Beastforged Bond

“Where is Scott?” I asked for the third time, since no one was willing to explain further.

“We don’t know,” Daniel grunted. “What’s so hard to understand about that?”

Probably everything, I felt like saying, but that wouldn’t help anyone. If anything, Daniel already looked frustrated enough.

“Sorry,” he muttered under his breath. “It’s just that Scott was never here. He never reached Dracos.”

“Scott was with us, so he should have been teleported alongside us, but when we woke up in Dracos, he wasn’t there,” Lea added with a shrug, trying to look nonchalant, but Scott’s disappearance bothered her as much as the others. “Maybe he was the first to wake up, and he had to leave in a hurry after seeing a future event he wanted to change.”

It wouldn’t have been the first time for Scott to disappear. His Divination traits showed him branches of the future most likely to happen. That, combined with his vast, seemingly endless World, was all he needed to look far ahead into the future of all those important to him. There were restrictions and limitations, as far as he had mentioned, and his future visions were not necessarily guaranteed to happen, but they helped Scott change the future often enough.

Alas, the further he looked into the future, the more ether he needed to see further ahead, and the less likely the future was to actually happen. After all, the branches of the future spread out rapidly the further ahead Scott tried to look.

Or so I remembered him saying.

“Maybe they never teleported Scott,” Chloe muttered quietly into the silence permeating the room. Tears welled up in her eyes. “And if they didn’t bring Scott with us, maybe Merl–…”

Her voice faltered as soon as she looked up to meet my eyes. Whatever she saw silenced her immediately, intensifying the guilt filling my heart.

Tears streaked down her face, but it wasn’t until Peter Zerog pulled her into a tight hug that she started to sob, crying unintelligible words into her husband’s shoulder.

Even though several months had passed since the fight with Raffael Torch, Chloe Zerog had held onto the faintest sliver of hope, praying for the slightest chance that her brother had survived. But even if Scott was still alive, wherever he was, if there was one thing I was certain about, it was that Merlin Zerog was dead. He no longer roamed Razarn.

Unable to say or think about anything, I listened to the bitter cries echoing through the room for minutes that seemed to stretch infinitely. I nearly sighed loudly in relief when someone knocked. No one said anything, and no one seemed particularly surprised about the knock. There was no surprise or shock, nor when a group of swaying trees entered the room.

My jaw nearly hit the ground when a bunch of walking trees moved past my family and friends. Mom and Dad greeting the trees with bright smiles and their chatty nature only added to the confusion.

“What the fuck,” I mouthed quietly, garnering one of the trees’ attention. He turned to me, and our… eyes?… met–if those emerald, crystalline spheres lodged at the upper part of their trunk were eyes, that is.

“You’re staring too much, Adam!” Mom chided me, while Dad walked up beside me with advice. “They’re called Terat, and they’ve been helping you survive.”

Studying the tree-people–Terat–more thoroughly, I noticed a few things right away. First of all, their base was that of a trunk covered in bark and the like. It looked tough, but I was more curious about the energy coursing through them. It reminded me of Sapsie and the life within her. The Pond of Life and the nectar stored within.

My senses were a little mushy, but the longer I looked at their arm-like appendages growing from the sides of their trunks and the roots, vines, and bark reinforcement forming tendrils that allowed them to move around, the more I realized they were overflowing with a type of energy just like nectar.

They had only one eye, an emerald-green sphere that glowed with life, and a crown resembling a regular tree’s crown. They did, however, have unique hairstyles, just like humans, and their appendages looked different as well. Some had countless tendrils as legs, whereas others had tightly intertwined appendages that were not unlike human legs. Somewhat.

“I’m sorry. I hope I wasn’t rude.” I apologized and tried to sit up and apologize when a Terat’s branch moved toward me to stop me.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

“You are not the first. We are fine. You are patient. You rest.” A deep, yet oddly sonorous voice rang in my head.

The other Terat turned to look at me, their trunks creaking as they tilted sideways. Were they surprised I was awake? Or–… My perception was not usually that bad, but it was the first time studying the body language of the tree-people. It was interesting but prompted thousands of questions, most of which were likely rude and certainly not appropriate right now.

