Page 114 of A Brat's Tale
That doesn’t mean this is going to be pleasant.
I try to put the others at ease by sending them calm energy as I alsowork to calm myself. The big moment is here. “I have checked you over and am satisfied that you meet the requirements, you have agreed to pay the price when it’s asked of you, but the final step is getting The Mother’s permission. I will give my blessing. My powers come from the core of the planet, the place from where all energy is ultimately extracted and I will use this source as an information network to tell her. Then, once you lay down and offer yourself over with your intention, she will make the final decision.”
I nod.
The tree doesn’t look scary, just eerily out of place, like it should be on land and not underwater. It’s magnificent and I’m drawn to touch it. When I do my fears and apprehensions melt away. I have something greater to fulfill.
“You need to keep your intention for becoming Elf suspended in your heart, so she can hear you. That is all you have to do.” She reaches down to the base of the tree, where the roots are. White light releases outward from the tree and vanishes as bubbles into the water. “My part in this is over now, this is where we part ways, Tristan.” The Lady is as cold in her countenance as she is with her touch.
I panic. “Wait. What if I’m rejected?”
“Then you must swim back quickly before the spell wears off or you will drown.”
“How will I find my way back?”
“You will be shown the way.”
“Thank you,” I say. All I get is a curt nod in return before she’s gone. I look around. Down here, my sense of consciousness is heightened, and I wonder if this has something to do with why we could hear each other in our minds…? In any case, I sense the curious presence again. “Come on out.”
A creature does, unsure about me. When it gets closer, I understand what I was feeling. It’s another dragon, but if a dragon were a fish. The little guy swims over to me but remains a little ways away, a lot less forward than the other guy I met in the desolate mountain space we rescued Corrik from. This one is purple-ish-black, and hisscales shine iridescent when the bit of light from the glowing tree hits them. “I won’t hurt you, my friend.”
He seems to calm a bit but remains where he is curious about what I’m going to do. It’s nice to have someone down here to talk to. I would be scared, but what would that do? I focus on my task. “I’m supposed to lay here,” I tell him. “With an intent.”
The intent seems simple—to be an Elf, but I don’t think that’s all there is to it. Elves, despite their arrogant nature have a particular thread that burns through them above all. It’s something that says they are of the land and that they care about it deeply. To be an Elf is to embody this. They are creatures who have never forgotten what it means to exist as raw beings of the Earth, which is why they can connect to it deeply enough to harness its energy.
But I have another intent I want to take with me. I hold out my arm, inviting the little guy to perch. Finally, he darts over, his curiosity getting the better of him. “I intend to watch over the land as all Elves do,” I say. “But Elves care little for humanity. I think dragons did, which is why the first Tristan was given dragon’s blood, so he could watch over humanity.”
I don’t know how that will affect the process, but I have to be true to my heart. I know my intent.
“Right, then. Will you watch over me?”
He’s too tiny to do anything of use, the whole idea of a water dragon is absurd—how does he blow fire?—but it’s nice to have kin with me. I hear the dragon trill in my mind.
He hops away, and I lay at the base of the tree rooted into the bottom of this lake in whatever place we’re in. I sit down carefully at first, but when nothing happens, I’m quick to lay down. The dragon takes up vigil nearby, suddenly invested in his mission to look after me.
I lay there for a time while nothing happens. I hold my intentions in my heart and close my eyes, but still, nothing. I open them to look over to my friend who’s got his head tilted to the side, curious about me, probably thinking I’m the oddest thing he’s ever seen. After all, I’m not a creature of this place, but I showed up with a terrifying ifbeautiful Elf, and then laid down beside a tree,not the behavior of sane people.
When I think I’ve been bamboozled and am contemplating as to whether or not I should ask if the water dragon can lead me back to Corrik, that’s when I feel it crawling up my leg, slithering like a snake. But it’s not a snake, it’s a tree root. The roots climb down my arms, up to my legs, surrounding me, burying me.
Roots pokeintome.
By this point, there’s nothing I can do about it, all of it is happening too quickly. I struggle, yanking hard, but I barely move, and the roots continue to overtake me, piercing into every part of me, straight into my organs, my face. Being underwater, I can’t even scream. I try, but it comes out as bubbles. It doesn’t take long for me to be covered in a casket of roots, sewn to the lake floor by them, even though it seems like an eternity. It hurts every bit as much as you would imagine being pierced by multiple tree roots growing into you would hurt.
First, they prick sharp like rose thorns through the skin, then there’s a piercing sensation deep into my insides, a sickening sluice that carves and stabs as it goes. Through the nerves they burn and when the vines hit bone, it’s a bruising pain as they chip and shatter forcing their way through. I can’t think; I’m close to passing out.
And then I can’t breathe.
This whole adventure has hinged on the fact that whatever Scary Lake Lady did, it allowed me to breathe underwater. Now, with each movement, a bit of magical help wears off. My lungs ache for breath like they should have in the first place as they fill with water. I panic. This was a mistake. We were idiots and I’m going to die down here. I can only, just barely see my little friend. He’s crying out, unsure what to do, but he knows I’m in distress.
I don’t know how long I have before the spell wears off and I drown, trapped, tied down by roots that have grown into me, but even if I could manage an escape, with the rate the magic’s wearing off as I move, I’m not sure I’d make it. Will I even be shown the way back?
I stop fighting and surrender to it if only to calm the little guydown. Nothing can be done now. I’m dying and will soon be part of this tree. My lifeforce slips away as the water takes me, but I get moments to be with some final thoughts.
They are thoughts of love, and how grateful I am to have been so loved. As I go, I’m calmed, no longer afraid. An essence takes over and I know it’s from whatever power lives inside this tree and it hits me—if I want to become an Elf, first I have to die.
So be it. To die shall be a fantastic adventure.
The human known as Tristan Kanes dies.
