~*Improviso Vir*~

Unexpected Hero

"For crying out loud, just put the rungs in!"

"I told you, it's too rocky, they'll never go in all the way. We could fall to our deaths!"

Duster and Kumatora were arguing over the best way to scale the side of the mountain. They could either go straight up, or try to find a side path. The mountain should swoop down to the other side of the forest they needed to go to, and Lucas thought he had never seen the two yelling more heatedly than they were now.

Lucas sighed, leaning back in the grass, deciding not to bother them. Not far to his right, Boney was chatting with one of the frogs. The great roots of the tree near him rose out of the ground, twisting and arching above and around him, forming a sort of loose cage.

Shrugging, Lucas closed his eyes and tried to rest for a bit, careful not to far too deep into slumber in case Kumatora yelled at him for sleeping.

There, hovering between being consciousness and asleep, he thought he heard something.

Now, usually, this wasn't the first time he heard things. The kid figured it had something to do with his PSI powers, and maybe he was hearing his friends' voices or something.

He really didn't know, and it didn't seem to be doing any harm. But here, lying beside a great oak tree that towered above their heads, Lucas knew he heard something.

It sounded like the tree was swishing in the wind, but no wind was playing through its branches. What then? The noise stopped sounding like the wind and started sounding more and more like a song. It continued, slow, calm, with what sounded like eight measured beats.

Behind his closed lids, Lucas fancied he saw sunflowers. The light was dancing through them, turning them into pure gold, and everywhere the song continued to play.

Soft. Slow.

The melody made Lucas strangely energized, but strangely he was reluctant to open his eyes or move at all. He just wanted to listen to the tune some more.

"Lucas!"

Luckily, the song had calmed him enough to the point he didn't jump, he just opened his eyes, slowly looking at Kumatora. "Are we ready now?"

She crossed her arms. "Besides sleeping, why don't you try to help us figure out how to get up there?" She jerked her thumb over her shoulder and to cliff ridge above them.

Lucas stood up, and he faintly heard the song still playing, it was carried around him by the wind and even the very earth. He swore each beat went in unison with his heart, and the ground seemed to even pulse with the song.

Staring up at the great sky oak, its branches fanning across the heavens, Lucas smiled faintly. "Have Duster climb this tree, it looks sturdy enough. I think the rock is smoother nearer to the top, and there are some smaller ledges along the way.

Duster craned his neck up. "Well, what do you know, he's right." The thief started climbing the tree, carefully testing each branch, and as he scaled to the top of the oak Kumatora looked at Lucas curiously.

"How did ya know to use the tree?" She rolled her eyes. "If Duster and I hadn't been arguing we coulda figured this out ourselves."

"Would you believe me if I said the tree told me?" He teased, but really he was dead serious. The song was almost completely gone now, and he felt a little disappointed.

Kumatora snorted, beginning to climb the tree after Duster, and didn't reply.

"I'll take that as a no." Lucas laughed, going after her. Boney barked excitedly and leaped up, digging his claws into the bark and scrambling upwards.

The tree reached a little more than halfway up the cliff side, and Lucas had been correct about the stone smoothing the nearer you got to the top. Duster managed to fasten some rungs to the wall, and afterwards the friends lay resting on the top of the cliff.

"Let's keep going," Lucas said after a while, quickly marking the location of the tree on his map. He thought, right before they prepared to leave, the wind blew a voice to his ears.

Now you understand.

~***~

This was probably really weird. I'm not sure how Ness listens to the earth or whatever but this is how Lucas does it. In case you're wondering, they're walking in random areas. I like to think the game creators don't want you walking the actual expanse of the forest, and it actually takes much longer to go from one end of a massive landscape to the other.

Want to review? I forgot to say so earlier, but flames will be used by Kumatora to fry Pig Masks.