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  [colpse]

  I stared at the tree.

  The tree gred right back.

  An irritated Dryad Tree Tender, level ??.

  I khat I should have maybe been a bit more worried about the abominations following behind me, because... well, the because was rather obvious, they were angry madness-indug tentacle monsters which wao eat me, that was a lot of reasons to avoid them.

  Still, I had just literally run into a tree person and I could at the very least apologize.

  The tree man was tall, with bark-brown skin that was rough aured over his shoulders and sides and pecs, but over the more flexible muscles it looked smooth like the skin of a tree just beh its bark, it even had a soft green look to it. His hair was long and whippy, like the branches of a willow and his legs were thid literally trunk-like.

  He also had a really nice six pad the kind of squarish shovel-like jaw that I was really digging. “Hey,” I said before running my fihrough my hair thten it up a little. “Sorry for running into you, Mister Dryad, sir,” I said.

  The tree-man’s eyes narrowed.

  “Tell you what,” I said as I kept my eyes on his and not on his chest. “How about we go out for lunch. I’ll pay. To apologize. I’m sure they have vegan meals at the inn.”

  Judging by the increasingly irritated look on the dryad’s face it was clear that I wasn’t very good at the whole flirting thing. Unfortunately, my only wingmen was a group of mohat decided to interrupt my moment by bursting through the bushes behientacles whipping out ahead of them.

  I jumped away, making it to the lower branches of a tree a little ways away before turning around and holding my shovel close to my chest. I couldn’t just leave Mister Dryad to be swarmed by the abominations, not when he was going to be outnumbered six to one.

  The dryad’s hand shot out, catg the whippiacles of the abomination in the lead before he yahe monster closer. His other arm shot forwards, fist burying itself into the monster up to the wrist.

  The abomination struggled, its many hands grasping at the dryad, at first to find purchase, then with increasing desperation until thorny vines burst out from us skin and started ing around its body.

  I had to look away. The sight of the abomination, already on the gross side, being mulched by thorns the size of daggers, was just too much.

  gratutions! Your ally has made Dunwich Abomination, Level 8, push up daisies! Bonus Exp was granted for eliminating a monster above your level! Due to not being the primary batant your reward is reduced!

  Mister Dryad grabbed the abomination and started doing terrible things to it, but there were four others, and they did not take kindly to their friends being pulped. Tentacles whipped out towards Mister Dryad and one of the monsters cmped down around his leg with its big nasty teeth.

  I couldn’t just watch.

  Screwing up my ce, I reminded myself that the abominations were big mean monsters and that it was okay to fight them. Sure, I had been the oo iheir home, but they were over-reag with their long chase and their madness-indug screams.

  I jumped off the branch I was on and nded on the head of the rear-most abomination, sending it pnting face-first into the ground before I bounced off and nded o it. My spade came down on its head with a g so hard it made my hands rattle.

  It didn’t seem to do much to hurt the monster, but it did distract it.

  Then a tentacle grabbed me by the ankle and started draggiowards one of the other abominations.

  “Oh no, no no no,” I said as I spun around and bohe abomination behind me on the noggin. It didn't do much.

  I chopped at the tentacle with the edge of my spade, then hit it again and again until it sliced off with a wet squeld I was free to shoot up and into the trees above.

  Mister Dryad had used the distra to take out another one of the monsters. The two I had distracted waddled after me as I circled around Mister Dryad while he finished off their friend. The moment he was done, he turo the abominations that weren’t looking his way and crashed into them like a falling tree.

  It didn’t take very long from there.

  gratutions! Your team has eliminated five oppos (Dunwich Abomination, Level 7 x3, Dunwich Abomination, Level 8, Dunwich Abomination, Level 9)! Bonus Exp was granted for killing a monster above your level! Due to not being the primary batant your reward is reduced!

  Bing Bong! gratutions, your amon Bun css has reached level 5!Mana + 10Magic + 10You have gained: One Css Point

  I nded on the grouo Mister Dryad and panted with a mix of exhiration and adrenaline-fueled desperation that was only just fading. Then the smell of all the abominations hit me and I gagged.

  It had been easy to ighe stench when I was busy running for my life, but now that I had a moment to rex I had no choice but to ehe stink. It was like inhaling raw sewage. My stomach surged, and it was all I could do not to lose my breakfast.

  Mister Dryad didn’t seem to enjoy it any more than I did, not if the way he stomped off was any indication.

  I followed after him, both of us moving upwind from the corpses of the abominations that were even now rotting at an accelerated pace. I could celebrate the level up when I wasn’t choking on stinky air.

  Mister Dryad walked a little ways away, then turned around to face me with his big arms crossed over his chest.

  I smiled sheepishly at him and rubbed a hand behind my neck. “So, ah, I’m sorry about all of that. I didn’t mean t those things into your home. They kind of followed me. If there’s anything I do to make it up to you please tell me! I want to be friends!”

