Chapter 138: Chapter 137: Seed

Honestly, deep down, I was hoping that when I met another beast in which one of my mutations had its origin, it would go the same way as in the case of Esu. A foolish notion, I know. Life was not so kind and rarely gave us what we wished for. 

“Crawl like weasel in mud among worms,” Zeew shrieked, scorning me for refusing her mercy and wishing to live among the mud-waders. 

“Not your pup, leave now,” demanded the mother mossbear of the majestic eagle hovering high above Esulmor. This matter regarding me was settled, as far as she was concerned. In fact, from her tone and the intent behind the words, there was never any doubt in her mind about who I was. I wasn’t some chick of eagles to her, nor was I Korra Grey a human from another realm. No, she thought of me as Esu’s pup.

She wouldn’t be a proud Miros if Zeew just gave up. “Your kin killed mine!”

“You come. Death you were looking for. Why angry?”

If I hadn’t known mother mossbear was dead serious, I might have let out a chuckle. Still, I couldn’t help smirking.

Although the words carried no hint of mockery, Zeew didn’t like what she heard at all. She let out an angry screech and sent several more air bursts into the woods to vent her anger and show us she won’t back down so easily. “We come seek death of humans. Came bring mercy upon lost chick...” she shrieked and paused for a moment as if she was considering whether to say more. “Came for seed.”

“Talk to me, Little Beast. What the fuck happened?” Deckard asked, to whom I tried my best to translate what the beasts were talking about and what I was growling at them when it came down to it. But now that I had stopped and an almost palpable tension had fallen over the woods, he knew something was up.

“Zeew and the other eagles came here for...some kind of seed. It’s weird. I don’t know what to make of the intent behind the words. Do you have any idea what they might be talking about?”

“Me? You used to be a florist. I don’t even like greens in my food,” he said, yet thought about it. “Why attack us then?”

“You want me to ask?” Sure, for the northern eagles, targeting a specific group of humans so far from their nests made little sense, but this wasn’t like him. Until now, Deckard had considered me asking those powerful beasts to be sheer lunacy. So, why the change of heart?

“Do you dare?”

Did I? Sure, under normal circumstances. In this tension? Even I wasn’t stupid enough to open my mouth and bluntly ask.

“Humans right, then. You have seed,” Zeew said after a moment of reading in the mother mossbear’s reaction. “Give.”

“Ours.”

“We need seed more than you mud-wading weasels.” There was an unusually strong urgency in her words, almost bordering on desperation, that she failed to hide behind anger, arrogance, and pride.

Naturally, the massive beasts shielding us down here with her barrier of leaves and branches, one of the mothers in the woods noticed it, too. But to my wonder, she didn’t use it to throw a few snide remarks her way. She considered her words before growling back up at Zeew. “North?”

“Danger coming to our nests. We need seed. Defend.”

Her confession that their nests were in danger gave me pause. This was not what I expected from the proud Miros. Then there was the question of the threat itself.

Were they talking about the same danger Lord Wigram mentioned, the one that caused the Terran Federation to fall apart? Was this the same threat the city guards in Castiana were arguing about? Unless I remembered wrong, they were bickering whether the reason for the unusual behavior of the animals and beasts that otherwise would not have approached the city walls or rather the vicinity of the labyrinth was caused by this encroaching threat from the north or whether there was something or someone else behind it.

Knowing that, one might think at first glance that it was this threat that drove out this group of northern eagles here. Zeew mentioned some humans telling her about the seed, though. It might have been the threat looming over their nests that led her to heed the words of someone like the humans, but the humans were behind her journey here. 

That narrowed the list of possible suspects to two. Dungreen and whoever was behind him, and the mind mages. Who else would go to such lengths to get me?

But how would Dungreen know about the seed, whatever it was? He shouldn’t, at least not unless he got into the heart of the woods. And since his or anyone else’s chances of getting there and back were nonexistent, it brought me to the mind mages and especially Thought Fuddler. That bitch could control mossbears. I’ve seen her do that. She was in their minds and could very well have found mention of the seed in there. 

The only flaw in my otherwise perfect deduction was why they would tell the northern eagles about me. Didn’t they want to get me anymore? I mean, alive. Or did something change, and they no longer wanted this piece of ass, this merchandise in one piece? 

Damn it! It was really sick to think of myself that way.

“I can not give,” the mother mossbear grumbled after hearing Zeew and her plea.

The eagle didn’t take refusal well as expected. “I take seed from your dead bodies, then!” Her shrieks carried her resolve to go to great lengths to get the seed. She was willing to destroy Esulmor even if it cost her her life to get what she needed.

And though her threat sent shivers down my spine, it didn’t sway the mother mossbear at all. “You can not take what already rooted.”

That gave Zeew pause. I mean, the shock was written all over her...face. She literally stopped flapping her wings, making me think she had to fall down into the woods in an instant. She didn’t, and for a few heartbeats, she’d just float there before she started flapping her wings again. 

Only the red color on the tips of some of her feathers, which had appeared so suddenly with her shock, did not fade right away.

“It sprouted?” Zeew asked, dumbfounded at what she was asking.

