Green Ones were leaving the village. It was unusual for a single Green One to be leaving just as the sun was going down, let alone this many.


    Also strange was the group itself, which was made up of the Green One with the bright aura, the Green Child and the two Green Ones it believed to be her family, making up all of the Green Ones which were present in the room back then, as well as another four individuals, one of which was the other youngling present in the building, likely another relative of the Green Child. The Bright One was holding the Green Child¡¯s hand and speaking to her, and she herself had a determined expression on her face whilst clutching an odd but pretty object close to her chest. It seemed to the Great Tree that she was coming of her own decision, which was strange because of how traumatized she had still been acting lately.


    What are they doing¡­?


    The rest of the Green Ones present were showing mixtures of nervousness and anticipation, whilst discussing unknown subjects. The Great Tree felt it likely that this group¡¯s purpose was similar to the earlier investigations, seemingly confirmed when it was shown that they were heading in its direction. What was of note in comparison to the earlier investigations was of course the fact that the Bright One and Green Child were coming this time.


    Usually the Bright One remained within the village. From what the Great Tree could gather he seemed to be a leader of some sort, or at least a figure of high authority. What was also not forgotten was its own interaction with the Bright One in the past; back before their village had been built he had sent some sort of a pulse of its own aura throughout the Great Trees body. Back then this had been of no consequence, but now that may not be the case.


    Although it wasn¡¯t sure why, the Great Tree found it very likely that the Bright One would find something different if it tried the same method as last time, but as to exactly what would happen it had no clue. Furthermore it was certain that trying to resist or trick the strange pulse would be ineffective, or possible make it even more obvious that something was wrong.


    Can¡¯t avoid this huh?


    Not that the Great Tree felt that it was in danger at this point, but it felt certain that what was about to happen would change its daily life. Really it simply wished it had more time of peace and quiet to grow used to its new abilities, after all it was not a few days ago that it had been incapable of higher thought.


    At this point the group had just reached the top of the hill, and the Great Tree was preparing itself for whatever was about to happen. They paused next to the crater, most showing some shock on their face at observing the devastating scene for the first time, but the leading Bright One and Green Child did not have as strong a reaction nor stop for more than a few seconds. Quickly they looked forward again, their eyes falling upon the Great Tree before them.


    The small girl was hiding behind the Bright One, clinging to him but also showing determination on her face as she peeked out towards the immense being before her. At this point the Bright One whispered some hushed words to her whilst patting her head, comforting her, before handing her to a female Green One at the side, the one which helped him comfort her a few days prior. After this was done, he took a step forwards and begun moving towards the Great Tree.


    The Bright One looked rather different when compared to others of his race. Most Green Ones wore strange leather-like fitted clothing, but instead he wore a long and loose robe. Both types of clothing seemed made of the same materials, in an autumn-like red colour and with patterns as if made of giant leaves, yet thicker, like animal skin, the clothes were practical; warm, sturdy and making good camouflage in the nearby woodlands.


    On the second day the Great Tree had investigated these clothes further and made a surprising discovery: the materials used were actually truly made of leaves. Each leaf was highly unusual; large and far thicker than normal, with an ever so slight but still noticeable layer of hairs present on the outer side. Reminded of the ways that the Green Ones used their aura to change and morph the shape of trees in order to create some of their homes, the Great Tree found it likely that they used a similar method to create their clothing. After investigating more many essentials in the Green Ones lives seemed dependent on this ability, such as food and medicine whose growths were accelerated.


    Other than clothing, further differences could be seen between the Bright One and other Green Ones. All others of his race had smooth and pale skin, along with long smooth hair which varied in colours from dark green, like the female Green One at the side, to a bright blond, like the Green Child¡¯s hair. On the other hand, the Bright One¡¯s own skin was wrinkled, his hair an aged white, although still long and smooth. This was actually the Great Tree¡¯s first time seeing wrinkles at all, even the Earthen Ones and Plain Ones it had seen which had signs of age were nowhere near this obvious, most still seeming in their prime. Only a few other Green Ones back in the village which the Great Tree hadn¡¯t observed similarly showed the ravages of time, and this was the first time it had truly looked at the Bright One in front of it.


    Looking up with small yet bright eyes towards the canopy far above, the Bright One hesitated for a short moment, before extending his hand towards the Great Tree.

 Chapter 6: Contact

    The moment the Bright Ones palm made contact with the bark, the Great Tree saw two things happen.


    Firstly, the verdant aura surrounding the Bright One extended outwards from the palm in numerous thin strands, flowing into the Great Tree. The way these strands spread was like a mixture between roots digging into the earth and water flowing down a creek, but happened far faster, as if this scene increased in speed several times over. Each individual strand was very weak, it seemed like they were on the verge of dissipating naturally, like a simple gust of wind would destroy the entire system. The Great Tree felt that, if it wanted to, it need only circulate its aura slightly more strongly than normal and the network would scatter. Of course, it would not test this for fear of offending or even harming the Bright One.


    Another property of the threads that was quickly noted was that although the alien aura had easily slipped into the body, it did not pierce or ¡®fuse¡¯ in any way with the sturdy red aura native to the Great Tree; instead the energies flowed adjacent, forming smaller parallel streams beside the larger already present rivers. This almost insidious behaviour certainly looked like it assisted the network in forming with the ease and speed it did, but whether this was a natural reaction or instigated in some way deliberately by the Bright One was unknown. Luckily, this new verdant aura didn¡¯t seem to harm the Great Tree in any way, at least not immediately.


    On the other hand, the second occurrence noticed was far more shocking than this invading but seemingly harmless aura. The Great Tree felt the presence of another force, a strange force which seemed faint but with odd properties, seemingly familiar but also very, very alien. This force spread outwards from the palm and unlike the new aura, this did collide with the already present aura. Further still the force seemed to superimpose onto the native aura, and for a second it felt like it trying to wrest away control over the Great Tree¡¯s own body.


    At this point panic was resounding within the Great Tree¡¯s mind; this force, if it really could directly control the Great Tree¡¯s body, was a grave threat. Just as fighting back against the Bright One was being considered, another change was observed. The strange force began to fluctuate in strength, at some locations becoming stronger and more tyrannical, whilst fading away to almost nothingness in others. Something which wasn¡¯t noticed at the time but which could also be considered odd, was that in but a short moment the Great Tree was able to deduce many behaviours of the strange force; unlike with aura which took much experimenting this time only a cursory glance was needed.


    When the force was strengthened in a part of the network of threads, it almost seemed like the area in question lit up. Furthermore, only one section of the network was having the force present greatly strengthen at any one time, and this strengthening lasted for only a moment before the section again grew dim and another location was strengthened instead. Each section only experienced this once, and there seemed to be something systematic about the force, a pattern which was so very obvious yet just behind reach. At this point it didn¡¯t seem to the Great Tree like the force was strengthening in the same way as a muscle would for an attack; there was no tension present. Instead they force seemed more like it was only illuminating each section. As the enlightening force swept through the body and aura of the Great Tree it seemed like sunlight shining upon the land, like the force was trying to observe, trying to search, for something.


    No, that¡¯s it.


    Suddenly, like a veil had been lifted from its mind, the incredibly strange force made so much sense to the Great Tree. Why was it that the force felt so familiar yet so alien? Because an equivalent force, very specific force had been present within the Great Tree since as long as it could remember, yet another had never been encountered, not so directly. The force did not seem to be searching for anything, nor was it being used by the Bright One to search, the force was quite literally the Bright One searching.


    It¡¯s a mind!


    Indeed, what the Great Tree had realised was that this mysterious force which was able to interact with and almost seemed capable of controlling its own aura was exactly the mind of the Bright One itself. The force could in fact be considered ¡®mental force¡¯; it was familiar because every time the Great Tree had observed something, every time it had attempted to control its aura or body, for everything it did its own mind was obviously used.


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    This was the first time the Great Tree had encountered such a strange thing as the mind of another being, or anything even close to it, leading to huge panic and confusion when said mind appeared. But for a thinking being, it is not at all surprising that the mind of another thinking being is something which should be incomparably familiar in many ways. In fact, this entire revelation from when the Great Tree first felt the force, to when it realised this was actually the Bright One¡¯s mind, did not take even two seconds.


    Thinking back, the Great Tree also realised that the strange pulse it had felt when the Bright One had first made contact back before the village was constructed was not the Bright One¡¯s own aura, but actually its own aura reacting to the mental force whilst being observed and investigated. The pulse was actually exactly what was being felt just now, only this time the feeling was far more defined and was being investigated without the hazy unthinking state present back then, so seemed very different, like before the situation was much further away but now is close enough to make out what¡¯s going on.


    Meanwhile, within this short time the thin strands of aura had formed a vast and complicated network, but also seemed to have reached a limit in size. Aura was no longer being supplied to the network by the Bright One, but it was not the case that there was no more aura left to give; despite the vast network formed being dozens of times the size of its body, only a small fraction of the overall aura which the Bright One possessed was used, seemingly a fifth as far as the Great Tree could tell.


    It seemed likely that using the entirety of its aura was impossible for the Bright One, whether it be personal control or the consequences from such an action, both represented huge problems. Yet the Great Tree supposed that more could be used than this but a conscious choice was made not to. After reaching this limit the network of aura threads spread throughout about one quarter of the Great Tree¡¯s above earth body, plus a similar mass of roots.


    Is this the extent of the Bright One¡¯s capabilities, or is there some other reason for stopping now? Holding power in reserve? Or a measure to reduce damage if I fight back?


    In the end the Great Tree¡¯s speculations were just that: speculations. With no way to verify them its attention was returned to the threads and the Bright One¡¯s mind. After another glance it seemed that the mental force radiated outwards from the aura, rapidly growing weaker as it travelled, and being strongest just where the palm made contact with the bark. Outside of the network of threads the mental force was only able to persist for a scant half a metre before completely disappearing, which did not seem at all coincidental to the Great Tree.


    So the strands are only a method to spread the mind¡¯s influence?


    Just as the Great Tree was pondering this, it was still observing the physical body of the Bright One. Over the past few seconds, ever since the network of aura threads was completed, the elderly Green One had been making his own investigations into the Great Tree, as was of course his purpose for coming here. His face, which before only had a somewhat serious expression, now had confusion mixed in, and the serious aspect had strengthened slightly. As his brows became slightly more crossed, he opened his mouth.


    Just as the Bright One opened his mouth, an unknown voice resounded within, or perhaps better said all around the Great Tree¡¯s mind. This new voice was elderly and calm, more deep than high, but not extremely so, whilst also giving the feeling of patience and warmth. All of this resulted in a strong contrast to the deep, intimidating yet also reliable sounding voice of the Great Tree.


    ¡°Hmmm¡­ strange.¡±

 Chapter 7: Communication

    This new voice was clear and completely understandable, using a language even the Great Tree was strangely able to understand. At the same moment this voice was heard, the Bright One¡¯s physical body spoke out in a very similar sounding voice but using different words, words which were still unknown to the Great Tree, and although the mental one mostly drowned out the physical, there was still a strange, almost paradoxical feeling when the two voices overlapped.


    What!?


    The Great Tree was completely not expecting to hear something which it could actually understand when the Bright One spoke, and especially not hear the words within its own mind, instead expecting the same unintelligible words as previously. The shock felt at this revelation was actually so powerful that it exclaimed to itself mentally in a fairly alarmed manner, so far as a mental voice would allow anyway. But the surprise was not yet over, as incredibly enough there was a reply.


    ¡°What!?¡±


    ¡­


    This short exchange was full of obvious and intense confusion on both sides, but this only remained for an instant. The Great Tree swiftly realised that this strange new voice was in fact the voice of the Bright One¡¯s mind, and also realised that its own thoughts were actually being heard! For obvious reasons this caused the Great Tree to panic, immediately trying to shrink its mind away, targeting thoughts inwards in an attempt to hide them from its newfound conversation partner. After all, if the Bright One could truly know everything it was thinking and at the same time had malicious intent, then that really wouldn¡¯t be good. Fortunately there were no further reactions to the Great Tree¡¯s thoughts; it seems that the thoughts had to be directed outwards towards the other mind in order to communicate, with the previous exchange simply being an unlucky accident. It took several more probing experiments before the Great Tree calmed somewhat though.


    At least my thoughts are safe for now¡­


    Whilst the Great Tree was desperately trying to protect its thoughts, the Bright One was plainly very confused, his expression plastered with shock. His exclamation occurred not only in the Great Tree¡¯s mind, but was also a physical one, and some of the other Green Ones behind him showed concern on their faces. One, the female holding the Green Child, called out something unknown and was about to move forward, but the Bright One urgently made a small gesture with his hand which caused her to remain where she was. He seemed to be deep in thought.


    The Great Tree had organised and protected its thoughts at this point but, whilst silently observing the Bright One with no small amount of caution, was simply waiting to see how the situation would develop. It itself really didn¡¯t know how else to handle this; the situation was simply too far out of its expectations.


    After a few more seconds, the elderly man calmed himself and an odd expression appeared on his face. It seemed to the Great Tree to be a mixture between determination, curiosity and¡­ respect? Or perhaps humility would be a better description? After a moment, the Bright One spoke.


