The Lone Kirin

No time for chit-chat

The last few meters towards the protector of this forest are extremely intimidating and hard to pass. "Last few meters" is also the biggest understatement I've ever heard. We were walking for another twenty minutes, and Prophet just doesn't give up, even though her hooves always glide off of the increasingly slimy roots.

I am in awe, just looking at these behemoths of roots. Where we parted from the guardian, one could already see slight deformations of the ground around us, but closer to the source, these roots became bigger than us in hight, not to even mention the girth.

They are, in fact, so big that they were somewhat flattened by gravity, I assume.

Fieri might be the oldest treant of his generation, but they still tend to be quite the pushovers. He could pound our asses into the ground, but apart from that, treants whole magical lineup consists of purely utility spells.

They just had no big Oomph, like my little Kirin friend here.

Anyways. If she started blasting, the whole forest would want us dead, and if that snake is any indication of what's to come in that instance, then may the gods have mercy on us.

"Should I help you in any way? I could make your hooves sticky."

She took a little to respond, as she tried to balance herself on the moss on the greatest of the roots we have seen so far. Despite her not having any limbs to grapple onto stuff, she did a surprisingly good job when climbing.

[Couldn't you have proposed that, when we started climbing these?]

"No, actually. Because you being too exhausted to cause a ruckus is very much in our interests."

She gave me a huff that I learned to interpret as a raised eyebrow.

[Why would you offer to help me then?]

"Because I don't plan to."

She's so cute when she gives me that look of disappointment and "Why did I even ask?". I just can't help myself.

After another fifteen minutes of climbing, we reached a massive clearing, and even without entering it, we could see the monumental tree, that just sat there, solely focused on us. That are easily 100... No two hundred meters of tree. And that's why I want to delve into the depths of Illusionism.

Hmm. How do you feel a tree looking at you? I don't even know, but both of us came to a halt, so I am pretty sure that Prophet noticed it as well.

Now. I complain a lot about not being able to read people's faces. But talking to a faceless tree will be the weirdest conversation I'll ever have.

I've talked to some treants before, but they were children and grew to adult size in the royal park, where they were cared for. Those are so lighthearted that you don't even consider it being weird.

But we are about to be lectured by one. How much authority can a giant pile of firewood even have?