“I can walk on my own from here on, thanks,” Wyne said as she turned around, adressing the insects behind.

The two large ants, who Mother had sent along to protect her from any harmful creatures, had succesfully managed to escort her to an open place close to her village. Wyne thought it was a better idea to not let the ants enter the village in order to prevent a commotion of sorts, so decided to walk the last part alone.

The two ants stared at her with their compound eyes before nodding their heads in sync. Wyne had to admit she was still a little nervous around them, even though they should mean her no harm. Maybe it was something about the way they moved around, always scouting their surroundings for prey. It somehow made her feel like she was the one they were hunting.

Wyne watched as her bodyguards turned around and started walking back to their nest without even giving her a second glance. She had the impression they were eager to return to their work, and she had to admit she felt a little bad for keeping them from their duties. Still, Mother had insisted she should brought along at least some form of protection, and since it was impossible to refuse her word, the young girl had silently complied.

Wyne thought about her conversation with Mother as she started walking back towards her village. Strangely enough, the way Mother spoke reminded her a bit of her herself, her tone being casual and even a little awkward from time to time. Still, the wisdom and kindness her words carried were undeniably there. Wyne could see that although Mother was still relatively young, she had already risen far above her own intellect.

The forest was slowly becoming more bright as the sun rose, shedding light on the tall trees surrounding her. Some of them were already in the process of dropping their leaves, others were still covered in dark green foliage. A cold breeze flew by, making Wyne shiver a little. If there was one thing the girl hated about being outside all the time, it was definitely the cold.

As Wyne looked around at the beautiful scenery, she noticed a small movement in the corner of her eye. When she turned around, she saw the familiar aged and bent shape of Dyan rapidly walking towards her. She let out a sigh of relief, glad that the old man had found her instead of some wild creature.

“Oh my god, Wyne! Is that you?” He shouted as he came nearer, and Wyne noticed the worried expression on his rutty face. He looked like he hadn’t slept at all, although she realised she must have probably looked the same as well. She smiled as she waved at him, after which the man started to run faster.

“Yeah, it’s me. I’m back again,” She said before the man leapt foreward and embraced her. Stunned, she stood there as Dyan hugged her tight, holding her in his slim but sturdy arms. The gesture caught her by surprise, since he had never showed this much emotion before, or not towards her at least.

“Don’t you ever do that again,” he said softly as he rocked her back and forth in a gentle manner, like two trees being cradled by the wind. “I don’t think my heart can take it another time.”

Wyne smiled softly and embraced him as well, putting her arms around his back. She wasn’t proud of making him worry like this, so she let him hold her for a little longer. She slowly loosened her arms around him after a few seconds, after which he did the same. He looked at her in the face, and Wyne noticed his old and sunken eyes were a little wet.

“I’m back again,” she repeated. “And I have some good news to tell you about. But first, how is Nyma? Is she alright?”

“She is sleeping now,” Dyan answered after a short silence as he slowly got a grip of his emotions again. “She couldn’t walk because of the pain, so I carried her to the others. We returned to the village from there, although some of the villagers wanted to go and search for you.”

“And did you let them?” Wyne asked with a cautious tone.

“Of course not, do you think I would send more people into those monster infested woods? Actually now that we’re on the subject, what were you thinking running after those ants like that? They could have hurt you, or even worse, and then what? You have people that care about you here, Wyne. You need to start thinking about the consequences your actions have, I mean it.”

Dyan seemed angry with her now, but Wyne hadn’t returned here just to get tapped on the fingers like that. She straightened her back as she stared at him with an angry expression on her face.

“Enough of that, I have important news. I followed the ants back to their nest, and I’ve found something worth the trouble,” she began, but Dyan interrupted her with a yelp.

“You what?! You followed those monsters, towards the one place they are known to defend with all their might, which is their literal home?! Are you insane?! What if they spotted you and deem us a threat, then what? Are you aware we may need to relocate the village because of this?” He exclaimed.

“No, we won’t do that,” Wyne said angrily. “If you’d let me finish, I can start explaining everything to you, but it’s fine if you want to yell at me all day instead. I’m sure you and I don’t have anything better to do anyway, and it’s not like I have something important to share with you. So go ahead, I’m waiting.”

She folded her arms in a waiting gesture and tapped her feet on the ground, which seemed to infuriate Dyan even more. Still, he managed to keep his cool, or at least he stopped shouting. He was still fuming, but his voice sounded calm when he spoke again.

“Fine then. You can start by explaining why you decided to follow those ants after you had been bitten after that spider. Even you should realise that was a very risky thing to do, Wyne. Ants can pick up the smell of blood from metres away, did you know that?”

