“Welcome back Shuya!” Little Sister greeted upon her return. “Oh, what’s wrong?”

Shuya had walked right up to her and given her a big hug. The older woman didn’t say anything at first, just held the smaller woman in her arms.

“Shuya?”

“Ah… sorry Little Sister! I just missed you a whole lot!”

“You weren’t even gone that long, just a little bit!”

“Really?”

“Of course.”

“Hm… I was gone for more than just a moment. At least half an hour I think”

“Really? It wasn’t anywhere near that long a wait for me though. I didn’t even have time to feel lonely.”

“…does time move differently in here perhaps? Well, it’s not like there’s day and night here so…” Shuya tilted her head, eyebrows furrowed. “I suppose that could be useful.”

“Ah… it would?”

“En!” She let go of Little Sister, held her at arm’s length, and gave her a long stare. “How badly do you want to get rid of that poison, Little Sister?”

“I want to get rid of it a whole lot of course! Both you and Mister Light say it’s bad, and you’re even scared of it. It can’t be good to have a lake full of the stuff here, right?”

“Hm… would you be willing to give up time with Mr. Light to get rid of it faster?”

“Oh…” Little Sister looked troubled. “How… how much time would I have to give up?”

“You’d need to be able to concentrate without distraction for long periods of time.” Shuya reached out and gently held the younger woman’s face with her hands. “So I’m afraid there would be long stretches where you couldn’t see Mr. Light. And knowing him, he won’t willingly agree to seeing less of you. You might… you might have to force him out.”

“…but wouldn’t he be mad at me if I did that?”

“Even if he sounds angry, it’s just from worry and missing you. Yep. Not actual anger.”

Little Sister’s eyes grew round. “You think so?”

“Of course silly!” Shuya squished Little Sister’s cheeks, laughed and let her face go. “But you just need to reassure him that you’re not doing anything dangerous. That you just need time to yourself, and you’re training to be strong. Make sure he understands that and then ask him to leave.”

“…and force him out if he won’t leave willingly?”

“En.”

Little Sister chewed on her lip. “But.. I don’t know..”

“Listen, if you do what I’m suggesting, I promise to make you the strongest woman for miles and miles around. Then you can deal with that poison, and once the poison is gone…” The older woman gave a little sigh, as if admitting defeat. “…you can spend all the time you want with your Mister Light.”

“..all the time I want…”

“Hm. And! If that isn’t enough, he’s going to be super impressed with you once you’re done!”

“Really?!” Little Sister’s eyes lit up.

“Oh yes, I’m sure he’ll sing your praises to the heavens!”

“Wow! I’ve never heard him sing before! I want to hear it!”

Shuya blinked at her misunderstanding and then giggled. “I do too! So let’s work hard to make that happen, alright?”

“Okay! Let’s work hard!”

Shuya gave a chuckle, but inwardly she felt sad and a little worried. She really would have to push Little Sister hard to fulfill the promise she’d just made. This little human, who she’d so casually befriended and bound herself to for her own amusement, had a serious problem and there was no shortcut to fixing it. If there were, the Punk would have found it first.

Even what Shuya was planning wasn’t a shortcut. It was thousands of years of knowledge and wisdom refined into a special kind of teaching, a tree’s version of martial arts. A normal human wouldn’t be able to do it, but in this world… Little Sister’s pure spirit combined with the power of herwill and the time disparity… Shuya thought it could work.

If Little Sister believed she could succeed, then she would succeed.

Or so Shuya thought.

But it would be difficult. The nature of a tree is quite different from a human’s nature. It would require a great deal of mental strain for Little Sister to learn, even pushing her will to its limit. So distractions like that “Mister Light” were absolutely out of the question. Him being there would simply drag the process out or worse, halt it completely. He needed to go.

If him being gone was highly convenient for continuing her grudge, of course Shuya didn’t mention it.

