It is getting closer. I’ve confirmed a few things about it though.

1: It seems non-hostile to plants

2: It also appears non-hostile to animals. It passed by my hated enemy, a rabbit, and the rabbit seemed to become chippier. Fuck that rabbit though.

3: Plants seem to become healthier wherever this being goes

I can’t see it’s form though. It’s invisible to my eyesight, but my Only sees a vague mass of energy being moved from tree to tree. It looks like I won’t be able to see what it is until it gets here. There aren’t any trees, other than my tree, in the glade. So if it hopes to continue this hidden movement technique, it will have to 1: interface with me somehow, or 2: not come in my glade. Otherwise, stealth begone.

I doubt 1 though. It’s avoided anything other than trees for movement. Might have something to do with actual transferrance capability. I know I can’t do it, but trees can. Thankfully the line from it to me doesn’t intersect my own body, but is about opposite from where I am relatively.

While I’m waiting for my uninvited guest, I turn to Mr. Rabbit that is closer to my glade than he’s supposed to be. I usually deter them away when I see them, I had to stop poisoning them though. With Jard and Torgue around, I can’t risk hurting them. A big reason why people aren’t supposed to poinson rats - their contaminated corpses kill their predators. Why haven’t I removed all of the rabbits and other herbivores from around me? Because I still haven’t weened my pets off of meat yet. Jard and Torgue seem adamant on hunting, and even I can’t convince them otherwise. Heck, I can’t convince myself either. They need to keep their senses and reflexes tuned for fighting and stalking for my future happiness and protection. Small sacrifices now, large rewards later. I have been dosing them slightly with caffeine though with my fruits. So they always come and grab one or two a day. I’ll hold off on herbivore extinction policy for now.

Finally, it’s close. Just one or two trees away. It seems to have slowed down, and is waiting near the edge of the field. It must be scouting the area out. Which means it’s an intelligent creature, and not guided wholly by instinct. That’s good and bad. Good in that I should be able to talk with it via telepathy. Bad in that smart creatures are always harder to deal with than animals due to plots, emotions, and cunning.

…

That’s fucking weird. Some wooden eyes just appeared on a nearby tree. So creepy. Two pieces of bark just opened up slightly, and I can see green eyes parely vidible.

…

It’s looking so slowly, and not really doing anything apparent. It’s been an hour. Must be really cautious. It seems to be eyeing my tree decoy a good amount. I am even more glad that I built it now.

— POV ??? —

This is where I’ve been feeling a lot of mana and energy coming from. I was worried it might be a new monster, but I’m glad I was wrong. There’s a beautiful tree, with leaves shimmering in the wind. The petals are colored differently than normal, they are black and white. I wonder if it’s diseased? It’d be bad if that was the case.

I can’t see this tree being diseased though, it’s radiating health and energy all over the place. And it seems to have formed a symbiotic relationship with the grass around it, as they seem to share the same type of energy.

Oh no! Maybe the tree’s been parasited by the grass! I need to investigate!

It is such a beautiful tree too, maybe… maybe we can be together?

Either way, I need to get closer. I can’t get over there with my tree-movement. It’ll be dangerous! But I need to know. Is this friend, foe, or maybe…

— POV Mathias —

That’s a mother fucking dryad, isn’t it? The implications of this are huge. Damnit. This means that High-elves might show up, as well as be more numerous than I thought. It should still be manageable, but I need to know how prevalent dryads are in order to totally understand how many high-elves might appear. I need to somehow convince Taeya that she’s the first of her kind, and the leader of her new race. That way, when others show up, my influence on her would be greater than theirs. I should also somehow leverage her dislike for her previous race to subtly influence her to lead the way for her people.

Sigh.

I think she’s trying to be sneaky, and I would normally agree with that thought, however, because I knew she was coming, I can see her distinctly. She is slowly separating from the tree she’s in. First her face became more definde, and slowly started to separate from the tree. Her chest was next, and she slowly started crouching towards the ground. She now looks like a boulder by the tree, peeking between her legs as she is curled up.

I am quite impressed actually. Her ability to do things slowly andcarefully is to be admired. She’s also quite beautiful, if I do say so myself.

!?

And action! She’s quickly running towards my tree. And now I have a new boulder-looking thing at the base of my tree. She seems to be carefully looking around my trunk, as if looking for something.

