Unlike how Hesef had been seduced by the Dryad, this was was a completely different encounter. From the outset, the Dryad looked at the two individuals with immense hostility.

Locke looked at the woman with immense curiosity. Since he had entered this world, Ghost was the only non human creature he had seen so far. This Dryad would be only the second.

"You almost look human." Locke said calmly.

Locke's calm behavior put the Dryad into even higher vigilance. However, no matter what, she didn't seem to feel any threat from Locke himself. It was the girl sitting beside him that was making her feeling extremely threatened. No, she was not a little girl.

"Your body stinks of death!" The Dryad wrinkled her face and held her nose. "You don't seem like an undead? I wonder what you are?"

"I don't know!" Ghost said in an emotionally neutral manner. She had long stopped thinking about this matter. Then she introduced herself. "My name is Ghost! What is your name?"

The Dryad slowly threw away her caution and sat down beside Locke and Ghost. She looked at Ghost with interest. "My name is Hibiscus. I am a Dryad."

Ghost nodded. "Locke told me we were going to visit a Dryad!" The Dryad understood that the boy sitting beside the girl was probably the Locke in question.

"Why are you looking for me?" Hibiscus asked.

"How many Dryads live together?" Locke asked.

"We are solitary creatures. An entire forest might be lucky to birth a single Dryad." Hibiscus explained proudly.

"Then how do you communicate with other Dryads?" Locke retorted.

"This... We have our ways." The Dryad nervously replied.

"Can you find out what's going on in the Ghone Forest? Do you have any connections with any Dryads there?" Locke asked as he munched into his sandwich.

"Why?" Hibiscus asked.

"There's something going wrong in the forest." Locke mumbled as he became thoughtful.

In the past month, he had been receiving intelligence about heavy troop deployments towards the Ghone Forest in the Mid-West of the Sun Kingdom. Initially, he suspected a peasant revolt of some kind, but with more information he was increasingly puzzled.

The troops were all heading into a forest of oak trees near the center of the Sun Kingdom's territory called Ghone Forest. His latest intel was what urged him to look for the Dryad.

After learning about the Dryad from Hesef, Locke had learnt a lot about Dryads and their abilities. Dryads were isolationist spirit creatures that seemed to have the ability to communicate with each other over extremely long distances. Besides just having control over nature, they could become an incredible set of ears and eyes.

His latest intel was what solidified Locke's decision to seek the Dryad. An entire command of a thousand troops had entered Ghone Forest and disappeared. Right now, more soldiers were being gathered around the forest.

"Why should I help you?" Hibiscus asked.

"Whatever is going on in Ghone Forest would be a threat not just to humans, but also nature and Dryads like yourself." Locke said calmly. 

"Give me a few minutes." Hibiscus said. Suddenly, her human skin turned light green and shoots and branches began to emerge from Hibiscus' body and dig into the ground.

Locke and Ghost, both observed the transformation of the Dryad with surprise and amazement. 

"Magical creatures really are something else." Locke muttered with a smile. Meanwhile, Ghost tried to copy Hibiscus and turn into a tree, but failed to do so. Frustrated, she sat down and returned to munching her gemstone.

Locke was speculating how the Dryads communication ability worked. That Hibiscus had to transform into a tree to communicate reminded him about Fungal communication back on earth through the ground over the range of thousands of miles.

Fifteen minutes later, the tree slowly began to disappear, leaving the Dryad sitting on the grass. She finally opened her eyes.

"..." Hibiscus' eyes were shivering and fear was writ large on her face.

"What happened?" Ghost asked. "Are you sick?" Hibiscus didn't reply to Ghost's worry.

"You weren't able to contact the Dryad?" Locke was more perceptive.

"..." Hibiscus nodded. "I contacted Queen Sakura when I couldn't contact Petunia in Ghone Forest."

"Queen Sakura? The Dryads have a Queen?" Locke asked in surprise. The Dryad nodded.

"What did you find out?" Locke asked, returning to the important point.

"You humans seem to have discovered a pyramid in Ghone Forest." Hibiscus spoke, while simultaneously processing what she had heard. "The pyramid seems to have been built before Petunia was even born. So even the Queen didn't know who made it."

"So the Kingdom assumed it is a treasure and entered the pyramid?" Locke asked.

"..." Hibiscus shook her head. "They never managed to open it. The moment you humans opened the pyramid, the Dryads lost all contact with Petunia. The forest is changing."

Locke sighed. Even the Dryads seemed to be ignorant of the specifics. He thought he might get some news he could make use of for his own purposes, but it seemed like the Sun Kingdom opened up something they shouldn't have. He decided to talk to the Sun Temple about the matter. While he was embroiled in thoughts, Hibiscus spoke again.

"The Queen wants to speak to you." Hibiscus suddenly told Locke.

"Speak to me?" Locke asked in confusion. "How?"

"You'll have to visit the City of the Sun. Queen Sakura is in the capital city of your country." Hibiscus said.

"What does she want to speak to me about?" Locke asked.

Hibiscus shook her head. "I don't know." She said. "But when you head out to visit her, you must take me along as payment for helping you." 

"Is it to obtain the blessing?" Locke asked.

"You even know about the blessing?" Hibiscus asked in shock.

"Not particularly much. Just that Dryads migrate out of their spawning forest to receive blessings from an elder. When you leave your forest, you lose most of their powers and often end up being vulnerable, am I right?" Locke asked.

"..." Hibiscus remained silent.