“I’m freeeeee,” yelled a certain fairy. She was gone for a week, what happened? My leaves wildly gestured in the air.

  “Yayyy, you want to celebrate with me?” asked Vila. NO, I want you to cast Speech on me. But sure, we can celebrate a little. What proceeded can only be described as an underfunded macabre dance. One participant was not being paid enough to be spiritually present, the other was just happy to be there. After an eternity of paraplegic movement, a thud laid against me.

  “Phew, I knew you’d come around Sallix!” Vila chirped. The dull drumbeats of morning insects and cries of their imminent feathery attackers permeated the air. “You okay Sallix? Are you out of breath?”

  I’m losing it.

  “Oooooh right, Vehyr had to cast Speech on you. Sorry!” My leaves curled in preparation for another round of ice treatment. Instead, lukewarm acupuncture needles riddled my side.

  “Testing, testing. Huh, yours feels a lot different than Vehyr’s,” I said.

  “Obviously! After you know the basic spell, you tailor it to your style and personality, or else it would be too easy to counter if a bad guy saw it.”

  “So…Vehyr willingly chose to have her spells feel like an ice bath?”

  “Well, you can’t blame her. It keeps the others in line. But she never does it to me. She loves me too much,” Vila laughed.

  “Despite you dousing her with water?” I asked. Tepid shivers massaged my stem. “Regardless, I have something I desperately need to know Vila.”

  “Ooh, plant secrets? Dirt secrets? Did the trees tell you something that the stones who divorced their ears are too afraid to hear?” Vila asked.

  “No, no, and what kind of cryptic stuff is Vehyr teaching you?... Please tell me what you look like, what Vehyr looks like, what our world is like. You told me a little about the forest around…but I’d hate to not know what my friend is like,” I asked.

  “Sallix…” Vila whispered, “Sometimes that’s a good thing. Looks are the easiest thing to hide. But we have nothing to hide from you. I’ll start with the meadow we’re in. What do you feel?”

  “The wind that grazes my leaves, the breath of the wilds, the water that swirls around my roots. I’m wrapped around silent rocks and chatterbox soil. It tells me whenever you or something else lands near me. And, according to you, the forest is very, very green.”

  “Sallix, you’re living in a big field of grass. No other shrubs or trees are near you for at least fifty paces of a bear. There are lion’s manes growing around. When the wind blows, they squiggle yellow against a green mother and a blue father. A brook is giving birth to the beginnings of a river to the north of us, a beach is there if you ever want to take a dip,” Vila said.

  “That sounds…refreshing,” I hummed. A mental image was being coded into my memory. This is my home. This I will not forget.

  “But, I’d say the prettiest attraction is you,” she said. A leaf leaned over. “The trees around us are young, they have not spread far and can barely mask a Furgal Bear. Many seedlings have tried to sleep in this meadow, but the lion’s mane ensures they never wake.”

  I dare not ask what a ‘Furgal Bear’ is.

  “But,” she said, “You survived. You grew Sallix. You have to be Veledub’s child, there’s no other way to explain it. Do you know how low the chances of a seed surviving are Sallix? Every year, a tree releases hundreds of children, if she is lucky and Nyla smiles upon her, one will live. And that one for sure doesn’t live where a lion’s mane strangles young roots. Seedlings here would never live long enough to build sturdy ones.”

  “…Is that why Vehyr was annoyed?” I asked.

  “Yes,” Vila answered, “Oh, I wish I could do more, but uprooting these yellow fighters just means disturbing Nyla’s children too. Vehyr tells us not to pick favourites…but I can’t help it. A growth spell here, maybe a healing spell for damaged seeds there, that’s it.”

  “You’ve already done enough Vila. Is Vehyr like your boss?” I asked.

  “She’s the head fairy of our grove. She helps manage everything as our senior sister. I don’t hate her at all. She actually cares the most out of us…but it’s tough in her position,” Vila continued.

  “And what does Vehyr look like?” I asked.

  “Very, very, very cool and pretty!” Vila chimed. I could sense the faint jitters leaking from Vila as she spoke.

  “Okay…anything else?”

  “Oh right, right. Umm, she has long lavender hair…she wears a dress made of fallen orchid petals…but the biggest thing you notice when you see her are her eyes. They look into your soul, so don’t try lying to her. But, it makes her really good at knowing what you need! They aim downwards on the outside like a wilted petal…which makes her smile all the more sadistic. And oh locusts, when she’s excited her pupils are as big as the moon.”

  “Yeah, she’d make for a great office manager,” I snickered.

