Chapter 6

“According to the map,” Vesha said. “It shouldn’t be long until we leave the land of oaks and enter the Ushujin.”

She held in her pincers the map that she had taken with her as they walked along the ground covered in pine needles and oak leaves. The floor of dead foliage was thicker than usual as while the leaves of trees did litter most of Wassergras, this was only because the rain washed them downstream. While trees could generally be seen in most of the region, to be this close to them definitely meant you were in the land of pine and oak. They were so close to the seemingly infinitely tall plants they had to avoid the roots of the oak and could touch the bark of the trunks.

They walked on the ground, their feet submerged in water as they walked on the formerly dry ground. They had waited in the flower tree forest until the current of rain water receded on land. They couldn’t return to the Blue River yet as while it was safe to traverse by foot, the current of the river was still too fast to sail safely.

They had plotted a general course without the need for detailed instructions as Melsil seemed to know where the Dushil family was. However, now that they were traveling on land they needed a better grasp of where they were going. Travelling down the river and having Melsil point out where to stop was less difficult than walking on dry land and keeping close watch of where they arrived.

However, they had entered the land of pine and oak in an attempt to enter Ushujin. In actuality, the fungus country of Ushujin overlapped with the land of pine and oak but saying such a thing to a person who lived here was tantamount to death threats. The different species had such an intense hatred for those of the neighboring peoples that even minor interactions between them could lead to bloodshed.

Rillia and Jason stared up at the oak and pine them towered endlessly above them as they walked side by side. From what the ant had read, the trees were literally thousands of times taller than they were, so tall they even dwarfed the giants. They provided homes for plenty of species, not just sapient peoples like acorn people and pinecone people. Insects like caterpillars used them and so did birds who built nests there. She had never visited the land of oak and pine before

“Can we climb up them?!” Jason yelled as he carried the lilypad ship over his head. “Can we?! Please!”

“Yeah!” Rillia said. “This is a once in a lifetime opportunity!”

“Be quiet,” Vesha said tersely. “I need to concentrate so we don’t get lost.”

The pain in her voice was evident. The crawfish that Rillia initially met at Slab Lake was now replaced with a passive husk of a person, too shocked at the revelation given to her to say much of anything. From her body language alone, Rillia could tell she was emotionally drained.

“I won’t get lost!” Jason said. “I’ll scale it quickly!”

“Me too...” Rillia said, not wanting to disturb her any further.

“Stop it,” Melsil said. “The last thing we need is to be separated.”

They both frowned, Rillia sighing while Jason seemed defeated. No longer looking up at the trees, the ant turned to Vesha who walked in front of her. They would have continued on their way had intense screams not permeated the air.

They all turned to the right to find the source of the shrieks of agony behind an oak root that rose from the ground. The sheer size and solidity of the plant structure was enough to deflect the mild current of rainwater. The more Rillia looked on, the more she could decipher the sound from the wall of wood just beyond them. She groaned upon hearing it, knowing this would only put further distance between her and the Primeval World.

The other three didn’t so much as make a sound as they turned and rushed forward. It wasn’t just the fact Rillia wasn’t the fastest amongst them, it was also that she was uninterested in heroism. Everyone around her was interested in being someone’s savior and, knowing that so many people were obsessed with throwing their lives away for what they felt was a worthy cause, made her feel like doing so herself was redundant.

Everyone wants to do what they think is the right thing. Rillia thought. Jason hates evil, Melsil thinks it’s selfish to ever think of your own self-preservation or happiness and Vesha is committed to her people. In fact, she’s broken up because she’s not more selfless. Even the Red Fungus want to benefit their people. If everyone in the world is acting for what they think is the greater good, why should I be thought of as bad for not doing the same? Am I truly doing the wrong thing or just not being a conformist?

However, as reluctant as she was, Rillia followed behind her three traveling companions. Just as she knew, her friends had taken care of the problem before she even arrived. But it was a complete and bloody mess that made her sick to look at.

The bodies of acorn people were scattered around them. The acorn people, once matured into adults, were very thin as their upper body was a slender trunk with multiple limbs in the form of leaves and even thinner branches from which they walked and held items. Their heads were distinct and rather beautiful, decorated with leaves while female acorn people even blossomed flowers from their body. However, when they were infantile, they were acorns who moved by having slender branches grow out from their hat-like cuticle to act as legs. The immature acorn children had thin eyes and a small mouth that almost looked like it had been carved into its exterior.

