As fate would have it, on our return trip, we encountered one of these harvesters my father had mentioned. I wasn't sure what he was, he looked like a small human with childlike dimensions. But he had a beard, so I was pretty sure he wasn't an actual child. His ears were a bit pointy as well. He was chipping away at one of the glowing crystals with an ax, or maybe a pickax, acting like he owned the place, and making no effort to conceal himself. I probably would have thought he belonged there if not for my father's fury.
"Why these little bastards…” I could see my father clench his fists. "Come in here and abscond with the valuable forest resources!" He proceeded to loudly project a bunch of dictates for the small man to remove himself from the premises. This, however, did not work. In fact, I was pretty sure he was completely unaware of my father's messages. It would seem not everything was telepathic here.
After this failed attempt, Father let out a resigned psychic sigh and then proceeded to try to make some kind of vocal rebuke that sounded like a feeble fox making a kind of yipping sound. I can say with certainty, it didn't project authority. Clearly, his voice hadn't seen much use. The forest plunderer heard this and looked up for just a second, but just shrugged and returned to work. Well, if Father's heated thoughts were any indicator, this really angered him, and he decided to stop playing nice and began picking up rocks and other suitable objects and launching them at him, and he was not subtle about it. The small man was almost immediately alerted to the sounds, but apparently, he didn't find it necessary to be on guard, and that is why his forehead and one of the pelted stones had a brief rendezvous that knocked him on his ass. I guess it wasn't critical damage, since he was able to spring up rather quickly, and seeing additional forest-born artillery coming his way, he finally caught the message and beat a hasty retreat. He tried to grab his ax before he took off, but Father was particularly determined to keep him from taking it as the rock he shot at him when he went for it would have done far more than just knock him on his ass. In the end, he made it out of there with just the shirt on his back.
Father exhaled loudly as he went over and retrieved the ax. "Those conniving thieves..." Though still agitated, it seemed like he was calming down, but he still had nothing nice to say about them.
"What was that guy?" I was pretty curious since this was the first time I had come into contact with something from outside this closed-off world I now found myself in, and even though the guy was quite small, he seemed more in line with traditional humanity than my present compatriots. Although I was now one of these guys, I still held far more affinity for my previous human ancestry.
"They come in here occasionally and try to snatch up various things from the forest, mostly these crystals, but also other things on occasion." So these guys were just thieves? I felt like the answer wasn't that simple. I would have thought it easier to trade for them, what with the Forest Guardian roaming about. However, I lacked the context to inquire about trade so I had to get to the answer I sought less directly.
"Are these crystals really valuable?" It seemed like an innocent enough question, but it elicited a heated response.
"Yes, they are valuable!" He almost seemed taken aback. "These crystals take an incredibly long time to form, and they are essential for the health of the forest."
"So, you would never part with them?"
"They are not ours to part with. They belong to the forest. If you could get the forest to freely relinquish one, then far be it for me to object... but I've never seen it.” Well, this was interesting. Did the forest have a life of its own? Not sure how that would work... Well, maybe he meant that in a metaphorical sense.
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"Can you talk to the forest?"
"You can. That doesn't mean you will get a reply, hehe." Clearly, I shouldn't give what he said about parlaying with the forest too much credit.
The sun was getting low in the sky as we arrived back home. The days had been getting shorter and along with it, the temperature was getting cooler. It was still pleasant, but I wasn't sure how much longer that would last. I was under the impression that this region experienced the standard four seasons. I could just be biased though; it was what I was accustomed to after all.
Upon entering, we were met with the smell of something savory and delicious. Father commented and I also would have loved to partake, but alas, I still hadn't been weaned yet... Come on teeth! Hurry up and come in! I've been forced to endure these smells increasingly lately as their diet became more and more meat-based. If I had to guess, this was due to the decrease in harvestable plants. On the plus side, I didn't have to tolerate that insufferable green fruit as much.
"Ah, my guys have returned!" Mother was always happy to greet us upon our return, and would meet us at the door, rub my head, and sometimes stroke behind Father's ears. He would protest "Come on Dry-Grass Bonecrafter, don't do that" or something to that effect, but I'm pretty sure he liked it. "But you are back awfully late, I was about to get worried. What were you doing?" Well, she inquired into our activities, how was Father going to handle this?
He scratched his head nervously—at least I thought so—"Well I was just having a good time with my son. A real bonding moment you could say." Okay, kept it vague while remaining truthful—smart. But still, this had to lead to the obvious follow-up question.
"Really? That makes me happy. It must have really been something to be so engaging." Mother returned with earnest approval, really hitting at those guilt centers, while only subtly soliciting additional details. Nicely played.
After the initial question, Father seemed to have regained some of his composure and followed up with, "Well, it isn't every day that you get to see the Forest Guardian. Would you believe he almost came right up to the village?" Hohoo, that was a bold move, coming out with almost the whole truth while omitting any incriminating details. The way he said it made it seem like we had seen the creature just outside the village by stating two independently true facts. It was risky though, if this satisfied Mother's curiosity, we would have made it out unscathed. However, seeing as this was such a rare occurrence, this could be the spark for a somewhat prolonged conversation.
"What?! Really!? That's amazing! He usually tries to avoid people." She brought her hand to where her mouth would be on the mask, she was amazed that we had seen him. "What did you think, Indigo? You got to meet the Forest Guardian." Uh-oh... She was putting the ball in my court. And I'm not a good liar either.
"Umm... He was really big... and long." What else was there to say about him? "Have you ever seen him?" And I returned the serve back to her court.
"I have not, he is very allusive." She followed up with what I can only describe as a telepathic smile. At that moment I felt I really wanted to share the memory of this creature with her, so I did something I only seldom did and tried to send her a mental image of the creature. Judging by her response she got it just fine, "Wow, he really is big," she said with her arms straight behind her back as she endearingly tilted her head. "I'm glad you both got to meet him." Damn, now I felt guilty for deceiving her.
That basically ended the conversation on that front, but I felt pretty guilty for taking advantage of her trust. Well, we hadn't actually lied or anything, but still, omitting critical details was a type of dishonesty. I guess Father would have to take the brunt of that guilt as he was the one who set up the deception. However, although it was hard to tell with our people, I got the feeling that Father wasn't particularly bothered by it... Well, shame on him!