Chapter 9: Mourning Wood

FELICITY'S PERSPECTIVE

The world had changed, but it hadn't. The sights around her seemed sharper, more focused. The hues and colors had shifted somehow, but it never seemed unnatural. She could almost believe this was the way things had always been, but again, it wasn't. She had never had claws or fangs, but she could lick both with her oversize tongue. Could she speak?

At first it simply sounded like the raspy mewing of a zoo animal. She fumbled with the sounds the way a violinist might if they had been handed a cello. Slowly the form of words and language could be heard.

"Hey this isn't so bad!" she said testing her new air-pipes. It was low and gurgly, with a timbre that was both familiar and new at the same time.

"How do we...?" and even as the thought left her furry lips, she found her coat receding, her claws retracting, and her posture upright. "Easy in, easy out," she thought.

"Is everybody OK?" She hadn't really paid that much attention to what the others were doing.

There had been a mad dash as everybody ran to choose their new forms. Most everybody seemed to be shifting back and forth, which was jarring in and of itself for several reasons. Yes, they were all changing into imaginary animals. And yes, they were all naked. She had to just ignore that last part for the sake of sanity. In fact she wanted to focus on anything other than Pat. Or Cass. Or...

Had there always been a living tree in the middle of the altar? She didn't remember that from earlier. It was just a carving. One, two, three, ...

"Where is Solomon?" She called out. Her concern cut through the excitement as everybody started counting their numbers.

"He's the tree," Peppi said, returning to human-form with her finger extended in his direction.

It was a tree, of sorts, but she had never seen anything like it. One branch appeared to be maple, the next, Oak. One color bled into another texture which somehow became a new shape entirely.

Everything fit together, yet somehow didn't belong. Some sections had large chunks of green moss, others had green algae growing on them. It was not an old tree, but it was not a sapling either. Despite it's size, the canopy seemed immature and dense. Felicity knew a thing or two about trees. Her father was in the Forestry service.

Felicity stepped over the large grooves in the altar leading to the tree. Each of the animals on the outer perimeter of the disk were connected to the carving of the tree by a design etched into the floor of the disk. From the center it seemed to resemble vines.

"Solomon. Hey, can you hear me?" Felicity used the same tone her mom did when getting her up in the morning. "He can hear us, right?" She asked the others with concern.

"Trees don't have ears," Cash said frowning.

Felicity hopped up on a gnarled looking root to get a closer position. "SOLOMON!"

Nothing.

She reached out a scuffed human-hand and knocked on his trunk like it was a bedroom door. "YOU'RE LATE FOR CLASS, SOLOMON."

Still nothing.

"Shit," Viv said.

"What about that Spirit?" Cash suggested.

"Of, course!" Peppi said, sprinting back to the podium and pillars.

"Hey... Uh. Mr. or Mrs. Ghost-thingy, uhh. First of all, what do we call you, and secondly, how do we save our friend?"

There was a chime in the air that sounded like bells tingling. "Thank you for asking. I have had many names in history, but you may call me Sophia."

"As in Sophia, the Spirit of wisdom?" Viv asked with awe.

"Named after, but not the same," Sophia said with slight hue change. "I am a magical construct that is bound to this structure until it is destroyed. My purpose is to make it accessible to those who are worthy."

"And we were?" Viv asked a little suspiciously. "What are we now, anyway."

"I deemed you such. Technically, you are now polymorphs; humanoid amalgams with a secondary, phased-form," the spirit explained matter-of-factly.

"Right. One of those," Viv agreed with absolutely no understanding.

"Our friend, can he change back like the rest of us?" Felicity demanded while pointing at the forty foot chimera-Oak.

"Of course, child. He's asleep, not unwell," the Spirit assured, "but treekin are very sleepy by nature and their sense of time is much slower. You might have to be a little creative in the way that wake him" it explained.

Viv and Cash exchanged glances as they tried to make sense of everything. Pat just stared at the tree, while Peppi marched off to its base

"Is there any water here?" Conlan asked Sophia. "We could throw water on him, to wake him up," he thought outloud.

"In order to preserve the collection, the humidity is kept relatively low. There are no water or food sources within these walls, I'm sorry to say," Sophia replied.

Solomon's treeform was at least fifty feet away from the podium. His sapling-like branches extended into a vast dome framed by unnatural light. Shadows danced on her bare feet and played with a scar she got running through a stream two summers before.

Felicity stared at the ground for answers. As she looked up she could see with remarkable clarity Peppi's facial expressions. The bark snagged the fine threads of Peppi's wild blond hair as she tried to console him. And, although she was only speaking in a whisper from so far away, Felicity could just make out her words.

"C'mmon Sol.... You can't hide in there forever..." Peppi said as she laid her head against a pillar of brown and green. Her tight curls grabbing pieces of moss like snow landing in a child's hair.

As distressing as the situation could have been, Felicity had a sense of calm. After all, Sophia didn't seem worried, and the world was so distracting now. Her senses felt alive in a way they never had. She tested her own reflexes to see if she was drugged until she had satisfied herself that she was as sharp as ever.

"How would you wake him if you were one of us?" Viv inquired of Sophia with a thin smile.

"I'm a Spirit, so I wouldn't," Sophia said flatly.

"But, if you were one of us," Viv pressed him.

"Then you would know the answer better than I," Sophia replied smoothly. "There are many things I can tell you in this world, but will not. Not because I want to withhold the knowledge from you, but because I don't want to withhold your growth. Do you understand?"

"Yes I understand. You aren't helping us are you?" Felicity asked finally growing frantic. It was all fun and games until your quest giver stopped giving you clues!