The scream of the forest cut off instantly.
There was no fade-out, no gradual silence. One second, my ears were ringing with the sound of grinding wood and snapping roots; the next, there was only the chirping of a single, confused cricket.
I hit the ground hard, stumbling onto my hands and knees. The smell hit me first—not the cloying, burning-sugar scent of the panicked forest, but the dull, dusty smell of dry earth and ordinary grass.
I looked up.
We were in the Greenfield, in the flat, in front of my shop's tree. The sky wasn't a swirling green void anymore; it was the calm, indifferent blue of a late afternoon. The sun was normal. The wind was gentle.
"Are we... are we dead?" a small voice whimpered.
I pushed myself up and looked around. The field was littered with them. Dozens of dryads were scattered across the grass like fallen leaves. They were huddled in tight groups, clutching each other, staring at the open sky with terrified eyes.
"We are not dead," the Elder said.
She was standing a few feet away, her back to me. She hadn't fallen. She stood perfectly straight, her posture rigid, staring at the empty space where the portal had been.
"We are... away."
Her voice was hollow. It lacked the reverb, the 'Royal' weight she usually carried. She sounded like a person, not a force of nature.
I walked toward her.
"Your domain, how far is it from the other kingdom or realm, like the human's realm or the demon's realm?"
"Distance?"
She repeated the word as if it were a foreign coin she didn't know the value of. She turned slowly to face me. Her eyes were no longer burning with the infinite green fire; they were a soft, muddy hazel, dim and exhaust'd. Without the roaring backdrop of her power, she looked smaller. Fragile.
"Distance is a meas're for mortals. For those who must walk to reach their desire."
She raised a trembling hand and pointed a long, slender finger toward the horizon, tracing a line across the sky.
"There is no distance. My Forest is not a hidden isle. It is the Hub. It is the Great Green Knot that tieth the world togeth'r."
She lowered her hand, her gaze drifting to the frightened dryads huddled on the grass, then turned back to me with a grave expression.
"To the West lie the Human Kingdoms of stone and iron. To the East lie the Demon Wastes of ash and bone. To the North, the High Vales of the Elves. We sit in the centre. We touch them all."
I felt a cold sweat prickle on my neck as the geography of it clicked into place.
"Wait," I said, holding up a hand. "You're saying your forest isn't a separate dimension? It's a physical location? Like... a kingdom?"
"We art the bord'r," she confirmed, her voice barely a whisper. "The Humans fear the Demons. The Demons hung'r for the Elves. But to reach one anoth'r, they must pass through the Deep Woods. They must pass through us and have our permit."
…
..
.
"That's bad…"
"What doth dhou mean bad?"
"If your place is in the centre of these three realms, it means the forest will expand toward them."
"Why?"
"Because plants will follow the light, as you had covered the sun at the centre, this forest would try to find the light from the sun, searching and expanding."
"Phototropism," I said, the word tasting like ash in my mouth. I looked at the confused dryad, then crouched down, grabbing a twig to draw in the dirt.
I drew a large circle, then three smaller circles touching its edges.
"Look. This is your forest. You just froze the heart of it." I stabbed the centre of the big circle. "You created a massive cold spot. A dead zone."
"It is... preser'd," she corrected weakly, though she didn't sound convinced.
"It's dark and it's cold," I countered. "But the edges? The borders touching the Human and Demon realms?"
I drew aggressive arrows shooting out from the centre circle into the others.
"They are still warm. And more importantly, the sun is still shining there. You said the plants are starving for light, right? They're addicted to the energy?"
The Elder nodd'd slowly. "They hung'r... endlessly."
"Exactly. And if you starve a desperate animal in one room and open a door to a kitchen in the next room, what happens?"
I looked up at her, grimacing.
"They don't just walk. They stampede."
I stood up, dusting off my hands.
"Your trees are fleeing the cold you just created. They are going to stretch, grow, and surge toward the nearest light source. Which means your forest is about to violently expand into the Human Kingdom and the Demon Wastes simultaneously."
She brought a hand to her mouth, her eyes widening as the horror of the physics finally clicked.
"They will... invade?" she whispered, her voice trembling. "My childr'n... will invade the lands of men?"
