Innocence. A quaint and lovely term to describe children such as itself. No, a more fitting word would've been naive. Ignorant. It had gone so long unopposed to any true threat that it had never even imagined it would be stuck in such a predicament.
What was this issue one may ask?
His friend had been Squirrel-napped without word or warning. A rather large bird had swooped down and promptly grabbed the sleeping firestarter. No matter how many vines it launched, no expansive and complex a web of tendrils it weaved, nor numerous the amount of dirt it swung at it, nothing managed to impede its flight as it took his friend far above and disappeared into the tree lines.
Talk about getting too big for your birches.
To say the apple tree was upset would've been an understatement. Trees were simple existences. Their entire life revolves around a singular purpose which they carry out for years at a time. This particular tree may have had more complexity in its range of movement and emotions, but one thing remained. The all-encompassing determination to carry out its duty, now backed by an uncontrollable rage it felt for the first time in its life.
This wasn't over by a long shot.
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The bird had no idea who, or rather what, it had angered. In fact, it wasn't even truly aware of the nature of its crime. Simply put the aim of the crow was actually the helmet that served as a makeshift bed for its unintended passenger. Indeed, although rusted and full of dent and scratches, its shiny sheen was still quite noticeable from far above. In the avian's opinion, it was quite a handsome nest. Surely this would impress the others once it was brought back?
A shame that it was so terribly heavy though.
While a certain blood-drinking tree was plotting its rather violent and gruesome death, the ignorant and carefree bird continued its journey soaring above the treetops. All while bringing along a heavy sleeper.
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Mana resided in all things. It was intricately tied to one's life force. By sensing it one could gain a rudimentary of a creature or object's power. Of course, such a reading wasn't perfectly accurate, with skillful users able to suppress their mana intentionally, to say nothing of how experience and skills would apply.
However, for a simple being such as the tree, none of that truly matters. No, what was important was the fact that by sensing mana it could have a picture of its surroundings. Similar to the Thermo vision of snakes, it had memorized the mana imprint of the crow.
However, that still didn't solve the issue. One, how could the tree knock it down without hurting the squirrel, and two, how was it going to reach it? A tree would have issues catching up with a bird.
... This was going to take a while. With a mental sigh, the tree started on its long journey while contemplating how to resolve them.