As it turns out, Vrasus didn’t actually bother waiting for the sun to rise before starting his studies. Instead, bored of wasting time and determined to make progress, he quickly began mentally cataloguing the different types of wildlife in the area. He didn’t expect this to be terribly useful information, but after his recent experiences he realised he didn’t really know where he should be looking, so it was worth a quick glance at least.

Not like I’m doing anything else at the moment.

It was after all the middle of the night. Although the change to night did make the tree more relaxed in a way, he didn’t need to sleep at all. At the moment the elves were sleeping so he was unable to try learning their language, but as he didn’t want to waste time he decided on this instead.

The very first thing he decided on investigating were those closest to himself; his brethren trees. Vrasus had wanted to investigate his cousins for some time now. Why was it that he suddenly gained awareness whilst they remained the same? Is there any sign of another tree growing intelligence? Are there any other significant differences between himself and his cousins? Sadly he had been preoccupied previously, but now for the first time he had a chance to check this out.

He started with a quick glance over all the forests which made up his domain, anywhere he was able to sense was observed. Immediately Vrasus noticed the variations in the earthen energies between his cousins. At the very edge of his senses, almost seventy kilometres away by his estimation, the trees were very different to what he knew. They were far smaller, feeble, and their colours were a darker green on the leaves with brown bark. They had barely a sliver of the brown and red vibrant energies which existed in the soil, and the reason for this was of course the energies themselves were very weak in the soil this far away.

Vrasus quickly guessed that this green and weak state was the more normal state that himself and his cousins should have. This also explained why many of the elves which he saw wore green clothes originally; this was good camouflage where they came from. Of course the elves which settled near him had begun changing to a more autumn like red based palette only days after arriving, a transition which was completed long ago, in order to match their new home.

As the trees got closer to Vrasus’ own position, they began to change, resembling his own self more. Hints of red appeared on the leaves and bark, and they got stronger and taller. Around fifty kilometres away they appeared more red than green, and at forty kilometres the transition to the red colouring was complete. Ten kilometres away, each tree appeared like a miniature version of Vrasus, around double the height of their unaltered brethren, with bark as strong as steel. Right at the very centre, seemingly too precise to be accidental, was Vrasus himself.

Are they like that because of me? Or am I how I am just because I was lucky to grow here?

Although Vrasus was unable to answer this question, he suspected it was the later. He may have vast quantities of the earthly energies which permeated the land within him, but he was pretty certain he wasn’t the source. That, whatever it was, existed far below the earth. It was possible that because he was planted in this spot he had been nourished by these energies to the extent that he became what he now was. He found this possibility to be the most likely one, but couldn’t say for sure and thought up some other, alternative possibilities.

Thinking back to the fact his roots reached down into the earth even further than he could sense, Vrasus thought that there was a possibility that he was ‘shuttling’ the energies from the source to the surface. Perhaps the source was just the earth itself and that the energies existed anywhere if one went deep enough. That because he had grown so large and his roots dug so deep, he had come across these energies. Then as his roots were absorbing the energies he had also spread them into the land as a side effect. Of course this doesn’t explain how he was so large in the first place, but the fact that there are multiple possibilities meant Vrasus decided to keep an open mind.

Other than inspecting the flora, Vrasus also observed the fauna of the land, but there wasn’t a huge amount to see when ignoring the Elves, Earthen Ones and Plain Ones. A large variety of insects and furred critters could be found across the forest. Other than that there were also various feathered creatures which littered the sky during the day, and a smaller population of larger scaled flying animals which he believed preyed on the other inhabitants of the forest, but even these would only come up to about an elf’s thigh in height and so weren’t very dangerous.

The energies of the land did seem to seep into the food chain of the lands fauna, making them somewhat stronger the closer they were to Vrasus, but even with this strength they were still hardly a threat to an elf let alone Vrasus himself, so the immense tree soon lost interest in smaller beings, bar one exception.

There were several hives of a certain insect to be found amongst Vrasus’ own branches. The species was actually found all across the forest; a small flying creature, seemingly a cross between a firefly and a wasp which lighted up the forest in a calm blue glow during the night. The ones which could be found on Vrasus however were different. They instead glowed a blood red and had powerful jaws which were easily enough to break through the toughest stone, a required strength to feed on the small amounts of Vrasus’ sap that they could get to.

Suffice to say the small beings were hardly a nuisance; if they were Vrasus would have noticed them by now. He couldn’t even feel it when they fed. But the fact that they were able to harm his body, regardless of the tiny levels of said harm, sill brought forth some concern at first. After a quick investigation though, he quickly determined they were of no threat.

The insects were simply too small and even with their immense power for their size it was still a huge effort to break his bark. Vrasus guessed that these specific insects could likely practically swim through the bodies of his cousins if they were so inclined, not to mention the fleshy bodies of animals, but it took days of work to dig deep enough into his body for them to feed (although once done many would be able to feed from that one hole). In the end Vrasus decided on leaving them be, firstly because they were harmless but there was also another reason.

These insects had been with him his entire life. Even in his earliest memories he could see their scarlet glow in the moonlight, and the only way that they could grow to have such power in their tiny bodies was by growing alongside him. The blue insects of the same species simply couldn’t feed on Vrasus no matter how they tried, but these red counterparts grew powerful alongside him. They first arrived when he was little different than his smaller cousins and as he became larger and tougher they fed on his sap and grew more powerful to keep up with him.

It was in this realisation that Vrasus found a sentimental attachment to these insects. Despite their short lives, tiny bodies and tinier brains, he felt more attachment to a species which quite literally fed on him than he did to his actual cousins. Although he found it silly he couldn’t help himself, and so decided on remaining passive about these little friends of his.

That sums up everything I can do at the moment. Good timing too.

Indeed, although he hadn’t found much of worth in his investigations so far, he was very thorough, even if said thoroughness did end up being pointless that was just how Vrasus was. If you’re going to do something you might as well do it properly, and this had a lucky side effect; just as he was finishing the sun was starting to rise, which meant that soon the elves would awaken.

And I can finally begin getting some real answers.

Hey guys sorry about the delay, whilst I have been lazy the main problem is I was putting off editing my mostly finished chapters, then before I know it its been so long since the last update :/

Good news is I'm halfway through editing the next chapter so it shouldn't be too long until next update. Once again sorry for the delay, gonna try to tell myself to be more consistent with editing from now on xD