Page 7 of Cruel As A Tree (Chaos God Sugar and Spice Companion Shorts #4)

Chapter

Seven

LILLIAN

I hadn't seen the Lord of the Forest in days.

At first, the absence was a relief. I spent my time exploring the treehouse, finding the bathing chamber, and luxuriating in the hot wooden tub which never seemed to run out of hot water.

There were herbs growing in that room as well, but in front of each one were bars of soap and clay containers of lotion and cleansers.

There was one pair of containers with a lavender scented shampoo and conditioner.

At least I guessed that was what they were for, as nothing had labels, and my hair smelled great and was silky afterwards.

There was fresh fruit and vegetables growing all over the place, and one of the buildings had a table with chairs and some counters against a wall with a sink and a stove.

The stove surprised me, as it was an induction cooktop that looked like it was taken straight out of the store and plopped onto the stone counter underneath it.

I couldn't figure out where the power was coming from, as there weren't any electrical outlets, but it heated up the metal pans that were hung on the wall next to it just fine.

There was a small flock of chickens that slept on some of the lower branches of the tree.

I discovered them when I stepped in chicken poop on one of the mushroom steps on my way down to explore the meadow around the tree. I was able to find one of their nests.

Thankfully, I had a flashlight I'd brought with me from the mundane years ago that still worked fine, so I was able to candle the eggs and nab the ones that didn't look like they had any embryo development. I marked the ones that did, so I wouldn't grab them and crack them open later.

The fruit and plants that grew in the treehouse never seemed to go bad.

At first, that confused me, but on my second day wandering about by myself, I spotted a primate sitting on the kitchen counter eating a fruit.

It gave a little shriek when I walked into the room and scampered out the window, its arms full of plant matter.

When I went over to its exit, I found a few dead leaves.

It had been picking fruit and pruning the dead bits off the plants.

After that, I made sure to wash the counters with one of the soaps I found before I began cooking as well as after.

One of the buildings was a library, and though I couldn't read all of the books, there were enough I could read, and I'd learned enough from my Basics of Spellcrafting class my first year to start working my way through a magical instruction book I could read.

Several chapters in, I had to put it down.

I was so angry. I took a long walk through the meadow at the base of the tree to calm down, staring into the water to see the fish.

There was more in those few chapters than in all my classes back at the Order Academy.

Apparently, there was an entirely different way of casting magical spells, called Chaos Magic, that didn't require me to stick to the strict form and function that the school insisted I was incapable of ever mastering.

All I had to do was master focusing my attention and my intention on a goal.

So I kept to the treehouse and the meadow, reading books and trying to figure out if there was any way I could learn how to cast a portal spell. I didn't wander.

I was tired.

I had spent so much time focusing on my escape, planning for it, stressing about it, that when it came to actually doing it, I was worn down by anxiety and hyped up on adrenaline all at the same time.

Climbing the wall and getting down the other side was a substantial physical effort, and the psychological toll of finding the barren wasteland on the other side was substantial.

Now that I was safe as far as I could tell, well fed, and able to rest without overwhelming fear that I had been living with every day since Orientation made it clear to me

But that didn't mean the fear wasn't still there, lurking in the background of my mind.

Veveron hadn't emerged from the nesting chamber, and the few times I checked on her, she told me to go away.

I had time to myself, books to read, food to eat, and a place to rest where I woke up in the morning hearing birds singing outside my window.

At the school, we always kept our dorm room windows shut at the advice of one of the few upperclass mundanes.

She said we were safe inside the dorms, but that didn't mean we couldn't be dragged out of them if we left an opening.

Before Orientation, I might have thought the upper class mundane was just trying to scare me.

Afterwards, the fear grew roots deep into my heart and even as I rested in the comfort of the treehouse, it never quite retracted its claws.

In the background of my mind, there was a running worry.

What if this was a trap of a different sort?

