Chapter III
Luke's map failed him when he reached a wall of stacked boxes at the entrance to Kolima. It was surrounded by a pond, and seemed nearly impassible. Using a minute of thought, he attempted to throw a gust of wind at it, but to no avail. So, using his backup plan, he threw his shirt over the boxes to the other side and dove into the pond, then swam to the other side. He surfaced, drenched but refreshed, and put his shirt back on. He slowly trugged on with his dripping shorts until he had an idea.
He pointed his hand to his pants, and conjured a wind gust. It struck him with such force he fell backwards and hit the stacked wall of boxes. "Guess I'm going to have to find another way to dry my pants," he thought.
After making sure the damage he did to the wall wasn't severe, he walked forward on a dirt path, which slowly became grassier and grassier, until he came upon a large group of trees, towering above him. He avoided the darkness of that forest, and followed his map to Kolima, which was only a short distance from this giant forest.
Kolima, it seemed was eerily quiet, and the place was littered with saplings. He took a closer look at one of the saplings and noticed a similarity of it to a human, then his face turned blue in terror. This was no tree, it was a man. He heard a faint mumble from it and place his ear to it.
"Help me…." It said to him and he shot back in fear. Before he could compose himself he was seized by the neck, and brought into a headlock.
"I wont let you cut them down! I wont, I wont I wont!" a young male voice shouted into his ear, grabbing him tighter.
"What do you mean?" Luke wheezed
"I wont let Tret change you too!"
"Tret…what, wait…let…go," he gasped, and threw him off of his neck.
"they chopped them all down, I tried to stop them."
"Who chopped what down?"
"Come on," a boy who finally showed his face, looking a year or two younger than him with brown hair and deep blue eyes grabbed his arm, and forced him into the same speed. They ran to the forest he had avoided and the boy pulled him in.
He pointed at the chopped down trees, and Luke was astonished, almost every tree was cut down, and in some places there were more human-trees. He was brought through winding paths and through many still heavily wooded areas until they found two giant trees.
They had faces of their own, and spoke to them. One with a female face appeared to be sleeping, while the other with a green male face frowned and groaned. "I'm too weak Geoffrey, I cannot change them back."
"You must," the brown haired boy yelled.
"In a few days, I will die, and I will not be able to change your friends back to their previous forms."
Geoffrey started to pout, and his eyes began to tear. Luke could hear him speaking in his mind, "there must be a way to help it." The tree with a woman's face then spoke to them, "go find water from the mercury lighthouse. It is the only way to save Tret, go now, he doesn't have much time left."
Geoffrey took his head and lifted it, then Luke placed his hand on his shoulder. "I will help you save Tret, I understand now," he said gently.
"But, how—I haven't told you anything."
"I heard your thoughts in your mind, I will help you save your family." Luke was expecting a strange reaction to his ability to mind read, but the boy just nodded, and started to walk back in the forest. He grabbed Luke's hand and said, "Hold on," then he began to change. They changed into a swarm of balls of energy, then flew to the entrance of the forest.
"Wha—Who—," Luke remained exceedingly confused and began to look at his limbs to make sure his body was still in tact. "I call it retreat, it's a type of psynergy, of course you know all about Psynergy if you can mind read right?"
"Yeah but—,"
"Good, lets go then," With only that said, he ran with a look of sheer determination on his face, to the barricade that Luke had passed earlier. While Luke began to take off his shirt again, Geoffrey raised his hands and moved the closest box by creating a crack in the earth to guide it into place.
Luke realized then that this boy's powers were totally unlike his own. If this boy could crack the ground, then either his powers are much greater or they are much different. This boy also seemed have a great deal of endurance, because he was already pulling ahead of him.
He smiled and followed his newly found companion, realizing that he could expect great things from him.