• “Yes please!”
• “I underst- Wait… Seriously?”
• “There are many branches that grow the wrong way and become too heavy and fall off, there’s also bug infested branches that are better off cut away oh and also some fungi that intrudes the bark is not nice and those nasty furry creatures that keep chewing on the bark and-”

‘Trees have that much to worry about? What about the furry creature… did she mean those creepy rabbits that eat meat?’

• “Wait, wait wait… I meant as in for construction. I want to make some sort of shelter for ourselves. For that I need timber at least.”

‘I need nails and some tiles as well but I can manage. Oak and Alder trees are hardwood so their lumber is much tougher but I still can’t use damaged material for any serious construction.’

• “Oh… uhm… I think I can help?”
• “How so?”
• “Taking little bits from trees shouldn’t hurt much, I can merge with those and grow into the shape you want! If you bring them to me quickly enough the branch won’t die!”

‘I remember those conjoined trees… Apparently if trees grow too close to each other they can become grafted together. Crazy thing is that this inosculation can happen naturally without outside intervention. Dear mother nature. What the fuck?

So she’s suggesting that she becomes the house… I suppose I could experiment with that a little… Tree houses eh? Wonder how much weight it can hold up.’

• “So… you just need… bad twigs?”
• “Some small and healthy branches from heavier sides are fine too.”
• “You lead.”
• “Okay!”

‘I wish I had the same innocent enthusiasm… If it’s small enough I think my blade is enough to cut through but I might have to hack away some larger ones… Greimen and Ash are going to collectively own my rear if they knew about what I was going to do with it… but is this sword… glowing? Nah I think it’s just the moon’s reflection… probably.’

• “Is it this one?”

While Alicia herself had Flora-empathy and could tell general areas that had… ‘discomfort’ but she couldn’t exactly understand the severities.

• “Yes, those branches to the right, there.”

Being a former tree, she delegated the task of finding trees in desperate need of pruning to Dryssia. Returning to the tree, Alicia was told to strip the barks and hold them close. When she did, on Dryssia’s cue a small green vine poked out of the great oak tree and attached to the broken branch merging together.

• “We did it!”
• “That’s good and all but for flooring I’m gonna need more than a few branches… Preferably a flat surface to hold up everything.”

Newly attached branch quickly regrew its bark, gaining rough exterior.

• “So barks are going to be a problem… I think I can try veneering to make the flooring even but… not sure if it’s going to work.”
• “What is wee-near-ing?”
• “I’m thinking about cutting the branches and some of the logs into  two or even four to make planks then attaching thin slices of bark onto the exposed inner wood. Would that do too much damage to it?”
• “I want to see first.”
• “I think the largest bark ridge in the middle of the tree is the best for holding up any added weight so let’s head up.”
• “Don’t worry, I’ll tell Master if the tree can’t hold anymore!”
• “Sure, thanks!”

Dryssia quietly squealed in delight from being relied in. Although she noticed the strange behaviour Alicia decided not to comment and pretended not to notice her.

‘As impressive as this sword is, I don’t think it’s going to cut through hardwood like oak as evenly as I want it to even if it could cut. I'll have to use something like a blowtorch to burn a small slice through wood… Well I have just the tool…’

⟨ Weaver ⟩

↳ « Constitution »

Creating the thinnest string she could make, reinforced with constitution,

⟨ Bestow Element ⟩

↳ « Fire Aspect »

then imbuing it with fire aspect the wire string gained the dull incandescent glow from the extreme temperatures it reached. From previous experience she noticed that magic from herself however destructive in nature would not harm her to an extent… According to the water spirit, since the actual working of magic are executed by the lesser spirits they at the minimum know enough to not to harm their ‘food provider’ thus protecting the magic user from their own magic. However she cited that there was a limit to it. As they couldn’t protect her from every side effect they may possess. Despite the warning Alicia was not concerned about burning herself and went ahead without worry, using the red hot wire as a saw she cut through the middle of the larger limb. With sawing motion the wire easily burnt through with minimal effort and cut the limb.

Dryssia was nervously fidgeting while looking at the process.
The predictable popping sounds would occasionally be heard due to the water content of the log. The moisture protected the other parts of the log not directly in touch with the searing string from catching fire. When the limb was done being cut she then scraped away the soot and char and after affixing the halved log firmly Alicia started to peel away a thin slice from the bark with the help of her blade in a smooth turning motion along the edges…¹Also known as rotary cut veneer. You can search for the rest right?

