Betwixt the Trees

Chapter 48

Betwixt the Trees

Two days have passed since the band of folk departed from the forest. 

Leo wanted to say that they were two peaceful days, but it was hard to make that claim while his pair of Disciples never, ever, never stopped bickering. From dawn 'till dusk, and then even further than that, long into the night, if he was within the earshot of their voices, they were bickering. Whether intentionally or not (mostly not), Liang was perhaps more talented at annoying Yue than he was at cultivating. 

And Yue's image, the one Leo built up inside of his head--that of a headstrong, confident, clever young woman--had collapsed. While she, to some degree, may have been all those things, she was also quite a bit of an... airhead. She was easily dragged into her 'Junior Brother's' business, and the more Leo watched the two interact, the more certain he was that they were actually a pair of siblings that were separated at birth. 

Liang would find random critters in the forest early in the morning and 'throw' them at Yue to scare her.

She would then, in return, steal food from him, interrupt him while he was practicing, and shadow him all damn day long searching for ways to bother him.

"Both of you, sit down," Leo had had enough--while he appreciated that the two were growing closer(?), there was a limit to how much he could tolerate. They weren't children, after all--they were both in their twenties, adults even. What at first was funny behavior was now simply sad. 

"Yes, Master!" both complied and stopped bickering immediately, sitting down like a pair of pups who didn't know what they did wrong. 

"Look, I believe I am a very tolerant person," Leo started. "In fact, search highs and lows of this world, and you'd seldom find someone more tolerant than me. But! Even I can only tolerate so much! I think it is very adorable that you two feel compelled to spend every waking hour of your lives with each other, I really do."

"Master--"

"--nuh-nuh, let me finish. It's adorable, it truly is. But you're not just bothering me, you're bothering everyone else. Poor Milky and Blackie haven't been around at all the last day. Why? Is it because they suddenly decided to leave? No! It's because they can't watch the two of you any longer! It's embarrassing for everyone else in the forest, and it needs to stop. So, from now on, I forbid you from interacting with each other more than two hours a day! Do you understand?"

"Y-yes, Master..."

"Good. If I catch you breaking this rule, I will... hmm, what's a good punishment? It's not like I can take away luxuries, you know, because there are none. Hmm... right, you will be locked up inside the mud hut for a week! Eh, good enough. I'm not good at coming up with punishment. Anyway, you've promised! Until I can see that you two can behave like proper adults when interacting with each other, you will not be allowed to spend so much time with each other. Understood?"

"Yes, Master..."

Though he felt a bit guilty seeing their expressions, Leo knew it was better to set boundaries immediately. 

He departed right after holding his little speech, moving westward beyond the pond, in search of an iron mine or a quarry. Compass in hand, Hoot, Red, and Howly by his side--with the wolf having stopped keeping a steady distance from them, usually riding right by Leo's side--he departed into the wild wilds. 

The further he moved away from the camp, the more... off the forest seemed. Though he couldn't quite pinpoint why he felt that way, whether it was the ever so slightly strange shape of the trees, or the unnaturally asymmetrical flowers, or the obsidian-black roots that he at first mistook for rocks. 

Whatever it was, were it not for his friends by his side, he would not have dared venture this deep. Nonetheless, the compass never reacted. Whether he went in a straight line or did wide curves to cover as much ground as possible, it was evident that this part of the forest held neither a quarry nor an iron mine. 

There came a point, too, like when he headed north toward the crow, where his feet ceased moving and his heart told him going any further was impossible. Before him were patches of moss rising and falling slowly almost like breathing lungs, with the flat, smooth trees surrounding them. The branches grew in strangely perfect geometric angles, causing a level of distortion when witnessed. The roots pulsated well above the ground, forming hilly-like dunes, while the undergrowth consisted of large, bulbous plants with pulsating veins, all giving off a faint bioluminescent glow. 

Whatever lay beyond this point was not for his eyes to bear witness, Leo knew. Thus, he turned around and walked away.

