I woke to that terror deer eating my leaves again. I swung my branches at him but the stupid thing dodged everything I did. It was so frustrating. It finally ate its full and left me alone.

I woke up the ants and set them to patrolling my branches again. They were definitely bigger this time. I could tell whatever they were doing was making them bigger.

Bitey somehow communicated to me they were hungry. I was pretty sure Bitey was in charge of the little group I had going. I thought about what I could provide. I thought they were eating the bugs they were fighting yesterday but it turns out they weren’t.

I wondered what ants ate anyways. I never really paid attention to insects when I was. Huh. I didn’t really remember a time before being a tree. I wondered what the time before was. Anyways, I had no clue what ants ate. I looked around my tree for anything to feed to my ants. I had no food. But wait I was a tree, maybe I could grow something. I didn’t know how to grow stuff. I focused energy towards a branch and thought “Grow something good” at it. It took me a while but something started to bud at the end of my branch. It looked like it was fruit. I thought it was odd. I could have sworn I was an oak tree but here I was growing fruit. I spent the day growing the fruit and helping my ants fight other bugs.

By the end of the day, I had a cluster of what I thought were cherries hanging at the end of the branch. I told Bitey they could have the cherries and to make sure they shared. Bitey clicked her mandibles at me to show she understood what I was talking about.

The four ants gathered around the fruit and each one took equal shares of the cherries. It was almost time for the sun to set so I sent the ants back to their nest.

[Skill unlocked: Grow]

I received a prompt notifying me that I had learned another skill. “Growing” skill learned. I giggled a little bit inside my head. Leaves? Crown? Branches? I don't even know anymore. I thought that it was a fairly generic skill but what did I know about anything.

I promised myself I would experiment with this skill tomorrow.

When I woke in the morning a prompt was awaiting me. “Pick evolution for Bitey.” This looked promising I didn’t know what this meant. I asked “What options do I have?” I wasn’t expected a response but I got one. A list of options appeared before me.

[Ant Queen.]

[Ant Warrior.]

[Ant Explorer.]

I asked for more explanations but nothing happened. I looked around for a little bit. Finally, I said “I chose Ant Queen.” A burst of light exploded out from where Bitey was sitting in her burrow. It swirled around her and when it was gone Bitey was much bigger.

I heard a small piping voice reach out to me. “Hello. Thanks for choosing me.” I looked around and I realized it was Bitey talking to me.

“Hello Bitey. How are you? My name is.” My voice trailed off because I just realized I didn’t remember my name. How odd I thought to myself.

“I don’t recall my name.” I told Bitey. “You can call me Tree.”

“Hello Tree.” Bitey told me.

“So why did you evolve and the other three did not?” I asked Bitey.

“I don’t know.” Bitey replied.

I tried to nod my head at this. But I couldn’t. My branches swayed a little bit. “Since you are a queen, could you take care of the other ants for me?” I asked.

“I could.” Bitey told me. “What do you want me to do?”

“Pretty much what you have been doing. I would like you guys to continue keeping my branches clear.” I told Bitey.

I thought some more about it. “Also there is this deer that keeps coming around every morning and eating my leaves. If you could figure something out for me, that would be great.” I said while looking at Bitey.

Queen Bitey went back down to the ant nest and sent the other three back out to fight the bugs. Bitey was doing something in the nest area. It looked like she was making another chamber for herself. Oh she was laying eggs. She was making our army bigger.

I split my attention between healing Pinchy and her group, making more food and sending mana towards the eggs.

It was another fun day of basking in sunlight and drawing water up from the depths.

[Skill Unlocked: Delegation]

The people in the nearby camp were woken up by the eerie sound of leaves rustling in the wind. Some said it sounded like chuckling.