Essentially, yes!
"Did it leave? I cant feel it anymore."
"It appears so," Nio answered the voice without a body. "If you were going to call it out, why didn't you warn us?"
"Why should I? You didn't say anything when I fell!" Liam accused him.
Nio winced at that, feeling embarrassed, but strangely better now. The terrifying being was gone and the fear of it had been diminished a bit.
The eye comes out of the water. The river water ripples as it stays above water shivering slightly, indicating that it had been frightened, like the other two.
It was a bit comical to see these overly powerful creatures shivering in fear. And yet, Liam couldn't show that comical feeling on his face. He went to Haru, who was the smallest of them and started to comfort her. It didn't take long, as this time there had only been one and not thousands as last time. Haru soon started to purr, and Liam had a chance to concentrate on the two giants.
"I don't think I asked before, but is there any human settlement down the river?"
"You did ask and yes, there are a few. Why?"
"Simple, I want to know how the world works here. I kind of understand the 'Wildlands' but mostly I want to know how they survive here."
"Gadgets. The stuff they make to use against us." Biff answered without hesitation.
"Huh? How do you know about these things?" Liam got interested.
"Well, they used them against me when I tried to make them leave my tree."
"Wait? Do you mean they live on your tree?" this sounded incredulous to Liam.
"Yes! Those annoying bugs are destroying my tree as we speak, but I can't do anything about that. I also need to eat, so I have to leave time to time. They have built up some strong walls and other things that don't allow me do defend my tree."
"What does your tree think about all of that?"
"I ... Wait! What? The tree can't talk!" he retorted with the same reaction as Nio had done.
"Yes, it can. Have you exchanged blood with it?"
"Yes." Biff was wondering where all this was going.
"Then you should be able to talk to it."
"It can't be that simple." Still, Biff didn't believe the human's words.
"It is, as far as I know. You should concentrate on the energy that connects you two. If you need simpler terms, then think of the taste of its blood. You two should easily be able to convey your thought to each other."
The eye blinked at Liam and then retracted into the water. He didn't believe the human, he was just curious and wanted to try this thing out. It would be interesting if it actually worked.
Liam assumed that it was to try his suggestion. He then looked at the other giant in the new clearing and had to admit that the snake was a giant sloth. It was sleeping. It looked like it was having a wonderful dream too.
Just a moment ago, he was shivering in fear and now it was sleeping peacefully. Liam questioned that as he was soothing Haru. Nio had cozied up near him and fallen asleep like Haru at the moment. He didn't think that his words actually had any power in them. He didn't believe it and shook the thought out of his head.
'A shame,' Liam thought and got up from his cozy pillow named Haru.
He went to Nio's face and knocked on his nose. Politely at first.
But as he didn't wake up to that, he upped his game a bit and infused his internal energy into the knocks. Still, the snake didn't wake up.
The knocks were rather light in impact and didn't pack much punch. He didn't want to punch him yet and resolved to an open palm, slapping the snake with his internal energy. He frowned as it didn't work, but the snake had at least grunted or at least some sort of sound come out of it.
As that didn't work, he wrapped up his fist and squeezed his fingers tight, infusing his internal energy inside it and into his shoulder up to his wrist, and took a swing at the snake.
Nio, who finally sensed some danger to himself woke with a start before Liam's punch could hit him, but was just a bit slow in reacting as the punch still hit him square in the nose.
"Aaaoutc! Why did you hit me?"
"I have been trying to wake you up! Dammit! That hurt like hell! Fuck! I need to tell you something." Liam turned serious as he said the last words.
"Well, what is it?"
"I'm sorry," Liam said with a rather embarrassed expression.
"For hitting me?"
"No, that was intentional," Liam grimaced then.
"Then, what?"
"You can't return to the tree you lived on," he spits that out as fast as he could.
"What?"
"The tree asked me to bring you along and help find its true protector."
"Are you saying that the tree kicked me out?"
"I wouldn't phrase it like that. But essentially, yes," the expression on Liam's face could only be described as awkward.
"I need to see that for myself." Nio said decidedly and left the demolished clearing soon after. Liam only saw the tip of his tail vanish into the forest. He sighed in regret but there was nothing to it. Nio needed to face the reality of his situation sooner rather than later.
"Hahaha!"
Liam actually jumped as he heard the laughter.
"That was so fun to watch. I even showed it to Miki. By the way, she wants to meet you."
"You seemed to have changed your tone pretty fast." Liam observed as he sounded different.
"The idiot snake isn't here, so I can be a little free, right?"
"Sure. So, it worked right?"
"Yes. It seems that Miki has been mad at me for not figuring that out sooner. So, she asked for an apology gift, that was you." The voice sounded sheepish now.
"I was planning to visit her anyway, but now I basically have an invitation. That's great!"
"I need something to eat something, it's getting late. I should find a place to stay."
"You could just stay here. With me here, no one is going to come here." Biff offered him.
"No, the journey would be too easy if I just stayed with you, but seeing as Haru won't leave my side anyway... I'm safe either way." he contradicted his words and sighed in resignation. 'Will my journey home be like this, easy as can be. I'm kinda hoping it won't.'
The next day arrived and Nio hasn't still come back.
He shrugged his shoulders, packed up his stuff, and started his journey down the riverside. At some point, Liam realized that Pollen had started a game.