I shouldn’t have said that. I should NOT have said that.

Well, I guess the cat’s out of the bag. Time to tell them I’m actually a talking tree.

While I went through the dozens of scenarios in my mind about possible ways this could go, Lilly came up behind Aspen and asked, “Whatcha talkin about?”

I made a direct thread to Lilly and told her what had happened.

“Any advice for how I should tell them?” I pleaded. I suddenly felt like I had gone too hard with the mystical wizard vibe and messing with them.

“Don’t worry, I’ll help you out,” she said aloud. “I’ll just tell them the honest truth. And no more pranks, please. We like these people, remember? Now ask the boys to come out and meet us at the tree so the five of us can have a talk.”

She pulled a bewildered Aspen along behind her and made her way to where my trunk sprouted from her temporary home. I called the men over, as she asked, and waited extremely impatiently for our conversation.

I always felt awkward meeting new people, and this wasn’t an exception. At least when I met Lilly, it was do or die, so she kind of had to accept I was a tree or die. With these people, I had been messing with all of them for the duration of their stay with me. And apparently, they were pretty strong, too.

Now that I think about it, I don’t know what level these people are. I have to assume high leveled, since they were adventurers, but I have no clue what constitutes being “high”. Should I ask?

As I finished pondering whether or not these folks could kill me if they so chose, the last two members of the Laughing Vipers joined us at the top of the hill. Aspen had spent the time checking out my trunk and my lowest hanging branch in the meantime. If they had been any slower, she might have thought to look up and see all the Resource Berries hanging down. I suddenly regretted my life’s choices.

“So, what exactly are we doing up here? It’s a nice view and all, but I think we could’ve had this talk inside, no? Breakfast is almost ready.”

Axel scratched his head in confusion as he walked the last few steps to us. I had pulled most of my vines upward so they didn’t bump their heads or anything, which Aspen seemed to have given mild notice to, but had yet to comment on.

“Well,” Lilly started, “I think it’s time to introduce you to Willow, directly this time. This,” she turned and gestured to my trunk, “is Willow. A sentient tree.”

“Like an Ent or something?” Archy asked. He looked confused about what she meant, but he seemed ready enough to believe her.

I connected to the group with a split telepathic tendril, so they could all hear me. I absently wondered if they could hear each other this way as well.

“No, not like an Ent. My status page definitely says tree.”

Through the connection to them, I could tell that they all had different reactions.

Axel didn’t seem to care much, only wanting food. Though there was a small curiosity in the background of his thoughts about whether or not he could take me on in a fight. I guess that was part of his barbarian nature.

Archy was decently curious about my nature. He also began to wonder how well my wood would turn into a bow and arrows. Most of the reaction I got from him though was about being annoyed at being pranked by a tree and offended at not letting him in on the info regarding my race earlier. Apparently, it was a racial thing. I could tell he was trying to hide some more information from me, though I caught a mental image of a huge tree. I wouldn’t pry further though. I respected his right to his privacy.

The biggest reaction was from Aspen. She seemed to embrace the telepathic connection even deeper, going so far as to try probing me back. She ran over to my trunk and started rubbing her hands all weirdly on my body, enough that I used a vine to wrap around her waist and pull her off. She yelped a bit in surprise but started flooding the connection with questions. She skipped verbalizing anything completely.

It appears this isn’t her first time nerding out over something, as her companions just laughed and walked back inside.

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“Looks like she found a new toy. I guess this doesn’t change much for me, so thanks for the night’s rest. But like I said, breakfast is almost ready.”

Lilly followed, seeing as she couldn’t do anything to help. I just kept Aspen pulled mildly away from me, but she kept sending out probing tendrils of mana, which I assume is how she gathers information. I guess I could start doing that as well, hoping to get information on stuff I’m unfamiliar with.

“What skill do you have? Do you have stats like people do? I guess you wouldn’t have an agility stat like we do. How about strength. Your vines seem plenty strong, is that running off of Stamina? Is there a skill you use to move them? Are they like your arms? How old are you? I’ve heard you can tell a tree’s age by counting their rings, though I guess I’d have to chop you down to count them. Not that I would! But what if I...”

This was just some of the barrage she was continuously throwing at me. It went on for over half an hour, with her getting into all sorts of details I hadn’t even thought of. I began taking notes on what she said.

