Chapter Thirty — A Very Handsome Tree
I stared at the tree.The tree glared right back.An irritated Dryad Tree Tender, level ??.I knew that I should have maybe been a bit more worried about the abominations following behind me, because... well, the because was rather obvious, they were angry madness-inducing tentacle monsters which wanted to eat me, that was a lot of reasons to avoid them.Still, I had just literally run into a tree person and I could at the very least apologize.The tree man was tall, with bark-brown skin that was rough and textured over his shoulders and sides and pecs, but over the more flexible muscles it looked smooth like the skin of a tree just beneath its bark, it even had a soft green look to it. His hair was long and whippy, like the branches of a willow and his legs were thick and literally trunk-like.He also had a really nice six pack and the kind of squarish shovel-like jaw that I was really digging. “Hey,” I said before running my fingers through my hair to straighten it up a little. “Sorry for running into you, Mister Dryad, sir,” I said.The tree-man’s eyes narrowed.“Tell you what,” I said as I kept my eyes on his and not on his chest. “How about we go out for lunch. I’ll pay. To apologize. I’m sure they have vegan meals at the inn.”Judging by the increasingly irritated look on the dryad’s face it was clear that I wasn’t very good at the whole flirting thing. Unfortunately, my only wingmen was a group of monsters that decided to interrupt my moment by bursting through the bushes behind me, tentacles whipping out ahead of them.I jumped away, making it to the lower branches of a tree a little ways away before turning around and holding my shovel close to my chest. I couldn’t just leave Mister Dryad to be swarmed by the abominations, not when he was going to be outnumbered six to one.The dryad’s hand shot out, catching the whipping tentacles of the abomination in the lead before he yanked the monster closer. His other arm shot forwards, fist burying itself into the monster up to the wrist.The abomination struggled, its many hands grasping at the dryad, at first to find purchase, then with increasing desperation until thorny vines burst out from under its skin and started wrapping around its body.I had to look away. The sight of the abomination, already on the gross side, being mulched by thorns the size of daggers, was just too much.Congratulations! Your ally has made Dunwich Abomination, Level 8, push up daisies! Bonus Exp was granted for eliminating a monster above your level! Due to not being the primary combatant your reward is reduced!Mister Dryad grabbed the next abomination and started doing terrible things to it, but there were four others, and they did not take kindly to their friends being pulped. Tentacles whipped out towards Mister Dryad and one of the monsters clamped down around his leg with its big nasty teeth.I couldn’t just watch.Screwing up my courage, I reminded myself that the abominations were big mean monsters and that it was okay to fight them. Sure, I had been the one to invade their home, but they were over-reacting with their long chase and their madness-inducing screams.I jumped off the branch I was on and landed on the head of the rear-most abomination, sending it planting face-first into the ground before I bounced off and landed next to it. My spade came down on its head with a clang so hard it made my hands rattle.It didn’t seem to do much to hurt the monster, but it did distract it.Then a tentacle grabbed me by the ankle and started dragging me towards one of the other abominations.“Oh no, no no no,” I said as I spun around and bonked the abomination behind me on the noggin. It didn't do much.I chopped at the tentacle with the edge of my spade, then hit it again and again until it sliced off with a wet squelch and I was free to shoot up and into the trees above.Mister Dryad had used the distraction to take out another one of the monsters. The two I had distracted waddled after me as I circled around Mister Dryad while he finished off their friend. The moment he was done, he turned to the abominations that weren’t looking his way and crashed into them like a falling tree.It didn’t take very long from there.Congratulations! Your team has eliminated five opponents (Dunwich Abomination, Level 7 x3, Dunwich Abomination, Level 8, Dunwich Abomination, Level 9)! Bonus Exp was granted for killing a monster above your level! Due to not being the primary combatant your reward is reduced!Bing Bong! Congratulations, your Cinnamon Bun class has reached level 5!Mana + 10Magic + 10You have gained: One Class PointI landed on the ground next to Mister Dryad and panted with a mix of exhilaration and adrenaline-fueled desperation that was only just fading. Then the smell of all the abominations hit me and I gagged.It had been easy to ignore the stench when I was busy running for my life, but now that I had a moment to relax I had no choice but to endure the stink. It was like inhaling raw sewage. My stomach surged, and it was all I could do not to lose my breakfast.Mister Dryad didn’t seem to enjoy it any more than I did, not if the way he stomped off was any indication.I followed after him, both of us moving upwind from the corpses of the abominations that were even now rotting at an accelerated pace. I could celebrate the level up when I wasn’t choking on stinky air.Mister Dryad walked a little ways away, then turned around to face me with his big arms crossed over his chest.