Chapter 33
"Feels like I've been out here for months," I sighed still hanging upside down from the same tree I had been hanging from for two days non-stop now.
"Oh stop whining, it's only been a week and you already mastered the new technique... so why are we out here anyways?" Kris hissed back.
"Shush, if Aidan found out I already mastered it he'd want to leave, but I figure he deserves some quality time alone with Lilith." I said pulling myself upright. I swayed as blood rushed out of my head and I nearly fell out of the tree.
"Awe your just a big softy aren't ya? Hm, maybe I should tell you about another technique you can use."
"Sounds like a good plan," I smiled and stretched.
"Well it's one you can't practice, and you have to promise me you won't use it unless it is the only option."
"It's that dangerous?" I said my eyes growing slightly wider.
"No, it's... more of a recovery spell... sort of.... but first promise me!"
"All right, I swear on pain of death I will only use this ability as a last resort, or under circumstances I feel require it's use."
"Good enough... now listen carefully, using the light magic you obtained with your new body you can bring someone back from the dead."
"Whoa seriously?!" I said astonished I had that much power.
"Shut up for a second, there is a condition to using this kind of power though, everything has an even trade as you know, every time you use your normal elemental powers you wear yourself down a little, well think of this as a super power."
"So what it'll put me out of commission for a few days?" I said and Kris shook her head.
"No, this power is too great for such a measly consequence... if you were to bring someone back from the dead it would require you to use up all your light magic and force it into their body using your very soul. The resulting shock to your own body will kill you."
"What!? Your kidding?" I said looking down at myself now.
"No, I pray you never have to use that power." I stopped for a moment and pointed my hands at myself. "Don't try using it on yourself, I don't know if it would work on yourself but I'd rather not have you test it out!"
"Wasn't thinking of it thanks... I was just thinking... no... like you said, hopefully I never have to use it." Kris nodded.
"So how much longer are we gonna let your son bond with that little vixen?" Kris let out a strange noise that sounded like a laugh.
"Kay, first off... The cat laugh is weird... Secondly, I'd say we'll give him two more days... Besides I need to find something in this forest before we go." before Kris could even ask what I had leapt from the tree landing roughly on the ground with a thud. I shook my legs and wandered off into the forest. I wonder if it was a good idea to come to the old sacred grove to train? Not like I could get any privacy anywhere else. I looked at every tree I passed, gah come on I'm starving one of these trees must be... wait, there! I leapt up into the branches of the tree I had spotted and grabbed hold of what I had been searching for. "Ah, my sweet, how I have missed you!" I said opening my mouth wide and clamping down on the sweet red skin of the apple I had just picked. My happiness soon turned to disgust however as I found despite the lovely red colouring of the skin the innards of my apple were rotten to the core. "Awe damn it all!" I said grabbing another apple I sliced it in two and found this one to be rotten as well. "Piece of shit tree!" I yelled booting it's trunk which shoved me from it's branches. I landed hard on my back and began rolling around cursing under my breath.
I heard Kris laughing so hard it sounded as though she were suffocating. "What the hell are you doing?" she asked rubbing her face with her paws.
"I guess your tiny cat eyes have made you hard of sight," I coughed sitting up, "It was what it looked like, I was trying to find a good batch of fresh apples... It's been forever since I had any, that tree there however is rotting to the core, despite it's common outward appearance." I scowled and drew my sword, stabbing it deep into the tree. I slid in with ease but when I pulled back I found I could not remove it. "What the hell..." I said yanking on my sword almost hard enough to pop my shoulder out of place. I put both my feet up against the tree's trunk and grabbed hold of the hilt of my sword with both hands. "Let go... of... my... sword, you dirty stinking thieving tree!" I shouted tugging harder and harder until I noticed something felt weird. "Um... my feet feel like their surrounded by something... squishy." I said looking down and seeing that the tree had now not only continued to swallow up my sword but had now started to swallow me as well. "Oh what the f-"
"Father!" I heard Aidan cry out from behind me.
"Not quite what I was about to say but okay..." I mumbled as he walked over with Lilith practically on his heels.
"What is this?" Lilith asked and I began to grow grumpy in general.
"Oh I dunno, I came upon this tree and thought it looked hungry so I'm letting it eat me... what do you think it is!? The bloody freaking tree is trying to eat me!" I yelled struggling and squirming. Suddenly I felt my shins all the way to the bottom of my knees get sucked in. "I'm gonna stop moving..." I said relaxing completely and removing my hands from my sword. Aidan drew his sword and slashed at the tree but it gushed and absorbed the impact then spat him back. To my dismay I had been absorbed up to my waist. "All right, enough." I said planting both hands firmly on the tree I pushed myself back out to my knees and then I noticed my sword was almost completely inside the tree now. "No you don't!" I said grabbing the hilt and yanking but it started pulling me inside again. "Shit, screw that." I said slamming the tree with both palms I pushed myself completely out.
As I landed flat on my back near the tree I saw my sword just suddenly vanish inside the tree. Without warning the whole tree itself began to shrink and change shape, until it had a humanoid form, but it had my sword infused in it's right hand. I drew a needle and was about to change it when the ex-tree to my shock spoke. "Wait! Do not rely on the weapons which you can form with that power, if you wish to defeat a natural element, you must fight it with... a natural element."
Still slightly shocked I put the needle back and realized I only had magic effects with my elements, "Hang on that's not fair then I can't use a weapon of any sort!" I pointed accusingly at the tree-man.
