A Conversation Between Trees

The night was still and overcast, and the willow branches rustled in the soft, mist-like drizzle veiling the swamplands.

She stood beneath the boughs, letting the water drip from the leaves above into her own branches and leaves, trickling through the ridges of her bark skin, dripping like tears from the ends of her twigs. She liked the rain most of all, for when it did, the sky wept with her and she didn't feel quite so lonely. It soothed her, like the touch of a lover or the embrace of a long-lost friend.

That is, if she had anyone to call by such terms.

Oh, of course she had allies. Yes, she had many allies and enemies - she could not be as powerful as she was without both - and she did have the Melancholy to keep her company and serve her, but neither were really what she would call friends. Even her fellow Afflicted didn't trust her much, and as for her human allies... they were more afraid than trusting. Then again, being alone left one with time to think, time to reflect, time to muse.

She was not alone.

///Solace in the rain.///

Her anger mounted as she turned to face the tall, multilimbed being in front of her.

what? you want? why here? Her branches rustled in irritation at the intrusion. This was her land. Her territory. How dare he?

How dare he...?

///You believe I am in this wasteland by choice?/// He shot back coolly, bringing his long arms behind his back and clasping his razor-thin fingers together.

whatdoyouwantwantwantwant? tallone?

///To warn you.///

whytrustyouyouyou?

///Because you are every bit in as much danger as I.///

Her branches calmed, and she said nothing for a long time. In danger? How could he be in danger, what in their right mind would fool with an Abstract? What was suicidal enough to? And why would something powerful enough to put him in danger want to bother with an Afflicted?

that makes. no sense. none at all. She responded, gaze never leaving the faceless being. there is nothing. that insane.

He did not respond, his tendrils wavering like curious vines. As if he hesitated. As if something troubled him.

When next he responded, the words held a sense of slight trepidation.

///The gods are flawed, Willow. A flaw in the Abstract. Chaos exists.///

elaborate.

He did not respond.

speakspeakspeakspeakspeakspeakspeak!

He fixed her with an intense, wary gaze, tendrils vibrating at the tips. Sensing. Feeling.

///The Hunter is stalking.///

Her head inclined in dubious curiosity.

what is? this Hunter?

///It is a creature... human-like, and Afflicted-like. But neither. It is an Abstract. It is... It is pure entropy, Willow. And little but.///

She half-sobbed, half-laughed.

the operator fears? a little change? She asked, bemused. How sweet it would be if so!

He was not pleased. His tendrils thrashed angrily, threatening to run her through, threatening to shatter her utterly, tips snapping like whips.

She did not move an inch, not at all intimidated by the threat.

///Fool! It is not a little change! It is pure discord, and it will destroy us both if you do not listen for once in your insolent life!///

then explain. instead of giving. roundabout descriptors. Her face, or what remained of it, was a stony mask of pitilessness.

///Willow. You have no reason to trust me. Or to wish for my company. But this is no longer about any differences and hatred between any of your and my kind. You are being hunted, Willow. We all are. It is already in your territory, and if you do not heed my warning you will die horrifically.///

The words hit her like a lightning bolt. Hunted. Her. All of them. There were many things her creator would lie about, but something that posed a threat to him and to everything else like this... he would not.

She did not move.

She did not speak.

She bowed her head, realizing the gravity of her enemy's words, the fear in them... and swallowed her pride. Reluctantly.

speak... and i... will listen...

His tendrils did not stop quivering.

///It is highly adaptable, Willow. It can hide itself even from me, and surely can from you. It will come as a humanoid being, you will believe it human at first. You must not approach it. It will play to every weakness you have, it knows you better than yourself. It will steal your prey... and then will come for you.///

The Melancholy. will-

///Your servants are nothing compared to it. Even my strongest cannot stand up to it. Its claws... It rends them with its claws. I first saw it several sun-cycles ago, about twelve of your days. It was intruding. I intended to stop it, of course I was furious.///

and did you?

///No. I lost track of it.///

youyouyouyouyou? lost track of?

