Andrew dropped what he was doing and followed Rowan and Tyler as they headed across the river. They passed into the grove of infused trees and Andrew started to lag behind a little as he paused to look at the changes happening to the branches. There were significantly more branches cooking in the grove than Andrew needed for his projects right now, and the branches were changing more and more as time went on. Rowan and Tyler came to a stop near the center of the grove and Andrew snapped out of his branch watching daze to see Rowan and Tyler searching the varied foliage around them.

"Hello! Spirit! We're back with another friend!" Rowan called out.

A small pop burst next to Andrew's right ear and a light warm breeze blew across his face from the direction of the sound. Andrew jumped, took a step back and spun around to his right, but there was nothing. He spun further around and still saw nothing, but felt a strange steady heat around his right shoulder. He completed a full rotation to see Rowan and Tyler stifling laughter as they stared at something just over his right shoulder. He turned his head while keeping the rest of his body still and saw a little orange-red light hovering there. It was like a small spherical fog cloud back-lit by something soft red-orange in the center. A little face formed for a brief flash, and he got the impression of exaggerated mirth for a moment before it returned to a swirling indistinguishable cloud of color once again.

"Aaanndreww~ I come to you with a- a DIRE warning." A deep voice boomed out in his mind. Andrew's eyes flicked instinctively around the surrounding woods for a moment, not quite believing this little wisp was the source of such a deep voice.

"Ah. Okay. What's the warning?" Andrew said, addressing the little cloud that was stubbornly sticking to a point just behind his right shoulder, forcing him to turn his head sharply to the side.

"Uh. Hmm. Didn't think I'd get this far." a voice whispered into his mind, quite a bit higher in pitch and almost too soft to hear. Andrew somehow knew it was coming from the same little spirit. "A big turtle." The deep booming voice returned, clearly from the same source. "A Dire War Turtle! Filled with poisonous snakes! Dire snakes! Bred for war! I can save you from this doom, but for a steep price, Andrew, leader of humans and giants! A steep and terrible price!"

The little spirit kept adding details to his monologue, and Andrew waited patiently, wincing a little when the spirit got particularly booming and dramatic. When it finally finished Andrew spoke up again.

"Alright spirit. Name your price!" Andrew said, projecting his voice and matching the spirit's energy as best he could. He wasn't exactly sure how he was supposed to interact with this spirt, but it seemed like playing along for now was a safe option.

"YOU MUST MAKE ME A TREE. A FIRE TREE. A TREE WITH FIRE IN IT BUT ALIVE. A LIVING FIRE TREE, OR A BUSH. A BUSH WITH FLOWERS. FORGET THE TREE, MAKE ME A FLOWER BUSH, A FIRE FLOWER BUSH, THAT IS LIVING. DO THIS AND I WILL SAVE YOU FROM YOUR INEVITABLE DIRE SNAKE TURTLE DOOM!" the spirit boomed out within his mind.

Andrew raised an eyebrow to Rowan and Tyler who shrugged, it was clear they weren't being included in the conversation.

"I have questions you must answer before I agree spirit! What is your name?" Andrew said.

An indistinguishable hodgepodge mix of sound, smell and color flashed through Andrew's head for a moment. He was able to pick out what he recognized as a mixture of sensations that felt a lot like his mana sense skill, but the stream ended quickly before he had a chance to try and sort through the sensations.

"Ah, oops, that didn't make any sense to you did it?" The spirit said, this time it's voice was conversational and higher pitched. "Call me Aht. That shall be my name in your simple flavorless language."

"Alright Aht. It's good to meet you. Are there more of your kind around this forest?" Andrew said.

"Yeah yeah, there are a bunch. Well, not like me. Spirits that chose other flavors though, yeah."

"Do the other spirits want a fire bush as well?"

"NO! That bush is for me! But, uh, I mean I don't know, ask them yourself. I don't care."

"Is there really a Dire Turtle filled with snakes coming for me?"

"No way, that’s crazy. What even is a Dire Turtle? Who told you that? Weirdo."

"You did."

"Couldn't have been me. You must have talked to some other spirit. Not me. I would never lie about a turtle. I have principles, which is why you should make me a bush with fire in it. I bet it would taste amazing."

"Yeah he's nice though. I- I couldn't understand that." Rowan said from a few feet off. Her back was turned to Andrew and she was staring off at something invisible in front of her. Another spirit perhaps.

Andrew activated Mana Sense. A riot of colors flooded into his vision, the infused branches around them filled with vibrant rivers and bubbles of mixing mana. The red spirit on his shoulder appeared as an extremely small and intricate marble of swirling mana types. Almost entirely fire with a bunch of little rivers of different, difficult to distinguish mana that intermittently flashed across it's surface in pulsing waves, a different pattern each time. Andrew looked at the space in front of Rowan, but sensed nothing. He paused a moment, trying to focus more closely on the area around her. The thin clouds of ambient mana around her seemed to be shifting in a strange way, he-

"You pooping?" A familiar voice said inside his head. "You're making a pooping face."

Andrew's concentration was shattered and he dropped the skill with a chuckle. "No. I was looking for the other spirits like you."

"Why? You still haven't made my bush. You'll never be able to see them if they don't want you to anyway, and you taste like my type. They don't want to talk to you, so don't look for those other spirits. Make my bush first. I'd take a tree too you know? That might be better actually. Can I change my price to a tree instead?"

Andrew sighed.

Okay. These little guys are a lot of fun, and they don't seem to have any kind of hostility. I have no idea what they're capable of, but this one clearly wants a fire mana infused plant, and it seems to be more comfortable talking to me than the other sprits are. It might have something to do with how much time I spend working around the fire mana forges.

"Hey Aht. I could probably make you both you know? A tree and a bush. How does that sound?" Andrew said.

"Oh man! You can do that? Yes yes yes! I would like that a lot. Like right now?" the fire spirit Aht said.

"Not right now. I might need your help actually. I'm not as good at sensing mana as you are, so I'm not sure how much mana I can put into a tree before it burns up."

"Well they already have some fire mana in them obviously. Just, power it up a little, give it some extra oomph, I don't know, I just eat the stuff."

"Can you eat fire mana from other things? Does it have to be a tree or a bush?"

"Maybe later, when I'm bigger, but right now it has to come from living things. The pure stuff would probably kill me. Like when you guys drink too much water and your brain explodes. Most animals have too much awareness of their mana to let me eat it. Plants are real dumb though. Very easy to eat."

"What will you give me if I make you a fire bush and a fire tree?"

"Everlasting friendship?"

Fire Mana Spirit Aht has offered you a Contract:

Create two Fire Mana dominant plants.

Receive 'everlasting friendship'.

Receive provisional spirit contract.

"Ooh! Look at that. Everlasting friendship. See? It's real and everything. Definitely a fair trade. In fact, I bet you're getting the better end of the deal. Do you even know how long everlasting is? Uh, if you do, maybe…. explain it for Tahk over there? He's a nature spirit, almost as dumb as a plant if you can believe that."