Treborn

Artemis couldn't further her mastery of Heldic without experimenting, she didn't have a teacher, so experiment she shall.

Her thought process was, if Heldic allowed her to impart her will onto plants and manipulate their behavior and energy, what about animals?

It was a stretch, but it was something she was willing to try. The worst that could happen was nothing, right?

"So, when do plants normally resist?"

She was curious, because although they've yet to do it, knowing when it was likely would be a good marker for future reference.

"It's a simple concept, the stronger the target, the more likely and easier time it will have resisting"

That made sense in Artemis' head, or else you could just enslave the strongest plant.

"Okay, thank you, I'm going to go practice this"

After saying goodbye to Az, she ran even further into the forest, blowing past everything in her way, only to arrive within a field of tall grass that easily passed her hips.

"We both know hiding from me won't do you any good. Unless you want me to come find you, then, by all means."

There were two routes this could go, he revealed himself or she went looking for him, the latter was much more fun.

"No need, I learned my lesson the last time I tried that, what is it you need?"

"tsk"

Artemis cursed Fluffles for knowing better than to test her tracking skills, because indeed, it was him, that she came to see.

If out of all the fauna she knew, there was one person she could bounce ideas off of and seek a new way to view things, it was this canine.

"I need your help mastering Heldic even further, you're the one I can count on the most"

He tilted his head to the side in confusion

"I thought you already mastered Heldic"

"I was under the impression I had as well, but Az just informed me that I've only scratched the surface and that he is unable to teach me because it evades even him. So, I'm supposed to learn and master something that not even Asphorus, the Elder Tree of Esteria, had ever touched."

Although she acted nonchalant about it before, the more she thought about it, the more impossible the task seemed. Asphorus was the elder of this place for a reason. Based on what she gathered through listening to countless hours of old trees talking about the days when they did more than sleep. Indulging in their endless chatter was the easiest to get something out of them.

Before this place was cut off from human influence in some sort of war, Asphorus had guarded this entire region with an unshakable will. Harnessing devasting levels of nature magic to push back intruders, causing them to leave and never return.

The two large and ancient trees have been asleep long before the oldest tree in the area could remember, so that left it all up to Asphorus to defend their home, and he did it beautifully.

"Calm down, we'll figure something out, not like I had anything better to do. Did he give any insight or clue into how we could go about this?"

Calming herself down, Artemis shared what Az told her before they parted.

"Imparting your will onto the plants, and they obey? This entails that the plants have a conscious, same as the trees and fauna, no?"

"Which begs the question of intelligence, because if they have a conscience, they can communicate. Fluffles you're a genius!"

But a few hours later, in the comfort of darkness, Artemis had yet to establish communication.

"Yeah, this is just as hard as I expected"

"We both knew you weren't going to get it first try, as talented as you are, you're not that talented."

"A girl can dream"

Artemis knew she wasn't going to comprehend much in such a short period of time, but she was still ridiculously excited to make at least small strides down the path to understanding. She was finally leaving the shade of Asphorus' canopy, to grow her own branches.

Laying with Fluffles under the moonlight, Artemis imagined her life going forward and she thought about if anything would change.

Would she ever see new people? See new scenery or tread a different ground?

For the first time, she felt a little alone, she wasn't like the other animals here.

Fluffles was the person who knew her the most and even he found her antics annoying, she was aware of that.

So, she lay there, on a sleeping wolf, twisting and bending plants to her whims. Watching the beautiful night sky in awe.

The longer she watched, the more intense the longing in her heart grew, she started moving bigger and bigger roots around.

Initially starting with small ones, it progressed into shaping trees into odd angles and distorting grass.

Wind speeds picked up, but air currents moved at unnatural bends, sometimes fully circling a singular location, endlessly and the entire field began to glow with a green light.

Artemis was still watching, longing, until she felt a tether in her heart, a connection that felt extremely familiar, but she couldn't place a name on it.

The more she longed, the more the connection called her, so she followed it.

In a maze of her own heart, she followed the link deeper into her soul, losing the feeling and regaining it again on several occasions, but the call always remained.

She twisted and turned, coming up on dead ends, returning to where she came, but she continued to follow all the same.

Artemis' heart raced, she couldn't put a name to what was happening, but it excited her to a degree, even sort of frightened her.

What could she be doing, and would it hurt her?

But she pressed on all the same, growing surer of herself as time went on, she couldn't tell if her stress was being invoked upon Fluffles as well, since his breathing was becoming more erratic.

'He's always been sensitive to moods'

But Artemis decided to check on him later, she had found the source of the tether.

At this point, on the outside, there was a swirling tempest of wind surrounding her, with trees resembling the vines that sometimes encircle their trunks.

She paid it no mind because she was face to face with a behemoth of a door. Strange symbols of what looked like a tree with the imprint of a palm in the design.

Floating islands orbited the door in a slow and eerie manner

Surrounded by darkness, it seemed the only option left was to approach the door.

Whatever she was following, was found on the other side and Artemis knew the key was placing her palm in the door, it was an instinctual feeling, something she couldn't deny if she tried.

Deciding not to wait until she was too terrified, she swiftly approached the imprint and decided to just go through with it.

'Please don't kill me'

Artemis shoved her hand into the hole that seemed to fit more nicely than anything she's ever tried on.

Immediately following the contact, the door began to glow in a white light from the imprint and spread outwardly before it slowly opened in a foreboding manner.

There seemed to be nothing but darkness on the other side as well, even when fully opened, and for a few seconds, all was silent.

'Well that was a wa-'

As if waiting for her cue, a force snatched Artemis backwards at speeds she could barely comprehend.

Reaching a height that seemed to correlate with the stars themselves, she saw...

'A tree?'

But the only thing she received was a glimpsed before both her and Fluffles jolted awake, short of breath.

They only looked at each other, without knowing what to say.

At least Artemis didn't, Fluffles seemed to have only one question.

"What did you do"