Far away to the East, a small boy who looked 5 or 6 suddenly stopped playing with the toys in front of him. Gasping, he jumped up and ran from the room as fast as his small legs would carry him. Around a bend in the hallway and up to a large set of wood doors that rushed open in front of him. As he ran into the room several adults around the room stopped what they were doing and bowed to him. By the time he reached the woman on the back side of the room and wrapped himself around her leg he was full on crying.

As soon as he had entered upset, everyone had looked at each other nervously and then back to the small boy. The woman calmly detached him from her leg and tucked her dress underneath her as she sat on her knees, wrapping her arms around him as he continued to cry. “It makes me sad to see you so sad little one,” she said softly as she slowly rubbed his back in comfort. “Tell me what troubles you, maybe I can help.”

“No…one…can…help,” he said through continued sobs. “Willow Mother...is gone now. …I…I…I can’t feel her anymore,” he wailed out, crying out the O in 'more' for several seconds.

There was a sharp intake of breath all across the room. A mother tree gone. With magic more potent than even the Tree-Born druids, the concept of one of them dying was simply unfathomable. When the forest had burned but no word of the mother tree had come, they figured that it had survived or relocated itself long ago. Now, to suddenly hear that it was dead out of nowhere, was staggering. There was no doubt though. One could doubt their own senses and mind, but never doubt the boy.

The woman slowly pulled him off, putting her hands gently on the sides of his face and wiping his tears with her thumbs. “Tell me what you felt.”

“It was weird,” he sniffled, calming down a little. “All of a sudden it was like there was all this energy in one place and more and more kept coming, like when the river gets really big during the rain, and then suddenly boom!” He stamped his foot in emphasis. “All the energy was gone…and she was gone. There’s a hole now, there’s no sense of her anywhere. I’ve never not sensed her before…I want her back!” He began to cry again and she pulled him back in to her.

Everyone in the room was quiet, waiting on her lead. She stood, picking him up with her and began walking out. The doors once again swung open of their own accord, and she walked him back to the room he had been playing in before. She laid him down on the bed in the room and knelt beside it, continuing to rub his back gently as she started to sing a lullaby.

The night has come, the stars they shine,

Close your eyes, and quiet your mind,

Close your eyes and sleep my love.

Your mind it wanders, in fog, in dream,

You will find me, ‘neath the tree,

Come and join me, find your peace.

She sang and hummed until he was quietly sleeping before she finally got up and walked back to the room where the other Tree-Borns were waiting. Though it lacked an official name, most just referred to it as The Grove, the name given to the collective of Tree-Born druids, as this was the room where they met, and only they were allowed in.

She immediately began to speak. “How many were in the scouting party we sent?”

One of the others in the room, an older man, responded. “Nine, including one local. They had a caster and bonded reader with them, as well as a manazoologist.”

A teenage girl sitting next to the man spoke. “That description sounded a lot like something dangerous came after the Willow Mother and she blew all her mana at once to stop it, killing herself in the process, or if not, she was destroyed by whatever was attacking.”

The first woman looked at a man who appeared every bit the gnarled, seasoned warrior. Covered in muscle, scars, and easily bigger than all but one other person in the room. “Oak, will you go? Scout from the air first and intervene only if you think you can get them out. We cannot afford to lose a member of The Grove if there is something out there that can kill a mother tree. We need information.”

He grinned and his eyes sparkled, the glint of battle rising up. “Of course, I know what’s at stake. Leave it to me.” He bowed his head briefly and then strode from the room. It was a short walk to the pathway that led from the inside of the massive tree, where The Grove and the boy were, to the outside. As he passed through the doorway, he paused momentarily to close his eyes and soak in some of the sunlight that poured down from overhead; he also let off a quick blast of mana into the sky. Regardless of the size of the canopy above, there always seemed to be a beam of light that came through and landed right in front of doorway into the tree.

From there he walked inside of a branch that had a flat walkway and an open top, though from the outside you couldn’t tell it was hollow. It was a perfectly disguised hallway one hundred feet off the ground that ran one hundred feet out to where it terminated against a cream-colored stone archway followed by a ramp that slowly spiraled down to the city floor. At the stone archway where the branch exited there were always two guards, and they were always master level casters trained in battle techniques. Once a caster reached master level they always served as the guardian of The Grove until the next one to be raised to master took their place.

As Oak walked past, he nodded to them, “Gentlemen.”

They both bowed their heads ever so slightly. “Lord Oak.” It was policy that while on guard duty no guard was ever required to bow as doing so could create an opening for enemy attacks, regardless of what normal protocol or courtesy required.

