It was the third day since the Great Trees awakening. The Green Child, as the Great Tree had come to call the girl, had spent the entire day after the incident refusing to eat, drink or sleep, obviously incredibly traumatized. Of course, such a state could not hold up indefinitely, and towards the end of the day, almost twenty-four hours since the attack, she had finally succumbed to exhaustion and fell into a deep sleep. Since then she had improved somewhat; although still eating very little and having experienced night terrors in what little sleep she got, this was still a definite improvement to the complete inactivity of previously. Given time, she should recover enough to at least properly function.

In the meantime the Great Tree had continued to explore its new capabilities. It had learned a great deal about the land it lived in, noticing that the familiar energies within the soil, which nourished itself, grew weaker the further they were from its hill, as well as sensing that the energies seemed to come from deep beneath the earth. Curious, the Great Tree fused its mind into the earth, sending its consciousness as deep as it could. Soil turned to stone, the energies present becoming stronger and denser. Eventually, at the very limits of what it could sense, even flame was beginning to appear, the earth growing soft from the heat, but still the Great Tree could not find whatever the source was.

One thing which it did find very odd however was that its own roots pierced down even deeper than this point, beyond its own senses, at the same time funnelling up vast amounts of earthly energies. Evidently they had either found the source of these energies, or gotten close enough to absorb vast amounts. What was really troubling was that a part of its own body was beyond its own sight, but in the end they had been like this for many hundreds of years without consequence, in fact bringing many benefits, so at least for the close future it would be safe to put this problem aside.

Another strange point which had occurred to the Great Tree was the behaviour of the Plain One himself. More accurately, why was the man so determined to get to the Green Child? Thinking back to the behaviour of all Plain Ones it had observed in its many years, it quickly noticed a pattern.

When Plain Ones encountered Earthen Ones, if the odds seemed against them then more often than not they would quickly retreat. On the other hand, when they obtained victory the strongest few Earthen Ones would be killed in the battle but quite often the weaker individuals would be captured and brought with the Plain Ones when they left the Great Trees domain, the same direction from which they arrived. In fact, after some thinking about their behaviour, it almost seemed that the purpose of many of the Plain Ones entering these lands was exactly to capture Earthen Ones. These activities caused a new word to emerge from deep within the Great Trees mind.

Slavers.

Although it wasn’t sure where this term came from, the Great Tree did know what it meant. If this hypothesis was true, it also explained the hostility between the Plain Ones and other inhabitants of the land; even though it did not seem that all of the Plain Ones were slavers, it would certainly still give them a bad name.

This could also explain why the Plain One was so determined to capture the Green Child. Normally in battle the Green Ones were very elusive and just as deadly as Earthen Ones, so long as they were within the forest anyways, and as such, taking them alive was almost impossible. But this was not the case for children. If Green One slaves were as rare as the Great Tree believed then it was likely that they were highly valued just based on this alone. As such the determination of the Plain One slaver to capture the child, even when faced with the resistance of the Great Tree, could be understood. Sadly, in the end there was no immediate way to find out for sure if this hypothesis was true, and the Great Tree had more immediate concerns.

How should I deal with the Green Ones from now on?

The first day after killing the Plain One, the Great Tree had observed several Green Ones arriving upon its hill from their village. At first it was confused, why they would return to a scene where such violence had taken place; most wildlife would simply avoid seemingly dangerous areas. Soon though, it realised that they were trying to investigate more precisely what had actually happened that day.

Presumably, some of what had happened was gotten out of the child, but even something as simple as “roots attacked the man like snakes then a tree fell on him” would certainly raise more questions than answers. The branch happening to fall directly on her pursuer and miraculously saving her could be considered luck, but that wasn’t all that happened, and the Great Tree was sure that the Green Child wasn’t completely unaware of her surroundings no matter how scared she was. If a more detailed statement was given to her brethren that would just confuse them even more.

Hence, the Green Ones decided an investigation was in order. It was also at this point the Great Tree was reminded once more that these creatures were far smarter than simple beasts; this was obvious just from the fact that they had a spoken language, in fact they also buried the corpses of the slain from the battle which the Green Child fled from, holding a small ceremony, but in the end everything seemed so small in comparison to itself and so such things were often forgotten. This also reminded the Great Tree of something else.

I should probably learn their words pretty soon.

Back to the topic at hand though, once the investigation team had arrived the first thing they had done was, rather cautiously, approach the dismembered branch. Quite some time was spent focusing just on probing the branch, at one point they even tied a rope around it in an attempt to extract it from the crater. They failed of course, rather terribly in fact; from long years of nourishing, even after being severed the branch was still immensely tough and similarly heavy. The Green Ones couldn’t even budge the branch, nor separate it into smaller parts, which they also tried.

In the end, other than taking some of the severed thread-like roots which littered the ground and a few splinters of the dismembered branch back with them, they did not accomplish much. Still though a few more also visited on the second day, probably from curiosity.

