It had just reached noon, the sun was at its highest point in the sky as its rays shone down onto the earth, a pleasant warmth was accompanying the calming breeze. The weather in Vrasus’ domain was normally rather mild; most days it was sunny and clear with the occasional rainy day, but never was it scorching hot or cold enough to produce snow. Today was one of the warmest days and it could be seen on the elves elated faces. Many had a slight shine to their skin from a light layer of sweat and were enjoying the very pleasant weather, probably the best they had had since arriving. Perhaps it was the stress of recent events getting to them, or perhaps it was just a part of their culture and how they were as a people, regardless of the reason, today they were largely without worry, relaxing and enjoying the sun’s rays to their fullest whilst they were there.

The elves might have had smiles on their faces and appeared to be full of bliss, but there was one being observing them who wasn’t so jubilant.

As it turns out, learning a language is boring.

Indeed, Vrasus had spent the first half of the day so far trying to grasp their language with little success. He had picked up a few phrases which were commonly used and for a few others he could guess some of their meaning, such as this word being a greeting or this phrase part of some ritualized activity. But there were other examples which, other than the fact they were used, he could find absolutely no meaning for. Some words were even more obscure; what he thought meant one thing was suddenly used where it made no sense. There was only two things Vrasus determined for sure in the past few hours of work; learning a language was difficult, and it was boring.

Especially when you have no idea where to start.

In truth though, the old tree was rather fortunate in his abilities. Although it felt like he had made little progress, in truth Vrasus had many advantages which made the job far easier for himself. The fact that his senses reached across the entirety of the village meant he could analyse all the conversations that were taking place, giving him a wealth of information to work with. His mind also had what could best be described as an elastic property, allowing him to process all of this information simultaneously. To a certain extent anyway.

He knew he was in the hardest part of learning right now; once he got some basic phrases and words down figuring out the rest of the conversations would be far easier. It was only learning some basic words so he could get context of the rest of the conversation which Vrasus was having trouble on and it would be far easier if he had a teacher. It’s not like he wasn’t making progress of course, but regardless he was frustrated.

Just get on with it.

Letting out a mental sigh, the old tree got back to work. It was very tedious for him, but by the end of the day Vrasus had managed to get many basic phrases down. Although most of the conversations of the elves were a mystery, at least the basic topic could somewhat be picked up at this point. Provided it was a more common topic of course. He had also managed to pick up many a name, some of which he strived to remember.

Sadly, just as he had finally reached this point and was ready to start delving deeper into the language, the day had ended and the elves were preparing to sleep. But instead of being frustrated at this Vrasus was actually relieved; he really wasn’t the quiet study type. He could do it but by no means would he enjoy it.

Whilst celebrating the end of his working day (and catching a final phrase which he was ninety percent sure meant goodnight) Vrasus noticed one thing which dismayed him. It was Sera; she had just gone to bed and appeared restless again, like her night terrors had returned. Vrasus knew of course that yesterday’s little ceremony wouldn’t be enough to cure the poor girl; she had been through a very traumatic event after all, but he had hoped it would stave of the terrors for longer than this, or perhaps make them an isolated incident, but instead it seemed like it only gave her a single night of relief.

Whilst this was saddening, Vrasus thought that perhaps he was too naïve in his hopefulness. The attack was very recent after all, and time is often the only cure for such wounds. Thinking about it again perhaps it would be strange if she was so easily healed. With this thought in his mind he pulled his senses away from her home and back out onto the village at large.

Watching the village begin its nightly slumber Vrasus let out a tired sigh. Mental exhaustion would be far too strong a word to describe what he felt but he was hardly experienced in this sort of thinking intensive activity, and so whilst what he was feeling was nothing compared to when he had saved Sera, Vrasus still relaxed for a time after the sun set, simply enjoying the moons rays upon his leaves and the refreshing breeze on his bark.

This state didn’t last long though; it only took a few hours for him to turn restless once again. He might not have enjoyed the hours of studying but one thing Vrasus was not was a procrastinator, and although he couldn’t work on language at the time he was still in a fair crisis in terms of information, so the tree turned his mind towards the land once again.