‘This thing’s too long for tool use… I don’t expect a full on woodworking toolkit but maybe I should invest in a dagger or at least a knife… I also need a ruler, pen and paper and an office table with a working  computer that has a 3D A*toCAD…²Computer Assisted Designer, a software made to help engineers, designers and many more to make as realistic as possible models of almost anything they might need. You don’t need me to explain what ‘Three Dimensional’ is do you? No? Too much to ask?’

…and made it into flitches³A small slice of rectangular film used for veneering or a plank with at least 30mm of width and varying lengths and heights sometimes called a ‘slab’. Flitch almost always refers to the wood from the tree’s trunk cut from the outside.. The log was placed flat side up and she placed the flitches along the exposed sapwood and heartwood, normally she would need an adhesive to glue it to the substrate but…

• “Can you uhm… do your thing?”
• “Eh? Oh yes!”

Tree nymph was in a daze from watching, pulled back into reality and she started to inosculate the prepared logs. Vines grew in an undulating pattern, crawling across the wood intertwining in between them. New branches poked out of the previously inanimate wood eventually merging together into a singular ‘plank’ as there was already a small amount of bark placed on top of the bare wood. The flitches simply hardened and became a flat ‘coating’… turning into something midway between a veneer and a bark. And when the whole process was finished, what was left was a solid slab of oak.

• “I mean that could be used as a very long wall shelf on its own but give me a few more and I can make a decent foundation… As decent as it can get on a tree…”
• “Did it work?”
• “Yeah better than I anticipated, since we have a proof of concept let’s go get more.”
• “Okay!”

She was elated that she could help not just her dear Master but the other troubled trees in the area. To her, wincing every now and then at Alicia’s method of carpentry… was an insignificant demerit compared to the benefits to the forest - her home - receives…

‘Hardwood like oak and alder for flooring, internal framework and carcass, softwood like pine and fir for walls and everything else… Unfortunately some furniture has to be made… Well… I can replace a bed for a hammock but… actually I don’t need much huh… just some shelves, desks and somewhere to store things and I’ll be set… I think spending months on the construction site in a small cabin in a stuffy bunk bed or a foul smelling mattress on a trailer floor has made me a bit more austere than I thought…… I hated being a senior site manager, just give me small packages.’

• “That’s about as much as we can carry. We should head back before they start drying up and dying…”

Bundles of twigs, branches, limbs and logs of varying size and dimensions were fastened by silk and carried on her back. Two worked throughout the night and made many trips back and forth to multiple sections of the forest. While Alicia preferred to have all the materials and resources at the site, due to the perishable nature of the plants, she had to travel more than she anticipated to and work in waves. Using her silk she made a natural pulley to escalate large logs and other unwieldy objects to her ‘platform’ on the great oak. Little by little starting with the foundation then to the walls and supports and finishing up moving onto the roof. By the time the last of the framework was in place the illumination of sunlight from morning sun showed just how far she had come.

‘Not being tired really makes you productive hm… It’s strange how I don’t need sleep… scary even.’

>Notice. Administrator energy expenditure from physical activities within natural energy regeneration total.

• User is of sound mental, emotional and bodily health, symptoms of fatigue will not be present.
• Hibernation period allows the body to encourage and facilitate internal functions now handled and optimized by the system.
• During dormancy period the levels of alertness lowers and administrators are exposed to unnecessary vulnerability.

>Assessment: Activity of ‘Sleeping’ is presently an obsolete function.

>Restore natural bodily functions? Y/N.

‘No. Not right now anyway. You’ve told me something like that before I just can’t really come to term with it that easily… Any other worrying things I should know about that you’re doing?’

>Requirements for ⟨ Photoautotrophy ⟩ sufficiently met. Energy gain rate expected to rise. Genomic mapping of subject C.Tornitua is 87.4% complete…

‘Thanks that’s not what I… I give up. I embrace the plant life.’

>Unsupported skill quarantine period over. Begin decryption process? Y/N.

‘What would that be…?’

>Interaction with the unknown object caused an influx of unidentified energy. The following anomalous energy spike is suspected to be the cause of severe impairments to administrator Anima codex. Energy levels normalized at the time of administrator resuscitation. Multiple unsupported skill entries that were detected are contained in a separate partition.

