Leif POV

Watching the sunlight filter in, crossing rays of light through spotted canopies, is mesmerising. Like a giant above had chosen to barely dig out patches in the wide blanket of leaves covering the sky from the residents of down below.

I can almost picture ashen dark blue fingers, thicker than the trees themselves, breaking through the layer of leaves and with unfathomable delicacy and skill, pinching minuscule clusters that seem microscopic in its fingertips. Plucking them out, carefully and precise, and giving access to the sun for its light to leak in, eager spotlights shining through trying to gather the sights of beneath the canopy that obstructed its vision before.

"A giant? Really?"

"I couldn't really think of anything else," I felt my face flush with a brief hint of embarrassment, almost forgetting Wither's tendency to eavesdrop on my thoughts. Especially my fantasising.

"Hmph. Better that last time. What was it? Acorn fairies? Evil grasshopper people?"

"Evil grasshopper people?" I giggle, imagine people wobbling over the enormous backlegs of a grasshopper around the forest.

"Whatever. You're the silly creative one. Always fantasising, always over thinking little things to be part of some weird big picture."

"And you shouldn't be working on not talking outloud? What if that Storm friend of yours sees you talking to seemingly nothing?"

"Well, no one's really around this part. Not even the wood cutters." I point out. "And if Storm asks, I'll just tell her about you."

"Uh huh. One problem. I don't want her to know about me. Or anyone."

"But why?" I questioned, puzzled. "Because of you, I get to be myself. And well.. you get to be you. We're both needed to form this person. You're a part of me, so shouldn't she know?"

I hear her sigh echo in our skull.

"Look Leif, I let you use the body. I gave up my life for yours, so you can live and grow up. This is your life now. To everyone else, you are the only conscious being in this body. I do not exist. I do not want to exist. Alright?"

"But-" I couldn't understand. Wither is literally my other half. Without her, I, we, cannot be whole. We're just two halves of the person we were.

I could recall that night, senses thrown into disarray. When we opened our eyes again, and realised we could see each other.

A mental image of the other as a separate entity. Knowing then, Lief was no more, only the two split ends of her remained.

Despite being able to control the body one at a time, living like this was hard. Our mind was but a seesaw, and we were constantly changing to keep it all in balance.

So wasn't it only fair that someone.. our first, only, and best friend, knew of the one who made my existence possible? I mean.. Wither's done so much for me and she deserves someone to-

"Hey. I said no. Quit thinking about it." Her grumbling summoned guilt to drag me from my thoughts.

"Sorry." I mumbled meekly. "If that's what will make you happy."

"..."

Leaning back against the tree behind me, I felt the rough bark scrape lightly against my skin, warmth seemingly pulsing under it, almost like a heart beat.

I frowned, shifting on the velvet grass to turn and gaze up the magnificent boughs of the tree. Its branches were splayed out from its top as any other tree in the vicinity, proudly displaying its clustering audience of rich green leaves.

Squinting, I managed to spot faint streaks of gold dimply run through the veins of overhanging leaves. How could that be? Perhaps just trick of the light?

Yet, somehow it felt.. different, as though playing with my urges to approach, alluring me with sense of safety, warmth.. someone..

This energy, it jolts through me as I lay my hand upon its trunk, splaying out my fingers, feeling it burn slowly beneath my skin. It doesn't hurt, it feels quite the opposite in fact.

Curiosity gnawed at me as senses of familiarity doused my thoughts. I feel as if I've known this feeling before. I've felt This energy before. But where?

When?

"Are you sure this thing works?" The sudden voice of a man startled me out of wonder. Quickly on my feet, I looked for the source.

"The scientist I 'encouraged' to design it had his life at stake. I doubt he would have given me shoddy work." A grey stickman emerged from the obstructing cluster of tree bark. At his side, a pale green figure pressed fingers over a weird small black box. It beeped like an oven announcing the timer had run out, causing him to redirect it.

As he pointed it towards my direction, it's beeping grew frantic, almost excited.

"It's right there!" Our eyes locked as he looked up.

I froze, caught unprepared for sudden interaction with strangers.

"Umm.. h-hello!" I managed a smile through suppressed nervous shudders. "I've.. n-never seen you around h-here before. A-Are you-"

A small click brought my attention to the grey man. The muzzle of a pistol stared at me, its trigger calmly held by his hand.

My words trailed off as pure terror seized me.

Is.. is that.. a gun? Here?

Sure we had hunters with rifles but..

