CHAPTER 17

Warmth reverberated off my bones in a way that I hadn’t realized I had been missing since summer, the light filtering through the leaves of the trees surrounding me in the small grove brightly enough to warm even the coldest of weary hearts.

This place reminded me so much of the grove at home that I could almost make out my favorite place to lounge on the grass amidst the roots of the trees that I loved to lay on.

This place is lovely, is it not? The quest giver’s voice rang out around me, prompting me to look around carefully to try and find the voice. Would it be easier for you to comprehend us if we took a physical form?

“Us?” I asked aloud and yet no answer came. Finally I grew tired of waiting and said, “Yes, a physical form would be good.”

A small squirrel dropped from a branch and raised its arms before saying, Better?

“Maybe something that doesn’t take look like it could be dinner, and the talking in my head is a little unnerving.”

Ah. The squirrel turned to dust and earth that swelled and rose in a swirl that added grass and formed a dryad, her figure hidden behind a grass dress that fit her well. “Is this better?”

“Yes.” I blinked at her and watched as she sat on the grass and tapped the ground. “If I’m gone for too long, people will think I’m weird.”

She laughed and rolled her eyes, “People already think you weird, Saemus, your social standing is less important than what we have to tell you.” Her head tilted to the side and her gaze softened and lost focus for a moment before she snapped back to herself and grinned, “Though it may prove beneficial somewhat more in the long run. Still, you need to hear us out.”

“Us?” I cast my gaze around us, “Who else is here?”

“The rest of the Middling Forest and the Fae Realm, Saemus.” Her voice hollowed and filled with ghostly sounding notes of others raised with her again. “We raised you from the perdition of your lineage and destiny to serve us.”

“My destiny?” I frowned and stared at her. “What about my destiny.”

“You aren’t doing it right.” A youthful voice growled and another woodland Fae joined us, this time a pixie, with his hair down below his feet. “You and your family were meant to die in that raid on your village. You were going to tag along and not listen anyway, and the red caps were going to kill your family, and stew you and the others for supper. We stopped that, now do as we say.”

“Ever the one for subtlety, eh?” The dryad shook her head and continued by herself. “The forest and Fae have given you the blessing of our system so that you can protect us from what is coming.”

The pixie snarled at her and threw his hands into the air, “And you’re too vague!” He pointed at me, “Someone is trying to destroy the forest and upset the balance of things in favor of themselves. We don’t know who it is, but they seek to control it all and become the avatar of the forest themselves.”

“What’s that?” I frowned, the information more than I could take.

“You.” The dryad smiled sadly. “You are to be our avatar and protect us from those who seek only power for themselves.”

“And what’s to stop me from using it for personal gain?” I crossed my arms, to which the pixie and dryad shared a look, then burst into laughter. “What?”

“You’re a cunning child, I’ll give you that kid.” The pixie started and shook his head, “But if you use the gift for personal gain, that just means that you’ll fight to keep it and we win regardless.”

“And you love your family too much to allow them and their livelihood to be put in danger.” The dryad added as the pixie continued to chuckle to himself. “Think of it this way as well, you’ll be strong enough some day to take care of them all. We just need you to continue to grow.”

“I was on my way along this path on my own as it is, why take the time to introduce yourselves now?”

“Because you have access to your magic, and in return, us to you.” The dryad looked a little bashful as she spoke. “Some of us did want to just let you run your course and do what you would on your own. There were even others that expected you to run a trial of sorts to ensure you were truly worthy. Others thought that one of the spirits who oversees the power should be given an avatar to take the fight to our foes.”

“But no matter who tried to say what—you were the one we wanted, just like the first one we chose all those hundred of years ago when all this fighting for supremacy started.” The pixie scratched his head and just shrugged as if he hadn’t said one of the most important things I’d ever heard in my life.

“You mean…” I trailed off as both figures nodded solemnly.

“Told you he’d know about it.” The pixie growled triumphantly at the dryad. “Yes. Like the protector in the stories the Middling Elves tell that the courts speak of in hushed tones like the mortal boogeyman. And since you’ve given yourself access to so much magical power, we can help you sooner than he got us.”

