And I landed inside of a tree. Cool.
My right foot, if you could call it that seems to have gotten stuck in the tree who's shadow I just passed out of. I tug hard, nothing. Maybe I can become one with the tree and just live here.
No eyes on the goal here, we're going to that city, what was it called? Oh whatever. I tug again, nothing. At least I don't seem to be experiencing any pain from this. Maybe I don't have the nerve receptors for it? I am a tree-thing after all.
I tug hard again, and this time I hear a crack. Uh oh. Remnants of my foot are still stuck in the tree, and I can't exactly stand on it, but once again I'm thankful I don't seem to feel the pain. Maybe a wood body isn't so bad after all.
And suddenly, the lower portion of my leg-like limb flows green and I sprout another foot like lump of food. This must be auto regeneration at work. Checking my Stat Screen it shows my magic powe gauge had been slightly even away at, and was slowly recovering. Ah, so that was the exchange, so as long as I had MP I was safe. That was very good to know.
I continue along the path for a few days before I finally encounter any other sentient beings outside the usual animal. One thing I've noticed is I don't get hungry in this body but every so often I have to lay down roots to sate... something, not sure. It doesn't take long, though, only about a few minutes.
However while I'm doing my best to imagine enjoying i'm doing my best to imagine i'm enjoying something scrumptious as I bask in the slightly warm wind, I hear voices.
"...ful.... orcs.... around.... all... flowers..." A commanding voice cuts through the soft throes of wind. I can't see them, but I can hear them. Maybe my sense of hearing was really good for a tree? Not sure how that worked without ears...
Forgetting that, I scurry into the darkness of a tall tree to hide from whoever it is down the road. After the minutes tick by I can see someone coming down the large path. They look about as anxious as I feel, probably a scout. Must be a spring chicken.
".... clear..." The scout calls back to his troop further down the path.
"Sneak Skill Lvl. 1 has been acquired! Title Wimp has been acquired!"
Hey! I'm not scared... well I'm kinda scared. After all they might head this way. I could always Shadow Step out but it does take magic power and I haven't exactly had plenty of time to practice with it yet. Fuck why did I impulsively leave the village so fast! I should have stuck around and trained a bit, before setting off on my vengeance quest.
I do my best to silently climb the tree that's been sheltering me so I can get a better look. Once I get up to the top I peer out from between the foliage.
There seems to only be four. The commander, two knights, and the scout who also has a staff. A magic user maybe? Getting to learn more magic would probably be pretty cool. Maybe they want a neat wooden familiar...? Probably not. I'm sorta cute, but definitely not enough to warrant a normal person keeping around.
Either way they don't appear to be approaching. Their aim seems to be collecting flowers. Maybe they had some magical or medicinal property? Either way the patch of flowers was far from my tree, so it appeared I was safe in the meantime.
"Nature Skill Lvl. 1 acquired!" Nature skill...? I thought I would have gotten that by now, being a plant and all. But I guess it has more to do with knowledge than actual nature itself.
"Those are Dappled Dani flowers. A red flower, dappled with white, possessing many petals and anda crown of leaves." A picture of them appears in my minds eye, similar to Stat Check. Huh, it seemed I had some sort of encyclopedia I could catalog. Next to the Dani flower were empty spaces. It's probably like there for everything else too. Gotta collect 'em all I guess.
I watch the warriors work, gathering the white and red flowers. They looked sort of like roses but with much gaudier leaves that arranged themselves underneath the main petals, at least according to the picture in my mind's eye.
Warriors picking flowers huh, wonder what that could be for. Maybe a noble needed them for something, yeah that's probably it. Some kind who's having a party needs some pretty flowers. While some of us out here are trying to not BE flowers! The world is so unfair. I hold my little tree head in my little tree hands.
After a while the knights seem to get what they come for. They're on foot, some sort of city or town must be nearby. I decide to follow them. With Sneak only at level 1 I'm a little bit nervous, but I'm small and if I stay far enough back I shouldn't warrant an attack even if they see me. Tree spirits can't be hated right? Right?
I follow them despite my misgivings. There's not a whole lot I can do otherwise. I have no map, no idea where I am, no hands- you get the idea.
Sticking to the shadows for the entire time I manage to go unseen, and I can see smoke and lights in the distance. This must be a town! If I can eavesdrop enough I might get more direction! I climb the nearby tree, bursting with excitement and eager to get a good look. As I crest the top of the tree my heart breaks for the second time today.
The village is what's smoking. Bodies of orcs are laying around in heaps, just like before.
I'm filled with rage. My hollow sockets fall on the warriors. If I had saliva, I'm pretty sure i'd be foaming at the mouth right now. I Shadow Step from tree to tree without a second thought. It feels easy too, maybe because it's a Species Skill I can handle it with more ease.
I'm in the tree directly above the warriors now, as I begin to think of what I want to do my roots curve down the tree in a serpentine manner as if reading what I want. The roots grow closer, I see now that the warriors all appear to be rather young, but I don't care. Genocide is genocide. My silent roots curl around the ankle of the scout with the staff and I prepare to unleash Total Drain on what is probably their healer.
But I hear something that stops me.
".... shame.... slavers.... the worst..." The commander says. She's a young woman, with reddish brown hair and cold blue eyes. She grimaces as she looks at the carnage around her. And then puts a flower atop the body of one of the fallen. She gives a cold look to the rest of her troop and they begin doing the same.
I-I can't believe it. I'm so touched by this display of kindness, my roots instinctively retract from the scout as they notice my apprehension.
The rest of the troop follows suit, one of the two knights, a big burly woman with big eyes, blonde hair and a button nose is crying freely.
".... softie..." I make out the smaller knight of the two say with a scoff and poke the larger one. She looks like a carbon copy just smaller, sort of a thing one and thing two situation, probably sisters.
"... m-meanie..." Says the larger knight, along with what are surely some choice insults that I don't yet know or understand.
They didn't do this clearly, I can tell that much. I suppose I was like them in a way. I didn't know the people who lived here but I could tell an atrocity when I saw one. I wanted to do something, too, but what?
I think really hard, imagining flowers and blowing breezes and grass.
"Minor Bloom Lvl. 1 Acquired!" Minor Bloom huh..?
"Hey iAlice what does Minor Bloom do?"
"In a small radius, Minor Bloom allows you to create a field of tall grass and flowers."
I hold out my hand, and envision the battlefield of the destroyed village turning into a swath of greenery Minor Bloom!
A green light emanates out from my hand and grows in size. The warriors turn towards me, illuminated by the light of Minor Bloom. Shit.
"...weapons!..." I picked that up, of course. The warriors all grab their weapons, but the young caster outstretches their arms and holds them back.
They point into the sky and say some words I don't understand as Minor Bloom rises into the sky and then explodes into a bunch of small green seeds of light that sink to the ground.
As the seeds hit the ground the flowers that the warriors collected take root and multiply. Lush grams comes and cover the bodies of the fallen along with the flowers. Once the ruins of a village that was turned into a battle field, now appears to be luscious fields of grass and flowers.
I look down at the warriors from atop my perch in the tree as they lower their weapons. The caster waves at me like I'm some sort of celebrity. Phew, really glad I didn't lose my cool and try to kill them earlier, cause I got pretty close.
But that Minor Bloom seems to have taken a lot out of me, I did turn an entire village into a National Geographic landscape of course. Before the warriors have time to change their mind about my benevolence, I Shadow Step to the other side of the clearing.
Phew that should be far enough-
And then I collapse into the crook of the tree. Uh oh, how much magic did I use? I pop open Stat Screen and see my entire bar is depleted.
Oh shit.
And then everything fades to black.