This time the mother mossbear didn’t speak, and she just let out a low growl of assent, a nod of some sort, as this human gesture was otherwise alien to the beasts.

Zeew’s feathers reddened further. “How far from waking?”

“If enough shine, with full blue moon.”

Shocked, Zeew let out a silent shriek, and her head feathers turned red from roots to tips. Then she fell silent instead of uttering another insult and weighed her options.

“Feel free to tell me why I don’t hear more shrieks and roars. Why the bird has turned red,” Deckard piped in when I forgot to translate.

Telling him about what had thrown Zeew off guard, I had a question of my own to ask him. “What kind of flower can wake up?”

“Again, I’m not the florist here.”

I couldn’t help sighing. Why couldn’t he just say he didn’t know? “Do I need to remind you where I’m from? We don’t have beasts like these over there. And the flowers? Even though I’ve been stuck here for over a year, I haven’t seen much of them. The most I know about the moss on my head, and let me tell you, it’s a far cry from the one I’m familiar with. I don’t know shit about the flowers here.”

He raises an eyebrow at me, caught off guard by my rant. “Well, if you want to hear my take so badly, the flower will probably bloom tonight.”

“No...no! That’s not it. When they spoke of awakening, they meant it would gain consciousness.”

“Conscious plants? Sorry, Little Beast. You won’t find those in Fallen's Cry, and when I fought mind mages, their armies were made up solely of beasts, monsters, and humans. No plants. From what I gather, their minds are too different for them to control.”

“No gray matter, huh?” I said, pointing to my head to make sure he understood.

And he did. “San would tell you more. She knows best what makes mind mages tick.“

“Okay...” She wasn’t here, though.

“Or Wigram. He might know a thing or two.”

“Sure, I’ll ask...when I see him.” He may have been in Esulmor, but seeing him now was out of the question.

“Ask him about dryads. Those are the only intelligent plants I can think of...” he said, stopping short. “Shit! Dryads, but it can’t be them.” Deckard muttered, thinking out loud inside my head.

“Dryads?” While I had a good idea of what they might be, my image of them based on the books and art from the Earth may have differed greatly from the actual creatures.

“What? Ah, dryads...like I said, intelligent plants. But they can’t be here.”

Did he really want me to ask? Fine! “Why?”

“First, they are not native to Iaweles. And since they don’t stray too far from their trees, you won’t find them on this continent. Second, as far as I know, their trees only grow in the Elven Sacred Forests,” Deckard said and stopped short once more, white as a sheet. “World Tree...”

“Their trees grow only in the shadow of the World Tree,” he said aloud, bewildered by the possibility, realizing his mistake too late. Both mother mossbear and Zeew turned their attention to him. 

“Get rid of that human,” proclaimed the mighty Miros hovering over the ruined woods. “Stand your ground, Deckard!” I shouted urgently at him what my instincts were telling me. “They understood you.”

“Okay...what else, little beast?”

That was a damn good question. What to do next? If he stands up to them too hard, they might take it as a challenge. On the other hand, if he had lowered his head, basically apologizing and waiting for their mercy, he might not have gotten their understanding. Even if he could convey respect in his words, I didn’t think it would help much, and so there was only one thing he could do. “Do nothing. Just stand your ground. Don’t bow your head or defy them.”

“I hope you know what you’re doing, Little Beast. If they attack, I’m running away, and I’m taking you with me.”

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“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.” Me running away would be very bad and could very well damage my relationship with mossbears and Esu.

“No!” mother mossbear growled sharply, expressing her disapproval of getting rid of Deckard. “This one, guide for pup.”

“You going to risk seedling for human, foolishness!” Zeew shrieked, outraged by what she heard. But ever since she learned about this mysterious seed taking root, quite possibly the World Tree, her attitude changed, and she refrained from further destroying the woods and direct insults to mossbears.

“When seed awake, you know,” the mother mossbear growled, glancing back at Deckard and me. “Beastpeople know, humans know.”

“True,” Zeew agreed, realizing more. “Humans already know.”

“None close to heart of woods, ever!!!” 

“We told by them seed here, lost chick too. Asked kill humans passing through flatlands into your woods.” 

“No human ever seen what Esu nurtures,” the massive mossbear insisted.

I had a question on the tip of my tongue, but Deckard came first. Although he again appeared laid back on the outside, he was more on edge than I’d ever seen him before. And it was no wonder. Who wouldn’t be edgy in the presence of beasts like these two discussing what they should do with you? “You’re good.”

“You sure?”

“Pretty much. Mother mossbear even stood up for you. Plus, their ire has shifted elsewhere. The northern eagles were told by humans about the seed, and they have no idea how these humans could have learned of its existence.”

“But you do, huh?”

I grinned back at him, baring my fangs. “Um-hmm, I do. Remember that mind mage that was supposed to pick me up here?”

Understanding struck him immediately. “It could be....so what are you waiting for, Little Beast. Tell them before they decide to lump us in with them and eat us.” 

“Are you sure you want me to talk to these powerful beasts? Me? Are you insane?” This was the first time he had ever prompted me to do it, so I couldn’t help teasing him a bit for it. 

