Chapter 456: The Mother Tree
Laz finally made it back to the room. Jill was there, pacing around while waiting along with Ruth and Shelby who were trying to calm her down. The werewolves were over by themselves and everyone else was resting. After the initial incident with Dave attacking Genevieve in disguise and then the departure of Laz, no one else had come to check on them nor tell them what was happening.
That was almost 8 hours ago now and those who weren’t idiots were very worried about the situation.
Seeing Laz return safe and sound elicited an excited gasp from Jill who then ran and jumped on him before hugging him, not worried about how much she weighted or knocking him over. While she wouldn’t admit it, he was her source of light and the only reason for her to go on living. If he was to be killed, she would follow him as soon as she could.
Laz knew this and it pained him. His hope was that one day he could move on from her being so dependent on him, but he knew she needed time.
Shelby and Ruth gathered close by as well, wondering what had happened. The werewolves, Troy, Red, Ava and Kels also came closer and Laz didn’t object. As for everyone else in the group, they ignore their gathering.
Seeing this, Laz didn’t understand as he had expected everyone to gather around and hear what he had to say.
Seeing Laz’s face, Troy let out a laugh along with a smile.
"They all blame you for being here, like it was your fault that we got stuck here," Troy told him, allowing him to understand the situation.
"Well then." Laz didn’t know how to respond since it seemed like it was possible.
"So what have you been doing?" Shelby asked with a look of anticipation.
While Laz didn’t tell them everything, he told them more than enough to explain where he had been.
"That’s just..."
"Holy shit..."
"Wow..."
While none of them really had a concept as for what all that meant, they could appreciate just how big of a deal it had been for Laz to save their god so to speak.
"So now what?" Red asked, wondering what it all meant.
"Well... I have to go again to meet with their god. As for everyone here, as a favor to me, you’ll all be aloud out and about, all be it with an escorts. And I might also add, if you do something dangerous or get yourself in trouble, that will be on you and I can’t help you with that," Laz warned them, clearly looking at Troy, Red, Ava and Kels.
"Oh. Well... ok. I will refrain from cursing out these pointy eared bastards, but if one of them says something to me... Let’s just say it’s hard for me to go against my nature," Troy responded in a way that wasn’t indicating he would be an asshole intentionally, but that his lack of patience was a problem stemming from his very being.
Laz kind of got the idea but didn’t have anything else to add. After all, their escorts were going to be the attendants and if any of them did do anything stupid, they would get their asses beat for it so that was on them.
"Alright, let’s go." Laz directed his group out of the room while the others looked on, confused.
"Where are you going?" One of them asked.
"FUCK OFF," Ava answered, giving them the finger.
Ruth and Shelby, who weren’t so aggressive by nature, caught Laz’s gaze and asked him a silent question.
Laz sighed, but nodded his head. It wasn’t like he held them any ill will, but he didn’t exactly like being the object of their blame either.
Ruth and Shelby made their way back and told the others who quickly got angry at having been left out.
Laz didn’t care and instead, showed his people where the attendants had been lined up, waiting for their charges.
The attendants had switched their clothing from the more relaxed transparent gear they wore in the palace to more formal wear that covered way more of their bodies. This had been a request from Laz since there were more than one guy in the group and he didn’t want a repeat of what happened with Dave happening again.
As for Dave himself, he was till tied up back at the room, sleeping like a log. In fact, Laz was half convince by the smile on his face that he enjoyed being tied up.
’Whatever I guess.’
"Jill, over here." Laz waived Jill over from the woman she was speaking with. While the attendants weren’t exactly fluent in human speech, they had somehow picked up quite a bit of it from listening to their queen and Laz.
As for what kinds of discussion the humans were having with the Fae guards, it was mostly asking about the palace and where they would be allowed to roam
’What is it master?" Jill asked, her eyes gleaming from all the excitement.
