CH811 Mora and the Dryads

Mora could tell that Thera was worried even as she dropped him off, she’d done a terrible job of hiding it but both she and Ben promised they’d be back as fast as they could once they’d finished up what they needed to do, leaving him alone with one person he knew and one he didn’t, with Delair’s mother trying to be friendly while Delair herself was trying and failing to grab his arm, the spirit keeping it intangible for the time being to spare himself whatever she was going to try and drag him to.

“Is there anything I can get you while you’re with us, Mora?” The older woman asked him. “I pulled a lot from the garden yesterday, I could put together a nice salad if you’d like or even if you’re just looking for a little snack we have plenty of different fruit, I’m sure we’ll find one that suits your taste.”

“My kind don’t need to eat, thank you,” He told her, looking at Fontesh curiously. It was one of many things that set him apart from everyone he’d met since Vividus had left him but he did feel just a hint of interest about it. A biological impulse the majority of people in the world were slaves to but one they all seemed to relish in despite the inconveniences of it. Thera and Sonya both only seemed to come alive in the morning after eating Ben’s cooking, sleep being yet another chore that proper mortals seemed to love, but the memory of the two of them enjoying the meals he’d helped Ben make did leave a warm feeling that made their own inconvenience a benefit to him, all the more so after Thera had told him just how good it had been.

“And since he doesn’t need to eat that means I can show him around already!” Delair said, filled to the brim with excitement. “Now come on already Mora, let me grab you!”

“…Fine.”

In the same way as Thera, Ben, and Sonya, he could tell that Delair was also trying to grow closer to him which left its own sort of warmth, even if she was far more heavy-handed about it than the other three but he was trying to learn to reciprocate no matter how unnatural it felt. He didn’t dislike her company after all and they’d already spent days together learning from Ben while Thera was taking her breaks from healing so he knew well what she was like by that point as he made himself tangible, feeling as she finally grabbed hold of his arm instead of passing through it and instantly yanked him through the door of her house, her mother following along with a smile on her face while he examined the village he was being pulled through.

Small but full of life, he could sense the souls that filled the land all around him and the bodies holding each one, finding so many to be both strong and in good health to an almost surprising extent. Plants especially were everywhere and they were thriving, no doubt from the magic he could see that every member of the community held and he couldn’t help but like it. It felt natural, it felt right, and it suited everything that he was.

What suited him less were some of the looks he was getting from the passing villagers but they were nothing new, he was exposed to such things any time he went out. Confusion, uncertainty, discomfort, the mortals of the world simply didn’t understand what he was and that separated him from them, a fact Fontesh seemed to pick up on as she moved to his other side and took his hand.

“We aren’t used to strangers here so everyone might be a little shy at first,” She told him, a small laugh on her lips as she remembered something. “When Ben first came, he had to work himself to the bone to get everyone here to like him but I don’t think you’ll have that much trouble, don’t worry.”

“I’m not worried.”

“No? Good then. In that case, Delair, what do you say we show him our grove?”

“Can we?”

“Sure, grandmother and a few others should be there right now anyway so this is a good chance for him to meet a few more members of the village while he’s here.”

Everyone there had their work after all and it didn’t take long for them to leave the outskirts of their home to the trees further within, a dozen dryads immediately visible and hard at work spending their magic on the trees surrounding them, Mora watching them as they strained the skill bound to their souls, pushing to improve and only stopping as Fontesh called out around them.

“Everyone, we’ve come to join for a bit and Delair’s brought a friend so make sure to be nice.”

Again, more looks and uncertainty with the oldest among them looking away from her work too, briefly frowning before ultimately shaking her head.

“Well, I suppose if it’s Ben and Thera’s child I can allow it,” She muttered, leaving Fontesh to chuckle at how the village elder herself had softened while the rest of the dryads there instantly lost whatever feelings had been holding them back, taking on much brighter looks as they came over to greet him and introduce themselves, even if Mora was going to make a correction he was sure would ruin it.

“I’m not their child, I don’t even have blood to share.”

If anything, he knew he was technically the child of the great life and death spirits but he already knew what that was supposed to mean. It meant facing expectations he didn’t want to live up to and being deemed useless to them for it. It meant being something that could be abandoned and if that was what it was then he didn’t want to be anyone’s, even if the older dryad waved his comment off.

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“If they’re raising you then it’s close enough, don’t make things more complicated than they have to be. Now, are you all here to help or just came to visit?”

“Hmm, I wouldn’t want to bore Mora while we’re looking after him so maybe another time.”

“I don’t mind,” He told them. “Staying for a bit is fine.”

Whatever they might have thought about his connection to the other two, he couldn’t deny the fact that Thera and Ben were acting as his caregivers for the time and seemed to be trying their best at it and if that fact was enough to have the dryads warm up to him then he would gladly accept it, already enjoying the change he was seeing in how they viewed him as Delair dragged him along to the older woman’s side as she joined in her own magic.

“This forest is the life of the dryads,” Delair told him, wanting to take on the role of teacher now that she’d gotten the chance but sounding like she was just repeating things she’d been told in the past without considering what they meant. “Without it then we wouldn’t survive as a species so it’s our most precious place and we do all we can to protect it in return.”

He understood what she was trying to say, even though his face crinkled at the explanation. He was bound to the system, same as any other living thing but he was also the great soul spirit and it fell under his domain as a result, leaving him to subtly ask it questions based on what he was already seeing through his own senses and getting different answers than what Delair had provided.