Chapter Five: A Guardian For Nature
It was a particularly hot day at the Core of Light. Several Skylanders could swear that the rocks were melting. To match with the heat, it was also quite muggy outside, due to a rainstorm occurring the night before. It wasn't particularly favorable weather, and many Skylanders had voted to go on scouting missions- preferring to go to places that were cool and windy. However, a handful of Skylanders decided to stay despite the bad weather.
Camo had wanted help replanting his garden, and many of the other Life Skylanders agreed to do so. He'd gotten the seeds for the plants, and Stealth Elf had brought the tools.
"I suppose we all have our pick on which tools we want to use in order to make plots for the garden," Stealth Elf replied. "There are plenty in the toolshed."
"How come?" Stump Smash asked.
"I...really don't know. But there weren't just tools in there- I also found Chop Chop's sword and shield!"
"It probably belongs to him. We can't be in there!"
"Don't worry, mon," Zook said nonchalantly. "We worry 'bout dat when da time comes. And ya know Chop Chop hates da weathah, too."
"That sounds logical enough," Camo agreed. "Chop Chop will probably be out on a mission until sunset, when it's cooler outside. In fact, I think a lot of the others will be out there for a long period of time until its cooler. Won't they be surprised to see the garden!"
"I call the rake!" Stealth Elf replied, running toward the tools she'd set on the ground.
The new recruit, Shroomboom, pulled out another tool, shouting, "I call the hoe!"
"Ha ha! Ho ho ho, mon!" Zook laughed.
"Not that kind of hoe, Zook! Oh wait, I'm too short."
"I call the mushroom!" Stump Smash shouted, picking up Shroomboom with his mallet-like hands. Shroomboom seemed to enjoy the decision. Now he could lift up the hoe and use it at the same time while Stump Smash led him around.
"And I call-" Zook pulled out a random tool- "Da scissah thingies!"
"They're called hedge clippers," Camo explained. "Hey Zook, can you help put the plow on my back? I want to start making plots."
While they worked, the Giant known as Tree Rex watched on. He was happy to see these Skylanders working together. Tree Rex remembered the days when he and his allies fought to protect Skylands from the tyranny of the Arkeyans. He was glad that the newest generation of Skylanders still believed in teamwork. Sure, they had their arguments now and then, but they were still a closely-knit team.
Tree Rex closed his eyes in recollection.
A large forest covered a small island on the outskirts of Skylands. Above it was a magical stream, that fell down to create a river below. The river flowed around the trees, bringing them water and life. Animals shared in this life- among them were eagles, lizards, squirrels and cats. Fish also swam in the river, eating smaller fish and algae. Everything was perfect in that forest.
But then a race of robots called the Arkeyans cleared away some of the trees and set up a factory. The factory built machines that helped them in their conquest of Skylands. The factory was also a pollutant. Magic waste spilled into the river, infecting every creature and mutating it- the eagles grew arms and became Sky Barons, the fish grew arms and legs and became Gillmen, the lizards and cats grew wings and became dragons and sphinxes, and the squirrels lost their tails and grew out their ears and became gremlins. The trees, the one-beautiful trees, became distorted and lost the ability to grow leaves.
One tree, the largest of the trees, turned the effects of the magic waste around to benefit it. It had wanted to protect the other trees and animals, but its roots had been sown into the ground for years. Using the effects of the magic, the tree lifted itself out of the ground, grew arms and legs, horns on its head, and created two beautiful deep blue eyes. With the eyes, the tree could see the factory that had caused all this mutation. The tree walked over, and with one stomp, smashed it into the ground.
With these new abilities, the tree roamed around Skylands, hoping to find more of these factories to smash to itty bitty pieces. It found that smashing the factories was not just helpful, but also kind of fun as well. The tree, although upset with the mutation, learned to live with the changes. The mutated animals in its forest learned from it as well, and were able to set up their own societies on separate islands. If the tree could do it, why couldn't they?
On it's quest, the tree learned many things. It learned so much about the world, too much to think about in one night. Human feelings were one of the things that the tree learned about, hoping that it could relate more to the innocents if it knew what they were feeling. Those innocents often felt scared, angry, and then they felt grateful when they were rescued. The tree realized that it had those feelings as well, when it thought about them hard enough. Always there, always part of you.