The acorn people here were literally torn to pieces, the leaves and branches grown from the sides of their bodies littering the bed of pine straw around them. Rillia had to turn away from the sight of the dead before finding the only survivor of their kind. It was an acorn child, the poor thing curled into a ball with its vine-like appendages and weeping while Rillia’s companions attacked the assailants.

Near the wall of wood that was the root rising from the ground were pinecone people being pummeled by Jason, sliced by Melsil and torn in two by Vesha’s wicked claws. Pinecone people, like acorn people, were born from their respective trees as being contained within seeds before growing into tree-like beings. After growing out of pinecones that had limited mobility they became walking trees like the acorn people but their entire body was covered in pine needles. This gave them a furry sort of look and quite dangerous as the pine needles they naturally grew were quite sharp and were natural weapons.

After five of the six pinecone people that had attacked and killed the now rent acorn people were quickly killed the last was held by Jason in the air. The pine needles that grew around his face had bloodied Jason’s arms but the trunk that formed most of his body was beaten to the point that there were several holes in it. The young man’s curled fist was right beneath his face, the large eyes of the pinecone person squinting in pain while his wide mouth moaned in pain. While being held with his back to the root behind him, Rillia saw large thorns sticking out of the wooden exterior. Her heart sank as she recognized them as the poisonous thorns of the black locust.

“This...this doesn’t…” the pinecone person said. “Concern your kind…”

“It may not my kind,” Jason said. “But it does me!”

“So,” Melsil said. “The foolishness of tribalism continues on. I thought you pinecone people had made a truce with the people of the oak.”

“Quite,” Vesha said. “I hope you realize you’ve only brought destruction upon your own kind by attacking acorn people. This could be seen as starting another war between your kind.”

Rillia sighed, knowing exactly what the crawfish was talking about. The acorn and pinecone people were bitter rivals as a result of competition between their need for territory. Pinecone and acorn people were both produced by their respective trees before being given to adult parents of their respective kind to raise them accordingly.

However, trees in close proximity to one another were in constant competition to one another. One tree required quite a bit of water, minerals and ground territory in order to maintain its health. There was only so much of that to go around and if one tree’s root system stunted the other then the future people born from that tree’s seeds would be less healthy and plentiful.

Not only that but when a person of the oak or pine was injured or sick they could merely plug themselves up to a branch of their species’ tree and replenish their health. Not only was their tree needed for the reproduction of their population but also to maintain the health of those already born. The health of one tree was inversely proportional to the health of the other.

There used to be as many as four trees growing in Wassergras, two of pine and two of oak but two had been destroyed by the warring factions of acorn and pine. The black locust thorns were a way of poisoning the trees as sticking them into the exposed roots of the rival tree would release toxins that would prevent the roots from sucking water and nutrients out of the ground. When those thorns were found in a root it was a sure sign of subterfuge from the rival race and finding a single thorn was enough to start a war between them that would cause problems for all of Wassergras.

And that didn’t include the attempts of either race trying to grow their own trees. The idea of repopulating their race and planting more trees that would stunt the rival species’ tree growth was so tempting both acorn and pinecone people tried it at one point. The trees never grew anywhere big enough to replace the ones they normally used but it did do something to deprive the soil of nutrients for their enemies. Acorn people planting oaks on pines and the inverse pulling up the baby trees planting by the other factions was the last strategy the rival peoples used before they finally came to their most recent peace agreement.

“Why would you break the deal you made for your own species’ survival?” Melsil asked.

The pinecone person laughed weakly.

“You don’t seem to understand,” he answered. “We’re doing this for our own survival.”

“Poisoning oaks has never worked for the people of the pine,” Vesha stated. “I’d thought you’d learn that by now.”

“We’ve come close,” the pinecone person replied with a sick smile. “And now it’s more important than ever that we kill the people of oak before they do the same to us.”

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Jason began shaking him in anger, the pinecone person screaming in fear.

“What are you talking about?!” Jason yelled. “You didn’t kill these people because you had to! You did it because you’re evil!”

“It’s obvious you ambushed them after trying to poison their life source,” Melsil said. “You can’t fool us.”

“Shut it, mushroom devil!” he yelled. “Your kind are the very reason that we’re doing this!”

Everyone collectively gasped. Rillia felt a sudden weight befall her, as if the gravity around her intensified. She now realized that their mission to the Red Fungus held greater significance than before. Melsil looked down in somber anger while Jason’s grip on the pinecone person tightened.

“So,” Vesha said. “This has to do with the war with the Red Fungus.”