“Look out!” Oak suddenly ducked down, the guard on the left following suit in a panic, desperately trying to draw his weapon. Oak laughed uproariously as he stood back up, the guard on the left looking confused and then annoyed, the one on the right smirking ever so slightly. Left, the new guy, had heard the rumors that Oak liked to prank guards on duty to test if they were prepared, he’d just had a hard time believing that a member of their world’s highest order would actually do it. Who could blame him? Everyone understood the difference in power between them and the Tree-Borns, and if something made one of them duck, then a guard was certainly going to duck as well.

A moment later what appeared to be the tip of a tail swiftly passed over the platform. As it passed, Oak reached out and touched it, immediately getting pulled along with it. The tail, which seemed to be 40 feet long, suddenly flicked itself in an upwards direction, throwing the druid high into the air and forward, where he landed on the creatures back. Settling in between the shoulder blades he called out, “To the Willow Mother Forest my friend, and today we need all speed. Lives are at stake.” With a crack the wings snapped down and they were gone, moving at a speed that defied logic and left behind the sound of rolling thunder.

* * *

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Back at the husk of the Willow Mother tree, everything became still. The scouts were all looking at the man in the mana bubble on the ground, the mana worm had stopped moving, and for a moment it seemed like the whole world was just processing the string of events. Everything began moving again with the loud, piercing cry of the mana worm; it seemed lost and confused as it thrashed its head about.

3 looked at the repulsor still standing there and shouted, “Hey!” The large head swiftly rotated his direction, where he mimed out with hand signals for the bonded animal to grab the mana bubble man and head south. With a grunt it complied, scooping him up and running.

“Everyone else…time to run! Somebody mana flush 6, I’ve got 8, then get them the hell out of here!” 3 quickly knelt next to one of the two who had dropped with seizure signs, pulled out a small green vial and emptied it down her throat. As soon as he could tell she’d swallowed it, he started to pick her up and move. Immediately Joliver was up underneath her other side, they both picked up a leg in a chair carry and started moving forward as fast as they could. Two of the others had done the same for 6.

“We’ve got incoming,” shouted 1 as he looked back and saw the worm finally start to move.

It launched itself in their direction closing the gap in seconds. It reared its head back to launch one last time when suddenly something slammed it into the ground with the speed of a lightning strike. They all turned their heads around at the sound of the loud boom to see a massive creature sitting on the worm’s head.

It was massive, tail hanging off the worm’s body and across the ground, four paws gripped on to the head, probably 100 feet in length from tail tip to nose tip, massive wings just slightly extended from the landing. Its scales shone a beautiful pattern of dark blue and white, the color switching between the two depending on your angle while looking at it. Where the tail connected to the body it was as thick around as a man was tall, its four legs massive and visibly muscular, dangerously clawed, and supporting a body that was equally large and powerful looking. From the body rose a neck half as long as the tail atop which was a magnificent head crowned with 2 large horns that curved back from the temples, 2 sky blue eyes, and a mouth that could swallow a man.

A moment later a small meteor landed in front of the worm causing a second loud boom. Everyone stopped and looked back. Out of the dust and ash floating everywhere they saw a massive human…ish form rise up, though it was far too large to be human. Any doubts they’d had about their safety disappeared when they saw the dragon slam into the worm. Dragons were unique beings, said to only be born when a Tree-Born was birthed, and bonded for life. Every dragon was unique in size and characteristic, leaving some veritably unknown, and others, like the one they were looking at now, extremely well known. Between its size and coloring, plus that it was bonded to Oak, one of the most visible and well-traveled of The Grove, they all knew immediately who had shown up.

They stood quiet, watching as they got to see something only rumored about in the old texts: a Tree-Born standing against a mana worm. To be fair, most stories didn’t talk about a one-hundred-foot powerhouse pinning the worm down at the same time, but they’d take it.

In a reverent voice, 1 spoke. “I’ve never seen so much mana channeled so precisely and beautifully. It’s like he’s cocooning the worm with a blanket that is absolutely choked with calm, stabilizing earth energy. And there’s something else I…I don’t even understand what he’s doing. I don’t know what that mana type is. Incredible.”

Suddenly the voice of 5 was behind them, still slightly strained, but better than it had been the last time they’d heard her speak. “It’s amazing. I can tell that the amount of mana being used should send me into a coma…but it’s so gentle it doesn’t even bother me. Truly he is one of The Grove.”

They stayed in silence as they watched the dragon slowly climb down off the worm, and then a minute later the worm began to slowly make its way back underground. It was at this moment that they realized that the back end of the worm was still in its original hole, it being so long that they hadn’t even seen all of it. As the head started digging down calmly, they watched as the rest followed and estimated it to be at least 300 feet long, but like any worm whose body you can’t see all of, it’s hard to tell when you can only see part of the body and it all looks the same.

