Chapter 44: 40: From Nymph to Dryad

Nymph’s POV

The sun was out. For a normal tree spirit, like the others in this grove, this would make nymph very happy just feeling the steady energy from the tree they inhabited flowing into them. The tree spirits were always happy when their tree was in the sun. But it was hard for nymph to be happy today.

A short time ago, nymph’s master had brought home a really good gift. He had brought home humans and some elf babies. Nymph had never gotten to see babies this small before. It was always the nursery tree that got to see all the babies. The nursery tree was very lucky. That was also where they kept the humans. The nursery tree got the mana of the elf babies and the spirit energy from the humans. Nymph was the oldest, but the nursery tree was still bigger because it always got all the babies.

Nymph really liked it when their master brought home the humans and the babies. Nymph had always heard the energy from babies and their humans was good for a tree spirit. They knew it was good, because the nursery tree had gotten so big from all the babies that were there. These babies were special though. Nymph did not know how normal babies and their humans were, but both the babies and the humans made a lot more mana and spirit energy than normal babies. Nymph’s master had said it was a lot more. A whole lot more.

Nymph really really liked these babies. Maybe if these babies could stay here then nymph could be the biggest now! They did not like the nursery tree being bigger when they were younger than nymph was. There was a problem though. Master said the reason the babies were here was because if other people saw their skin was grey colored they would kill the babies. That made nymph very angry. These were nymph’s babies now! They were living here with master, so that meant they belonged to nymph just like master did!

Some other tree spirits didn’t seem to care who gave them mana, but master was special. Master was the one who planted nymph’s seed. He was the oldest elf in the village. He had seen every one of the delicious spirit trees that grew here when it was a sapling. Nymph only took mana from master or someone master said was Ok.

The babies were elves the master had said were very good and they had to protect them, so nymph was going to protect them. That was why, and they were also good mana and spirit energy. That was good too, but it was because master said to protect them.

Two sunfalls ago, more elves came to the grove. Because there were more elves here, master said it was even more dangerous for the babies. There were more people who might want to hurt them, and these new ones might want to hurt them more. Before that, a dragon appeared. Master had been worried about that too. He said the dragon might sense the spirit energy from the humans, so nymph made sure to take all the spirit energy that came to their walls, even if they did not need it. This made it so the dragon did not care. But these other elves, the master said they might get curious, and some of the people in the grove might talk about the babies.

Nymph kept asking all the other trees close by to say if they heard something about the elves talking about nymph’s babies. If any of the elves said anything, it could be bad. It would also be very bad if any of them talked to the dragon about it. After two sun-sets, the other trees told nymph they were talking about it, they heard it from the tree next to them who heard it from the next tree from them as well. They said they were saying something about the babies. Master had said this would be bad if they talked about it, and now they were talking about it. Nymph was very worried. Nymph wanted master to stay here because they were so worried, but master said he had to go.

A very very short time ago, a whole bunch of elves started to come around nymph’s tree. They were all brought by the dragon. He told them what to do, and they threw a vine over one of the branches of nymph’s tree. After that, they started climbing on the vine. Nymph realized that the elves were going to climb up to the window. This was bad. Nymph needed mana given to them with thoughts in order to close off the window.

Tree spirits were usually not as smart as elves, but nymph was very smart because they had lived with master for a long time. Whenever master gave nymph mana, nymph got some of master’s smartness. It was only a little bit each time, but it built up over a long time. Because nymph had master since nymph was planted, it made nymph the smartest tree spirit in the entire grove. Because of this, nymph was smart enough that they knew they should warn the babies first and tell them to go to the stairs.

After nymph told the babies, nymph told master’s apprentice. If master’s apprentice could give nymph mana, nymph could do something to protect the babies. Nymph told master’s apprentice that the elves were outside and they were trying to come up the side of the tree to get through the window. They told her to give them mana to close it, but then it was too late. The elf broke through the window before they could do anything.

