Trees Hurt

Antlia hadn’t realized until it was too late that the runner and Noka had been separated. It was too late to turn back as she and the group of Haedians with her had been making their way further into the forest that surrounded the clan’s territory, and there was no way she could convince them otherwise. She just hoped that they’d meet each other again in the next clan and could bring their findings together once more.

Thoughts suddenly vanished though as the group approached a giant tree, so this was the Oracle. The tree seemed to breathe almost as faint glowing blue ran through the cracks in the bark. A paw reached out subconsciously, landing on a part of the root that was closest to them. The wonders of this place kept her frozen to the spot, she couldn’t believe things like this existed below Vitalus. It shouldn’t shock her as much as it did, the things growing in Vitalus were fairly unbelievable as well.

One of the Haedians beside her, Abraxas, reached out to put a hand on her shoulder. She jumped at the touch and then gave a sheepish smile at him. “Sorry, I usually don’t startle that easily. Almost forgot you guys brought me here.” He gave her a comforting smile, and nodded to her.

“The tree has been here longer than any of us I think, it’s old. We don’t even know what any of the writings on it mean, just that they mean something. For a tree, it knows its stuff.” Antlia cocked an eyebrow at him, confused on what he meant. He grabbed her paw, inviting her to walk with him.

She did so, but looked back to see that the others had taken to doing certain jobs while they were there. Two of them were pulling the weeds that had started to grow, while the other had decided to tend to the soil that was around the roots. It seemed she was checking to make sure no creature had decided to burrow there, and she seemed satisfied after the first initial check.

Abraxas and Antlia had made it to the spot the Haedian had been talking about earlier, and she stared in amazement at the giant glowing runes that ran down the back of the tree. It looked like a giant had carved these and she pushed herself onto her back legs to reach the last rune. She wasn’t great at reading them, but she could understand some words here and there. 

These seemed different though, like they had been written in an old language. “Do you know what language this is by chance? Is it anything that you guys have studied or known about down here? They don’t look familiar to me.” Lowering herself down from the tree, she grabbed a piece of parchment out of her sack and started to write down each rune. 

Abraxas watched as she did so, then looked back up at the tree. “We never could figure out what language they were, or where they even came from. Some days it seems like they change every so often, but that could just be that we aren’t here enough and forget what they look like. Usually it’s Auris that comes here, but he was busy today and we volunteered to take you.” 

That information made her even more curious, the runes changing? There was no way that the tree was trying to communicate with them, especially with words so meaningless to someone who didn’t know the language. She was sure the Oracle could just reach out to them telepathically if it really wanted them to know what it was saying. Laying a paw on the bark once more, she reached out her thoughts as far as she could. A faint tickle in the back of her mind, then a roar like a lion. 

She couldn’t hold the connection for long and fell to the ground as a headache made itself known right away. Ah, so that’s why, or maybe the tree just didn’t like outsiders. Abraxas reached out to help her out and she shooed his hand away. “Leave me here for a moment, I need to let the pain subside.” Antlia looked at him through squinted eyes. “Does that normally happen? Or does your tree just not like me.” 

He shuffled awkwardly, averting her gaze. “No one has ever really tried, they didn’t want to upset it. We just come here and tend to it, and it makes sure that nothing happens while we’re here. I’m sorry that it hurt you, I didn’t think it was going to react like that. The runner noticed though that the runes were shining brighter and she hoped that maybe someone else would understand what these runes meant. Maybe, just maybe.