Nathan parks his car in front of his porch, letting silence take over before turning to the backseat, where the bonsai currently stands.

“So, you said you wanted to…”

Nathan doesn’t have time to finish his sentence before something slams into him with incredible strength. He reels back and tries to grab onto something, to resist, to survive. His hand reaches the steering wheel and holds onto it as if it could save him. The thing’s voice reaches him through a cloud of pain and confusion, the sound made worse by its silky beauty.

“Now, human, let us end this farce. Take me to your master.”

The only thing that saves him is the simple fact that his addled brain could not understand the question, and therefore, could not comply. Surprise must have loosened the creature’s hold on his mind for an instant and that is enough.

This isn’t real. I am not being crushed against the seat.

Slowly, Nathan starts to push back. His vision returns, awareness of the creature’s wild aura returns to him and finally, her attacks against him. Her power pushes against him, not unlike a wooden post, while his is unfocused and soft.

How do you fight someone with a wooden post when all you have is more like a pillow?

By having a much bigger pillow.

Nathan realizes that he can feel the limit of her strength. She is feeble, probably weakened by the stunted growth of the tree. He is, in fact, stronger.

She is, however, much more experienced.

“ I grow tired of your resistance human, yield to me.”

The thing’s mind grows more acute, the post turning into a stiletto, drilling into Nathan’s mind like a thorn. Nathan is losing, his mind recessing before the pain. He fumbles like a drowning man, searching for an escape, anything that would help him.

An idea.

Nathan desperately reaches for the space between the two front seats searching with just his touch as his vision blurs and pain robs him of clarity.

His fingers grab the familiar cold iron, made dull with age and human hands. He flips the top and cranks the wheel. The lighter blazes alive with unusual strength, fire flaring in the car and in his head like a little sun.

The pressure vanishes instantly and he turns around.

The thing is backing against the trunk of the tree, and the expression on her face is one of shock, then shame.

“You might as well kill me human.”

“You pull that shit again and I will burn you to a fucking cinder”

Silence, once again, takes over the car’s interior. The thing breaks it for the first time. Nathan is not quite sure but she looks… Tired.

“There is no need human, I yield”. She bows. “ My name is Gwahin of the Leaves.”

“And I am Nathan Mordred Turner, now what the fuck was this about”

Gwahin hesitates, the formality behind her words of surrender giving way to a subdued familiarity.

"Humans lie. I thought you had. I could never imagine that…"

"That what?"

"That you were not an initiate. That you had no master."

"I don’t know what you mean."

"It means that you can feel and act on the flow without someone showing you how to do it. And the problem is that until a few moments ago, I knew it to be impossible.”

Nathan raises an eyebrow.

"I am serious Nathan Mordred Turner, in more than three centuries of existence you are the first… Spontaneous awakening I have ever witnessed, or even heard of."

"Is it bad for me?"

"It is bad for every sentient being on this planet. Every one of us. But let us not digress. First, a bargain."

Nathan feels his arm automatically crossing in front go his chest before he makes a conscious offer to relax. The lighter feels warm and heavy in his hand.

“I have some questions.”

“Before this, I need to absolve myself. You acted in good faith and I attacked you. As a reparation I propose that you be my host, and I will be your guest.”

“Wait, hold on, that doesn’t sound like a reparation at all!”

“It is. Allow me to settle on your land as you guest and you will gain power from it. As part of the agreement, I would be honor bound to assist you should you be attacked on your own land. For your forgiveness I will grant you protection, for your earth I will grant you a boon, that you may choose when you see fit, and if you do this right now I will promise to answer all your questions at a favorable cost, so long as they do not lead to harm against me and my kin.”

“Your kin? You have a family?”

“Why human you think I just popped out of a stump somewhere?”

“Hum I don’t know much about the reproductive cycle of… Of whatever you are.”

“…”

Silence reigns in the car yet again. This time it is really awkward.

“No offense.”

“Do you accept this pact Mordred Nathan Turner, I, Gwahin of the Leaves, swear to my ancestors that this is more than advantageous for you.”

Nathan’s perception picks on Gwahin’s aura. She has done the equivalent of baring herself. Nathan tentatively extends his perception towards her and almost jumps back in surprise. Behind Gwahin’s wild magic, he can feel emotions rolling of her: despair, hopelessness, humiliation and behind, the certainty that what she said was the truth. His first impression had been spot on: Gwahin is at her wit’s end. He did have leverage the first time he had met her.

“Very well I will help you set up. “

Relief rolls in waves from Gwahin’s stunted frame.

"Yes, that would help, but the hardest part is, I am afraid you will have to carry me."

