The Tree of Good

The spooky dark monsters we encountered continued to keep their distance thanks to Uncle scaring them. They didn’t leave, just decided to watch from little holes they dug in the sludgy sand.

“Mmm!” I stuck My tongue out at them.

Uncle warned me again to stay close, saying I could make them even more angry if I taunted too much.

Although the cave was where we wanted to be, it seemed that a few of those spooky guys were hanging around it and gnawing on the rocks and dying foliage near the opening.

*Crunch Crunch* went their mouths as they chomped on crinkled leaves and stems. The shadow aura around their bodies slowly lifted, leaving behind fuzzy looking critters that almost looked like normal animals. Other dark monsters came to try and get some grub, but had to battle with the rejuvenated wildlife.

“This is crazy,” I commented on the weird circle of life. “Should we do something?” I asked, wondering how these monsters were turning back into animals.

Uncle shook his head and picked up a clump of ash. Then he pulsed a wave of blue mana energy into it. The mana turned the ash more brown and healthy looking, like regular soil. Tiny little plants started spurting up.

“Those things were normal animals at one point. But because of the mana drought, they must not be getting enough spirit energy and turned into the monsters.”

So animals were going to turn into dark monsters if they didn't get spirit energy. Everything was affected by this in some way or another. '

"So they're eating the dying plants to get mana out of them?" I asked.

“Yeah," Uncle nodded. "We're better off focusing on the drought right now. That'll save everything all at once, rather than a handful here.”

As mean as we might have looked ignoring them, we passed by the former animals and entered the glowing cave. My sensors were barraged on all sides with mana signatures coming from little veins of rainbow crystals all over the walls.

Those veins got larger the deeper into the cave we went. The bigger they were, the more pretty the glow they had.

I'd been here before. The pretty crystal mana growing over the walls unlocked a... I think it's called a core memory? Daddy carried me through here when I was really tiny. Not a baby tiny, but definitely small.

For a moment, I placed my hand over the crystallized spirit energy, allowing a blissful spell to cast over my soul. Something about mana really was soothing, as if I was touching pure life.

Honestly, that's exactly what this was. Mana was life.

Uncle joined me, giving a content smile as we shared the moment.

“It's so lovely,” I commented, noticing the crystals were glowing brighter where my hand was placed. The light began to pulse, matching the rhythm of my own crystal heart.

“Mana has wonderful properties." Uncle said. "Its soothing effect is probably the best.”

Peace is a great word to describe it.

“How come all the mana grows on the wall like this?”

Normally, mana is invisible, like air. But it had other forms too, like a liquid. I saw that every day, since the big arteries coming down my belly from my heart were full of mana rich blood.

Solid mana was something rare though. Uncle says it only grew in places where large amounts of mana passed through.

“These caves are responsible for taking mana from Elysium and transporting it to the surface world,” he said.

“So if we kept going through them, we’d eventually reach the place people live?” I asked, excited at the idea of meeting a real life human.

Humanity was special, because my people had three very particular commandments we all followed in order to protect them:

No matter what happens, those commandments were never to be broken. It’s a sin. Sins are bad, you know?

“It might take a while to get to the surface from here, and you’d probably get lost. But it is possible.”

That was exciting! I couldn’t wait to meet my first human. What would they be like? Kind? intelligent? I sure hoped both!

The cave was bright when we first entered because of the crystal glowing on the wall, but eventually it got a bit dark once we entered a deeper cavern.

“Young Mistress, activate your night vision.”

-Night vision engaged-

Suddenly I could see everything around me like it was daytime, maybe even a bit more vibrantly. The only difference was that the whole environment was outlined in blue. Uncle had a green outline around him, like with the IFF tags.

The virtual name tag hovering above his head displaying his name for me also turned green too, as opposed to its usual navy blue.

My sight may have improved here, but it was actually a sound that caught my attention…

*Tink tink tink!*

*Tink tink tink!*

It sounded like someone was hitting a rock with a pickaxe, like in a video game when you're looking for diamonds, but in real life.

It kept getting louder and louder until we saw a short person in a purple robe, chipping away at mana crystals on the wall with a pickaxe, all the while collecting it into a little burlap backpack.

He had a long pointy nose, mean looking eyes and floppy ears. His skin was also yellowish green, but he seemed healthy enough for whatever he was. He looked old too, like Methuselah kinda’ old.

