The birds were the first one up. I had just finished elongating my 9th vine an extra 15 feet when I noticed they were dancing about again. They started munching on the various berries I had growing, then they both flew off to wherever they went during the day. I still wasn’t sure what they did, but I wasn’t overly curious.

The mysterious woman slept for a total of 9 hours. It was agonizing waiting for her to wake up, but I remained patient. I didn’t want to rush her, especially when she must be pretty messed up emotionally right now.

She started waking up around the time the sun was fully risen. She still looked pretty tired though. I guess that’s from not having a proper bed to sleep in. I get it. I’d be cranky if I had to sleep in a tree too.

She picked her head up and started looking around. As she started moving, I removed the extra vines I had lightly draped over her. She got up fully then and started rubbing her face. It was crazy how she looked hot even doing something so simple. I still wasn’t sure she wasn’t an Elf in disguise. Humans just weren’t that beautiful.

After she got herself situated, she spoke to me. “Thank you for your help last night. I really appreciate it.”

I connected myself to her in order to respond. “You are very welcome. Might I ask your name?”

She hesitated a moment before responding, “My name is Lilly. Might I ask your name in return? I should know how to refer to my savior, after all.”

She still had quite a lot of emotions running through her mind, but she was doing a lot better at controlling them now than yesterday.

“You can call me Willow,” I responded.

“Willow. A beautiful name for a beautiful tree. It’s a pleasure meeting you, Willow, despite the unfortunate circumstances. Without your help, I’m sure I would have died last night. You have my appreciation.”

“It’s a pleasure meeting you, Lilly. And yes, the events of last night were truly unfortunate. I am glad you made it out alive though. It seems you have made a full recovery. I’m happy to see.”

I checked where the wound was again, and there wasn’t even a scar left, just some dried blood. It appears Lilly truly is fully healed. I might have to be more careful about who I hand these out to in the future.

“Another thing for me to be thankful for. It is rare to find a tree growing Resource Berries, let alone one willing to part ways with them for strangers. You truly have my gratitude, Willow.” She bowed her head slightly, which made her shift. I wrapped a couple more vines around her legs to give her better support, making sure to not go to tight, lest I hurt her by accident. She sent a small wave of appreciation my way for it. She still seemed so tired though, so I sent a few Stamina Berries to try to help her some more.

She objected saying, “No, please. I’ll be fine, I promise. I know how hard it is to grow them, so you needn’t worry about me. I'll be fine after I have a meal or something.”

“And pray tell, what do you plan to eat? The Orc body is still on the ground, if you wish to consume him. I’m not sure how common orc meat is as food for humans, but I surely wont judge.”

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Lilly grimaced. I continued on, “And besides, I’ve already replenished the berries from last night, and these won’t take but a few minutes to be fully replaced. I have quite a high resource regeneration, so don’t worry about me.”

Why did I tell her that? I feel like I shouldn’t be telling her as much about me as I have already. Let me try to get some information in return, at least.

Lilly smiled and accepted the berries. “Thank you, Willow. Truly, you have been a better friend to me than the one who... Well, than any friend I’ve had so far. Thank you.”

I let her eat in peace for a while. She seemed to relax a bit, and I made sure to maintain the mental connection I had with her. She really did seem to get over the loss of her ‘friends’ rather quickly. I still felt a bit of sadness, but it was the same sadness I felt in my old life when a celebrity died. I was sad for the loss of human life, but there wasn’t any really connection there.

I ended up giving her around 20 Stamina Berries and 5 Health Berries. I figured they would provide a decent enough meal for her. I had regrown most of the Stamina ones by the time she was finished eating them, and the health weren’t far behind. I kept the mana berries to myself though. I don’t think she would need to replace any mana, given I hadn’t seen her use any magic last night. She might have before she entered my Domain, but she didn’t say anything about it.

When Lilly was done with her meal, I helped her get down from my branches. I offered to lower her completely by myself, but she insisted that she could do it herself. I still provided the occasional foot hold for her though.

I made sure to drag the Orc corpse to the other side of my trunk the night before so she wouldn’t see too much of it this morning. It didn’t seem to work, given she walked around me to check it out herself. I really hoped the wolf pack would come by again to clean that up for me. Them or the goblin brothers, Club and Dagger. I doubt they’d have any issues eating Orc meat. Hell, they might have never tried it before, given how weak they were in comparison.

“You really managed to kill an Orc by yourself. I’m extremely impressed, Willow. A single Orc needs at least 2 D rank adventurers to take it out. That or a C rank.”

Oh, sweet baby Jesus. True fantasy talk! That’s what I’m talking about!

I made sure to hide my excitement over her comments, and only responded when I was fully in control of myself again.

“It was nothing major. It just took a few vines to strangle the brute. I am glad the rest didn’t come over though. I was worried, given the noises being made while I choked it.”

Lilly blushed a little, and I realized how insensitive that was.

“I didn’t mean you! The bastard was squealing like the pig it is. I figured the rest of the Orc’s would come investigate their companion suddenly disappearing on them, is all I meant!”

She only nodded in response. The only thing I felt through the bond we shared was hatred of the creature in front of her mixed with a bit of fear.

“Still, it’s impressive that you can take one down. You are strong. Very strong.”

I sent a wave of pleasure in her direction, which she seemed to enjoy for a few moments before standing back up. She walked around me for a few laps, running her hands through my vines. It was an oddly intimate moment, with our minds intermingling for a bit.

She basked in the warmth of the sun for a few hours before my avian friends returned to their nest in the highest part of my canopy. They chirped on mild annoyance before settling down and taking a nap themselves.

After a while, Lilly got up and came back over to me. I wasn’t sure what she wanted, so I just asked.

“What do you plan to do? Now that your caravan is gone, will you continue your journey? Or will you return to your home?” It felt insensitive, but it was a valid a question.

I felt a pang of sadness for a moment through the bind, but it was quickly replaced with a sense of freedom. I wasn’t expecting that. What followed next was a story that sounded a lot like a fairytale from my old world.