"Not true, focus... I will wait until you have formed your weapon before I attack." it said moving into an idle position with it's arms down beside it. Ok, focus... but on which element? Wait, let's see either element would be sufficient... lightning causes trees to burst to flame and ice causes them to die... okay I need some practice with ice. I focused hard drawing power from the cold in the air around me, when I felt something in my mind twinge I slammed my right hand on the ground and a large ice spot appeared and to my surprise the hilt of a weapon rose slightly out of the ice itself. I grabbed hold and began pulling it out with one hand but found it be heavier then I expected so I grabbed it with my other hand and pulled forth a large double-sided axe. "Now, we fight!" the tree said and lunged at me.
Caught off guard I held the axe up to defend myself and it was shattered in two. What use is a weapon that shatters so easily?I thought dodging a second slice I picked up the half of the axe I had dropped and to my surprise both halves suddenly changed in my hands. Now both halved had become smaller one-handed axes that were light yet seemed much more durable and easy to wield. I lunged back at the tree-man cutting off his left arm. He leapt back and his arm quickly replaced itself. Damn, I guess... I need to remove my sword from his hand... time to get to work, I thought lunging and hacking at the tree-man wildly. He weaved, dodged and blocked many attacks until I drove hard at his chest and stuck one of my axes in deep. "Now..." I said knocking my sword up with the other axe, "...Gimme back my sword!" I yelled withdrawing the first axe from it's chest and in one quick motion I removed the "right hand" of the elemental and my sword dropped to the ground.
The tree moved back to it's position and bowed in surrender, "You have done very well, however I am the weakest of my elemental kin."
"You mean there's more like you?" I asked astonished as I removed the leftover branches from my sword.
"Yes, and if you defeat us all you will receive a great gift... as well as some useful knowledge." it replied again.
"So how many are there?" I asked, "And I would assume you are the spirit of earth then?"
"There are seven, and no... I am the element of wood, my brothers are; earth, fire, ice, sky, light and darkness. To defeat the one who has conquered this world you will need to defeat all of us, locate all three holders of the triforce... and yet... I sense there will become one final hardship for you to overcome, however my vision is not absolute."
"O... kay." I scratched my head, completely lost by what the tree had just said to me.
"But, as you were after some nice fresh apples, allow me to supply you with thirty fresh apples, blessed by the woods themselves they will never go rotten." I could have sworn the tree smiled at this and handed me a large sack of apples.
"Well that worked out better then I had hoped..." I said opening the bag and tossing apples to everyone else except Kris who shook her head when I offered.
"Chris, may I speak with you in private before we depart?" Kris asked me after we had gathered our things.
"Um, sure, I don't see why not... I'll be right back then we're out of here, you two behave now." I said sticking my tongue out at them.
"Chris, I... I jsut feel like... this is awkward..." she said as I continued to munch on my third apple that day.
"What'sh so awkard that..." I paused an gulped down the mouthful so I could speak properly, "What's so awkward that you can't talk about it in front of those two? And no excuses I'm not almost choking on a chunk of apple so I can speak properly this time." I said taking another bite of my apple.
"Well it's just that... I feel... left out, ya know?" I shook my head. "I mean, you have Midna, your son has that woman, according to what you say Lana has Link... that Adonia chick has her boyfriend back home."
"So," I said swallowing a well chewed chunk of apple this time, "Your upset cause there's no guys left for you then?"
"Well... you know Chris... you should know... I..." she paused long enough it began to bore me so I took a large bite of my apple again. God this thing is delicious, I thought a big dumb smile on my face. "The truth is the matter is that I don't like men."
"Heh, yea we're all kinda jerks eh?" I chuckled still chewing the large chunk of apple in my mouth.
"No... I mean... ok, let's put this in terms a complete moron could understand... I am not sexually attracted to men in any way!" she nearly yelled at me. The combined shock of her suddenly yelling and this information caused me to inhale and start choking on the apple in my mouth. I gasped for air, clasping at my throat. Knowing that a cat couldn't perform any life saving technique for me I quickly took both hands and clasped them together and drove them into my stomach, pushing a large cough out and clearing my wind pipe.
"Dear -cough- lord... you can't just -cough- spring information like that on people when their -hack- eating!" I rasped loudly still trying to clear my throat. "Wait a second! If you... bend that way, so to speak then wouldn't I-?" I started to worry.
"Ha! Don't be silly, you and I are linked in some ways, which means some parts of us are exactly the same where as others are completely opposite."
"Meaning that-"
"Yes, while I am female and you are male both of us are attracted to females while certain tastes may differ, though I must say Midna is quite the catch."
"Back off cat girl." I growled picking her up by the scruff of her neck. "I'm not one to hurt animals, not one that doesn't threaten my life anyways, but you start goin' after my wife and we'll see if that lasts."
"I was kidding, jeez! To be honest I kinda like that Basha girl, she's quite bold and well she helped you guys out so she can't be all bad right?" Kris began purring.
"Must suck that your cat body displays all your emotions quite openly. But... wait how do you know Basha so well?"
"I was watching when she-"
"Never speak of that!" I growled, "Regardless, we should move... after all we've got a lot of work to do."
"You know... she's a pretty good kisser," Kris started giving me a funny look.
"You know... if you talk much more I'm gonna make you WISH that cat wasn't immortal." I growled and she promptly stopped talking and ceased to for a decent length of time.
Hm, sorry it's been so long... I tried to start a thing where I'd only put up a chapter after I finished the next one... or soemthing... but I got stuck on chapter 34... and so I started writing two other fanfics... and I got distracted by one of them and ended up writing 9 rather long chapters into it... so then I came back and was like wow I should really finish this one before my ideas all leave me... but as I said I got stuck... then we went and bought rockband 2 and that distracted me for several days then I came back and wrote out some more of the chapter... still not done I'll try not to get distracted anymore and update sooner :P