///Yes. I do not understand how. The next full moon, seven of my servants were dead, mutilated not by my hand. Even I would not have been so brutal. They were entirely torn apart and savaged. Organs chewed and marred. The sloppiest work I have ever seen, as if it were... as if the attacker were taking sick pleasure in it. Torturing them.///

and what of? the dead afflicted?

///I found them outside my forest's edge a few of your days ago, in a similar state. Destroyed utterly. They... they were all Afflicted that I myself had created, Willow. Which puts both you and I in very great danger.///

She was silent for a long time, fighting back her own internal dread. If it wasn't enough that she had to imagine her brethren horribly mutilated to death... this creature had her (and she loathed to call him such) creator on his knees in fear. Did he even have knees? She never was too sure about that...

///It is worse yet. When I found them... it was there. Its stringy hair in its pit-like black eyes, its claws tearing into its victims' flesh, Azoth spilled everywhere. It sensed me before I even drew near to it, and when I approached... it was standing. Staring at me. Grinning with razor teeth. I sensed a predator. One of my kind, one that destroys my kind... I attempted to escape, I must have run through thousands of ages and mullions of dark spaces it should not have been able to follow, and it did. I do not know if I lost it because it gave up, or because it grew bored of chasing me, but I could sense it was far stronger than I... far more alien. It does not think on any level of sanity or morality. It does not forgive, and it shows little mercy... I am astonished by it, Willow... and I am afraid.///

She subtly began to shiver, branches quivering in dread. The Tall One was afraid. Her own kind could not escape it. The Abstract of Timespace itself only barely escaped it. Her inky tears came fast and thick, dripping to the ground. Seeding her paranoia into the earth.

Why...?

///I am not sure.///

whatwhatwhatwhatmadeit?!

///Not I. Not another of my kind. I do not know what made it, or why it was made.///

thenhowhowhowhow? protect self?

///Fight with me.///

i do not want to.

///If you do not we all shall die!///

can we? divert its? attention?

///From us? Perhaps. From either of our kind? Not likely.///

She did not respond.

Neither did he, for a very long while.

///We could, you know,/// he intoned, breaking the tense silence, ///Send it upon the humans.///

nonononononononono

///Willow///

nononononono

///Willow! Listen, fool child of mine! Entropy must disperse. Humans are fascinating little fools. If we can get it to take interest in them... Yes, it would mean less for us. But survival is the precedence now. Do you want to live, or die?///

She curled her branches around herself, and was quiet with thought. Did she want to live? Not if it meant severe death. But to die in horrible agony... no, she could not abide that, she could not bear it. She would weep no longer for those she did not wish to weep for, such was the promise she had made to herself upon breaking away from her horrid creator. And she surely would not weep for a being far more horrid than him...

... i want. to live.

///Then consider this not an alliance, but a truce of sorts. Aid me in this once, Willow. This once, and I will trouble you no further. If you shall do the same for me, I will do such for you. Are you in agreement?///

i do not. have any choice. so yes.

She began to sense an alien presence, something unknown. Something approaching from behind her, behind them, behind the willow trees. A predator. A Hunter.

///Good. Then the first step of the plan begins now. I can hide us. If you will let me, I can even use us as a lure. But you must let me. This once.///

i do not. have any choice. i want. to live.

A branch extended towards him. A tendril towards her.

The Hunter approached more steadily, gaining.

///On my mark. One.///

The tendril tangled itself in her branch like an eyeless snake, and the presence grew closer.

///Two.///

The presence was almost upon them, howling, claws digging into the loamy earth, eyes blazing with a dark intensity. It saw them. It saw its prey, so close, so close, so close so close so close soclosesoclosesoclosesoclosesocloseso-

///Three.///

The prey vanished, and it skidded to a halt. No.

NO!

NnNNnOoOOOoOoOooOOsdlkfcnwef!!! It howled, shrieking with a cry that could rend the sanity of all who heard it. It sniffed at the ground, the air, it sensed with acute feeler strands of hair, it searched the swamp with its blazing black eyes that saw everything at once...

There.

ThereTHEReThErETHEREthere

Prey. A clear trail. Prey.

It grinned a shark-like grin.

Soon.