”You sure do worry about her a lot.” Sorbus pointed out after catching Xamiliere yet again staring longingly in the direction they had come from, where the meeting between the necromancer and three spriggans was taking place. “Those three aren’t going to do anything now that they’ve finally got a necromancer in front of them after all this time.”

The reassurances did very little to ease Xamiliere’s mind. “I’m less worried about them starting anything and more about them convincing Anna of the nonsense you morons believe.” She said gruffly and kept trying to peek over the roots.

“We don’t believe anything and you know that. Faith and belief are the stuff for gods, not us.” Sorbus responded lazily, not really seeking to defend anyone’s position on anything, but wanting to still give their own opinion.

“Do I know that? Last time I checked, we just woke up one day and decided what our purpose was. No one has ever told us a fucking thing about how close to truth any of it is. The balance is a made-up concept that will not and can not speak or even act directly, and the grove may be where we came from, but not once has it signaled any kind of intent or opinion about anything. It’s just as likely that we were bored in the early days of the world and came up with convoluted bullshit to pretend like we mattered.” Xamiliere ranted out of frustration with the situation, also not looking to get into any kind of an argument but inadvertently steering towards one anyway. “In comparison, a literal god descended down from whatever the fuck plane they normally stew in and stared at me with her horrifying vacuous eyes while cursing me for who knows what reason. At least the people turning to gods know there’s someone out there, even if it’s some kind of a fucked-up gremlin of a divine being. All you do is yammer on about the balance and hope that gets you anywhere before the world ends.”

Sorbus shrugged. “Well, that’s not going to be a popular opinion here, don’t think you should be too loud about it.”

“Or what? I’ll get exiled? I’m already on the shitlist of everyone in this place.” Xamiliere laughed mockingly.

“Not everyone’s….” Muttered Sorbus before changing subject to something that wouldn’t cause any more comments that would invoke hostility if overheard by the wrong nature spirits. “So, how exactly did you go about charming the necromancer in the first place? I tried and just this shape wasn’t enough.”

The speed at which Xamiliere’s hand grabbed onto Sorbus’ throat caused her shoulder to let out an uncomfortable crunch as the wooden joint wasn’t quite limber enough and snapped partly. “You did what?” She asked and menacingly stared at her fellow spirit.

“I did the whole hand on leg and lean in routine to try out this shape, mostly because I don’t really know any others. It didn’t work and she didn’t take her clothes off so I learned fuck all from the whole thing.” Explained Sorbus, completely unintimidated by the glare.

“I swear to fuck, if one of you bastards lays so much as one of your grubby branches on her, I will burn this entire fucking place down and drown what’s left in salt.” Xamiliere threatened, fully intending to go through with it.

“Don’t do that, please.” Sorbus asked nicely while trying to free themselves from Xamiliere’s grasp. “I would think she’s more than capable of refusing any approaches on her own, assuming she wants to, of course.”

Xamiliere loosened her grasp and pushed Sorbus away without saying anything but with an awkward frown on her face. She gave up on trying to peek on the meeting and instead sat down by a tree and buried her face in her hands.

Innocently trying their best to decipher the situation, Sorbus leaned against the same tree to ponder. “Might that be exactly what worries you? That someone here catches her eye?” They suggested and kept an eye on the reaction she received. The annoyed glare and continuing silence confirmed their theory in the next few moments. “Well, would it help if I said that my aims are elsewhere? Naturally, I can’t help if my irresistible personality charms her, but I only saw it as an opportunity to practice, and I think she knows that as well.”

“She’s not like that, and I shouldn’t worry… She’s just… curious.” Xamiliere mumbled a response without lifting her head. “And I’m just being greedy. No matter what you knotheads think, to her, we’re just friends. Back home I feel like I’m the third or even the fourth wheel at best. I don’t keep my intentions secret at all, but sometimes I think she’s gotten too used to it and I just missed my chance – or I just went about it in a wrong way.”

“There’s a timing I need to worry about? I can’t really help you with any of that since I know fuck all about any of this, but it does sound awfully complicated.” Sorbus shrugged and slowly slid down to sit next to the other spriggan. “I guess it’s not surprise that a future ruler has suitors outside of you, but it’s hard to believe any of them would stand a chance against you in any sense.”