— POV Dryad Livily —

Okay, I made it! I don’t see any other living beings in the glade, not even the slimes that normally lived here. It’s kind of eerie. It does look like 2 magical creatures live here, and some other humanoid. I can’t tell more than that. The foot prints remind me of elves, but they are way too light to be a normal elf. Strange.

This tree also feels strange. It’s perfectly constructed, and beautiful. The bark has lots of tiny, thin strands of bark going upwards, curving and twisting around each other. I’ve been trying to sense it’s conciousness, but I can’t feel it for some reason using my tree sense. Maybe it hasn’t awoken yet? Or was damaged?

I also can’t see the source of parasitism from the grass. Maybe it is symbiotic, as the tree seems lively and in good health. I’ve never seen an organism with this type of relationship before… The tree trunk disappears and seems to meld with the grass roots.

I need answers! I’ll commune with it to see what is going on. Something is definitely wrong, because even though it has a ton of energy, the energy feels weak too. For this tree’s future I need to connect our minds and try to awaken it.

— POV Mathias —

Has she looked enough? She’s been looking around the tree for awhile now, and touching all over the place. She looks concerned, and now I can see that her hands are going a little fuzzy and -

**Ting**

What the fuck was that!?

-Mind invasion resisted due to Indomitable Will

> Rank: S Passive: Due to experience surviving an extremely strong mental attack that sought to take away his very self due to an almost incalculable fortitude. Grants an almost perfect immunity to attacks on the mind. Grants a boost to mental processing power when life is in danger.

Oh this fucker!!!! It’s on!

— POV Livily —

What’s going on!? I can’t commune with the tree! And I can’t get into it. Stupid, beautiful tree. Let me in!

Uh-oh, I feel like something’s wrong! Mana is flooding around here, and there's a surge of nature energy! I need to get out of here!

*trip*

*thunk*

— POV Mathias —

Threat nuetralized. She seemed flustered for a second, and actually hit my tree’s trunk. Hmmph, as if I’d let all of that slide. I wanted to kill her, but decided against her. I need information from her. I was going to try telepathy with her, but she started running away.

So I tripped her. And formed a rock with some rock magic near her temple and chest. Chest, to hopefully knock her breathe out. Temple, for obvious reasons. A concussion or a few seconds of unconciousness or disorientation. After that, I quickly quickly had to learn another ability that allows me to put someone into a deep sleep, but attacks or other aggressive actions will wake them up. I had to think on my feet, and go with something from my class instead of Drgu Compounding. A dryad will more than likely not have the same reaction as human to sedatives that I know of.

My GP…… 7000 gone. I went for the most expensive one I could, because I had to act fast and I couldn’t risk it being resisted. Sigh.

Now that I know her abilities can’t affect my tree, I can bind her to that with a bunch of bark and roots and flood that area with a bunch of my mana stones to oppress her with the strength of my mana output. It only works psychologically, but I don’t think I can resort to physical violence with my pets and such around.

Hey! Slaughter Guards! Why are you being nice to her! Sigh. It seems that nature naturally loves this being. I can already see my bugs flying around her and *Booping* her to wak her up. Siiiiiiiigh.

Of course I’ll take a small sample of her “blood” as it is, though it’s consistency is closer to sap. I’ll investigate it later in my to see if I can’t improve myself or use it for another project or something.

Oh, here comes Taeya and the two cubs. Well, This could work as a good cop, stern tree-father thing. Either way, I’ll get the information I need. It’s unfortunate that all three of them are young, I doubt any of them know much about dryads, especially Taeya with her neglected state I found her in.

“Hey father, who is that?”

“This is a forest dryad. I think I spooked her a little bit and she tripped and fell. I was worried about her bump on her head, so I wrapped heer up here so that when she wakes up disoriented she won’t hurt herself further.”

“Oh! A Dryad! Wow!! I’ve never seen one before! She’s so beautiful! But where are her clothes?

“Good question. I assume that they don’t have any, they live most of their lives in trees, right?”

“Hmmmmm, I guess so! When will she wake up?”

“Sometime soon Taeya. Bring Jard and Torgue close to her too, so that they can smell her. This must be there first time seeing a Dryad too.”

“”So this is a Dryad!””

*sniff*

Hey Jard, we’ve smelt something like this before, right?

Yea, but it was always on a tree. So this thing must have been near those areas. Maybe we should go see if there is one there after all?

YEA!!

Be careful Jard and Torgue if you want to go do that. While they may seem nice, we’re not entirely sure yet. Let’s talk with this one first and ask it some questions.

