Finally going back home. Snow has had her fun and we have bought some more toys. She reminded me I promised her a new plaything. I totally forgot! Sorry Snow, I will repent.

Before going though, I wanted Karl’s Head from Blue Ice. The whole discussion was rather long and tedious until they abate and sent someone to get him. Right after coming back sweating and with white face the Guard said he was gone. Of course he is, Snow got him earlier.

With the whole discussion strained, I ask them to find him and not play tricks on me. As if one of their Guards who made such vulgar threats just can walk right out without them knowing.

Of course they told me they did not know about anything, but I demanded for either him, his full body corpse or something valuable as an apology, if they really want to keep him that protected from me.

Harvey might have close to having Steam coming out of his ears, but could do nothing, as this time it was not my cause directly… at least he thinks that. He might die on a heart attack, if he does not be able to keep his cool. They wanted to steal my peace, now who has still their peace and who hasn’t?

If they tread not carefully for now, they might be getting an edict of Arcana. When the secret from where their fancy new food source is coming from gets revealed and the ruling Caste of Arcana hears about how strained our relationship is, there might be a polite request to pack their bags and let someone with more friendly people have the supervision over the route.

Ah, Snow was on many secret and personal Missions the whole time. Personal Missions included walking with me from store to store, going to the Orphanage to donate again… and maybe play with the children… tasting every shack and looking over the Farmers market for maybe new things we could plant or raise.

I had to tell her we would have no way to bring that woolly Cow home with us right now, and the seller looked at Snow funny, when she said she would just put it in her ‘pocket’. No Snow. We get some later, they would be too scared in your Pocket for the travel.

…

“We are back! Leafy you are here too!”

“Hello Snow. Welcome my Lord. How was the travel?”

“It was rather bumpy. Some things happened, that were rather unpleasant. I am glad that it is over.”

She was back earlier, but missed us by a day. Nothing seems wrong, but as she came back she was extremely gloomy. Somehow I think there happened something.

...wait. What did Leafy say?

“Leaf? Something is not right, is it?”

“No, everything is fine. The whole vacation was just so exciting, I am exhausted. I just make a Tea for us and relax while you tell me about the last Month. How were the Grasslands my Lord?”

There it is again.

“Falling Leaf… You are really her, right?”

“Null? Is something with Leafy?”

“Snow, did you ever hear her saying to me ‘my Lord’?”

Shock seems to course through Leafy. Something is definitely not right and right now I am not in the mood for more problems, but when they come knocking I will knock them out.

“Now that you mention it… Leafy, what is wrong?”

“Snow… Lord…”

…

We sit in the Mansion and drink Tea. Leafy shivers a bit. Something is definitely not right. What is it this time?

“My Lord, you know how we were in front of the Queen Mother, and my Grandmother…”

...yes? After a deep breath Leafy continued.

“My Grandmother said she would cut my branch. She really did. I… I am not a Member of their Family anymore…”

They disowned her. Disowning is serious in Root culture. A branch cut will be left to rot. It might not be an exile, but emotionally it might be the same for the Person. They just… just threw her away… like trash they threw her out… like trash… like… me…

