Chapter 14: Withered Tree

Row on row the giant trees of the Cheagle Woods stood in which one could see animals like deer and rabbits run around every now and then, also the cute, little cheagles with their fluffy fur, the long ears and the puppy dog eyes. But this time, the forst that Luke and his friends entered seemed like it was entirely abandoned. No animal was to be seen, as if all the animals and monsters were scared of something that lurked deeper inside.

"Are we there soon?", Link grumbled for the fourth time.

"No! How often do I have to repeat myself!", Anise snapped.

"I´ve never had to walk that long at home! I wanna go back home!", Link resumed whining.

"Then go! Oh, wait... it´s burnt down!", Anise snarled. Link stuck out his tounge at her.

"I´ve actually never been here so I wouldn´t really know, but it´s awfully quiet in here.", Florian said.

"Yeah, too quiet.", Luke agreed. "I guess they all noticed what happened at the Cheagle Tree..."

"And if they´re hiding because of it, it has to be something really bad.", Anise added.

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"Splendid! Splendid!", Dist cheered inside his pink hell of a room and looked at the amber coloured substance that his God-General replicas were piling in tanks in one of the corners. "Yes, that should be enough to continue with the project." He noticed that the person inside the cage which the small person with her teddy guarded was moving restlessly. "I bet you´re wondering what I´m going to do with all that amber liquid, huh?", he asked the person. "Well, I won´t tell you. Mwahahahahahahahahaha Mwihahiahihahihahiha! I´m sooooo evil!" The person inside the cage wanted to say something, but no noise was to be heard. It seemed the cage had some special power if it could even prevent noise from leaking out. "Well, let´s take a look at how my other project is coming along...", Dist murmured, left the room, wandered down a few hallways and entered a quite dark room in which Kamui, still bruised from all the damage he had taken while trying to escape out of the castle, sat on Natalia´s replica´s lap who he thought was his mother.

"Well, one more time...", the replica said to the child, trying to sound motherly, but her eyes showing her deep hatred for him. "I, Kamui..."

"I, Kamui...", the little boy repeated enthusiastically.

Dist nodded in satisfaction and left the room again in order to gleefully watch his servants work for hours to pile up the substance in his room while he said on his pink canopy and drank litres of Prosecco.

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Having reached the Cheagle Tree, the friends stopped in shock: The once so giant and beautiful tree was withered, no leaves left on it, and a poisonous looking green-dark colour adorned its rootage.

"But how...?", Anise whispered and made a step towards the tree.

"MIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!", a far too high voice suddenly screamed when in the next moment something small and blue jumped at her and shot fire at her.

"Waaah!!", Anise screached, jumped to the side just in time and grabbed the rather fluffy something that had attacked her.

"You´re back to hurt the tree again, right!?", the little creature in her hands piped and angrily looked up at Anise, ready to strike again.

"Mieu?!", Luke, Anise and Florian shouted in unison as they recognised the blue Cheagle with the sorcerer´s ring around his tummy.

"Mieu?", the cheagle said in confusion and looked from one to the other. "Master!", it suddenly shouted, shot at Luke and rubbed himself against Luke´s cheek in bliss.

"Alright, alright! Stop! Yuck! Stop!", Luke shouted and pulled the little ball of wool out of his face.

"Master! Master! Master!", Mieu happily piped and jumped from one foot to the other.

"Sooo cute!", Anise squealed, seeming to have forgotten that ths `cute´ little creature had just now tried to torch her.

"Is this a cheagle?", Link asked.

"Yes.", Florian answered.

"Looks stupid.", the little red head said. "Strange pointy ears, voice too high-pitched... It´s a thing."

"Yep. I guess we should´ve all expected that commentary.", Anise said and shrugged while shaking her head.

Mieu stared at Link for a while, then suddenly jumped up and down in joy and sang: "Master has a cub!"

"Argh! Shut up, Thing! That´s not my child, damnit!", Luke snapped at him.

"Mieu? Not?", Mieu asked and looked at Link again, tilting his head to the side.

"Mieu, what happened here?", Anise suddenly asked. "Rose told us the tree was withering, but it´s even worse than I thought. " Mieu suddenly grew sad.

"It was them.", he finally said.

"Who?", Florian asked.

"The God-Generals Sync and Largo."

"So there´s a replica of Largo, too?!", Luke shouted angrily.

"And... and Tear was here, too...", Mieu continued and sniffed. "They... They stole the the tree´s nectar of life. We tried to stop them, but they... they killed everyone... Mieu..."

"Oh no!", Florian said in horror.

"And I was knocked out by one of Largo´s attacks, and when I came around, the tree looked already like this... dead..."

"Damn Dist! Why did he do this!?", Anise screamed.

"First the laboratory inside the cave, now this. He must´ve planed this months ago when he was still captured.", Florian guessed and looked at the cheagle tree in which surely all the dead cheagles were now.

An energy blast of gigantic size shot towards them. Luke grabbed Link and Mieu, Anise grabbed Florian, and together they jumped down to the side just in time so that the tree was hit instead.

"Stop!", Mieu screamed in anger and wanted to jump at their attacker, but he stopped when he looked at the evil looking face of Largo the Black Lion - another replica - who had just now entered the clearance.

"Not bad at all.", the giant-like God-General with his even more gigantic scythe said. "You have to options: Hand over Link or die!"