"I wanted to introduce you to someone. Since I will be out and about again soon, I wanted to find you someone to help you train during those times. Luckily, I meat someone I think would be a good match for you, although she is leagues stronger than you," Laz said before pointing to the golden haired beauty standing behind him.
"This is Genevieve and she will take you through some exercises that should really help you. Learn what you can from her, alright?" Laz whispered this last requit before giving her a smile and turning to walk away.
"I will! I Promise!" Jill said, calling after Laz. There were many thoughts going through her head right now, about the different kinds of suffering Laz must be going through to earn them these privileges. In one of her thought up scenarios, Laz was selling himself to the elves just so that she could learn some of their techniques.
She promised she would learn everything she could and take back his missing bits when the time came.
’I feel like I forgot to tell everyone something?’ Laz thought to himself before deciding that since he forgot, it must not have been important.
Laz arrived at the grand door way. The door was a red color, but not from staining or painting. Instead the wood was that color to begin with. Upon the door that stood almost twenty feet high, Laz could see various scenes had been carved into the wood with figures so real, it was almost like they were alive and somehow attached to the old wood.
As Laz looked closely, he recognized that several of the figures depicted in the wood were present in more than one scene. Although he didn’t understand what was going on besides what could be picked out from the pictures, he was able to figure out that it told some sort of story from start to finish. And while he couldn’t see the top of the door, he felt that the story began on the top and worked its way down to the bottom, scene by scene like some kind of still frame movie.
Just as Laz reached a hand up to run his fingers along one of the figures in a scene, the door swung open to a massive and yet dark room.
Coming back to his senses, Laz straightened up and walked forward, the lack of light not a bother to his eyes.
In the center of the room a massive tree root was sticking out of the ground, swirling around and around in such a fashion that it looked like there was suppose to be something in the middle of it. Or like at one time a massive pole had been in the center of the room and the root had grown out and up twisting around the pole while continuing it’s climb before the pole was eventually removed.
Standing next to this swirl of wood was Ivana, still dressed in the pure white dress along with her white mask with golden trim.
She currently had a hand resting on the swirl with her eyes closed, either in communication or prayer. He couldn’t tell which.
The one thing missing that he had expected to be here was Sylvia. As to his knowledge, they both were going to meet him here before allowing him to meet with the mother tree.
Looking around though, she was nowhere in sight.
"Please, join me over here," Ivana said, her voice far more gentle than Laz was used to.
Laz walked over to stand next to her, his attention on the strange root in front of him.
"Set your hand here and open your mind to her. I will be off to the side if you need me," Ivana said and while Laz wasn’t sure why, he felt like she was smiling.
Laz did as instructed, placing his hand on the root and opening his mind. To achieve this, he spread out his spiritual sense and directed it to the tree root before him.
:Ha! A smart one, aren’t you,: came the voice into Laz’s head, sounding very happy and also energetic.
:I’m sorry... you are?:
:What do you mean who am I? I’m the fucking tree your touching right now kid. Who do you think I would be?:
:Uhh....:
:What? Did you expect this to be some sort of formal and boring bit of ’oh thank you very much for your held young one. You have the enteral gratitude of me and my people?’ kind of shit talk?:
:Well. Yeah, Kind of...?:
:Ha ha ha ha. And just how little fun would something like that have been?:
:...:
:Exactly. Alright kid. Listen up. Thanks for taking care of my bug problem. One of my little bastards seems to be scheming something which kind of pisses me off. Like finding out your spouse made you breakfast but then took a shit in it before feeding it to you.:
:...:
:So I want you to find out who that is. Once that’s done, I’ll open the gate for you to go.:
:Ah. And one last thing. I see you have a very pure and very powerful Asura bloodline. I honestly never thought I would see any of your people after that war that set the cosmos on fire and yet here you are. So tell you what. I’ll make you the king of my children and in return... I need to knock up as many females as can catch your eye. How’s that sound?:
:...:
:...:
:DA FUCK?????:
