What Side Didn’t Know – Arc 3: Awakening – Lilia’s Perspective, C1. Slumber’s End

I’m not sure how much time has passed, but I feel so energized and full!  It’s been ages since I last felt as nice. Surely Food and Food Source are safe.  They tell me to use their names, but they are so hard to remember. Mika and Tristain?  So complicated. Food just makes so much more sense. She smells like food, and looks like food.  I bet she even tastes like food.

But Food Source, Tristain, says that she is not food, and he is the food source.  He seems to care if she is food for other critters too.  Maybe she is food for him? Is he saving her for later? Fresh food is always better.

Oh!  That was unexpected.  I must have produced fruit!  I feel it just got picked. Someone must be taking good care of me.  It’s been a long time since I’ve been fed well enough, or had sufficient light to make fruit.  That is actually quite surprising. There wasn’t much light where I took root. I wonder if I have been sleeping longer than I thought, or if something else happened?

No, my roots are not so deep, it must be less than 100 cycles.  Even so, Food Source, Tristain, must have healed by now. His body is much hardier than most I’ve met.  It surprised me that he lived through being swatted by the… Fluffy Food Sack? They called it a bear, I think.  I have seen many die from hungry bears attacking humes fresh out of the Gaia Trees. It’s always a feast for me when that happens, as I get both bear and humes.

Gaia usually gets mad at me when I don’t eat the bears before they get the Humes though.  How unreasonable. It’s not like I can just uproot and leave whenever I want to defend them.  Surely she knows I’m very limited when underfed. I must wait for them to come to me. Well, it’s a boon that Food Source, Tristain, feeds me.  The bear water was not so good, but that ‘Ice’ he makes is very delicious.

Well, maybe I’ll wait awhile before transforming back.  This light on my skin feels great. It’s so warm and comforting.  Makes me forget about food.

Sighs.  So warm!  So happy!

Oh!

Oh!  W-what…?

O-oh, that must be ice.

T-that’s cold.  He could have just placed it at my roots.  T-thats… I mean, it’s efficient, and very little is wasted that way, but, well…  Maybe I won’t say anything. I’m not sure I can bring that up. I’ll definitely feel awkward if I mention it.  It’s odd, but I feel very warm when I think about it. I’m definitely conflicted when thinking of talking about it.

Whew.  It should be night soon, I now is the time to start stretching my muscles and bring my skin back in.

It always feels so good to stretch after being inert for such a long time.  I check that my bones have regrown, muscles reattached, and skin healed. As good as new!  My joints creak and moan from moving after so long, but it feels so pleasant.

The best part about waking up this time, is I have a full stomach.  Unlike last time, where I barely had enough food to rehydrate my body, I feel full of reserves!  It’s much better awakening with a full stomach like this than a grumbling one. I was so starved then, that I had fully recessed into the flower grove around Gaia Tree.  I was forced to wait, watching for my brethren to get me some food. After all a Gaia Flower’s sole purpose is to feed a dryad. Nourishment used to come from the sky every so often…  For some reason, though, that had stopped several tens of thousands of cycles ago. At least it’s better than when I was born. Then it was so cold. I could barely stay awake. Our roots could hardly go more than a finger depth into the ground without being frosted.  The Gaia Trees had yet to be planted, and we Dryads just huddled together while Gaia built the world.

Yes, these days may be hard, but they are not the hardest.  And I am free to roam now! This is so exciting! Food Source, Tristain, I have him to thank.  Thank you Food Source, Tristain. Maybe I should just call him Tristain. It’s hard to substitute that when talking though.  Food and Food Source have always been Food and Food Source.

Yes, my first step from the garden sent my head spinning.  I was worried they would leave me after we exited the garden, but Foo – Tristain is so nice!  He feeds me. Hmmmmm…

*Creak*

*Crack*

Whew, It’s a lot of work to reconfigure myself, pulling in all my bones and skin.  It’s even harder to pull in my roots. My ears and nose start working before any other senses, and I start hearing Tristain and Food talk about me.  I am so happy they are around. It’s so much fun to talk to them and watch them play. Humes are so interesting. I hadn’t realized that until I met Tristain.  Before then they were just food, like everything else; well, everything that wasn’t food still couldn’t be food. But he is like forever food!

“Yeah, you’re right, I think she’s moving, she seems much, erm… Smaller?  Shorter? And… Fleshy-er.” Fleshy-er? What does that mean?

“Tch.  Stop gawking at her, she’s a tree.  And a naked girl, go somewhere else while she transforms.  You’re going to cause her embarrassment.” Odd, when did Food start caring about my feelings?

“Hmmm, Maybe.  Fine, fine. I wanted to see her transform, but I’m not a pervert.  Although she doesn’t wear clothes anyways, so I’m not sure how she can be embarrassed.”  Yuck, clothes. How would I get light with clothes on? Seems like a terrible idea. I never understood these Humes and their clothes.

Author’s Note:

Thanks for the support!  I am in your care!

Editor: DungeonPalmz