  “She does manage a lot. If an office is like our grove, then for sure!” Vila laughed. Maybe it’s just because I’m fixated on her narration, but Vila’s voice is really like an angel’s lyre. If Vehyr is right about her eyes, I can see why she was so tame with the punishment.

  “So what about you Vila?” I asked.

  “Oh, there’s nothing much, I look like a fairy,” she said, fidgeting back to and fro.

  “No, I want to know as much as I can.”

  “Wellll, my hair’s short, up to my shoulders. I’m too lazy to brush in the morning so it looks like a bird’s nest. Vehyr says they’re green like an emerald, but I’ve never seen one. Oh, and I love wearing mint leaves! The smell is so nice. The fallen ones have just enough spice left but not as overbearing as new growth,” Vila said.

  “Mint does smell nice,” I replied.

  “Huh? I thought plants couldn’t smell. Also, you can use a lot of words for a plant.”

  “Uhhh, I guess that’s a side effect of being Veledub’s child?” I lied. I need to ask Nyla in our next dream. Did she make me this Veledub’s foster kid? And if so, how the hell did a squirrel manage to get to me?

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  “Ahhh, you’re right,” Vila said dismissively.

  “Well, thank you for the descriptions-”

  “Hey, there’s a big thing we’re missing Sallix,” Vila interjected.

  “Which is?”

  “You forgot to ask about yourself!” she shouted. I don’t think I was important enough to ask about. I’ve been growing as a regular sapling up until now anyway. “Don’t worry, I’ll be your mirror. You look like a strong plant Sallix! You have six leaves now and they’re all a nice deep green. At your base, your stem is finally turning a bit brown too. Kinda muddy but that just means it’s turning strong ha!”

  “See? Normal tree cycle-”

  “No! You’re strong. Very strong. When I lean against you it feels like Veledub’s trunk. When I wrap my hands around you, it’s like Vehyr’s hug!”

  “Thank you, Vila. I hope I can see your emerald hair one day,” I said.

  “Please warn me ahead of time! I need to brush, wash it with spring water, treat it with honeydew and-”

  “You’ll be just fine Vila,”

  “Oh Vilaaaa, I have another task for youuu,” a cantankerous voice snuck in.

  “Gotta go?”

  “I don’t wannaaaaaaaaaaa, can we talk more?”

  “Vila, if you don’t come I’ll be taking your sweet Sallix away~”

  “You wouldn’t dare! Okay, okay, talk to you later!”

  “Tell Vehyr I said ‘Please don’t do that!’” I yelled.

  ……….

  The next few weeks yawned along. Vila still came tirelessly to talk, going without her wasn’t part of my routine anymore. This, this is nice.

  On a particular day, Vila came strutting up on top of me. “Okay for today, I’ll be teaching you magic!” she said.

  “…What?”

  “You heard it right Sally! AlsoIhopeyoudontmindmecallingyouthatbecauseSallixgetsboringsometimes. You’re a smart plant so magic will be easy for ya,” Vila continued. Her bit in the middle sounded like the tepid and rapid excuse given by a child loaded through the chamber of a machine gun.

  Regardless, I firmed up straight and wiggled my leaves like jello during an earthquake. To finally learn and experience how magic works? It was the staple of any fantasy world. I could do it too! “So, I’ve grown enough to handle mana?” I asked.

  “I think so? To be honest I was tired of waiting. Wait no, yes, yes you grew enough!” Vila lied. “First, you have to sense it,” Vila continued, “I thought for a long time. And since you’re a plant, teaching you mana sense would be best. Every living thing has mana, try and sense it for me.”

  “…What is there to ‘sense?’” I asked.

  “Oh right, you don’t know what to sense. What did Vehyr say again about mana? Okay, Sally how about you focus on the blood, uh, sap running through you? Think of the warm and fuzzy feelings it gives you,” Vehyr said.

  I felt the sap running through every bind, every root hair and leaf. The last warmth I felt was from the tree I fell from. Was that mana it gave?

  “Here, let me give you an example,” Vila said, nestling her palm at the base of my stem. Wisps of heat, a mother’s embrace, guided me along. “It feels tingly doesn’t it?”

  A bow of the leaf.

  “Good, but don’t just stop there. Mana is out there to be seen—small drops of memories and energy travelling through us. ‘Seeing’ is kinda tough for a plant but imagine what the feeling of the sun every day looks like. Its bri-”

  “Bright.”

  “Yeah! You really are Veledub’s child.” The strings of energy gained form. I assigned Vila’s guided touch with a tender spring morning’s gaze. There was light. Soft notes of jade and tones of freshly grown grass undulated like dandelion seeds in the wind. I could finally see light.