“It’s a mess.” Xamiliere groaned hopelessly. “I know there’s no way I’ll ever be the only one in her heart, she’s just not built that way – and I’m fine with that, I really am… I just don’t want to lose entirely. There’s this King guy as well… if I got half the attention he gets, I’d probably just explode. They even share a room for fuck’s sake! Any time I try anything, she basically takes it as a joke!”

Sorbus was paying as much attention as they could while trying to figure out if there was anything they could use for their own mysterious purposes. “You sure have some weird worries. Have you considered just telling her what you’re thinking? You’d at least get an answer out of her that way.” They suggested.

Xamiliere lifted her head slowly and stared at her fellow spirit in horror. “That’s a completely insane thing to do. There’s a whole song and dance when it comes to this sort of thing with people, just blurting out something like that will put them off.”

Sorbus let out an incomprehensible but no doubt extremely annoyed sound directly from the green energy in their chest. “Why is this so damn complicated?! First, I need to be people-shaped, then the shape isn’t accurate enough, then I’m somehow supposed to get clothes to hide some parts of the people-shape, then I have to fucking hope that it’s the right kind of people shape because tastes are apparently somehow a factor even when all people look the same, then I have to figure out a way to approach that isn’t just ‘appearing from the woods’ and now I hear that being direct about things is wrong and I need to learn some bullshit ritual to not put them off! Here I thought I was getting lucky for once by running into you two but no! All I get is this confusing garbage! Would it kill people to actually make sense for once?!” They suddenly ranted and flailed their arms in impotent rage.

Immediately putting her own woes and doubts on hold, Xamiliere listened to the spriggan’s gripes and couldn’t help but to get curious about the whole thing. “Sorbus… what exactly is it that you’re trying to do?”

Realizing what they were doing, Sorbus froze for a moment while trying to figure out if they had revealed anything they didn’t want to. “None of your business.” They finally muttered angrily.

An awkward silence fell between the two, both curious about each other’s problems for their own reasons but not really friendly enough with each other to say anything about it. Xamiliere definitely intrigued about what the fox was up to and why exactly had Anastacia told her to help them with their body, but at the same time, she had her own worries and the goals she wanted to focus on. Meanwhile Sorbus was keen on learning more, but feared that there would only be more complicated things to uncover that would only add to the confusion.

“I guess, to answer your question, I don’t know if I have charmed her – I don’t know if she knows whether I’ve done that or not. Anna is not the most coherent person to try to understand, even by herself.” Xamiliere finally broke the silence after a while. “Part of the reason I brought her here is to figure that out… Without the competition present. You know, to make a case for myself without distractions, because she gets very distracted very easily.”

“How will you know that it has worked?” Sorbus asked.

What little posture Xamiliere had left collapsed as she leaned back to look at the treetops. “With her, your guess is as good as mine.”

Still getting used to the new body, Sorbus flopped on their side and tried to curl into a ball, something she used to do as a fox. “Well, my guess would be that it has already worked, but I think it’s been established that all of this is way beyond me. But Acacia also thought so, and you can’t hide shit from that one, so I’d give some weight to them thinking you two were an item.”

“Huh… I guess that’s true.” Xamiliere admitted, how and why Acacia could interpret the smallest of hints in anything was a mystery to everyone, but they were rarely wrong on anything and their estimations certainly carried some weight. “And we’ve only gotten here, so I have at least a couple of days to figure this out.”

“Sure, do say so if you need any help though. I could just ask her too, not like I need to give a damn.” Sorbus offered and disappointedly got back up after finding out that they needed to learn a new position to rest in.

Surprised by the seemingly sincere offer, Xamiliere smiled faintly. “Thanks, you too. I don’t know what you’re up to, but remember that I hate every single one of these fuckers and your secrets would leave this place with me – hopefully for good this time.”