    ¡°This humble druid asks if there might be some great elder present? If we have offended you, we sincerely apologise.¡±


    The Great Tree knew that this was obviously directed towards itself. It seemed that this Bright One refers to itself as a druid, and strangely some of the meaning even seemed to be transmitted, enough at least for the Great Tree to know druid was more of a profession as opposed to a race. Luckily this first contact was rather civil so far, but whether this was because of a wish to befriend or genuine respect as opposed to fear had yet to be seen. This needed to be determined; if this was simply fear then the Green One¡¯s could quickly turn against it, and although the Great Tree doubted they would be a real threat, it would be disruptive and the full capabilities of the Bright One were still unknown. Who knows what he could be capable of after what had been showed so far.


    Furthermore the Great Tree felt from the quick reaction of the Bright One that this situation wasn¡¯t completely unknown to him; it was a real possibility that in this case the Green Ones held the advantage in terms of information, which meant simply playing dumb might not work. Communication seemed like a better option, who knows the Great Tree might even gain from this. The decision was swiftly made that a cautious reply was the safest route, do not lie or attempt to trick the Green Ones and at least a bad relationship developing would be unlikely. Hence, directing its mind towards the Bright One, a short reply was mentally sent.


    ¡°I am here.¡±


    Short, seemingly uninterested and unconcerned, but also without any maliciousness or unnecessary grandeur, this was the most cautious option and as far as the Great Tree knew the reply with the lowest chance of angering the other party. After all nothing was known in terms of the temperament, beliefs or etiquette of the Green Ones; they were timid now but that could quickly change. Sensing danger or weakness were both common reasons for attacking after all, but a dangerous yet apathetic being was something most would choose to leave alone.


    Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    The Bright One did not have as large a reaction as the previous time it heard the Great Tree¡¯s mind speak, but there was undeniably an excited glimmer which appeared in his eyes. A slight smile spread over his face before continuing to speak.


    ¡°Many thanks elder, this druid name is Neltu Shiveru, just Neltu will do if it pleases you. How may we address exalted one?¡±


    Name huh?


    The Great Tree had never needed such a thing before, and ¡®Great Tree¡¯ itself was more of a description than anything.  In the past few days when it referred to itself it still saw no need for such a thing, but now it realised that wasn¡¯t realistic; the beings in front of it clearly used names and so having one would likely help to calm their concerns, as well as assist in building trust. So, with this in mind, it was decided that a name for itself was required. That said, it had no idea what sort of a name it wanted; something as permanent as this couldn¡¯t be thought up on a whim.


    The Great Tree was silent for a few moments before a thought came to it. In the first place one of the reasons for getting a name would be to comfort the Green Ones, so wasn¡¯t it safe to leave the naming up to them? It would also result in a name which is more relatable to them, which would be a good benefit. Plus the Great Tree wasn¡¯t particularly bothered about what to call itself, so it didn¡¯t mind.


    This sounds the most reliable, and I feel we will be stuck here for hours if I must think up a name for myself.


    The decision made the Great Tree extended its mind towards the mind of the Bright One, or Neltu, as he was supposedly called, sending a reply.


    ¡°This one has never had need of a name; you may grant me one as you will.¡±


    Neltu seemed to not expect this reply and for a moment looked stumped, but then sunk into thought. The Great Tree waited anxiously; hopefully this wouldn¡¯t backfire. After a few moments had passed, Neltu glanced back thoughtfully at the Green Child, then turned again towards the Great Tree to reply.


    ¡°Before that, this one has a question if I may?¡±


    After Neltu spoke he waited, seemingly for permission to continue. They came here to investigate, and the Great Tree didn¡¯t want to antagonise the Green Ones, so he saw no reason not to give it.


    ¡°You may.¡±


    ¡°Thank you elder. I wonder if it is true that you acted to save my grand-daughter, Sera, three days ago?¡±


    Ah, the cause of this.


    In the end the Great Tree knew that this was coming, this was after all likely the reason the Green Ones came here in the first place. Also of note was the name of the girl, Sera, it was unknown why but this was something the Great Tree endeavoured to remember. This special treatment was something even it itself didn¡¯t realise


    In the end, it¡¯s highly unlikely the Green Ones would find fault in the Great Tree interfering that day. It¡¯s not like they would be angry about the death of the Plain One; many occasions in which Green Ones had killed Plain Ones in self-defence had been observed in the past, and the voluntary nature of the event without any seeking of reparations or payment of some kind made the Great Tree seem all the more benevolent. Claiming it was a coincidence that the branch fell and denying anything about the attack of the thread-like roots which not only littered the hill, but also may have been spoken of by the Green Child, no, by Sera, would in the end only seem suspicious. Telling the truth not only had the least risk, but also the highest potential reward; it was the obvious choice. Hopefully they wouldn¡¯t ask why the Great Tree decided to help though, as truthfully, even it itself didn¡¯t know why, just that it felt it absolutely had to at the time. Of course it didn¡¯t regret its actions.


    ¡°It is true. I saw her fleeing and decided to help.¡±


    The face of the elderly Neltu very visibly eased up after hearing this, the way he looked up at the tree he was speaking to changed to have more warmth in it, but there was still a hint of suspicion present. Likely, he was thinking of why the being in front of him would bother to help his grandchild, but in the end it had and so not being thankful would be rather difficult.


    ¡°This old elf is eternally grateful for exalted elder¡¯s assistance and I will do all that I can to repay this debt. Also, this one has thought up an appropriate name for elder, if elder is willing to hear it.¡±


    Elf huh? Sounds like the name of his race. Well let¡¯s hear the name then.


    Storing away this small piece of information in a corner of its mind, the Great Tree replied.


    ¡°Go on.¡±


    ¡°Yes, after some thought, this one thinks that Vrasus is a very appropriate name for elder. I wonder how elder feels about it?¡±

 Chapter 8: A Name

    Vrasus huh? I like it. It feels good, like it fits, I wonder how he thought it up?


    After asking if this name, Vrasus, was to the Great Tree¡¯s liking, Neltu was waiting with a fairly nervous expression on his face. It seemed that at this point not only did the old elf, as the Green Ones had been revealed to be called, not want to anger the Great Tree out of fear but also genuine respect and gratitude.


    Also, Vrasus sounded very good to the Great Tree. The name felt like it fit very well with its personality, bearing, and really it just liked the sound of it. It was very curious how Neltu thought up such an excellent sounding name, or perhaps this was just how having a name for oneself felt like? Regardless the Great Tree was pleased, but being too enthusiastic might have some negative effects, so played down how it was feeling in its reply.


    ¡°Vrasus? Hmm¡­¡± the Great Tree paused for a moment, trepidation could be seen appearing on Neltu¡¯s face. ¡°I like it.¡±


    Once this was confirmed, Neltu was very visibly relieved; it seemed this truly was important for the old elf. After a moment of gathering himself, he enthusiastically continued talking to Vrasus, as the Great Tree was henceforth known.


    ¡°This one is glad Elder Vrasus is pleased. The name comes from an old folktale passed down in our people, although somewhat obscure I think it fit rather well.¡±


    ¡°Really? I am curious; I wonder if you would be willing to tell me this tale Neltu?¡±


    Truthfully, Vrasus was curious about this tale, but this wasn¡¯t all that affected his decision. This was supposedly an old folktale of the elves; it¡¯s very likely that some of their culture could be gleamed from this, and at the moment what Vrasus needed more than anything was information, hence the quick reply needed almost no thinking about.


    ¡°Of course I am willing! However, sadly, this one hasn¡¯t heard the tale in a long time; I only remember the general story. If elder is still willing then I can go over this though?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fine, go ahead.¡± Vrasus obviously wouldn¡¯t care about the smaller details or presentation at this point.


    ¡°Very well. The story occurred long ago, far before recorded memory, back when the world was young. In this time life was very prevalent throughout the lands, which were entirely covered in lush verdant forests. No great civilizations had yet arisen, though intelligent beings lived in small pockets all across the land.¡±


    ¡°It is said that back then many powerful beings inhabited the land, such as dragons, giants and spirits. One of these beings, a giant named Vrasus, lived gently alongside my people¡¯s ancestors in a small village.¡±


    ¡°One day though, a great calamity befell the land. An army of monstrous beings consumed many godlike beings and wiped out numerous lesser races, but Vrasus alone, instead of choosing to flee decided to defend our ancestors. The original tale goes into quite a bit about his heroic defence against the monsters, how he killed entire hordes despite suffering intense injuries himself.¡±


    ¡°Supposedly in the end he died, but the time he bought plus the inspiration of his noble self-sacrificing nature united the land in war against the beasts, eventually leading to victory. He was greatly revered afterwards and this tale was passed down by my people as a form of respect.¡±


    Finishing his tale, Neltu briefly cleared his throat before continuing.


    ¡°Whether or not this tale is true is of course unknown, but regardless I think that the character of Vrasus suits elder¡¯s demeanour quite well.¡±


    Whilst Neltu was speaking, Vrasus had been listening intently, trying to pick up useful pieces of information, but at the same time grew quite pleased. This Vrasus, as the story was told, would be well respected by the elves. Regardless of if the tale was fictional, it would still have a cultural significance and obviously wouldn¡¯t be a name given to someone viewed as an enemy. If this name gave the elves a feeling of comfort or any sort of positive feeling then that would benefit Vrasus greatly, and from the story this was obviously the case.


    Furthermore the name fit fairly well. Although Vrasus obviously hadn¡¯t thought fought valiantly against any armies, the tree was still an immensely huge being in comparison to the elves and had lived calmly beside them for a time, who had also benevolently protected one of their own. The name wasn¡¯t without meaning, which could help the elves identify Vrasus more closely with its new name. Perhaps the only shortcoming of the situation was that from the sound of it the tale wasn¡¯t told very commonly. Other than this Vrasus also wished Neltu knew more details; then it was possible that more information could be obtained.


    You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    Well, this is still good for me. Asking for more is unreasonable.


    ¡°I agree.¡±


    ¡°Ah, hearing elder say that is most reassuring. I thank elder greatly for taking the time to listen to this elf speak. If there is anything this I can do to repay elder for saving my grand-daughter, speak and I shall do everything in my power to assist. Afterwards, I¡¯m afraid I must retire; this body of mine is not what it used to be sadly.¡±


    Vrasus was somewhat shocked by this rather abrupt end to the conversation, but after some thought it made more sense. Of course Vrasus knew Neltu likely didn¡¯t actually need to leave soon due to his body; if this was the case then why did he wait so late in the day to come? The elves came in the first place to investigate Vrasus, but more specifically they wanted to know if there was any threat present, which now seemed to not be the case. The contents of the conversation had been civil on both sides. Names had been exchanged, or given as the case was. In the end a non-aggressive, even somewhat friendly relationship had been established between the two sides, there was nothing else that needed immediate attention. It was also possible that the Elves needed to gather and decide on their next course of action, but as how their leadership worked was unknown this couldn¡¯t be verified.


    Although there was still much that Vrasus didn¡¯t understand, the conversation had still been extremely beneficial. There is much that could be done personally and delicate political gymnastics with the elves wasn¡¯t required for the moment; that would only make the situation more complicated than it needed to be.


    As for a reward for saving the elf child, Sera, there was nothing Vrasus immediately wanted or needed, but felt that denying the need for anything would only trouble the elves, perhaps even seeming suspicious. The first thing that came to mind was requesting information, but Vrasus was unsure what it even wanted to know, nor if the elves had any easily accessible forms of information which could be simply browsed. So in the end, it was decided that keeping an open favour for use in the future, perhaps when something more specific was needed, would be the best choice.


    ¡°There is nothing I can think of which I immediately need, but I¡¯ll keep the offer in mind if anything comes up in the future.¡±


    ¡°Very well. Then I bid elder goodbye and hope he has a good night¡±


    He?


    This was actually the first time Vrasus considered whether it even had a gender, after all it was a tree. But when it thought about its deep male mental voice, this did make more sense. Well, being a tree, the gender would only be used for identification anyway, but male did seem more appropriate both from the voice and namesake, so Vrasus just decided to go along with it from now on.


    Makes no difference to me.


    After the short diversion of thought, Vrasus returned his attention towards Neltu and bade him a short farewell. Neltu then calmly removed his hand from the tree for the first time since the start of the conversation, the web of aura threads reclining back into his body in an instant, before turning back towards his fellow elves.


    In the earlier parts of the conversation the other elves had been very confused and concerned by Neltu¡¯s behaviour. They of course couldn¡¯t hear Vrasus¡¯ voice, and Neltu was too busy to explain what was going on, but after some time they seemed to understand some of what was going on and had been communicating in hushed whispers. Not that this mattered; Vrasus could hear everything clearly, he just couldn¡¯t understand the words.


    Now seeing their elder return to them some relief was seen on their faces, but mostly they still seemed confused and quickly begun speaking with Neltu, likely asking questions. The smallest of them though, Sera, urgently hurried up to Neltu, clutching the strange object she held at her chest.


    At this point sudden realisation was seen on Neltu¡¯s face and he stopped walking. He appeared somewhat troubled and tried speaking some words to the small girl, but she seemed determined over the matter. A resigned expression overcame Neltu¡¯s face whilst letting out a sigh. He turned back towards Vrasus, extending his hand.