“Oh, so you’re aware that talking to them is crazy shit to do.”

“Just the fact that I can understand them is wild,” I said, looking at those two creatures. 

[Zeew: lvl ????]

[Mother Mossbear: lvl ????]

“Believe me; I’m more than aware of what they are.”

“Good, then go and do your thing.”

A strange chuckle escaped my throat before I took a breath to gather my courage and sort out my thoughts and emotions. “Great Zeew, allow me ask you a question. Were the people who told you about me able to control the minds of other beasts?” As always, I put the utmost respect into my words and mainly avoided any implication that mind mages would be able to control the minds of the northern eagles. It was not my intention to question their abilities before her.

“Chick courageous,” she shrieked at my audacity to speak to her but answered my question nonetheless, curious as to why I dare ask. “Indeed, too cowardly meet us directly, they sent weasels carrying messages.”

“Pup?” the mother mossbear questioned, implying that I’d better have a good enough reason to come between them.

“The last time I was here, when Esu generously accepted me as his pup, there was one among those who tried to shackle me capable of controlling the minds of others. A woman, eh....female, she was controlling a young mossbears and could have found mention of the seed in their thoughts.”

“Thought Fuddler!” the mother mossbear growled, spite seeping out of her words. “Ran away cowardly.”

“You let her get away?” Zeew asked, barely keeping the mocking tone out of her sing-song voice.

“She wielded human magic, ancient tool from depths below.”

The fact that she could tell that the Return Crystal was something that came from the labyrinths and not something that curent humans made themselves amazed me. Even though the beasts supposedly avoided the labyrinths, they had a greater awareness of them than I had so far gotten the impression.

“Burrow of old humans,” Zeew spoke, aware of the labyrinths and what mother mossbear was telling her. “Their strength grows weaker as seasons go by.”

“Indeed.”

When the mother mossbear confirmed the eagle’s words, I shook my ears, making sure I had heard them right. Because if so, according to them, the power of the labyrinths had weakened over the millennia. 

What the actual f...?! I relayed it to Deckard.

“Well, that’s news to me. It does explain a lot of things, though.”

“You didn’t know?”

“Look, I’m hardly an expert on labyrinths.”

“Even so...”

His mental sigh hit my mind. “It’s been going on for millennia, probably since they were built. No one lives long enough to notice something so subtle. No terran or human, at least,” he said, hinting at the beasts. 

“Are there no records?”

Another sigh. “I’m not the kind of guy who reads that stuff.”

Yeah, he didn’t look like someone who enjoyed digging through old documents. I wasn’t that kind of woman either. It really piqued my curiosity, though. So who might know more? Lord Wigram? The man knew a lot. But this was history I wanted to know more about, not healing. It was the field of historians and perhaps librarians. I should have paid Mr. Sandoval a visit a long time ago, and now I had one more reason to do so.

“Chick not as stupid as I thought when she refused my mercy,” Zeew sang, snapping me out of my thoughts. 

“Esu’s pup,” growled mother mossbear proudly. “It matters not how humans know. Seed will wake up with full blue moon, with full violet moon at most.”

“See for myself.”

“No!”

“I make sure moon shines. I chase away clouds.”

The majestic mossbear paused, thinking about the offer the northern eagle, one of the Miros, had made before she growled again. “Esu, decide.”

“He will,” Zeew sang, agreeing and radiating joy. Her delight at the unpromised opportunity to be present at the awakening of the seed disappeared when the painful cry of one of the northern eagles reached us. There was a moment of pause as the two beasts considered their next move before Zeew let out a mighty shriek, warning whoever hurt her kin from taking a step further.

Then she turned her attention back to the mother mossbear. “Stop them, or I stop them.”

“No more harm to woods.”

“If you spoke truth about seed, I dare not.”

With that assurance, the ancient beast, towering high above me with antlers as wide as a small tree’s crown covered with moss and lianas, drew in a deep breath and let out the loudest roar I had ever heard from her. It rattled my bones but surprisingly left my ears spared. Before she even finished, Zeew shrieked again. They both told their kin to back off, to stop fighting, that they’ve come to an accord.

“Done,” said the mother mossbear, still wary of the eagle but let the barrier of leaves and branches come down. “This one belongs to woods.”

Zeew agreed. “Sky no longer his....” her words turned into a song, a sad hymn sung for the fallen. Although it resonated with my heart, my feathers showed no response this time. I checked. The only feathers that turned white and gray as if life had left them were a fallen northern eagle’s two long head feathers.

With the end of her song, a mana of the mother mossbear swept across the ruined patch of woods. Within moments everything, including the body of the northern eagle and the trunks of fallen trees, was covered in moss, the flesh-eating kind. This moss turned this mess the fight made into a nice-looking flat meadow in a few heartbeats. If that weren’t enough, as the fallen trees and eagles turned into nutrients for the woods, new young trees sprouted up from the soil.

It was the second time I had watched this miracle, and I was no less captivated by it. Soon the sky was hidden under new treetops again.

“Come, pup,” the mother mossbear grumbled, heading deeper into the woods. “Take human with you.”

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