Considerably more surprised that the rogue nature spirit would so much as thank another spriggan and much less offer any kind of help, Sorbus stared at her with a somewhat accurately baffled look on their new face. “I… ummm…” They mumbled, stopped, took a good look at the surroundings as if they were dealing with some world altering secrets before finally leaning in closer to Xamiliere to whisper. “Okay, so… There’s a person, a man – I think.”

“What?!... How have you even met one?” Xamiliere almost exclaimed before covering her mouth and lowering her tone.

“Strictly speaking, I haven’t met them. I’ve been lurking in the underbrush like I always do. I want to meet them, but I have no idea how to even speak to a person. Hence the practice and all of this.” Sorbus explained, constantly keeping a vigilant eye on the surroundings.

“Okay.” Xamiliere nodded and tried to wrap her head around the idea of why any spriggan would want to meet a person. “You’re going to need to tell me a bit more, starting with how does any of this happen and why do you even want this?”

Nervously rubbing their hands together, Sorbus once more peered in every direction for a while before answering. “Alright, so I’ve been working on this nice little glade for a while now, a really nice spot, not far from a lake, amazing soil, nowhere near cities. A couple of years ago, I was occupied with another spot for a few months, and while I was away, this little cabin thing appeared by the lake. At first, I was worried that it was all fucked, people would burn the whole fucking place and make one of their boring fields, hunt every animal and empty the lake of fish like they always do – but no, all he did is make a small little garden behind the cabin. Every now and then he does some fishing or hunting, but nowhere near enough to disturb the balance. Mostly he just gathers this and that when he’s out, but really it hasn’t affected my plans in the slightest, I’ve got way more berries and mushrooms going on in there than he could ever eat. Also, since he’s been so weirdly thoughtful for a person, I’ve done a bit of this and that to make sure the garden bears a bit more fruit than it would otherwise, scared some suitable animals closer to his hunting trails and so on… Anyway, so I’ve been checking up on him here and there, once a month, maybe once a week… But every time he just seems kind of sad for some reason, and I was thinking I could maybe meet him and see if I could help with whatever it is. I don’t want him to leave… because he’s a part of my glade now, of course, and it’s my duty to watch over my glade…”

Xamiliere couldn’t help but to smile at the awkwardness of the spriggan before her. “That’s adorable.”

“No, it’s not!” Sorbus hissed. “Unlike you, some of us actually take pride in our duty and actually want to do it properly.”

“Right, right.” Xamiliere chuckled and moved right next to Sorbus to better indulge on the juicy secret she had learned. “Why don’t you tell me a bit more about this particular part of your ‘duty’, so that I can get a better image of what we’re dealing with. Tall? Handsome? Young? Must be on the hardy side if he lives alone in the woods… I need details!”

Surprised by the interest in their troubles and the sudden change for the warmer in the other spriggan’s attitude towards them, Sorbus accidentally sprouted a couple of leaves atop their head and became ever so slightly less wary of anyone overhearing them. “Well, he’s taller than the necromancer but shorter than most trees, shorter fur on the head too, wears clothes almost always, seems pretty strong for a person, works very hard, only uses already dead trees and fallen branches for fires, likes blueberries, sometimes he goes on a trip for a day with some dried plants and stuff he has made and comes back with food and such… Oh and he’s terrible at sleeping, only really gets maybe four hours of sleep most nights. I think sleeping might hurt him though, he always wakes up suddenly and looks exhausted – sometimes he even screams.” They listed off things almost none of which had anything to do with what had really been asked, but were the main things they had paid attention to.

“Sounds like a bit of a weirdo, but not like I have much room to comment about that.” Xamiliere said. She hadn’t really gotten anything useful out of the answer, but also realized that Sorbus simply didn’t care about the aspects of a person other people usually paid attention to. Spriggans recognized each other by their spirits and looks only really served functional purposes. Spirits who were likely to solve matters by force and were capable of doing so, naturally grew into the shapes of predators suitable for such behavior while the more mild-mannered spirits took the forms of more peaceful creatures. This was the reason many in the grove took issue with Xamiliere preferring the shape of a person, as it only served the purpose of getting along with people for them, which to them was the complete opposite of aiding the balance.

