Within the Woods
The Other, as I’ve taken to calling the source of my strange memories, knew very little about magic. I believe the word that person would have used to describe magic was “superstition.” Obviously, my very existence as a sapient, moving tree that could animate dead wood relied on magic, which meant that the Other was not very reliable in that regard.
That the Other knew of magic at all was enough to give me some ideas and make me observe more carefully. Those observations were what made me start spilling blood on my roots rather than just composting the body whole. I don’t know why, but pouring out the blood first preserves some of the magic in the blood, magic that would otherwise be lost. And with every little animal I hunt and feed on, my range of control expands just a little more.
My Lycan was patrolling the edge of my range. Its movements were sluggish and my vision through it had deteriorated significantly. I wouldn't be able to hunt effectively out here for quite some time, but for getting the lay of the land, it was enough.
My nose was still rather sharp at this range, sharper still than the Other's, and I caught a whiff of a strange animal scent. Obviously, it had been rolling around in a variety of plants from the forest, but the base smell was something I was unfamiliar with. I decided to investigate, mostly out of boredom.
Lycan accelerated, swiftly following the animal's trail. But as the scent grew stronger, Lycan itself grew weaker. Eventually, I could push no further forward lest I risk losing that transmission seed. Stopping, I gazed out through Lycan's eyes and spotted a little flickering light in the distance.
A house? Why was there a house out here? Was the strange creature the owner of the house, or its owner's pet? I didn't know, but I wanted to find out.
Lycan coughed up a mixture of sap and old rabbit blood into its hand — a very distinctively smelling mixture — and pressed it against the bark of another tree. This way, I would be able to send my lycanthrope puppet back to this spot once my range extended a bit.
Two weeks had gone by. In that time, I had pushed steadily forwards, expanding my radius to nearly ten kilometers, up from nine and a half. I could almost make it to the front door of the hut without collapsing, which was more than enough for my observations.
The owner of the house was a strange creature that the Other's memories identified as a zebra. I stealthily observed her comings and goings. Every time she left, she bore the pungent odor of burning wood, and every time she returned, that smell had been replaced with that of various herbs and plants.
What intrigued me the most was her clothes and jewelry. I hadn't heard her speak, but I could only assume that if she was wearing clothes and such, then she must be civilized. As if she were an actual person.
My leaves rustled in delight.
But the clothes also pointed out something else: I have no clothes of my own. The Other's memories suggested that clothes were important. And while I am a tree, and trees don't need clothes, I am also a person. People wear clothes.
I am a person. Thus, I want clothes to show the world that I am one, even if my world is just her right now.
Returning my puppets to my clearing, I pondered my resources and options for acquiring clothes. Eventually, I settled on making clothes from animal hides. Though the Other apparently knew the theory behind tanning furs, they'd never had put it into practice. I figured that with the theory in mind, I could probably figure it out by myself.
I did get it, eventually, but it took some trial and error. I started with small game first, and it must have taken me a dozen or more rabbits to stop completely mangling the hides. As for the braining of the the hides, I would have never thought to do so had it not been for the Other. The furs came out better when I soaked them in a mixture of brain mush and water; it was such an odd step, but it helped in the end.
As an aside, I really wish I knew who the Other was. I would like to thank them for helping me. It would be the first time I give my thanks to anybody, ever.
Back to the skins I was working on, my next challenge was the one I feared the most: smoking the hides. Trees fear fire above almost all else. Our roots are all interconnected, and thoughts can spread far and wide throughout the forest. When a tree burns, we all know it.
But I needed a fire.
I carefully dug a pit and ringed it with stones, praying to the merciful sun that I would not set the forest ablaze. After piling the wood of other fallen trees into the pit, I brought forth my magic to levitate a stick towards the pile. It pressed against the kindling and then began spinning rapidly.
The moment a little tendril of smoke appeared, a set of large leaves — also levitated by my magic — fanned the minuscule embers until they had grown into a stable flame. Even though my roots were planted almost a kilometer away, I still tensed them in fright when my wolves spotted the first light of the orange flames.
I shuddered. The Other knew of something called “breathing exercises,” which could calm them down, but I had no lungs of my own. My flowers drooped as I forced my way through my anxiety, even as the flames burned brighter and hotter.
On the verge of panic, I levitated the skins — stretched across a wooden frame — high over the fire, where they could be treated by the smoke. My magic was shaky and sporadic; I nearly dropped the hides into the fire thrice before I decided they were done.