"And the demons," I added darkly. "Think about it. The Humans will see a tidal wave of giant, magical trees crushing their border forts. They won't think 'natural disaster.' They'll think 'attack'."
I pointed to the imaginary Demon realm in the dirt.
"And the Demons? They'll see the thorns that have kept them out for a thousand years suddenly growing toward them. They'll think the Elves or the Humans are launching a magical offensive."
"War..." she breath'd, the word barely audible. "We have kept the peace by being the Wall. But if the Wall moves..."
"It crushes everything against it," I finished. "You haven't just opened the door for them to cross. You've given them a common enemy. Or worse—you've sparked a panic that will make them mobilize their armies before the branches even stop moving."
I looked at the terrified dryads scattered across the Greenfield.
"We didn't just break a forest, Mistress. We just started a geopolitical catastrophe. These realms will start to accuse each other."
…
..
.
"Is that really true, Darya?"
A voice came from above. I lifted my head, startled to see Chis hovering in the air.
Chis descended slowly, her feet touching the grass with the lightness of a dandelion seed.
I looked at the Elder and the other Dryads; they seemed frightening in front of Chis.
"What had you just said? Is that really true, Darya?" Chis said, as her face was inches in front of mine.
"Yes, it's true…" I replied. "Why?"
"Well, you just made this world a little bit more excited; do you think so?"
"Yeah, surely… Now, can you just send a message or anything toward your master?"
She looked at me with the dumb face. "But, you are here…"
"Not me, the real master… Lilith… Do you not realise that your words and attitude lately are like you abandoning your real master, Lilith?"
"Abandoning is such a harsh word," Chis giggled. "I prefer 'expanding'…"
"Whatever, can you just send a message to Lilith about this problem?"
"What problem? I don't see any problem." Her voice became higher, like a child who didn't understand a thing.
"Are you trying to let this happen? Or are you just playing with me?"
"Maybe both…"
"You are the eye and the hand of Lilith, in my shop…" I replied. "So, can you just deliver a simple message to her about this occasion?"
"I am indeed her eyes," Chis whispered, her voice finally dropping the child-like innocence for a tone that was silk and steel. "But these eyes prefer the view from here. Why should I disturb her with the news that the world is finally becoming interesting? Let the trees grow. Let the humans scream. It's been so dull lately."
This moron…
If Chis really wanted the conflict, how about the human side.
"Where is Orla?" I asked her.
"She's still inside the shop."
"Bring her to me."
She didn't hesitate. With a sudden, blurring burst of speed that kicked up a small cloud of dust and dry grass, she vanished into the shop's entrance.
She is really into the roleplay.
A few seconds later, she reappeared, essentially dragging a bewildered Orla Quinn by the arm.
Orla looked like she had seen a ghost or several. Her hand was white-knuckled on the hilt of her sword, and her eyes were darting frantically across the field of huddled, weeping dryads.
"Darya! What is—why is the air cold? The sky just... it shifted!" Orla stumbled as Chis released her. She looked at the Elder, then back at me, her face pale. "The border scouts... the mana pressure just spiked so hard I could feel it through the shop's walls. Is the forest dead?"
"Can you send a message to the human's realm?"
"Why?"
I explained her about the condition where the forest would overgrow toward each realms.
"As you can see, if these realms don't get any information about this event, they will see this event as the other realm's attack. We need to prevent a war from breaking out between the realms. You need to send a message to the Human's realm."
"Do you want me to tell the realm to hold the fire or to stop the forest?"
"Tell them about the story, so the realm doesn't jump to conclusions…And what do you mean by stop the forest?"
"The Human's realm has a barrier, which if something malice grows too close to it, they have the ability to burn it.
"Scorched Earth," she stated, her voice flat and terrifyingly calm. "If the trees move past the markers, the Mages don't aim for the branches. They aim for the roots. They will burn a ten-mile buffer zone until nothing but ash remains. Basically defensive mechanism, it's not just trees…" she turned her face to Chis. "it use for demon too…"
Hearing that, I wondered if the demon had it, too. I turned my gaze to Chis.
"Does your realm has that too?"
"Yes we does…"
Okay then, so every realm had a defensive mechanism to protect their land from external threats. But how long?