Roots - Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten: Flowers

Briar awoke early that crisp morning to find Aldon already poking the fire with a long stick, shivering slightly. The ex-guard leaned his head to the side and yawned.
“Cold? “ He asked Aldon, not really much of a question at all with the answer so apparent. Aldon nodded grimly and rubbed his arms. His clothes were still wet and clung to his skin like a spider web in the rain. He had hardly slept last night as the weather chilled and images of Briar’s story burned into his mind.
Must be very lonely living in the forest all alone, Aldon yearned to hint. But his respect for the venerable man silenced his tongue. Instead he stood and stretched.
“What are your plans for the day?” He asked Briar. The man stood and walk near the fire, sitting beside it with a groan. He was quiet for a moment then clicked his jaw.
“I’ve been keeping tabs on a group of hunters nearby,” He said slowly as if to gauge Aldon’s reaction. “They’re moving east so they might leave as early as tomorrow, but there’s a lot of life that way.”
“Is that the closest exit?”
“No, it’s out the opposite way you came and a few miles further than taking the south route. However, there’s a den of ents that way that wouldn’t appreciate trespassers on their land.”
They fell silent, Aldon’s brain thinking very hard.
“What is an ent?”
Briar took a breath as if to debate how to explain it to the boy.
“Imagine a person, now imagine a tree, and then cross the two.”
Aldon’s mouth dropped. “A tree man?”
“No, never call them that! I should never have explained it that way.” Briar rubbed his temples. “They are neither tree nor man. At least, not anymore. They were the seeds of the trees sent to protect them from man, but were soon taken by thoughts of harvesting nature as their own.”
“What do you mean? They chopped down the trees?”
“No, not yet. Their minds are clouded they are, always thinking about how to gain without having to make. So they use everything around them and mastermind it. You see, they can control nature just as you and I control our arms and legs.
“Very powerful creatures, ents.”
“I see, and you’re worried they’ll kill the hunters?”
“Nonsense, I’m worried the ents will destroy the forest attacking them,” Briar stifled another yawn. “They never pain from their battles, only the trees and vines around them.”
Aldon fell silent once more and tried to imagine what an ent must look like. He pictured great tall men of wood and bark, covered in brush and leaves for clothing and hair, and wielding great clubs.
“Would you like to see them?” Briar asked in what was no doubt his most mischievous tone. His bushy eyebrows pushed up into his forehead above his glinting eyes. “Then follow me.”
They descended into a deep valley of gradually thickening trees and less sunlight. An impenetrable canopy blotted out the sky until the glowing emerald leaves above them were all that remained visible. The lowlight seemed unnatural even in the forest and sent shivers down Aldon’s spine as he walked slowly through it.
Briar however continued undaunted and slowed not in the slightest.
They continued for over an hour in silence before Briar showed any sign of stopping. He stooped against a tree and knelt down slowly, his knees popping. Aldon slumped behind him sweaty and legs aching. There was no trail to follow leaving a slow step-over-duck-step-over-again process and winding paths to avoid the larger patches of thorns and burrs.
“We’re nearly there,” Briar spoke in a hoarse whisper. “I need you to be as silent as you can. Not that it would be hard for you.” He added. Aldon nodded and pulled his hood over his head to avoid his hair getting tangled in the branches. He didn’t want to hinder their progress in any way and made no move he considered unnecessary.
I have to prove to Briar I can do this.
They crept through the wilderness like ghosts, waiting for the right moment to present themselves to the living. Vines hung in sheets from the trees and the foliage made a single combined bush beneath their feet. The tunnel like woods made traveling slow and their breaths labored as if they had run several leagues. Twigs hung from their cloaks and thorns studded their pant legs and sleeves alike. Twice Aldon nearly tripped and had to cling to Briar’s shoulders.
The old man continued briskly and wary for he knew the danger of the forest and dared not fall prey to the home he had protected. He would train this boy and make a fellow guardian out of him. One who could save all those he could not.
Briar raised his hand to halt.
“We’re here. Don’t come out unless I tell you to. Promise me this.”
“Why can’t I—“
“Promise.”
Aldon stared Briar hard in the face and saw the wisdom in his words. His face was calm and his eyes hard as steel.