He wasn’t quite sure what he was looking for this time. He had already investigated the wildlife and found little point going back to that; there simply wasn’t much there. So instead Vrasus decided on just glancing over everything and following wherever his mind took him, hoping to make a surprise discovery. Perhaps a waste of time but who knows, he thought it was better than doing nothing.

Vrasus spent a few minutes observing the bright insects living amongst his branches, then observed some encampments of Earthen Ones and Plain ones before mentally diving into both rivers and the earth itself, until eventually he simply spent time feeling the flows of energy in the earth. He hadn’t had a good look at these yet, both due to having higher priorities and also because originally he believed there wasn’t much to see beyond the obvious, the myriad of random, shifting colours, but now as he spent time bathing his mind within the flows he felt there was more to be found. At first it seemed chaotic and muddled but as time went by he found far more was to be seen here than what it looked like on the surface.

The masses of energy, previously a blurry mess now became defined, gaining direction and its own vibrant, uniform colouring. There were uncountable flows, each its own type of energy, and each surrounded by uncountable other flows, superimposed in some impossibly complicated system. No more did it look like a simple puddle of various paints but instead a semblance of underlying order could be felt, and eventually the flows revealed their true form.

Rivers.

Beautiful, stunningly vibrant rivers.

Vast numbers of what appeared to be beautiful rivers flowed in every direction, and that wasn’t all. There wasn’t just some all-encompassing energy which flowed in the land but countless different types which bled into one another. Here there was a river of emerald which was wider than Vrasus was tall, elsewhere a stream of azure which was barely larger than a real river. Some of the rivers flowed uniformly whilst others pulsed according to some rhythm. Some of the rivers moved fast, traversing the enormity of Vrasus’ territory in but a moment whilst others leisurely moved along at a turtles pace. Some rivers moved straight across the land unyielding, whilst others twisted and turned, changing like the breeze. What’s more the rivers flowed side by side with each other, threading over and under and sometimes even through other flows. Vrasus was only able to catch glimpses of each before it would be obscured by a myriad other colourful rivers, but what he could see of this ever changing canvas enchanted him.

Beautiful.

Within this chaotic order Vrasus also saw a specific variety of flows which included red rivers of blood, dark streams of iron, and everything in between. It seemed to him that these flows collectively made up what he had called the earthen energies before. They appeared more vivid than the other streams and bled into each other more, seeming more real, like they were closer to the physical world than those other, almost ghostly streams which existed beside them.

Eventually Vrasus seemed to hit a wall in terms of how well he could see the flows. Truthfully, although he knew that the ethereal looking rivers were separate, distinct, and could catch glimpses of them individually, sadly Vrasus couldn’t make any sense of them. He knew that there was some form of order to be found here in some way but all he saw was chaos, there was simply too much to see, so much that following any one flow was far too difficult for him.

This difficulty didn’t even feel like it was something just out of reach. Vrasus could barely even make out that there was something more going on, but making out the detailed flows, following them and noting their interactions, their effects. This wasn’t just a little out of his abilities.

It’s impossible.

Still it’s not like he was disheartened. In fact it was very humbling, observing the majesty of the natural world in such a way, and Vrasus was very pleased with his discovery. Observing these seemingly chaotic flows was very therapeutic; they had a calming effect on Vrasus, like his psyche was being bathed in them, washing away his worries and clearing his thoughts. It didn’t seem to be incredibly beneficial but there was definitely a positive effect, and it was certainly a pleasant experience. What’s more, the red and brown conglomeration of flows which made up the earthen energies seemed to almost react to his examination, like they had some hidden affinity to him which he couldn’t quite grasp but knew was present.

He spent a short time admiring the flows of energy before reluctantly pulling some of his mind away from them. Although investigating the flows more was certainly on his to do list, it was another long term effort. They didn’t seem to have anything more to teach him immediately, but he still left a section of his mind within them. Vrasus planned on always keeping a part of himself submerged within them, to grow used to them and acclimate himself to their presence. He wasn’t sure exactly what he could gain, but felt certain this would be beneficial in the future.

After retrieving the majority of his consciousness away from the energies he thought about what to do next. The flows were only a short venture and he still had much of the night to waste before the elves awoke and he had to continue his study of their language. The old tree turned his mental view outwards to his domain again.

But when Vrasus saw the sun high in the sky, he was dumbfounded.