“Okay?”
Racheal’s head dangled to the side. To sound so serious, she had no idea what the tree was about to tell her.
“I would like to ask you to keep it from your friends if possible, as it concerns my safety. I debated whether or not to tell you, but given all that we have discussed, I believe you are a trustworthy person, Racheal.”
“Oh, thank you. I will, don’t worry.”
The fungoid woman was touched. The genuine respect the tree had for her was evident in the tone of its voice. Its inflection carried a warmth to it that she had seldom experienced in the last few weeks. If there was something that the tree wanted her to keep a secret, she had no problem doing so. She owed too enormous of a debt to part hairs at merely keeping her mouth shut.
“In truth, you have a misconception. There is no ‘colony’ of trees here. I was torn on accepting your assumption in favor of my safety, but I decided to come clean. In the trees you see around yourself, the only intelligent creature present is myself.”
Racheal tried to make sense of what the tree was saying. Rubbing her hand across her collar, she asked for clarification.
“What do you mean by that? I don’t understand?”
The voice was silent for a moment before responding.
“Understand that I, the being who is speaking to you, is intelligent. Although you chose to commune with this tree in particular, truthfully I am connected with all of the trees in the vicinity of the clearing, and grow to encompass more every day.”
Racheal could no longer stand by her promise of keeping her mouth shut, as she let it hang open in shock.
“Is that really true? But…but then, wait. What kind of being would even be able to do that? I’m sorry, but this is a little hard for me to accept. I understand that I have limited knowledge on these things, but even this…”
Racheal stepped backward, rustling her hand through her lamella. It was a cold morning, and dew had gathered there. She had the unhealthy habit of not cleaning the underside of her cap every morning, causing micro spores to grow. It was something that made her guilty even if no one else had noticed. It was clearly starting to be the season where she would need to clean more often, as even the grass was full of dew.
“Wait, grass?”
Racheal panned around, the darkness was gone? She looked back toward the tree, seeing it along with the forest thick with greenery behind it. Their communication had stopped?
“Um, tree?”
She realized that she had stepped a little too far away from the tree. As she got closer, the darkness returned to engulf everything once again. The melodious voice of the tree reached her ears as soon as she was back in the tenebrous space.
“Ah, that’s interesting, so it has a range limit?”
Racheal squinted.
“Ah, well nevermind. You want proof of my claim?”
She nodded.
“That would be preferable. Although, however hard to accept, it might make a few things more clear to me. But still, how can one being come to inhabit different trees?”
The voice coughed. Something Racheal didn’t find to be very tree-like.
“Well it’s true that even I find it a little bit strange, but you’ve got to take every opportunity afforded to you if you want to survive. What I can tell you comes again with the condition that you cannot share it with anyone else. I have been advised by certain members of the…’locale’ that I would possibly be in danger if I were to give off obvious signals of my presence or be too flamboyant. Can you still promise that, being so doubtful of my origin?”
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Racheal swallowed. Was it really her right to be doubtful in the first place? If what the being was saying was true, then everything she had seen as the work of a community of benefactors was actually a singular being. Incomprehensible though it was, it seemed that one life form could orchestrate the entirety of the surrounding woodlands.
“I apologize. I have no right to be doubtful, especially not when I said I would help you. Please continue, I will share none of this.”
“Thank you for that. Anyways, I am something called a Woodland Ego. I started from a Nature’s Ego, but with a little help from a few protein-packed friends I was able to evolve.”
…
Licht waited for the recognition to bloom in her eyes.
“Oh yes, the Woodland Ego! I’ve read all about you in my Nature’s Gazette. Let me flip to the page where it lists all of your strengths and evolutionary options!”
Well, that was a bit far fetched, but to see not a grain of familiarity in the fungoid woman’s eyes was a bit disappointing if he was honest. Though maybe reassuring? He couldn’t be certain of Racheal’s education in the field of rare species, though she likely wasn’t that ignorant, but her own ignorance of his kind may lend itself to the case with possible hunters. It would be nice if by now he was a forgotten commodity in the economic world, and the Giving Tree’s advice had been outdated.
“I’m sorry, I’ve never heard of your kind.”
Licht stretched out a root, flicking it in the air like he was waving it off.
“Don’t worry. I have reason to believe that we’re something of a rare race, or at least plenty spread out from each other. I don’t have any reason to believe there would be one in the Filigost Woods where you came from, either.”
“Well, truthfully I was born in a land further to the north. Past the Kingdom of Pytheonia which is north of Mont Ryoux, there is a swath of flatlands. My village was located in a swamp along these flatlands. I was only visiting the Filigost Woods for my work.”
Licht felt interested and listened to her continue.
“In my village we were connected to a spirit well. It was a place where spirits would congregate, the races that include natural spirits and fairies. It was the characteristics of those races that I had initially likened your kind to having. Spirits and fairies are two races that are naturally born as spectrals, not only that, they are an exception to the one-spell rule in many cases. Using a branch of Magick called Spiritual Magick. The possibility of your method of communication being a spell was what made me first think of it.”
“Meaning that I’m more like these spirits that you mentioned than a typical intelligent plant life form. Interesting. Though you’ve never heard the term ‘Ego’?”
Racheal shook her head.
“It’s also possible that in general, people don’t use the correct terms. Ego may signify a certain class or distinction of spirits, yet the general term is preferred.”
“So I’m basically a natural spirit, but not the kind that floats around with translucent wings. What a shame…”
This sentence seemed to surprise Racheal as LIcht vocalized it.
“You mean to say you don’t have that kind of form? All of the spirits that I know follow those rules, even the outliers.”
“No, I have a physical body. Rooting it within a tree was what first allowed me to take control of it, in fact.”
This obviously stumped Racheal, as she didn’t know what to make of that. It seemed in the conversation that one party had hit the end of their knowledge while the other had just been trailing along the whole time. Licht couldn’t really offer anything of his own, as he didn’t have the years of living in Hadea to draw upon.
“Well, in summary it’s likely that you’re actually some kind of natural spirit, only one to which the classification of is not common knowledge. This could be good for you, but unfortunately it’s most likely bad. I agree with the advice of that local member to lay low. Exposing yourself to the outside world before you are strong enough would do you no good. You know what happens to your kind, right?”
Licht’s internal expression, which had become second nature for him to imagine at this point, twisted in ponderance.
“Uh, they go up in a museum? We’re rare, and we’re worth something, right?”
Racheal rubbed her collar.
“What’s a museum? No, natural spirits are sought out for their inherent value. Part of the reason why your kind is so rare is because you're constantly snatched up as soon as you're born to be used in high-level alchemy and forges. The human kingdoms I know of actually have measures in place to predict where beings like you are going to show up. It’s a miracle you’ve actually survived this long. Now that I think about it, it’s kind of weird.”
That sent a chill down his metaphorical back. Snatched up? Licht reviewed his system log, looking for something he vaguely remembered reading. There it was. A line of description all the way back from when he had still been a Nature’s Ego. Nearly two months ago by now?
“A Nature's Ego root in its juvenile stage. Although yet to mature its ego, its value as a supremely rare natural resource is worth a kingdom’s weight in gold. They are primarily used in alchemy as an ingredient for restorative items of the highest order.”
Natural resource? A kingdom’s weight in gold?
“Oh shit.”
Maybe he had underestimated the importance of GT’s advice.