Wyne swallowed as the words reached her mind. She realised the ants must have been aware of her from the start, since she had followed them as closely as possible. Did that mean they wanted her to find Mother? Or did they not recognize her as a threat at all, only seeing her as a minor inconvenience at most, not even worth the trouble of exterminating?

“Of course I knew,” she said confidently. “I followed them because I knew they weren’t normal ants. When I appraised them I saw they all had evolved, so I wanted to know how they had managed to do that. There was a possibility of a dungeon being nearby, so I had to find out to make sure it was safe. Otherwise we should have reported it to the higher tribes.”

Dyan’s face fell when she mentioned the higher tribes, but he didn’t comment on it. Wyne wasn’t surpised by his reaction, she herself didn’t like the idea of having to contact them either.

“And?” He asked in a stern voice.

“And what?” Wyne asked confused.

“Well, the purpose of following those ants was to find out if there was a dungeon or not, right?” He said angrily. “So, was there a dungeon, yes or no?”

“No, although they didn’t evolve by themselves either. You’re probably not gonna believe this Dyan, but I found her. I found the God’s Tree.”

Dyan gave her a confused and somewhat worried look, and Wyne wasn’t surprised by this reaction either. If somebody had told her yesterday that she would meet a mythical being only spoken of in legends in the near foreseeable future, she wouldn’t have believed them either.

“Wyne, what are you talking about? The God’s Tree passed away over ten years ago, to the regret of many of our kind. You shouldn’t joke about her like that, it’s a serious matter.”

“I’m not joking, Dyan,” she said with in a determined voice. “I talked to her, and I could feel it was her, or maybe a descendent even. The ants protect her and bring her food so she can evolve, and she can even use healing magic now. She healed my leg, Dyan.”

Wyne showed him the place on her leg where she had been bitten by the spider, pointing at the fully healed wounds with her finger. Dyan inspected the smooth scars with a frown on his face, but she saw he was beginning to believe her story.

“What did you talk about?” He suddenly asked, looking her in the eyes again.

“Oh, about a few things. She wanted to know about who I was and where I came from. I told her a bit about the village and I explained some things about magic and skills as well. Oh yeah, she gave me permission to appraise her as well.”

“She did what?” Dyan asked her with disbelief in his voice.

“Yeah, she let me look at her skills. That’s when I was sure she was related to the God’s Tree. She had a skill were she could choose a guardian to remain by her side, boosting his power and growth in the process. It has to be her, Dyan, I’m sure of it.”

The old man’s eyes started bulging outwards as soon as she said the word “guardian”, and now he was straight up gaping at her. Wyne thought he looked really stupid, and she had to make an effort not to laugh at his absurd face. She did smile though, which apparently helped him come to his senses again.

“Oh my god, it might really be her,” he said as he started to laugh. “She might really be back! Wyne, where is she, we need to find her, now!”

“Calm down, I only just got back. She agreed to let us visit her at night, which is safer for us as well. We don’t want to get caught between some monster’s teeth just because we were in a hurry, don’t you agree?”

Dyan blinked a few times before he answered.

“No, of course not,” he finally said. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking. Still, the God’s Tree… This is a bigger deal than you can imagine. People from all over the continent will probably come here to see the miracle for themselves once they hear about it, and not to mention the international conflicts this will bring…”

He scratched his stubby chin, mumbling some things to himself before turning to Wyne again.

“Listen Wyne, nobody outside our village may know about this yet, you hear me? Not even the higher tribes. If word leaks out, we could potentially have a lot of trouble on our hands. We need to take things slow at first, otherwise they might go horribly wrong. I will inform the villagers about what happened, so we can set out to visit her this evening. You can go sleep in the meantime, you must be exhausted after such a long night.”

“Actually, I want to see Nyma first, I can go to bed afterwards,” Wyne said, after which Dyan slowly nodded.

“Alright then. But make sure you get some rest, we’re not going to carry you.”

“Of course not. If there’s nothing else, I’ll be on my way now.”

“That’s fine, sleep well,” Dyan said, after which the girl nodded and turned around.

“Oh, and Wyne,” he began, but he didn’t continue.

“Yeah?” She asked after a short silence, looking him in the eyes.. The old man had a strange look on his face, but it was a friendy one.

“Nevermind,” he said after a moment of silence, looking down at the ground.

“I’m glad I got home safe too, Dyan,” Wyne said with a warm smile, which he returned. Both of them chuckled, after which Wyne turned around again and started walking, leaving the old man behind between the trees.