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.I smiled sheepishly at him and rubbed a hand behind my neck. “So, ah, I’m sorry about all of that. I didn’t mean to bring those things into your home. They kind of followed me. If there’s anything I can do to make it up to you please tell me! I want to be friends!”The tree person glared.“I really am sorry,” I said. “I was looking for some flowers when they kind of ambushed me, and the forest seemed like the safest place to run off to. But I learned my lesson! I’ll be a lot more careful next time I go snooping around.” It looked down towards my feet, then I caught sight of something from the corner of my eye and gasped. “You’re injured!” I said.Mister Dryads thick legs were covered in small scratches, the sort that would probably heal over in a little while. Those had to be from the tentacles. The wound that caught my eye were the large, jaggedy bite marks around his knee and calves. They looked deep and there was something leaking out of them.I stumbled forwards and Mister Dryad stepped back.Looking up, I met his eye, then gestured to his leg. “Let me see, please? I can clean out the wound, at least, and I have some cloth to bandage it up.”The tree looked at me for a long time, then slowly nodded.Smiling, I got down on one knee before him while slipping off my backpack. I regretted not buying any healing potions while I was at the alchemist’s shop. Maybe some salve of sorts. It would have been the smart thing to do, but doing the smart thing wasn’t always something I was good at.I carefully pressed a hand next to the bite and winced a little as I took it in from up close. The bark-like skin was split open, each jaggedy hole liberally smeared with some sort of putrid purplish... stuff. I didn’t want to touch it. There was also something coming out of the wound, brownish and sticky looking. Sap? That would make sense.I idly wondered if Mister Dryad could make me some maple syrup, then banished the thought.A glance at my status showed that I had plenty of mana, so I fired off a powerful burst of cleaning magic aiming for the wounds and the gunk within them.The purplish stuff fizzled away as my magic rushed to it. Mister Dryad shifted, but didn’t object otherwise. He did protest when I pulled out some long strips of cloth from my backpack and started tying them around his leg. “Hey, you can’t just leave this uncovered. It’ll get all infected and then it’ll take forever to heal. I don’t know what kind of infections work on a tree person, but I bet they’re not fun.”He paused and let me bind his wound with my makeshift bandage. I made sure to leave a cute little bow on the end, that way he could impress all the cute dryad girls. It would show off his manly ‘look at me injuries’ side, and also his cute feminine side. I wondered if he’d let me play with his willowy hair. I bet I could make it look really cool if I braided it.“So, what does a handsome treeboy like you do for fun around here?” I asked.Mister Dryad looked at me for a long, long time, then he opened his mouth. “... Fun?”I blinked. “Eh? You can talk?” I asked.He nodded with the kind of speed you’d expect from a tree-which was to say, fairly slowly.“Oh, wow. Okay, cool! I didn’t know dryads could talk. This is really neat.”He pointed to me. “...Talk.”“Yes! I can talk too, of course.”“... Too... much,” he finished.I almost collapsed. “No! I don’t talk too much! I talk just enough, I swear. I’m sorry, it’s just when I meet someone new I want to know everything about them so sometimes I ask too many questions and I guess I do come on a little strongly, don’t I?”He nodded slowly again. He turned around a little, looking deeper into the woods and I had the impression that he was getting bored with the conversation.“S-so, I’m looking for a flower,” I said. “Actually, wait, I never got your name!”He sighed, a noise like wind ruffling through leaves.“Was that your name?” I asked. “Oh right, I’m being silly again. My name is Broccoli Bunch. Like the veggie!”“...No.” He shifted a little. “Oak.”“Your name’s Oak? That’s a great name for a treeboy! I’m Broccoli, but I already told you that. So, ah, I’m wondering if you could help me. Not that you need to, you’ve helped me a ton already today.”Oak closed his eyes and I had the impression that he might have been praying to whatever a tree prayed to. “...Help?” he asked.“Yes! I’m looking for a flower.”Oak tilted his head to the side, then he waved his arm across the ground and all sorts of little wildflowers sprouted out of the soil and bloomed to life, their colorful petals turning a patch of the dreary forest into a brilliant rainbow patch full of life.“Whoa,” I said as I knelt down to poke at the flowers. I recognized them vaguely as common cornflowers and poppies. “Pretty!”“...Flowers.”“Yes, they are,” I agreed with a beaming smile. I set my backpack down, careful not to squish any of Oak’s flowers, and pulled out my herbology book.Oak frowned at it. “...Dead brother.”I froze. The book had, admittedly, probably been made from a tree of one sort or another. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I found this a while ago. I can’t say whether it was made with respect to your brother or not.”Oak considered that, then shrugged.I opened to the dog-eared page with the Two-Lipped Tulips and showed it to Oak. “This is what I’m looking for,” I said.He looked for a long time. “...Weed. Cull.”“Cull? You want to get rid of this kind of flower?” I asked.He nodded.“Well then, maybe we can help each other!”
