Defy The Earth

Chapter 2

Chanyeol's vision widened out slowly. And there were a numerous things that struck his mind. First, the room was dark, like a hollow wooden cave. Second, the room was big, very big . Chanyeol couldn't see the roof. It was like a pit fall wooden cave with extra serves of mud. Third, he saw the tree.

He was shocked, spooked, and bewildered.

The tree, with its thick trunk; thicker than three-four trucks extended upwards, its thick branches hanging out around it. And every branch had things hung to it – dreamcatchers, windpipes and other beautiful light things. The whole room was magic. The tree seemed to have so much energy – it faded in and out. It was marked by blue, green, white, yellow. Shoots of these colors raced around the room like butterflies. And as these shoots of light spread farther they turned into pixies, fairies, birds and butterflies and beetles and so many other things Chanyeol couldn't identify. There was a water body on some side of the tree – the blue was sparkling into the night. It was so healthy and full of nature. This was a magic getaway.

"Twelve main branches," Baekhyun said and Chanyeol looked up at the tree again, more carefully and he noticed that there were indeed twelve main branches. All of them were lit and surrounded by an encase of energy – one was blue, one was white, one yellow, one light blue, one green, one was brown and so on - except for one. This one was dark, its trunk dried, and with seemingly no life. The branch bent downwards, as if it was dying. At this realization, Chanyeol noticed that the whole tree was dying. The bottoms of the tree were dried and bent and only the light powers were keeping it alive.

And then he understood the Tree of Life. It was a magical, symbolic representation of nature's current state. It wasn't a real tree – it was the display screen of nature. He understood now. It was something that can only be seen, not explained.

Suho noticed his expression, "So you understand now, right?"

Chanyeol nodded.

And then Suho pointed towards the dying branch, "Time to see if you've superpowers like Baek and me or if you're gonna be a worker in the agency."

Chanyeol accidentally set the fucking tree on fire.

It wasn't his fault. He had climbed up to the dying branch easily (there were levels made at the back of the cave) and he had touched the tip of the dying branch and suddenly, the tip started burning, sending waves of fire flying throughout the tree. Chanyeol had yelped as the fire had passed through him. And he had yelped once more when he realized the fire didn't burn him. The same can't be said for Baekhyun. A tiny spark landed on his arm and he started jumping around like a hyperactive puppy (or an even more hyperactive than usual puppy).

Soon the whole fucking tree was on fire and people were screaming. The shoots of light turned to shoot of fire and while Suho simply jumped in the pool or water – Baekhyun who was on the other side could do nothing but dodge stuff and jump around. The sight was hilarious and it made Chanyeol laugh heartily. Chanyeol also realized that he was glowing red and orange.

Fuck, was he on fire too?

He would never know. He climbed down the tree and stepped away from it and soon the fire tree died down and only the branch remained fiery. The rest of the powers came to surround the tree – they were dim as compared to the blazing fire. The tree uplifted and it seemed it wasn't dying. The trunk looked anew and the branches were straight and high and the place looked more alive than ever.

Suho got out of the pool (the sight was funny for some reason). He walked towards Chanyeol and knelt on one leg which was so awkward and Baekhyun did the same which was even stranger for Chanyeol. And all the other fairies and pixies and even mermaids in the pool and the small plants surrounding them knelt and Suho said –