I’ve already made my roots more efficient by intense inspection, so why did I leave my canopy and trunk alone? I should try that when they all leave, as I’m sure it’ll take some time. Ooh, she brings up a good point about possibly making wooden golems too. I hadn’t thought of that.

She mentioned having one of my branches growing food, so if I get visitors again in the future, they’d have actual food to eat, instead of what essentially amounts to potions. I might consider trying to add that to a lower branch, and move the resource berries up higher, but I’m not 100% how that’s going to go. Meh, I’ll check it out.

Let’s see... What else do I care about that she’s rambling on about.

“...fire resistance would be a MUST for you right? Trees are known for burning and all. But don’t skimp on cold resistance either! We've had some relatively mild winter’s lately, but the criers in the capital were calling about oracles blabbing about a harsher one soon. So be prepared for that and...”

Cold resistance might be able to be added to my Fire resistance skill and make it a Thermal Fluctuation skill. That seems kind of advanced though, and I’d probably have to waste two level skill slots to do so. Maybe I can just tough it out if it gets to that point?

“...host some monster insects, like bees or something! Do you need to pollinate? Ooh, do you need to reproduce? If you were to pollinate a...”

I tuned out the sex talk and focused more on the possibility of hosting some insects. The Fire Ants and Carpenter Ants really ruined the whole insect thing for me, but I do have fond memories of my grandparents owning a bee farm. I loved the honey they made, and who knows, maybe honey could be a sweet treat for me now?

I’ll put monster insect taming on the list of future posi-bee-lities for now and simply disconnected from the mental assault. She was a sweet girl, and gave me some good ideas, but I think I want to just go at it at my own pace.

I focused back on the rest of the group and saw that Axel had disemboweled one of the Orcs and used its stomach as bacon. The human appearance of the monster’s bodies had me forgetting that they were pig-based creatures, and in fact, both human. It was still an odd thing to see.

I connected to Lilly and asked her how her breakfast was going.

“Pretty good, though I could’ve gone without seeing an Orc being butchered. Nothing against it, and it's in fact delicious, but I’m not a fan of blood.”

She glanced down at her still torn shirt and shivered a bit at the sight of the blood. I didn’t even realize how dirty her clothes had gotten, and I offered to do a quick cleaning with Water Magic, but she realized she could in fact do so herself and went to her room to do just that.

I gave her some privacy and connected to Axel. I made sure to keep it a very minimal connection, but from what I could see of the man’s thoughts, he really was a simple guy. That wasn’t to say he was a simpleton, just that he seemed to speak his mind as thoughts came to him. Straight forward, that was it. Not even a second after I felt his intentions to speak the phrase, he said,

“Damn, this bacon is freaking DELICIOUS! We should go cut some more up for the road. Maybe make some bacon jerky as well.”

It was like there was no filter on him at all. I could tell he could feel the connection I had to him, but other than a brief greeting, he seemed to go back to his food.

Archy was a bit more... in depth with his feelings about being lied to. Apparently, Elves were widely known as “tree whisperers”, or as Axel calls them, “tree huggers”. He still felt slightly offended that I had kept my true nature a secret, despite my apologies.

“I truly didn’t intend to offend you. It’s just that Lilly was the first person I had met before all of you, and I wanted a chance to have some fun. That, and I have some trust issues. Lilly mentioned the value of Resource Berries to me, and I wanted to gauge your reactions before I finally showed you what I really am. I hope we can be friends, Ar- Taryn.”

That seemed to get the Elf out of his mild slump, and he went back to his otherwise curious nature.

“It has been a while since I’ve met a tree that had such awareness. There's the grove in my homeland, protected by layers and layers of wards, that is full of sapient plant life, not unlike yourself. I guess I shouldn’t be too offended, since many of the younger trees have been known as pranksters as well. Forgive me for my prior attitude.”

“Be at peace. I just wanted some fun, and I’m glad I don’t have to hide from you. That being said, I have yet to meet another of your kind and am unknowledgeable in the ways of the wider world. Everyone I have met is currently within earshot of you at this very moment.”

The elf just nodded and left it at that. Just in time for his female companion to be done with her ranting. While she did give me a few great ideas for skills to work on, I’m not exactly keen on answering questions regarding my roots and ‘waste disposal’.