Rain Harlow
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(Vol 5) Chapter 24: Tree's Company
🕑 Added 2024-05-18 14:49:06 +0000 UTCMarjorie was not super conscious initially, more lodged in the memories and dreams of her and the tree. It mixed together like her human life was interposed and interrupted by sleepy winter seasons and big record growths in spring. Sorrow long, long ago, feeling many cousins far away burning and dying. Joy at the restoration of the Great Mother, Redberry, whose name meant fiery, meant sweet, meant spring and summer blossoms, meant poison and fury to Burners, meant… many, many things.
The System had some things to say, but her brain just had no inclination for it in the midst of a profound and incredible spiritual experience. There was nothing violent or painful to the birth. It was a peaceful, slow, warm matter. Moreover, a vast, vast network stretched in every direction. Family. Support. The resonant hum of it was overwhelming. She could just be there, within it.
But her senses gradually tuned as her body formed into the basal dryad humanoid. With it, vibrancy grew and grew like a tight bundle of expectations ready to burst forth. She was a bud made to blossom out into the deep of Summer. And others were beckoning her to do so, and the tree family was giving her a little pat and gentle push. So she did. Quickly!
The bud was a folded-down body spawned out of the wood. As soon as she could open her eyes and see, she did!
She burst upward onto her feet — on some sort of giant lily pad — and breathed deep with her hands out wide and exultant. She smiled in the light of a late afternoon, the sun peaking through the thick canopy of her family’s tops.
She blinked as she realized there was a huge, huge crowd all around. Directly in front was Redberry, and… others she knew. Two body-length floating mirrors showed Samantha and Azure, watching on wide-eyed and perhaps weirded out as their gaze remained locked on her. Bast — her son! — stood there slack-jawed and unsure.
The rest of the crowd was more unrecognizable — a mix of dryads and elves with a few fauns, many by appearances druids. They all stood on connected giant lily pads that floated in the prevalent swamp they were in. Most held wooden staves, all of them likely magical. Immediately in front of them all was a floating circular network of runes, arcing out left and right, likely surrounding the tree.
The ritual to birth me… no. Rebirth me.
Every single other person there aside from Bast was female. She checked. This annoyed her for some reason. She wanted a man there. She felt an impulse to find one. She would, and then she’d-
What?! No! No, I was warned about this. That’s a firm no, Lovelight. You should feel shame for those thoughts for some random person! That is hardly how coupling works. As a little bundle in the back of her head, the tree Zheramoss seemed amused. It indicated approval to seek ‘mates.’
“Hey, don’t encourage that, for crying out loud! I’m a bloody newborn!”
“Marjorie Lovelight,” Redberry intoned, “welcome to Calrenazzod and dryadhood. Please take some final moments with your son and Samantha, as we will need to sequester you for a while very imminently. There is much to learn about being a dryad beyond the instincts that will drive you. It’s best to… nip it in the bud right out of the gate. And there are ritual spells to assist that do not require this level of spectacle.”
Without even thinking about it, Lovelight’s chin rose challengingly to this. “I am a free entity and can do as I-...I-” Marjorie cut it off with a near-strangled sound, wincing. This Lovelight has a mind of her own. No wonder I need guidance!
With effort, Marjorie took a deep breath and said evenly, “I will gladly do as you say, Redberry. Thank you.”
Redberry shrugged and nodded to two dryads, who began walking over to her, carrying cloth bundles and such.
Marjorie looked down at herself. “Right. I’m bloody naked.” Embarrassed, she covered herself with her hands, though in truth, she was covered over in thick tree bark that made her form more like a moving wooden statue by all appearances. There weren’t ‘bits’ on display, exactly.
Redberry chuckled. “They aren’t for that form, specifically. I assume you’ll want to shapeshift. You’ll find it very natural and easy to do once you think about it. But I’d advise waiting until you have the clothes on.”
“Yes!” Marjorie avoided thinking about it at all while the dryads walked up to her.
“You got this, Momma!” Samantha called supportively.
“Thank you, dear.” She flashed a smile. What that looked like as a tree woman, she wasn’t sure.
Bast meanwhile remained oddly speechless, such was his shock. He was actually a bit pale.
My poor boy. This is all very strange, I know. The shape change will be better for him. Good idea, Redberry.
The two dryads fitted her with a robe, cloak, and sandals. Once she was apparently well-dressed, she focused and felt in her mind for whatever shapeshifting ability she had. But it was more of a physical thing she felt, like an itch deep within her core self. As soon as she ‘pushed’ at it, it was like flexing a muscle, and a ripple went through her that she could direct.
The most familiar form — the only other familiar form other than the base one — was ‘Marjorie.’ So she switched to it. Bark became soft skin, and hard, core wood became bone and muscle.
When she breathed in the air in the human guise, it felt very similar to being alive again as her old self. Only more vibrant, more alive. Energy prickled in every pore of her skin, and she wanted to go run or jump up and down. Power was wrapped around her just waiting to churn up into an engine of activity. It felt like a child’s exuberance and vitality coursing through her.
She tried to keep it under control, but she was smiling a bit giddily as she walked over to Bast, holding her arms out for a hug.
