Path of Dragons 18 - Chapter 7 - Legend and Myth (Patreon)

A majestic tree grew from the seed of Elijah’s body, digging roots into the hard rock of Shelly’s head and sprouting to hundreds of yards tall.  Elijah spread his branches, letting his leaves flutter in the wind of the great tortoise’s movement.  More importantly, his Mantle of Authority finally broke free of whatever restriction his visitor had imposed, and it exploded out of him.

An ethereal tree superimposed itself over Elijah’s arboreal body, then extended far past his limbs to encompass an area more than a mile wide.  At the same time, Soul of the Wild settled on the region, letting Elijah feel everything in his general vicinity. 

It didn’t take long for him to find the speaker.

And he was surprised to discover that it was another tree.  Or at least, that was his first thought, which he quickly discarded when he felt something that reminded him of Nerthus. 

The creature was not a spryggent.

It was too wild.  Too large.  Too tree-like.  But Elijah could see enough similarities to establish that the thing was closely related to his friend’s species. 

The pressure on him doubled.  Then tripled.  Elijah’s branches creaked under the force, but they did not break.  After all, where a man might be utterly destroyed, a tree continued to stand tall.  Where a dragon’s defenses might be sundered, a tree merely bent a little. 

Elijah cast Blessing of the Grove, then Bough of the World Tree.  At the same time, he forced himself to cast Wellspring.  The surge of vitality washed over him, but it did nothing to alleviate the ethereal pressure to which he had been subjected. 

He had expected as much.  But he’d also decided to brace for a physical attack. In his experience, that was what was coming next.

So, with all of his healing spells coursing through him, with a rejuvenating storm covering his leaves in blessed rain, Elijah waited for the attack to come.

It didn’t.

A few seconds passed, and nothing happened.  Then, those few seconds turned into a minute.  Two minutes.  As a tree, Elijah couldn’t communicate, but he desperately wanted to demand to know what was going on.  His attacker hadn’t moved, though judging by his physiology, he was more than capable.

If Nerthus seemed a bit like a humanoid tree, then this creature truly seemed like an ent from Lord of the Rings.  He was dozens of feet tall, with gnarled limbs of twisted bark, all covered in a dense mat of ivy and moss.  His face wasn’t so different from Nerthus’s, though even filtered through the alien nature of his appearance, he was obviously ancient. 

But more than anything else, Elijah was taken aback by the creature’s sheer presence.  He was a mere fraction of Elijah’s size, but he still towered over everything like the king of every forest into which he stepped.

For a few moments, Elijah’s authority, established via a combination of Blessing of the Grove, Soul of the Wild, and Mantle of Authority, all of which were enhanced by God of the Forest, warred with the newcomer’s aura.  There were no majestic flashes of light.  No bone-rattling clashes. 

But it was no less brutal of a fight than any Elijah had experienced during the war in Orveth Kaal.  From afar, it probably looked like nothing so much as two trees standing on the outskirts of a forest atop a giant tortoise.  But anyone standing between the two titans of nature would have been driven to the ground under the metaphysical weight of the engagement.

For his part, Elijah pushed his abilities well past his previously established limits.  For the first time, he truly embraced God of the Forest, letting it weave through every aspect of his being.  By default, it was integrated into his soul, and in a way that none of his other abilities were.

When he infused something like Way of Storms with his soul, it was an uphill battle.  Even the smallest slip would abrade his soul and send waves of pain arcing throughout his entire cultivation system.  However, with God of the Forest, incorporating his soul into the ability was as simple as breathing.

The branches of his soul wrapped around the ability, spreading it further and more completely than he’d ever managed before.  Even Shelly took notice, stopping in her tracks. 

Using Soul of the Wild, Elijah really let his senses encapsulate the newcomers.

He was transcendent.  Probably sapient, too, given his ability to communicate.  However, there was something undeniably wild about him as well.  Given their location, that should not have been surprising.  What was shocking was that the tree-man felt even closer to nature than Elijah currently was.

Perhaps the most interesting part was just how ancient the creature felt. 

Elijah had met transcendents.  Mano was thousands of years old.  Kirlissa had been around for tens of thousands of years.  And the Poet was older even than the current incarnation of the Empire of Scale. 

Yet, they all felt like children compared to the tree-man.

It wasn’t just his age at work, either.  His very essence screamed to anyone that would listen that he was older than time itself. 

For a while, the two auras clashed.  As a man, his relationship with the passage of time was a little fuzzy.  As a tree, it was irretrievably skewed.  As a result, Elijah had no idea how long their face-off lasted.

Then, it just ended, and so abruptly that Elijah felt like someone had ripped the rug out from under him.  Mentally, he staggered until the voice returned.

“You are more than you seemed at first glance,” the tree-man said.

Elijah simply rustled his leaves, as much in irritation as in an attempt to communicate.

Without the silent war of auras to occupy his mind, he felt the sensation of being a tree threaten to overwhelm him.  Briefly, it did, but he managed to pull himself out before he lost himself in it. 

Normally, he could avoid danger if he kept himself from diving too deeply into the arboreal identity.  Yet, with the fight against the tree-man, he’d been forced to go all out.  Doing so had removed any guardrails he’d erected around his identity, putting him at real risk of losing himself to the simple life of a tree.