“A lot of pain?” Another voice, this one not as deep but almost as invigorating as the other, rang in my head. A smaller Terat approached, dozens of branch-like fingers reaching out to me.

Whenever the Terat reached out to me, whether it was through mind or body, energy filled my body, flooded me, diminishing the ceaseless pain flowing through me.

I didn’t even have to answer with words. A nod and a mental pulse, similar to the way I had always spoken to my Soulkins, was all the Terat needed to know.

“High pain tolerance. No indication of insanity. Psychological condition unfinished. We need to perform more tests. Is that acceptable?” the third and last Terat spoke, his–or her?–voice echoing in my ears with a much higher pitch than the others. She also looked more feminine in a way. It was hard to describe.

“Please do.” I spoke aloud, even though I probably didn’t have to. A moment later, emerald light flooded out of the three Terats. It surged toward me, filling me with life. At the same time, I felt something else pour into me. My body instinctively wanted to reject whatever it was, but seeing that neither my mother nor father seemed surprised by the Terats’ actions, I let them be. If they had performed something similar while I was unconscious, allowing them to examine me in such an intrusive way once again wouldn’t make a difference.

“Do not fall unconscious again. You need to heal properly, so you need to stay in control of your power. Do not let loose the energy within your life-imbued Gates and instead guide it through your body.” The first Terat’s deep voice rang out, his words confusing me more than anything.

“We sense the presence of pure life within you. Within your shell and your World. It protected your World when it should have shattered. That life is also why we are helping.” The female Terat explained, which I appreciated. Nothing really made sense to me, making me feel like I was losing my sanity. Like I was supposed to know everything that was going on, only to be completely clueless.

The Terat’s explanation did not really explain everything, but it helped me understand the situation a little better. Starting from my World, which should have shattered but did not, courtesy of the Liferoot Gates and Sapsie’s nectar. I definitely owed her a big one for that. Maybe big enough to seriously consider rescuing her mother, the human-eating World Tree.

One step at a time. I chided myself. First, I had to recover, then I had to grow a little stronger. Only when I was strong enough to face the World Tree would I consider stepping into her domain to question her. Make sure she was reformed and wouldn’t hurt another human before I’d even start thinking about freeing her. Or, at the very least, she will not be allowed to hurt innocent people. If she killed and devoured people like Raffael Torch, I’d be more than happy. I would have to thank her for her service, at the very least.

“Your mind is in disarray. Focus.” The second Terat healer flicked my forehead with a vine. Then, as if on cue, the emerald light enveloping the bed shifted. It seeped deeper into my body, and the Terats’ forms rustled.

“Did you do something?” Something reached even deeper within me than before. “Do not resist. Resisting will hurt more.”

Mom appeared by my side, but still outside the emerald light. “Dear, let them do what they’re best at. Please.”

I ignored the curse forming in my mind and lowered my guard, allowing them to reach as deep as necessary.

“You did something to your World.” I could only shake my head at that. I had just woken up. How was I supposed to have done anything to my World?

“You tried to use your World,” the female Terat corrected, which I answered with a reluctant nod.

“Do not use your World. Not if you wish to repair it!”

That didn’t bode well. Not at all. Was my World that broken that I couldn’t even look at it? And if it was, what about my body? I felt like shit even when infused with all the life-energy the Terats provided. Was I supposed to live like that until either my body or my World decided to function properly again? Was… was I going to be a cripple again?

I didn’t want to go back to that time. I never wanted to feel this weak again.

“Your shell suffers the consequences of a damaged World. For you are more attuned to your World than most Blessed,” the female Terat said, while the taller Terat’s deep voice followed shortly.

“Most realize too late how closely the shell is connected to the soul. Or World. They only understand the connection when it is too late.” More and more life-energy swirled through my body, yet it did little to heal me, though it did something, just not much. “In your case, it was almost too late. Your case is peculiar because while you are much more closely attuned to your World and your Soulkins’ empowerment, it is also the reason you are still alive. Even your Gates are affected by the inability to connect with your Soulkins, which is curious. So very curious.”

“Although curious, your life is still on the line. Your connection will kill you, or your Soulkins, if you do not act fast,” the feminine Terat said again, the seriousness in her voice filling me with dread.