A humble house in the village of Hefka had a guest that had joined them just a few days prior. This guest was rather thrust upon them, but it did not bother them. After all, this was the son of their dear Malora. 

Betty and Edgar had been caring for Lormus for the past few days now. They were worried greatly for her safety because Lorn had made such a big deal about someone kidnapping her. Even so, they knew that if it was someone as strong as Lorn that he would be able to save her no matter the criminal who could have done this. 

For now, all they could do was care for Lormus the best that they could. He was difficult to calm at times. He must be missing his mother dearly.

... 

More days have passed. Soldiers are passing through town. Betty and Edgar were pretty sure that Lorn was the one who lead them. Lorn didn't come to visit, or even so much as show his face though. It was a bit sad, but they knew that he must be worried about his wife being missing. He should focus on that. They could care well enough for Lormus while he was on this mission, though it was not as easy as it could have been were they a bit younger.

Lorn must have been just as on edge as they were. Betty and Edgar had a strange feeling the other day that was very worrying. Lorn surely felt the same tug in his gut. Lormus must have as well, because it took a long time for him to stop crying that day. It felt as if something bad had happened to Malora. It just didn't feel right. All they could do was hope that Lorn could make it in time to save her. They knew that he had a temper, but he surely cared deeply about his wife. He would save her, wouldn't he?

A shockwave blew through the trees above me. Sounds of battle could be heard even from this distance away. Inza had said that I would need to be ready to leave in three days, and I could guess why that might have been now. Whatever was happening, I wanted to be nowhere near it. 

Sen strolled happily alongside me, seemingly melding through any obstacle while I tried to find the clearest paths through the forest. This place clearly saw very little traffic from anyone in need of roads. Only small animal trails made breaks in the underbrush. 

An idea came to mind, couldn’t I make a path? I had gotten fairly good at manipulating plants and controlling the urge to take the mana in them. It was worth a shot at least. I knew how to correct my mistake in case something bad happened. I focused on the path in front of me. There were quite a lot of different plants. I hadn’t really practiced on more than one at a time yet. Well, it might still be worth a try. 

I connected my mana to the mana of the plants that I wanted to manipulate. Somehow, it didn’t start to feel overwhelming. I kept going forward until I reached the limit of how much I could keep track of. Now that I was connected, I started to pull the streams of mana apart to clear a path for me in the middle. 

I hadn’t quite realized it since I was more focused on the mana than the actual forest in front of me, but I had seemingly connected to a lot of plants. For a few hundred feet in front of me, a path formed at my will. I stood a little slack jawed at the sight before me. I didn’t think that I could do much more than open a path through the bushes that were in front of me moments before. 

I started walking forward and started to release my grip on the plants that I passed, allowing them to move back to their original position. This turned out to be quite convenient.

Many minutes of walking later, once I had gotten the hang of clearing the path, I was making good time. I wasn’t sure how big this forest was, but it couldn’t be that much further until I reached the plains, right?

My thoughts were interrupted by a screeching and a booming whoosh above me. I couldn’t quite make out what it was since it was mostly obscured by the trees above me, but whatever it was I did not want it to see me. 

Employing my newfound ability to move the forest around me, I caused all of the trees above me to close the gaps in their canopy. I also caused the bushes and foliage nearby to cover me like a natural cloak. Sen came up close and pressed herself against my impromptu camouflage.

A few minutes more came and went, but there was no further sign of the thing that had earlier flown overhead. I decided that there would be no use in hiding anymore. I didn’t think that it had seen me to begin with, but It didn’t hurt to take extra precautions though. 

We continued our trek, but I kept an eye on the sky that I could see above the trees. Sen seemed to care little for the previous danger, happily making grumbling sounds and playing with some woodland creatures that happened by. I smiled as I looked on at her. She was my responsibility, and I was glad that she was such a bright spirit. I could really get used to her simple meandering and gleeful exclamations.

Wait, wouldn’t it be rather troublesome to have her come with me into a city? I had never seen any creature like her in a city. Usually only things like horses, dogs, cats, and other small creatures were common. I had never even heard of a treant before Inza introduced me to them. I don’t think her presence would be well received by the common people. Worst case, she would be taken for a demon. 

