A/N:
This chapter contains death and dark elements, so if you continue that is your own fault.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything except my own OC's.
Upon a log overlooking a small patch of the forest that she had made her own, Naru sat gazing at the open sky. This was one of her favorite pass times. Gazing at all the different lights in the sky. It was like a grand Spirit Tree was floating over her head watching over the land, and though this one did not glow with the warm blue of the spirit tree of the earth, it held just as much if not more beauty.
But tonight was not one of those nights, the clouds had covered the beauty with their ominous grey and were pouring down rain on her. She didn't much mind the rain soaking the feathers atop her head and arms, she was much more interested in the glowing light that was flowing it's way towards her. It rode along with the wind currents with chaotic turns and graceful loops.
She perked up when it flew right over her head, continuing on its slow decent. She got up from where she was sitting and started after it at a leisurely pace. As it slowed down she had a chance to catch up to it.
She saw the light gently come to rest near the rear of her cave / home. As she approached the light, she saw that the light wasn't in fact just a light, but it was a leaf! A glowing one at that. She could see the veins of the leaf pulsing in time with what would be a heartbeat in an animal. With each beat it became brighter and brighter, until it reached its apex and flashed with a bright white light.
She was momentarily blinded by the flash, and she fell backwards in surprise. Once her vision recovered and she got back up she was stunned by what she saw. A spirit, a small one like some of her childhood friends. She approached the young spirit and saw that they were fast asleep. She lifted them from the cold stone they were laying on, trying not to wake them.
A smile creeped onto her face as the young spirit made a sort of purring noise. She tucked them into the crook of her arm as she made her way back to her cave to get out of the rain.
The small spirit had awoken to a warm beam of light hitting their face. Blinking away the sleep in their eyes they glanced around their little home.
It was a cozy little space filled with Knick knacks, and drawings. Small lanterns of light hung from the ceiling glowing ever so steadily. Baskets littered the ground all of which piled so high with fruits. Their nest was propped up from the floor by a rock almost twice their size. Atop the rock was a carved out shallow bowl, and in that bowl was a smattering of soft leaves.
They leapt down and ran off out in search for their mother.
It was a beautiful day, with a clear blue sky with sparse clouds dotting the sky. The Trees softly swayed in the wind; their trunks made of sturdy oak with large x's drawn on them to mark which had been harvested. The Spirit tree far in the distance, it's steady glow visible despite the beaming sun. Naru stood under one of the only trees without the markings on it. She was shaking the tree vigorously trying to get the one fruit that was clinging on for its dear life.
With one last violent shake of the trunk and the apple fell from where it was attached. She heard a soft yet rapid footfalls approaching and just as she turned around she saw her child leaping up at her. She outstretched her arms as they latched in for a big hug.
She spun them around once in a circle before throwing them up onto her shoulder. Once they had situated securely on her shoulders, she turned back around and shook the last fruit from the tree. Before it could reach the ground Naru held her hand out. As it touched her hand, she launched it back up towards the small spirit perched on her back.
The child let out a happy little chirp as they caught the apple in their mouth. It was a smaller fruit so they had got it down in one bite. A small thank you came from her shoulders as she marked the trunk with her claws. She turned her attention to past the tree and into the surroundings. The surrounding forest was lightly sprinkled with trees which were all marked with x's of various sizes. All of them being harvested of their fruit.
She turned to make her way to the small river that separates her cave from the rest of the trees. As they went along the short walk they crossed a few of their small projects. A small hanging log that acted as a pseudo ramp to the rock above, Naru's body doesn't promote great jumping heights, along with a smattering of small fence like structures littering the background. As she came to a stop atop a fallen tree overlooking the small river, she gestured towards the foliage on the other side.
It was just as full as her side of the river, but unlike her side, it was rich with an overabundance of fruits. She could feel her child practically vibrating on her shoulders. She smiled before lifting the young spirit off of her shoulders. Setting them down on the ground she peered down at the water and after a moment of examining she determined that the water was too deep and the river just a little too wide. A bridge was needed for reliable transport across its slow current because while she could float across and her child could swim across, she didn't want to get wet every day! The storage of the fruit that they picked would also be an issue, so bridge it was.
They set to work almost immediately with Naru gathering the large branches and lumber and her child brining vines to tie everything together. This was one of the more lengthy projects that she had worked on, the only other time she had built something of this magnitude was with her father back down in the caverns.
The sun had vanished from the horizon a while ago when they had finally finished. And there they sat in a pile of fruit, relishing in the bounty of their arduous work. Naru was so focused on her well deserved meal that she didn't see her child get up to deliver a bundle of fruits back to their home.
