Note - Major rewrite going on right now. Sorry if this causes a lot of emails for your inbox! I re-wrote and am re-posting the first three chapters and hope to have a new chapter up soon. I was unhappy with this work when I read it over again after so long. I hope this updated version is an easier read with a strong plot. As always, unbeta-ed so if you see a glaring error, feel free to comment. Thank you!

~.~

The Forest was old before time began the fast pace of the Humes.

Even the youngest sapling, with dark smooth bark and tender unfurling leaves, had begun its growth before the establishment of the oldest of the Hume villages. This was a place of life, where the Mist ran gently with each breeze and kissed the ground with new morning dew. The Forest was more alive and sentient than most of the creatures that walked beneath its boughs. She had thoughts all of her own – feelings, plans, ideas and, thanks to being a creature of the Mist, the power to shape the confines of its borders to suit her needs and moods.

When it was that the great Forest became aware of herself, she could not say. There had never been a time when it did not awaken to the warm sun above it; there was nothing before the taste of the purest rain on her leaves and the cool quiet nights. Surely, she had been one of the first creations in this world and felt sure that she would last long after time itself had run dry.

Though the Forest could not remember when she began to feel lonely, she could clearly recall the first time she used magic and beast and love to create her lovely daughters and sons. Her sons would prove to be a disappointment but her daughters…

In each and every one of her daughters, at her heart and fueling her soul was a piece of the Forest's own life force, connecting the very core of their being to their mother in perfect, loving harmony. This granted them their long lives, the use of magic and a keen understanding of the unseen world of the Mist.

To say her daughters protected her was an understatement. No creature drew breath nor set foot upon her covered paths without their knowledge and the Forest's consent. The Forest and her daughters were as one. To try and bring harm against her was to know a quick and painful death; it mattered not if the justice was dealt by shafted arrow or poisoned thorns. To try and unlock her secrets was to walk forever her woodland body until lost and hopeless, for her daughters would offer nothing their mother would not give. They knew their mother was without remorse to those that dared to provoke her ire and her reasoning was beyond the limited understanding of those short lived races. Her friendship and alliance seemed limited only to her own children. The best other races could hope for was her indifference and she was content to offer it.

Expanding cities and a need for goods finally did reach her endless trees and shaded trails in the form of tradesman and adventures. To refuse passage to a few, her daughter's advised, meant risking the uprising of many to try and force a path to much needed trade routes. The Forest understood what a calculated risk was. She did not fear that a confrontation between herself and the lesser races would end in her defeat. Such a thing was unthinkable yet she did not see the need to expend energy in trying to stop advancement when nothing was lost by allowing access to a few well guarded paths.

If the Forest had known that change was a two way road, she would have drawn up her boarders, hid her daughters away and left the bodies of the first few tradesmen strung up from the highest of her trees to serve as a warning.

It was to her daughters that the Forest gave the task of guarding the trade routes, for they were the most Hume like of her children and the ones she trusted the most. They were her ambassadors, her physical voice for those unable to hear her whispers and likewise, through her daughters the Forest learned about the other races.

For the longest of times, the Forest felt this to be a near perfect relationship with the outside world. She felt confident in her daughters and viewed them an extension of herself and so she did not overly fret when now and again a daughter would go walking down one of their entrusted paths and not return for several moons. After all, it was not unlike trees to far stretch their roots in order to thrive, why should her daughters be so different?

Naturally, their absence was felt and after a time, their mother would use their innate bond to call to them and urge them home. Always they answered her call. Always they returned. For though free will they had, their very nature and how alien the outside world viewed them made their mother's call irresistible. As the Forest could not grasp the ways and emotions of the short lived races, her daughters too were unable to join the cultures and peoples so different and unwelcoming from their wooded home. The magic that tied them forever with the Forest made it impossible to love another that did not share the same bond and that made even the closest relationship feel empty.

For each daughter that returned the journey itself was the punishment, a nightmare to be forgotten. In time they regained their natural rhythm with nature and could hear again the comforting voice of their mother. Whenever a wayward daughter came back, the Forest felt such peace that the sun would shine for days and any rain that fell against the upturned leaves seemed to sing.

So it was when the Forest sensed the return of her longest lost daughter, she rejoiced. How quickly that joy did turn to the darkest of feelings.

The moment her daughter pressed her way in to the forest, her mother knew she had been changed most horribly. Part of the Forest magic, her magic, her life blood, her most scared of bonds had been shared with a Hume. A Hume that moved in ignorance of the gift pulsing in his veins, a member of the most vile, destructive and short lived of the races. How had he managed to steal such a precious gift?

The Forest raged around the travelers. Branches that had opened to the warm sunny sky now closed tight above them, locking them in an endless twilight. Roots and underbrush rose up to meet their feet, catching their footing and slowing their pace. Beasts of all kinds, agitated by the anger of the wood lashed out at the weary travelers, only to be beaten back by their sharp weapons. Horrible loud bangs rang out as the most offensive Hume drew his gun again and again.

And worst of all her beloved daughter was deaf to her pleas, asking her to stop. She had become numb and blocked off from the Forest, so strong was her feelings for the Hume, so loud her desire. His intense emotions had overwhelmed the delicate senses of the wood dweller, had demanded of her completely her attention. And she had unknowingly answered that need by cutting the bonds with her mother and reattaching herself to him.

Immediately, the Forest blocked all their exits, summoned up her most powerful creatures and watched with satisfaction as her daughter was forced to beg her sisters to implore the wood for safe passage.

Her answer surprised them all, for the Forest had used its great foresight. To kill the party members now would be to deliver her daughter in ignorance to her death. Never would she know the extent of her mother's pain or the depth of her betrayal.

A sense of allowance filled the Viera who begged on Fran's behalf. A soft breeze lifted away the oppressive silence of the area.

Let them pass. The trees sighed.

The eldest daughter caught the edge of anger in those words. In earnest, she implored further for her lost sister. "What of Fran? Clear are her feelings for the Hume which travels. Will you not intervene on her behalf? She has been bewildered by the outside world and stumbles now blinded and flawed. We must-"

Fran, though unknowingly has acted in a manner most unforgiveable. I fear to reach out to her mind lest my anger destroy her. Her blindness is only a start of the price she will pay. Let them go, for now. We need not hold that which will come willingly in time. Clouds boiled up in the skies above the great canopy. Anger this strong was a rarity to the Forest, so few dared consider provoking her. The emotion stretched out of her now, casting the entire sky in to turmoil. In her wisdom she knew it best that the adventuring party leave. Now.

She would answer no further questions. Her attention turned elsewhere, settling down and waiting.

I need do nothing. Came her final thoughts on the matter for some time. She has done it already to herself.