Scraps of Normalcy Buried by Misfortune

⎒ ⥉ ⎒

Decades ago, Oakheart’s Enchanted Forest wasn’t so secluded from the outside world. In fact, it opened its arms for any curious walks of life, and it’d be easy to find it. All they'd have to do was simply look up at the sky.

In elven culture, the bigger the trees they own, the higher their status, so the fact that Oakheart’s enchanted trees were tall enough to reach the heavens meant there was a noble family who had near complete authority over the forest, a family blessed by Florathea herself.

Before she went mad, turned her back on them, and turned the world upside down, Florathea truly was a gentle goddess. If that needed proof, the noble Ivoric family would simply flaunt how healthy their gardens were, especially their trees.

For elves specifically, they could grow a special kind of tree called a sapling familiar, sentient trees capable of using magic, and like how there were different breeds of cats and dogs, there were also different sapling seeds. Some were regular oak trees, and some were sakura trees, and a few might be bestowed even rarer seeds with mystical features, such as flaming leaves or watery branches.

All Ivorics owned at least one of such rare and powerful trees.

All except for one.

Sloane’s one and only sapling familiar happened to be a simple orange tree.

One day, while Sloane watered his sapling familiar while it was no taller than his knee, it curiously asked, “Say, why did you choose me over a rare one? I’m not special like them.”

Sloane casually shrugged. “Because oranges are my favorite fruit.”

“What? That’s it?”

“Yeah.”

“Seriously?! I’m just a free food source to you?!”

He gleefully laughed. “I guess you can say that.”

“You’re so weird, but…” Its leaves swayed around. “Thank you, Master.”

“Hm? For what?”

“For… y’know…”

The young elf tilted his head.

“Ugh, never mind.”

“What? Just say it.”

“No way! It’s too embarrassing to say it out loud!”

“Hey, I’m not going to laugh.”

“You laughed at me literally seconds ago!”

“But that wasn’t because I’m teasing you.”

“Then why’d you laugh?”

He shrugged and smiled warmly. “Because it’s fun talking to you.”

The little plant remained silent for a moment before it quivered and buried itself underground.

“Citrine? What’s wrong?”

“I've got enough water. You can head back now.”

“Oh, sure. Grow up fast, okay?”

“Ew, I’m not your kid.”

“Right, you’re more like a pet.”

“I’m not a pet either!”

Sloane laughed and walked away, waving farewell as he did.

Every few years or so, he would follow this exact routine to water his tree, share some of his magic, and strike up some casual conversation with it, hearing all sorts of tales it witnessed during his absence. Decades passed as such in the blink of an eye, and nothing changed besides Citrine growing up like Sloane wished for. Before he knew it, his sapling familiar could finally grow some oranges.

“Amazing,” Sloane murmured, picking an orange off its branch. “You really did it.”

Citrine swayed its branches around like a dog would wag its tail. “Hehe, I sure did! And guess what? I can finally do some magic! Look!”

Sloane looked down at the grass surrounding it, where a green rune began to glow and spin around Ciritne. Its leaves gently scattered into the wind, disintegrating and converting into cool wisps. A little squirrel with a cut on its tail happened to scurry by, and a wisp landed on it, treating its wound.

“Look! I can heal stuff now! Isn’t that awesome?”

“That’s… incredible. You’ve been practicing all this time?”

“Duh! I gotta make myself worthy of an Ivoric’s sapling familiar somehow.” It stopped releasing its magic and drooped its branches. “Phew, that did take a lot out of me, though…”

“I never asked you to practice magic, though.”

It swayed its branches. “You don’t get it, Master. I told you a dozen times already. I feel so out of place compared to those trees your family has. They can glow in the dark, they can share their elemental magic with their owners, and they can also summon fairies and animals. But, I… can’t do any of that.”

“Citrine…” He sighed and shook his head. “And I told you a dozen times, you don’t need to do any of that. Our status doesn’t just depend on how good our familiars are.”