I couldn't completely trust Veveron. She had saved my life by bringing me to this forest, but at the same time, I never would have been accepted into the school without her.

After three days on my own, I began to get worried.

Lorthian had seemed to be really into me in a way that was overwhelming when I was exhausted and emotionally fragile from risking my life fleeing from the Order Academy.

The fact that he had left me alone for so long was a surprising difference from the wild man who had pounced on me the moment he saw me.

Left to my own devices, my mind began to wonder if I had offended him in some way.

My ex had made sure that if I offended him, we would have to go over every detail of my transgression until I apologized to his full satisfaction.

Being ignored was a new one for me. Then again, maybe I didn't offend him and maybe he was just put off by my sobbing.

He was some sort of magical forest god after all.

Perhaps my mundane tears made me suddenly unappealing.

If that was the case, then good riddance.

I had been tempted, so tempted, to the point where if Veveron hadn't stopped me, I would have dribbled that fruit juice all the way up my thigh just to see what he would do.

I didn't need to be doing stuff like that if he was the kind to get bored because I was exhausted and homesick.

After the fifth day, I bothered Veveron again.

"I'm worried about Lorthian," I called through the door. "He's been gone this whole time. What if he is in trouble?"

The forest is still alive, Veveron said.

"I'm going to go look for him, you don't have to come, obviously," I said, making up my mind. He had saved me from the hounds and provided a safe haven for Veveron and me.

If the whole forest burns to the ground, if even one seedling manages to push through the blackened soil, he is still alive, Veveron said.

"But what if he is trapped?" I asked. "What if they captured him?"

I didn't need to elaborate on who they were.

There was an entire Order army camping inside the school walls.

The dessicated grounds surrounding the school were there on purpose.

I was certain that if the army knew that the forest was here, they would come to destroy it.

At the same time, I didn't understand why I was so worried about him.

I just met him; he was magical and much stronger than I was. I didn't need to be worrying about him.

A thread of fear gnawed at me. Maybe it was that I was worrying about what he was doing.

Just don't leave the boundaries of the forest, Veveron said.

I had to leave the forest. I didn't climb the wall and risk my life to spend the rest of my days as some forest lord's pet... or mate... or whatever it was he wanted with me.

"I thought you'd be better off without a human holding you back with a familiar bond," I said.

You're not going to stay a human if you stay here, Veveron said. I like the idea of having a forest lady owe me a favor.

"What does that mean?" I asked. "What do you mean I won't stay a human?"

There was silence from the other side of the door.

"Veveron, don't play games with me," I said. "Tell me what you mean."

If the forest lord takes you as his mate, you'll change, she said. Like a flower changes to a fruit.

"Fruits get eaten," I said.

With care, they can turn into forests, she replied.

"I don't know about any of that," I said, feeling uneasy about how much I didn't know. If I changed, would I still be me? I didn't want to lose myself.

Then don't mate with him, she said. Keep your lust to yourself and he will stay outside the edges of your foolish boundaries. Stay a weak and fragile mundane if that is really what you want. Now leave me alone.

I left her alone, returning to my room to pack up a backpack.

I'd been eating fresh food for days, but that wouldn't work for travel rations, so I boiled some eggs just in case I couldn't find anything.

I took a knife from the kitchen and with some effort managed to set fire to a small branch and get the end of it nice and charcoaled.

I needed some way to mark where I had been so I could find my way back.

I'd only taken a few steps into the forest, marking the first trees with charcoal marks, when a branch snagged my hair.

I reached up to untangle it, and the branch moved, tugging at me before letting go.

I turned to walk a different way when a vine caught my ankle.

I hopped on one foot for a second as I reached down to unhook it, and the vine tightened before my eyes like a living thing, and gave my foot a gentle pull, in the same direction that the branch had tugged me. I took a step in that direction and the vine unwrapped, slithering back into the forest.

"You want me to go that way?" I asked, pointing in the direction the vine and branch had tugged.