Nymph told her about this and said to go up the stairs instead. The stairs still needed to be opened in order for the babies to be able to make it down. When the master’s apprentice was opening the stairs, Nymph moved their projection back up to the room the babies were in. The elf was coming toward Aerien, the babie who made the most mana and spirit energy. This made nymph very very angry.

Nymph could not do anything. Not without someone’s spirit energy coming directly to them to tell them what to do. Even if Nymph had the extra mana from Aeirein, it was useless without spirit energy that knew what they wanted it to do. But maybe, if this elf had any magic and could see nymph then maybe they could do something. Nymph tried to get in the elf’s face, but the elf did not seem to notice them.

Nymph could feel Aerien’s energies doing something weird. They quickly became much weaker, but also seemed to become more stable. It felt like something was changing. Nymph did not know what was happening, but after they noticed this Aerien started doing something really stupid, but it was what a baby did so Nymph knew it was not her fault. But, what Aerien did was she walked straight to the elf after fighting with the human who was trying to take her away like Nymph had told them. The elf picked up Aerien, and then nymph felt the weird thing going on in Aerien’s energies grow stronger.

Aerien’s energies started to feel really really different. It was a little like what Nymph felt when they were trying to use mana and spirit energy to grow. Nymph had never felt this coming from an elf before. The master had said that his “cultivating” is a lot like when nymph was trying to use the energy to grow, but the master’s energy felt very very different from what Nymph was feeling from Aerien right now.

Nymph was distracted though. They tried to start thinking of something else they could do. The master’s apprentice came and ran at the elf, and they pushed each other over. After this, Aerien stood up and started struggling with the elf. Nymph could see Aerien was covered in animal sap. Nymph knew this was called blood because of master, but animal sap was what all the other tree spirits called it so Nymph called it the same thing.

Aerien had a lot of it all over one side of her, but then Nymph saw that Aerien hit the elf’s hand as he tried to reach for her and saw his hand start to bleed his sap as well. Nymph also saw the elf’s chest where he was holding Aerien. It was also completely covered in the elf’s sap. When the elf pulled back his hand, that was when Nymph saw the knife Aerien had in her hand. Nymph was confused. When did Aerien get that knife?

Nymph realized that Aerien was fighting against the elf, and doing a good job. She stabbed him in the knee. After that, she got away from him and dropped the knife next to her when she stopped. After this, she looked up to the window. Nymph had been paying a lot of attention to what was going on inside, but as soon as Aerien looked outside Nymph looked outside as well. Two more elves were climbing up the vine to the window. This is bad, they still needed to close the window.

This is when Nymph felt a lot of mana. Not just the normal mana, a WHOLE lot of mana. There was also a whole lot of spirit energy attached to it.

“HELP ME!!” The message sent through Aerien’s spirit energy was incredibly loud. It was much much louder than even the strongest spirit energy command Nymph had ever received. Nymph felt themself completely overflowing. Aerien’s mana and spirit both penetrated the entire tree. “HELP! IT HURTS!!”

The incredible spirit energy continued to pour in. The words from Aerien were not the only thing carried with this spirit energy though. They were powerful, but they were not the thing making Nymph go crazy. It was like nothing Nymph had ever felt before. Aerien’s spirit energy had a lot of intelligence behind it. Nymph was filled with knowledge beyond anything they had ever learned from master. It was knowledge that seemed to come from way outside, millions of voices and memories were rushing into Nymph with this spirit energy.

As the mana permiated the tree, it started to cause the tree to grow. It grew very fast. Nymph cast their eyes outside. They saw the two elfs climbing the vine fell when Nymph’s tree started to grow. At the same time, the spirit flowed into Nymph. The spirit energy made Nymph feel stronger and smarter than Nymph had ever felt.

Nymph could feel a transformation starting. They could feel their spirit growing as rapidly as the tree. Nymph’s spirit projection vanished, entering the tree once again in order to better form this power that was surging into them.

Nymph found suddenly that they could see everything. Their consciousness spread out to the entire area, everywhere, it was not just inside the tree anymore. Nymph could see all the way out far beyond the spirit trees that were where the other tree spirits lived. All of the tree spirits, both the nature spirits and the other nymph all started to come toward Nymph’s tree. Nymph could feel all the others combining with them.