“Yes,” he admitted. “The Red Fungus have polluted the area around our pine with many red mushrooms. As if our tree’s growth wasn’t slowed enough by the efforts of the oak people...now we have them to contend with as their fungus sucks away the nutrients from the soil. We…”

He then looked to Rillia.

“We tried contacting the ants to remove the mushrooms from our land without spreading their poisons,” he said. “But...but...the ants treated us with suspicion and did not respond as we had not been on good terms with them since...since the last war with the oak people.”

“But then why attack the oak people?!” Jason demanded as he shook him again. “Why attack them?!”

The pinecone person gave them a sneering smile. He then weakly raised an arm to point at the acorn child across from them. The acorn child looked up at them with an intensely sad expression while the person of pine laughed.

“Why don’t you ask him,” he said.

The acorn child then began wailing in sorrow again. Jason then ripped the arm he used to point off the pinecone person. The tree person cried in agony before Jason slapped him, shutting him up.

“What is that supposed to mean?!” he shouted. “You think a child has anything to do with your actions?!”

“No,” the acorn child said. “It does.”

Everyone turned around to look on him with utter shock.

“My people…” he said. “We did something cruel...something crueler than poisoning the pine people’s trees.”

“I told you…” the pine person said, laughing.

“We allied with the Red Fungus,” he said.

A sudden air of tension fell amongst them, every going dead silent except Melsil.

“Your kind decided to ally with the Red Fungus again?” he asked. “Did they learn nothing from the war with the ants and crawfish?!”

“I only know what my parents said!” he cried. “Before I was born...apparently, the Red Fungus mob and...and the acorn people were allies...until they lost the war in which they fought alongside and...and…”

“Go on,” the pinecone man said.

“The Red Fungus…” the acorn child said. “They’re scary...I saw them arriving at our tree and...and they said they were going to start a campaign to take control of all of Wassergras…”

He stood up, the branch limbs growing from beneath his cuticle allowing him to stand up on the wet bed of pine straw and oak leaves.

“Due to their historic relationship with the oak people,” he said. “They offered to not plant red mushrooms near our tree and do so only amongst the pine so long as they would support them in battle.”

“That’s horrible,” Vesha said. “They’re gathering allies.”

“Yes,” the pinecone man said. “After finding red mushrooms along our territory, we sent spies to the land of the oak who did not find a single one near your oak. We knew this was no accident and decided to act.”

“Very devious,” Melsil said. “You used this act of the Red Fungus the oak people were forced into complying with to continue your warmongering.”

“Hahaha,” the pinecone man laughed. “Filthy devils. You have no right to talk, fungus scum. I knew you all were-”

Jason struck the pinecone person in the face, the blow strong enough to explode his head into bits of bark and yellowish sap. He threw his headless corpse against the root, no one objecting to his decision to kill the assailant. They all turned back to the acorn child who looked sad.

“I’m…” he said. “I’m so sorry. I should have said...said something. I know we were bad but-”

“No,” Melsil said. “You were not bad. You had no place in that decision. Blaming yourself is no different than blaming the people of the pine for the actions of these soldiers.”

“They…” he said. “They killed my parents...I want revenge. And not only that…”

He glared at the dead body of the pinecone man.

“There were more of them,” the acorn child said. “My parents and I were on patrol as we guard the vulnerable parts of the roots that can be seen above ground. We stumbled upon them poisoning the roots before they killed my family and talked of using me as a hostage. They mentioned that...that there were more of them in the area, poisoning the tree roots of my kind’s oak.”

Melsil shook his head.

“You have every right to be angry,” he said. “Furious, even. But please...don’t blame the entire species of the pine for this. There are innocents, like you, as clean of bloodshed that are born from pinecones. Don’t direct your anger on those it doesn’t deserve.”

“Thank you,” he said. “But...but aren’t you a fungus? Why...why are you telling me this? Shouldn’t you be on the side of the Red Fungus?”

Melsil drew his sword, turned and extended it at the black locust thorns protruding from the oak root. In a flash of white the black thorns were slashed to pieces before becoming specks of white. The damaged part of the tree that had turned blackish-purple were white, a healthy looking fungus growing from the damaged portion of the wood.

“Just as an acorn child like you has decided your species did something unspeakably heinous,” Melsil stated. “So I have decided mine have as well. And I pledge to not die until I destroy the Red Fungus. And after that I will not cease to restore justice to this world.”

