Chapter 52 - Meeting the Tree [3]

It was becoming abundantly obvious to Noah how sick Liora was of these revelations he was lumping on her. The constant onslaught had drawn her to the blankest, most deadened stare Noah could ever have wished to see. Not even back on earth did he ever get such a blank look.

The only ones that came near were those school girls who went full on deadfish when he tried to ask them out only to be shot down like a horse with a broken leg.

In the minute of silence that followed his proclamation of otherworldly origin, Liora had blinked once about halfway through the minute taking a minimum of five seconds for a full revolution of shut and open.

"You okay over the-"

"No. I am most certainly not okay." She scathed, "what do you mean you come from another world!?"

"I believe it harbours the meaning that he is not from our world." Serris added, drawing a spiteful glare from Liora.

"Be quiet while I deal with Noah, okay?" sinister sweetness kindled with slitted eyes, a dark omen, and a twitching lip.

"I shall not speak then." Serris budged in the wind, soft cracking of wood resonating from her as tendrils rose from her upper and lower lip sewing her mouth together into a perfectly smooth piece of wood.

Liora huffed, straightened her spine, and bared her eyes down on Noah. His only response being to shiver in fear, any other movement he could make seeming to be insufficient under her petrifying glare.

"Are there any other surprises you want to throw my way, like, oh, I don't know, you're a necromancer ontop of a forsaken otherworlder?"

"Uhh," Noah looked to Serris then back to Liora, "I spoke with a goddess?"

Twice Liora blinked, each one as slow as the previous.

"Typhania I'm guessing?"

"No, uh, I don't actually know her name. She's apparently a deity of agricultural endeavors."

Liora visibly jolted, her brows raising as she took a double take of Noah to see if he was serious. As far as she was aware there weren't many deities, especially female goddesses related to agriculture who were connected to Typhania. Most of them were neutral or otherwise part of Artemia's pantheon. "Was she tall, beautiful, with hair like hay?" she questioned Noah.

"Yeah."

'So it's Demetria then?' Liora shook her head in beffudlement. Demetria was part of Artemia's pantheon, why would she summon an otherworlder? Artemia was sure to be enraged to learn one of her trusted sisters betrayed her in such a way.

Pinching her brow, Liora cross one arm beneath her b.r.e.a.s.ts and sighed heavily. "I'm too old for this. I raise a hyperactive child for nearly half my life, and this day has been nearly as tiring as a week without Harv when Eleonora was five." Hunching forwards slightly.

Locking onto Noah, he shifted uncomfortably like a deer under a hunters eye. A slight roll of his throat, a nervous swallow, darting eyes seeking escape. It was cute, to a degree. Irksome to another. She'd seen this type of reaction plenty in her life. Not only when Eleonora was causing mischief but when Harv went out to the village only to return stumbling, reeking of alcohol, and having suckling marks on places not easily conversable in public.

"You know Noah. I am… incredibly confused and extraordinarily tired. So just in easy words, explain to me what in the love of everything that exists, is going on. Skip over the dryad… hamadryad, and the goddess—I'm still going to be questioning you about that—but explain to me exactly why you think I'd accept risking that, even with you being an otherworlder which I am still not entirely convinced about."

There wasn't much of a reason to lie about something like that, he thought scratching at a suddenly itching spot on his side. "Right, so, that goddess. She wants me to help you save the farm and told me to look at the bounty of monsters to help pay off your debts and then I remembered this page in my book that spoke of ranchers and I thought 'hey, I could maybe do that.' Next thing I know I'm here talking with Serris about letting us sell her fruits so I bring you here and now I'm going to shut up."

Noah may not have spoken for long but it was long enough for the stormy atmosphere propagating around Liora to thicken only for it to suddenly dissipate as Liora lifted her head, her eyes moist with a whimpering haze. "You don't put your life in danger for someone you barely know, Noah. That's… that's just not sane."

'I'm in a world where monsters breed with men, I'm still figuring out if I'm not in a mental aslum going through weird shit right now.' He bobbed his head but didn't verbalize it.