“Are you saying that you don’t need a rare tree to show how cool you are?”

“Pfft, haha! I guess you can say that.” He snapped his fingers, and a massive green and yellow aura started flooding into the grove. “I have enough power to conquer a whole forest of my own. No one would dare to look down on me.”

Citrine shuddered. “W-woah! That’s so much mana!”

Sloane lowered his hand, and the lights faded away. “But owning a whole forest is too much responsibility for me. I’m happy with just an orange tree.”

“W-wow, you’ve been hiding all that power this whole time? Why?”

He shrugged. “I just don’t feel comfortable showing it off.”

“But you’re a noble Ivoric, aren’t you? Everyone already thinks highly of you and expects you to be strong.”

“And that’s exactly why I’ve been hiding it.”

“What do you mean?”

Sloane pondered for a moment before sitting down. “Citrine, did you remember why I chose you?”

“Huh? Well, it’s because you want my oranges, right?”

“Haha, that’s actually half the full reason.”

“Half?”

“The truth is, I also chose you because… I wanted to have some normalcy. I wanted to be friends with someone who could understand what a normal life is like and tell me all about it.”

“Really…?”

“The nobility, the duties, the expectations they have of us Ivorics… I never wanted any of it. I can barely stand working my butt off for a century, but they expect me to keep going for thousands of years.” He shuddered and rubbed his arms. “I can’t even imagine how much extra work I’d get if they found out I have this much power.”

“S-seriously? That’s why? Master, you’re… pretty lazy, aren’t you?”

“Haha, I guess so. I’m the only one in the family who doesn’t care about these things. I sure am glad I have older siblings to take care of most of the responsibilities.”

“So you’re also the odd one out, huh? I see… I think I get it now.” Citrine briefly fell silent and swayed its branches. “Hey, Master? Can you teach me how to get stronger?”

“Oh?”

“I… don’t think it’s a good idea to hide all that power, but… if you really don’t want to use yours, then you can use mine! I can show up whenever you need to use magic, and I’ll do my best for you! That way, we can at least do the bare minimum together!”

“Citrine… pfft, haha!”

“Hey, what’s so funny? I’m being serious here!”

“No, no, that’s not it. Hearing that… makes me happy.”

“Aw geez, now you’re making me embarrassed. Sooo, can you teach me or what?”

“Sure, on the condition that your training is kept as a secret.”

“A secret? Why?”

“So that our workload won’t pile up, of course.”

“Wow. Of course. Haha, okay!”

“So, what do you want the magic chant to be?”

“Hehe, I already have one in mind! It’ll be…”

⮽⮽⮽

“I summon thee, Citrine!”

Sloane’s agonized voice somehow managed to snap me back from my shock. I gawked at him and the green rune manifesting under his feet.

It expanded and spun around, and a moment later, a massive tree stump sprouted beneath him and raised him like a mini platform. Roots began to shoot up around him, soaring high and easily slicing through the fake sapling familiar.

One of those roots slipped through my cage, removed the thorn from my abdomen, and coiled my stab wound in a tight embrace. It squeezed so hard I thought my guts would explode, but surprisingly, the tighter the squeeze, the less pain I felt.

The roots were… healing me? Sloane had healing magic this whole time?

“Haruma! Above you!” Dahlian shouted.

“Huh?” I looked up and flinched.

The explosive screen once again manifested right over my head in all its glitchy glory. I almost screamed for help, but as if the roots understood the situation, they bent the bars apart and pulled me right out.

My cage spectacularly exploded and blew off a chunk of the dead tree, including the branches holding Dahlian’s and Ashrenne’s cages. Sloane’s roots managed to catch those two and safely carried them out as well.

We all dropped on the grass with a soft thud, wearily groaning in relief.

“Oof, thanks for saving us,” I said, rubbing my stomach.

“Goddamn, you can do all that this whole time?” asked Dahlian.

Sloane didn’t respond. Instead, he continued to stare at the rotting tree with an equally dead look in his eyes.