Chapter 1: The Great Forest

I had grown up in civilization, so living in the middle of a forest with no technological advances would have seemed pretty much the worst thing to throw at me. Weirdly enough, it wasn’t.

Sara asked for me to stay in the clearing surrounding the tree, which was quite expansive, resting underneath the limbs of the trunk. She directed me to a clear stream which she purified in a stream of white light to make it safe to drink. She produced food from low-hanging branches that I had never seen. The ordinary-looking fruit was surprisingly flavorful and juicy.

She, in essence, could meet all my basic needs. This left me with every child’s true enemy, boredom. At first, I addressed the boredom by swimming in the lake at her roots, reveling in doing something I hadn’t been able to do for a long time.

This led to another discovery of my new body that I hadn’t noticed before. A series of white vine-like tattoos, almost imperceptible against my pale skin, covered my left leg.

Drifting in the water, I asked Sara what they were. Her reply was Marks of a White Mage.

When asked what a ‘White Mage is,’ her unhelpful reply was, You.

Perhaps it was rude to call the reply unhelpful. From the feelings I received from her, it seemed that she really was trying to explain.

In search of something else to do, I climbed her branches. Another aspect of my new body became apparent after I pulled too hard and sent myself flying into the sky. Landing might have been troublesome, but Sara projected a nest of leaves underneath me, stopping my fall.

I tried to ask her why I was so strong, but she didn’t understand that question. I remembered she had asked me what a human was before, leading to another strange conversation.

“Sara, do you know what humans are?”

Humans? No humans. Elves? her normal presence in my head turned down at those words, she almost seemed upset.

Wait, there were Elves. Have you met Elves, Sara?

I felt something fiery and hot rush through me, and I almost keeled over from the feelings rushing through me.

Betrayers. Let Forest Burn. Let White Mages die. Exiled.

She hadn’t been communicative after that for a little while, and I had felt strangely lonely. I hadn’t known I had grown so used to her already. I was still curious but would wait for a better time to ask her.

Eventually, as I had relaxed against one of her massive roots, she spoke again, Help.

From the trees emerged what I would have called a deer, except its antlers were a clear crystal, and its snow-white fur chimed as it walked more exactly stumbled to a halt in the clearing. I winced at the severe gashes on its side that dripped a light blue fluid that I could only think of as blood.

Cautiously I approached the wild animal, aware I was breaking every rule I had been taught before I came here about approaching wild animals.

The deer’s eyes glazed and looked at me before bowing its crown of antlers and crumbling to its knees. Unable to help myself, I came closer, trying to think through the panic that was starting to crawl through my head.

Calm.

Cool water dribbled over my raging thoughts, and I sank to my knees by the weird deer.

Help.

Slowly I reached out my hands toward the terrible wound.

“How,” I croaked out, staring at the bleeding wound.

The memory of my arrival and my foot appeared in my mind.

I took a deep breath, Heal.

A bright white mist flowed from my hands, covering the wound, and I felt something drain from me as if pouring water from a bucket onto thirsty soil.

I fell forward against my will before steadying myself with another hand. I was reminded of how I felt in the early days of my illness. So really, I had been much more tired than this.

I took a deep breath and looked again at the weird deer’s flank. Fresh fur and skin had replaced torn, and without the remaining dried blood, I wouldn’t have known there was an injury there in the first place.

I allowed myself a tired smile of relief before I was distracted as the deer stood to its feet, nuzzling me with a cold, wet nose before it bowed its head to Sara and walked out of the clearing.

Good.

I was surprised by the warmth of emotion contained within Saras; well, I guess voice wasn’t the right word, thoughts?

I took a deep breath and pushed myself to my feet, still feeling tired.

Drink.

I was directed to the water and took a couple of deep gulps of water. I found myself feeling better, the tired feeling disappearing. I looked critically at the water. Was this just standard water, or was there something else to it?

I gave a sigh and looked at my hands. Since I had come here, I had cast what were unmistakably spells. They weren’t in some unfamiliar language, but they did seem to be at least intention based. I had cast Heal and Protection. It felt like a crazy hallucination.

I looked at the sky and frowned, looking at the sick and dead brown leaves of Sara that I had first seen when I arrived. Was Sara sick?

“Can I help you?”

Sadness. Regret. Not Burden. Mother.

I frowned. I had felt like a burden before to think that Sara would feel that way too bothered me. It wasn’t fair.

“I will help you.”

Shock. Alarm. Warning.

I walked over to the trunk of the tree, Heal.

It was like pouring water onto a desert. The sand greedily gulped down the water, but nothing changed.

Stop.

I wrenched myself away at the last moment, taking deep heavy panting breaths, all my strength was gone, and I found myself falling flat, taking deep shallow breaths.

Worry. Anger.

Well, that was easy enough to interpret, “I’m sorry. I should have listened.”

The anger faded, but the worry remained.

I wanted to stay awake, but already my eyes were drifting shut.

When I woke, I found myself staring at the starry sky, in awe of the stars twinkling like holiday lights.

Relief.

“Yeah, I’m okay, Sara,” I murmured.