>@!ERR501 Partition read error occurred.
>Begin decryption process? Y/N.

‘I’m not too sure about that but if it’s safe I don’t see a reason not to, more the merrier.’

>Authorization confirmed. Decryption underway… … … …

‘I went on a tangent there… Where was I…? Right everything else… Roof since I’m planning for the future, simpler designs are better. Shed or butterfly might be the best but how much of a roof do I really need when there’s already a canopy of leaves and branches above me… Since normal doors don’t make much sense for a house on a tree as I won’t be on the same level just waltzing in, trap doors are better. But it’s more of a collection of branches and shrubbery that just responds to the person’s natural odor… and moves away or ‘opens’, kind of like a biometric lock, for everyone else. According to Dryssia I don’t have any odor at all. So I have to use magic or tell the plants to let me in… talk about an extra step. That leaves only windows and balconies… Well the whole tree is my balcony. Windows… not the largest thing out there and they only come in the oval shape… but for me closing them is as simple as using a little bit of magic, good thing softwood ‘walls’ can compress well… Permanent glass windows are a later concern.

This might be my first carbon negative project… though the more I look at it the more it feels like I’m a squirrel renovating the inside of a fancy tree hollow… Well since my house is basically a living being I don’t have to worry about maintenance since it will repair itself. How economic.’

• “Master, Help! Help me!!”
• “What, what is it?!”

Responding to Dryssia’s cries of help and hurrying to where she was - at one of the many clearing of the forest - thinking something might have attacked her, Alicia found the nymph atop a tree huddling a branch terrified.

• “Weevils! Help me!”
• “Weevils?”

Looking around she found a number of ‘rather large for a beetle but still pretty small’ weevils. They were digging up the acorns she had planted and carrying them off somewhere…

• “Really?”
• “Master they break the shells of the acorns and lay their larva in it. Larva then eats the seed from the inside! They’re evil!”

‘Acorns are kind of like her children I guess? I know just the pest exterminators…’

• ‘Time to pay your rent, my hair is a premium apartment. Get out there and do some work.’

By her prodding and shakedown of her hair few of the remaining hex crawlers climbed down and started to rundown the weevils making short work of them.

• “If you don’t mind, I can introduce these fellas back to the tree they’ll naturally go after unwanted guests.”

Slow but with resolution she nodded up and down, agreeing to Alicia’s suggestion. When they returned to the oak tree, Alicia created a few more hex crawlers to keep pest population under control.

⟨ Conjure ⟩

↳ ‹ Hex Crawler (A.Magicae) ›

They dispersed around the area and set up their own dwellings.

‘Well I have a roof over my head to sleep under and my landlord is an entomophobic tree spirit… Now about that new dress for her… her current outfit is a bit too… form fitting…’

Auratic

Researching into topic of trees was... bit time consuming. But I learned quite few things that you might find interesting. Trees turning into a frankentree is nothing new in nature but the science of grafting takes that to a whole new level. Here's one of many articles I found. And that's just the aesthetic uses for it. In the industry trees are grafted together to increase the variety of fruits they can produce. and even a home gardener can do it with enough practice.

here are some images of inosculated trees.

Spoiler

You get the point.

[collapse]

Someone coined in the idea of Yggdrasil the legendary (Most likely) Ash tree growing at the center of the cosmos. Since I already explored inosculation through my attempt at creating the most complicated tree house ever if two trees can graft together into one, why not three? If three can why not four? And if four is possible... why not a whole forest?

About plants being able to move... You might think Venus flytraps but its true plants are able to move albeit poorly but here's another one Mimosa Pudica the so called 'touch me not' plants. Admittedly plant-life turning into (trap)doorway is a rather extreme and unrealistic example but this story's main genre's fantasy, so I think I can get away with some unrealism.

Here's some youtube comment I saw a while back...

Spoiler

[collapse]

I mean we're already halfway there with the spiders aren't we? Might as well add in some K-roos(Huge rabbit wannabe that took boxing classes), snakes(Lamias).

Since we're already on the topic here's nice treebranch.

Spoiler

 How is this related to Australia? Well if you couldn't see the wrap around spider... (Dolophones Conifera) then the spider is doing a really good job of playing hide and seek... and of course they're native to everyone's favorite spider nightmare island of Australia.

[collapse]