“How?”

“By giving you the benefit of our knowledge and experience.” The dryad smiled at me and spread her hands. “You have options. Chief among them being how you can use your magic.”

“I don’t understand how that’s an option.”

The pixie cleared his throat and growled, “The Forest and the Fae Realm are your weapons, boy. You can turn the leaves into throwing knives, force plants to grow faster than they ever would—even for singers like your folks, even draw out the potential of the herbs and plants that grow within it. You’ll always have that. What we want to know is how you’ll choose to interact with us.”

“Because you’re my magic?” I was confused by the way they were speaking and as to what they were trying to say.

The dryad grinned, “Yes!” Then frowned and muttered, “but also no. See, one of us is going to serve as a guide of sorts and be the conduit to connect you to the magic that all of us offer you—your magic—but how we go about it is up to you.”

Oookaaaay, I stared at them and the pixie cleared his throat at the dryad who blinked at him as he said, “Explain what you have to offer him.”

“Oh!” She smiled and spoke, “I’m the intuitive one. I can offer you the thoughts and feelings of the collective on matters as you go about your day to day life. If you want to know something about what you see or hear, I can give you the general thoughts, feelings and impressions that we have of them. Sort of like a mental emotional memory font.”

“What about my magic?” I frowned and looked at them both.

“You’ll reach it the same way, we’ve agreed on that.” The pixie grunted. “Where as she’s the emotional side of things, I prefer the cold, hard facts. You’ll get no emotion from me, but rather the data directly through a small tome I can offer you. Since you like to read. While her option is more immediate and readily available, mine is more information just with a go between added in.”

“So my options are immediate emotional memory and somewhat delayed tangible information?” They nodded and I snorted, “No offense to anyone but I would rather learn from the book.”

The pixie grinned and snapped his fingers loudly a massive book landing on the ground hard enough that it shook the three of us and the lower limbs of the trees.

I pointed to it and muttered, “That might be too big?”

The pixie gasped, “Big books scare you boy?” He snickered at me and clapped his hands, “Ghortr’noski.”

The book listed into the air, spinning and shrinking as a hun of energy reverberated through the air. Once it was the size of my hand, it stopped and flew to my grasp.

The leather binding was soft and supple while the parchment inside felt crisp and clean like the books at home.

“And with that, I will teach you the spell Hollow Flower.” He motioned for me to hold out my left hand and took it when I did. “Wrangle the magic within you and as you do, imagine this little green growth on wrist here deepening and growing.”

I frowned and did as he said to, then found that I didn’t feel my magic.

The pixie raised an eyebrow at me, “Well?”

“Uh, Frix, he’s having performance issues because you are his conduit, remember?” The dryad reminded him quietly with a look of silent embarrassment on her face.

Frix the pixie cleared his throat, “Ah. Sorry kid.” He reached out and grasped my shoulder and a line of energy shot directly from his hand into my mind, then into the same bud that he had pointed out to me.

I focused on making the bud grow, blooming and deepening like some of the water plants that I had seen at home with the river nearby our tree. They could grow up to six feet deep if left alone, and their sap was delicious.

“Good work, kid, but you want this to be deep enough for the book, so you need to make sure you—what the nine hells did you just do?” He sounded panicked as I opened my eyes and stared at the plant that had just bloomed from my arm and swelled upward from it. As filled with wonder as I was, the plant kept growing and growing until it was taller than me. “Okay, don’t panic. We just need to pull it back into your arm. Keep going.”

The plant now only stuck out ten feet from my arm and slowly drained back in as sweat poured down my face. Once it was fully in, it looked like one of the water plants that I had been thinking of, “Oh is that a Waterfall Slight?” The dryad came closer to inspect it and smiled, “Beautiful plants, those.”

“Is that what they’re called?” It was interesting to learn, but a confusing to say the least, “But these ones grew in our river.”

“They don’t always grow near waterfalls, just where the rain falls best.” She was personable about my ignorance and that was nice. “With how large that one is, your Hollow Flower will be able to hold quite a lot!”