Admonishment. Relief.

“I’ll listen next time. That stuff you told me before about the White Mages dying. Is that why you’re sick?”

Reluctance. Regret. Sorrow.

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I sighed, rubbing my head, “I won’t give up on you, Sara.”

Admonishment.

“I can’t, Sara. In my past life, I was also sick like you.”

Worry. Sadness.

“I’m not sick anymore, don’t worry. I feel stronger than ever,” I chuckled with a lightness I did not feel, but I didn’t want Sara to pick up on my concern.

Relief.

The memories of the white light I had seen when I died remerged, pressing against my conscious.

“But I think, as strange as it sounds, I’m here to help you. I’m not strong enough right now, but I will be. I promise I’m going to heal you.”

Reluctance.

“I won’t give up on that. Maybe if there we could get some other White Mages, we could do it together.”

Sorrow. Gone.

“Right, you said they had died,” I murmured, frowning, “Are there really no others?”

Hesitance.

It took me a moment to interpret that feeling; hesitantly, I spoke, “There are others, then?”

Few. Far away. Won’t come home.

My eyes burned at the sheer sorrow in Sara’s thoughts, and I wiped at the tears.

“What if I brought them home? Would it be enough to heal you?”

Hesitance. Worry. Will not lose the last child.

I frowned, “But if I don’t, I’ll lose you, won’t I.”

Reluctant acknowledgment. Worry. Not strong enough. Young.

Judging by my body’s size, I supposed I must look quite young to her. Not to mention Sarah was a giant tree. Magical or not, the only giant trees where I had come from were quite old.

I frowned, sitting cross-legged and rubbing my head for a moment in thought.

“Could you teach me to be strong?”

Learn?

“Yeah.”

The silence persisted between us for some time. I could feel that Sarah was thinking, but I didn’t think bothering her would achieve anything worthwhile.

Acceptance.

At long last, she replied, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

From a root nearby, the wood began to shift and morph, and to my shock, a pale hand emerged from the tree, which then pushed against the root. Then a foot emerged. Then another arm.

With the last foot emerged a woman. White vine-like tattoos covered her tanned skin, and her eyes were a pale silver contrasting against raven black hair. She wore a brown dress that stopped at her knees, similar in material to my own clothes.

Training?

The thought passed to me, and I nodded, still awed, though it made sense that if Sarah could create a body for me, she could create a body for herself.

Come.

I approached her as she sat on the ground, indicating with her mind for me to sit in front of her.

White Magic can be divided into three categories. Healing, Protection, and Enhancement.

Her thoughts were more fluid and clearer.

You can do anything in those categories at the cost of magic. It is instinctive.

“Right, I’ve done Healing and Protection. Does Enhancement work the same way?”

Yes.

Enhance.

Strength and energy flooded my body. I felt like I could have jumped to one of the branches above my head.

Still, I noticed a faint sensation of expenditure, which I assumed must be magic, leading me to my next question.

“Is there a way to increase my magic?”

Sara nodded, utilizing magic strains pathways increases the size of pathways, which increases how much magic one holds.

I nodded; I supposed that made sense. Now that I knew to focus on it, I could feel the new internal warmth I had felt, which was larger since I had healed the strange deer yesterday.

“So, the more I use my magic, the more magic I’ll be able to channel.”

Yes. This will be important to develop alongside the other part of your training as a White Mage. Your physical combat abilities.

I blinked, “I need to learn physical combat?”

Yes. White Mages do not have any magic that can be used to attack. That is why I created this body. We will now begin instruction. I will demonstrate.

Her fist was flying at me, I noted absently in the back of my mind before I was sent skipping across the clearing.

I pulled myself up from the dirt, shaking off my wooziness. I stumbled to my feet to see that Sara had not moved.

Come.

I broke into a charge running across the clearing before leaping at her first outstretched, only for her to twist the limb and throw me so hard I felt the earth crumble underneath me. I coughed, the pain wrapping my body before I murmured Heal.

Why did I feel like this was going to suck?

That thought turned out to be prophetic I was sure that without this body’s unnatural physical attributes, I may have actually died again. If Sara was holding back, I certainly did not feel it. She tossed me around the clearing like a toy, yet any exhaustion I may have felt was purely mental. If she injured me, I healed. If my muscles began to protest, I healed, even with my limited magic; that much was possible as it seemed that healing was not near the level of healing a fatal wound.

Only as the sky began to darken I realized faintly that I had not slept since I had been here. To my surprise, I still hadn’t felt any desire to. Given this strange new body, I wasn’t even sure if I still needed it.

Not as if Sara would give me a chance too. She hadn’t called a stop to training, and honestly, a part of me worried that if I tried to stop it, I would destroy whatever level of acquiescence I had gotten from her.

The world had narrowed down to our fight. Sara hadn’t moved from her spot, leaving me to rush at her to try and land an attack. Sara would often use a different move on me, and I would feel her directed thought on how exactly to perform it.

It was teaching, and it wasn’t. Completely absent from vagueness and inaccuracies of verbal communication, this was completely thought-based.