    Hm, more?

 Chapter 9: Gratitude

    Considering this seemed sparked by the child, this likely wasn¡¯t as important a matter as previously so Vrasus wasn¡¯t too concerned. Truthfully, he didn¡¯t actually have a clue what this could be about; they had already established he saved Sera. Hence the tree simply waited for Neltu to explain the situation.


    As the elderly elf once again made contact with the tree another network of threads travelled outwards from his hand, but this one was far smaller than the previous, only a few times the size of Neltu himself. Whether this was due to exhaustion or Neltu simply no bothering to create as large a network was unknown, but this did mean that the elf was unable to investigate Vrasus¡¯ body as thoroughly as before. Luckily this didn¡¯t seem to affect communication.


    ¡°Apologies elder, but I have a request from my grand-daughter.¡±


    ¡°Go ahead.¡±


    The old elf glanced at the child besides him and smiled wryly to himself before continuing.


    ¡°You see, in the past few days, Sera has been somewhat¡­ troubled, by the events of that day. Of course we are all grateful elder intervened but she is still a child after all. She was rather unresponsive for a time until yesterday morning when she begun working a¡­ er¡­ gift I suppose. It was finished just recently after much effort on her part and she wishes to give it to you as an offering of . I was hoping elder would accept, Im sure it would mean a lot to her.¡±


    Whilst Neltu was speaking, Sera was strongly nodding along to his words with an oddly serious expression on her face. As an immensely ancient and sturdy tree, Vrasus had never considered anything cute before, but this scene of the young elf girl nodding her head with such a determined expression was really too adorable even to himself.


    ¡°Of course.¡±


    Suddenly a small thread-like roots burst out of the soil. Although Vrasus ensured the root was much slower than back when attacking the Plain One, the speed and suddenness of the root still caused a couple of the observing elves, who had largely calmed down at this point, to jump in fright. Even Neltu showed some shock at the animated root which evoked the image of a snake stood up and ready to strike.


    Ah, whoops. A bit too enthusiastic, perhaps.


    Still, other than some surprise Neltu didn¡¯t act, and so although the other elves seemed concerned neither did they. Vrasus moved the root, far more carefully this time, towards Sera and allowed it to hang there. When the girl looked at the root a shy but sweet smile appeared on her face, and after a moment hooked her ¡®art¡¯ onto the root. Neltu did not miss Sera¡¯s smile and he himself showed pleasant surprise at it; evidently that was an unusual expression on her face recently.


    Vrasus properly looked at Sera¡¯s offering for the first time. It was a shaped like a ring, about the width of an elf¡¯s head and seemingly made up of many interwoven vines, with multiple small blooming flowers of all colours pinned on it. The craftsmanship was obviously not high quality; it was done by a child after all, but the hoop did look like a good amount of care was put into its creation. Vrasus took a moment to appreciate the gift. It was the first sign of gratitude he had ever received and it actually touched him quite deeply, but as he was observing Vrasus noticed something very strange coming off of it.


    What exactly this something was the tree didn¡¯t know. It was like a tiny thread of misty water, invisibly to the naked eye in a similar way aura was, but even more ethereal. The same way the energies of the world could be compared to something physical, say stone, this thread could be compared to those energies; the thread almost seemed to be a higher existence. Vrasus thought for a second that perhaps this thread was intentionally left here, a curse of some kind perhaps, but this was dismissed; whatever this thread was, it seemed too¡­ benevolent. Too calm and nurturing to be dangerous, and the very nature of the thread seemed beyond what the elves, or even he himself, were capable of manipulating.


    Vrasus tried following the strange thread with his mind. It was incredibly thin to the extent it was questionable it existed, the first few attempts the great tree actually lost the thread like it just evaporated from his senses. He ended up having to use the entirety of his consciousness just to get a solid lock on the thread; with how difficult this was he doubted he could follow it too its end, but he was pleasantly surprised. The end of the thread was very close and after only a very short distance he found it. The thread linked up to himself.


    What on earth?


    Not just his body, but his very mind. This almost non-existent, exceedingly ethereal thread joined his mind with Sera¡¯s offering. Not only this, but the thread seemed to flow from the offering towards his mind, like the smallest stream imaginable. The stream was also getting weaker, like it would soon evaporate into nothingness. But where this stream contacted Vrasus¡¯ mind, when he actually tried to feel the effect, difficult in its own right, the thread seemed nourishing, refreshing, benevolent, and completely natural.


    It was like his very psyche was being fed the sweetest nectar imaginable.


    Whatever this thread was, it felt like it would soon disappear, so Vrasus tried his best to find out what he could in the meantime, but sadly very little was learned by the time it seemed to shrink away. Vrasus got the feeling from the way it disappeared that the thread wasn¡¯t truly gone, just made so weak that it was impossible for him to detect it. But what exactly was this strange existence?


    Luckily this seemed like it couldn¡¯t possibly be a bad thing; the energy was just too gentle, to the extent that even his normally cautious self couldn¡¯t believe such a thing was dangerous. Of course even the most benevolent things could be used to do harm, so he certainly wouldn¡¯t forget about the thread, even if he was forced to put this matter aside for now.


    I¡¯ve been forced to put far too many matters aside recently.


    This little investigation, from when the thread was first detected to when it disappeared, occurred over only a couple of seconds and so went unnoticed by the crowd of elves. The thread might have been short lived, but Vrasus had a consciousness which extended across an entire forest, if he concentrated he could act very quickly.


    After the strange situation was concluded Vrasus returned his attention towards Sera, who was still waiting for some sort of response. It¡¯s not like she could look at his face or anything. Despite this, whilst keeping her head slightly down and sporting a small but adorable smile upon her lips, the girl was looking towards the root in front of her, seemingly looking for a reaction. The resulting scene was quite strange. Regardless of what the thread was, the fact that the young elf seemed to be thankful towards him still filled the old tree with warmth.


    Another new sensation. Too many of them lately.


    That said, this sensation was of course a pleasant one. Chuckling to himself mentally, Vrasus carried the offering over to his body, placing it just above the very same hole which Sera had taken refuge in just several days ago. He slowly shaped a piece of bark on top of the entrance of the hole outwards like a spike to act as a permanent hook for the new decoration. Rain wasn¡¯t an issue thanks to the extensive canopy high above the hill, so once the offering had been fixed in place by the small bark hook, leaving it there wouldn¡¯t be a problem.


    Once that was done, the elf girl seemed more content, turning back around to the other elves noticeably happier than before. Neltu gave a short thanks towards Vrasus before once again removing his hand and returning to his kin, this time without a similar incident and so instead he was bombarded by what were presumably questions. Vrasus himself obviously couldn¡¯t make out what they were but from the way that everyone talked at once and the resigned expression on the elderly elf¡¯s face neither could Neltu. After a moment, Neltu spoke a few words, to which the other elves quieted down somewhat. Finally the group began to head down the hill and back home.


    The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    I really need to learn their language.


    Whilst musing this Vrasus continued to observe the group as they made their short journey back. Neltu and the female elf he entrusted Sera to were in the lead and they seemed to be having a somewhat serious conversation. Very close behind them was Sera who was holding Neltu¡¯s hand, occasional casing back glances towards the hill behind them and Vrasus himself. She also seemed to be being escorted by the other child of the group; the young male. He was barely older then Sera herself but seemed to be quite protective of her. Meanwhile, all the other unknown elves were having their own hushed conversation.


    When the small assembly of elves arrived back in their village they did not separate. Instead, everyone who went to the hill, plus a few extra, returned to a large building in the centre of the village. This was the largest building in the village by a fair amount; most others only had enough space to comfortably hold a family of four at most, but this building was many times this size. The entrance opened up into a large hall which looked like it could hold maybe one hundred people. To the left and right of this hall were two large wings made up of several rooms each, their purpose unknown but not appearing to be residential. Finally there were a few rooms towards the back of the building. It was in one of these rooms that Sera, Neltu and the two other elves had gathered back several days ago and they seemed to be living in this part of the building.


    Vrasus couldn¡¯t accurately determine exactly what the building was used for, other than Neltu¡¯s residence towards the back, but guessed the rest of it served similarly to a nerve centre of the village. Neltu and most of the others had gathered in the large hall near the front; Sera and the other child had been taken away to the back of the building. Adding in the new additions to the gathering there was now about a dozen individuals present in the front hall. Vrasus guessed everyone present were either close relatives or elves with a high position in the village, or a mixture of both. At first it seemed that Neltu was giving a speech, but soon enough it devolved into what looked like everyone present arguing with each other.


    Although it was possible he could gleam some information about the relationships between the different elves by observing their behaviour, Vrasus was hardly interested in watching people shout at each other in a language he couldn¡¯t understand. After a moment he retracted his mind from the village and started to think over what had happened.


    Truthfully, Vrasus was overwhelmed just from existing in his current state before. He had only awakened several days ago, and whilst certainly it wasn¡¯t as bad as back then he still hadn¡¯t adjusted. He was also still very far from where he wanted to be terms of being able to manipulate his aura, but this was probably only going to be possible after a fair amount of practise despite his impressive progress over the past few days.


    Other than this, he wanted information on the land and its other inhabitants. Although his worries over the elves had been calmed, at least for now, he still knew next to nothing about the Earthen Ones, Plain Ones, or the miscellaneous wildlife. They may not be as immediate a threat when compared to the large number of nearby elves, but to simply ignore them would be foolish.


    Then there was the conversation with Neltu. The contents of the conversation themselves Vrasus was very pleased with, it probably couldn¡¯t have gone much better realistically, but it was the fact that the conversation was possible that was an issue. Before, Vrasus was convinced that at the very least he was impervious to physical attacks from other beings, but now he wasn¡¯t so sure.


    Neltu clearly had some sway over Vrasus¡¯ own aura, and hence likely also his own body. Although he could only create a network which covered a portion of his body, and felt that Neltu wouldn¡¯t be able to simply take over that section, if the elf was going all out he would still probably be able to slow the flow of aura, reducing Vrasus¡¯ power slightly. Assuming this is all Neltu is capable of, which seemed unlikely, then this still gives a simple avenue of attack for the elves: numbers.


    What if we were to take two elves with this ability? Vrasus doubted all elves were as adept as Neltu but also doubted he was unique. How many similarly capable elves would be required to render the great tree helpless? Ten? Twenty? One hundred? Vrasus had no clue, but was certain that given enough numbers they could overwhelm him, perhaps even control him. It may not be possible with their current forces, but Vrasus knew there must be more elves outside his domain. He didn¡¯t want to take the chance that, after a war with Neltu¡¯s people, more could arrive, enough to defeat him. These thoughts only reaffirmed what he had already decided.


    I must avoid conflict at all costs.


    There was something else which troubled the great tree though. Before today, he had no idea that such a small being like Neltu was capable of anything like what had been shown. What if there were other unknown abilities out there which could also threaten him? What if Neltu was only the beginning? All that the elf had done was spread his mind throughout Vrasus¡¯ body, more observation than anything else, with communication seemingly as a side effect, but what more could there be? Was there a Plain Ones who could, say, devour aura? Earthen Ones who could poison his own life-force against him? Or perhaps some yet unseen being which could do something even more insidious, beyond Vrasus¡¯ current imagination.


    These possibilities couldn¡¯t be dismissed. Vrasus needed information, and the only nearby source was the elves. As such, he decided on his plan of action. The most pressing concern was to learn the language of the elves, both to befriend them and learn what they know, and whilst doing this he would further practise control and investigate the local ecosystem, including the Plain Ones and Earthen Ones. Apart from this, the strange thread from the offering must be kept in mind; he had no leads or ways to investigate it since it disappeared, but such a strange thing definitely had a cause; he felt he hadn¡¯t seen the last of it.


    More of an order of priorities than a plan. If only I knew more.


    Thinking over the plan and realising just how simple it was, Vrasus could only mentally sigh to himself. But so little was known that this was all that could be done at the moment.


    Returning his gaze over the elven village briefly, Vrasus noted that the arguments seemed to have ended; few elves remained and Neltu had already retired to his quarters in the back of the building, looking fairly pleased. Evidently the events of the day had been satisfactory to the old elf. Meanwhile Sera, like the majority of the village, was in bed; it was fairly deep into the night by now. Luckily, the girl didn¡¯t seem as plagued by night terrors as usual tonight. If Vrasus had a face he suspected he would be smiling.


    Satisfied, Vrasus retracted his senses from the village. Tomorrow he would begin really learning about this world.

 Chapter 10: Neltu

    Neltu reclined back into his chair with a tired smile; it had been an exhausting, hell it had been an exhausting week. With the human attacks increasing in severity as of late it was decided that requesting assistance from the orcs was necessary. They had always been a solitary race and the elves never had much contact with them, but that was more due to them living in those accursed mountains. The orcs homelands were undesirable to most; the forests small and ill-suited for elves and the land was equally useless for humans. Even then it¡¯s not like a large colonisation effort would be possible. The rulers of those mountains are said to be equal to small armies all on their own. The orcs were the only race hardy enough to live in their shadows, which of course that meant when they eventually did get a chance to grow outside those mountains they flourished.


