"Seems like Ambigious finally woke up." freeZe noted.
"And it seems like he fell out of the tree." TehLulz added and smiled.
After a few seconds of silence Fire asked: "Would somebody go over there or should I?"
As he didn't get an answer he stood up and ran over to the tree, where Ambigious was lying on the ground.
"Are you alright?" Fire asked.
Ambigious answered: "My backside hurts but everything else is fine."
"Now that you finally woke up, get over there and help making some armor." Fire said without asking further.
Ambigious stood up and made his way over to his sister, Unchosen und TehLulz, all three were smiling at him as he arrived.
"What?" He asked.
"You overslept by two hours." TehLulz replied.
"And? I once overslept by a day."
freeZe explained: "He actually did, I wondered where he was the whole time I realized what had happened the next morning. I pretended he didn't oversleep until he noticed that the TV program was different."
While they told Ambigious what they were doing, Fire made another suit of wooden armor.
"freeZe, this is yours, try it on." He said.
The armor wasn't much different from the one he gave to Unchosen, the only difference was that it wasn't quite as wide. freeZe got up and put on her armor.
"Fits pretty well." She commented but as she wanted to take it off again.
Fire interrupted her: "Take one of the swords and attack me."
It was almost noon when Fire made the last set of armor, his own. Everybody ate some of the leftover steaks and drank some water.
"So, where is this valley?" Ambigious asked.
Fire pointed into the forest and replied: "Somewhere in there." He then asked: "Everybody ready?"
After he received four positive answers he started walking into the forest. He took a brief look at his inventory. A diamond pickaxe, water buckets, the bottled fire, some arrows, two stone swords and the blaze core, those were the most important things. His bow was on his back. Fire stopped to look for a certain tree, one without leaves but still healthy, when he didn't find it he continued walking, his friends right behind him.
A little later, he spotted the tree, it looked like its leaves had fallen off a long time ago, the tree was giant.
"There." He said.
He then carefully walked towards one of the roots at the trees base.
"This isn't an ordinary tree, you know. It is an elemental creature of Earth, a pretty powerful one, it's kind is also known as 'Treeguards' or 'walking trees', which mostly applies to the smaller ones, they get less mobile as they grow older and bigger. This one has been asleep for a long time but I will have to wake him up to get to the valley." Fire explained in a quiet voice.
"How will you wake him?" freeZe asked.
"Watch, and be quiet." Fire answered.
He walked over to the trunk, took a deep breath and made a small cut into the bark using a claw, then he took out the golden apple concentrate and let one drop drip into the cut. Suddenly, the tree started shaking and so did the ground above where his roots were, it was like an earthquake.
"What is happening?" freeZe had panic in her voice.
Ambigious tried to calm her down but didn't sound all that confident himself: "I think Fire knows what he is doing."
Fire himself had stepped back a few steps and was now watching the tree. All of a sudden, the tree stopped shaking. A few seconds of silence later, a voice spoke to them, it was a very loud, rumbling bass voice, it was calm but it sounded so present, distinct and awake that it sent a cold shiver down their spine with every letter.
"Who awakens me from my sleep?" The voice asked.
Of all of the five, Fire had the most reasons to be scared, even though he seemed perfectly calm from the outside, he knew who was talking and what he was capable of. Fire knew to be careful about what he said.
He answered in a respectful voice: "I woke you, Oalrhm, guardian of the forest, creature of Earth."
"At last someone knows the right words. What is your name, awakener?" The voice replied.
"My name is Fire." Fire answered and then added: "I seek entry to the Graveyard of the Forest."
The voice laughed, which sounded like wood creaking and the wind rushing through old branches. "What do you desire to do in that place?"
"I want to use it as a hidden passage to shake off pursuers, I am aware of but not interested in the treasure of that place."
Unchosen, still a bit intimidated asked a question: "Who is speaking there?"
The voice answered: "I am Oalrhm, the guardian of trees, I am the old tree in front of you but I am much more than a tree, I am the forest and the forest is me."
Fire explained to Unchosen: "You can't enter the valley without the permission of Oalrhm. The real name of the valley, the Graveyard of the Forest, comes from all the corpses of the all too brave adventurers who tried their luck getting through it without permission. Now they are skeletons impaled by thorns, choked to death or crushed by vines."