The moment I considered them done, Lycan threw a bunch of dirt on the fire, smothering it partially. Again and again, he threw more and more dirt onto the flames until at last, the fire was out. Then, for good measure, he threw even more dirt.
There was no such thing as too little fire, in my humble opinion.
Taking a look at my work, Lycan felt the pelts. The rabbit fur was soft to the touch while the hide was tough and strong. Overall, I would consider it a very successful first attempt. There was just one little problem: I only had two rabbit pelts. That was nowhere near enough!
I shed a few leaves in frustration, knowing that I’d have to do that all over again.
For my next pelt, I’d decided to go straight for a manticore. It fell easily enough to my pack of puppets, especially since my Lycan was ready with several spears to throw. I felt an immense amount of pride, having taken down a creature by myself that would have taken my entire old pack to subdue. With twelve puppets by my side and my vast intelligence controlling them, I assured myself that I was on my way to becoming the king of the forest.
Hmmm... I shall have to figure out how to kill a hydra soon. I would love to adorn my clearing with its carcass; a trophy like that would forever cement me as Pack Leader of all the timberwolf trees.
While Lycan worked the giant hide into something resembling clothes, I sent a single wolf to further observe the strange zebra. Around its neck, I had draped one of my flower tendrils; that would disguise the scent of rot that clung to its wooden form.
The addition of manticore blood to my roots had expanded my range more than any chicken-lizards had, meaning that her entire home was now well within my range of control. As my wolf crept closer to the hut, I realized that it was carved into a long-dead tree. Masks and ornamentation hung from the structure, dispelling any doubts that this was the home of a person, and not just a strange animal.
There was light pouring from the open window. Creeping closer, my wolf gazed inside. There she was, standing over a bubbling cauldron. Between stirs, she'd thrown a hoof full of ground-up herbs into the cauldron. The smell it gave off was similar to the smell that always clung to her.
A part of me saw her as nothing but prey. Knowing that she would see me as a predator, my new logic squashed down that instinct to hunt her. Instead, my puppet cantered over to the front door of her home. Clutching the flowers in its teeth, it placed them on the ground and then scratched lightly at the door.
The muttering of the zebra, as faint as it was, ceased immediately. Taking that as my cue, I withdrew my puppet to the underbrush a short distance away. It wouldn't completely hide me, I knew, but the distance and obstructions between us would put her at ease.
Watching silently, I saw her open the door. She looked around, though she didn't spot me immediately. Her eyes fell on the flowers, causing her to gasp. I don't know why she made that sound; all I know is that she scooped up the flowers very eagerly. Did she want to eat them?
I vaguely recalled that her kind liked eating plants, as I liked eating animals. I also vaguely recalled eating something similar to her before. If the price of potential companionship was letting her eat my flowers and never eating one of her kind again, well, that was a price I was more than willing to pay.
It seemed that I had been spotted, if her reaction was anything to go by. Her muscles tensed as she stared directly at my wolf's glowing emerald eyes. I made it nod at her, and then sent it away, purposefully making sure that I could be seen leaving.
I couldn't help but pause and look back at her. She was still there, standing in the doorway, still looking at me. In that instant, I regretted that I had not practiced my speech more. My Lycan could form simple words, but all my wolves could do was bark.
So it did.
With a playful wag of its tail, my wolf leaped away and into the dense forest and the ever-present mist. On my trunk, my flowers opened even wider and smelled even sweeter.
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That was cool! You have earned my thumbs up, sir or madame.
Loving it :)
It's a journey of exploration, for all of us!
Well now, this is interesting...
So we are set in at around show era (plus or minus a few years) and have established contact with a canon character.
Although the "I have no real plan for it" makes me worry about premature endings (or worse, indefinite lack of updates), I greatly look forward to seeing how this takes us.
Now, theory time: Since the tree inherently can't talk or move much, it's likely going to use a wolf as an Avatar of itself (like an organic version of Crusader the Bolo in Legacy). Most likely it'll use the Lycan for now, but if things progress positively with Zecora (since it's clear that's who she is) and Lumber gets creative with it's designs, we might eventually see a wooden pony (or wooden human if the memories are strong enough). If tree/pony relations go well enough (in the far future) we could get a "Forest Protector" scenario. Where the tree controls all the Timberwolves, who hunt the monsters (since they're nonsapient and highly magical) and protect travelling ponies (since they're the only creatures smart enough to provide intelligent companionship).