    Still don¡¯t know how they managed to get past those star storms.


    The old elf thought back to the days of his youth, back when the land he currently called home was closed off from the world. Back then this place was completely surrounded by savage magical storms, star-storms they were called, and had been for many lifetimes.


    Neltu still remembered when he once saw them once in his youth; for most it was a sight they wouldn¡¯t forget for their whole lives. They were beautiful things, made up of countless clouds which glittered like they were made of innumerable stars, each flash of lightning was akin to a celestial river flowing to the earth. They seemed so calm from afar; although they were called storms the wind remained still and if normal thunder was compared to the roar of a beast then here it was like music.


    Of course although they seemed peaceful and benevolent in truth they were anything but. It is said they were created many thousands of years ago by powerful beings from the heavens as a method of keeping the lesser mortals out of their lands. No one knows if this is true or not; if these beings ever existed they haven¡¯t been seen for thousands of years, but if true the storms were very good at their job. Were.


    Apparently the storms had been growing weaker over time. At first this was negligible, even from the viewpoint of the long lived elves it was a slow process, but over the years the effect was definitely noticeable. The clouds grew smaller and the rivers of lightning thinner. At this point they were still incredibly dangerous for all who entered the storms; whether an ant is crushed beneath a child¡¯s foot or a soldier¡¯s boot makes no difference to it, but they were still growing weaker.


    Then around five hundred years ago short gaps had started to appear in the storms as the clouds grew smaller. The gaps would only persist for a few hours at most before they collapsed and didn¡¯t seem to reach the whole way through the storm which seemed to stretch miles upon miles, but they were still there, and grew larger as time went on.


    Then, only a couple of decades ago, the storms seemed to reach a tipping point. The gaps were almost large enough that the journey through would be feasible but suddenly the disappearance of the storms accelerated, the clouds grew smaller at a speed which seemed visible to the naked eye. In only a short two days the storms finally collapsed.


    Thanks to the sudden disappearance this empty land, creatively called the Starlands by the humans and their wonderful naming sense, finally opened up to the various mortal races. Vast numbers of human bandits and other criminals swarmed the plains, alongside small numbers of villagers trying to escape from the heavy taxes of their old homes. But imagine the surprise when these first explorers discovered a flourishing nation of orcs.


    To think that they had been here for so long with no one realising, but those humans weren¡¯t very pleased!


    Neltu smiled as he remembered when he himself heard the news. Apparently several hundred years ago a small clan of orcs on the verge of extermination decided to try their luck with one of the small gaps in the storm. They weren¡¯t the only people who had tried this of course; many foolhardy humans as well as likely countless orcs in similar situations had tried. Even a few elves had attempted the journey. But it seemed all these attempts failed, showing just how destructive the star-storms really were.


    Amazingly enough though this small clan had actually succeeded, and as a reward for their efforts had a few hundred years head start to colonise the Starlands. Only a single lifetime for an elf but the orcs managed to build an entire city, and more. Well, after winning a gamble like the star storms they deserve it; the feat was so unbelievable many think that they are lying, that perhaps they had always been trapped there, or they somehow found a way to control the storms to their will. Neltu personally believed that they made it through with a combination of luck, hardiness and sheer determination.


    Well if anyone was going to do it, it would be the orcs. Crazy bastards.


    Chuckling to himself, Neltu thought back to his own journey to this land, and of the reason he left his old home. He and his family, like all elves, had lived in their ancestral home of Shezu Shelar. The entire nation was one huge forest, and the trees which made it reached far closer to the sky than the ones in this land (excluding Vrasus of course). Everything was full of life and magic, from the smallest insect to the largest trees. The elves themselves were included in this; they were imbued with greater vitality than the other intelligent races of the land, which granted them their extreme longevity.


    To say that Shezu Shelar was a paradise in comparison to the surrounding lands may not be entirely incorrect. Not only was the land beautiful beyond compare, and mixture of vibrant greens crossed with glittering lakes, with only lines of sunlight piercing through the canopy giving a calm and tranquil mood, but it was also abundantly full of food and the water was safe to drink. Even the cities maintained this beautiful and abundant nature as they were really just thousands of heavily modified trees serving as infrastructure. In terms of sustenance the elves could live of these trees themselves without a need for vast fields of farmland, shelter didn¡¯t even need to be mentioned with their abilities. They had even long ago created a complex system of aqueducts by manipulating the branches of the trees into useful forms. Perhaps if it weren¡¯t for the multitude of poisonous plants and dangerous predators it truly would be worthy of the name of paradise.


    Of course the elves had long since learned which things were safe to eat and which it would be wise to avoid, it was incredibly rare to hear of someone being poisoned to death. Similarly the predators either avoided the elves or could be avoided themselves, and so most of the forest was relatively easy to live in. All except one place, which just so happened to border on Neltu¡¯s old home. Kaelshiv.


    Damned spiders still give me the shivers to this day.


    To say that Kaelshiv had a predator problem would be like saying the Starlands used to have mild weather. Kaelshiv were home to a scourge which threatened all those around them; those who bordered on the land suffered constant attacks and had to be constantly on guard lest they be overrun. In recent years the attacks had gotten even worse, to the point where if they didn¡¯t leave then extermination was a real possibility. Neltu and his people had to migrate, and coincidently the storms had just recently disappeared.


    Of course leaving their homeland of Shezu Shelar and becoming the first elven settlers in recorded memory to leave the great forest met heavy resistance at first, but in the end as the dead piled up the resistance became quitter until the decision was almost unanimous. So Neltu, his family, and some other close families who made up their old community collectively migrated east into the Starlands.


    Most of the journey was actually them leaving Shezu Shelar, the forest was an entire nation after all, but by far the hardest part was when they left the shelter of the elevated trees. Just as they exited they came across where the star-storms used to be. The storms had taken their toll on the land, it was barren with only the toughest of plants present, food was scarce and shelter scarcer. If Neltu¡¯s people weren¡¯t hardened up by their home being so close to Kaelshiv it¡¯s likely they wouldn¡¯t have survived their journey.


    Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.


    But survive they did. The barrens went on for dozens of kilometres but eventually they ended, and soon the migrating elves were met with the strong trees on the outskirts of Vrasus¡¯ domain. Neltu remembered how many were so happy the proposed settling there and then, but they continued on deeper into the forest, in no small part because Neltu himself felt the strong earthen energies in the soil and was curious where they would lead. Of course now their journey was far more leisurely than before.


    It had taken them months to exit their homeland and then traverse the barrens, but almost the same amount of time was taken journeying through their new home looking for somewhere to settle and the source of the energies, despite the distance being a fraction of the distance. But of course eventually they did find something amazing at the centre of the forest.


    When they came across that immense tree Neltu took it as a sign of good fortune; after all a land where such life could be found must be prosperous. He thought this place would grant them the best resources and perhaps other benefits would come to show themselves in time. But he never guessed what he now knew about their colossal neighbour.


    Who would have thought it would turn out to be a Spirit Tree?


    Indeed, an intelligent tree was not an entirely new concept for Neltu, but Vrasus was certainly special. Neltu had heard of the Spirit Trees back in his homeland, but their existence was widely known amongst elves and he knew little more than common knowledge despite his age and profession.


    Spirit Trees are a special type tree with varying levels of intelligence. Not much is known about their origin but what is known is they are not a species. Some believe they are what happens when a tree absorbs enough magical energies, other think they are the physical manifestation of powerful Spirits. Some of the more devoted believe they have a more divine origin, trees blessed by Shezu or her children.


    The capabilities of Spirit Trees are also somewhat vague. Most are able to manipulate the surroundings or communicate basic thoughts and emotions, some larger ones are said to be able to whisper directly into one¡¯s mind through just a touch. But those capable of communicating on the level of what Vrasus did could be counted on one hand and are highly venerated, usually with small shrine-towns built around them.


    Luckily Spirit Trees are generally benevolent beings; there were quite a few who were mischievous and liked to play tricks and pranks on passer-by¡¯s, usually harmless. Usually. But truly malicious Spirit Trees were an intense rarity, and were normally put down when discovered due to their negative effects on the forest.


    What Spirit Trees are really universally considered is more akin to reserved. Or perhaps withdrawn would be a better word. Not that they dislike elves living near them; Spirit Trees are considered good omens and even mischievous ones usually have a small village nearby, but they seldom talk about anything more than voicing if the forest is in pain or similar such matters. A good example of this behaviour is their own origins; if they do know anything about it then they aren¡¯t talking. Most are lucky to hear a few sentences from the more talkative ones before they shut themselves off from conversation.


    Is this why Elder Vrasus didn¡¯t speak when we first arrived? It doesn¡¯t feel like it though, and although he seemed reserved he also didn¡¯t fit quite what I¡¯ve heard about Spirit Trees before. I wish I had learned more about them in my studies, surely there¡¯s more known than just this common knowledge? But there¡¯s nothing in my books.


    The old elf let out a sigh but in fact, regardless of what the reason for Vrasus¡¯ silence was, Neltu wasn¡¯t too worried. He didn¡¯t know much about the subject but what he did know put him at ease; Spirit Trees and other similar entities were forthright beings. If it was of a dark nature and sought your destruction it would be very deliberate about it, in fact this was what Neltu feared at first. When he heard of roots coming alive and attacking the human from Sera, he feared the tree was some immense treant which had just awoken, or Shezu forbid a Spirit Tree of a dark nature, perhaps twisted by the earthen energies; he didn¡¯t know how they would affect Spirit Tree¡¯s after all.


    Luckily this was not the case; it turned out this was a benevolent act from what seemed to be a kind being. Neltu hadn¡¯t quite lowered his guard yet, but was still immensely excited at the prospects of living next to such a powerful Spirit Tree. Typically anywhere with even the weakest of Spirit Trees flourished.


    Convincing the others may be difficult though.


    Not everyone had taken the news as well as he did. This was understandable as even though the Spirit Trees of Shezu Shelar were venerated to some extent amongst his people, the vast majority of those who made the journey with him had never seen one before, even he himself had seen only a few in his youth, so when such a powerful one was found in a strange land it is not surprising they found it suspicious. This was especially so considering their past life; under constant attack it¡¯s not surprising they grew cautious. He and his disciples faced some strong opposition from many directions, especially his first daughter and her husband who led the rangers. They even proposed moving away from Vrasus. This train of thought reminded him of his second daughter, at which point his face fell.


    Oh Faela, how could that have happened to you.


    His mind was brought back to the events of a few days ago. In order to contact the orcs and request assistance it was decided a small group would travel to their capital, the city of Vlindrogor. Although the journey would be long, they would still be able to return before human attacks really became an issue. What¡¯s more, they weren¡¯t really worried about negotiations; although the elves and orcs had no pre-existing good will, they both have their strong points. There is much to offer the orcs in return for protection, none of which would hugely be missed. Ideally a long lasting relationship could be created, perhaps even leading to trade. In the end his second daughter Faela, who was being trained to take up his place as chief druid, was chosen to lead the mission. Because of the peaceful nature of the mission even Sera, Faela¡¯s daughter, was to be taken along. Alas who could have known they would become victim to by far the largest attack since they first migrated.


    Why then!? Why would they pick up so much just as she left!? They barely even made it down the road dammit!


    A forlorn expression appeared on Neltu¡¯s face as he thought of the situation, his eyes growing wet. Faela, his step-son Velsi, his other disciples present, everyone was killed except for the now orphaned Sera. Of course he was and still is incredibly thankful his grand-daughter was saved by Vrasus, but the death of a child is no small thing. It is only due to the responsibilities of a leader that he could fight through the grief.


    He once again laid back into his chair letting out a long sigh. Vrasus may be benign but that doesn¡¯t solve the problem with the humans, and he didn¡¯t really know who else he could trust with the mission to Vlindrogor. In fact after the recent attack he suspected he couldn¡¯t even spare the escorts required. When he thought of all the problems they already face and then of the bickering that had just taken place over how to deal with Vrasus Neltu felt completely resigned.


    Do they not think we have enough to deal with already!?


    Neltu exhaled for what seemed like the thousandth time that day. He was tired but unable to sleep. After a minute he looked over at his window, staring out towards the colossal tree in the distance, a towering monolith against the sky. As the elf gazed at that scene his expression calmed ever so slightly.


    Perhaps tomorrow will have better news.

 Chapter 11: Study

    As it turns out, Vrasus didn¡¯t actually bother waiting for the sun to rise before starting his studies. Instead, bored of wasting time and determined to make progress, he quickly began mentally cataloguing the different types of wildlife in the area. He didn¡¯t expect this to be terribly useful information, but after his recent experiences he realised he didn¡¯t really know where he should be looking, so it was worth a quick glance at least.


    Not like I¡¯m doing anything else at the moment.


    It was after all the middle of the night. Although the change to night did make the tree more relaxed in a way, he didn¡¯t need to sleep at all. At the moment the elves were sleeping so he was unable to try learning their language, but as he didn¡¯t want to waste time he decided on this instead.


    The very first thing he decided on investigating were those closest to himself; his brethren trees. Vrasus had wanted to investigate his cousins for some time now. Why was it that he suddenly gained awareness whilst they remained the same? Is there any sign of another tree growing intelligence? Are there any other significant differences between himself and his cousins? Sadly he had been preoccupied previously, but now for the first time he had a chance to check this out.