Nathan pushes the wheelbarrow with all his might, the weight making the wheel dig furrows into the wet ground. Moving forward is slow and frustrating and it takes him a few minutes just to cross a hundred steps, and yet he does not feel like slowing down. Excitation and anticipation roll out from Gwahin in a steady pulse, a pure and beautiful feeling. Nathan is amazed that a being as old as her can still feel such strong emotions. On the other hand, she probably spent a long time stuck in an earthen pot so…

Nathan eventually pauses to catch his breath. His house sits in the middle of a clearing, easily a hundred feet across. A single paved way leads to the road outside his land. There is a small trail that leads to his neighbor’s house and the only way deep into the forest. The catch is that it was never designed to accommodate a bonsai-carrying wheelbarrow.

“By the way, how did you end up as the central piece in a chic boutique?”

“Rub it in human… My kind’s existence is bound to a tree. When it dies of old age, so do we. Our essence then travels to another sapling.”

Gwahin falls silent and Nathan looks up to see her face only a few inches from his own. From there he sees that her eyes are a slitted like a cat, her iris leaving no white to be seen. It is the color of molten gold. While he was staring at her, she was doing the same. Nathan does not know what she had been looking for but she had apparently found it. Gwahin gives the slightest nod, then continues.

“When it happens we are vulnerable. We… can also be killed outright if our tree is destroyed. I do not how, but someone found my sapling and when I became aware again I had become this thing. That was about forty years ago.”

“Oh. I see. By the way, what happens to people who come close to your tree from now on?”

“Besides you? Something unfortunate.”

“Uh? Uh. Ok, just so you know, there is this cat.”

“I have no need to harm pets Nathan Mordred Turner.”

“Sometimes I order stuff…”

“Unless your mailman enjoys walking through a dense forest during his working hours there will be no issues.”

“Ok.Ok. Let’s go then we are almost here.”

After what feels like an hour, Nathan finally reaches his destination, a clearing in the middle of the otherwise dense forest and the only place where he feels it would make sense to plant a tree. A small pond with brackish water gives the place a pungent smell.

Nathan heaves the bonsai off the wheelbarrow and takes out a shovel and a pickaxe. Digging a hole in the middle of the forest implies cutting a lot of roots and he does not look forward to it.

“This place is perfect, I could not have chosen better myself. And we will not need any tool.”

“Wait, what? I carried them all the way here for nothing? Why did you not tell me sooner?”

“I found your pointless suffering entertaining. Are you going to do it or not?”

Nathan knows he should be pissed but he finds it hard to resist the pull of anticipation. With a last effort, he carries the pot through waist high ferns, surprised by how easy vegetation just seems to give way before him. There is a hum in the air and even the late morning light feels more intense on his skin. Finally reaching the spot selected by Gwahin, he locks his feet around the bonsai, places his hands around the trunk and pulls.

The cherry tree, roots and all, practically removes itself from its container. A vibration goes from the trunk to his hand and soon covers his entire body. Nathan’s mind is overwhelmed with vertigo and the feeling of free fall you get from missing a step on a stair down.

Earth, Nathan needs earth, quickly, but not here, not just right here. A few feet away stands the center of the maelstrom of wild energy. The beating heart of the forest. Nathan moves forward and the bases of grass parts in front of him like as if it were water. He vaguely hears a voice calling his name but it doesn't matter. Nothing matters but the call of the earth. There, the perfect spot. He lowers the sapling, light as a feather. Other living things uproot themselves, giving way before the being to come.

The roots make contact and Nathan’s mind explodes in ecstasy. The sheer felicity it makes his limbs and leaves shake with delight, he extends his arms and lets the light shine on his skin and his bark, it has been so long, so long! But finally, he is free. The roots take hold with unnatural speed, drinking the power and giving it back. The world around him looks beautiful, he had had a glimpse at the park, but this? This is the real deal. He can see every root, every stem, even the fine details on the spade coming right at his face.

Wait, that’s not right.

The metal surface hits Nathan’s nose with all the small strength that Gwahin can muster. Curses fly and he touches his painful face while giving the small woman what he hopes is a murderous look.

“My apologies Mordred Nathan Turner, I should have realized from what happened in the car that you could not protect yourself from strong auras. I called you but you would not listen. I do believe, at least, that you had a good time?”

“Yeah it felt pretty great, right until the shovel that is.”

“Yes. It does feel amazing. Regrettably this would have killed you as you would have remained here until your human body died of exposure. “

“You’re kidding right?”

“I am quite serious. You do have an uncanny ability to take everything in stride. I have never seen such an ability in a human before Nathan Mordred Turner. Now if you don’t mind… I have been waiting for this for longer than you have been alive.

“Sure sure. I’ll leave you to it. Do you want me to check on you tomorrow?”

“My, what a serious host. Please do.”

Nathan’s return home is anticlimactic. After everything that happened today, pushing the now empty wheelbarrow (and tools) feels incredibly trivial. Nathan comforts himself by thinking back on today’s achievement and that all in all, nobody had died so far and hopefully, nobody would die anytime soon. He is, of course, completely wrong.