Nymph understood what was happening now. They had heard about this before. When a plant spirit becomes powerful enough, it gains consciousness and becomes a nymph. At this time, all the other plant spirits around combine with it and make it into a nymph. Nymph did not remember this happening to them, but it must have happened. Now, all the nymph in the entire grove, and also all the spirits were coming to combine witn Nymph. Nymph was going to become the next form of a tree spirit, a dryad.

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Nymph… no, Dryad, knew what they had to do now. Dryad had to protect Aerien. Aerien’s spirit message said “Help me.” She want’s Dryad to make all of the people causing her problems to go away. It was that fey dragon who brought all the elves here. It was HIS fault! A Dryad was supposed to be able to act without needing spirit energy from others anymore, but Aerien’s spirit was just so strong there was no ignoring it. Also, Dryad didn’t WANT to ignore it! It was his fault! He attacked master’s house, and he tried to hurt the babies! But first, Dryad would deal with the one who had come inside and attacked them.

That one, Dryad hated that one even more! That one had violated them and attacked those they were keeping safe. Now that Dryad could do something about it with their own will, they would. They pulled the intruder into the very wall he was leaning against, encasing him on every side with wood. After he was away from where everyone could see him, Dryad crushed his body until his mana could no longer be felt.

Now, it was time to direct their attention back outside. Now that Dryad wasn’t just a Nymph anymore, Dryad understood everything about what that dragon had wanted to do. The elves are afraid of grey elves. They are afraid of grey elves because the corrupted elves always try to go where they are to kill them. So, the elves always kill the grey elves first before that can happen. That’s what he was trying to do to Aerien.

Nymph knew that the elves would kill the babies, but this was only because the master had said so. Now, Dryad knew a whole lot more. Dryad knew the stuff that came from Aerien’s spirit, and Dryad also had the memories of all the other nymph who had fused to give Dryad power. Now Nymph knew exactly what it was that fey dragon had said and exactly what they had planned.

“The mages are important to help protect the village, and Eirlation is the strongest. It would not be wise to cross him. He will become uncooperative if we act against him. However, we do not want to take the risk of them really being grey elves. He will probably lie if we were to question him. So, bring the children to me while he is out today. I will make my judgement once I have seen them for myself.”

That was what he had said. And, the girls really were grey elves too. There is only one thing he would have done when he saw they really were grey elves. But, why was he doing this when the tainted ones were already in the forrest? There was no need for it! It was obvious, the reason he couldn’t let this one alone was because of foolish tradition! He was going to kill Aerien and Gaerien over that absolute foolishness!

It made Dryad sick with anger when they put all of the pieces together. They had never been able to feel emotions this deep or this strong before. But, now that they understood so much more, it had awakened a new level of capacity to feel hatred within them that went far beyond the petty forms of anger they had felt before.

Dryad had finished their evolution now. It had gone incredibly fast. Aerien’s power flooding into and overflowing the entire grove of all the trees in the area had attracted all the spirits so quickly that Dryad was fully evolved in mere seconds. So, it was time to go out and make that dragon pay!

Dryad manifested themself, and all the elves looked up to see their new spirit form that was as big as all of them. Dryad understood now that what they had become is something all the elves look up to and respect on a level every single bit as high as the fey dragons. No, higher even. While the powers of a dryad and a fey dragon are roughly equal, this is only to say that the weakest dryad is equal to the weakest dragon, and the same logic works at the upper end as well. There is actually a world of difference in power between any dryad and dragon depending on their age and how much power they had accumulated.

Dryad had only just become a dryad. Normally, it should be completely impossible for them to win against that dragon. However, right now, Dryad felt the overwhelming power coming from Aerien still coming in, and it just kept making Dryad feel stronger and stronger the longer it flowed. Dryad knew. They just knew that they could win this!

“YOU DID THIS! YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE!!!” Dryad shouted. They could have said more. With Dryad’s newfound intelligence, they could have easily explained exatly what they had done, but Dryad’s hatred would not allow for it. And besides that, Dryad knew something from what they had learned from Aerien’s spirit energy now. They understood that simply shouting a battle cry would unnerve their opponent and leave them more vulnerable to attack.

