The next morning, Darthañan and Frigglene woke up with a lot of fatigue inside them. Their bodies and minds were quite worn out, but when their eyes met they couldn't help but smile. They were already safe. They had made it out of the forest.
"Comb yourself, you look like a mad scientist" Frigglene scoffed at the woken up appearance of her husband.
"I'm mad in love with you" Darthañan replied, reaching up and kissing her on the lips.
At that time Rivularis, the youngest of Helvella's 5 children in the camp, opened the tent. His eyes widened, at just 10 years old he had no experience in love.
“¡Here's breakfast!” Rivularis said alarmed, leaving the dishes he brought on the floor and hurrying out of the tent.
Darthañan and Frigglene looked at each other and burst out laughing.
They had succeeded, had escaped the unexpected assault, and had survived in the strange forest where they arrived. Darthañan couldn't help but think of the rest of his family, and when Frigglene noticed it, she grabbed one of the fruits, which looked like small salmon-colored pumpkins, and stuffed it in his mouth.
“One thing at a time Darth” Frigglene didn’t dare to assure him that everyone would be all right.
Darthañan blinked for a few seconds and began chewing on the strange fruit. He grabbed half and passed what he had bitten before replying with a surprised expression.
"This tastes like fish"
Frigglene thought it was funny, she grabbed a fruit and brought it to her mouth.
“¡Mmm! Just like salmon”
Both of them finished the fruits in an instant, readied themselves and got out. The area where they were staying was empty and they could only find Helvella's 5 children taking care of Theodor and Elizabeth.
"Thank you very much, we really needed that break" Darthañan said, walking closer.
"No problem" Fusca replied rising from the ground “but it doesn't seem like neither of you had rested”
Fusca observed the faces of the two, their eyes had dark circles and the dirt on their skin was such, that had it not been for the little development of the olfactory organs of the floral creatures the smell would have bothered more than one.
"Hahaha believe me, we did rest" Darthañan replied laughing.
Frigglene approached the little ones and lifted them into her arms.
“How are my little ones?”
The two babies replied laughing.
"I hope they didn't give you trouble" Frigglene said, passing Theodor over to Darthañan.
"None" Albella replied.
Rivularis almost laughed out loud when he heard his sister's response, but he couldn't help receiving a blow from Latispora who did notice the grimace with which he contained his laughter.
“Where's your dad?” asked Darthañan.
“They are finishing the ceremony. They must be on the altar where they you us” Fusca replied.
“Excuse me for the question, but what ceremony are you performing?” Darthañan asked while Theodor grabbed his nose.
"They are throwing 10% of their food production in the pit" Latispora replied before his older brother could speak.
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"What a waste" Frigglene couldn't help commenting.
"Frigg" Darthañan admonished her.
"Sorry" Frigglene immediately apologized for the slip of words.
"You don't have to apologize, you called it what it is. Throwing food through one of the holes in this floating island is a waste.
"It is a rite to thank the god of abundance for all that we have received in the last year" Fusca explained to prevent the issue from derailing.
His father had explained very well to him how to deal with the subject, no matter if he believed or not, these ceremonies and rites were necessary for people. It is a small grain of hope and gratitude among the problems of life, so he should promote these meetings for the welfare of their people.
“Should we go and accompany them?” Darthañan asked.
“No, yesterday we were almost done. They must be returning by now” Albella replied.
"Speaking of which ...”
Suddenly the floor began to shake, on the outskirts of the camp they saw the huge ents walking. And thanks to the noise of the endur moving their bushes and the small ubax talking among themselves that the camp soon came alive.
“My friends, did you sleep well?” Helvella asked, opening his arms to hug Darthañan, who without any problem returned the hug. It was Frigglene who was surprised to be hugged and uncomfortably waited to take distance with him.
"Everything was much more than what we needed, thank you for your hospitality," Darthañan replied.
"Nonsense, had we known we would have mammalian guests we would not have made you sleep on the ground."
"Being able to sleep in a safe place is more than enough" Frigglene replied.
"You will see how we host when we return to Vorpiax" Helvella said, disheveling the two saplings and addressing his children.
"Give the order for everyone to get ready, we leave in half an hour"
“¡Yes sir!” The five responded at the same time, leaving in different directions.
Darthañan saw in disbelief that in the camp there were at least 100 individuals, of which about 15 were huge ents of about 12 meters. He had never seen a group of this size be ready in 30 minutes in his life, not even his family's elite squads.
“Are you discriminating us for being flora?” Helvella asked with a smile on his face.
“No, is not that. It is just that…”
"It’s difficult to think that we can be fast" Helvella interrupted.
“I do not mean that”
"Hahaha look around you" Helvella started laughing as she spun with open arms.
Both Darthañan and Frigglene could see how the ents gathered the tents by a rope that each tent had at the top and hung them on their branches. The Endur and Ubax passed by where the ents had slept and tidied the ground where the giants had buried their roots the night before. It was then that Darthañan understood that they could be ready so quickly because of the small amount of things they had. And of course the way the tents were designed to be picked up by the ents without any major problem.
“It is not a big deal, right?” Helvella asked making a disappointed face.
"Although in a war being able to live off the nutrients of the soil, water and sunlight, while you are faster than your opponents might be a good thing" he answered himself out loud with a smile.
At that moment Fusca arrived.
“Father, everything is ready”
“Well, let's go for the mounts. You two will be able to see my beautiful Vorpiax in all its splendor” said Helvella, starting to walk south.
They followed him along with all the creatures in the camp until they began to enter the forest. When Darthañan and Frigglene saw the mounts their eyes widened. Frigglene recovered faster, but Darthañan found it hard to believe what he was seeing. The ent mounts were huge Sauropodxylones, giant long-necked dinosaurs whose bodies were made of wood (Sauropod, the name of the dinosaur species; Xylon, Wood). The Lepiots began to ride their Deerxylon, wood deer’s, while the Ubax laughed as they climbed onto their Leaftoads.
The endur, taking advantage of the fact that their bodies were from bushes, climbed and settled on the ents and sauropodxylones.
Helvella when seeing the face of Darthañan smiled and shouted with force.
“¡Hegani!”
"Yes my lord" replied an old ent who was already on his sauropodxylon.
“Could you take our guest with you?”
"As my lord wishes" replied the tree.
Helvella slapped his forehead.
"I'm not ordering you, I'm asking you"
The ent looked at Helvella in confusion.
"Forget it, I don't know how smart you are to be my financial secretary and not understand what I just said"
The ent seemed to ignore that last sentence and stretched one of its branches for the human to climb. At that moment Darthañan instinctively turned to see Frigglene. His wife sighed and nodded. Darthañan smiled and immediately climbed the branch.
"You're taking care of three offspring" Helvella commented.
The ent carried up Darthañan and then again stretched his branch for Frigglene.
"It is because he is still a child inside that I fall in love with him" Frigglene replied climbing the branch.