Chapter 4. Storm [Reincarnanted as a Tree]
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Droves of leaves swept past and around, creeping into a small flock. Rolling forms took the light, despite day's gaze- Now dulled gray, it didn't rest, not one moment as the clouds and sky came blanketed. The memories held their worth, and I knew, yet words fell in the back of my mind just out of reach. Droplets followed, water. Rain. A patter soon came, layering my form and surroundings. The forest went mute as the skies spoke their cries, a spark there, another and more' each shook. I could see the flashes just before they rattled my being, but I too knew, it wouldn't come and strike me. Much as my body disagreed, the lighting bore no ill. Not intentionally.
The sky well sung into nights embrace, shadows lengthened the pitch darkness nearly indiscernible. Puddles and streams washed over as the nearby river overfilled, the glowing fauna shone though water; laying shrooms and vibrant plant life were kin to tiny refuge. Small-slimy forms drifted and jumped from unseen cracks, croaking and resting in nearby stumps. Pouncing on light bugs and other flying insects too wet to fly.
The subtle pattering had enveloped, developed into something else. Simple drops of water and flowing wind swayed earth's design. Too it shifted me, unaided my branches moved as rain drenched down my trunk-
...
There is more than one way to skin a sheep, much the same to my conundrum of movement. I could burrow like a mole, twist and morph with wings, but I had to settle with something grounded. Action would do more now, than an endless pondering till abyss takes me. There was only really one option, the creature that had attacked me proved it possible, by its structure I'll persevere...
A horrid pull then twitch snapped back, crackling thunder and wind broke past me. In tow sets of branches, parts of me fell with them; loss and dread reckoned, as I drew inward while essence toiled away in cut pieces. Time whisked as I huddled like a spiraled cone, a sharp sensation came apparent at my ragged ends. Drifting and twirling the essence was being sapped away. Willing my tips I fused the ends, stopped the drain but not its warden. A symphony of thunder demanded audience, basking the forest in each spark and horrendous screech.
Though the dark haze, the shifting shapes and clouds looked at war. Each disputing their own corner in a canvas of black. The lying wind's died around me, as I gazed upward in a uncertain stillness, a wrong and unnerving one. Almost if a unruly companion long wanted, I then found myself missing it- A prickling rose within me. As I saw white begin to bubble, form in an instant.
It fell, descending in a wake of bludgeoning of sparks...
..
Murals of shadow stretched, feigned as before I realized the rising pricks of heat. A surrounding tree had been glassed. Struck a fissure of ember spark devoured it, bark and trunk alike fragmented- Inside the onslaught of wood I staggered back, on reflex covered my core with the thickest branches. Layered in parts like a cactus, I hastily shook off the splinters. As a wrenching crack came, a soon quake I lifted my limbs.
The tree had fallen, uprooted another laid beside it, nestled between cobwebs of sprouting flame.
Swaths of deep orange frayed, the fire etched daring to consume anything and everything. It was downhill from me, but it wouldn't stop the growing buds. As the sight reflected off my crystal shell; I couldn't help but question, is that no different than what would happen to me? No doubt, a small semblance wanted to deny it, but I would have no different fate. Despite my mind, despite my core my body is a tree flammable just as any.
Much less the surroundings, everything going to waste turned to ash? Yet would my core melt? It wasn't wood, probably would be unable to catch a spark--
Not that it mattered however, without this body I'd die.
Streaks of lightening continued to pound the earth in far-off places, the storm baring almost no effect on the rising flames. I couldn't dwell I had to stop the fire. As I yearned for the solution, I found myself surrounded in it. Mud and water, the forest floor laid thick in the slush. The fire was many tree lengths down from me, it had started to engorge itself on a nesting bush and vine.
Manipulating my lower branches I dug deep, piercing the muddled soil like a plow. First- I did what I could there was a river just outside my reach, on the opposite side of me. Far closer than the fire. The mud and water soaked my branches, rising thoughts of my bodily functions; was it all just fueled by essence? Or would this body wilt and rot without sun, water and soil... Was moving longterm viable?.. Quelling my thoughts I continued to pile the mud near me.
Layering the top soil, and brush forming a small trench to just at the hill's edge. That continued towards the river overflow, water poured-in filling each nook within seconds. I felt the water gush, like a dam raring and ready to burst- Quickly I ran a branch supporting the wall, It would do little unaided. I made a funnel out of soil and mud directed down to the fire's center. An avalanche of water would subdue the burning hunger. An arm of flame shot up a scattering of sitting vine, upwards to the hilltop. Towards me. In the same moment it laid quenched, the piling water came down swift swallowing flame and ash.
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The tide scattered ember and timber. The last flame' daring in the wake, was soon extinguished. However the orange cowl keep it's linger. For not each limb of flame reigned on soil, lying vine or rotting shrub.
Fire still burned only a sliver had gone, in part easily retaken. The forest floor was drenched, in muck and charcoal. The wet soil would only delay it, not that I didn't wish it. There was more I could do, maybe something I should- But true it mattered, yet not fully to me.
