Chapter 39: Earth Guardian

(There she is.) I spotted Gaia sitting under an enormous tree. With its branches stretching out for at least couple of meters, providing shadow to the area around it and acting as its protector.

I noticed it must be old, as none tree could grow this large without passage of time. But despite its age, it stood tall without any signs of being sick. It was as if its bark, or in fact any part of it couldn't be damaged.

This tree surprised me, making me stop in my tracks and inspect it closely before heading to Gaia's location. And with its branches stretching out so far, one step was all it took for me to go under its shadow.

(What a nice feeling.) After hiding from the morning sun, I felt how slight wind blew on my back, letting me enter a very pleasant state, full of memories from my childhood.

I recalled hot summer days which I spent playing with my friends.

We ran around the neighborhood, playing hide and seek or any other game that came to our minds at the time.

Everytime, it lead to us feeling exhausted, and as a way to cool down, we always sat down by an old tree in my friend's backyard. It covered us in its shadow and if we were lucky enough, the same type of wind blew on our sweating bodies, instantly cooling them down.

"It's amazing." I whispered my words, not wanting to ruin the peaceful atmosphere that followed me on my path to Gaia, as soon it will come to the end.

While my light steps lead to me to my goal without any disturbance, I couldn't say the same about the ground under my feet.

A little bit more than halfway through my walk, I heard something break under my foot. And when I looked at what I stepped on, I saw a small, green plant.

This discovery immediately made me crouch down and gently touch its broken stalk.

"I didn't mean it." I didn't know why, but seeing what I did to this plant made me feel a lot of guilt.

It was almost like I hurt something more than a simple plant. This made no sense to me, but it wasn't the end, as suddenly I saw how a wave of nature magic left my hand.

It did it on its own, making me question why I still didn't feel the source of magic in my body.

From what I learned so far, it was an impossible feat to use magic with none of it present, but now it happened right in front of my eyes.

(Looks like my guess is becoming more correct with each situation I find myself in.)

I grew more confident, knowing that the truth of my current location can't be that far off from my guess.

"Earthguardian, stop!" While I checked the fully healed stalk of the plant, Gaia urgently screamed at the top of her lugs.

With no idea why she would do so, I stood up and inspected my surrounding, trying to see what could cause this reaction in her. And it quickly turned out, I didn't have the pleasure of calmly doing so, as a huge branch was charging straight at me.

Given its speed, its intention was either to harm me, or potentially kill me.

I was barely able to avoid being hit by this enormous branch, by ducking down when its leaves were just centimeters away from my face.

"Don't hurt him. He's my friend." While I dodged the branch, Gaia placed herself between us and spread her arms, shielding me from any further attacks.

Seeing that Gaia wanted to protect me, made branch stop its pursit, but it didn't stop it from first pointing at me and then at the plant I stepped on.

"You telling me Adder stepped on the plant and destroyed it?" Gaia was taken aback by what the branch told her, I on the other hand was shocked she could communicate with it.

(Is this tree sentient, or is it Gaia's ability?) I became more curious about Gaia's connection to nature, as Mother Earth. Because if she could talk to any plant, if would give her a huge amount of potential power.

(I can only imagine how much informations she could gather if that's one of her abilities...Truly scary.) One plant in a wrong place at the wrong time and she can learn anyone's weakness.

"Adder! Is what Eathguardian saying true?" Rage filled Gaia's voice and when it did, she turned to me, yelling straight into my face.

"It was." Despite Gaia taking the role of my secondary attacker, I stayed calm, leaving my answer brief and clear.

"What to you mean, it was? Did you step on it, or not?" She tried to pressure me into given her an answer.

Normally I would do so, but interacting with young, or mature Gaia left me with one impression. If any of them are affected by certain emotions, explaining yourself isn't necessary the best approach.

And with it in mind, I stepped to the side and said. "Look for yourself."

"No." Gaia dismissed my words, wanting to hear the answer from my mouth.

"You won't get your answer with this attitude." I also didn't back down, as doing so could lead to further possible consequences.

WIth both of us now in the stalemate, my mouth tried to speak on its own, but I already knew it would want to do that. (You're predictable, Adder. Not able to stand under a little bit of pressure for more than a second.)

I didn't let my lips open, keeping them shut from speaking unnecessary words. Next I tilted my head to right, pointing Gaia at the plant.

With my unfazed attitude, Gaia knew getting an answer out of me would be more troublesome than it's worth it, so she finally backed down and looked at the reason of this whole incident.

"Are you making fun of me? Because it's not funny." Gaia showed me a fake smile, full of danger behind it.

"I'm not making fun of you. Why would you even think so?"

"Then why would you show me a healthy plant? I can obviously see it isn't damaged."

"And I said, it was damaged, which means it isn't anymore."

"It's..." Gaia didn't know how to reply to me, so she did the only thing she think of. That was to walk up to the plant and carefully inspect it.

"It's really healthy...Wait. I can sense signs of nature magic? Who did it?" After a short look at the plant, Gaia noticed the remainings of the magic I used and with on one else in our vicinity, I quickly became the sole suspect. The questioning gaze she gave me, only added to this theory.

"Was it you, Adder? But how? You don't possess the roots of nature magic." My sudden usage of nature magic alerted Gaia.

"It was indeed me, but like you, I have no idea how I did it." I didn't change my tone, nor did I lie. After all the truth was that I didn't use that magic, at least not willingly.

"You telling me you used magic to heal the plant you stepped on, then Earthguardian attacked you because you damaged it. And now you have no idea how you were able to use nature magic in the first place. Or am I missing something?"

"As confusing as it seems, you pretty much nailed it. Good job." I even gave Gaia a thumbs up.

Seeing my behavior made gave place her hand on her forehead and speak in a quiet voice.

"What should I think, Adder? Was making you my friend a good choice?" Despite her words sounding a bit harash, I saw how Gaia spread her fingers to spy on my reaction to them.

"Unfortunately it wasn't. So without further ado. Bye." I turned around and began walking in the direction I came from.

"Wait! You were supposed to convince me it was a good choice." Gaia yelled at my leaving figure.

"I know that, and I think I did a great job at it. Why would you stop me otherwise?" I returned to my previous spot, with a smile on my face.

"*Hmph* I hate you and your disgusting smile." Gaia crossed her arms and turned her head away from me.

"It's not nice to turn your head away from the person you're talking to." Obviously I started joking at this point.

"I'm doing you a favor by doing this."

"Oh, why is that?"

"I would have voimited on you if I didn't turn around, that's why." Corner of Gaia's lips raised, showing me that she still enjoyed our little back and forth.

"Thank you for being so thoughtful. It only shows how much you care about me." I couldn't contain my laugh anymore, letting it rang out loud and clear.

"You had your fun, now it's my turn. Earthguardian, deal with him." Those words made the branch that attacked me before, charge at me again.

"Hey, Eeathguardian, buddy. You don't need to do this. I repaired the damage I done. It doesn't need to come to violence." As the last resort, I tried to reason with this branch, but it had no effect on him.

The next thing I know, I'm running around in circles, avoiding its attack and hearing Gaia cuckle in the background.