Jack looked at Arad, "What makes it so scary?"
Arad lifted his head, "What do hearts do?"
"Make blood move? Keep people alive?" Jack replied.
"Then what is a heart doing deep underground? Why is it linked to the trees?" Arad glared at Jack.
"Wait!" Jack gasped, "You don't mean this whole forest is one massive creature."
"All those trees link to one heart so they are one creature." Arad looked at the flames. ^Is she the one I've been seeing?^
[Are you saying she got over me and is talking to you? We're one being, I would hear and see anyone talking to your mind.]
^Mom, but what about what Jack said? Only children could talk with those beings. I'm still a few weeks old, while you're a fragment of my mother's consciousness. How old are you?^
[I can't tell exactly as that information wasn't left with me, but I'm, well over four thousand years old.]
Arad stood, "I will go sleep," He stretched his arms.
"Won't it be better if you went exploring at night?" Jack suggested with a smile.
"No. I need to remain close in case anything happens." Arad walked toward his tent where he lay.
At midnight, he woke to the fairy standing on his chest Again. ~You sleep a lot on your back, that isn't healthy~
^I thought you would ask me to play.^ Arad sighed, opening his eyes.
~You can't play as much if you don't sleep well.~ the fairy stared at Arad's face, smiling.
Arad sat up, letting the fairy stand on his thigh. ^I pulled the trees out, do you care to tell me what is going on?^
~The fairy looked away. That thing, it's spreading and I can't stop it. It's causing me to fall asleep. I want you to pull it out.~ The fairy looked down, her smile disappearing, ~The children I used to play with have all gone,~
^There were other children here?^
The fairy opened her arms, ~This is one of their kin. I had to borrow her help, even though she was asleep~
Arad could understand. The fairies she is taking their form are already dead.
^Are we close? If the elder tree has grown already, I will pull it out.^
~You are close but don't leave your friends. It's getting dangerous from now on.~
The fairy disappeared and Arad went to sleep.
Arad woke up early at dawn, hearing cracking akin to wood breaking in the distance. He rushed out of his ten, the trees were shaking in the distance.
"Wake up! Something big is coming." Arad shouted and everyone sprung up. "What? I set traps!" Jack rushed from his tent and growled, "No, it crushed them before they could activate."
"Arad! The monster is heavy and large. Be careful!"
Mira hid in the back with Jack guarding her as Aella pulled her bow. Lydia stood beside Arad, "Don't use fire too much. We can't stop a wildfire."
"I know," Arad smiled, clenching his fist.
CRACK! From between the trees, a large tree emerged. "It has a face?" Arad gasped.
"A treant!" Lydia took a stance. "This is bad, it's bigger than normal."
Arad's eyes darted across the treant's body, "Elder wood! It's infected!"
"An elder wood treant?" Mira gasped, "I can see it as well!"
"Aella!" Lydia glared back, "Get up on any tree and see if you can find an open spot in the forest. A place where we can burn this thing."
"I'm working on it!" Aella rushed to climb a tree.
"Swords aren't meant to chop wood. Our attack would fail without flames. And that is dangerous here in the forest." Lydia stared at Arad. "We need to stall it until Aella finds a place to burn it."
CRACK! A second elder wood treant appeared behind them. It had come to life from a tree that slept in the back.
[Arad! Treants move at Day and sleep at night. They need sunlight to function.]
^Can you tell me how to beat them? I can do it in my dragon form, but it's tricky ^
[Cut the branches. You must leave it without a leaf. It will die like that.]
Arad smiled, "Lydia, we cut all the branches. Without them, it can't get energy from the sun to live."
Treants are more active than other trees because they move. A tree could survive for a while without leaves. But a high energy demanding treant would die immediately.
"They are high! How could we reach them?" Lydia gasped.
"You take this one! I will kill the one in the back." Arad turned around. the muscles on his thighs bulged. CRACK! The ground shattered beneath his feet as he pressed down. BAM! The full power of a dragon focused on launching a single humanoid body.
Mira ran away from the treant. "Trees don't eat people! Do they?" she cried.
CRACK! Arad's body flew in with a flying kick, hitting the treant right in the trunk. Mira could hear wood cracking as she saw Arad's footprint on the treant.
^I can't use fire, I can't use any other element. I can't use blood magic, and my wyrmwolf skills aren't made to fight trees. My only solution is gravity magic^ CLAP! Arad clapped his hands. "Let's try this!"
Mira could see the veins bulging from beneath his clothes as his muscles tensed. [Gravity Magic]
Gravity around the treant increased causing it to stop moving. "Your trunk might resist gravity, but can your branches handle their new weight?"
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! The branches on the treant started bending and cracking. They became too heavy to remain attached.
Arad smiled, squatting down in front of Mira. She backed away, seeing every single muscle in his body bulge from the tension.
BAM! CRACK! Arad lunged at the treant, shattering the ground beneath his feet. He kicked the treant again in the upper trunk, shaking the branches off.
"I'm not done yet!" With a swift move. He grabbed onto the treant and started pulling the remaining branches off with his hands.
The treant fell to the ground as Arad ripped all the branches. "Dead, Lydia, did you finish as well?" Arad looked at her.
Lydia was still dodging the treant's attacks, trying to find a way to cut the branches.
[I thought she would at least deal some damage.]
^No, she has done enough. Without her, that treant would have trampled the camp and hurt the others.^ Arad smiled.