"Move." He spoke, unconcerned at his threatening gesture or my now visible shaking. As if he had become numbed to such routine.

He lightly cocked the gun to point at the side. "I'm not repeating myself."

Swallowing any questions, I meekly obeyed, moving to where he had gestured me to walk.

"Stay." He instructed before turning to the tree, lowering his arm. Yet there was no doubt in his behaviour that this was nothing new to him. If I tried to run or try anything, he could pick me off in a simple shot.

The dark glasses over his eyes gave away no hint of his intentions or willingness to hurt me. However, that was no excuse to aggravate him.

So I stood there, silently watching with my head lowered.

"You sure this is what you need?" The man with the box asked, turning off the eager beeping and hooking it on the strap holding a pair of katana's on his back.

"The various families have their different forms or methods of locating them." Grey man replied. "The Orspheres can be found at their comfortable spots of control, the Unvirs need to be summoned through certain actions and the Nevirods, such as the Grenendaris tree here, host their physical forms."

"I don't question your sources," Green man spoke cautiously. "But how did you discover of them?"

"Not important as of this moment. If you truly are curious, I can share that little story when we don't have an unneeded audience." He muttered, waving briefly in my direction with his weapon.

"Well, we've located it." Green man mused. "Now what?"

Instead of responding, Grey man stepped forward, approaching the tree, pausing slightly beside the other for a moment. "Watch her."

Obedient, Green man is now at my side, casually dropping his arm over his shoulder, letting me see his fingers brush lazily across the hilt of his sword. The message was clear.

Grey man stopped a few feet from the tree's base, before kneeling, head lowered a fraction as he spoke to it. "Grenendaris, Energy of Life, I come to you in request of being granted your power. I offer myself as a vessel to be your Chosen."

A normal person may have immediately associated the action of speaking to vegetation as them being bonkers. But I've grown up here and learnt from Linda that if you really take a while to listen, they have something to say. My elder sister had a way with plantation, roses, lilies, all sorts of flowers bloomed under her green thumbs, well.. pink thumbs but you get the picture.

She always respected and was aware of the little lives around her, maybe that's why they tried to please her, bursting fruitful colours.

However, the words and tone Grey man spoke to this tree was not like her's. There was no kind words or forms of simple friendly greeting. He was not seeking its knowledge but rather seemed to be accusing it. As if to say "Aha! I found you and I know your secrets!" and wanting whatever it was concealing behind its wood exterior. More frighteningly, an underlying tone of "or else".

Despite its building sense of awakening presence prior, the tree seems still, silent, as if holding its breath least its enemies found trace of its existence.

"Do not act so high and mighty," Grey man sighed, rising with pride from his kneeling position. "I know you are in dire need for someone to fulfil your hundred year task now."

"This tree of yours is dying and reaching its expiration date. You need your Chosen to replant its seed." He stated calmly. "I've done my homework. And unless you want your sister catching up to you, you must vacate this place and have your Chosen plant your new vessel. You have no current Chosen. And so, you have no choice but to-"

Without warning, the ground began to rumble, a light but startling tremor that shook us. Literally.

"Ginn-" Green man sputtered before stumbling from the ground that quaked beneath him. Grey man(Ginn was it?), struggled to remain standing. I fell onto the grass, hands spread out as I maintained a sitting position.

A brilliant glow flashed before me, blinding me until I could vaguely see the tree pulsing in gold light. A golden blur dropped from its swaying canopy, spiralling down its trunk before hustling towards me.

"You are wrong."

The voice instilled a sense of authority as it suddenly bloomed from the groaning ground, before the earth fell still.

"The choice was made long ago."

The light struck into my chest, somehow passing on an energy so startling and strong it threw me back again. I gasped in shock as my chest burned, warmth spreading out through my veins and causing my skin to flush with heat.

I was suddenly aware of the earth beneath me, or more of, the grass around me. The presence of life in them was projected upon my senses, causing my head to spin, dizzy as the vast stretch of these millions of individuals building one stretch of grass came to my knowledge.

It was like scrolling through a map in my head, black and white outlines lit up by each glowing ember of life in each grass blade. It was so mesmerising yet so much to take in I began to feel light headed, lost and drifting in this world I had been sucked into.

It took a massive effort to tear myself from the daze, blinking sparks from my eyes as I looked again at the situation.

Grey man- Ginn, was staring at me in disbelief. His partner too joined his gaze, unsure of what to do or what had happened. That made the two of us.

A few brief moments pass before Ginn snaps back from the shock, a shadow falls behind his sunglasses.

"Get her."