* * *
Chapter Thirty-One — In Which Broccoli Gives the Locals Weaponry
Oak led me back towards the Dunwich site, something that would have made me nervous if I hadn’t seen him tear an abomination apart with his bare hands.“So, where are those flowers?” I asked as I skipped along behind my new buddy. I decided that even though we were a boy and a girl walking through a forest together it didn’t count as a date. Sure, he had given me flowers, but I didn’t think there was any romantic intent behind the gesture.Too bad. Oak was kind of cute for a tree.Oak, being a tree... man of few words, pointed to the cliffs ahead, then to the rocky areas around their base. “Weeds,” he said.“Neat. So, what do you consider a weed? I would have thought that all plants would be good plants for you.”Oak gave me a strange look, one I recognized as the ‘you’re being very dumb’ look people gave me sometimes. “Weeds... bad.”“Well, that does explain some things, I guess.”We ambled past the first cliff and to a rocky bit of terrain next to it where the ground was covered in sharp rocks and craggy bits of dirt that seemed super dry from afar. The trees there were few and far between, all of them leafless and emaciated. Oak pointed to one of them, then to its base. “Weed.”I moved closer and saw what he meant. There was a Two-Lipped Tulip growing around and into a dying tree, its long, thorny roots coiled around the tree’s bark while a few of its fanged flowers were biting into it.The instructions in my book only said that I should be careful not to get bitten myself. I thought it would be fairly simple, but by the look of it the plant was more like a snake than merely a very angry bush.I reached out with my spade and poked at the stems before taking a long step back.Flowers snapped at the air where my spade had been.“Yikes. That is one nasty flower,” I said.“Weed,” Oak repeated.“You got that right. I wouldn’t want any of those in my garden. I kind of need the flowers though. Tricky.”“No... touch,” he warned. After a moment he decided to add to his warning. “Bite.”I looked up to the tree then, with a careless shrug, hopped up and onto one of the lower branches. It creaked under my weight, but didn’t crack. With the edge of my spade serving as an axe, I chopped off a long branch and tossed it next to Oak before joining him.“Cut... brother?” Oak asked. He didn’t look pleased at how I had treated his... brother, but he didn’t look ready for violence either.“Sorry, but with this I can help your brother.” It swished the branch in the air a few times, making sure that it was still fairly sturdy. Then I whipped it into the bush, skimming just over the top and slicing through a dozen stems. Some of the flowers bit into the wood, but that only helped to tear them out.I grinned as I swiped again and cut through ever more of the bush. It didn’t go as well the second time, but that was alright.“See, you just need the right tool.”“Tool,” Oak repeated as he stared at the long branch. He looked at the tulips again. “Cannot... touch.”“Right, so you make something to touch it from afar for you.” I brought the branch closer, then pried some of the flowers off the haft with my knife. They came off with a few deft flicks. I pulled out my old haversack from my backpack and tossed the flowers into it. The tough old material would probably handle a few bitey flowers.Oak looked at my stick for a long time. “Tool,” he said again.“Yeah. A spear would be better though.”“Spear?”I nodded. Dryads probably didn’t have much use for spears and the like, but it could come in handy. “It’s a long stick, nice and tough, and at the end you have a spearhead. That's, ah, like a leaf, but very sharp and hard. That way you can cut things from far away.” I wiggled my spade around. It wasn’t exactly spear-like, but it was close enough.Oak tilted his head to the side and swayed a little as he thought, then he bent down and touched the ground. Out came a long pole, as tall as he was, and at its end a long wavy leaf made of wood.“Can I see?” I asked as I gestured to the spear.Oak let me take his spear and examine it. It was kind of neat, though the leaf bit was a little bit too flexible still, and not nearly sharp enough. It looked flimsy, too flexible and whippy.“Here, make the sharp bits like this,” I said as I showed him my knife. “And if you can, a little bit less flexible. I think some flexibility is good, but not too much. But I’m not a spear person.”Oak studied the metal blade, then poked his finger with it a few times. “Tool,” he repeated.“That’s right!”His next spear was much nicer, with a slightly thinner haft and with a sharp wooden point that had little vein-y imprints on it. It was deceptively sharp and a fair bit heavier, though not so much that it was hard to swing around.“Nice,” I said as I weighed it and sliced at the air inexpertly. A few swipes at the bush sent bits of it flying as it cut through. “Insight.”A living spear of uncommon quality, new.“Good work, Oak!” I said.Oak nodded and made a second spear for himself, this one much longer and heavier. We got to work chopping up the plant from afar, then Oak approached it and stomped on the flower-less bush a few times. He really didn’t like weeds.