51 Meeting the tree [2]

By a few moments Liora instead meant near ten minutes. Her head would hang, chest would heave as her lungs sucked in a thick breath of air only to release it in a hiss. She would lift her head, looked to Noah then trailed to the half-out-of-the-tree dryad only to drop her head and hyperventilate for a few more second before trying to calm herself again. Even now she was struggling with the minute concept that the human shaped piece of wood wasn't reaching tendrils out to drag her, Caina, or Noah in to have some licentious energy sapping sex.

"Exactly… why isn't it trying to rape us?" she mumbled, finally breaking her silence with a cold glare Noah's way.

"She's not interested in doing that?"

"It's a monster. That is literally all they do." Caina grumbled from the side just barely able not to stumble around from how tipsy her drink had made her.

"Well not Serris. You're not actually into that, are you?" he asked the dryad.

It shifted slightly in the wind, its hair…leaves, billowing as a strong gust blew by bringing with it a faint crashing waves sound from the rich canopy above. "I do not." Was all it said. The sheer ridiculous notion that the dryad was genially talking to them and still not wrapping their legs in vines to drag them into the tree to do the dirty, was not lost on Liora.

"I would as about how we're meant to believe that but considering we're not currently having or crotches abused, I can't actually argue. Which is really annoying, and really confusing." Glancing to Noah, the boy shivered and looked away, unable to meet her eyes. "Explain what this is Noah."

"Right," he licked his lips, throat rolling as he gulped air. "So, a while ago I may have fallen asleep against Serris' trunk and ended up being pulled into her tree where we… uh…"

"Fucked." Caina blurted mercilessly causing Noah to flinch and clear his throat.

"That. And now Serris has turned into a hamadryad and is growing cherries that I thought we could sell at the upcoming market in Tallmire."

Neither spoke up, instead sharing strained and cautious looks, "that's…" trailing off, Liora scratched her arm but winced from the ache it caused and promptly stopped. "uh, I don't know what to think anymore. Just, I have some questions-"

"So do I."

"First, how long has the tree been a dryad."

"Hamadryad," Serris responded, voice echoing through the field, "I was sown three-hundred and ninety-six winters ago."

"So, a long time ago," Noah awkwardly said.

"I heard. Next, why did it only show itself now."

"I felt Noah would be an apt fruiter and felt he would not trip and expire atop a protruding rock in my verdure after panicking upon my appearance."

"Fruiter, I feel like I know what that means but at the same time I feel like I don't want to know." Liora stared blankly into the distance, passing by the tree, Noah, and towards the forestry in the distance.

"I believe in human words it would be to the likeness of a wife who will bring the fertilization of my seeds so that I may plant my sisters and create an orchard."

Paling from the dead looks he was getting, Noah gulped, "husband. You mean husband. Wife is for women." The latter part he had no corrections to, though sisters was more likely to be considered children than actual sisters, 'semantics,' he thought knowing fully well that it was far from actual semantics.

"Basically, he fucked the tree and got it pregnant… You know what. I don't have enough mead in my bag to deal with this. I'm just going to go back to the house and I'm going to try and forget about this. Try not to get turned into an ent." Caina backed away, fumbling slightly as she proceeded further into the field, her voice faintly traveling to them, "gods what have I gotten myself into." Caina's form grew smaller by the second leaving the two people and plant in silence.

"Noah," Liora broke the silence with her tone grave and exhausted, "having sex with a dryad is dangerous. You could have been turned into an ent—it makes no sense that your not one right now—but still, you could have been turned into an ent and then you'd never come out of it alive."

"Except, she let me go."

"Which makes no sense. Monsters don't just let men go, they drain them dry. Which is really confusing me right now because this is not normal."

"Yeah I figured that out from your reactions."

She huffed irately. Eyeing Serris, Liora patted her chest and let her arms hang by her side. Pushing her hip out on one side, she rested a hand on it and shook her head. "You thought we could sell… its, fruits at the market?"

Profusely nodding, Noah explained his reasoning, "I asked Caina about cherries and she said they could be quite expensive. I doubt we could pay back all the debt, but we could make a decent dent in it."

"By selling a dryads fruit."

"Yes."

"You know dryad fruits are dangerous, right?"

"No but considering Caina didn't feel like keeping the one she ate down I figured that out."