Oalrhm said: "Yes, that is true, I do not want greedy humans in my forest, they cut down all my trees, take all the ore that gives me energy, steal all the ancient treasure in ruins or just are foolish enough to think they can fight their way through. You five, you have used the forest as your protection, I am always surprised how much trust humans put in wood, they use it for everything. I have nothing against that as long as they take it from a spiritless forest without a Treeguard of its own."
"So, you are not angry that we cut down your trees?" freeZe asked slowly.
Oalrhm answered: "No, I am not. I can accept the loss of half a dozen trees if they are put to good use. What I cannot tolerate however, are hordes of lumberjacks coming to rode hectare after hectare, I kill them and throw them into the Graveyard of the Forest with the other corpses to rot. Sadly the valuables that have amassed over time attract even more adventurous people. I like the humans' trust in wood, they build their houses out of it, the places where they live and sleep, but if they take more than they need, it puts me in a fury."
freeZe asked another question: "There are more powerful creatures of Earth than you, right?"
Oalrhm laughed. "Of course there are, but not many. However those are far more powerful." He made a small pause and then continued: "Now it is my turn to ask questions. First, Fire, how did you find out about me?"
Fire, not speaking in the very formal language he used before, answered: "I read a book about the elemental creatures of Earth."
"Hmm, where did you get that book? It is rare, that humans write about us, they prefer creatures of Fire or Air, perhaps because they are more common and easier to notice and apparently more interesting."
"The book, along with many others, is, or was, found in the Great Library of Knowledge of Rockhaven, the biggest town of this world. The book is not somewhere between the books for everyone, it is located in a section exclusively mages have access to."
Oalrhm said: "Rockhaven hmm? You also do not look much like a mage to me, I can feel burning energy inside you, the fiery sort of your species is not known for magical feats…"
Fire smiled and answered: "I might not be a mage myself but my sister is one, that way I could get into that section."
Ambigious asked: "So, you just walked into the library and she opened it for you?"
Fire shook his head and explained: "Oh no, it was not as easy as that. The thing with Rockhaven is that only people living in the town can enter. This city is a fortress, guarded by well-trained guards in indestructible diamond armor, protected by several magic shields and wards. The city walls are almost as hard bedrock and continue underground. We had to get into that fortress to get to those books, it would take way too long to explain it all. After we were in the section, I took the books I needed and then we escaped using magic. That all happened very long ago."
"So, you can just teleport out of this fortress?" freeZe asked.
"Sure, the spells only protect one way, this is because if the city needs to be evacuated, they can just teleport everyone out. Now the books are in my base."
Oalrhm wanted to know: "That was very brave, Fire. Why did you do it? Why are those books so important for you? Greed? The thirst for knowledge? Or perhaps something else?"
"They are important because at that time someone of high rank in the town might have abused them, I have carefully studied the hierarchies and the power relations in the town and came to the conclusion that in the wrong hands they would be devastating. It cost me hundreds of diamonds to pay all of those spies…"
"So, you stole them to protect? Not unusual for your kind…" Oalrhm said.
After nobody said anything, Oalrhm spoke again: "Well, travelers. I will open the passage to the Graveyard of the Forest now. But before that, I have a gift for you. Even with your trust in wood, you would not make it through."
After he had spoken the weight of the armor was taken off their shoulders. Fire looked down to see what was going on. The wood was changing color from its bright brown to a darker, blueish grey. The armor of all of them changed shape, the ropes disappeared and the plates grew together forming an all-around protection.
Vines grew out of the shoulder pieces and wrapped around their arms and legs, protecting them while remaining flexible.
"This is the gift of the forest, an ancient kind of wood, steelwood. It used to grow in large underground caverns but all of them collapsed by now. My kind still knows about it and I gave it to you. This may not be the best decision but I feel that you five carry a great burden." Oalrhm explained.
The earth was shaking again and a gap opened at the base of the tree, stabilized by little vines and roots.
"This is the entrance to the Graveyard of the Forest. I will sleep now, the tunnel will close soon." After these words Oalrhm sighed and didn't say anything else.
"Let's go, I guess…" Ambigious said, everyone else nodded.