ALL NOVEL Chapter Twenty Seven
While I was busy getting angry about the awful unfairness I’d been given, the treant was busy digging his roots into the ground. As he dug down, his arms closed in on themselves and his head lowered, and soon he looked just like any other tree around here. But once I noticed what he was doing and looked down, it was already too late. He used a move that I pulled all the time, one that was apparently innate to our species I guess; He tried to find me using his roots.
Luckily I knew what he was doing, so I did what I knew was the best countermeasure, and made sure to stay very very still. If I want to, I can expertly pretend that I’m just a very floral part of this tree that I’m perched on. Maybe my seed had screwed me over in life, but I still had the ability to pretend to be an ordinary plant, just like I’d started out with. It was something that I don’t think I would ever forget how to do, no matter how conspicuous my body turns out.
But even more importantly than that, if he’s got the same range as me, then he won’t be able to spot me way up here.
Don’t get me wrong, with whatever we have as sight, he should have been able to 'see' me just fine, especially since I could see him, but the range of our vibration detection with our roots can only reach so far. He’d have to consciously look up here to see me from this distance. It’s funny, our sight works all around us, but it’s not 100% clear everywhere unless we make it be, especially at such an extreme range like this.
…So here’s the question: Should I really be hiding right now? I mean, I finally found another of my kind, and I think it would be a good idea if we could share experiences with each other. Idunno, maybe I could finally make my first friend here! As much as I’ve been having fun roaming around, it’s starting to get kinda lonely sometimes... I don’t think plants are meant to be solitary like this; Doesn’t the forest grow together, after all?
Yeah, that settles it, I should go down there and say hi! Who knows, maybe since his saplings could scream, then there’s a chance that he can talk as well, or at least make some kind of sound. And if he doesn’t know how to talk yet, then maybe I could teach him! Or, it could be that our kind has some other way we communicate with each other, like how animals do! Yeah let’s go down there, and-
Huh.
Hrmm…
…Is it bad that I kinda don’t like it?
I want to make friends since this is the first of my kind that I’ve found, and I’m trying to be optimistic about it, but like… Something inside of me really doesn’t like this guy. I don’t know, it’s kind of like a sickening feeling, like I saw something super gross. Or maybe it’s similar to how I felt when I saw that orc attack my capybaras? Truth be told, I’ve felt like this since I first laid eyes on him, but I’ve been trying to hold it back through sheer curiosity…
Why do I feel like this out of nowhere?
Man... This is really awful timing.
Ah, while I was busy trying to rationalize that odd feeling, the treant finally located me! Guess he must have given up on his roots and decided to just look for me instead. When I saw his body eerily turn towards me, I panicked and decided to try talking, thinking that it looked bad to be found like this.
=Ah, hello! I’m-=
Nope, from the way the tree I was perched on suddenly started to tremble, I was fairly certain that my fellow plant also disliked me. I guess he decided to attack. I moved just in time, avoiding the sudden branch that had shot out to impale me. Seems he could suddenly grow things too, just like I could, although he was able to do it on top of other things. …Maybe I should try that sometime. I mean, I guess it makes sense that he could do it in the first place, considering he grew those saplings on the corpses. Really, I probably shouldn't have been too surprised about it.
I’ll have to analyze this later though!
First I have to get away so he doesn’t kill me!
I launched myself from the tree, trying to keep myself high and quick. If I stopped in one place for too long, the treant’s branches were sure to impale me. At least I had speed on my side, even if the terrain wasn’t really! Which means, if I want everything on my side, I just need to bring the guy to a better spot, right? Right!
Thank goodness I’m such a smart plant!
The frequency of branches jutting out to try and impale me was starting to become a bit too much for me to be alright with; Maybe I should get on the ground. This treant-looking guy seems to just be attacking me with branches right now, which is very on brand I gotta say, and I’m betting he doesn’t have too good of attack options other than tree-based ones. My tentacles are strong and swift enough that I can still make good time even without having to fling myself through the trees, so maybe it's time I changed tactics a bit!