“So how come you haven’t tried to approach them on your own? People who live alone in the woods shouldn’t be all too timid.” She inquired more.

“You’d think so, but every time he so much as a hears a bush rustle, he goes for the sword he always carries and leaves in a hurry.” Sorbus shrugged. “I figured it’s best if I learn how to approach a person first.”

“Are you sure he’s not just a massive coward?” Xamiliere pointed out jokingly. “I don’t think you need to worry about this as much as you seem to, but there’s a few things that come to mind as something we might want to do… depending on what exactly is it that you want.”

Sorbus pondered for a while, trying to figure out what exactly was it that they wanted. “I just want to… help him. I don’t think anyone should be miserable or alone in my grove… We could talk about things everyone here won’t talk about, I could show him the foxes there and we could pet them, maybe we could even do some people stuff…”

“Riiiight… ‘people stuff’.” Xamiliere snickered. “I think we should throw Anna at the problem and go from there.”

“The necromancer? I’m honestly pretty keen on him staying alive, so I don’t really think that’d help.” Sorbus declined the suggestion.

“At the risk of making my own tastes seem questionable: Anna is… let’s say eccentric, and able to befriend the oddest of things. She’s unassuming and doesn’t look threatening in the slightest, but can safely handle the situation if she does end up scaring the poor lad – but more importantly, she’s kind of bland-looking by people’s standards and I think possibly incapable of thinking much of any living person. So, even if she is to meet this guy, there’s no way she’d be stepping on your toes.” Xamiliere explained her rough plan. “So, you take her into this glade of yours, she goes to scout the guy out a bit, ask some questions, maybe mention you in a positive light. We can then redo this mess of a body you’ve lifted off Anna into something more interesting, because like I said, her looks don’t get her far in these types of things. After that, she can even introduce you to him in a non-surprising manner that’ll get you started!”

Sorbus was still hesitant to let someone else in on their secret, but couldn’t deny the fact that having another person there would remove a lot of the confusions they still had about meeting people and address the issues they were hesitant about in the first place.

Xamiliere obviously knew that most of the worries Sorbus had were completely unfounded, even if the person in question was oddly timid. Despite their collective ability to do great harm, individual people were considered fearful and weak by the nature spirits, so she also knew exactly why the fox was going through such trouble to make sure they didn’t scare one away. She justified suggesting the convoluted and pointless plan by telling herself that it would be a shame for Sorbus’ hard work so far to be for nothing, but also shamelessly indulged in a chance to flaunt her expertise on people. The reason behind involving Anastacia was mostly an excuse to get her away from the other spriggan in the grove, even for a moment, but also because the necromancer could give her a more useful description of the person later – and Xamiliere was also sure that she wouldn’t be forgiven if Anastacia ever learned that she was left out of something so juicy.

In their lengthy deliberation following the suggestion, the two failed to keep an eye on their surroundings over their shared excitement. Their departure from the meeting had already been noted by the several spirits keeping an eye on the necromancer from afar, and while the presence of Ulmus, Acacia and Picea kept them from approaching her, the only two spriggans that had kept her company so far were now free to be interrogated or even chased off by anyone willing to challenge them. Not long after Xamiliere finally managed to convince Sorbus that it was a good idea to let Anastacia in on the secret, they were interrupted by the sound of a large wooden bear lumbering through the ferns towards them.

Sizable for a brown bear, though still not quite as large or imposing as Baccata, the ursine-shaped spriggan was a startling thing to suddenly notice, especially when it had somehow almost snuck up to the pair of schemers. Each of their legs was as thick as a tree trunk and their bulky body must have easily weighed upwards of a ton, there was no way either Xamiliere or Sorbus were going to even entertain the idea of trying to stand up to them if they absolutely didn’t have to – though neither of them doubted that it would likely happen anyway. As they scrambled up from the ground, they noticed several other spirits keeping an eye on the situation from the distance as well, just like they had kept watch over Anastacia before.