Demons are known to come in many shapes and sizes. Most of them take the shape of beasts that have been twisted by the influence of the demon, though I had heard that they can also take the shape of humans. Those were said to be the really powerful ones, so most people had never seen anything like them. 

That being the case, I would have to come up with something to make sure that Sen doesn’t cause trouble. “Sen?” I spoke for the first time since I had left Inza’s home. Sen, who was up until now playing with a red bird that had been hopping along Sen's arm, immediately lost interest in the bird and gave me her full attention. “Sen, is there any way that you can hide? I am worried that the people of the city might be scared of you if you are in your current form.”

Sen made a curious noise and tilted her head to the side a little. After a moment, she lifted her arm that the red bird stood on in order to signal it to take off from its perch. Sen then walked right up to me and made another happy noise. One of her grassy hand-like appendages reached to my side, and I was worried but curious as to what her intent was. 

That worry quickly turned to confusion as Sen started to shrink down. She started compressing herself down to a much smaller proportion. I didn’t realize it for a moment, but she had put her arm into one of my pockets.

She continued to shrink down more and more, eventually completely shoving her newly minuscule form into my pocket. This clever girl. “I didn’t know you could do something like that.” Sen made another sound that I interpreted as being happy, although this time it was much higher pitched. 

I didn’t really have much use for pockets since most of everything went into my bag, so having a little treant pocket was pretty nifty. That and the fact that she peeked her little head and one arm out of my pocket, which made an excessively cute sight.

That situation resolving itself rather nicely, I returned to my walk. 

It must have been a couple of hours, and I still did not see the end of the forest. The sound of battle had long since fallen behind me. I may have underestimated how much walking I would have to do to reach the road that Inza mentioned earlier that day. 

A more important development though, was the rumbling in my stomach that was surfacing now that any apparent danger was gone and I had just been focusing on the journey. I had gotten quite used to having breakfast rather early in the morning, and the sun was rather high in the sky now. 

A troublesome complication reared its head. I do not know how to forage for food here, and I did not have any provisions. Could I find any of those fruits that Inza had the treants gather? Wait, treants. That could work. 

I looked down to my pocket where the cutely swaying arm of my little treant danced in the air. “Sen, do you know how to gather some food that would be safe for me to eat?” Sen made another set of happy, high pitched sounds and emerged from my pocket very quickly in her original size. She started immediately walking off through one of the sides of plants held back by my magic. I decided that she probably knew what she was doing since she had so little hesitation and waited patiently for her to return. 

It only took a few minutes for her to come back, and she was holding a huge armful of colorful fruits and berries. It was an unreasonable amount to eat for a single person, but it would be a good idea to keep some around anyway to eat on the rest of the way to our destination. 

“Thank you Sen, this is perfect.” I tried to pat Sen on her head, but found that I was not able to reach it. She seemed to understand what I was trying to do though, and leaned downwards far enough that I could now comfortably set my hand on her head. She made some content grumbling sounds. 

Once I had properly rewarded my... treant? My child? I probably shouldn’t think about it too hard. At any rate, once I had properly rewarded her with head pats, I removed my hand from her and opened the bag that was slung over my shoulder. “Could you please put those in here?” I gestured toward the open bag. 

Sen happily groaned again and shifted her arms around. The blades of grass that made up her arms shifted into a kind of ramp that funneled the bounty into my bag. She was really smart for having been born yesterday. 

My bag now full of various tasty morsels, I closed its flap over the clasp. “Sen, you are such a smart girl.” Learning from my previous mistake, I just went in to hug Sen so she didn’t have to bend down so far. She eagerly returned my embrace and lifted me up in the air. It warmed my heart to feel such affection from someone who I suppose was now family. 

I could not spend too much time idly. I was on a pretty strict time limit, what with trying to save the world and all. Again, best not to think about it too hard until there is something more that I can do. 

We started our walk again and I grabbed one of the various fruits that Sen had gathered for me. My rumbling stomach insisted that I dig right in, and so I did. The crisp flesh of the fruit was fantastic. But, the flavor was kind of weak. That was strange. I had one of these fruits back in the dining hall just yesterday, and it was brimming with flavor. This one must have not been quite ripe yet or something. 

Either way, it was filling. I ate a few more fruits before I had my fill. All of which were very lacking in flavor. Oh well, at least I had a stable source of food for my journey.