——

A great distance from “Little Sister’s” body, deep in a crevice within the mountains and cut off from the view of the outside world, lived a very ancient, giant tree. The tree was so large that its roots had completely overtaken the crevice floor. It had been there so long that no one, except perhaps the very spirits of the mountain, could remember a time it didn’t exist.

This tree went by many names, but just recently her favorite was “Shuya”.

While intelligent plants were not uncommon in the world, ones that could talk to creatures ‘of blood’ were rare. On this side of the world, most talking plants grew in the Jianghu Islands, which were far to the East. Almost none existed on the mainland. So Shuya was not only unique for a plant, she was an oddity just based on her location.

But her oddness did not stop there. Even before she learned to talk, she’d wanted to know. Perhaps it was her Master’s nature rubbing off on her, but Shuya was a deeply curious tree. And so, while other smart trees were busy guessing the weather and commenting on soil quality, Shuya broke off bits and bobs of herself for birds to carry to far away places. Those parts of herself would sometimes ,though not always, take root and grow, often in strange hard-to-reach places.

These new sprouts were simple reflections of herself and only partially intelligent. They simply imitated her rather than having a personality of their own. Through them, Shuya could see the whole wide world. Whether from humans, animals, and other plants, her sprouts—her “children”—heard all kinds of tales and interesting facts. Even sometimes nature itself, the wind and the rain, would “tell” her “children” stories.

When Shuya learned to talk, her “children” learned to talk too. So instead of just listening, they could ask questions and get answers. For a time, a rumor spread that if you found a tree in a strange place, you could ask it a question and it would answer—no matter how difficult the question. Many people sought out her “children” to ask all kinds of questions.

But, of course, not all questions are equal. Some people (wealthy and powerful) only talked to Shuya’s “children” to find riches, eternal youth, or even how to be gods. To such silly questions, there was only silence.

After this happened many times, those who were denied a response grew angry and chopped or burned the “children” up. Those resentful people claimed there was no talking tree and the rumor had only been that, a rumor. The “children” became reluctant to talk to humans all together, after so many were destroyed.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

And so Shuya and her “children” became a thing of myth and legend. The World Tree, the Tree of Knowledge, the Tree of Wisdom; all became a story grannies told and in many countries even those stories faded completely. But that was only among the humans.

To the other plants, to the animals, and perhaps even to nature… the tales of the World Tree still existed. On occasions, such groups would still search Shuya’s “children” out and to those the “children” would still answer.

But that was all before Shuya’s Master had been driven out. After that event, Shuya and all her children became silent in grief and anger. For many years, her entire being was as mute as an ordinary tree would be. And not only her, all the plants that Master had loved, fell silent in their grief. And many fell into a deep sleep in their depression.

In her sadness, she vowed to ignore that punk Brother, to ignore anyone affiliated with him, and to never even try to help him with anything. It wasn’t like he payed attention to the trees to begin with, so it was an easy vow for her to keep. And since all he did was throw tantrums and sulk, he wasn’t interesting for her to watch even for posterity's sake.

Yet now she felt regret. By ignoring the punk and the world, she’d ignored Little Sister. How can she really help Little Sister when she didn’t know anything about anything? It simply wouldn’t do!

Shuya’s ancient tree form sent out a whispering call to the birds, her friends and informants. They came to her, all sizes and shapes, excitedly curious about what she wanted. It had been a long time since she’d requested their help.

When she asked a few to invite the deer over, they twittered amongst themselves in astonishment. She hadn’t talked to the deer for quite some time because of her grudge. The deer obviously sided with “the punk”, so they’d naturally been the first to get cut off. A small group of birds left to pass on her invitation.

“…lastly, I am officially lifting my ban on information on the punk—”

Her laden branches suddenly erupted in excited bird chatter, as they all talked at once. For several minutes she couldn’t say anything because they were too busy talking amongst themselves.