“Sorbus, I’ve noticed you’ve managed to slither your way into the good graces of the necromancer.” The bear spoke and stopped less than three meters away, pinning Sorbus against the tree with their presence. Not even bothering to glance at Xamiliere, they laid out their demands. “I would like for you to leave and give the necromancer the chance to meet the rest of us, before you ruin the reputation of this whole place with your tomfoolery.”

As was their response to a similar demand earlier, Sorbus wasn’t about to back down or give away what they had, at least in their eyes, legitimately claimed. “No thanks, the necromancer is mine. She’ll come to you if she wants to, but I’m not going anywhere.”

“So whatever it was that was left of your mind has finally rotten completely… Just like Baccata said. You’ve forgotten your place here, fox.” The bear sighed, trusting their size to provide some weight behind the words. “Why is it that you have that ridiculous guise anyway?”

Sorbus obviously couldn’t tell the real reason, so they came up with something that wasn’t technically a lie. “It’s the necromancer’s preference. Now, go take root elsewhere, we were having a conversation.”

The bear clearly took note of what had been said and inspected Sorbus’ new shape with a puzzled feel to their gaze, distant muttering could also be heard from the others following the answer. Xamiliere could immediately tell that it would only spell trouble, especially for her own goals, but she couldn’t exactly blame Sorbus for coming up with such a reason.

“That’s actually another thing I came to say.” The bear growled, looking past Sorbus at Xamiliere and changing their tone from vague threats to very apparent ones. “Houseplant, handle your business here swiftly and leave. Do not think we will let you trick Sorbus either, they’re an impressionable moron, but one of us nonetheless.”

“I’m not-“ Xamiliere tried to tiredly defend herself but was silenced by Sorbus speaking over her.

“What might you mean, Ocotea?” The fox asked in a way it was hard to figure out what they were thinking. “Trick me?”

Visibly disappointed their threat hadn’t just worked outright, the bear took a look at the other spriggans following the situation and mulled over whether it was worth it to even explain what they meant. “Look, Sorbus, it hasn’t been a day and you’ve already stood up to Baccata and now me – you’re clearly losing sight of your place in here. You’re a fox, meant to handle the little things with your little paws in your little meadows and glades, not whatever the fuck this is. I think it’s the houseplant slowly taking root in your simple mind. Soon enough they’ll have you rethink serving the balance and eventually abandon your little purpose in this world, just like they did. They’re nothing but a spiteful and rotten bit of driftwood, you know we can’t afford you becoming one as well.”

This was nothing Xamiliere hadn’t heard a million times over and it no longer got much of a reaction out of her, Ocotea themselves was also one of the usual culprits for saying such things back in the day and apparently still was. Disregarding such a relatively tame comment of her doings had become so easy that she almost forgot it as it was being said, especially when it was wholly untrue. She may not have been entirely open about all details with Sorbus, but not once had she aimed at wavering the spirit’s devotion to the balance, nor did she think she would be able to. However, she did catch herself worrying over Sorbus believing the accusation for a moment, but explained it away with her being invested in the situation they had been speaking about earlier more than anything else.

It was hard to tell what type of calculations Sorbus was running in their head when their expressions hardly corresponded with anything they were feeling. After finally sorting out their thoughts, Sorbus looked at Xamiliere with a delighted smirk. “Sorry…” They said quietly, almost whispering.

“Don’t worry about it.” Xamiliere sighed and leaned back against the tree to wait for Anastacia. She couldn’t help but to feel a bit disappointed, but she also knew exactly how strong the hold of the grove was on most spriggans. “Hope you can figure out that problem of yours, Anna will still probably help if you just ask.”

“Oh, not that, the plan is still on. It’s just that we’re about to have the sap beaten out of us.” Sorbus laughed with a fox-like giggle, grabbed a large rock from the ground and slamming it directly into the side of the bear’s head, screaming “Behold: hands!” along the way.