Shaking slightly, colour drained from Liora, she too had eaten one of the fruits. Likely it had been filled with manos and was running amok inside her. She doubted it was all that powerful or potent a dose, eating a singular dryad fruit was rarely if ever corruptive. Being honest with herself, selling dryad fruit was profitable. The merchants from around Morea and from over the seas from Zesune and Parlight earned many a buckle from her mother purchasing leagues of lemons, strawberries and any other monster raised fruits for her meals. Aristocratic societies loved them and the various unique effects they could have. While not as strong as the more natural Manosfruits, monster grown fruits were valuable. Thinking back to her days living beneath her mothers thumb, she faintly made out memories of a Zesian merchant bringing with them fruits much like the ones she was seeing dangling above herself.

Serrule cherries, not particularly powerful in their effects but they had some form of aphrodisiac effect. Mild enough that eating one would be a kick-starter to the night but not strong enough to be the reason for the night to finish. Stroking her hand over her belly she began to realize a small discomfort, arousal she quickly surmised but just as swiftly drained away. It was weaker even than what she'd experienced in the past. A twitch coalesced on her cheek, thinking back, her mother had fed her quite a few over a few weeks, hidden them within teas and pastries, even feeding them to a passing noble boy with a sparkle to her eyes at the idea of her daughter finding herself a man of worth. Thankfully, that went nowhere when it said noble boy was found with the stable boy.

He wasn't on top.

He was expelled posthaste from both his family, and the Ginsberg manor.

Cautiously staring down Serris, she focused on Noah, "as confusing as this is, it's not actually a bad idea. A single berry could be… a hundred buckles each. If the effect was stronger maybe even two hundred."

"For a single berry?" Noah gaped at the ridiculous sum, "Caina said a bundle would be fifty to a hundred."

"Mmm," Liora bobbed her head to the side and hummed, "it would be if it was normal cherries, but considering its ones coming from a dryad with an actual effect they would definitely cost more. Farming them is risky after all. Nothing like just taking care of a few trees and cutting any down that become dryads. Adding in how most all of them come from Zesune it should really be three to four hundred buckles each."

"Is that a lot?" asked Serris butting into the contemplative aura Liora had developed.

Liora's expression contorted, her lips puckering sourly as she remembered the humanoid log pushing out of the trunk. It seemed kind and reasonable enough, she wouldn't be lowering her guard but she could at least treat it a little bit better. "very. Even for my mother, buying a lot of imported monster fruits made a dent in the vault stockpiles. It takes months for them to even cross the ocean and get here. Keeping them fresh enough is a mission in and of itself even with ethos enriching them… wait, is that how you want to keep them ripe? By enriching them?" she leaned over, her eyes blaring wider in shocked realization.

"I mean, Serris did say she could take care of the ripeness if I, well…"

"Had sex with it and gave it your ethos like a breeder." Gaping Liora looked to be rapidly loosing her will to deal with Noah's proverbial shit. "Noah, do you even know what that means?"

"It's sort of in the name." he weakly answered, shrinking away when a fire lit in Liora's eyes threatening him to shut up and that it wasn't his time to speak.

"Breeders are rare. Special. They have a type of immunity to manos. It's not entirely perfect but they can survive for longer and may not even need to be cleansed after absorbing manos. They can process it over time so long as they don't keep absorbing it. It is rare. Extremely so. So much so that the only ones I can think of are those heretical otherworlders."

Noah jolted but stilled himself as Liora continued. "It's not worth it. It's too dangerous. I'm not letting you do it. Maybe if we had connections to the kingdoms and they would allow us to use their criminals, but not you… Noah, why do you look like you liked ate a rats bottom."

Flinching, Noah couldn't help but keep his gaze diverted, "Well, that's because… Uh." Being called heretical was not a comfortable thing, as he'd found out. He realized it was likely to do with her being raised beneath that goddess, Artemia he recalled. Adding that with Xisaya's warnings and it made him exceedingly unnerved by her tone.

"Noah. Ignoring the very obvious. Very dangerous dryad-"

"Hamadryad."

Liora scathed a silencing glare Serris' way, "what aren't you telling me."

Meeting her eyes, Noah felt minute, like an ant ready to be stomped by the giant human that was Liora. He could lie, though he felt he'd be easily seen through. Leaving him with one, possibly two options of escape, and he didn't very well feel like bolting into the forest where monsters would drag him down and mate him into the abyss of death.

"I'm… from another world."

"Pardon?"