“—yes, yes, I’m sure you’re all delighted. If you all could tell me what he’s been up to lately I’d appreciate it. I know some of you keep tabs regardless of what I say. Yes, I’m looking at the Bunting Family in particular. Don’t think I wasn’t aware! No, no, I’m not angry… goodness! Calm down. If I’d planned on punishing anyone for that kind of behavior I’d have done it long before now…”

As she’d been snubbing the punk for quite some time, the backlog on him ended up being ridiculously long. She hadn’t even slogged through half of it when the deer showed up.

More precisely, one buck showed up. She supposed it was amazing that, any, were willing to see her considering how sour her relationship had gotten with them. Still, the shock of having her old flame be the one to show up was mitigated by his current appearance.

“I must say,” The buck, who now looked exactly like a human, commented, “I was surprised to get your call. I thought you’d sworn me off after that last fight we got into.”

“Y-y-you—!”

“Nice, isn’t it?” He flipped his hair and grinned cockily. The tree was reminded of why their relationship didn’t last. “If you’d let go of that grudge like I’d advised all those years ago, you could have even had a body like this too…. Well, maybe.”

Her wood creaked. Even though she knew he wasn’t trying to make her angry and it was just his natural disposition to be so arrogant, she had to take a moment to calm her temper down. After she felt she could talk civilly, she politely inquired:

“And how exactly did you get a human body, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“You recall that discussion we had some time ago about Spirit Beasts and whether we counted or not?”

“..yes..”

“Tada, we count!” He waved his hands across his body with a flourish and looked smug. “Though I don’t know if you count, since you’re technically not a beast.”

She had to suppress the urge to smack him with a thick branch as her leaves rattled with displeasure. It was true that he was solidly human and looked… delectabl-presentable. While he was an obscenely old buck, there wasn’t a single gray hair on his head or wrinkle on his human face. Instead, he had a face that looked to be in about his thirties, with black hair that almost looked blue and deep black eyes.

Ah, how frustrating! She wanted to boast that she was, in fact, a kind of Spirit Beast too. She’d made a contract with Little Sister and through absorbing her essence gained a body. But her tree form still existed and her human body was more like a spirit, a ghost, than flesh and blood. It was only solid in Little Sister’s world. This had been fine, as even getting a human type body at all had been amazing to her.

Seeing the buck’s much more solid form made her feel envious. His body had literally transformed into a human, and was completely human like. Not even a hint of ghost-like-ness.

As the buck was a consummate show-off, there’s no way he’d let the fact that her attempt had been only partially successful go without teasing. So she decided right then and there not to tell him anything.

“…I see. But how exactly did that work? Don’t Spirit Beasts.. hmm.. whatsit… cultivate? I’ve never heard of any beasties on the mountain cultivating.”

The buck nodded, looking thoughtful rather than arrogant for once.

“Yes, that is the question, isn’t it? As far as I know, there’s no intentional cultivating by beasties here. And, what’s more, the first beastie to get a human body was Xiong, if you can believe it.”

“What! That young whippersnapper!?”

“Indeed! It was shocking! But as you know, Xiong spent most of his time eating berries and catching fish, he never did anything close to cultivating. He wouldn’t be the fattest bear on the mountain if he had.” The buck rubbed his chin. “And that’s when it occurred to me to ask: What IS cultivating?”

“…isn’t it just absorbing and moving internal energies around or some such?”

“En, that’s exactly what it is… and under normal circumstances we’d have to cultivate.”

“But the circumstances aren’t normal?”

“You know it. These mountains have always been strange and wondrous. Could your Master Xuiying or my Lord exist otherwise?”

The tree paused, feeling something was off about that sentence. Unable to figure out what it was, she instead replied:

“Ah…. That’s a good point.”

“Isn’t it? And didn’t your Master’s tender care change you trees? It’s not like she was trying, yet every single one of you that had direct contact with her is smart. And you can even talk. So what I’m thinking is…. Maybe we don’t cultivate ourselves, but the mountain cultivates us. And it’s been doing so in the form of your Master or my Lord for a very,very long time.”

This simple idea was so astonishing that Shuya was speechless.