A well-known feeling that the tree often had was a feeling called "loneliness"
One night, the tree looked over a wide valley, making sure everything was safe. The creatures of the valley were "badger-like" and known as "Mabu." These creatures were the creatures subjected to slavery by the robots, which the tree had learned to be "Arkeyans." It didn't look like the Arkeyans had found this peaceful valley yet. For that, the tree was glad- and worried. What if they eventually found it- tonight?
"Hello!" a random voice said.
The tree stiffened, which should've felt normal for it. The voice was new, and strange, and made the tree feel frightened. It should've been alone out here. The tree turned its head, and saw next to it- of all things- a robot! The robot had a wheel, as well as overly-sized index fingers. The coloring of the robot was familiar to the tree, and it looked like this robot was part of the Arkeyan race!
This robot couldn't possibly want anything good. The tree lifted up its right fist, and smashed down on the robot. However, the robot had leapt out of the way, and then shot something out of one of the index fingers. As the tree tried to figure out what the projectile was, the distraction had allowed the projectile to hit it in the eye. The tree stepped back, and out of instinct it touched a hand to the eye that was hit. A sensation flooded around the tree's eye- pain, was it?
The tree smashed down again, but perhaps a "Depth perception" problem caused it to miss the robot again. The robot held up his hands in a sign unfamiliar to the tree, but by looking into the robot's eyes, the tree could see that the robot wanted it to stop. The tree kept its arm held up threateningly, ready to hit the robot if it was given another reason to.
"Relax, dude!" the robot cried. "Or...dudette? Which one are you?"
Dude? Dudette? These terms were unfamiliar to the tree. It lowered its arm and looked on in confusion. What could the robot possibly be talking about?
"Oh man, we have a problem here," the robot muttered to nobody in particular. "Okay, listen to this. I am a dude, a male being. A dudette, or female, generally is more shapely and pretty than a male. Which one are you?"
Male and female made more sense. The tree knew that the animals in its forest had been either male or female. Those were "genders," it knew. What gender was it? The tree could only shrug.
"You don't know?" the robot gasped. "Well...I don't know what to think of that. Hey, you know, when a person says 'hello' to you, they often want to hear a 'hello' back. Maybe if you speak, I can hear what gender you sound like?"
Could the tree speak? It had heard the innocents speak, often telling it thanks for their rescues. Well...it could think. If it could think, why couldn't it speak? Maybe it could, but then...how do you speak?
"Okay then, well, I'm sure you know what it sounds like," the robot guessed. "Say 'hi' to me."
How hard could it be? The tree reached into its throat, and uttered, "...Hi..."
"Thank you," the robot said with a sigh. "Your voice sounded pretty deep. Males generally have that. I think you're male."
Was that true? Was the tree male? That sounded right. It was male. No, he was male.
"You're a full-blown mountain man, aren't you?" the robot laughed.
"...What is that...?" the tree asked.
"A mountain man is a man that lives in the mountains. This valley is in between mountains. But now that I think about it, you act more like an out-of-touch caveman than a mountain man."
"...What do you want?"
"Why do you ask that?"
The tree lifted up his hand, ready to smash down again.
"Ohhh...I see why you're confused," the robot gasped in realization. "No, I'm not one of those Arkeyans. Well, I was, but I defected from them. They weren't doing very nice things, so I left."
"You simply left?" the tree asked.
"No. There's no simple way to leave the Arkeyans. They're on my back. I'm hiding from them in this valley."
"You're going to bring them here!"
The tree smashed his hand on the ground. This time he hit the robot. But the robot retaliated with a strange light out of his eyes. The light hit the tree's left arm- and it hurt! The tree clutched his arm in pain, trying to cushion the wound.
The robot seemed to realize his mistake. "Did I hurt you?" he asked. "I'm sorry! I was only trying to guard myself!"
"Go away!" the tree yelled.
"But-"
"LEAVE!"
The tree felt angry now. Angry at what the robot was going to do, and angry at what the robot had already done. First it was his eye, and now it was his arm! He didn't even want to look at the arm wound. However, his own wounds were the least of his problems- the robot would lead the Arkeyans to this peaceful valley.
Despite the tree's command, the robot didn't leave. Instead, he stood around and said, "Let me look at your arm."
The tree pulled back.
"Let me! Please!"
The word "please" was a good word. "Please" was a polite way of telling someone to do something for them. The tree had often heard innocents say, "Please help me!" or "Please don't let them take my family away!" It sounded like the robot wanted the tree to do something, and that something was to allow the robot to look at his arm. Sighing, the tree took his hand off the wound, immediately feeling pain. A burn could be seen, and some of his bark peeled off.