“Is that a good thing?”

“Let’s let him find that out on his own, Kalia.” Frix motioned me to hold out my palm again, which I did. “Hold the book in the hand with the flower and will it into the bloom.”

I chuckled slightly as I held the book in my hand and raised it, thinking, It can’t be that simple, can it?

Frix grinned at me as my jaw dropped—the book was gone. “Ho..wha..” I opened and closed my mouth as he snorted and even Kalia joined in. “Where did it go?”

He pointed wordlessly to my arm and a fresh bout of laughter pealed out around us as. The two watched me in rapt pleasure trying to find the book around where we stood when Frix took pity on me and gasped, “It’s in the spell, boy.”

I blinked and thought about the book, the weight of it reappearing into my left palm. “Woah!”

“Pretty neat, right?” Frix grinned at me and winked. “There’ll be even more that you can do with the tools of the forest, but for now, that’s one that you’ll need. And since you messed the spell up so epically, you’ll be able to put more than just the book inside it, weapons and everything.” He thought for a moment then added, “Just no unstoppered liquids, okay? We don’t want a soup in there, do we?”

I shook my head and he chuckled again, then said, “I know this is a lot, but don’t worry. Old Frix won’t leave you high and dry, and Kalia will be running the system for you. Do you have any questions for us?”

“Kalia will be running the system? Will that change how I interact with it?” I had to admit, it wasn’t very intuitive now as it was, but if I could get it to become a little more familiar that would be worth it.

“I will be, yes.” She smiled and the system burst to life in front of me. “Is there anything you would like to know? Change?”

“Can you make it a bit more intuitive?” I raised an eyebrow at her and she tilted her head to the side. “I know that I can think of the word ‘status’ and have the words appear in front of me, but I always worry about having to focus so hard on the word. Could it just be my will that I can use?”

She touched her chin in thought, then waved her left arm and spoke, the voice of the quest giver leaving her mouth instead of her normal voice, Administrative registration: Alpha-nine-seven-seven. Command: Status summons-registered word, “status,” open options.

She spread her other arm out and continued with her speaking, Open options for system recognition. Change summons from thought and speech of registered word alone to include action “will” whereas the summoner wills open system. Affect all status and tabs. Administrative log out. Complete.

“Never gets any easier to hear all that mumbo jumbo, but she’s better at it than I am.” Frix whistled to himself then looked at me. “Give it a shot, kid.”

I thought about opening the status in front of me and kept thinking about it until I felt like I wasn’t getting anywhere. Frix cleared his throat and muttered, “Better up the sensitivity on that, Kalia.”

The dryad actually blushed and began to speak softly this time, then turned to me and said, “Try again?”

I closed my eyes and willed the status to open in front of me and it did. “This is great!”

I willed it away and then turned to both of them, “Thank you so much!” Thinking for a moment, I asked, “What about when I train? Can I keep doing that and get stronger forever?”

She thought about it, then flicked her hands out in front of her and her fingers began to move in intricate patterns—Almost like she was tickling a kitten. She frowned, “Oh no, we nilfed him!”

Frix grunted and blinked at him, “We what?”

“Nilfed him.” She repeated then sighed and explained with an eye roll, “His predecessor was so strong that they made it so he couldn’t get to that level so quickly.” She turned her gaze to me and said, “You can only gain five stat points between levels.”

“So gaining a level starts it all over again?” She nodded at my inquiry and I frowned. “But it seems so hard to gain one now.”

“And it will get harder.” She frowned and pointed to my arm, “Think of this like training any muscle, right? The more you work it at first, the more it grows and gets stronger right? At first, it’s easier to see those results but the more you train the harder it is to get better results—the same can be said for your stats. The more you train a stat the harder it will become to grow in that stat, but those additional points will be nice in times when gaining experience is harder.”

“I see.” My next question was almost formed when the pixie coughed and stole my attention.

“Class is almost over, kid.” He stretched his shoulder by grasping his fingers together and pushing outward. “Come here real fast?”

