26) Somewhere, above the ocean…

There is a tree growing in the middle of the Atlantic.

At least in the middle of the North Atlantic, it’s growing on one of the more shallow parts of the Mid-Atlantic ridge, the longest mountain chain on Earth even if it's underwater.

Still counts.

Of course shallow is relative, the ground the tree is rooted in is about a mile down.

Like I said, big, I would even call it Yggdrasilian, which is a good word to describe a really big tree.

And the tree, with its photosensitive green bark and translucent leaves all the colors of the color charts, is one of those which grow entirely new trunks from the runners it grows out from its roots.

According to the guy who planted it, the entire ridge from Greenland to the Cape of Good Hope might one day have giant trees growing out of the water from all along it.

“I am guiding the growth. The groves will be broken up so we don’t crowd the islands where the ridge pokes above the water, or block the sea lands.”

The planter is named Red Thorn, or Prickly as his wife calls him. He admits that sometimes she shortens by dropping the “ly”, even when he feels he doesn't deserve it.

Red Thorn is someone I haven't run into before.

He was Taken from another world to ours.

Voluntarily.

“My wife wanted to see her family again and to go home. I loved her enough to ask the World Tree to send me with her, that was enough to get her to finally agree bond with me. We even had two celebrations, one for our people back home, and one here for her people.”

The deeply tanned man shrugged. “We could afford it, there were no ridiculous rules about gold back then, and it is highly valued here.”

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He grinned and his deep blue eyes twinkled. “And a Master of the Earth didn’t have much trouble digging up a half ton of the stuff before we came here.”

The two of us are sitting about three hundred feet above the water below us, me with my feet firmly on the platform made up of woven tree branches a few feet thick each and topped with living moss, and Red perched across a seven foot gap from me where on of the beaches leads off to what I would call a large hut made up of the same living plants.

Red is more like a Druid from various games and books rather than what he insists should be called an Earth Master. But he doesn't mind the label but don't call him a Geomancer. "Those ones just deal in lifeless stone. Earth is a living thing, like that which grows from it.”

Like his tree, which his group, Druids United calls Plato. Red is also in touch with the world itself, like you would expect of from a Druid.

Red winced at the memory. “Coming here, to this world…” He slowly shook his head. “I could feel it screaming, dying. What in the nine burning hells were you people thinking?”

Pluto is part of what the DU calls the Atlantis project. The tree was named for the philosopher who made up the concept of the lost Continent of Atlantis as a teaching concept, not anything objectively real.

But it's going to be real if no one stops them.

"Pluto is a magical being purposely made for this world. It absorbs salt water into itself and bonds the salt, as well as microplastic particles into parts of its structure, so no matter how many trunks it grows it won’t raise the sea level. And the water leftover will be drinkable.

Oh yeah, Atlantis will be colonized.

The tree is already large enough to support enough structures to house thousands, having been boosted by magic drawn off from Red's home realm, and hidden by magic until it reached its current size.

It’s strong enough to deal with earthquakes and high enough to resist, and keep its inhabitants above, any storm driven waves.

Besides salt and plastic, it's also taking a lot of carbon out of the air Red explained. “Maybe not enough to fix things by itself. But we already have several shoots whose branches are rising to the surface. Soon we will have enough of them for a true Arboreal city.”

...well then. “How many people are you planning on living here.”

He sighed. “As many end up getting displaced by rising waters, and the storms which are coming. At least those who will come. Those who want clean water and cheap food. I doubt we will get all that many people from your country, but other places…”

Shrugging, he continues. “We have a lot of what other people desperately need, and aren't getting.”

I talked with Red for a bit longer. The Transparent leaves let a lot of sunlight through to what would normally be an entire ecosystem on the ground below, which made me ask, “But with it being the ground being down more than a mile deep in most spots…”

“Magical coral, it will take years for it to grow along the roots and the underwater parts of the trunk, but it will serve as support for other plant life, both above and below the water. All as part of an environment that will provide edible plants and sea life, as well as places to live for those who fear heights.” He grinned.

Of course, the people in power, as well as environmentalists, at least some of them, are upset.

Red Spear doesn’t mind.

“No one was listening to the people who were upset about how you were killing your world, so let people be upset. Let them rage, get them talking, and maybe some people will listen and hear what’s really important.”

He leaned forward on the branch he was sitting on. “People talk about saving this world, I know how, and it isn't costing anyone anything but the money they can make feasting on its death."

So. the guy has strong opinions, as well as a big tree.

But what’s keeping someone from blowing it up, or taking it away from him?

When I got home that night, by way of the little sister express, after she got done saying hello to the big tree by scampering all over it like a squirrel on a sugar rush, I found out.