chapter 5 of lone wolf

Chapter 5

Green magic

The ents were uncharacteristically kind, he noted as he ate and maintained his meditation.

They'd brought him to a secluded grove deep inside the forest, here only a single beam of light emerged through the canopy, spilling over a small shrine that looked as though it could have been a shinto shrine, now a moss coated relic in disrepair, the shimenawa over the front barely holding.

How curious that a relic from a culture in my world should be here! Garland had thought as he observed it, for the design was unmistakably of the shinto faith.

Upon seeing this, he had immediately assumed that perhaps this was a dream after all! But quickly dismissed the notion, dreams weren't this convincing and didn't feel quite so real.

No, if this was a dream, it was surely a dream of the afterlife.

The ents claimed that humans had settled in this forest hundreds of years ago, castoffs from a different dimension, and that this shrine had been at the heart of a small village, one mateus had personally cleansed when he had seen them living here.

Something about the humans had offended the god, that much was certain.

Here, the ents brought him baskets of fruit, he ate sparingly, taking great pains to bury the seeds when he was done.

The shrine was on an island at the heart of a small pond, its surface thick with green aquatic mold. Bugs, chiefly dragonflies, flew all around, and the thin beams of sunlight that somehow squeezed their way into the canopies barely offered any measure of light here.

Ten winters was the agreement, a full ten years of life in this strange world, and so sitting at the shinto shrine's entrance, garland meditated for the first half of the day as bade, par instructed him to send his thoughts into the ground, look for a light, but garland struggled with understanding the basic concept.

He came from a world where magic didn't exist, where men who were of faith were openly ridiculed, a man who was religious minded ran the risk of being disowned by society entirely.

So to garland, the idea was hard to reconcile with what he knew of superstitions and faith, but then again, he was summoned by an elven religious order as a sacrifice, so perhaps this train of thought wasn't the most convenient to hold at this time.

Leaves fell on the lake, only to be assaulted by the fish that swam in the pond, the ents would come by on stepping stones, their feet barely rustling the leaves or making a sound as he settled there in meditation, reaching into the ground with his thoughts, probing.

He thought of his father then

“Look at them son, worthless animals, the lot of them!! they live as squalid fiends, barely comprehending anything of importance or value!” the tall shadowy figure said, motioning to the people passing by on the streets, talking on cellphones or driving to work. The tall skyscrapers of new york loomed overhead, like mighty tombstones to some obscene deity that he couldn't fathom.

“they disappoint me son. As well they should disappoint you!”

“why should I care?” lurion asked angrily. “they're not our problem!”
“that...is where you are wrong my son.” the shadow said, kneeling down to stare him in the eyes. “they, in their arrogance, would prey upon one another like cannibals, and they prey upon us as well!! never forget son, they are monsters to us!”

“it's not my place to look down on them, why is it yours?!” lurion cried, receiving a backhand from the shadow.

“because if I do not judge them...who then will? Who else has the courage to see the madness and put a stop to it?!”

“and who puts a stop to you father?!” he cried out angrily.

“if you knew what you were saying...”

“Garland, wake up!” Par said, kneeling on his haunches to stare at him.

Blinking, garland glanced about. “My apologies, I seemed to have dozed off.”
“it's part of the process. Many saplings enter dormant states during their sessions. It's perfectly fine..here-” he handed garland a bottle of crafted glass filled with water. “the lady of the heart of the forest wishes you to have it. It refills with an endless supply of water. If will prove useful to you, as the pond here-” he gestured to the pool surrounding the shrine- “Is unfit for drinking...the algae is breeding at this time, swallowing it is ill-advised.” standing he glanced around. “seems you eat slowly, strange, I was certain humans were far more ravenous than this.”

“ever since I came to this world, my appetite has dwindled and my strength increased dramatically, my senses have improved as well. Perhaps I am ill?”

“Illness seldom gives strength. No, I wonder if perhaps the hydalians were right to name you devil. Yet you insist you are human?”

“In my world, I was never this strong, I was comparable to humans. You say you met my kind?”

“Yes, they used to be a primary force on this world, numbering in the billions. But years upon years of garnering displeasure from the god of light ended miserably for them when he lost his patience and struck them all down. Years later a castoff group came to this very forest where they lived for some time. The hydalians caught wind of them and...”
he trailed off, and garland didn't need further explanation.

“for now I need you to help with something. The second half of the service we require of you and payment for your lessons, you are to help the grove out in small ways. Here-” he handed garland a sack, glancing into it, he saw it was filled with glowing gems.

“those are life-stones, spread them at the roots of every tree, two per tree, continue this until nightfall.”
with that he left, and garland shrugged and set about to work, taking care to not overlook even the smallest of saplings.

He traveled along the paths, dropping two gems down whenever he came across a tree, which was every step he took. The sack refilled continually, and to his credit, he maintained the pace, easily setting gems around six hundred trees before the day was finished.

Once the sun set, par returned and took the sack. “you may return to your shrine now, get some rest and begin the day with meditation as we've discussed.

The next day was much the same, he awoke, and normally he expected that he would immediately need to use the restroom.