I stepped closer to him and he reached out and grabbed my left ear, a piercing pulse reaching through my mind and my ear at the same time before he was gone. Kalia grinned, “He’s become an earring that you can wear, and took the liberty of piercing your ear for you to wear it safely.”

“Thank you all.” I bowed my head and she smiled back at me.

“They will likely expect something amazing from you when you come back to.” She raised an eyebrow. “Whether you decide to wow them or not is up to you. But remember, someone is moving against the Middling Forest and we need you. Grow strong enough to protect us all and your family.”

She winked at me and I was thrown backward into my body, startled as if I had fallen in a dream. My eyes flew open and I gasped, the instructors face in front of mine, her smile was tepid as if she hadn’t been sure if I was asleep or had something to show for my time meditating.

She glanced down and there was a small sapling in front of my legs, “Care to see if you can make it grow?”

I touched it and thought, Grow. The plant shook as my mana invaded it and surged through the limbs, stem and leaves. The stunted green of it surged to new vibrancy as the color shifted from the dullness it had been to a shade of near light blue like the sky. The leaves folded inward as if shriveling, then shot outward and became shoots off of more burgeoning branches.

“What kind of plant is this, ma’am?” I frowned at her as I cut off my mana. I had plenty left, but it didn’t stop growing even after I had pulled away.

“It’s a sky tree called Argenile and it’s rare here.” She grinned and stared at me. “You didn’t even need to sing to it to get it to grow. I dare say that you will be perfectly fine with me in my coming adventure.”

By now the young tree had grown much too large for the pot that it was in, roots shooting through the ceramic in all directions. You need to stop it from growing, more boy. That tree will die if it isn’t placed in the ground soon, Frix’s voice wasn’t panicked, but the fact that I could hear him in my head was enough to make me jump.

I reached out and touched the tree, willing it to stop growing for now. It sighed and I could visibly watch as the growth stilled. “Is there somewhere we can plant this where it will be safe?” Instructor Lialarn stared at me openly confused. “If it continues to grow out of the soil, it will die.”

“Oh.” She blinked as the bell rang overhead, “Class dismissed.”

The other students stared at me and the now ten-foot-tall tree in shock and awe, but the instructor stood and bellowed, “Get out of my classroom—I want to leave!”

The students stood and fled the classroom save for Xanile and I, she pointed to both of us and motioned that we step aside as she reached toward the wall opposite the door to the room. The wall split into two and swung outward like a gigantic door. The tree shuddered and lifted from the ground and followed along behind instructor Lialarn as she walked out of the new exit.

The area we stepped into was massively crowded by plants and as soon as the light touched my face I could see instructor Sadick tending a lush garden. He glanced up and snarled, “What in the hells are you bringing into my garden now, Ealint?”

“A rare plant brought back to life by one of our students?” She shot back proudly and glanced back at me. “Where should I plant this?”

“Saemus?” Sadick sounded surprised as he stood up and came toward us. “You did this?”

I nodded at him and frowned, “I didn’t know I could.”

“Well I can imagine, good tree!” He yelped and grabbed my arm. “Is this your Markado?”

“It is.” Instructor Lialarn sounded triumphant as she spoke, like she was gloating. “Look at his friend, she’s almost as powerful.”

I saw the man’s head turn and he gasp, “Yes she is. I love your eyes, by the way. Very feral.” Xanile turned her gaze away, embarrassed and he tilted his head, but left her alone after that. Instead he turned his head toward the other instructor and growled, “I will choose the place for this tree, this is my garden, after all.”

I touched the plant with my mind like I had with my magic before and found that it craved a spot with the most light available. “It needs a lot of light.”

“What kind?” Sadick tilted his head, but didn’t question me further.

“All kinds.” I frowned, not seeing space that wouldn’t take from the other plants in the area. “But it doesn’t look safe for the other plants here.”

“Let me worry about them.” Sadick grunted and turned around to look about. He stalked toward the other side of the garden, then into the small shed near the inner wall of the garden and came back out with three shovels and several small platters of a silvery hue that shimmered in the light.