I got down on the ground and started scurrying, using my tentacles as springboards to repeatedly sail me forward. Sometimes branches would still poke out from any tree that I got near enough to, and would even occasionally pop up from the ground, but they were so few and far between that I wasn’t really all that concerned. I couldn’t see the treant anymore, probably because he was actually not very fast and I had gone a decent distance away. And yet... Tell me why he was still able to send all these tree attacks after me? I saw him, he was still walking around trying to come after me even while all these branches were suddenly being created, so I was sure he wasn’t using his roots to do it.
…Was it like before, with the saplings?
Had he somehow put something on the trees to control them remotely like this?
Or maybe he had just figured out a way to grow things even without his roots, although it was weird to me that he could do it when I was so far from his sight. Nah, I definitely believe that it’s something like his saplings. Maybe if I wasn’t frantically running away then I could have taken a better look at them, but oh well. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to check it out later.
~~~
So, our game of cat and mouse ended quite abruptly, actually. See, I wasn’t really running in a straight line so much as maybe a zigzag type of deal, because I didn’t want to get too close to areas that were overly full of trees for obvious reasons. And I guess this treant I was facing was smarter than he looked, or maybe he was just really used to this kind of situation, because it seems that he’d been slowly maneuvering the trees around all this time, like I’d seen him do when he first showed up.
His area of influence was really, truly big.
I really had to respect that, as a fellow whatever we are.
Hopefully one day I too can carve out an inescapable domain like this!
But yeah, he totally encircled me. Sucks, because I was just about to reach a really nice lake, and I’m pretty sure I’m better at moving in water than he or his trees could ever be! And what’s more, on top of being surrounded, the ring of trees was slowly getting smaller. If I let them advance too far, then I would really and truly be screwed, so I had to think quick about what to do here. What I wanted to do was to escape, obviously, but the only way out really seemed to be up and over the wall, and with how tall the trees were… If I tried to climb over any of them, I’m sure I’d end up as a decorative plant ornament impaled on one of these trees before you had the time to say ‘what an idiot’.
The ring wasn’t very small yet relatively, maybe only the size of a football field from what I could see. But with the rate that the trees were advancing, I’m sure I didn’t have very long left before it would be way too close for comfort. And wayyy at the other end of this football field, I could see the treant, running slowly in my direction, with the tree wall at his back.
Ahhh, this is truly a scary situation!
And it’s all the more scary because I really only have one choice to make, even if it feels like the wrong one!
…Hah, this would all be so much better if I wasn’t running low on nutrients right now...
I put some distance between me and the wall, and planted my roots. A bit of preparation was definitely going to be needed, even if it was only in this short time that I had. I focused on what I needed to do, all while keeping a watchful eye on the approaching treant, and when he finally came into range, I sprung into action!
A thicket of thorny vines burst up from the ground, encircling him and winding around his body, trying their best to trap him in place. They couldn’t really hook their barbs into him as well as they would have with something meaty, but the vines still did an adequate job of snaring him in place while they tangled themselves around him, snaking around his outer shell of thick bark that covered his arms and legs, and even making their way into the crevices leading to his tree-root covered body. He was doing his best to get free though, for sure, and with how big he was, he was also understandably strong. The vine setup that I did would have worked wonders on your average bear or big-ass cat, but apparently my fellow plant had even more strength going for him, and was actively starting to pull my vines out of the ground, or simply snapping some of them, despite how thick they were.
I have to say, I’m really impressed.
Can I be that strong one day too?
I’d really like it if I could, although I worry that my smooth vine-like arms couldn’t do what his tree arms could.
…This is all so unfair.
Why don’t I get to be a big strong tree-type, too?!
But I guess I do look prettier like this… What a dilemma...
Ah wait, I have to focus!
The timing is very important!
He was thick, I was sure, but I was hoping that maybe his main body made of tree roots wouldn’t be as hard to pierce as I bet the rest of him was. I watched closely as he struggled and tore at my assaulting vines, waiting for the perfect moment when he moved juuuust right. And when I finally saw him move the way that I liked, I sent the command to the waiting coiled vine, unleashing it to spear up towards the treant, aiming to pierce his seed!
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AN: If it's not clear enough, words surrounded by '=' are our favorite little plant talking in her silly little voice