I whispered to Uncle, "What is he?"

"A Hobgoblin," he patted my head. "Nothing to be afraid of."

If I wasn't supposed to be afraid, I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask what he was up to by collecting the crystals.

"Hello,” I called out, getting the hobgoblin's attention. “What are you doing that for?”

"What does it look like, ya' hockey puck?" He had a grizzled tone and condescending look. "I'm gettin' these mana crystals harvested for spirit energy."

He’s an angry grandpa goblin…

"So it seems you’re affected by the mana drought as well," Uncle concluded. "I assume you're collecting the crystal because of that?"

"Hey, you guys aren't as silly as you seem." He slung the pickaxe over his shoulder and glared at me. His face scrunched up like a crinkled paper bag. "Yuck. Not another one of you fake angels."

Why was Grandpa Goblin being mean to me? I thought he was supposed to be 'nothing to worry about.'

His meaninness made me sad, so I ran behind Uncle's leg to cry.

"Waahh! He's being a jerk!"

Uncle gave my head a comforting rub and pat, which mads me feel a little better.

"Hey, kid…" Grandpa Goblin huffed out sincerely, "don't take it personal. You just don’t remind me of very good times."

I slowly stopped crying, letting curiosity take the place of my sadness. Then I tugged on Uncle's hand.

"What's he talking about?"

"Nevermind that." He glared at Grandpa Goblin, all mean like.

"You haven't told her?" Grandpa Goblin laughed. "She deserves to know her own people's history."

"Not until she's older."

As far as I knew, our history was pretty clean and clear. My people, the Exceed, were protectors of humanity. And one day I was going to take up that duty. Maybe the hobgoblins were bad guys long ago? If they were mean like Grandpa Goblin, I wouldn’t doubt it.

I wanted to ask more questions, but Uncle was too stubborn to tell me anything.

"S'pose you two came to talk to the Tree, am I right?" Grandpa Goblin asked.

"The Tree?" Uncle raised his brow.

Oh, that’s right! More memories were coming back. I remembered we came here to see a big tree. She was shiny, bright, and she could talk. Could she have been the boni tree’s mom?

I tried digging further into my memory banks, but everything was a bit blurry from those times. I was so little that my computer brain was still developing. One thing I know was that she had some tasty fruit. She had to be related to the boni tree for sure!

Grandpa Goblin decided he’d bring us to meet her. Not far down the path he took us on was a sparkly waterfall. Beyond that was where he lived, and the tree too.

“Why are you two here anyways?” he bluntly asked.

“Our boni tree is mana division,” I told him.

“Deficient, Yalda,” Uncle corrected me. “The sapling she was provided not long ago is suffering from mana deficiency.”

Grandpa Goblin wasn’t surprised. “A lot of Elysium is kinda’ like that right now, if you can’t tell.”

So sassy…

Once we finally passed through the waterfall, we were in a luminescent cavern filled with giant crystal gems of all kinds and colours, each radiating a variety of emotions from exciting to soothing.

Giant geode spheres were scattered around the cavern. Inside of them were other hobgoblins, mostly women and children. They were pulverizing those mana crystals that Grandpa Goblin was collecting and mixing them into water, which they dumped into an underground lake.

At the center of this little luminescent sea was the tree. She had brightly coloured leaves, sparkling all over as if a sun were shining on her. Her bark was like silver. Little pulses of energy radiated up the trunk every three seconds on the dot.

There was a halo of symbols above her, it had a faint pink glow around it, lighting up even more of the cavern. I couldn't understand what the symbols meant.

Strung up around the cave walls were some clay heads with funny faces on them. Some glowing paper was tagged along next to the heads and read, 'Saharu, anka to maga, ni Xanna, anka to ehom ni gahom. Oiknaka maga ehom hom.'

-Translating Nazalian-

-‘Saharu, god of magic, and Xanna, god of life and death. Please grace us with mana so life may live.’-

I’d never heard of Saharu or Xanna, but I made a note of them in my head as the gods the Hobgoblins worshiped.

It was really quiet besides the ambiance of the cave and the crushing of crystal. Everyone seemed a little on edge when we entered. I tried to look at some of the goblins hiding in their geodes, but they would just creep further in, suspiciously.

A baby goblin was playing with a ball in one of the crystalline homes, but the ball bounced away and landed in the lake. It floated all the way to where we were. I picked it up and brought it to the home I saw it fall out of.