Dryad felt all the trees. The entire area had turned into Dryad’s body, and because Dryad was made from the consciousness of all the nymph who inhabited the trees in this place before, Dryad had the ability to split their attention and move every limb of every tree individually to do their will. Dryad moved the tree directly behind the fey dragon, bashing him over the head. He had escaped too much damage by reacting quickly, and he was trying to fly away, but Dryad would not let him!

Dryad moved all the ivy vines in the area. They quickly captured the fleeing dragon. The dragon began trying to burn the vines in order to escape, but those vines were not normal now that they were part of Dryad’s body. The mana that flowed through them now would protect them from the flames. However, Dryad could tell those flames were extremely hot. Just the protection the mana already flowing through those vines was likely not enough. So, they knew they would have to add more.

Dryad pulled into the power Aerien was dumping into their tree and bid it all to come out. If Aerien was still giving all of this power, then it was in Dryad’s nature to use all of it. The mana was so strong that the tree and the vines both began to glow, visible for everyone to see. The vines were now absolutely protected from everything the dragon could do. More than that though, they were also far strongher now, and Dryad could coil them tighter. Dryad kept making the vines pull harder and harder until it pulled the dragon’s wing right off.

“NO! IT HUUUURTS!!!”

Suddenly, Aerien’s thoughts of pain grew even stronger. They now dominated the previous cry for help that she had made. It was so powerful now that Dryad could feel all the pain as well. It all echoed through Dryad’s body, and as Dryad was in their spirit projection they could feel all the parts of Aerien’s body where it hurt. The pain was so far beyond anything Dryad had ever known. Dryad had hardly known any pain, but there were a lot of memories of pain coming from all the memories Dryad had gained from Aerien’s spirit energy. In all those memories though, there were very few that had experienced something that could be comparable to this pain.

It was a pain on the level of those who were being tortured to their death. The bitter memories of those who had died in such overwhelming pain. That was the only thing that even came close. It was only now that Dryad had realized the significance of such memories existing within the information Aerien had given. Dryad was too blinded by hate before. They could not stop to think about it now though, the pain had overtaken them to a point they could no longer function.

Suddenly, the torturous pain all stopped. Dryad felt relieved for a second, but then they realized that all of that pain had been coming from the spirit energy sent by Aerien in the first place. If the pain stopped, that meant the energy had stopped. If that was the case then...

Dryad looked inside the tree that is now the center of their much much larger body. They could see Túeth, the master’s apprentice, on the first floor holding the limp body of Aerien. Dryad could no longer feel any power at all from Aerien, not even the mana energy that most elves are always spreading out. That would mean... NO!

It was just then that Dryad noticed their master talking to them. Dryad turned in their spirit form to look at their master. “Master! Quick! It’s Aerien!” Dryad screamed, and then opened the entry way for Túeth. The walls of Dryad’s body had grown several times thicker. Instead of just opening a door way, instead it was a long tunnel or hallway that had opened. However, that Túeth seemed every bit as desparate to get Aerien to the master as Dryad was, and she just ran straight as soon as the passage was opened.

Túeth presented Aerien to the master. Dryad hoped it was not true. But, Aerien was still here, right? Dryad did not think Aerien got any injury to her body. It was something that happened to Aerien’s spirit. That was what it felt like to Dryad anyway. Normally, when an elf dies from an injury to their spirit, their body vanishes completely. However, Aerien was still there. But also, there was no mana. This just did not make any sense at all.

There was nothing Dryad knew that could help to figure out what was happening, but... master’s methods were all about figuring out the answers to things like this, right? So, if that’s the case, then probably he should be able to find out what’s happening then!? They could only hope that he could. Master was the only one who could help now.

Author's note

So, we have Nymph's, or rather now, Dryad's POV this time. Sorry to anyone getting annoyed at the repetition of the same events, next chapter will finally move on from this a little and we will see some of the aftermath.

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