Ocotea had already considered themselves victorious in the matter and was in the process of turning away as the rock crashed into the side of their head. Sorbus, like any spriggan, was perfectly respectable when it came to physical strength, and the rock had no issues caving in almost half of the bear’s head, sending splinters flying and at least somewhat dazing Ocotea for a moment. The problem was that such an injury did absolutely nothing to actually hinder a nature spirit as sizable as Ocotea, but it did serve to immediately anger them beyond any chances for negotiations. As soon as the split second of confusion was over, the bear roared furiously and charged towards Sorbus. Xamiliere was equally caught off guard, but managed to reach out and grab Sorbus’ hand in an effort to try and pull them behind the tree. In a flash, thin but deceptively strong vines sprouted from her fingertips and wrapped around Sorbus’ wrist to strengthen her grasp, but by then it was already too late. Ocotea caught up to the fox, effortlessly swatting Sorbus several meters away with a swing of their mighty paw. The sound of Sorbus’ body basically snapping in two from the initial swing and the crunch of their arm snapping off from the shoulder sent shivers down the backs of every nature spirit watching the commotion.

Years and years of experience gave Xamiliere a certain advantage in that this was basically the type of thing she was used to. Dodging the swing meant to spread her wooden body across the area in a hail of splinters and kindling was not much of a trick to her, nor was goading the bear to ram into the tree behind her afterwards. Lacking other good options and feeling it appropriate, she quickly flipped Sorbus’ severed arm in her hand and used it to slap Ocotea’s rump before the arm shattered now that it was disconnected from the spirit. Unfortunately, something she had forgotten because it hadn’t happened in hundreds of years, was that her opponent was just as much of a spriggan as her, if not more so. Before Ocotea even turned back around, a small tree sprouted from the ground behind Xamiliere, quickly enough to stab into her back and come out on the other side, skewering her in place. She had spotted it in time, but after months of weightlessness, the control of her body under the cruel influence of gravity was still lacking. Then yet another weighty swing came down, slamming Xamiliere against the ground and crushing both of her legs.

Likely knowing the futility of trying to kill a spriggan in the grove and preferring to leave the two to suffer in their broken bodies instead of completely annihilating them, Ocotea let out one more roar, stepped on Xamiliere’s arm and headed away without so much as looking back at either of their victims. While the outcome now was surprise to no one, least of all to the losers, Xamiliere swore she could have actually at least matched their opponent in the past, but not after staying in the outside world for so long.

The sweet smell of sap filled the air as Xamiliere and Sorbus laid motionlessly on the ground a few meters apart from each other, bleeding out a fortune’s worth of spriggan sap. While pain was an apt word to describe the sensation felt by spriggans at the moment of something in their body breaking, it quickly subsided and turned into something harder to describe that no living creature had the equivalent for. Not as incapacitating as pain or agony, but a deep unpleasantness that could be considered as ‘wilting’. Neither of them was in danger of anything serious, as if they just let things be, eventually their spirit would simply seep into the ground and sprout up elsewhere in the grove. Unfortunately, that was a hassle often to be avoided, so both of them weighed their options.

“I’ve got crushed legs and an arm, and a hole in my stomach – I think I can fix this if someone helps me out. How about you?” Xamiliere listed her injuries.

“I’m in four pieces. That knothead literally slapped my ass off – and I had just made it too!” Sorbus answered with their face against the ground. “This one might be a goner…”

Xamiliere could do little more than stare at the treetops and wait for Anastacia to hopefully conclude her meeting soon enough so that she could play a helpless victim and maybe get something out of it. As time passed, she could see the bystanders slowly wander into the forest to carry on with their business, leaving the two alone for a moment.

“Why did you do that?” She asked when she was sure no one would hear. “You’re going to get a lot of shit for it, for years.

Sorbus laughed while spitting out fallen nettles that were finding their way into their mouth form the ground. “I have no idea… Guess I just wanted to do better… You’ve got every reason to hate us all, myself included, but you still offered to help me – all those stumps do is call me stupid and little, they’ve had this coming for a while.”

“Yeah. We sure showed them.” Xamiliere said and joined in on the laughter. “Do you mind if I tell Anna that I actually did something to protect you and didn’t just tear your arm off? I’ll show you how to grow a better ass, to replace the one you lost in battle.”

“Didn’t know there were different ones, but if you think that’ll help. Deal.” The fox agreed and finally let their spirit flow into the ground, abandoning their first attempt at looking like a person.