We fought and fought, and I realized I had lost track of time. My mind had stopped consciously processing our fight and had set my body on a sort of auto-pilot. It didn’t make sense, I reflected as I slipped under a fist only to be caught with a rib-cracking kick. I didn’t have an explanation for it. Heal.

It was almost like being in a constant state of runners high, it occurred to me that I couldn’t grow physically exhausted to stop it. My brain itself should have grown tired, but I realized that the healing spells themselves must also affect it.

I was a machine of perpetual motion, yet all I seemed to accomplish was running straight into the brick wall of Sara. Yet she didn’t put enough damage on me to drain my magic enough to get me to stop. So, I continued. The flashes of momentary pain of her fists were nothing compared to what I had experienced before I came here.

My energy was not limitless, though. Even if I could push past my body’s limits, my magic still fundamentally limited me. I didn’t pause as I ran back at Sara there was no point in trying an indirect approach if she could read my mind. I had to hit her with pure physical ability.

At some point, I realized I had dropped Enhance. Which gave me an idea. Not thinking too hard about it, I launched myself at Sara once again, and at the last possible moment-

Enhance.

The world blurred, and for the first time, my fist collided with her stomach causing-

Nothing. She didn’t move an inch.

“Eh?” I said, completely nonplussed. That had felt like a lot of force. I could climb trees like it was nothing, and this was enhanced strength. What gave?

Apparently, my face as she lashed out, and I felt my jaw click as I was sprawled backward. I stopped and looked at Sara for the first time in who knew how long.

“I punched you,” I pointed out, feeling slightly disrespected.

Sara nodded, Yes.

“I’m pretty sure physics would say you go flying,” I said.

What’s physics?

I groaned a world of magic should still have to obey physics. It wasn’t fair.

Sufficient.

She walked over to me, looking at me with an unreadable expression. She didn’t really emote in this form, and I couldn’t get a clue from her thoughts.

“What is sufficient,” I hesitantly asked.

Physical Combat capabilities.

“Already?” I asked, confused.

Yes. Surprised. Short span of time. Only half a season.

Half a season?

Despite not being voiced aloud, Sara responded, Yes. We began in the Season of Growth. It is now the Season of Rest.

I frowned that didn’t make sense. Then I looked at my clothes and was shocked to see that solid cloth was now ripped and torn, barely held together, and stained with sweat. Still, it didn’t make sense that I hadn’t noticed. At most, I would have believed we spent the entire day sparring.

Still, I looked across the clearing and noticed it had been trampled flat by my feet pounded into the dirt. I didn’t understand. This wasn’t normal. Past magic. Past another world. I should be able to perceive the passage of time.

All right?

“I don’t understand. How did I not notice?”

Distracted?

I shook my head well and was truly disturbed; this was problematic. How could I zone out and lose track of that much time?

Another thought struck me, and I looked back at Sara, who was in her tree form again. Was it my imagination, or did she look even more unwell than when we had begun?

Hesitantly, I looked at Sara, who met my gaze unflinchingly, and for a moment, I was struck by how truly alien her existence was to me. Back where I was from, a tree could live for a very long time, at least compared to a human. A tree like Sarah… I shouldn’t be surprised that she had no true conception of time.

To distract myself from these thoughts, I asked Sara a question, “Could you make me some more clothes, Sara?”

Yes.

I walked back to the pool of water and shucked off my torn clothes before diving into the cool liquid. I swam for a moment, washing off the accumulated detritus on myself. I surfaced and reached my palms forward, taking a drink of the water, and I felt my energy reserves begin to fill.

I drank some more, and yet they were still not full. Finally, after a final gulp of water, I felt my magic topped up something I hadn’t felt in a while.

I swam to the edge of the pool and heaved myself out, taking the clothing that had been laid out.

Clean and clothed, I noticed another problem. Silvery white hair was in my eyes. My hair was annoyingly long, draping into my vision. I slicked the still-wet hair back behind my ears.

I should have probably been more phased now that I realized my hair was a completely different color, but honestly, after spacing out for so long, it didn’t even peak my top things that were weird.

Sara was sitting on one of her roots as she observed me, Leaving?

I frowned, feeling the melancholy behind it.

“I’ll be back, but honestly, you look even sicker now, and I don’t know how long it will take to find those other White Mages you mentioned.

Don’t have to go. Fine.

I sighed, raising an eyebrow at her, “You’re fine, huh?”

She looked away with a surprisingly human-like gesture, not meeting my eyes.

Hesitantly I reached out, placing a hand on her shoulder; she looked at me.

“I promise. I’m going to bring back help.”

She frowned sadly, and I could feel her pain.

Promise to come back.

“I promise.”

Sara looked back to the trees, and to my surprise, I saw a familiar crystalline deer emerge, walking towards us before stopping to bow its head.

He will take you.

With that, Sara placed her hand on one of her roots and, in a matter of seconds, faded from sight.

I wanted to say something. I could feel the sorrow almost physically permeating the air, but I was afraid. Afraid that if I attempted to ease her pain, I would stay regardless, and that would mean her death.

“I promise, I’ll be back.”

The Great Forest was silent.