“I promise.”
And with that Briar stepped out from the cover of the forest and into a large valley Aldon had not noticed was there. It was an immense field, as large as any farm he had seen, and completely surrounded by nigh-impenetrable walls of woods. The grass here was lush and thick like vibrant green carpet and squished beneath Briar’s worn feet. The wind rustled the long stalks with the whisper of oak on its breath.
Briar walked slowly, hands at his sides with palms turned upward, and dropped to his knees before two large trees. His face stared at the mossy floor and his arms were open wide in a curtsy bow.
What is he--?
A deep, timber voice like creaking wood about to snap, barked out from somewhere nearby. Briar stiffened and remained motionless, head tucked to his chest. Aldon’s chest heaved as his breath caught in his lungs and hung there like he were just punched in the diaphragm.
“Ranger, Spirit Blade, and broken mind..”
Broken mind? What is that supposed to mean?
“Fighter, enemy, human, ally..”
How can he be an enemy and an ally?
“One who has lost and gained so much..”
The old man stood, head remaining low.
“Briar.” The deep voice concluded. A note of finality rang in the note and Aldon couldn’t help but applaud the speaker’s storytelling skills. But he nearly screamed when the two trees before Briar raised their branches out in a replica bow and, Aldon could just barely see it like a gnarled bark weathered by countless years of exposure to the elements, smiled their rough faces.
Nothing Aldon had ever imagined could have prepared him for such a sight. Two figures, resembling trees exactly but with limbs proportionate to arms and legs stood before Briar. Their faces were of the grooves in their bark and one had a knothole above its’ right eye. Their body were as a tree with wood, moss, lichen and leaves all over but retained a barren middle and trunk. Their legs appeared as a single trunk until a great split bifurcated it and formed two legs over a dozen feet long. Roots sprawled up them and intertwined like a protective layer, snaking all the way up to the back of their heads.
The one who had spoke first was the larger of the two and towered over the surrounding pines. His gnarled face bore several long scratches Aldon assumed were equal to scars and noticed several branches were snapped near the middle and end.
He must have become leader by physical prowess, Aldon observed. How odd since they don’t fight hand to hand.
The smaller motioned to Briar. “What brings you here, human? Is there a foul wind in our forest?”
Briar looked the ent in its’ shiny black eyes, like beetles glued to its face, and raised his chin as he spoke.
“There are a group of hunters to the west coming this way. I came to warn you ahead of time.”
The larger bowed up suddenly and his face wrinkled in what Aldon could only guess was a scowl.
“Warn us?” He dared, his mouth gritted with his teeth crunching as pebbles beneath ones’ feet do. “Warn us?” He repeated to himself.
“He means, why you intend to warn us. Is there a doubt in your mind we could not defend ourselves?” The smaller piped in.
“Not at all, quite the opposite in fact. I was worried about the state of the trees once you befell them.”
“You see, Hroth? That makes perfect sense.”
Hroth grunted and turned his back in a wide swing on one leg like a door on its hinge and stomped off with rumbling footfalls that shook the ground beneath Aldon’s feet. A long silence passed in which no one moved or looked at one another. Aldon remained hidden and wished he would be allowed to come out soon.
“Forgive him, human. Hroth has just lost his mate not a fortnight ago to the change of season.”
“I understand entirely, loss of a loved one is a difficult thing no matter how strong one may be.”
Another silence ensued, the steady pace of Hroth’s gait now distant. The only sounds were the animals running through the wilderness and the growing breeze. The wind was cool and felt good against Aldon’s skin beneath his cloak. He was tired of crouching in the stuffy shrubs and bushes. He stared down at a small puddle beneath him in the crook of the tree he leaned against.
A light ripple trembled through it.
Suddenly the ground was blue and white with a dreary gray growing on its’ borders, the sky was a mirage of green and brown shapes whirling in an endless pattern of anonymity and gravity seemed to have never existed.
Aldon’s hair whipped about his face and blinded him in a sweaty haze of gold. He thought he saw a brief glimpse of a pale face, maybe Briar’s, and a large chunk of wood held out to him. The wind swirled around him and buffeted his head as his arms and legs gave way beneath him as he crumpled against the side of something hard.