"I don't exactly have anything in this world and since I got here you've been about the easiest thing to understand." Tilting his head to the side breaking line of sight with Liora, Noah's voice shrunk inwards. "In my old world, I didn't do much of anything. I lived in a small room doing nothing everyday and suddenly finding myself here, I can't help but find myself wanting to do something. Note, might be related to the reincarnation thing. My brain hasn't been hotwired to be helpful has it?" he trembled, the thought horrifying to even ponder on for a moment.

Throwing that thought out he sighed, "I realize I'm not much of anything Liora. I'm just as confused as you when t comes to, well, everything going on around me. I spent about ten minutes talking with a goddess in my head and before that I was assaulted by a human shaped wolf woman and had s.e.x with what is tantamount to a tree."

Serris remained unmoving, uncaring for the tree comment. He wasn't exactly wrong.

"I doubt I'll have much time to get used to this world. No, I don't have much time to get used to this world. Not even taking your debt into account that goddess, er, still don't know her name, said something along the lines of 'without my blessing, you will cease to exist.' Something along those lines. So really if you want to think about it I'm being incredibly selfish as I don't want to die… again… and am trying to convince you to let me help so I don't die and not because of you." Pursing his lips, he waited for Liora to react.

When she did it was quite a bit contrarian to what he'd initially been expecting.

A light chuckle and shake of her head. Wiping her eyes dry she lifted her head and pressed a hand onto her hip. "You're not that selfish Noah. I may not have known you long enough, but someone who runs off into a forest filled with man eating monsters does not care about dying for those types of reasons. You're…" she searched for the word, "selfless Noah. Not selfish."

Looking to Serris she trailed over the dryads body then up the bark to the apple sized cherries dangling like crimson stars on a backdrop of a pink night sky. "I can't believe I'm going to say this," she inched backwards, groaning all the way, "but if your willing to go so far as to risk yourself to save a haggard old woman like myself and a dying farm, I can't refuse it. I can't refuse you." She snorted, eyes rolling until they suddenly stilled and her cheeks were dyed a shade similar to the cherries above.

She cleared her throat to the side, "I may not be thrilled with the idea of you having s.e.x with a monster," she seethed at the mere mention of the word, "but if its true you're an otherworlder then you should be safe so long as you do it in modesty."

'Doubtful theres anything modest in having s.e.x outdoors twice.' He thought.

"So does that mean-"

"We'll sell the cherries. If we can even get to the markets in time Noah. It'll be a rush just plucking all of these not to mention getting a cart to carry them off to Tallmire." She hushed herself, her cheek twitching as Serris creaked.

"You needn't worry of the harvest. I can verily do so myself." She said, a vine of her bark filled with petals of pink and a few drupes lowered before Liora, the wood forming into a basket similar to the one fallen by her side now filled with half a dozen of the balls. The basket didn't detach, instead retracting after a few moments of terse gulping on Liora's part.

"I see…" her voice low, "and making them sustainable?"

Serris shook her head, leaves ruffling, "I require more sustenance. Simply raising these fruits has worn my reserves thin. I will ask of Noah to offer me his seed once more." Find authorized novels in , faster updates, better experience, Please click #%5B3%5D_51890894084830412 for visiting.

In turn both sets of orbs shot to him sending every hair on his body on end. Likely more due to Liora than Serris' general naivete.

Liora struggled with the words but spoke them still, "are you alright with offering her your… 'seed?'"

"Yes?" his voice cracking.

"Not convincing me here Noah." Glancing to Serris, Liora eventually sighed as a gust blew past rippling the hay into an oceanic roar. "Wait here." Spinning, she waited not for a response before falling into a light jog towards the farmhouse.

A quick glance belied silence as Noah and Serris awaited her return.

They needn't wait very long as soon Noah noticed her form thumping in the distance. At first small, but the closer she got he felt his heart beating faster as the earth seemed to rumble. Like a storm approaching, the hay seemed to wilt away from her approach. Then he saw it, a glint and a near meter long handle, it was tipped in polished steel with rust along the connecting points where wood met metal.

Noah's face drained of colour and suddenly he felt his throat dry as a desert.

"Is… that an axe?" he muttered fearfully.

Liora arrived to silence, her pose that of a demon holding one hand half way down the haft and on by the axe head. Licking her lips, she flared Serris' way. "You move one leaf in the wrong way. And I. Am. Chopping. You. Down."