He was still in shock, but an equally happy smile to hers began to blossom on his face. A measure of relief. “Mother?” he asked questioningly as he received her hug.
“Of course, son,” she breathed as she squeezed him with glee. Satisfaction. She couldn't help laughing. It just spilled out of her. “I feel incredible! I feel alive as never before!”
He got caught up in this, too. He burst into laughter, and picked her up in the hug to spin her around once with a great, exultant cry, overjoyed. “It is you! You are alive, haha! And ten years younger! A miracle! It’s an actual miracle!”
Their combined laughter and flaring mix of emotions died down. Tears in her eyes, Marjorie broke from the hug to take her son’s face in her hands. She simply cherished having him at hand. To touch and see him in reality. “I fly with my bird now. The nest is no more.”
He grinned and took her hand on his cheek. “A new nest, Mother. Or a whole nest of nests, in a grand design. A grand artwork.”
“I suppose I’ve seen some of it, at that. Above, the culmination of all our progress.” Finally, Marjorie turned her gaze to Samantha and Azure in the mirrors, who were both looking on and beaming. She beamed back. “All thanks to you, Goddess. Daughter. I can never repay you, but I will try with all that I am.”
The goddess in the mirror waved her hands in denial. “You just being you is service enough, Momma. Please just focus on you. And celebrating! The girls — including you — are going to be partying soon. But get your feet under you here, first, alright?”
Marjorie smirked and shifted to give a somewhat ironic partial curtsy. “As you command, Your Majesty.”
“Gah! Stop with that!”
Everyone other than the goddess laughed. Marjorie turned to Redberry, who was standing there patiently, hands folded in front of her and a clutch of dryas waiting with her.
Marjorie’s smile faltered a bit as she looked at the mass of them. Somehow, her instincts informed her of the subtle threat — they were going to take her away whether she had agreed or not.
For my own good. Let’s not get it twisted, Lovelight — I did agree to this. Planned it. Strange, to have a resistance within me. I feel both more myself than ever and not exactly myself at all. As satisfying as it would be to simply give in to this nature compelling me, it is better for my family this way. That is what matters.
Turning her thoughts briefly over to the tree, she asked, “Is it not, after all, a part of my name, Zheramoss? What binds us as common ground?”
The tree was… meditative on this. It agreed with solemn sanction, and further showed appreciation for the consultation. Though usually permissive to whatever she wanted to run around and do, Marjorie felt, it understood what she meant, and interpreted that her relationships were like her forest, and to surrender to the Dryad Self would be to uproot and damage them.
As such, she felt Zheramoss lend its strength fully to this. Her will became buttressed like roots growing up to support and reinforce a wall.
Due to the support of your symbiont “Zheramoss,” you have +2 Effective Levels to any will-based resistance contest that involves ‘failing’ your family and dear friends. This cannot apply to offensive acts.
Hmm. Interesting!
Marjorie cleared her throat, then nodded with a smile to Redberry. “Thank you so much for all you’ve done, Your Majesty. You’ve given me a second chance. A new family.” Her eyes shifted to the trees themselves, and hers nearby. Zheramoss, tall and strong and bright of leaf. “In more ways than one.”
Redberry returned the smile. “You are a strong lady, Marjorie. Your strength aids the tree, and thus the forest, and thus [Nature]. It accepts you with excitement and approves of the investment. We have no regrets to make you one of ours, my green recruit.”
Redberry’s smile faltered and she blinked, surprised that she had made that pun. She glared at Samantha briefly as if she were to blame, then continued breathlessly, “Say your final farewells and come with us, please.”
Nodding, Marjorie gave her son another hug. “We’ll meet again soon, my son. I love you! And I want to hear about everything that has happened. Including things avoided because I was a deader.”
“Of course,” Bast said, still grinning in his good mood for events. “I look forward to it, Mother. Be diligent with your tutors, hmm?”
At the teasing, Marjorie gave a wan smile, then turned to Samantha. The goddess held her hand up flat, and Marjorie touched the mirror in mirror to this. It felt very similar to skin. It was warm.
Samantha gave her a small smile. “Almost like the real thing. Not quite, I’m afraid. I’d form an illusion instead, but it doesn’t feel right.”
“No. Soon, my daughter,” Marjorie insisted. “And I will expect you to personally pick me up when I’m ready, hmm? No more riding in cars with the boys. Though that was quite a fun ride, admittedly.”
Sammy moved her hand up more near her head and straightened, then spoke solemnly, “I do so swear I shall pick my mom up personally when she’s done with Dryad School!”
Chuckling, Marjorie nodded curtly. “See that you do.” She then turned to Azure and touched the mirror with her hand. Azure returned the gesture. “Thank you for taking care of her. Pray continue, my daughter. In the not-distant future, we will speak personally as well.”
Azure smiled and nodded. “Of course. I look forward to it, Lady Marjorie.”
With a final nod, Majorie turned and began in the direction of Redberry. She turned one last time and blew a kiss. “Until another day soon, my children! I love you!”
They returned their own protestations likewise, and then Marjorie went with Redberry, carried on a lily pad deeper into the forest — deep into secret places none but their kind were allowed.
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