On a different route, assuming our human who kindly donated his wealth of knowledge knows enough, we could see the rise of a Timberwolf civilization. We've already got tools and weapons in production, and the only thing inhibiting mining operations is lack of current need and fear of fire. Give it enough years/decades/centuries and you could have a whole new race of wooden creatures with enough magic to be sapient in their own right, but also connected via hive-mind to the Great Tree.
In more short term sights though, the hides will likely be worn by Lumber's avatar (since how do you clothe a tree?). Zecora will be scared and suspicious, but her reactions implies that those flowers were rare/ hard to acquire (well obviously since they're from the most well defended trees in the forest) and several more offerings will make her curious at the least. Opening lines of conversation should also increase her willingness to cooperate, once she recognizes its intelligence. Maybe form a tentative symbiotic relationship over the next few chapters. They acquire rare plants for her, she provides conversation and local knowledge about magic and such that Lumber lacks.
Seeing the POV of an intelligent Timberwolf is really fun
Glorious story, not that I expected any different from you after reading Split Second. Keep up the good work.
Great chapter! On to the next... as soon as its posted!
6440892
The Tree can walk, you know.
6441901
Oh? I didn't see that. If I've understood things correctly, I think the most it's moved so far is wiggling its branches to make the new transmitter seeds fall down.
6441922
6441901
It can also slightly wiggle its roots. Give it a month and it could probably move a few dozen feet.
6441950
You remind me of the moving trees in that one forest near the Shire in Middle Earth (from LOTR books, its before the barrowights.)
I honestly like this story a bit more than I expected to!
Ill be honest I was hoping for a "timberwolf turned smart" or "human turned timberwolf" story but I like the feel of this story
D'aww, who's a good boy?
Please don't eat me.
6442290 *does not eat* c;
6442272
It's somewhere in the middle of that, really.
I could be wrong, but didn´t this story had romance befor? Maybe i remember the wrong story right now, but somehow I thought this Timber Wolf would maybe be a former Human, and probably has something to do with Fluttershy later.
6443142
Well considering that I only posted this a few days ago and my original, unpublished draft had nothing to do with Fluttershy, it's safe to say that you're thinking of the wrong story.
Intriguing, and a new approach. I'm interested to see where it goes.
(You might want to have the text checked/edited a little, though - you're running into homophone and apostrophe placement problems.)
This is good, however I thought he would already meet another intelligent creature in chapter two, but I like it, that it takes a bit longer to reach certain points in the story.
Ow.
You jammed that hook in my eye, now I can't ever leave. I have to wait for the next part, so I guess I'll be here a while...
God damn do I love your writing, Wille.
Imaginative creativity is one of the biggest things I value in the stories I look for. Mad props to you for that.
Just wanted to let you know.
6447079
Blush.jpg
Awwww... Thanks!
so will they experiment with materials and thing test out ideas? science tree!
Oh, wow. I have never encountered a story quite like this before. It's written so beautifully that I can't seem to stop reading. It must be the philosophical vibe it gives off, and I'm always a sucker for those.
6447151 really liking this story bet you could do wonders with a sylvari hound (guild wars2 plant wolf)
I wish I had come up with something like this. It's actually a rather genius concept, the observations of a newly sapient creature and its ability to gather information through a hive mind is quite original.
Intriguing. These observations of a newly sapient being are quite intriguing.
That's a fair question for a sapient tree that controls timberwolves.
Before, I was interested. Now I'm hooked. This chapter was delightful.
This is going to be an adventure
Very interested in what you're doing with the lore of the show.
Well... I'm not sure if Jack's bark is worse than his bite.
Zecora's gonna want to get to the root of the issue. I hope it willow be alright.
6491714 *groans and shakes head* don't try and get too sappy about this
6491714 no just no
6441967 Annnnnd now I have Tom's song stuck in my head. Thak you.
I ship it.
if i could i if it had a rating scale i would give it 11/10
Aw, that's nice of him. It's good to see even trees know what gratitude is.
6813428 While scentient trees know how to respond to graditude... as well as kindness... and fear... and frustration... and... well... a whole lot of other emotions.
... I just imagined what that would be like. "Fire destroys trees. In droves. Without effort. And I'm a tree, unable to move away, and I'm lighting a fire mere feet away.
*succeeds*
*Shaking in my leaves*
*puts out fire*
I'm the most badass tree in the history of ever!"