“These are to act as light transfers for the plants that this thing blocks the light from, I need you to enchant them so that they will reflect the light of the sun and the warmth too, but over a large area so that nothing is burnt.” He shoved the platters at Lialarn and she took them with no complaint before he turned his head toward us, “I know that you’ll help me dig, Saemus, but I wanted to ask the young miss if she would assist as well?”

“How much do we need to dig?” She raised an eyebrow at him. “I’ve never dug a hole very deep.”

“Doesn’t need to be too deep right now.” He tossed his thumb over his shoulder at the tree, “See how shallow the roots are right now? They’re growing outward right now to provide it with stability before they go deeper for nutrients and other stuff I won’t bore you with. Right now, we really only need to dig a hole that is about ten feet in diameter with a three foot deep lip. Can you do that with us?”

She seemed uncertain and I said, “Work like this always goes faster with more hands, as my dad always said. The sooner work is done, the sooner we can play and practice other things.”

She frowned and then nodded, “Fine.” She took the shovel that she had been offered and waited while Sadick outlined the hole for us, then joined us both in digging. It only took about half an hour to dig the sizable chunk of ground out of the way for the tree and by the time we were done, Lialarn had finished her job.

She put the now cleaned tree into the hole and waited until we have partially covered it with soil and fertilizer before she allowed the tree to settle into its new home.

“You going to allow it to grow on its own, or are you going to empower it some more?” Sadick asked softly. “I think it needs that little extra push now just to be safe for now.”

He stepped back and started to place some of the platers on the trees and on poles that he shoved into the ground, using string to affix those ones.

I nodded to myself and reached out my hand, the flesh of the tree becoming coarse against my palm as the bark began to form. It was fine and less craggy than most trees, almost soft to the touch. “Come on then, friend. Let’s see how much more you need to grow to be safe.”

Mana siphoned from my body in steady waves and soon as it met the tree, the ground beneath me trembled and the tree grew outward.

A dryad has been summoned to this tree, Saemus. Do not stop feeding it until she gets here. Frix’s warning spurred me on, and though I wasn’t tired, I wasn’t sure how best it was to continue. The tree had grown taller than the walls of the building surrounding us already and as it grew, the branches spread and yet more burst into being as the leaves budded and formed into a canopy above us.

“That should be good Saemus.” Sadick sounded like he had a smile in his voice, but there was an edge of concern to it too.

“I can’t stop, there’s someone coming to oversee this tree and if I stop they won’t be able to find him.” She’s almost here, boy. Push a bit more! “Just a bit more!”

I grit my teeth as the tree took even more mana from me and this time I felt every drop throb as it left the center of my being. I had more mana than most, I was sure of that, but the trees took so much since it was just that much larger than it had been before.

She’s here! Frix howled excitedly as a small dryad my height vaulted the tall wall where ivy had mysteriously grown over the top of it and fell to the ground with a huff. She stared at all of us before she made her way to the tree and I. She put a hand on my shoulder and some of the burden of the mana fell away as she raised her voice in song.

The song was wordless and beautiful. The notes lulling at first, then becoming more passionate as she whirled away from me and around the tree, portions of her leaf dress bushing along the bark and wherever it touched, a blue hue began to thrum around her and into her. Finally she reached out and hugged the tree as her song crescendoed and faded on the air.

The dryad faded from view as she melded with the tree and then stepped from it holding my hands silently with a smile on her face. I could feel that her life force and the trees had merged and now she was a full grown dryad. Her bark-covered skin had the same sort of feel as the tree she now bonded to and when she stared into my eyes I could feel her gratitude.

She knelt down and stared into my eyes a moment long before she dipped her head closer and kissed me on the cheek. I blushed as she stood and stepped back into her new home.

The others and I stood and watched silently as the now-eighty-foot-tall tree stopped growing and stilled, the plants in the area not in as much shade as we had thought. As it seemed the tree did not give off shade, but light instead. Steady and powerful.

The plants in the garden will be taken well care of here, though your instructor will need to be cautious around the dryad. She will protect her tree. Frix had a smile in his tone and I just laughed as Sadick pointed from the tree to the garden.

“This is…wha…” He failed to say anything more than that and just stood there bewildered.