  The tree person gred.

  “I really am sorry,” I said. “I was looking for some flowers when they kind of ambushed me, and the forest seemed like the safest pce to run off to. But I learned my lesson! I’ll be a lot more careful ime I go snooping around.” It looked down towards my feet, then I caught sight of something from the er of my eye and gasped. “You’re injured!” I said.

  Mister Dryads thick legs were covered in small scratches, the sort that would probably heal over in a little while. Those had to be from the tentacles. The wound that caught my eye were the rge, jaggedy bite marks around his knee and calves. They looked deep and there was something leaking out of them.

  I stumbled forwards and Mister Dryad stepped back.

  Looking up, I met his eye, theured to his leg. “Let me see, please? I out the wound, at least, and I have some cloth to ba up.”

  The tree looked at me for a long time, then slowly nodded.

  Smiling, I got down on one knee before him while slipping off my backpack. I regretted not buying any healing potions while I was at the alchemist’s shop. Maybe some salve of sorts. It would have been the smart thing to do, but doing the smart thing wasn’t always something I was good at.

  I carefully pressed a hao the bite and winced a little as I took it in from up close. The bark-like skin lit open, each jaggedy hole liberally smeared with some sort of putrid purplish... stuff. I didn’t want to touch it. There was also something ing out of the wound, brownish and sticky looking. Sap? That would make sense.

  I idly wondered if Mister Dryad could make me some maple syrup, then bahe thought.

  A g my status showed that I had plenty of mana, so I fired off a powerful burst of ing magic aiming for the wounds and the gunk within them.

  The purplish stuff fizzled away as my magic rushed to it. Mister Dryad shifted, but didn’t object otherwise. He did protest when I pulled out some long strips of cloth from my backpad started tying them around his leg. “Hey, you ’t just leave this uncovered. It’ll get all ied and then it’ll take forever to heal. I don’t know what kind of iions work on a tree person, but I bet they’re not fun.”

  He paused a me bind his wound with my makeshift bandage. I made sure to leave a cute little bow on the end, that way he could impress all the cute dryad girls. It would show off his manly ‘look at me injuries’ side, and also his cute feminine side. I wondered if he’d let me py with his willowy hair. I bet I could make it look really cool if I braided it.

  “So, what does a handsome treeboy like you do for fun around here?” I asked.

  Mister Dryad looked at me for a long, long time, then he opened his mouth. “... Fun?”

  I blinked. “Eh? You talk?” I asked.

  He nodded with the kind of speed you’d expect from a tree--which was to say, fairly slowly.

  “Oh, wow. Okay, cool! I didn’t know dryads could talk. This is really .”

  He poio me. “...Talk.”

  “Yes! I talk too, of course.”

  “... Too... much,” he finished.

  I almost colpsed. “No! I don’t talk too much! I talk just enough, I swear. I’m sorry, it’s just when I meet someone new I want to know everything about them so sometimes I ask too many questions and I guess I do e on a little strongly, don’t I?”

  He nodded slowly agaiurned around a little, looking deeper into the woods and I had the impression that he was getting bored with the versation.

  “S-so, I’m looking for a flower,” I said. “Actually, wait, I never got your name!”

  He sighed, a noise like wind ruffling through leaves.

  “Was that your name?” I asked. “ht, I’m being silly again. My name is Broccoli Bunch. Like the veggie!”

  “...No.” He shifted a little. “Oak.”

  “Your name’s Oak? That’s a great name for a treeboy! I’m Broccoli, but I already told you that. So, ah, I’m w if you could help me. Not that you o, you’ve helped me a ton already today.”

  Oak closed his eyes and I had the impression that he might have been praying to whatever a tree prayed to. “...Help?” he asked.

  “Yes! I’m looking for a flower.”

  Oak tilted his head to the side, then he waved his arm across the ground and all sorts of little wildflowers sprouted out of the soil and bloomed to life, their colorful petals turning a patch of the dreary forest into a brilliant rainbow patch full of life.

  “Whoa,” I said as I k down to poke at the flowers. I reized them vaguely as on flowers and poppies. “Pretty!”

  “...Flowers.”

  “Yes, they are,” I agreed with a beaming smile. I set my backpack down, careful not to squish any of Oak’s flowers, and pulled out my herbology book.

  Oak frow it. “...Dead brother.”

  I froze. The book had, admittedly, probably been made from a tree of one sort or another. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I found this a while ago. I ’t say whether it was made with respect to your brother or not.”

  Oak sidered that, then shrugged.

  I opeo the dog-eared page with the Two-Lipped Tulips and showed it to Oak. “This is what I’m looking for,” I said.

  He looked for a long time. “...Weed. Cull.”

  “Cull? You want to get rid of this kind of flower?” I asked.

  He nodded.

  “Well then, maybe we help each other!”

  RavensDagger