“And if that’s the case, then surely we can do that transformation thingy we’ve heard powerful Spirit Beasts can do? Especially us beasties who’ve been greatly loved and taken care of by our respective Lords. But none of us thought to try… the very idea never even occurred to any of us to attempt it. But then,” The buck squinted his eyes, a sneer rippling across his lips. “Why would we ever need to look human? Those weak creatures who can’t catch us, can’t tame us, can’t even survive on the mountains without your Master’s help? It would be degrading to look like one.”

Shuya couldn’t let that nonsense pass and pointed out the obvious:

“Yet here you are, very much human.”

The buck rubbed the bridge of his nose, looking embarrassed.

“This goes back to Xiong. Our Lord needed us to go off the mountain and do some reconnaissance and fighting for him. The fighting was easy but the spy work… how were we to do that, eh? Is there a human in the world who’d be friendly to a pack of wolves? Would a traveling merchant discuss national politics with a deer? Can a bear walk through a town unnoticed? We were really panicking about how to fulfill that part of his order.”

“Ah! Ha! I see it!” Shuya exclaimed excitedly, “Xiong is the youngest, wasn’t as prejudiced towards humans as you old fogies, and also just a bit—”

“Slow, yes. He thought the only way to spy was to blend in and that meant looking human. So he did. Just like that.” The buck snapped his fingers for emphasis. “It turned out to be really easy, especially for us “old fogies”. I will admit it was a mental blow to us though, having looked down on humans for so long. My younger cousin looked like she wanted to cry every time she saw a reflection of her human self. It took me quite some time to come to terms with the fact that this form was considered handsome—”

“Wait, wait! You mentioned Xiong, your cousin, but who else? When you say ‘us’ exactly who are you referring to?”

“All of us.”

“A—all of—”

“Every powerful and intelligent beastie on the mountain.”

The tree actually froze for a moment, from trunk to leaf she was absolute stillness while struggling to process the information.

“…what… what did he need so many of you for?”

“Like I said, to fight and spy.”

“Don’t be pedantic. You understand what I’m asking.”

The buck looked at his nails and yawned.

“You still carrying that grudge against my Lord?”

“What’s it to you if I am?”

“I don’t see why I should answer any more questions then.”

“Why you—! Haven’t you already told me this much? If nothing else, the birds will tell me even if you don’t.”

“Maybe, but that’s second hand information. I know how you hate getting second hand what you can get from an eye witness. And just so you know, the beasties that transformed into humans won’t follow your orders. Not even the few birds that managed. They’re loyal to my Lord now, not to you, not to your long gone Master.”

This time she did pull back a heavy branch and tried to hit him, leaves cracking as she broke the sound barrier. To her utter frustration, he easily jumped away.

“All you’ve got to do is give that grudge up and I’ll tell you everything.”

“Over my rotting trunk!” She roared angrily. “That Punk took everything from me, I’ll never forgive him!”

He clucked his tongue, “Aren’t you known as the Tree of Wisdom? When are you going to live up to that name? It’s about time you let go of the past and forgave him. He is your Master’s Brother, after all.”

“How dare you preach to me about wisdom! Where were YOU when my Master was driven away? Where were YOU when the Village was destroyed and the people scattered? Where were YOU when he let his fairies kill innocent travelers? Were YOU speaking wisdom to YOUR LORD?”

At this, the buck could only sigh and say, “My Lord has changed, give him a chance.”

“Give him a chance?? And what good would that do??? Will that bring my Master back?!”

“Will holding your grudge bring back your Master either?”

Shuya’s whole being shook as she let out a furious screech. Her roots churned the ground and her branches cracked stone. The yell was so loud it reached both high and low decibels, shaking the very air and ground.

The buck jumped back, covering his ears, face scrunched painfully. When she didn’t show any signs of settling down, he shook his head sadly and left.

A long time later, Shuya finally calmed herself and realized she was alone.

Even the birds had fled.