My New Life in TBATE

Mother of Treelings

I stirred from my unconsciousness and felt something soft yet firm beneath head. Regaining my thoughts of what happened before I passed out makes me even more confused about what I'm laying on. There were only trees and the soft lush soil of the jungle floor, that I couldn't place what this feeling was from.

Opening my eyes I come face to... face? With a feminine looking figure, she has long yellow hair marked with red streaks as well as equally yellow pupils surrounded by bright blue irises. Her skin is of a light brown with hints of green in the undertones, with lines going up and down her body seeming to mark where the tree branches of the Yellow Elder twined together.

Her face was soft and curious, boring into my eyes as if trying to figure out what I was. She seemed to be about the age of 20, but it was hard to tell, not to mention the fact she was part tree. Movement around me caught my attention and what I saw surprised me again. Smaller, more tree like, creatures moved around but kept their distance from us as they stared in wonder.

I look back up at the girl and finally raise my head to find she had been allowing me to rest my head upon her lap.

"What are you?" I questioned her as I spun to face her, her head tilted in slight confusion but didn't respond. Rather she didn't respond physically but I could feel or see her response in my head. She was that Yellow Elder tree, and this was her transformation after I had passed out. She showed me her memories, albeit brief, of her becoming sentient and catching me before I fell.

She conveyed to me the feeling she had gotten from me and that it compelled her to create what she called Treelings. They were adolescent in size compared to her and resembled trees more than her almost human appearance. They reminded me of treants or ents from Lord of the Rings.

"So you're the Mother of the Treelings?" She paused for a moment in thought before conveying agreement to inference. I looked closer at each of the Treelings and I could see various things that caught my eye. Some had red and yellow stripes, some had yellow pupils and blue irises. Each of the Treelings seemed to have some characteristic of me and the Mother of Treelings.

"Well this is more than I could have expected. Just based on the pure mana I can feel from you, you must be at least S rank and you were only just 'born'." At the mention of mana she funneled some to her hand and grew a Yellow Elder flower from her palm and she handed it to me. I took the flower and returned it to her hair, tucked on her ear.

"Well I must give you a name because it doesn't seem right to just call you Mother of Treelings." Once again she seemed confused and this time it was because of the word 'name'. I smiled at her and her eyes widened and the gesture and immediately tried to copy it. Though it came out weird and caused me to laugh, which lead me to realize she can sense my emotions as I can hers. She pouted and looked away from me as I tried to convey I was sorry.

"Sorry sorry, it wasn't a bad smile. It's just that it looked forced, you just have to wait until you smile genuinely." I encourage her with positive emotions coming across the link. She seemed to be at least a little satisfied with my explanation and turned back towards me. Now for a name. I had been thinking of a name for this island as it was to be my island, so maybe I could give her a name relating to that name.

Caellurum, that's what I was going to name the island as it was the name of an island from another book series I like, the same as the one I got 'Rez' from. Hmmm...

"What do you think of Cael?" I ask her as I watch her movements and funnily enough a genuine smile crossed her face I can feel the happiness flooding through our connection. Even the Treelings feel her joy and start jumping around and giving little cheers that came out as strange little creaks and squeaks.