"Here you go," I smiled.

The baby goblin eagerly came to retrieve his ball from me, but his mother yanked him back and glared at me with suspicious eyes, inching backwards all the while.

“Hey, she’s good,” Grandpa Goblin surprisingly defended me. “Just take the ball back.”

After his insistence, the mother took the ball and allowed her baby to play with it once more.

"Thank you for returning this," The mother said in a growly voice to me.

"You're welcome!" My smile grew twice as big.

Suddenly more children started creeping out from all the corners of the cavern. One girl had cool sunglasses on, no idea why since it wasn’t very bright in here. Maybe it was a fashion statement?

They all looked curious, asking if I wanted to join in on some games.

"Uncle, can I play with them?" I tugged on his jacket.

"We have an objective. I'd prefer we keep to it."

I frowned and got all sad and pouty. I really wanted to play. This is like the first time I've ever met other kids!

My head felt woozy for a sudden second, like I needed a nap. But that feeling passed just as quick as it came.

"Let them play," a kind and soft voice, like a grandmother, filled my mind.

That voice had to be none other than the talking tree herself. I remembered her telepathic tone from before.

"You sure that's a good idea, my lady?" Grandpa Goblin asked the Tree.

"Yes. Let the children play."

With her encouragement, Uncle allowed me to join the other children. This was exciting!

"Yay!" I cheered as we all ran around.

"Yaaay!!" The other kids cheered too.

We had a lot of fun playing things like tag and had races around the lake. We even got to swim a little! These cave kids really knew how to have a good time!

~☆☆☆~

I returned back to Uncle after all the other kids had to go eat lunch and take naps. They wanted me to eat with them, but stewed bat sounded even less appetizing than eating rocks.

So now that Uncle and I were reunited, we were able to get back onto the mission to figure out what was going on with the mana drought.

A short boat ride got us to the island where the Tree was permanently planted. As we approached her, she started speaking to us telepathically again.

“Ahh, the little angel has returned,” the Tree’s kind voice stated. “And she’s gotten so much bigger.”

I must have been pretty small back then, it was like 4 years ago. I'm still short, but not like a baby.

I swear, I'm a big girl now! Wait, Uncle will get mad if I swear!

Grandpa Goblin spoke up next, "They’re here to solve the mana drought, I guess, my lady."

The Talking Tree didn't say anything for a moment, but a few of her leaves started to fall down.

"Is that so? This issue has been a burden for some time, and even I have not been able to resolve it."

How long had the drought been going on? It must have been a while if so much of Elysium had been affected by it already.

“There weren’t any bees reporting the drought to me for some reason,” Uncle said. “We noticed it when the sapling you gave my brother and niece began to wither.”

“Oh dear… Then things are becoming worse than I thought.” A few more of her leaves fell down from their branches. “If we do not act quickly, all the mana in the world may soon disappear.”

“We were hoping you might have an idea of what started this,” Uncle said.

“I do. Someone is stealing all the mana in Elysium. Who and why, I cannot say for sure.”

To be able to steal so much mana was unthinkable! It’s like trying to breathe in all the air in the world all at once. You just can’t do it.

“Do you have an idea where this thief might be?” Uncle asked. “Maybe how they’re doing it?”

“The towers pinned around the land have been taking in all the mana, more then they used to... But not releasing it in the water like they once did. I fear whoever is the culprit resides in the one closest to us now.”

That was Pylon 83, the one we saw making our way here.

“Uncle, is it possible for the towers to steal all this mana?” I asked.

He explained that the towers could take in a lot of mana, but not store it up. “Whoever is taking the mana, they may be using it for something. But for what?” he brushed his chin.

Now it started to make sense. If someone was stealing the mana and using it, that would swallow up a lot all at once. But it still seemed unthinkable that they'd have such a need for so much. And it was even weirder that other pylons around Elysium were doing the same thing too.

“Please, I beg of you two…” the Tree pleaded. “Do not let this thief steal any more of the spirit from us. Even our lake here will soon run dry if we cannot find more soon.”

Uncle nodded. “I figured it was a good idea to visit you first. Going in blind might have been an issue.” He turned to me next. “What do you say, Young Mistress? Do you think we can stop this mana thief?”

I pumped my fist into the air and gave a determined smile. “Yeah! Let’s stop the mana thief and save the world!”

-☆-

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