To his surprise, the urge was nonexistent.

“I am becoming like these trees.” he lamented. “as still as stone, yet alive and barely able to do anything save grow and shed my leaves!” a panic fell over him, his needs were diminishing with the passing of every day, but without need...what urgency to life would there be? To his thinking, needs were a way to establish purpose, without need there was no do, without doing there was no animation, no point really. One could literally sit in one place for all eternity and not budge and it would be the same.

No, he reasoned, the trees live, and if their sentience as ents is any indication, they seem perfectly at peace with their immobility.

He began his meditation with the usual haze of worries and fears swimming across his thoughts like angry koi fish, or perhaps a swarm of buzzing gnats flying about in stinging, annoying clouds in the summer heat.

In his unsettled condition, he reflected on another parental figure…

she stood there, arms crossed as she stared down at him, her eyes glowed too, but these glowed a soft gold, as opposed to HIS crimson.'

“tell me what happened.” she bade.'

“He….he wants to kill them all.” lurion replied.

“he wants to kill them all because he has the wits of a utilitarian and none of the creativity needed. He is right to despise them of course, humans are monstrous..but then..so is every beast. If we are to judge them, where do we then stand?” she shrugged. “quit thinking about it the way he does. Quit thinking about such small, trivial matters, let your father simmer and fume, it is his choice and we've no right to change his mind on the matter.”
“what if I want to stop him!?” lurion cried.

“oh then by all means try! But enough of this.” she picked him up and carried him to her bed.

“I'm not tired.” he grumbled.

“no, of course not. But you need to rest all the same. All humans do.”
“am I human?” he asked.

She frowned at that, “Perhaps you are. What then? Will you fight in humanity's defense? Will you battle for the beasts that dared to upset your father so?”
“Maybe I will! He doesn't deserve to be around them if he's so cruel!”

“Ah, you must really hate him! But do not be sad, my son...someday...someday you will miss your father dearly when he's gone!”
“No! I don't need a father, or a mother! I don't need mankind or anyone!! if people like him get to judge anyone at the drop of a hat, if he can force his expectations on people like that, then i'd rather stand alone...forever!!”

“forever….” she whispered, stroking his hair as she looked deep into his eyes “is a frightfully long time, my son.”
“I'll stand alone forever!” lurion shouted. “I don't need anyone!! I don't need anything!! I'll fight the world!! better to be the world's enemy than to be looked down on by all the people in it!! I refuse to carry the weight of the world like those humans and my father seem intent on doing, I won't share that burden!! I won't!!”

she nodded. “I suppose you've every right to reject your fate...but perhaps you will change your tune when faced with the reality?”

Garland opened his eyes.

“Forever….is a frightfully long time..hm?”

He hardly remembered anything about his mother and father, let alone what they looked like. Reflecting on them revealed precious little about what they were, why they had a decidedly anti-human view, or why it was he had considered them human at all.

Was he human? All evidence before his arrival on this world seemed to indicate that he was quite human, but his newfound strength, stamina, and the steady decline of his needs had begun to convince him that he wasn't human at all.

Perhaps he was a demon after all?

Garland mulled that over then faced himself with another, more daunting question.

Why was he subjecting himself to this?

He then settled on an answer, his conscience wouldn't let him avoid it. He'd wronged someone, and while he was fiercely independent and loathe to be bound to anything, debts included, garland didn't like hurting others, especially if the wounding was unintentional.

When par returned with the sack of gems, garland's first stop was to syena's tree.

Ten years was not so long to repay a debt owed to a victim of his own foolishness, he decided as he gingerly placed two gems at her roots.

Syena then appeared, arms crossed as she glared at him, with a humble bow he turned away, stalking through the forest and continuing his duty to the grove without complaint.

The next four weeks weren't especially fruitful, his meditation often led to sleep, or worse, nightmares, but finally, one morning, he managed to catch something.

It was tangible, as though there was a green river of light below him and some invisible part of him was touching it.

He felt it pulse, flow and writhe beneath that invisible hand he extended into the ground, and without thinking, he lifted it up to inspect it.

Hearing the ground explode all around him, his eyes snapped open in alarm, and he found himself surrounded by newborn trees and vines, one had actually pierced the roof of the shinto shrine behind him as it rose from the ground, and to his delight, he realized he'd summoned green magic for the first time in his life.

Par came to the shrine to find garland inspecting the trees he'd summoned, and with a smile he set down the basket of fruit.

“empty shells.” he explained. “More like spears or weapons to our kind, we cannot inhabit them, as they did not begin as seeds. They are trees without us ents in them.”

he stroked his green beard as he looked over the saplings and trees. “a good first attempt, these will last several decades before they deteriorate. Tomorrow you will begin the next phase of your training, learning how to shape wood. With that knowledge you will finish repairing my daughter, agreed?”

“of course.” garland said with a bow, and par left him the sack of gems and the unspoken command.

Garland would continue the day spreading the life gems all around the forest, two per tree, until evening.

This time he'd spread them to well over a thousand before the day had ended.