    He started with a quick glance over all the forests which made up his domain, anywhere he was able to sense was observed. Immediately Vrasus noticed the variations in the earthen energies between his cousins. At the very edge of his senses, almost seventy kilometres away by his estimation, the trees were very different to what he knew. They were far smaller, feeble, and their colours were a darker green on the leaves with brown bark. They had barely a sliver of the brown and red vibrant energies which existed in the soil, and the reason for this was of course the energies themselves were very weak in the soil this far away.


    Vrasus quickly guessed that this green and weak state was the more normal state that himself and his cousins should have. This also explained why many of the elves which he saw wore green clothes originally; this was good camouflage where they came from. Of course the elves which settled near him had begun changing to a more autumn like red based palette only days after arriving, a transition which was completed long ago, in order to match their new home.


    As the trees got closer to Vrasus¡¯ own position, they began to change, resembling his own self more. Hints of red appeared on the leaves and bark, and they got stronger and taller. Around fifty kilometres away they appeared more red than green, and at forty kilometres the transition to the red colouring was complete. Ten kilometres away, each tree appeared like a miniature version of Vrasus, around double the height of their unaltered brethren, with bark as strong as steel. Right at the very centre, seemingly too precise to be accidental, was Vrasus himself.


    Are they like that because of me? Or am I how I am just because I was lucky to grow here?


    Although Vrasus was unable to answer this question, he suspected it was the later. He may have vast quantities of the earthly energies which permeated the land within him, but he was pretty certain he wasn¡¯t the source. That, whatever it was, existed far below the earth. It was possible that because he was planted in this spot he had been nourished by these energies to the extent that he became what he now was. He found this possibility to be the most likely one, but couldn¡¯t say for sure and thought up some other, alternative possibilities.


    Thinking back to the fact his roots reached down into the earth even further than he could sense, Vrasus thought that there was a possibility that he was ¡®shuttling¡¯ the energies from the source to the surface. Perhaps the source was just the earth itself and that the energies existed anywhere if one went deep enough. That because he had grown so large and his roots dug so deep, he had come across these energies. Then as his roots were absorbing the energies he had also spread them into the land as a side effect. Of course this doesn¡¯t explain how he was so large in the first place, but the fact that there are multiple possibilities meant Vrasus decided to keep an open mind.


    You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.Other than inspecting the flora, Vrasus also observed the fauna of the land, but there wasn¡¯t a huge amount to see when ignoring the Elves, Earthen Ones and Plain Ones. A large variety of insects and furred critters could be found across the forest. Other than that there were also various feathered creatures which littered the sky during the day, and a smaller population of larger scaled flying animals which he believed preyed on the other inhabitants of the forest, but even these would only come up to about an elf¡¯s thigh in height and so weren¡¯t very dangerous.


    The energies of the land did seem to seep into the food chain of the lands fauna, making them somewhat stronger the closer they were to Vrasus, but even with this strength they were still hardly a threat to an elf let alone Vrasus himself, so the immense tree soon lost interest in smaller beings, bar one exception.


    There were several hives of a certain insect to be found amongst Vrasus¡¯ own branches. The species was actually found all across the forest; a small flying creature, seemingly a cross between a firefly and a wasp which lighted up the forest in a calm blue glow during the night. The ones which could be found on Vrasus however were different. They instead glowed a blood red and had powerful jaws which were easily enough to break through the toughest stone, a required strength to feed on the small amounts of Vrasus¡¯ sap that they could get to.


    Suffice to say the small beings were hardly a nuisance; if they were Vrasus would have noticed them by now. He couldn¡¯t even feel it when they fed. But the fact that they were able to harm his body, regardless of the tiny levels of said harm, sill brought forth some concern at first. After a quick investigation though, he quickly determined they were of no threat.


    The insects were simply too small and even with their immense power for their size it was still a huge effort to break his bark. Vrasus guessed that these specific insects could likely practically swim through the bodies of his cousins if they were so inclined, not to mention the fleshy bodies of animals, but it took days of work to dig deep enough into his body for them to feed (although once done many would be able to feed from that one hole). In the end Vrasus decided on leaving them be, firstly because they were harmless but there was also another reason.


    These insects had been with him his entire life. Even in his earliest memories he could see their scarlet glow in the moonlight, and the only way that they could grow to have such power in their tiny bodies was by growing alongside him. The blue insects of the same species simply couldn¡¯t feed on Vrasus no matter how they tried, but these red counterparts grew powerful alongside him. They first arrived when he was little different than his smaller cousins and as he became larger and tougher they fed on his sap and grew more powerful to keep up with him.


    It was in this realisation that Vrasus found a sentimental attachment to these insects. Despite their short lives, tiny bodies and tinier brains, he felt more attachment to a species which quite literally fed on him than he did to his actual cousins. Although he found it silly he couldn¡¯t help himself, and so decided on remaining passive about these little friends of his.


    That sums up everything I can do at the moment. Good timing too.


    Indeed, although he hadn¡¯t found much of worth in his investigations so far, he was very thorough, even if said thoroughness did end up being pointless that was just how Vrasus was. If you¡¯re going to do something you might as well do it properly, and this had a lucky side effect; just as he was finishing the sun was starting to rise, which meant that soon the elves would awaken.


    And I can finally begin getting some real answers.


    <hr />


    Hey guys sorry about the delay, whilst I have been lazy the main problem is I was putting off editing my mostly finished chapters, then before I know it its been so long since the last update :/


    Good news is I''m halfway through editing the next chapter so it shouldn''t be too long until next update. Once again sorry for the delay, gonna try to tell myself to be more consistent with editing from now on xD

 Chapter 12: Immersion

    It had just reached noon, the sun was at its highest point in the sky as its rays shone down onto the earth, a pleasant warmth was accompanying the calming breeze. The weather in Vrasus¡¯ domain was normally rather mild; most days it was sunny and clear with the occasional rainy day, but never was it scorching hot or cold enough to produce snow. Today was one of the warmest days and it could be seen on the elves elated faces. Many had a slight shine to their skin from a light layer of sweat and were enjoying the very pleasant weather, probably the best they had had since arriving. Perhaps it was the stress of recent events getting to them, or perhaps it was just a part of their culture and how they were as a people, regardless of the reason, today they were largely without worry, relaxing and enjoying the sun¡¯s rays to their fullest whilst they were there.


    The elves might have had smiles on their faces and appeared to be full of bliss, but there was one being observing them who wasn¡¯t so jubilant.


    As it turns out, learning a language is boring.


    Indeed, Vrasus had spent the first half of the day so far trying to grasp their language with little success. He had picked up a few phrases which were commonly used and for a few others he could guess some of their meaning, such as this word being a greeting or this phrase part of some ritualized activity. But there were other examples which, other than the fact they were used, he could find absolutely no meaning for. Some words were even more obscure; what he thought meant one thing was suddenly used where it made no sense. There was only two things Vrasus determined for sure in the past few hours of work; learning a language was difficult, and it was boring.


    Especially when you have no idea where to start.


    In truth though, the old tree was rather fortunate in his abilities. Although it felt like he had made little progress, in truth Vrasus had many advantages which made the job far easier for himself. The fact that his senses reached across the entirety of the village meant he could analyse all the conversations that were taking place, giving him a wealth of information to work with. His mind also had what could best be described as an elastic property, allowing him to process all of this information simultaneously. To a certain extent anyway.


    He knew he was in the hardest part of learning right now; once he got some basic phrases and words down figuring out the rest of the conversations would be far easier. It was only learning some basic words so he could get context of the rest of the conversation which Vrasus was having trouble on and it would be far easier if he had a teacher. It¡¯s not like he wasn¡¯t making progress of course, but regardless he was frustrated.


    Just get on with it.


    Letting out a mental sigh, the old tree got back to work. It was very tedious for him, but by the end of the day Vrasus had managed to get many basic phrases down. Although most of the conversations of the elves were a mystery, at least the basic topic could somewhat be picked up at this point. Provided it was a more common topic of course. He had also managed to pick up many a name, some of which he strived to remember.


    Sadly, just as he had finally reached this point and was ready to start delving deeper into the language, the day had ended and the elves were preparing to sleep. But instead of being frustrated at this Vrasus was actually relieved; he really wasn¡¯t the quiet study type. He could do it but by no means would he enjoy it.


    Whilst celebrating the end of his working day (and catching a final phrase which he was ninety percent sure meant goodnight) Vrasus noticed one thing which dismayed him. It was Sera; she had just gone to bed and appeared restless again, like her night terrors had returned. Vrasus knew of course that yesterday¡¯s little ceremony wouldn¡¯t be enough to cure the poor girl; she had been through a very traumatic event after all, but he had hoped it would stave of the terrors for longer than this, or perhaps make them an isolated incident, but instead it seemed like it only gave her a single night of relief.


    Whilst this was saddening, Vrasus thought that perhaps he was too na?ve in his hopefulness. The attack was very recent after all, and time is often the only cure for such wounds. Thinking about it again perhaps it would be strange if she was so easily healed. With this thought in his mind he pulled his senses away from her home and back out onto the village at large.


    Watching the village begin its nightly slumber Vrasus let out a tired sigh. Mental exhaustion would be far too strong a word to describe what he felt but he was hardly experienced in this sort of thinking intensive activity, and so whilst what he was feeling was nothing compared to when he had saved Sera, Vrasus still relaxed for a time after the sun set, simply enjoying the moons rays upon his leaves and the refreshing breeze on his bark.


    This state didn¡¯t last long though; it only took a few hours for him to turn restless once again. He might not have enjoyed the hours of studying but one thing Vrasus was not was a procrastinator, and although he couldn¡¯t work on language at the time he was still in a fair crisis in terms of information, so the tree turned his mind towards the land once again.


    He wasn¡¯t quite sure what he was looking for this time. He had already investigated the wildlife and found little point going back to that; there simply wasn¡¯t much there. So instead Vrasus decided on just glancing over everything and following wherever his mind took him, hoping to make a surprise discovery. Perhaps a waste of time but who knows, he thought it was better than doing nothing.


    This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    Vrasus spent a few minutes observing the bright insects living amongst his branches, then observed some encampments of Earthen Ones and Plain ones before mentally diving into both rivers and the earth itself, until eventually he simply spent time feeling the flows of energy in the earth. He hadn¡¯t had a good look at these yet, both due to having higher priorities and also because originally he believed there wasn¡¯t much to see beyond the obvious, the myriad of random, shifting colours, but now as he spent time bathing his mind within the flows he felt there was more to be found. At first it seemed chaotic and muddled but as time went by he found far more was to be seen here than what it looked like on the surface.


    The masses of energy, previously a blurry mess now became defined, gaining direction and its own vibrant, uniform colouring. There were uncountable flows, each its own type of energy, and each surrounded by uncountable other flows, superimposed in some impossibly complicated system. No more did it look like a simple puddle of various paints but instead a semblance of underlying order could be felt, and eventually the flows revealed their true form.


    Rivers.


    Beautiful, stunningly vibrant rivers.


    Vast numbers of what appeared to be beautiful rivers flowed in every direction, and that wasn¡¯t all. There wasn¡¯t just some all-encompassing energy which flowed in the land but countless different types which bled into one another. Here there was a river of emerald which was wider than Vrasus was tall, elsewhere a stream of azure which was barely larger than a real river. Some of the rivers flowed uniformly whilst others pulsed according to some rhythm. Some of the rivers moved fast, traversing the enormity of Vrasus¡¯ territory in but a moment whilst others leisurely moved along at a turtles pace. Some rivers moved straight across the land unyielding, whilst others twisted and turned, changing like the breeze. What¡¯s more the rivers flowed side by side with each other, threading over and under and sometimes even through other flows. Vrasus was only able to catch glimpses of each before it would be obscured by a myriad other colourful rivers, but what he could see of this ever changing canvas enchanted him.


    Beautiful.


    Within this chaotic order Vrasus also saw a specific variety of flows which included red rivers of blood, dark streams of iron, and everything in between. It seemed to him that these flows collectively made up what he had called the earthen energies before. They appeared more vivid than the other streams and bled into each other more, seeming more real, like they were closer to the physical world than those other, almost ghostly streams which existed beside them.


    Eventually Vrasus seemed to hit a wall in terms of how well he could see the flows. Truthfully, although he knew that the ethereal looking rivers were separate, distinct, and could catch glimpses of them individually, sadly Vrasus couldn¡¯t make any sense of them. He knew that there was some form of order to be found here in some way but all he saw was chaos, there was simply too much to see, so much that following any one flow was far too difficult for him.


    This difficulty didn¡¯t even feel like it was something just out of reach. Vrasus could barely even make out that there was something more going on, but making out the detailed flows, following them and noting their interactions, their effects. This wasn¡¯t just a little out of his abilities.


    It¡¯s impossible.