The moon was full tonight and it was casting its pale white glow down onto them as they strolled back to their cave. They felt a sense of satisfaction after all the hard work that they both did on the bridge to the small island across the river. Naru had told them that it was necessary to bring the fruits back home and now that they were doing it they were glad on her wisdom. I would have been annoyingly hard to get the fruits across without the bridge. They were filled with adoration as they got to the edge of the cave.
Suddenly, a Bright blue light flashed from their right, and caught by surprise their head whipped to the side to see one of the most breathtaking sights that they had ever seen. They could feel a faint but persistent nudge like their whole body was being called to answer. They had dropped the fruits and turned fully towards the fascinating light before they even knew what was happening. They could faintly hear the heavy steps of her mother behind them but they were entranced.
Naru felt the light before she saw it. It was hot and uncomfortable sensation on her skin. She looked up in alarm. It was tonight. She raced towards home, desparate to get to the safety of her cave. The uncomfortable grew to a almost unbearable burning sensation as she reached the edge of the cave, and that is when she saw her child.
They were standing there entranced by the tree's burning glow, and she had to fight against the waves of burning on her feathers. She feared that the tree would take them away from her as her father took her away from her friends. She scooped the young spirit into her arms and ran back into their home.
Once they were safe from the burning light, she collapsed against the rock that her child had made their nest upon. She could feel her skin blistering but when she checked it had no damage to it. Her child was sending her worried looks but she just smiled at them and said that she would be fine. It was time for bed.
As the months came and went, there was something off with the forest. Even her child was picking up on it. The overabundance of fruit was supposed to last well into the colder months but they had stopped growing almost all together. The trees around the water had started to die first. Their dwindling fruit supply was gone completely.
The next day she ventured out to find that even more trees were dieing. Today was the first day she had to dip into their supply for the winter to keep them fed. It was disheartening to know that she would not survive off of what she managed to gather. She might have to go out to trade for some food with the neghboring species. Maybe some of the Gumon might have some food in their magic coolers.
The next day came and went with similar results to the first. More trees dying and they had to dip into their storage again. So, when the day after came along she went in search of the nearest trading post. She had made a new toy out of some of the wood that was laying around the cave. It should keep her child busy until she comes back.
It was empty.
There was no one around but decaying buildings and some purple slimes which hissed at her when she tried to approach them. She didn't understand what happened. This place used to be crawling with people and now it is barren save for a few…things.
She left disappointed and vowed to check every other station that was even somewhat near her. Their lives depended on it.
Each and every station she had gone to was either decimated or just simply gone. Even the one closest to the tree. There were no signs of other people, just more of the purple slimes, and the occasional Hopper. Though they were much larger than what they used to be.
Every time she came back a little less hopeful. And on the last one even she could not help the few tears that escaped her eyes. Their food supply has almost ran out. It wasn't even beginning to get cold. What happened!?
There was a grey fog rolling through the trees, perfectly highlighting Naru's mood. When she awoke, she searched around for anything to eat but the only thing that she found was a small fruit sitting on the ground of the cave near the entrance. She looked down at it with annoyance and picked it up. Examining it for a second before softly letting it roll from her hands back to the floor.
She went out in search of anything to eat, it took a while of searching but she found a small bundle of fruit nestled in between some leaves high up in a tree far past the bridge. She tried to climb it but to no avail as the branch she tried to pull herself up onto snapped and she fell. Landing on her backwith the branch falling next to her she realized,
There was no hope.
She sullenly made her way back to her child, picking up the last fruit from the ground. She went over to her sleeping child and placed the last fruit next to them. Startled by the smell of fruit they awoke to see Naru sitting on the ground with a hand over her growling stomach. A fresh fruit lay in front of them, so with their kind heart they offered their fruit to their obviously hungry mother. But she declined stating that she wasn't hungry.
They were confused, she was hungry they could hear her stomach gurgling. They relented when she sternly told them to eat the fruit. They did, guiltily munching on the fruit they cast their eyes out the cave and into the distance where they could see a faint glimmer of orange. More fruit! They could see a bundle of fruit hanging on a tree in the distance.
Their eyes darted back to Naru's face, and when they saw that she was fast asleep they silently finished the fruit and scampered out of the cave. Across the bridge and through the trees they went until they came upon the fruit. It was clearly too high to climb up to but there was a hole in the bottom, and that could lead to the fruit!
They quickly crawled into the hole and saw that their idea was right when they came out face to face with the bundle of fruit. They shook the branch as Naru had taught them. The fruit fell down and straight after they jumped down the big drop. Their legs absorbed the impact as they bent down to pick up some of the fruit from the floor.
They quickly jogged back to their home to show their mom what they have found. They found her just as they had left her, slouched against her usual sleeping rock. The cave had lost it's warm glow over the last few months, they could feel something was dimming inside the cave. They had felt it ever since the big glowing tree in the distance had gone dark.
