Racheal’s mouth gaped as the world around her went dark. Left with her in the darkness was the only object of color she could see–the tree in front of her. From the same tree she had just tapped on moments before in desperation, an other-worldly voice echoed.

“Hello.”

Racheal gawked. A voice? A voice! She was confident that the tree in front of her had just…spoken somehow? Wait, was she confident?

“Are you receiving me?”

The voice of the tree echoed out once again, reverberating between Racheal’s ears like a symphonic chorus.

“Ah! Y-yes, I can hear you?”

“Oh, that’s good. I wasn’t sure if this skill would work, considering you’re not really like the others.”

The others? Racheal’s mind wandered to what it could be referencing. Had the tree made contact with others before her? Other groups than theirs? Or maybe it was talking about the leader who had gone missing.

The whole caravan of men had been in a frenzy when their leader Chuck had disappeared, but now that she thought about it, maybe this tree was involved in that? No, she really didn’t have time to speculate, she needed to ask for the tree’s help. Building up the courage to speak up in the inky-black void, Racheal asked the tree.

“I’m sorry to impose on you and your family, but we need help. We are very thankful to have been freed, but we need help in treating our injured. Is there anything you can provide us with to care for them?”

Racheal gulped, hoping that she wouldn’t earn the treefolk’s ire. After a pause, the voice responded.

“Um, yeah I think I’ve got something like that, give me a second…”

As the melodious sound that was somehow a mixture of a man and a woman’s voice rang out in Racheal’s mind, several twistings underground gave evidence to the movement of roots that was happening all around her. The darkness around her faded, allowing her to see the not much brighter moonlight-cast surroundings once again.

The upended dirt and dust before her stretched into the forest background. Traveling for longer than Racheal could make out between the trees, the roots moved through the trees like a highway of wood and fibers. The sight was beyond impressive to the woman.

“How are they doing all of this? Are these trees working as a society somehow?”

The thought in Racheal’s mind was a preposterous but explosive one. If that was the case, then it made sense how they could so effectively help her and her fellow slaves. The roots appeared to be the muscles of the community of trees, while the trees themselves may serve as the brains. Such a collection of organisms would be like a super-colony, Racheal thought.

“We may have stumbled onto something extraordinary here.”

After a few moments the rumbling beneath Racheal’s feet stopped. In front of her feet a root broke through the ground, coiling around a bunch of the most beautiful flowers the woman had ever seen. Bright blue blossoms inlaid with a luminescent yellow jewel in their centers. They gleamed like nothing else Racheal had known from nature.

Then the world went dark around her again, and her vision of the stunning blossoms was stolen. The amorphous voice returned to Racheal’s mind.

“Do you like them?”

The voice spoke with a questioning tone. Or at least, the end of its sentence carried a heightened pitch. Racheal was amazed at the emotiveness of the plant. From what she had heard of intelligent plants, and there was little she had, they were not normally this emotionally readable. Either this tree was an outlier, or it had practiced the speaking habits of beings like her. Both were odd to think about for Racheal.

“Ah! Yes, they are the most beautiful flowers I have ever seen! Will they help our injured, though?”

“I’m glad you like them, I thought the same when I first saw them too. As for your injured fellows, in theory I believe they will. The flowers contain AF, and should thus stimulate the natural biological processes in all who consume them. This, I believe, will accelerate their healing.”

The voice spoke with such a cadence that if not for the otherworldly-tone, Racheal would have forgotten she was speaking to a tree. Though it seemed to her that the tree had indeed brought what she and her comrades needed, she hadn’t understood everything it had said. But that was another matter, the healing of her fellows took priority for now.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“Then I truly thank you. If this in any way works to improve the health of my friends, then our group will owe you and your kin more than we could ever work to repay.”

Racheal bowed her head. This action, or perhaps something she just said, seemed to confuse the tree for a moment.

“Then I will be here, watching to guarantee the health of your friends. Make haste.”

“Thank you! I will come back with good news!”