A little frightened by how close he’d come to doing just that, Elijah took a risk and let Shape of Trees fall away.  As he returned to his human form, he experienced a familiar wave of vertigo – both in terms of his identity as well as his physical presence.

He stumbled, then fell to his knees.  His breath came in ragged gasps as he struggled to reassert his humanity.  It worked, though not quickly.  And by the time he regained control and looked up, the tree man had leaped down from the cliff of Shelly’s shell and planted himself only a few feet away.

When they locked eyes, Elijah felt something pass between them.  Not magical.  Not verbal.  Just an understanding that only two people devoted to nature could experience.

Then it passed.

“You are a curious creature,” said the tree-man.

“Could say the same about you,” Elijah replied, his voice scratchy.  It felt like he hadn’t used it in years, which set off all kinds of alarm bells in his mind.  “How long were we…you know…how long has it been since you interrupted me?”

“Interrupted? You are a guest in my home,” the tree-man said.  “You exist at my discretion.”

“I exist because I choose to,” Elijah stated evenly.  He knew it was probably a mistake to talk back to someone who could so easily squash him, but the reality was that he just didn’t care how powerful the tree-man was.  Elijah refused to live under anyone else’s thumb, and he was more than prepared to accept the consequences of said refusal. 

“And if I take issue with your choice?”

Elijah sat back on his heels, then shrugged. “Then you’ll kill me.”

“You value your life so little?”

Elijah shrugged. “I value my autonomy more.”

The tree-man bent close, as if he was studying something he didn’t really understand.  He clearly wanted to, though.  Elijah had seen that expression – twisted by the alien nature of the creature before him – and he knew what it meant.  He’d felt similar feelings himself.

“So you do,” the tree-man said.  “Since I cannot bully you into answering without killing you, I suppose politeness is a better tactic.  Why are you here, little Druid?  And why have you disturbed Esthementhesis?”

“Esthe-what?”

“The grand tortoise upon which you sit.  Esthementhesis is the last of her kind, rescued from a dying reality where her species had been hunted to near extinction.  I saved her eons ago.”

“Oh.  That’s her name.  Esthementesis.  I was just calling her Shelly.”

“Shelly?”

“You know, because she has such a big shell,” Elijah revealed.

“You realize that this creature is tens of thousands of years old, do you not?” the tree-man asked.  “She is the equivalent of a transcendent.  A goddess amongst tortoises.  And you named her Shelly?”

Elijah shrugged. “I thought it fit.  Besides, she likes it.”

The tree-man made to respond, but he stopped, his mouth hanging open.  Elijah didn’t move either, because the same thing that had interrupted the tree-man had swept over Elijah as well.  It was a gentle surge of energy.  Not just ethera.  And not just vitality, either.  There was something else in there that Elijah couldn’t quite identify.  After only a moment, he realized that it was similar to what he’d felt when he had taken control of the fungi-infected dragons back in Orveth Kaal, albeit from the other side.

That established that it was mental energy.

Of course, the feeling of contentment that washed over him was just further evidence of that.  That it emanated from Shelly dawned on Elijah only after a few moments, largely because he’d been overcome by the sensation.  Not in a bad or oppressive way, as was the case with the tree-man’s power.  Rather, it was like drinking a hot cup of coffee after spending the morning shoveling snow.

“I think that settles that.  Shelly fits her so much better than…Esthementhesis.  She prefers it,” Elijah declared.

The tree-man frowned. “Shelly,” he muttered, but he didn’t argue with Elijah’s assessment of the tortoise’s wishes.  Those were absolutely clear.

“So, what do I call you?  I was thinking Treo.”

The tree-man’s moss-covered brow furrowed.

“I know what you’re thinking, but Treebie is already taken,” Elijah said.  “And he’d be furious if he found out I gave his name to someone else.”

“Treebie.”

“Right?  No better name for a giant tree, as far as I’m concerned,” Elijah revealed.  “Gets right to the heart of who he is, but it’s still playful enough to tell everyone that he’s just a happy little tree.”

The tree-man sighed, the sound echoing off the crags of Shelly’s head.  “My name is Kor.”

“Just Kor?”

“I need no other name.”

“Fair enough,” Elijah said.  “I’m Elijah.”

He extended his hand in greeting, but Kor didn’t take it. 

“Why are you here?  This is no safe realm for a demigod, even one as unique as you,” Kor stated.

“Well, it’s kind of a long story,” Elijah answered.  Then, he told Kor the story of Orveth Kaal.  He didn’t drag it out, though.  Instead, he just hit the high points, ending with his escape into Silvara.  “And now I’m here looking for opportunities for cultivation.  When I found Shelly here, I couldn’t help but be fascinated by the ecosystem on her back.  Then, I thought I’d take the opportunity to try to get to know here better.  So, I’ve been trying to communicate with her ever since. 

“And I’ll be honest – it’s not easy.  Her mind…well, it’s a bit overwhelming.  But I’m making progress.”

“I see.”

“What about you?  What brought you here?  And pardon me if I’m being rude, but what are you?” Elijah asked.  “My first instinct was spryggent, but I don’t think that’s accurate.”

“Spryggent.  I have not heard that term in eons,” Kor revealed.  “I hope they have taken up the mantle we left behind.”

“We?”

“Aspara,” Kor answered.  “I am an aspara.”