The more he explored the forest, the more he realized he'd truly landed in a place of potential horrors. It was no wonder, then, that there were so many rumors about this place on the outside. Yue mentioned offhand that this place was called 'The Nature's Tomb', and though he never truly experienced its horrors to the utmost, he saw the potential of them in all the things surrounding his world. 

Growing weary, he sat down onto one of the protruding roots, fetching some juice from the waterskin, one for him and one for his friends. They all enjoyed a brief respite before resuming their walk. 

By now, Leo had grown rather accustomed to his new life. In fact, he found himself enjoying these treks through the forested paradise more than most other things in his former life. Stumbling upon a new flower or a new tree was akin to discovering something never seen before. Sometimes, Red would snatch them and 'give' them to Leo, indicating that they were 'safe' to consume. 

It was on this trek, in particular, that he came across a particular shrub with berries hanging off of it. Red fetched a few and handed them to everyone, Leo included--the berries were as black as the night itself, just barely larger than an ordinary cranberry, and were so hard Leo had to use Qi between his fingers in order to squash it.

However, he popped it into his mouth, trusting Red, and instead of chewing, swallowed it directly. The following sensation was exactly akin to doing a shot of tequila--he felt fire consume his throat and sweat began to break out from his forehead. No, it was far more impactful than a tequila shot--perhaps akin to doing five or six consecutive ones... without the wanted side effect of getting drunk, however. 

He had to sit down, red in face like a beet, and use Qi to quell the raging fire inside of him. A smile stretched out against his lips--he found his vaunted 'spice' that could burn one's skin off. Now all he had to find was noodles, or ersatz of one, at least. 

"Good stuff," he said, standing up. None of the animals reacted as much as he did, though, they too, seemed a bit abuzz with the sensation, especially Howly who flattened himself on his back, showing off his belly and howling at the nothing. "Hm. Okay, let's go this way." he recognized one of the landmarks soon enough--an old, weathered tree in the sea of young, thriving ones. He moved further westward from it originally, but now changed the direction toward north. 

To his knowledge, iron mines and quarries appeared either in the mountains or at least mountain valleys. Of course, he could be completely wrong as he hardly ever 'verified' that 'knowledge', but as there were neither mountains nor valleys anywhere within his sight, he prayed that he was wrong. Otherwise, he might have to send Yue or Liang out into the world to fetch some iron and stone. 

Remembering Yue, he glanced down at his fancy, black robes and smiled--the girl fetched quite a few things from the outside world. Besides quite a few pots and pans and some cutlery, she bought him six sets of clothes and a really comfortable praying mat. Furthermore, she brought quite a few seeds of some of the plants and vegetables that were 'popular' in the outside world, but Leo hadn't planted them yet. 

Moving on northward, the scenery began to change--thin trees grew thicker and older, and the canopy above grew all-encompassing, with less and less light trickling through. At some point, the forest became as dark as though it were night, prompting him to quickly make a torch from the blueprint, lighting it up. 

He yelped as he faced what was in front of him--it was a singular tree surrounded by twining roots from all sides for about ten yards. The tree itself had roots and thick vines wrapping around its trunk, as though they were part of it. It looked as though the trees were webbed together in a strange, hypnotizing pattern, though how they grew to this size without sunlight... Leo didn't even want to consider. Just as he was about to turn around and leave, he saw a window appear in front of him. 

['??????' seeks your assistance]

[It has been a thousand years since the last Great Shedding, but because '??????' had slumbered too long, it is not possible for it to undergo the Great Shedding on its own]

['??????' asks you to carefully thin out its canopy and bodice, like you would while carving a perfect statue]

[Time Limit: N/A]

[Reward: <Bark of Divinity>, +10 favorability with '??????', '??????' will owe you a favor, '??????' will reveal its identity to you]

[Failure: '??????' will be unable to Shed, slowly dying over the course of the next 100,000 years]

[Note: you may use assistance of others, but you cannot burn the cut materials and have to bury them instead. The materials can be used to fertilize the ground]