    Still it¡¯s not like he was disheartened. In fact it was very humbling, observing the majesty of the natural world in such a way, and Vrasus was very pleased with his discovery. Observing these seemingly chaotic flows was very therapeutic; they had a calming effect on Vrasus, like his psyche was being bathed in them, washing away his worries and clearing his thoughts. It didn¡¯t seem to be incredibly beneficial but there was definitely a positive effect, and it was certainly a pleasant experience. What¡¯s more, the red and brown conglomeration of flows which made up the earthen energies seemed to almost react to his examination, like they had some hidden affinity to him which he couldn¡¯t quite grasp but knew was present.


    He spent a short time admiring the flows of energy before reluctantly pulling some of his mind away from them. Although investigating the flows more was certainly on his to do list, it was another long term effort. They didn¡¯t seem to have anything more to teach him immediately, but he still left a section of his mind within them. Vrasus planned on always keeping a part of himself submerged within them, to grow used to them and acclimate himself to their presence. He wasn¡¯t sure exactly what he could gain, but felt certain this would be beneficial in the future.


    After retrieving the majority of his consciousness away from the energies he thought about what to do next. The flows were only a short venture and he still had much of the night to waste before the elves awoke and he had to continue his study of their language. The old tree turned his mental view outwards to his domain again.


    But when Vrasus saw the sun high in the sky, he was dumbfounded.

 Chapter 13: Mischief

    The sun sat arrogantly at the very peak of the sky, shining down illuminating rays upon earth and the leaves. The inhabitants of the land were up and about, hunting and foraging, oblivious to Vrasus¡¯ utterly confused state of mind.


    Wait, it¡¯s noon!?


    Indeed, the great tree seemed to have lost a not insignificant amount of time. Only a few moments ago it was the dead of night and he was casually glancing over the land, before he was drawn into the flows of the world. Now suddenly, after what felt like only a few moments, the sun was high in the sky and the night had long since disappeared. Had the trance-like state actually occupied his attention so strongly to the extent of him losing track of time like this?


    How long was I in that state?


    It was now the middle of the day. So much time in which Vrasus could have been learning, training, advancing. It was all wasted. He could only hope it was only half a day he lost and not one and a half, or perhaps even longer.


    I¡¯ll have to be more careful when observing the flows in the future.


    Although frustrated, it¡¯s not like his anger would bring the time back and so Vrasus got back down to work; he may have wasted a considerable amount of time but there were still plenty of hours in the day left to learn. Luckily, the effect from mentally bathing within the flows was incredibly therapeutic for Vrasus. He didn¡¯t notice it at first, but soon realised that he was feeling more refreshed than he had in all his thinking life, as admittedly short as that was. So although he lost a lot of time he worked better than usual afterwards.


    Would have preferred the half a day though.


    After a few hours Vrasus had improved steadily and felt that perhaps by the end of the day he would have a very basic grasp on conversations, enough to make out the meaning of the elves words, albeit with some small trouble. If his guess was correct then following this it should only take by the end of tomorrow before he was fluent, after which communication would be far easier. That is if it weren¡¯t for a small problem Vrasus just now thought of.


    How do I speak?


    As a tree Vrasus obviously didn¡¯t have the necessary parts to vocalise his thoughts, but rather embarrassingly he didn¡¯t actually realise this problem until now. When he had communicated with Neltu he wasn¡¯t even sure what had happened, only that somehow their minds had directly spoke to one another. Vrasus didn¡¯t know how to initiate whatever that state was, nor if such a thing is even possible with anyone other than Neltu.


    Luckily, he wasn¡¯t completely out of ideas. There were several things he thought of which he could try out, to see how it goes, but they would have to wait until later.


    At least it gives me something to do tonight.


    Besides this, even if his ideas for communication were all dead ends, it¡¯s not like Vrasus had wasted his time; just to find out what the elves were talking about meant this was already a beneficial venture. He did after all have the power to listen in on any of their conversations so long as they took place within his domain so keeping secrets from him would be hard.


    As for the moral implications of this Vrasus was aware of them. He knew that the elves likely wouldn¡¯t take kindly to the fact that he could be listening in on anything they say, but in the end this wasn¡¯t the time to be considering such matters. There was more on the line than hurt feelings.


    Besides, what they don¡¯t know won¡¯t hurt either of us.


    At this point, there was still almost two hours before sunset, and Vrasus intended to make the most of them. However, just as he was about to get back to business, he noticed he had a visitor on the way, and a familiar one at that.


    Sera was making her way towards the hill. She was not quite running to the hill but approached at a fair pace considering her small legs, obviously in a bit of a hurry. Within her hands was clutched a large leafy object, about the size of the torso it was held against and seemingly very soft. Her face showed an eager expression, but nervousness could also be found in her eyes, as she made frequent glances back at the village while keeping to the treeline. It almost seemed like she was trying to avoid being caught.


    What is she up to?


    One other thing of note which Vrasus noticed was that her eyes looked heavier than usual. It wasn¡¯t even dark yet but she seemed very tired, and this thought reminded Vrasus of Sera¡¯s recent restless nights. He felt an unpleasant sensation as he recalled those events.


    Poor thing.


    After a couple of minutes she reached the top of the hill, at which point she stopped moving forwards and looked towards Vrasus. She paused there, hesitant to continue and simply staring forward, unknown thoughts going through her small head, before she finally spoke almost a full minute later.


    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    Exactly what she said Vrasus didn¡¯t know, but he was able to pick up four words in sequence. ¡®Thank¡¯, ¡®Vrasus¡¯, ¡®safety¡¯ and what he suspected meant ¡®bad¡¯ or ¡®pain¡¯. He was pretty sure she was thanking him again, and soon after she spoke once again. This time the words were faster and regretfully Vrasus understood almost nothing out of the sentence other than ¡®I¡¯ and ¡®bed¡¯, made more difficult to understand by the no small amount of stuttering in this sentence (although said speech impediment did fill Vrasus with some warmth).


    Sera paused for a few breaths after, and although he wasn¡¯t certain Vrasus felt like she was waiting for a reply. Of course he didn¡¯t even know what she asked, and even if he did he doubted he could make a reasonable reply without Neltu here to mediate, so was fairly lost at the situation.


    Luckily though, after a few seconds she did start moving forward cautiously again. Perhaps she realised his plight or was just waiting to see if there was a negative reaction before?  Vrasus didn¡¯t know the answer.


    Sera slowly walked up towards Vrasus¡¯ body, or more specifically, towards the small hollow which once shielded her from danger. She once again hesitated after reaching the entrance and spoke a few words. To Vrasus it sounded like she was asking a question, no, more likely it seemed she was making a request of some kind. But once again, exactly what this request was eluded him.


    As before Sera waited for a time, during which Vrasus gave no answer. Once again after a few seconds the small girl moved forward, straight into the hollow where she sat down, in the same spot as where she did several days ago when hiding for her life, before laying the leafy object in her hands beside her. After several moments of patting the object she then proceeded to lie down, placing her head atop the object, resulting in what looked like a very comfortable position.


    Ah. It¡¯s a pillow.


    Before now Vrasus was unable to identify the object. He had of course noticed the elves pillows before, they were made up of a leafy fabric similar to what made up the elves clothes, albeit softer, and stuffed with smaller pieces of the same material. When Vrasus saw these objects before it was as a part of the elves beds, but as he hadn¡¯t seen a pillow on its own, away from the rest of the bed, he didn¡¯t recognise the object. It was also at this point Vrasus was able to guess at Sera¡¯s intensions.


    Does she want to sleep here?


    He was surprised at first, but after some thinking over he understood her thought process better. Sera seemed to have been plagued by nightmares since the incident, and although they stopped on the day after she thanked Vrasus with the offering, they continued again soon after. It was possible she had come to view Vrasus, or more specifically the hollow, as a place of safety, and so sought it out as a place to sleep instead of the village. He found it an odd to have her identify the hollow as a place of safety as opposed to a place of danger, especially considering this was where she was so close to being caught, but after all minds were incredibly complicated things and rarely logical; Vrasus was sure stranger things had happened.


    As for her decision to stay here, Vrasus himself didn¡¯t really mind. It¡¯s not like she would be disrupting him in any way. However, he doubted the elves would be too happy with the arrangement, even if he had saved her before. But from the looks of things no one knew she was here and there didn¡¯t seem to be any commotion going on in the village so as of now they probably didn¡¯t realise she was here.


    It¡¯s not like I can tell them she¡¯s here anyway.


    At that thought Vrasus sent another glance towards Sera. It hadn¡¯t even been a minute since she lay down but it appeared she was already asleep, or very close to it. She did look very tired earlier but he was still surprised she was able to sleep in such a location so soundly and so quickly, especially when he recalled her restlessness from the night before. Was it really so terrifying for her to sleep elsewhere?


    He considered trying to improvise something, a blanket of some kind to cover her with, but decided against it. He didn¡¯t want to spook her and it was fairly warm anyway, perhaps later at night if she was here that long he would act, but until then it wasn¡¯t necessary. Instead, in the meantime he simply closed off the entrance to the hollow with a thin wall of roots. A draft might still give her a cold after all.


    The old tree chuckled to himself as he glanced at her sleeping form one last time, before pushing himself to get back to work. There were still yet a couple of hours before dusk and Vrasus didn¡¯t intend on wasting them.

 Chapter 14: Draza

    It looks like they¡¯ve noticed she¡¯s missing.


    The sun had almost passed beneath the horizon by the time the elves had noticed Sera was missing, or at least that¡¯s what it seemed like to Vrasus. He didn¡¯t hold it against them; the elf children were given fairly free reign over their free time, even those as small as Sera, and few incidents seemed to happen because of it. He guessed they were forbidden from leaving the village and were expected to return at dusk. Perhaps such actions were common sense amongst their species, an instinct or some ingrained behaviour? Regardless, the system seemed to work well; he hadn¡¯t ever seen an elf child outside of the village unaccompanied by adults, until today with Sera anyway.


    Because of this there wasn¡¯t much commotion about her disappearance. At the moment it looked like it was just Neltu and a few other people who were looking for her, and from their behaviour it appeared they thought she was simply hiding somewhere as opposed to actually missing or in danger, like this was just a game Sera was playing. This relaxed atmosphere didn¡¯t last long though.


    About half an hour later, just as the sun passed into obscurity, Neltu and the elves were looking more serious but still not hugely distressed. Vrasus guessed that mostly they still suspected Sera was hiding but at this point they had grown tired, displeased at her behaviour. Still, on their faces slight expressions of worry would occasionally flitter across their faces.


    A full hour after they started looking, they were definitely worried.


    At this point they were walking through the streets calling out for Sera. Vrasus supposed that the whole sleep after dusk thing was a fairly large part of their culture, as it was only around then that the elves started growing worried, and the situation went from nothing to a big deal very quickly at that point.


    Vrasus did want to somehow inform Neltu that Sera was with him, but he simply didn¡¯t have the means to do so unless Neltu came to ask. Recalling the respect that the elf showed before made Vrasus feel some guilt, but he once again reminding himself that it wasn¡¯t his choice to withhold Sera¡¯s location.


    This is not my fault.


    Feeling guilt, Vrasus was reminded of his desire to be able to communicate with the elves. He was very pleased with his progress today despite his mistake with staying in the flows for too long; luckily the therapeutic effect they gave him almost made up for it and so at this point he was convinced he could communicate his intensions to the elves by speaking a broken form of their language, providing he could come up with some way to speak. Hopefully by the end of tomorrow he would be relatively fluent.


    Returning back from this thought, Vrasus continued watching the elves search for Sera. A few had entered the surrounding forest at this point, armed with bows. Luckily Vrasus could see that the nearest Plain Ones were quite the distance away and so the elves were completely safe, the bows unnecessary. If people were being put in danger by this he would be getting concerned.


    Not my fault.


    The fact that the elves appeared to be mobilising warriors to search for a lost child left Vrasus with a positive impression on their people. Considering Sera was related to Neltu, who had a high standing amongst the elves, this action wasn¡¯t so surprising, but Vrasus couldn¡¯t help but approve of the amount of effort they were putting in. Based on this he figured it wouldn¡¯t be too long before Neltu would come to ask him about the matter, after all it¡¯s not like he and Sera were unrelated. Likely the only reason Neltu hadn¡¯t already come to him was on the off chance this was nothing or unrelated to Vrasus, which would be embarrassing too say the least, perhaps even dangerous if the matter were to enrage Vrasus (it wouldn¡¯t of course, but Neltu didn¡¯t know that).


    Surprisingly though, the first one to come to him wasn¡¯t Neltu.


    It had been almost one and a half hours by this time. Vrasus noticed that Neltu was often glancing towards his own colossal body in the distance and figured the elf would come in only a few minutes, but before he had the chance another elf came to the hill; the young boy who was often found besides Sera. From the past two days of observing the elves, Vrasus had come to learn the child¡¯s name was Draza, and the tree was fairly certain that he was Sera¡¯s cousin or some similar form of family. At the very least they were related, this he was sure of.


    Draza was currently standing across from Vrasus, panting fairly heavily with a determined expression on his face. He had also joined in the search for Sera, then a few minutes ago began running to Vrasus; evidently he either guessed Sera would be here or did so some time ago and just now worked up the courage to check. Either way, the fact that Draza, a young elf whose age barely surpassed Sera came of his own volition did build a positive impression of him in Vrasus¡¯ mind; bravery was something he could respect, especially in the current situation.


