I often wondered what I was doing. Sitting in the sun, absorbing all the solar mana I could. I could feel energy coursing down my leaves and branches. The way I saw, was different. I wondered where my brain was at. Was my intelligence the sum total of my body mass?

Has there a place that could be destroyed that would render me dead? What should I protect the most?

I was hesitant to experiment. I could only get that experiment wrong once. Speaking of experiments.

I looked over my pods. I’d had people in there for a while. Some I was probably never going to let out. I didn’t like them. But what if they could be useful?

I let my mind’s eye wander over my domain. It was substantial at this point. If I had to use American freedom units, I was probably around 500 hundred feet tall now. My direct area of effect was easily over ten miles in diameter. I was vaguely aware of everything that happened in my domain. I could focus my attention and become more aware of what was happening. But the latest attack showed I could become dangerously distracted.

I had also gotten lucky. Those meowbies weren’t really for defense at all. I was starting to put out flowers in my crown and I had found that bees in my flowers felt really good. So I got to wondering, what if I had bigger bees? Would it feel even better? Yes, the answer was yes.

I could see my pollen drifting on the wind. Some of it was escaping my domain. My sight seemed to stay briefly connected to it but then faded as the pollen dispersed.

I wondered if there would be any side effects from breathing in the pollen? I looked down at all the animals and humans coming into contact with it. It didn’t look like anyone even noticed. Well, that one guy there was sneezing and wiping his eyes. He, He. He had my pollen in his eyes.

I shifted the places were I could grow new shoots. I wanted to rearrange the livable areas. I thought it should be more defensible. I started to trace lines and swirls with my roots. I didn’t want anyone to be able to come straight in anymore. I would have to make more houses. I briefly toyed with the idea of letting the humans make nests in my trunk. But I remember how lame they were. Always trying to steal shit and start fires. I didn’t like fires.

Maybe if I let some of the tree sworn live in my trunk it would make them seem more important. I mean they were important. I only talked to them. I began to form an apartment about fifty feet above the ground. It would be for Lorelai. She seemed like a good branch. She had a good crown of leaves on her head. I liked her.

I created a stairway up to the balcony. There was a front parlor area. There was a hallway that wrapped around to several different rooms. There was a dining room for entertaining. I didn’t think she needed a kitchen. I wasn’t making a place for fire inside my trunk.

I thought about a bathroom. I could route the waste into some of my return capillaries. There were ways to handle it. I was a little scuzzed out by the thought of her using the facilities inside me. Then I giggled. Maybe this was a new fetish unlocked. I wouldn’t mention it to anyone unless they asked.

I then moved onto the shower/tub combo. I could totally make this work. I deserved a little something for myself after putting in a toilet. I reached down to pull water up from my supply. Khugar was a busy little ant. Always digging. She had reached an aquifer several weeks ago and I was literally awash with water.

Let’s see if I put a water tank up higher than the room, the water fixtures would have water. I could alter some of my pods and turn them into filters. No, wait; I could turn them into infusers. It would be a mana water bath and shower. Oh, that would be good. And then if I put my filter pods underneath the apartment I could filter out all the filth. And I could feel good about sipping on someone’s bath water.

I started humming to myself as I continued working on the rooms. The bedroom would be amazing. I grew the bed into the shape of hands. Leaves and vines grew into the shapes of pillows and blankets. Flowers grew up around the windows. Moss covered the floor in lush carpet.

I decided to put different types of fruits and vegetables in the kitchen. Lorelai could eat from her garden. It was going to be great.

========================================================================

Lorelai was outside in the outer village. It began as a low buzz. So low you couldn’t even hear it. You could only feel it.

The sound rose higher and higher. Eventually the entire area was covered by the sound of humming.

Lorelai looked up towards the tree. “Is Treebo humming.”

The blue ant that was following her everywhere simply said. “Tree happy.”