It dawned on me. True as skies reigned shadow, same was fact that this forest reign, it had for decades, hundreds- Perhaps more. It has been, will be. The rain and mud would hinder it, sapping energy in the costly combustion. Wishful? Or selfish, how much to chance? .. It was simpler to discern it to the workings of what always has. All I have to do is protect myself more in necessity and uncertainty than anything more. Would I gain energy in a wasting pursuit to stop the forces of nature?
I couldn't tempt mother nature, part of it now or otherwise.
...
A chorus of rustling ushered by, soot-like flakes rubbed my form. Scattered and divided as I solely remained; parting wind amongst a bed of ash. The storm had laid waste to my immediate surroundings, quenching the fire in the end. I had dug up mud and water lathering my base impeding flames, all while rooted in place I contemplated of the future. Like a cocoon of bark I molded myself in body and thought, I wasn't made to idle, I wouldn't have it. My existence had changed, this borrowed time that flowed though me, the crystal's essence would only dwindle if I did nothing. I couldn't let that happen.
The storm and fire progressed as did I, unspent idling was only hindrance. I sought a similar form of the creature it parasite or not was like me. More I explored my being a realization came, it's form was undeniably smaller, much smaller would size equate to expenditure? The surface area would decrease for each limb to twig and leaf a flow of essence came to and fro. Repeating the rhythmic cycle back to my inner core, spreading thin my essence to all the parts did it not have a cost? Well of course it did, everything had a price internal or external a force has equal action in the opposite direction. The scales tip and my costly form, as is needlessly wastes essence.
Bending, willing, cracking. Popping and twisting I willed my essence taking memory of the body I desired and needed. First of all my roots retracted, the multitude of spindles and branching paths were combined. Unifying the lanes interlaced and coiled into sturdy but two separate extensions below my base. I took reference, the bodily form of the creature, and the skeleton buried within me I molded joints into legs. Next my base came elongated, as I willingly separated major sections of leaves and branches; falling around me in my moments of concentration I felt my essence more dense than before- It was working.
I wasn't done, as I shed more. My trunk shifted forward, as I completed the leg joints and pelvic area. Extending back from that, I blended roots and branches into a tail. The more I changed the easier it felt, as if the body became more in-tune to me, forming a connection in each subtle change as my mind eye envisioned it. Yet as I tried more complexity I was wrought with inability, smaller forms such as spikes or molding branches to be barbed failed soon as they began. Could be I didn't have enough knowledge of it, or experience willing my essence.
I continued till dawn came.
My body had changed, on hind legs I stood bipedal. Two more limbs of arms dropped from by shifted base, the resting skeleton wasn't left to rot. Intertwined bone became structure as roots grasped around, the skull, chest and ribs were all taken. My core rested inside the fractured skull, armored within and out by the hardest and layered bark on my form's head. No part was exposed yet I still saw, the creature's core still helped even now. Lining the inside of my skull pieces of it reflected as holes turned into eye sockets of mirrors showing the world.
The metal armor that once adorned the familiar skeleton was riddled with holes, a majority already rusted and crumbling. Any connection I tried to form was impeded, even while I coiled around it essence wouldn't flow. It laid in disarray but parts were usable, still felt strong, like an impenetrable wall compared to wood and bone. Yet--still essence stopped. A part of me, maybe subconsciously drove me to the metal despite it all. My desire clashed reality, was there any point? I won't leave it.
It felt as if I'd loose a part of myself, in turn loosing maybe a piece of what I am now by forgetting once was. With branches coiled around I concentrated essence to exert all I could muster bending the singular piece of armor plating. As it was my form lacked an a more deliberate attack I found it hard to conceive teeth, serrations as the creature had. An immediate solution would only do, since awakening its apparent the surroundings-- Or more were dangerous.
I could've used the metal as a shield; instead I twisted it like a screw at the end of my tail. It would serve as a powerful bludgeon, using the most of my force and weight. Flakes of rust, discarded branches, leaves were scattered beneath me, as I stood out from the hollowed-like cocoon. With odd familiarity I moved, as if I had before. Morning dew had settled by now, the clouds that blanketed skies were distant. Almost like it was all a horrid illusion, but the surrounding forest spoke truth in it's distinct state. The scenery painted a landscape of scars, the lush greenery had been uprooted, nests and lying borrows undoubtedly overflowed. Muck and mud suffocating any creature unable or unlucky enough to stay inside their false security.
A deep chill rose within me, more than just from the scenery- No, that alone wouldn't stir me, it was just workings of nature. The discarded corpse. The parasite was gone, as I looked to were I had torn and thrown it, I knew it sucked its last ounce but the thought it..It moving irked me. It must've been taken by scavengers, or washed away, it must have. I tried looking past it, finding myself staring at my being and form, I could move I wasn't a sitting egg waiting to be cracked.
Then I heard a tweet, flapping of wings. And a sight of two emerald eyes staring back at mine.