"I don't think it's that bad," The robot said. "Your bark will grow over that spot."
"What do you know about trees?" the tree spat. "Idiot."
"So it won't grow over the spot?"
"No, it will. That's not why you're an idiot."
"Oh, and why am I an idiot? Because I'm possibly leading the Arkeyans to this valley, is that why? You know, sometimes I hear them talking about a person destroying their factories and freeing their slaves. I think that's you- how do you know they're not following you as well?"
How did he know? He didn't know, did he? He didn't know if the Arkeyans were following him, just as much as he didn't know anything else. He could be leading the Arkeyans to the valley. It wasn't just the robot, then, was it?
The tree turned away from the robot, with another, "Go away." He shut his eyes, and could feel something run down his face. It was a kind of runny sap, and it only kept falling. His version of tears, the tree knew. He'd seen the innocents shed tears when they were sad, or sometimes shed tears of joy when they reunited with their families. These were tears of sadness that he was shedding.
He heard the robot come next to him again. "Don't cry, I'm sorry." the robot stammered. "I didn't mean to hurt you."
The tree wanted to spat, 'Too bad! You did!' But he could only pout when he tried to bring those words out. He wanted the robot to go away, to leave him alone. Then...he'd always be alone. Nobody would know how upset he felt.
"Hey, we're both idiots," the robot declared. "Neither of us has any idea if we're endangering the valley! One single idiot can't look out for himself alone."
That was obviously an attempt to make the tree feel better. But why did he care? The tree was a complete stranger to him! Why did he care about a complete stranger?!
"I'm sure you didn't mean to endanger these people," the robot continued. "You wouldn't have attacked me if you didn't think I'd hurt them."
How did he know? Sure, the tree wouldn't have done that if he'd known, but how could the robot know that?
"All you want to do is protect these people, isn't that right?" the robot asked. "If you can easily smash a factory, I'm sure smashing these people would be like smashing grapes! But you're not like that, are you?"
"How do you know!?" the tree finally wailed.
"I can tell. You seem like a pretty nice dude- a dude, since we cleared up the whole gender thing. I just know, okay?"
"Well...you're right."
"I am? I know I can tell, but there's always a chance that I'm wrong!"
"I'm sorry for hurting you."
The robot was taken aback, and the tree knew why. Why should the tree apologize after all of this?
The tree wiped the tears from his face. "Maybe...we can work together to protect these people," he thought. "You're a pretty good fighter. The Arkeyans would hate it if one of them was protecting the innocents."
"You know what, that doesn't sound like a bad idea," the robot agreed. "Hey, I'm Bouncer. What's your name?"
The tree somewhat knew names. Names were things that objects were given to distinguish them from other objects. Names separated "grass" from "lake", and even separated two individuals of the same species from one another. The tree didn't have a name. Did he? Oh well, he'd already learned so much tonight.
"My name is Tree Rex," the tree decided.
Tree Rex opened his eyes, and looked down to see the Life Skylanders finishing up on the plots. A lot of time must've passed. How long had he been sitting like this?
"I think we should moisten the ground before we put any seeds in," Camo decided. "Hey Tree Rex!"
"Yeah?" Tree Rex asked.
"We need water! Do you know the water area of the Core of Light? We want you to scoop up some water and pour it on our plots!"
"Okay, I've got it."
Being a Giant, Tree Rex was able to get the water in a few seconds. He held his hands over the garden plots. "Is this good?" he asked.
"Yah, dat's good!" Zook hollered. "Now pour it all ovah, mon!"
"No, not all over!" Stump Smash quickly said.
His words weren't quick enough. Tree Rex already dumped the water from his hands and onto the ground. The plots were soon filled with water, and the Life Skylanders were drenched.
"Oops," Tree Rex muttered.
"No, it's okay, Tree Rex," Stealth Elf insisted, moving her damp hair from her eyes. "We actually needed a refreshing dip!"
"I've always thought of starting a rice garden," Camo shrugged.
"Thank you, Tree Rex!" Shroomboom called up.
Tree Rex smiled. Sure, the Skylanders always had disagreements. But they were all good enough friends to get past those.
Haven't updated in a while. School started up again for me. But I will still be looking at this site as often as possible.
Hey, it's October. Do you guys have any specific Undead Skylanders that you want me to write about?