    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    Good kid.


    Without taking the time to catch his breath, the elven child hurried up towards Vrasus whilst anxiously looking about in all directions. Although Draza seemed nervous, perhaps even afraid, he didn¡¯t allow that to slow him down for a moment as he investigated the surroundings. It was somewhat darker out now but it still didn¡¯t take the child long to notice the hollow, or the fact it was currently covered up with a barrier of roots to stop the draft for Sera. Of course the young elf had no way of knowing their true purpose.


    Likely, Draza assumed that Vrasus was forcibly keeping Sera within the hollow, and before Vrasus even had a chance to remove the barrier the child had already jumped towards it and started trying to tear it apart with his bare hands. He clawed away at the barrier almost like a wild animal, shouting and yelling. It sounded like he was trying to comforting the girl who was ¡®trapped¡¯ on the other side.


    Draza¡¯s attempts to pierce the barrier were of course futile; it may have only been made up of a thin layer of threadlike roots but that was equivalent to a steel mesh in this case. A child¡¯s hands had no chance, but his tenacity did impress Vrasus, his determination to free his relative. The small delicate hands of the child verses the web of threads, each harder than rock, Draza was surely feeling no small amount of pain in his hands and yet kept on going. To this show of willpower put on by the young boy, if Vrasus had a face he would probably be smiling right now.


    After a moment Vrasus slowly pulled the roots away to reveal the entrance, and the small girl within. He had no intension on preventing Draza from reaching Sera after all, and besides the child¡¯s yelling had long woken up Sera. And she did not look pleased.


    Draza had a huge grin on his face the moment he saw Sera was unharmed, but that expression turned to shock very quickly due to what happened next. Whilst she crawled out of the hollow Sera immediately began screaming at Draza, enraged, and once she got within distance started hitting him and grabbing his hair. She had a violent expression on her face, infuriated from being woken up, which Vrasus understood considering how tired she looked when she got here earlier. Of course Draza looked far more confused.


    As she continued her assault the poor boy curled in on himself, an utterly lost expression on his face whilst he futiley attempted to block her attacks. Of course this was merely a fight between children, and Sera wasn¡¯t completely crazy, but it still appeared quite painful for Draza. Perhaps if this was between two adults the scene would appear very cruel, but it was only between children and Sera wasn¡¯t really hurting Draza, so it wasn¡¯t so bad.


    Although Sera grew tired and by the end wasn¡¯t anywhere near as fierce as when she first started, the violent beating continued for a solid couple of minutes before the girl calmed down. Vrasus hadn¡¯t seen Sera so angry before, indeed he hadn¡¯t seen her express even close to that amount of emotion before, and couldn¡¯t help chuckling to himself when observing the scene in front of him, although this made him feel some guilt because of Draza¡¯s state. Vrasus felt pity for Draza; it was only a misunderstanding, but as a result of his action he now had quite a few scratch marks on his arms, and Vrasus was sure he had more hair before.


    Sera finally seemed to have calmed down enough for the two children to exchange a few words, at which point as far as Vrasus could understand the conversation devolved into Sera scolding Draza for waking her up and thinking Vrasus was trying to eat her or something, whilst Draza scolded Sera for going off on her own. Although he was mentally laughing at the child-eating-tree comment, Vrasus did agree with Draza; Sera had been brash to come here alone, and at the very least she should have old somebody. He had no problem with her coming here, but her way of going about it produced quite a few problems.


    Just as the children had begun their second (and thankfully less violent) argument, Neltu and several other elves arrived atop the hill.

 Chapter 15: Foolishness

    When Neltu first laid eyes on the scene several expression crossed his face in rapid succession, including but not limited to shock, bewilderment, relief and humour. After a moment he got himself together and quickly approached Draza, who was looked to be in quite the state from Sera¡¯s beatings, with concern in his eyes.


    Whilst looking worried he quickly placed his hand on the boy. Vrasus saw what he thought was a sliver of Neltu¡¯s aura being sent into the child through the palm, shooting through Draza¡¯s body at high speed, almost like a bolt of emerald lightning. A moment later Neltu¡¯s face relaxed a bit and he let out a breath, before more of his aura was sent into the child, which was then drawn towards his wounds, if you could call the scratch marks such a thing.


    Remarkably, the red skin healed at a pace where it could be seen by the naked eye, returning to its healthy appearance. Draza and Sera widened their eyes in wonder, and if Vrasus had eyes he would probably have joined them, surprised by the scene in front of him, but the other elves gave it barely a second glance. Apparently they were aware of Neltu¡¯s healing powers. Draza looked at the previously red skin with wonder, before facing Neltu with a huge grin, his face full of gratitude.


    It might have only been some scratches but still¡­ and barely any of Neltu¡¯s aura was used. If he were to use more energy, what would the limits of this power be?


    Whilst Vrasus was contemplating this revelation, Neltu appeared to be somewhat relieved that Draza was fine but still had a worried expression on his face. The old elf was plainly confused by the situation, unsure of how it came to be, and was likely worried about having accidently offended Vrasus so he quickly went to place his hand upon the tree, and wearing his usual humble expression spoke, ¡°Elder Vrasus, I sincerely apologise about all this. I hope the children haven¡¯t been a bother at all.¡±


    Of course, Vrasus wasn¡¯t annoyed in any way and actually found them very entertaining, whilst approving of Draza¡¯s behaviour, his determination to save his cousin. As such, he quickly reassured the elf, ¡°It¡¯s fine, it¡¯s fine.¡±


    Meanwhile, one of the elves, a young woman who could often be found beside Neltu, had seized the two children, finally putting an end to their argument and trying to pull them away. Draza complied peacefully, but Sera resisted as best her small frame allowed, which turned out not to be very well. Sera began to yell at the older elf, protesting her attempts and from what Vrasus could tell saying something along the lines of wishing to remain. It was at this point that Neltu turned around with a stern expression.


    ¡°Sera! Listen to Shaeva and go. We will talk about this later.¡±


    Although Neltu¡¯s voice wasn¡¯t quite a yell, it wasn¡¯t far off, firm and full of authority. Neltu hadn¡¯t broken contact from Vrasus and so the words were still translated, but strangely the translated voice was much quieter than usual, as if it was only being overheard in a crowd, or a whisper. Vrasus noticed this and thought it was noteworthy; perhaps this would be of use in understanding Neltu¡¯s mental communication worked and furthermore how to replicate it, and so stored this information away for future use.


    As for Sera, she was pacified fairly strongly by Neltu¡¯s outburst, but once the female elf, Shaeva, attempted to extricate her from the hill again her resisting soon continued, although instead of the violent struggling of last time now it was more akin to a silent, stubborn desire not to move. Towards this scene some helplessness appeared on Neltu¡¯s face, but this was quickly replaced by severe resolve; now wasn¡¯t a time for fun and games. Just as he was about to further reprimand her however, Vrasus spoke. ¡°Neltu, tell Sera she can come tomorrow.¡±


    These words were not spoken by Vrasus on a whim. Upon thinking of the mental communication method Neltu utilized, and his future attempts at learning said method Vrasus encountered a simple problem. He needed someone to practice on. Of course this is fairly obvious, but being reminded of that fact in the current situation gave Vrasus an idea; there was already an elf who was very willing, indeed actively wanted to visit him.


    Sera was the ideal conversational partner for Vrasus in learning this method as not only was she easily accessible, but even if Vrasus made mistakes, such as accidently revealing to much or messing up and revealing a weakness of some kind, she¡¯s only a child and so probably wouldn¡¯t even notice. Of course Sera was also hurting greatly, and if Vrasus presence soothed her then he wouldn¡¯t deny her.


    When Neltu heard Vrasus¡¯ voice, he froze for a moment. As the words sunk in his humble expression fell, immense worry could be seen through the breaking facade. Vrasus knew that the old elf cared deeply for his grand-daughter, which was why Neltu was being so stern, and absolutely didn¡¯t want to put Sera in danger. Vrasus wouldn¡¯t harm the girl of course, and now he was far more power than he was when he first awakened, enough so that Plain Ones wouldn¡¯t be able to threaten himself or Sera again. But Neltu didn¡¯t know of Vrasus¡¯ intensions, so how could he feel secure?


    Seeing the elf¡¯s hesitation, Vrasus felt he might have to encourage Neltu to have him agree. He didn¡¯t want to give away any of his plans by seeming to eager so decided to wait for a moment to see how Neltu would try to reject his proposal. He felt that it was most likely that Neltu would make it seem like Sera would be a bother, or something along those lines, and sure enough this was soon proven true.


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    ¡°I am very thankful for the offer Elder Vrasus, however Sera is just a child and I fear she may come to be a nuisance. Besides, she has only been having a bad few days and I¡¯m sure that soon she will be as carefree as before.¡± You could almost see the pain on Neltu¡¯s face as he said those last few words; even he didn¡¯t believe his words.


    This was pretty much what Vrasus was expecting. He had come to find that he could predict fairly well what Neltu would say, at least when the old elf was interacting with himself. It wasn¡¯t that Neltu was particularly simple minded, but he did tend to act incredibly respectfully towards himself and often chose the reply with the lowest chance of offending. He was sure that this of course had its limits, but at the time had an idea of how to exploit this behaviour.


    ¡°Neltu, do you think that I am so petty I would be bothered by such a thing!? Or is it that you think I am unable to protect the girl? Is that it?¡±


    Vrasus¡¯ reply was in a not quite angry tone, but also not far off, unamused might be the best description. Indeed, by making it seem that the most offensive thing to do would be to further reject his proposal he was trying to corner Neltu, forcing him to accept. Of course, Vrasus knew he couldn¡¯t push around the old elf to much; he might be acting respectful but in those tired green eyes of his Vrasus saw a strong will which wouldn¡¯t hesitate to act as required. Without a doubt he was only acting like this because he believed it to be the best choice, if that was no longer the case¡­ Vrasus hoped that wouldn¡¯t come to pass.


    Hopefully this won¡¯t be required much in the future.


    Indeed, Vrasus wasn¡¯t pleased by his actions. This subterfuge, this manipulation, although he was capable Vrasus didn¡¯t enjoy it and even felt guilty for attempting to control Neltu in such a way, however he felt he was simply in far too delicate a predicament. Vrasus didn¡¯t know the elves capabilities, their numbers, or even his own capabilities completely; if he had more information then he would act forthrightly towards the elves and face his problems head on like he preferred, but there were simply to many unknowns. Vrasus was many things, but a fool wasn¡¯t one of them.


    I try not to be, at least.


    Neltu was still debating over the situation in his head. From his expression it could be told that Vrasus¡¯ reply had shocked him somewhat, and even after several seconds was still indecisive on what to do.


    Neltu looked back at his grand-daughter Sera. She of course hadn¡¯t heard Vrasus¡¯ suggestion and was still resisting attempts to remove her from the hilltop, in ignorance of the dilemma Neltu was facing. Looking at her, Neltu paused for a moment, before his expression relaxed and he let out a deep sigh. Giving a light smile, he opened his mouth to speak, ¡°Sera, be obedient and you may come here tomorrow. Under supervision.¡± The old elf put extra emphasised on the last two words, pausing for a moment before continuing. ¡°Elder Vrasus has invited you personally, don¡¯t act spoiled in front of him.¡±


    Once the words were spoken the girl stopped her struggles for a moment, her face still whilst she was comprehending what was just said. Abruptly, a great smile came to her face. Nodding and making a happy sound in affirmation, she started making her way down the hill and back to the village, holding hands with the elf Shaeva, who appeared immensely grateful for Sera¡¯s newfound obedience.


    Cute.


    As she walked back, Vrasus noticed a caring expression on Neltu¡¯s face, eyes full of love for his grand-daughter, but also some concern. Realizing his concerns made Vrasus feel even more guilt for his manipulation. After some hesitation, he called out to the elf, ¡°Neltu.¡±


    As the voice entered Neltu¡¯s mind, he was awoken from his stupor, tearing away his gaze from Sera and back onto the colossal wall of bark in front of him. ¡°She will be safe.¡±


    Surprise could be seen in Neltu¡¯s eyes, before they filled with calm love for his grand-daughter, as well as gratitude. He smiled up at the usually inanimate life form in front of him before giving a short but sincere reply, ¡°Thank you.¡± The words doubled as a goodbye as the elf soon released his hand and proceeded to leave with the rest of his people.


    Vrasus knew that this was a stupid decision; his words showed weakness, an affection for the elves which could come to give them confidence to turn against him. He had just said to himself that he wasn¡¯t a fool yet now does this?


    Then again, those last few words which Neltu spoke were perhaps the only sincere thing the elf had ever said to him. Was this really a bad thing? Looking at the retreating figures of the elves as they made their way back to their homes, a feeling of care overcame the old tree, before a light, peaceful sigh resounded in his mind.


    Perhaps I am a fool.

 Chapter 16: Shaeva

    All elves woke up at dawn. This was is something which Vrasus had learned fairly quickly in his study of his new neighbours, and generally there were very few exceptions to this rule, such as those who were on guard duty the night before, or the sick and injured who couldn¡¯t get up even if they wanted to. Today, Sera was one of those rare exceptions to the rule.