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.The dryad touched the dying tree with a palm, then moved forwards and wrapped his arms around it in a deep hug.The branches shifted and the tree’s colour lightened from the rotting brown it had been. Tiny buds sprouted all along its branches and opened up to reveal pinkie-sized leaves.Oak backed away and picked up his spear. “Healed,” he said.“Wow, that was great!” I walked up to the tree, making sure that I didn’t step into any biting flowers, then gave it a hug too. A burst of cleaning magic shot into it and I saw bits of flower poof out of its base and disintegrate in the air. Had they been stuck in the tree’s base?“No... healing?” Oak asked.“Me? Not really, no. All I can do is clean. And holy heck did that ever cost a lot of mana. I’ll have to be more careful with the next one!” I grinned at my new buddy and then got to work picking up flowers from the ground. Oak had trampled a few and we had both chopped some up with our new spears, but it was okay, there were plenty more tulip bushes around.As we moved over to the next tree, I tried explaining other tools to Oak. He didn’t seem to care much for most of them, but when I explained what bows were he paid a lot of attention. “They’re like a curved branch with a string between the two ends that’s kept tense. So when you pull back on the string and then let go it snaps back into place. If you put a smaller stick, an arrow, against the string it’ll fly really far. Oh, but you need fletching. Um, that’s like a feather on the end, but I’m sure a leaf would work in a pinch.”Oak nodded slowly. “Tools,” he said.“Yes,” I agreed. “Tools are really handy. You can hunt things with a bow, though I guess you don’t need that if you can just grab things with like, roots and suchlike.”I wasn’t sure how many flowers I collected, but it had to be close to fifty because my haversack was filled to the brim. I shut the bag closed and made a knot with its drawstring before flinging it over my back.A glance at the sky revealed that it had begun to put on its night colours. It was far past the time for me to head out. I hefted my new spear and gave Oak a big smile. “I need to go, Oak, but maybe we’ll see each other again some day.”Oak looked at me with none of the tension and annoyance he had when I first bumped into him. “Grow,” he said.Congratulations! Through repeated actions your Friendmaking skill has improved and is now eligible for rank up!Rank E is a free rank!I laughed aloud and gave Oak a big, clumsy hug. “I will!” I said as I took off.The trek back was just a little melancholic, but it was fun all the same. The path grew darker by the minute, until I could hardly see a step ahead of me. I considered finding a place to hide in the trees for the night, or taking out a candle and just walking, but then something stirred over my chest and a yawning Orange poked her head out from my bandoleer.“Wow, you’re very good at sleeping,” I said.She gave me a flat look before gazing around.“Yeah, we’re not exactly lost, but making it back will be tricky. I can’t see very well.”Orange made a huffing gesture, though it was soundless, then bounded off my chest and walked ahead of me. She glowed. It was faint, but still more than enough to light the path ahead.“Awesome,” I said.The kitty turned and gave me a look as if to say ‘I know.’We arrived at Rockstack to find the gates closed and barred, but the walls weren’t so tall that I couldn’t just jump up to one of their uneven sides, then up to the very top.The outpost was lit up by a hundred candles flickering in the night. Laughter and light flowed out of the Hop on Inn and a sea of firefly-like lights moved around the tents that took up the back of the outpost. The shops were darker, but some still had light pouring out of their top floors.I landed in a crouch inside the walls and shifted my packs around as I walked towards the inn. The talking and music and sounds of cutlery grew louder as I approached, as did the scent of delicious food wafting through the air.Grinning, I plucked Orange out of the air and set her on my shoulder, then pushed my way into the inn. I wasn’t home, exactly, but it was a nice place to be. I had had a tiny adventure for the day, and was more than ready for a heavy meal and a long sleep.I found a seat by the bar and slumped down. “Food please,” I asked as I fished out some coppers from my bag.“You’re alive?” Juliette asked. “I was almost starting to get worried. Where were you?”“Near the Dunwich site,” I said. A few heads turned my way, some eyeing my strange spear, others my well-worn but clean gear. I wished I could read minds, if only to know what they thought of me, but I dismissed that thought soon enough.Juliette shook her head as she placed a mug of something warm before me. “I’ll get you somezing to eat, you fool girl.”“Hey, I’m not that foolish! I levelled up after all.”“Humph. Zen we’ll get you a meal to celebrate wiz.”I leaned onto the counter, eyes closed as I soaked into the ambiance of the inn and the warmth of the hearth that warmed my back even from across the room. “That would be nice, really nice,” I said.