The particles of white fungus drifted around him before landing in the water, drifting along with the current as Melsil sheathed his sword.

“Tell us where the other roots are,” Vesha stated. “And we’ll deal with the pine people.”

The acorn child smiled up at her with a hopeful look.

“Yeah!” Jason said. “And maybe I can get some cool needles from those pine guys! They’d make excellent throwing darts!”

The wall of solidified venom Rillia secreted was taxing on her. She had to use a great quantity of it to form the dome-shaped barrier that protected her from the pine needles thrown at her. To her surprise, the needles were sharp enough and thrown with enough force to pierce her shield, sticking in halfway. The domed wall of solid venom was connected to each of her six limbs by a rope of venom before extending outward to connect to the back of the barrier.

After shielding herself from the assault of the pinecone soldier, she secreted venom out of her back before willing at her attacker. The spiralling green liquid Rillia then hardened to reddish-black before forming claws. While Rillia couldn’t see past the wall of solid venom she constructed, she knew that her opponent was close enough in front of her to land a killing blow. After feeling the claws of venom skewer through the weak bark of the soldier she willed the venom to turn liquid again before withdrawing into her body.

She walked forward to find past the corpses of the pinecone men she slew the black locust thorns sticking out of the root. After removing the black locust thorns with her bare hands, Rillia secreted another spiralling channel of venom to funnel into the holes pierced into the wood by the thorns. She felt around inside the wood structure to draw out any venom that had infected it. After cleansing the tree of any toxins Rillia withdrew the liquid back into her body.

She left the root to meet with the others at the original root they had come across. She found Vesha and Melsil looking rather depressed as they scanned over the map while Jason entertained Chistu, the acorn child they found. Using his immense strength, he clapped to blow the pine straw and oak leaves below them away, leaving it bare. As Chistu stared amazed, Jason then picked up the acorn child and threw him into the air quite a ways before catching him. At first Rillia found this dangerous but the acorn child seemed to love it.

“Ahaha!” he laughed.

“We should lay low for another day,” Vesha stated. “By that point the river’s intense current should subside and we can begin sailing again. Melsil, are you sure that we’ll reach the Duchil family’s headquarters without them leaving?”

“Of course,” he said. “I was raised there all my youth. My family stays there, planning. They’re the head of the Red Fungus so before instigating any major attack they’re going to all be gathered, waiting until everything is ready before leaving to attack. The Duchil family are cold-blooded but they’re as cautious as anything else.”

“Alright,” Rillia said. “After a heavy rain like that it won’t rain for maybe two more days. If the Duchil’s headquarters really are at the bend in the river we’ll be there sooner than that.”

“Let me go with you!” Chistu said.

Everyone turned to look at the acorn child as he was held in Jason’s arms.

“What?” Vesha asked. “Why?”

“I have no one else,” he replied. “My family...they were the only people I cared about. I want revenge on the Red Fungus for forcing us into this...I want to fight.”

“Can acorns fight?” Jason asked.

“No they can’t,” Vesha stated. “Acorns are not able to fight until they fully mature. You would be of no help in battle. Go back to your oak tree, we’ll even escort you there.”

“No!” Chistu stated. “I...I can do something! Us acorns can-can-”

“No,” Jason said.

The acorn looked up at him with pleading eyes, quietly staring up at the boy. He smiled, running his fingers down the smooth surface of the acorn’s woody exterior. Jason gave the child the biggest smile he could muster, causing the acorn to smile in return.

“Tell your people that a mushroom man saved you,” he said. “Along with an ant and a crawfish. Let your kind know that there are people out there willing to put their lives on the line for the greater good, and not just their own species. If you do that you’ll be helping us more than with any amount of strength you could muster. It’ll cause them to trust others, maybe not entire species, but individuals.”

He then set Chistu down, the acorn child holding himself up by the vine appendages from beneath his cuticle.

“You think if we tell you the directions to the Duchil family’s headquarters near the bend in the river, your people could muster an army to fight them?” Jason asked.

“I don’t,” Chistu said. “My people...they don’t want to defy the Red Fungus and...and think they could help us. But-but there are definitely those of the acorn people who hate the Red Fungus.”

“Then tell those people,” Melsil said before turning to Vesha. “Want to give him the directions?”

“If he’ll remember them,” she said before turning to Chistu. “But I hope you know...if your kind attacks the Duchil headquarters then they’ll be forever considered enemies of the Red Fungus.”

Chistu frowned.

“Well then I guess that’s the risk we’ll have to take.”