Chapter 49 - The tree at the top of the hill

Climbing the hill up to Serris' tree, Noah felt the mildew sodden hay drench against his pants. A glance to his side towards Liora saw she was narrowing her curiously sparkling eyes. On his other side was Caina, having decided that with nothing better to do she may as well join them in inspecting the surrule cherry tree. Carrying with her, her bag of medicine, when Noah had asked why Caina's response was 'I feel like I'm going to need something in here.' While patting the side of it with a few slaps.

Liora on the other hand was carrying a basket, an empty one, thinking that she could grab a few more of the cherries to make something. Jam, a crumble, or anything like that really. How she was going to do both of those without the proper crumble topping or sugar, Noah was unaware, nor was he going to comment about that. His time here had proven confusing to say the least.

There was a faint scent lingering about that only got stronger the closer they drew to the tree. Cherries and surprisingly a fragrant flowery blossom. Back on earth few things had smelt so strangely delicious, then again, Noah found anything that smelt fruity and sweet, delicious.

"My lord, it's actually fruiting…" Arriving past the encirclement of wheat and into the ring of verdant green grass, Liora's head swivelled upwards to see branching arching from the weight of the sibling cherries. So, called for two having grown from one stem.

It was a shock at first, in her over twenty winters of living on this farm this tree had been in a continuous state of blossoming. No matter how much fertilizer Harv would spread below its canopy it simply wouldn't bloom and fruit and yet now, after so long it had done just that. What had changed? She began to think, her mind racing at galloping speed, from her daughters leaving, to the loss of Harv and everything they owned. Slowly her gaze descended, trailing over the smoother grey bark thinly veined with strange pinkish flickers of light, drawn to the soft stepping noise of Noah growing closer to the trunk. His body thin enough that even standing at the centre he was framed on either side by it. She doubted he could even wrap his arms halfway around the trunk from how thick it was.

"I was thinking maybe we could sell these cherries at the market. I heard there's a big one coming up in Tallmire soon so I thought we could sell these." Noah expression while a bright smile belied something else, worry?

'why would he be worried?' Liora thought.

Casting her focus back to the cherries, she scanned their abundance, their size and health. They were beautiful with a waxy vibrantly red skin and most pressingly, massive, compared to the ones she'd eaten during her time as an aristocrats daughter, these were comparatively huge. "I-I don't know what to say. That's-" she paused, any sentence she tried to make up in her mind only fizzled out in stutters and gabs.

"Tallmire's a long times away. It'll take us days to get there by carriage, weeks on foot. By then anything we could carry—which isn't a lot with only us three—would have rotten by then." Leaning down, Caina plucked a cherry from the soil and inspected it, "not to mention Tallmire's market is coming in a few days and the next one will be in months. By then these will have all fallen and been eaten by the animals around here or decayed into fertilizer for the next year." Done inspecting the orb, Caina tossed it to the side where it bounced and rolled further away.

"You don't need to worry about the ripeness. I can fix that." Noah strained an unusual expression like he was sucking on a lemon. "The transport on the other hand is an issue. That's not something I can fix. I was thinking we could hire a carriage from the… uh… village." His voice softened at the mention of them, the previous days assault by the people she thought as friends still fresh in her mind causing her to tremble. Liora still felt guilty as she caught the red scab on Noah's forehead. If she'd just not been there, he wouldn't have protected her and wouldn't have gotten hurt. "I'm not saying we should, that's up to Liora to decide."

What was she to say? It was a brilliant idea. Even she could tell these berries were valuable. Selling them just sounded like the smart thing to do. "That's… that's an amazing idea Noah. I'm just, I wasn't expecting this. How is this even possible? Harv tried so hard to get it to fruit so we could sell them alongside our flour and hay, but this, it's never done this before. Sorry, I'm just trying to wrap my head around this."

"Take as long as you need." You're going to need it, he thought with a slight bob of his head.

"How are you planning to keep them fresh? There isn't exactly any onnaire silk we could wrap them in, and there's definitely no way a village like Alder would have a cold-carriage for us to borrow. And I've been here for a while, so I can tell you that, that 'definitely no way,' is a 'most certainly do not.' Not even Granger has one and he's the mayor."

After yesterday when Noah had gotten to meet, or at least see most of the villagers, he guessed Granger was the tavernkeeper. Noah's opinion of the man immediately dwindled to distaste as he barely did anything to stop the others from attacking them.

"That is," scratching his head, Noah turned to the serrule tree and sighed, "no point in hiding it…" he whispered to himself. Looking to the two he glanced between them with his expression falling to a form of strain. "So, I know this is a stupid thing to ask. But could you both please not panic from what I'm about to show you?"

Noah knew the futility of such a request, never once had he not seen a person panic when that was request was made. Even now, Noah could see both girls writhe uncomfortably at the question, both suspecting something was incredibly off for him to be asking something like that.

"Noah, that makes it sound like you murdered someone to make them grow. You didn't actually do that, did you?" Liora responded, gulping slightly as she was unsure of what to do if she was housing a murdered. Well, if the dead guy was a bandit then good, if they weren't well, she wasn't sure what to do then.

"Oh god no." he exclaimed, "I, well, it's better if I show you."

Sharing a look, as Noah twisted around and took three half steps closer to the tree, Noah spoke.

"Serris, could you come out please."

'Serris?' both girls thought in tandem. Liora heart pattering just a bit harder than Caina's, something she connected more to her age than to her current state of uneasiness.

When the tree's trunk began to twist and bubble out, the pattering turned to thumping. Her eyes widened, mouth hung in horror as each second the bubble grew and twisted and shifted, growing a thin, womanly torso with modest b.r.e.a.s.ts lacking in n.i.p.p.l.es. A head appeared, the face, its expression stagnant on an almost carved background of wood. The lips plump and took on a shade of greyish pink that was overtaken by the bright luminous flaring of two pink bulbs that made the eyes. When the head came, the arms also grew, first fingers turned then to a hand that slowly extruded into a lower arm, upper arm, and shoulders. They were thin limbs, lackng in fat but would throb with a pinkish light every now and then. Last to appear was the hair—if that's what vines laden with leaves, flowers and cherries could be called and with the hair came a crown of thorny wooden horns.

Liora gaped, what was protruding from the tree she'd thought normal, was a monster. A dryad, something rare around these parts. And something dangerous to humans.

She didn't scream, though her face did drain of colour and sent her stumbling backwards to make as much distance as she could from the monster. Ultimately ending in her tripping at the precipice of the ring of grass sending her thumping onto her bottom into the hay field, crushing a few stems and turning them into a makeshift cushion.

While she couldn't see her, Liora could hear Caina to the side gagging and choking on her fingers to expel as much of the cherry she'd eaten earlier as she could. Liora's own stomach was also churning as the slow realization crept in that what she'd eaten was a monsters fruit, likely filled with Manos that would corrupt her and slowly turn her into a monster herself.

"Should I return?" Serris questioned Noah. The voice that of a young woman's appropriate considering her outer appearance was similar to that of a twenty years lady.

"No… I think they just need to get used to your existence for now."

"Understood. I will remain then. Would you like another of my fruits?"

"Maybe later. Let's deal with these two first."

"Okay. Please say when you wish for one and I will provide it for you, my fruiter."

"Will do."