Spirit Taming

Chapter 555: Swaying Forest

Everyone wanted to tell Clark that he was wrong. But there was too much evidence. Ella and Isa both knew some things about the kinds of herbs that would or would not grow when there was not enough water in the soil. Ella quickly pointed out some spear grass that was nearly wilted and dead. Next, Isa pointed out the yellowing and brown leaves on the younger saplings of the forest.

All of this was more than enough to convince the others that this entire forest was at a tipping point. There was no way that the water raining down would have been able to reach the depths of the tree roots that an entire forest put down.

The normal single tree here and there would rarely need much strength from water or the soil. As long as it was not in competition with any larger plants, it would have enough nutrients and water to grow as it pleased. This was why many gardens were able to grow. No competition.

But a forest was different. Everyone knew that the tree roots of a forest were deeper than what many people could fathom. This had been proven by many explorers that dug in to caves. They discovered the roots of forests too far beneath the earth to realize that it had been the forest at the time.

Instead of competing for nutrients in a forest, the trees had their own natural way to grow instead. They would begin sending tap roots deeper and deeper to get the water they needed. They would also grow taller to be able to get the sunlight they needed. From there, they could survive on the nutrients from rotting leaves and other things in the forest. That was just the way nature worked for them.

But without one of these three important things, the entire forest could go in to shock. Leaves would die, too much sun would come in, and every other plant or beast that relied on the massive treetop canopy for survival would be lost. It would completely ruin an entire ecosystem.

"If this forest dries up and doesn't recover, then Nova City will be gone. Regardless of humans hiding water or anything, most of the materials should come from the beasts in the forest or from the herbs that grow here. We need to solve this to maintain the economy." Isa had seen the other side of this.

Due to the fact that Isa was a mercantile family member, she had seen many places. But her father had ensured that he had taken her to smaller villages.

The simple reason he had decided this was because the small economies could easily be affected by nature and the villages' main export. For a farming village, it could be the fact that they had a bad crop yield. It would cause many people to die of hunger or many people to sell off their livestock instead. It would lead to meat shortages and vegetable shortages.

A massive change overall in the entire way that the village made their living.

"But how would we be able to fix anything with some underground river or lake? It's not like we are able to just dig down and find everything like that. We would need…"

"You forgot that I have my living mist. A dual elemental beast of wind and water that is able to cause illusion. But it is also able to sense the water energies flowing naturally. Due to the lack of water and water energy, any water energy at all will be able to track where it is and we can then see what might be stopping the flow or the source of water.

We should not be able to completely solve a lack of water, but we can improve the flow to allow the natural reserves within the forest to hold itself together."

The sudden break in Ralph's argument as to why they would be unable to help anything made everyone see this as a much more viable reason for them to stop. They were not going around blind trying to solve a problem without any plan or ability. Their group had a way to track down the best place to find a solution to this problem.

As the living mist came out of the taming space behind Ella, everyone noticed that the density of the cloudlike body was much more than the last time they had seen it. Clark didn't even need to say a word. He knew well that Ella was following the growth plan for the living mist to bring it toward a cloud king or a thunderstorm emperor perfectly.

It was her close focus on detail that made this perfect growth a reality.

The living mist gradually spread its body out showing everyone that it had a massive amount of strength when it came to watching an area. The tactic could be very useful in a dark area or in a place where they need to track anyone trying to sneak around. However, it was also a little dangerous since these were parts of the living mists' body.

Therefore, it was risking injury by spreading out this thin.

"There we are." Ella started moving ahead and toward the left. He managed to stop at a larger tree than many of the ones that were around. "This is the area where the water appeared to be the strongest type of energy. I would assume there is a natural spring below this tree."

This was the logical explanation. The largest tree would naturally have the most access to the water source or it was the youngest sapling to have once tapped in to the tree. "Treant. You mean elder treant. Because that's what that is."

'Elder treant- ultra rare (slumbering)

The elder treant is a beast that comes to exist through many different reasons. Some treants naturally exist while others form due to exposure to certain energies. Ember treants, demonic treants, black wood treants… many different forms exist depending on what energies they feed on when they are growing.

Not every tree can become a treant. Some are born from two treant species, mixing their flowers and giving half of the energy needed to create a seed or egg. Others are just brought in to existence by age and energy such as this elder treant.

Over one hundred years, this elder treant has lived in slumber due to the needed energy it is absorbing while sleeping. It will not move unless it or the entire forest is threatened. For the moment, it is slumbering due to the lack of water that it is struggling to get. Therefore, it will remain in the elder tree form which is providing additional nutrients to the surrounding forest.

They have powerful regenerative skills while also having a very peaceful nature. This elder treant in particular has a very powerful earth and water affinity with a weaker light affinity. This speaks to how it was able to grow so much while slumbering.

There are many other skills such a plant control, fruit creation, and herb enhancement. Treants are a rare beast that not many people could ever tame due to their unique existence. One would have to be willing to accept all aspects of nature and live isolated lives if they wished to tame a treant…'

Clark was looking carefully as he shared some facts about the slumbering treant. However, when he called Crim out and Crim began to bring dragon flames around the base of the treant, everyone thought he had gone crazy.

"You are going to make us fight a beast we can't win!" Grace tried to leap forward and stop Clark and Crim, but the elder treant was already waking up.

Branches swayed and twisted becoming thick wooden arms. The leaves looked like the stiffened and became much sharper. The roots in the ground caused the earth to slightly heave up as they formed powerful legs that anchored themselves within the ground.

"I am sorry for waking you up like this. I know it must have been airing since Crim used his flames on your roots. I had him hold back because I knew that you would wake up if we bothered you. We came to help with the problem your home has. The source of water is blocked too much. Can you please allow us to help?"

None of them understood why Clark believed that a beasts like this would understand. But when a face of gnarled wood appeared on the treant and two glowing yellow eyes of light focused on him, they wondered what was going on.

"This treant is over one hundred years old. It is very intelligent and provides for the forest around it. That's why it is able to slumber here safely. It might have been asleep, but it knew we were here. Since we noticed a problem, it did not stop us from coming near. We just had to shake it awake to be able to do something." The group noticed all the other trees moving slightly in unison.

No one had realized that the treant had been controlling the entire area in its slumber.