Now it was the end of the third day. Again a few Green Ones had visited throughout the day, but it seemed the interest had almost worn off at this point. Night was arriving and the Great Tree was sure that its interactions with the Green Ones would end soon, but then, just as the sun was about to set, something unexpected happened in the nearby village.

Normally by now, the Green Ones would have retired and begun preparing to sleep. This was not out of necessity; the Green Ones seemed almost as good at traversing the forests during the night as the day, instead they simply seemed to prefer sleeping during the night, with only a few of their number keeping watch as an exception. But at this moment, a group of eight Green Ones were leaving the village. It was unusual for a single Green One to be leaving just as the sun was going down, let alone this many.

Also strange was the group itself, which was made up of the Green One with the bright aura, the Green Child and the two Green Ones it believed to be her family, making up all of the Green Ones which were present in the room back then, as well as another four individuals, one of which was the other youngling present in the building, likely another relative of the Green Child. The Bright One was holding the Green Child’s hand and speaking to her, and she herself had a determined expression on her face whilst clutching an odd but pretty object close to her chest. It seemed to the Great Tree that she was coming of her own decision, which was strange because of how traumatized she had still been acting lately.

What are they doing…?

The rest of the Green Ones present were showing mixtures of nervousness and anticipation, whilst discussing unknown subjects. The Great Tree felt it likely that this group’s purpose was similar to the earlier investigations, seemingly confirmed when it was shown that they were heading in its direction. What was of note in comparison to the earlier investigations was of course the fact that the Bright One and Green Child were coming this time.

Usually the Bright One remained within the village. From what the Great Tree could gather he seemed to be a leader of some sort, or at least a figure of high authority. What was also not forgotten was its own interaction with the Bright One in the past; back before their village had been built he had sent some sort of a pulse of its own aura throughout the Great Trees body. Back then this had been of no consequence, but now that may not be the case.

Although it wasn’t sure why, the Great Tree found it very likely that the Bright One would find something different if it tried the same method as last time, but as to exactly what would happen it had no clue. Furthermore it was certain that trying to resist or trick the strange pulse would be ineffective, or possible make it even more obvious that something was wrong.

Can’t avoid this huh?

Not that the Great Tree felt that it was in danger at this point, but it felt certain that what was about to happen would change its daily life. Really it simply wished it had more time of peace and quiet to grow used to its new abilities, after all it was not a few days ago that it had been incapable of higher thought.

At this point the group had just reached the top of the hill, and the Great Tree was preparing itself for whatever was about to happen. They paused next to the crater, most showing some shock on their face at observing the devastating scene for the first time, but the leading Bright One and Green Child did not have as strong a reaction nor stop for more than a few seconds. Quickly they looked forward again, their eyes falling upon the Great Tree before them.

The small girl was hiding behind the Bright One, clinging to him but also showing determination on her face as she peeked out towards the immense being before her. At this point the Bright One whispered some hushed words to her whilst patting her head, comforting her, before handing her to a female Green One at the side, the one which helped him comfort her a few days prior. After this was done, he took a step forwards and begun moving towards the Great Tree.

The Bright One looked rather different when compared to others of his race. Most Green Ones wore strange leather-like fitted clothing, but instead he wore a long and loose robe. Both types of clothing seemed made of the same materials, in an autumn-like red colour and with patterns as if made of giant leaves, yet thicker, like animal skin, the clothes were practical; warm, sturdy and making good camouflage in the nearby woodlands.

On the second day the Great Tree had investigated these clothes further and made a surprising discovery: the materials used were actually truly made of leaves. Each leaf was highly unusual; large and far thicker than normal, with an ever so slight but still noticeable layer of hairs present on the outer side. Reminded of the ways that the Green Ones used their aura to change and morph the shape of trees in order to create some of their homes, the Great Tree found it likely that they used a similar method to create their clothing. After investigating more many essentials in the Green Ones lives seemed dependent on this ability, such as food and medicine whose growths were accelerated.

Other than clothing, further differences could be seen between the Bright One and other Green Ones. All others of his race had smooth and pale skin, along with long smooth hair which varied in colours from dark green, like the female Green One at the side, to a bright blond, like the Green Child’s hair. On the other hand, the Bright One’s own skin was wrinkled, his hair an aged white, although still long and smooth. This was actually the Great Tree’s first time seeing wrinkles at all, even the Earthen Ones and Plain Ones it had seen which had signs of age were nowhere near this obvious, most still seeming in their prime. Only a few other Green Ones back in the village which the Great Tree hadn’t observed similarly showed the ravages of time, and this was the first time it had truly looked at the Bright One in front of it.

Looking up with small yet bright eyes towards the canopy far above, the Bright One hesitated for a short moment, before extending his hand towards the Great Tree.