— POV Dryad Livily —

Ugggh, what happened??? My head hurts! Owowowowow.

…

Uh-oh. I’m tied up. In the beautiful tree, but still, tied up. Aaaaand there aren’t any other trees to try and escape into to.

*sniff, sniff*

At least I’m alive. Okay, focus. I can feel an… elf? Or something like it, though I actually feel nature energy in her! Wow! That’s good, she’ll definitely help me! And two creatures that are pretty strong. Nothing with an evil intent, that’s good. I shouldn’t be in any danger, they’re all in good standing.

I should open my eyes! Surely they’ll help me!

1…… 2…… 3!!!

— POV Mathias —

She’s waking up, but she hasn’t opened her eyes yet. Smart, experienced, maybe both. The other three haven’t noticed it yet, but I have due to me basically holding her in my embrace.

I guess I should wait for her to “wakeup” by herself. I wonder if she can speak, or if it’s only through telepathy? Info gain #1.

“He.. Hello? Little elf girl, can you help me out here? I seem to have become entangled.”

Looks like she speaks elvish. Maybe they don’t do telepathy. Let’s tak through Taeya and ask her some questions.

“Oh wow, a real dryad! So cool! What’s your name? My name is Taeya! I don’t think I can let you down myself, but I can ask my father to!”

“Fufu, hi Taeya, my name is Livily, Liv for short. How did I get up here? Who is your father? I don’t see anyone other than those two young ones by your side.”

“Oh, well, it’s a little weird, but you’re… kinda… on him hehe.”

“… What? Do you mean this tree?”

“Kinda. He wanted to see if he could talk with you, but he only has telepathy. He says it’s rude to talk with someone or enter their mind without an invitation.”

Hmmph. Hope she gets my subtle hint I’m pissed. She did try to invade my mind, fuck.

“Oh. I see. *nervous laugh*. Sure.”

‘Hello there, mind-invader. Why did you come here?’

‘Oops. Sorry. But I couldn’t sense a tree here! I thought the tree was asleep or hadn’t awoken yet! That’s no reason to tie me up! I was trying to help?’

‘By invading my mind? Questionable’

‘But it’s true! I’m a dryad! A friend of nature! Almost every tree is born asleep, and only through time and luck can they ever begin to think beyond their instincts. That’s where we come in, we speed up that process, give them guidance, and in return we get protection and a place to live. We work together!’

‘Hmmm, and yet, you didn’t ask. Hmmph. Who says you won’t do that to my precious children?’

Okay good, stern, but caring.

‘I can only commune with TREES. Please let me go! I promise I won’t hurt them!’

‘Calm down, calm down. If I had any bad intentions towards you, I was just irritated about not being asked. So, let’s start off on a new foot, and let me tell you a story. My name is… Well, I was never given a name, but I’ve assumed a name of Mathias. As you can see, I’m not a normal tree…’

So I told her a heavily edited story of my life so far, and she seems shocked. Of course, I traded grass for sapling, and threw in a couple of white lies here and there, and how I merged with a giant beast that was slain here and assumed some more of their memories. She seems a lot calmer now though, so that’s good. Now, to get some information.

‘Now that you know my story, can you help me out? There’s a lot I don’t know, and a lot Taeya doesn’t understand. I accidentally *evolved* her, and she has natural energy that she can’t use. Can you stay here and help us out?’

‘I see! How sad, thrown alone in this world, attacked, and yet you maintained your kindness and saved these young ones! Admirable! To tell you the truth, this area is part of my territory that I protect and nurture. I have a duty to help those within my borders for the health of the forest. I also feel a connection to the girl as well… Fine! I can stay and help! It looks like I can’t merge with your conciousness, so I’ll go scout out a tree to live in around here and then we can talk everyday!’

Dryad, captured. It’s interesting that she doesn’t detect me as a tree, looks like my disguise doesn’t work on nature beings. Drat. I’m tempted to evolve into a tree type again, and see what a dryad can improve, but again, too dangerous at the moment. It did seem she can’t detect my exact location, my One of Many title and my spread must be helping a ton.

‘Ahem. Can you let me down now?’

‘Haha, yes. Of course, sorry about that. I’m glad we can understand each other better now. Sorry about that!’

Hopefully now I can start learning how to use Nature magic along with Taeya. And learn about all of the other things about the surrounding forest and times. This couldn’t come at a better time.