    It was dark out, very dark, such that it would be difficult to see using normal senses, apart from a slight glow which could be seen on the horizon east, showing that although it wasn¡¯t here yet, soon the sun would rise and make its journey across the sky. In the dense forest that made up Vrasus¡¯ domain this was normally a rare time of silence; the denizens of the night having just returned to rest but those who preferred the light of the sun had yet to be roused from their slumber. Yet today at this time, in a small village overlooked by a mountainous tree, this silence was broken by the excited voice of a young girl.


    ¡°Shaeva! Vrasus!¡±


    At the moment Sera could be seen next to a bed, rowdily shaking an elven woman awake. The woman was precisely Shaeva, the elf who could often be found alongside Neltu and who was trying to take Sera away from the hill the night before, and she did not look at all pleased with the young girls efforts, burying her head into her leafy pillow in an effort to escape. Presumably the poor woman had been the one who was given the responsibility of looking after Sera, much to the chagrin of her sleeping schedule.


    After a couple of minutes of Sera¡¯s efforts, Shaeva was finally up and awake, displeasure evident on her face. This earned her a slight reprieve of the child¡¯s harassment, during which time she washed and dressed herself, placing no small amounts of trinkets on her body, some looking like jewellery, others not so much. After several minutes, just as she was almost done, Sera grew impatient, and continued her earlier antics, pulling Shaeva¡¯s sleeve and nagging to visit the nearby hill. An exasperated expression overcame Shaeva¡¯s face before she replied.


    ¡°Later Sera, later. First us does breakfast, then us leave.¡±


    At least that¡¯s what Vrasus thought she said, he wasn¡¯t quite fluent yet. Indeed, he was currently keeping a bit of an eye on Shaeva and Sera, eager for them to arrive so that he could finally try to figure out Neltu¡¯s mental communication method.


    Really hope this goes better than last night¡¯s attempts.


    Indeed, Vrasus spent the better part of last night attempting to find a way to communicate with the elves, but irritatingly for him his efforts were mostly for nought. Although he made a few discoveries, in terms of his actual objective he counted it as a failure, with both his most promising ideas complete dead ends in terms of communication.


    His first idea was a brute force one, to copy exactly how the elves speak. That is, shape a section of his bark into the shape of a mouth, with all the additional internal systems, and then use that to speak. He didn¡¯t have much hope for this; not only did he think it would be look creepy to the elves but also he doubted it would work at all, really he was only doing this to test his body¡¯s ability to change form. Still, this idea turned out even worse than he imagined.


    The voice produced when Vrasus attempted to speak with the wooden mouth was coarse, rough and almost sounded unnatural. Not only this but after some practise Vrasus found fine control of the sounds to be impossible, a tortured howl was all that he was able to do, and words seemed to be impossible. In the end he simply wasn¡¯t able to shape his body precisely enough to copy well how the elves speak, and Vrasus suspected there were delicate, tiny apparatus used in the elves body which were too small for him to even perceive, let alone replicate.


    One thing which Vrasus did discover when trying this method, and perhaps the only thing he gained from the experience, was when he was examining a sleeping elf to figure out how they spoke. His senses were not just some ethereal eyesight which he could direct around, Vrasus had true omnipresence so long as what he was observing was in his domain, although observing multiple things at once was more taxing on his mind, he believed he could observe near anything so long as he focused. Today this belief was corrected.


    When Vrasus drove his mind into the sleeping elf, he encountered the presence of a strange force in the elves body. This force seemed similar to the mental force he knew so well form both himself and Neltu, and Vrasus found that this force repulsed his own mental force, and so his senses, the deeper he reached into the elves body. What was surprising about this was of course the fact that the elf was sleeping, and Vrasus now discovered that although he was able to spread his mind over a wide area, there were some things he couldn¡¯t penetrate, such as a living beings body.


    Luckily I was able to overcome this force for the flesh near the surface so could still examine the elves throat, but deeper into the body, like the head and torso, were impossible to grasp.


    Apart from this brute force method, another idea Vrasus had was trying to use the aura in his branches to manipulate the air around him, trying to make the winds produced sounds like words, which he could then use. He had often seen elves expelling aura from their body to shape plants, which they used to grow buildings, tools, food and many other things. Their verdant, healthy aura seemed suited for this, and so Vrasus thought perhaps he could also manipulate his surroundings with his own aura, albeit in a different way. He went about trying this at once.


    Expelling his aura outwards, trying to imagine it fusing with the wind, and then pushing said wind between his branches, like the wind was a river and his branches the bank, this had more success than trying to create a mouth. As for the sounds produced, at first there was a low whoosh, the rustling of his leaves overshadowing his attempts. After trying to solidify his leaves to silence them and also better control the wind, the gusts became stronger, the sound more pronounced, then after some practise they even started to sound sinister. Although this wasn¡¯t what he wanted, Vrasus found the result promising as at least it showed he had some control. After several hours he even managed to produce beautiful natural chimes, giving the hill a wonderful, almost sacred feeling, but even after practising the entire night, he could get little further than this. Feeling like he was reaching the limits of his fine control, Vrasus was forced to give up on this method also.


    Perhaps the only idea of the night which he could call a success would be trying to write; although Vrasus didn¡¯t know the symbols, he found he had easily enough dexterity in his roots to draw small runes on the ground, and so if he really needed to could simply learn their alphabet, but really hoped that he wouldn¡¯t be forced to do this. Being forced to communicate with the elves by passing notes wasn¡¯t a good image.


    This mental talking thing better work.


    With that thought and a silent sigh, Vrasus extracted his mind from the room with the two elves and once more spread his consciousness over the village. Although at this point not all the elves were up, some could be seen on the streets most would soon follow. He might as well get more work on the language done.


    In the end it was almost two hours before Sera and Shaeva finally left to head to the hill, surprisingly without Neltu. Sera was walking ahead with quite the excited expression, whilst Shaeva was not quite as enthusiastic, trailing behind slightly but still within reach of the smaller elf. Although Shaeva didn¡¯t seem to be quite dreading meeting Vrasus, her face was definitely giving off nervous vibes, vibes which only became stronger the closer she got. Sera also slowed down somewhat as they got closer, and although she also seemed nervous it wasn¡¯t enough to curb her enthusiasm. Soon the two elves were atop the hill.


    Sera appeared similar to how she normally did, her large green eyes standing out against her pale skin and almost snow-like hair. Shaeva stood beside the girl, and although she was far taller she was still fairly short for an elf, with a very youthful appearance. She could be called an adult, but only just, at least as far as Vrasus could tell. Her hair was a deep green, evoking imagery of the forest, which matched with her green eyes, seemingly universal to her people. Both elves wore the typical red and leather-like leaf clothing found amongst their people, although it was noted that there was a strange vine-like object wrapped around Shaeva¡¯s right arm, and several other oddities could be seen on her body. The lime coloured vine was actually hidden under her clothing, but to Vrasus it stood out as if it were blazing.


    The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    The thing which shocked Vrasus was that these objects all had some small amounts of the elves typical green aura on them. It was after this realisation that Vrasus also noticed Shaeva¡¯s own aura was different to the norm, brighter. This wasn¡¯t as drastic as Neltu¡¯s own shining aura, but still it had slightly more¡­ radiance¡­ than other elves. Not enough for it to be picked from a crowd, but still.


    Is she perhaps like him a druid? A weaker version maybe, or a student?


    Shaeva stopped once they reached the top of the hill, but Sera held no reservations and continued forward towards Vrasus, much to the displeasure of the older elf who was forced to follow her. This time, perhaps due to the company, or because she wasn¡¯t feeling tired, instead of entering the small hollow Sera instead simply lay her back on the bark next to the opening and relaxed, a relieved smile on her face. Considering everything, her attitude surprised Vrasus, and also seemed to shock Shaeva, but he didn¡¯t mind.


    As for his attempt at mental communication, Vrasus gave them some time to calm down before he made his move; he wouldn¡¯t want to startle them or give them the wrong message. There was also something else which he now considered; which of the two elves to make his attempt on? Originally it would have been Sera, but if Shaeva was similar in some way to Neltu, then perhaps it would work better if he tried on her? He decided this would be worth a try.


    And so, after about five minutes time Vrasus decided to act. At this point Sera was laying on the tree, weaving some roots in a patterned shape, seemingly making something akin to the offering which was still above the hollow. Meanwhile Shaeva was sitting cross legged several metres away, eyes closed. She had been nervous at first, but was now meditating calmly.


    Vrasus firstly tried concentrating mentally onto Shaeva. He wasn¡¯t exactly sure what he was looking for, but firstly felt like he should try making contact with Shaeva¡¯s own mind, based on what he understood from his encounters with Neltu. He tried piercing his mind into her body, searching for something, anything which could give him a clue.


    However, when his mind entered below her body, Shaeva abruptly trembled, opening her eyes and giving a wary look around, her gaze landing on the immense tree in front of her. The repulsing force on Vrasus¡¯ mind, trying to keep him out of her body, suddenly intensified. It wasn¡¯t able to force him completely out, but even before he couldn¡¯t go very deep, and now he could barely reach past the skin. Shock filled Vrasus upon this revelation.


    That was¡­ unexpected.


    This confirmed his suspicions that Shaeva was certainly no ordinary elf, even if she wasn¡¯t up to Neltu¡¯s standard. He was also surprised that not only had she immediately senses something, but had reacted quickly on keeping him out, unless this was a subconscious reaction? Based on Shaeva¡¯s confused expression, Vrasus was fairly certain she wasn¡¯t sure what he tried, but still he would have to be careful in the future.


    As for his attempts at communication, Vrasus did find something in the moments before he was forced out. Whilst scanning Shaeva¡¯s body, he got the feeling that he might know were the mental force originally came from.


    Before, he had assumed that it may have been around the centre of the torso. This was because that was where the elves green aura was strongest, and likely the energies source, so assumed the mind may also be there. This was because in his own wooden body, where the aura was strong, his mental force was also strong. But now he felt that the mental force was coming from elsewhere in Shaeva¡¯s body, it was almost like it was flowing from her head, or perhaps this could be better described as a wave like motion? The feeling was weird, but Vrasus felt the head was important in this regard.


    Because of this, he tried focusing more on that area, but sadly the repulsing force here was by far the strongest, to the extent that he couldn¡¯t even get through the skin. What¡¯s more, his continued efforts seemed to be getting to Shaeva, her wary expression becoming even stronger, and so he quickly ceased.


    With that failure, Vrasus was left with only one thing to try. Whenever Neltu spoke to Vrasus, he would always use physical contact along with the strange system of aura threads to spread his consciousness, and so now the great tree decided to try this out.


    Slowly, to avoid startling the two elves, Vrasus had one of his roots climb out of the ground, in front of and in plain view of Shaeva. The root wasn¡¯t quite threadlike, but was still thin nonetheless, about the width of an adult elf¡¯s finger, and as soon as it appeared Shaeva was alerted, with Sera soon after.


    The elf woman immediately got to her feet and assumed a stable stance, with her right hand up in front of her towards the root, ready to strike. Sera meanwhile was looking at the root somewhat in wonder, and it looked like she was about to approach it before she was called out to by Shaeva.


    ¡°Sera. Don¡¯t move.¡±


    Very slowly, Vrasus moved the root towards Shaeva, and although he tried to make it as unthreatening as possible it still seemed a little menacing.


    ¡°Get back!¡±


    Yelling out at her surroundings, Shaeva made a small movement towards the root, like a feint attack, but remained in her position. In reaction Vrasus quickly stopped the root, allowing it to lay there in the air, trying to get across his intension to do no harm.


    Dammit, I should¡¯ve tried manipulating the wind like last night to calm her down. Too late now though, it would probably just spook her.


    Allowing the small regret to pass through his mind, Vrasus had his root maintain its position for some time until Shaeva seemed to relax slightly. She still had the serious expression, but the violent tensing of her muscles calmed, at which point Vrasus continued forward.


    Instantly Shaeva frowned again, and this time gave a flick of her wrist, causing a reaction which caused Vrasus to completely freeze with shock.


    When Shaeva flicked her wrist, large amounts of the aura throughout her body abruptly surged towards her right arm, before pouring into the vine wrapped around said arm. Suddenly being imbued by the mass of energy, the vine emanated no small amount of power and unfurled, animated much like Vrasus¡¯ own roots.


    The vine took up a position around the elf woman, coiling around her once like a snake before pointing its end towards Vrasus own root, seemingly poised to lash out. Countless small spines could be seen along the vine which Vrasus was sure weren¡¯t there a moment ago.


    Not only this, but quickly after some of the remaining aura flowed to her left hand, more specifically a bracelet, seemingly made of some rope threaded through many long, canine teeth. Her aura flowed into the teeth, like they were some conduit, then flowed back into her body, but this returning aura was different somehow, more turbulent, almost savage. Vrasus swore he could feel her body being empowered by the aura as it returned, her muscles becoming leaner, more predatory, her fingernails lengthening slightly, gaining a sharp point almost like claws, and the most noticeable transformation were her eyes, which turned from the usual elf green to a bright angry yellow, fierce and filled with a promise of violence.


    Crap.