The tree cut off their connection somehow, and Racheal was left to return to her group. Grabbing the bundle of luminescent azure flowers in her arms, she raced back toward the caravan tents.

…

“Yikes.”

Licht had been on edge for that whole conversation, the girl’s expressions as he was talking were way too weird for him to be comfortable. It was like she was concentrating on each word he was saying or something. Or maybe she was constipated?

In any case, Licht figured that it was best to keep the woman at arms-reach, and play the mysterious benefactor role that he liked to read about so much in novels. There was clearly something off about the woman herself, and it seemed she had come to certain conclusions about him that he couldn’t understand.

“What did she mean by ‘my kin’? Does she think all of the trees here are separate beings?”

If that was the case, then it was possible that she was far less educated about intelligent plant life than he initially gave her credit for. If such intelligent plants were that common then Licht would have met far more than just two others by now! It was interesting though that such a thought was more plausible to her than the truth of a hivemind of trees or some other explanation. Tree-related spirits must already exist in common knowledge for her to have made such a conclusion confidently, Licht thought.

“Trying to talk to me was probably just a desperate act, rather than a genuine deduction of my true nature. She just got lucky, is all.”

It was far more likely that the mushroom woman was further from his own self than he originally assumed. Just looking like a plant wasn’t enough to actually be plantlife, it seemed. She surely lacked the intuitive nature of communicating that Muan and the GIving Tree had displayed, for sure. She spoke and acted far more like a human than the other two.

“It would be better to lump her in with the elves than associate her with a plant. Guess her ancestors must have done some freaky stuff with toadstools, though.”

Come to think of it, he hadn’t even gotten her name, had he? Well, something to catch in the next conversation. Licht had realized that she didn’t know much about intelligent plants, but that didn’t mean she didn’t come across as earnest. Licht was sure she would follow up on her intention to reconnect.

He would ask her about it then. Along with his laundry list of other questions…

…

“I’m very thankful to you. The herbs you provided us with have worked wonders! And the injuries of my friends look better every day.”

A few days later, Racheal stood in front of the same tree she had spoken with previously. Darkness enclosed her from all sides save for the form of the tree. After having initiated the conversation this time by asking her name, much to Racheal’s surprise, the tree then asked how she had found the healing herbs.

“I’m glad to hear that Racheal. Have you any questions about them?”

Racheal paused, as if unsure. Initially, she had been worried about what the trees had given her, worried they might have an adverse effect on her friends. After she had seen their miraculous effects and no sequelae, she became far more open to discussing with the plant life than she had been previously.

“I do, actually. Before, you mentioned that the blossoms contained something, whatever that was likely the reason behind my friend’s recovery. I’d like to know what it is.”

“Of course. The blossoms contain AF. Whether it's crystallized or in some other form I do not know. All I could tell was that the blossoms contained it in high volume. Well, enough at least to be mentioned on the interface. Though I think it said a ‘minute amount’?”

The second half of the voice’s sentence was partially mumbled, somehow. As if it was speaking to itself. Racheal could barely make it out.

“Ey af? I don’t understand?”

“Oh sorry. It’s an acronym for Ambient Energy. A shortening of the term for ease of use.”

Racheal still didn’t understand. She vocalized as such.

“Hmm. Well, it’s kind of like an energy in living beings I guess? What I know is that beings can use it for skills and that it sometimes crystallizes in people after they die.”

Listening to the explanation, a light bulb went off in Racheal’s mind.

“Is the Ambient Force as you describe it, actually called Mana?”

What she had said prompted a response in the tree, after a moment of silence it responded with far more energy in its genderless voice.

“It could be! That would make a lot of sense, wouldn’t it?”

Racheal smiled, thinking that the tree had arrived at a conclusion of its own with her help made her happy. As if she was paying back some small part of the boundless debt she owed to it. It was silly, she knew, but she wanted to be even more helpful.

“And the skills that you mentioned. You said that they were powered by this energy?”

“Yes, well. I need the energy to use them, but they could be said to power it as well.”

“Then aren’t they basically spells?”