A bright flash of purple swirled before his eyes and swam like bubbling poison before evaporating into white and materialized to copper and red like sand. He realized he was on the ground and tried to push himself to his feet but didn’t know where to find them. He knew someone was yelling but couldn’t understand what they were saying or if they were indeed talking to him. His head or whatever it was he was using to think ached with a stinging sensation that spread across the back of his head and down his neck. His temple itched terribly and burned his scalp.
Slowly the rushing sound in his ears alleviated the pressure on his head and sound suddenly returned with a pop.
“—dare you attack a child without provocation!”
“You gave us no heed as to his being after telling us of hunters nearby! How was I to know?”
“You still had no reason to throw him across the entire valley! If he never wakes I assure you, you will burn.”
A deep, throaty roar shook the tree he realized he had hit and made his head cringe on its own in pain.
“You dare threaten me, the great and powerful Hroth! I will break you and gnash your tiny little bones into dust and pour them on your grave!”
Aldon opened his eyes and stared up at an immense, quaking form that shivered with rage. Hroth’s roots took ground inches from Aldon’s face and slithered beneath him like a snake under his shirt.
Aldon crawled away slowly, not that he could move any other speed, and made for the tree line.
“Oh no you don’t!” Hroth roared from behind and reached for him again.
A bowstring twanged and a cry of anguish ripped from behind Hroth’s clenched teeth. Aldon pulled himself to a sitting position against the tree and stared up at Hroth as he grasped at his face, a small arrow Aldon had mistaken for a twig protruded from his beady eye. Aldon turned incredulously from the raging ent dozens of feet tall to the frail old man just a few yards away.
“Stay away from him, Hroth, or you’ll end up fertilizer.” Briar spoke in an open threat. His voice was hard as iron and his eyes set on their target. His jaw was firm and his hands held back an arrow with ease that betrayed his appearance.
The sound of a boulder rolling down a hill began to rise and fall as Hroth laughed deep in his trunk. Tremors grew through his branches until leaves were shook loose.
“You command me, Hroth, the core of the Elderbranch Ents? Scorn on you, Briar who has lost all, scorn on you.” And with that he raised his arms in two large fists and from behind them erupted vines from the ground, strapping onto Briar’s arms and legs until he was tethered to the ground. Briar’s arrow whistled through the air and landed with a thunk in Hroth’s other eye just before he fell.
Hroth roared with pain and struck out blindly at all around him. The smaller ent up until now had remained motionless, watching things from a neutral perspective. Now he charged forward to stop Hroth’s rampage, arms out to calm him. A thick branch upon the underside of Hroth’s wrist slammed into his throat with the sound of a felled tree.
His face froze as Hroth pulled away horror struck and stumbled a few yards with each step. The ent stood clutching at his shattered throat, fumbling with it as his head lolled back and broke away from his neck. It landed with a thump beside Aldon, appearing to be nothing more than a tree trunk with strange markings, followed by a whirlwind as its body slammed into the earth with an explosion of dirt and grass.
Aldon was recovered by now and pumping with adrenaline, he jumped to his feet and ducking a wide swing of Hroth’s fist, sprinted to Briar. He hacked at the vines, careful not to hit Briar until he was free. They stood and backed away from the blind titan as the forest stormed around them.
The trees shook and swayed as Hroth swung to and fro with vicious swipes at the air. The gray borders on the sky were full now and made it one long palette of a two dimensional plane. The sky seemed to ready to fall at any moment and made Aldon all the more uneasy as they fled from Hroth’s wake. The roiling wind was cold and carried a winter chill of the fast approaching autumn.
Briar beckoned Aldon back into the forest, a grim look on his face like he had just witnessed the death of a close friend. His graying hair rustled in the growing wind, his eyes heavy and drooped. His clothes were stained green with small spots of blood here and there. The dark sky about him closed in until all was dark as night.
Aldon followed after him into the shelter of the woods as the hurricane winds tore loose everything in their grasp. Small buds blossomed on the fallen ent’s body, tiny and plump. Small purple and white flowers with ivory veins blew in the small swirls and eddies of the wind, blown out of existence and into the pale horizon.