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

~~~OOOHHM~~~

…

...am I being hugged? What happened? Somehow I feel a bit suffocated, but what is… Ah there is Snow and I smell a strangely rotten sweet aroma too… Leafy?

“Um, girls?”

“Please, you promised to keep your sanity, my Lord!”

Leafy said something… Yes, she made me promise to try to not… Oh, did I have an episode again?

“How long was I out?”

“Just a few seconds, Null. Suddenly there were voices around talking about how you were not trash, but they are trash. Leafy just jumped up and hugged you, so I did the same. Seems you are back?”

So I still am not emotionally stable. Yay…

“It is okay. I am back. Just needed to take a deep breath.”

“Really?”

Leafy is rather scared. Well she might remember the last time I was… irrational, so maybe it is that.

“Believe me, I am back and well. Please sit down. I would like to hear the whole story.”

…

The whole Story was… sad. Her Grandmother officially said the words out loud in front of the Queen Mother and had to go through with it, but that seems to be just be an excuse.

Leafy was on her way back with Petal, they were so happy about them having a whole week back in the Root City. The greatest present I have given her for she told me, being for a short while back where she belonged.

But that was rather short in her happiness. As she visited their residential tree she was greeted by her Father. That strange slight was already a big slap in her face, as Root like all elves are Matriarchal and if not the highest Mother in their Family tree might welcome her, her Mother would normally be the one who would greet her from long absence.

It all went downhill from there. Her Father told her, she has been cut from their Tree and is not anymore a Member of their Family. Her belongings she had collected over the decades were destroyed and thrown away. Her residence was refurbished as a storage, as no member of the Family would want to live in the place where a cut off branch lived.

Her whole World, was just uprooted and destroyed. She was now a stranger in her own House. She broke right then and there. All she did for the Root is suddenly paid with pain and suffering. Petal took her right in as she heard what happened.

Albeit Petals Family was somewhat kind, a cut off branch does no one want have in their homes, so they only reluctantly gave her shelter. The Queen herself was like all of the Root, except Leafs own Family, not told anything about it. The Wrath of her was the only shimmer of light for Leafy. Sadly she could not do anything. What is once cut is always cut. Not only that, but who to cut off from the Family Tree is all in the hands of the Matriarchal Leader of the Family. Not even the Queen has a right to tell who or when they prune their own.

Even Redwind after all what he did, was not cut. He was just send to die as Root for it would be too cruel to not even leave him with his belonging to the whole.

So now, there is the way to make a new Tree out of the cut off branch. This is not possible, as Leaf is not married. For someone to marry her, there needs to be a suitor, but she denied every single one outright for some reason, and never became a blooming Mother.

Now that she is cut no one would court her, even is she would desperately search for one. Albeit the Queen Mother could ‘suggest’ a suitor and make a kind of forceful Marriage, this would strain her standing, as this would be seen as extremely vile overuse of her Power.

Now we are here. Nothing to be done, and nowhere Leafy can go back to. She is now a wild flower, not connected to the field and not able to be with the others.

Deep breaths… Do not let the urge win… deep, deep breaths…

…

“And now you have chosen to call me your Lord, as this is now your Home?”

Leafy nods. If it were not so tragic I would laugh… while punching a hole into the face of her Grandmother…

“Leaf… I never wanted you to be sad here. Snow and I discussed about how you might need to go back someday to your Brethren. That was why I wanted for you to go… on vacation. Slowly bringing you back to your people, so that there would be no hard feelings.”

Well she cries. And I can not do anything as I have promised her not to eliminate the Roots. ...Well she told me to not kill her Brethren, but are they her Brethren anymore? I could just cull them all and maybe… no stop, Leafy would never want that, now I have to tend to her first.

“You have not to force you to be a member of our Family. If you do not want, we will always be friends. Someday you might want to go somewhere, and we will always be letting you go, where you really want to be.”

While crying she shakes her head. Seems she wants to be staying here? ...And suddenly I am getting hugged again. Well if it helps her I hug her back… somehow. I remember it is not allowed to touch the bark and raw flesh on her back, as is not even looking at it is allowed normally. So head pats are right now a necessity.

…

Such a gloomy situation right now. I would not even be happy to experiment on our second resident of the deep dungeon. What am I going to do? Right now Snow is hovering around Leafy and talks with her, but I cannot do anything.

What shall I do? Go to the Queen and demand they change their Laws? Burn the fucking Forest down? Make a new kind of creature out of her extended Family? Nothing I can do, as I am just Void incarnate and need even a stolen body to just hug her for soothing.

Right now I have so much free time and so little to do… I want to start a new Garden and I know where I want to put it. Right on top of the Castle. This might become Leafy’s personal garden. Who knows.

For now I build the Castle up. The Second floor behind the Tower of Stairs will be the place for Guest Rooms. It looks more like a hotel with so many rooms and corridors, but I do not care. Below is the same but I decided this place is the rooms for the Servants, as it is not accessible from the Tower directly. The ground floor is for now Storage, as I do not know what to make of it. Dining rooms might be good and some meeting rooms? Later…

Third Floor, experimental Rooms. Here I can finally work on understanding every plant and metal in detail. Starting to create magnifying glasses stacked over another, I try my best on a microscope and put all those jars with different cloned body parts in the shelves. Maybe I can build a body without spirit and give it life with electricity? Later tests…

Fourth Floor, Snows playground. I forgot her Toy, so I make it up with that. Mirror Labyrinth later, as I need to make so much glass. Colored tunnels to crawl through and climbing equipment attached to the ceiling. Swings, slides, rope bridges, nets, giant puzzle on the wall… More should come, there is enough room.

Fifth Floor, Roof Garden. Putting many plant boxes inside and places to let trees grow, this should be a nice place for relaxation and maybe some herbal experiments. As it is connected to the third Floor via stairs in the Tower, there is no need for complicated transports, when I need something, for some specific tests.