After all of it had disappeared 1 spoke again. “He’s still channeling…he must be guiding it deep underground before he takes his hand off.”

Another several minutes passed before Oak stirred, finally turning in their direction. There was a slight intake of breath as they realized that he was so huge because he was mostly bear at this point, with antlers coming out of his temples that looked just like the dragons. As his mana levels began to subside, he slowly shifted back to his human form, his clothing and armor appearing piece by piece as if being unsubmerged. It mostly appeared to be a green, sturdy fabric, covered in leather armor. Once his transformation was complete, he stretched a little and then began walking in their direction. The dragon looked over at the dead mother tree, strode to it, and laid down circled around it.

As Oak strode up to them they all bowed, except for 3 and 1 who gave only cursory head nods. They had both spent more time in training and in the field than the others and understood that when in a potential danger zone, keep your head up.

“Glad to see you’re all…” he read their mana signatures as he joined them. “Well…alive…and mostly functional anyways. Before we do anything else though, someone tell me what the hell is giving off that absurd mana.”

5 turned and waved to her bonded, telling him to bring over the Tree-Born as 3 began to explain. “Sir, it’s…this may be hard to believe, but…before she died the Willow Mother gave birth, she even asked us to protect her child. The thing is, this new Tree-Born, it’s not…it’s…well…see for yourself,” he ended lamely as the repulsor stepped up and set down the mana sac with the man in it before Oak.

“This power…the sheer volume and density of the mana inside of him…” He looked around and recognition dawned on him. “Of course. When the forest burned the mana of an entire ecosystem was released into the air. Instead of letting it slowly get reabsorbed into the ground so it could re-enter the grid, she must have collected it…all of it…and stuffed it inside him, at which point she needed to grow him to adulthood so that his body could sustain it. Incredible. This will be the first adult Tree-Born in history, and certainly the most powerful.”

“Well, now that I have that answered, let’s get you all sorted shall we? Looks like two of you have been flushed completely?” He looked back at 3.

“Yes sir, before giving birth Willow Mother was dumping out massive waves of mana. Most of us were incapacitated for a moment, but those two seized and collapsed.”

“Ah, I see. Well then!” With that he raised his arms out and began to wash them in mana, purging out the excess, giving where it was needed, and bringing all of them back into balance. There were sighs of relief all around and 6 and 8 began to stir. The others stood them on their feet and helped them stabilize as they regained their senses. Once they did, they realized whose presence they were in and both immediately bowed. “Lord Oak!”

“Please, there’s no reason to stand on ceremony here. Raise your heads. Now then, everyone’s back on their feet, how about we get out of here. There’s a village nearby you were working out of, correct?”

“Yes sir,” confirmed Joliver. “About 3-4 days south.”

“Good, we’ll get there much faster by flying though. Boom!” He shouted as he turned his head and looked back at the dragon. It immediately arose and walked over to them. “If you don’t mind, we’re going to fly out of here and take our friends with us. Also, we’ll need to take our new-born compatriot here. Be gentle.” Boom looked at him and blinked, then looked at the repulsor and narrowed its eyes.

“Ah, right, sorry. Mr. Repulsor, do you think you could keep up on the ground?”

The creature in question snorted and turned his head to the side.

“He’s offended you asked. Mr. Bear here will be just fine,” responded 5, smiling and patting the large animal on its hand. A hand that was on the ground and as tall as she was.

The group had tried hard not to react when the dragon’s name was called out as Boom but hearing the repulsor called Mr. Bear made them all turn to look at her. Oak cocked an eyebrow and asked, “how old?”

Slightly embarrassed she replied, “Three.”

“Fair Enough, we’ll leave Mr. Bear to run, the rest of you, follow me, do as I do.”

Boom laid down and rolled over so his back was facing the group. Following Oak’s example, they walked up and placed their hands on the dragon’s back. Once they had, mana from the dragon attached to their hands and held them there as it rolled back to its stomach, taking their hands (along with the rest of them) along for the ride. Once upright, Boom delicately leaned down and grabbed the mana egg in his mouth, situated it somewhere safe and comfortable, and then blasted into the air.

A few of the party let out a brief yelp before realizing that they were still glued to his back by their hand. Once they were airborne and steady, they felt the hold disappear. Oak, who looked comfortably seated at the base of the neck yelled back for everyone to find a comfortable position. As they did so 5 looked down to see Mr. Bear already running to the south. Once they settled in and confirmed, mana reached back out and held them again as they blasted forward.

To the last, each of them was trying to contain wild emotions inside; being allowed to ride a dragon was the rarest of experiences. This was a memory that they would hold on to for the rest of their lives.