They went up to her sleeping form and yipped a happy noise as they held out the bundle of fruit that they had found. She didn't respond. Their eyes widened in worry as they slowly walked towards her, their glow dimming ever so slightly. They dropped the fruit as they started to shake her. They just wanted her to wake up!
A mournful cry escaped their lips as they kept on shaking her, trying to make her move. Trying to make her do anything but just lie there. She fell over and expecting that to wake her, they jumped up onto her and stared into her closed eyes.
They sat there for several moments that seemed to last forever. A small tear dropped from their eyes, then another, and they let out a small sob. They curled up into a tight ball on her still warm lap with a small whimper. They felt a large amount of their energy suddenly just vanish from their body, as if they had been playing for hours on end. Their ears drooping onto their back as they cried themselves to sleep.
What they didn't notice however is that they had just transferred a large part of their energy into a, for lack of a better word, spell. It had put every cell of Naru's body into a sort of stasis.
They had decided to leave. It took a lot to leave their mother's corpse, but there was nothing to eat. They currently stood on one of the fallen trees out the back of their home searching for something, but all that was in sight was half dead trees and fog. The moon was high in the sky, its full glory was out tonight highlighting the land in its cold pale light.
They looked back at the rear of the cave their home for the entirety of their short life. They had wanted to bury their mother, but she was just too heavy for them to move. So, they just left her there. They thought it odd that she was still warm when they touched her, though it saved them from many a rainstorm when they hadn't figured out how to make a fire. Dead things got cold, at least that is what their mom had told them.
They gazed back out towards the forest. The water tree had stopped flowing and the waters around their cave have become tainted with a goopy purple substance that burned when touched. They are just glad that they didn't go straight to drinking it. Boiling the purple goop didn't do much more than make it hot, it didn't cleanse it from the water and the water didn't come out of it either. It seemed to have become inseparable from the water. If there weren't fruit still somewhat near they would have died due to dehydration a while ago.
The huge mountain in the background was overlooking the entire forest, it's pointed top like an arrow pointed towards the stars. To the left of it was the snowy tips of the range that expanded past the horizon. They thought that they saw a subtle orange glow in the snow some nights but it was probably a trick of their grieving mind.
The glowing tree looked like it was about to die, its leaves had almost all fallen off. Whether that was because of the purple goop or that massive light show that was months ago they didn't know. Its glow had faded a few months ago, and after that most everything fell apart. Whatever happened to it, maybe fixing it was a way to fix everything.
With that thought they dropped down from the tree that they had been on and started towards the fog filled forest. They let out a sigh as they steeled their shoulders for what would likely be a difficult road ahead.
They were starving.
It seems there was no more food. Anywhere they searched for any fruit or any food at all there was dead trees and barren bushes. All there was moss and a whole lot of dying trees. It took all of their energy just to keep on going forward and not collapsing. Their glow had dimmed by so much that it could barely light their fur anymore.
After pushing through a small thorn bush, they had stumbled over a sudden drop resulting several gashes in their skin as they tumbled down and smacked their head down on a rock. An explosion of pain and darkness overwhelmed their vision before clearing ever so slightly.
A trickle of red ran down the back of their head as they tried to lift themselves up onto their hands and knees. Arms shaking with the strain of exhaustion they saw in their darkening vison the dying glowing tree, its lights that were once so bright that it lit up the forest for miles around. Their eyes were drooping as they crawled towards the grass covered fields around the tree.
Their strength was failing, and the darkness in their eyes grew to consume their whole vision and they let out a breath and closed their eyes.
A single tear came from their eyes. It fell slowly down the spirit's unmoving form, their glow dimming until it was near undetectable. The tear met with their blood that was pooling around their head, and something happened.
An explosion of light came from their body and lit up the surrounding area. Several flowers suddenly sprouted out of the ground under where they lie. They were glowing with the same light that they were. Another pulse of the light and more flowers bloomed around them. This continued a few more times with more flowers blooming before a final blinding blast of light exploded outward and a sea of flowers sprouted up around the tree. Pure unfiltered Power flowed into the giant tree igniting it with a blue glow as it recognized the energy source.
It reached out to where the energy came from and poured as much energy into the vessel as it could handle. It created new pathways and carved a pattern into the vessel's very soul. It's only directive was the survival of the forest. It will ensure that.
Once the energy was transferred, the tree did a quick scan of it's internal energy stores. It decided the best course of action would be to go to sleep to conserve it's remaining energy. It didn't want to shut down, not again.
A/N:
Dude the cicada's around here are deafening
Midwest gang rise up
Also sorry for not posting in a while, I had four math classes to contend with.