  “…Are you okay? You’re not moving Sally. Do you see it?” Vila asked.

  My senses congregated on Vila. Those tuffs of green light were travelling from her. Enchanting. She was a sea of stars waltzing in chaotic trajectories. They filled out a rough outline of her body, including butterfly-like wings on her back. She was the size of a leaf. I wrapped one around her hand.

  Her hand rode alongside it. “So how is it? Pretty cool, right? Vehyr says I got strong deposits for only two hundred leaves. With mana sense, even if you don’t have eyes, you can kinda figure out where everything is by the outline of their mana.”

  I still didn’t know the colour of her eyes or the expressions she made when angry or sad—but knowing that Vila was an emerald light? I could finally relax a little. Despite following her mana trail throughout my system, there were no deposits at first, until it touched the base of my stem. While Vila’s mana was a coursing river, mine were puffs of smoke. Grey puffs that were congregating where my roots met my stem.

  “Not bad,” she chimed, “It’s not much, but it’s honest work for a plant your size. Let it grow a couple seasons, and you might even become a treant! Try extending that sense beyond me, we have to train it.”

  There was finally some hope out of this situation. I couldn’t stay like this forever, could I? With magic and this ‘treant’ evolution, I could help out Nyla. Beyond Vila, pockets of aquamarine mana flitted through the air within five meters of me. Then, my colourless mana disappeared, and so did my vision. The world went back to just what I felt in the air. My leaves draped down by my sides.

  “I ran out huh?” I said.

  “Oh, it’s okay, Sallix! You did really well for a first-time try. The more you practice, the better you’ll get at it. We’ll have more lessons in the coming days,” Vila said. Her hand left my side.

  I have a friend. I have time. And I now have a way out. The next few weeks were spent in flux. When my mana recovered, I trained its sense. By now it reached the point I could last for about ten minutes at a range of five meters.

  ……….

  “Alright Sally, time for the next lesson. Watch me closely,” said Vila. My senses spread out, encompassing her body. Globes of mana from her body and the surrounding air converged in front of her, forming a circle. “You see, the first step is to concentrate your mana in front of yourself. Depending on what kind of magic effect you want, the harder your shape will be. I’ll be doing something simple: light.” The circle released a flash felt along every leaf regardless of their orientation. They were all bathed in miniature exploding suns of mana.

  “Beautiful.”

  “You know it! Now you give it a go Sallix.”

  I grasped my non-existent hands.

  “Sallix? Oh don’t worry, focus on a point in your body and gather mana there.”

  One of my leaves arched up. I directed the few specks of dust I had into a fragile circle. It was half the size of my leaf, barely a quarter of what Vila managed to make.

  “You got it Sally! Keep on trying!”

  …then it collapsed, taking my surrounding vision alongside it.

  “Awww it’s okay, it takes a while to get the hang of it,” she chimed.It was disappointing. But just like mana sense, I could improve over time. “After all,” Vila said, “It took me like a hundred leaves myself!”

  Hold on. Vila was complimented for only taking two hundred to have strong mana stores…if it’s a hundred for this, how long is a ‘leaf?’

  “You’re less than a leaf old so you have plenty of time to learn,” she said.

  “Vila…how long is one ‘leaf?’” I asked. By my estimates, I had only stayed in Himavanta for three or four months at best. The best-case scenario is if a leaf is four months…it took her thirty-three years. It’s over. My fantasy magic career is done for. How long do trees even live for again? Palms die after fifty, redwoods can go for hundreds…what am I? How am I supposed to protect the forest?

  “Hey!” Vila shouted, “You listening Sallix? I said a leaf is a whole rotation of the seasons. Back-to-back springs! You always turn to stone whenever you’re sad. I know you’re feeling down about the whole thing. But with me as your teacher, I’m sure you’ll learn faster than I did.”

  Whatever you say, Vila.

  “Anyways…how your mana holds up all depends on shape! If you try something like flying, you need a stronger shape.” With a wave of her hand, a pentagon inside a circle emerged. “Light only needs a circle, it’s simple because you’re only trapping a few mana drops and willing them to shine. But flying needs ya to trap them and contain them inside your wings.”

  I was almost out of mana. The attempted casting of light and maintaining mana sense had used up my days’ worth.

  “I don’t know about you though…maybe I can cast it on one of your leaves?”

  I reflexively arched my leaves from my incoming abuser. “Um, how about we don’t do that-”

  “And with a dash of these shapes,” Vila said, casting a vicious circle and pentagon ten times her wings. The cast was a lot bigger than her usual ones. “Don’t worry, Sallix, we’re gonna make you fly!” The final lines connected. A resounding snap rang cackled the air.