I don’t know what happened last night. I remember going to sleep. And then nothing. I gradually became aware of my surroundings. Sounds were muted. I tried to move but I couldn’t. I realized I was seeing the world but I didn’t have any eyes. I could see my immediate surroundings but the world faded from view about twenty or thirty yards away.

The sun in the sky felt amazing on my skin. I was outside standing in my backyard.

I didn’t recall how I got outside. This was all very puzzling.

What was even more puzzling was I wasn’t getting upset. I remember distinctly thinking about how my feelings didn’t match the events surrounding me.

That was my entire first day. Standing in the sun, basking in the glow of light. Then it was dark and I fell asleep again.

Next thing I knew it was daylight again. The area I could see was slightly bigger this morning. I was thirsty. It was an odd feeling being thirsty. I didn’t have a mouth to drink the water. My lips weren’t dry but I was definitely thirsty.

I could feel water somewhere below me. I could feel it in my toes. I started by stretching my feet to reach the water. I could feel energy flowing out of me as I stretched downwards. The ground beneath me swelled and distorted with the shifting earth.

“Oh, I must be a tree. How odd.” I thought to myself. I don’t know why I would be a tree. But there it was. Somehow I was the tree in my backyard.

I realized this should be upsetting to me but it strangely wasn’t. I think I was missing the glands a human needed to get properly angry.

That’s how I spent my second day. Drinking water and basking in the sun. I could feel my energy coming back. I wondered what that meant.

The third day bought attackers. I woke up to something eating my leaves. It looked like a deer but it had a horn on its head instead of antlers.

It hurt every time it took a bite. I tried to yell at it. “Go away you beast.” I screamed in my head. Nothing happened. Obviously it couldn’t hear me.

I tried to swing my arms at it, but it just kept taking bites out of my leaves. It ate all the leaves it could reach and then left.

It was difficult for me to think about my new form properly. It wasn’t my arms I was trying to move. It was branches.

While I was sipping on water, I thought about ways I could keep the hell-deer from eating my leaves. I thought about yesterday and how I grew my roots while searching for water. I thought maybe I could think my way out of this problem too. Maybe I could grow taller so the hell-deer couldn’t reach my leaves. But what if the hell-deer got bigger. I had never seen a horned deer before. There was no telling what might happen next.

Why was I even a tree anyways? Nothing made sense. I cast my senses around looking for a solution. I found some ants crawling around my branches. I wondered why I had not felt them before. Anyways, I pushed some of my mana towards the ants to try to form a connection with them. I didn’t know what I was doing. I had some sort of instincts that came with the tree form I was now in.

The ants absorbed my mana and I felt a connection formed between them. I could suggest what they did but I couldn’t take direct control of the ants. I received a prompt [Skill learned. Taming unlocked.] Oh that was neato.

Now that I had ants of my own, I realized I could sense other bugs crawling all over me. I was never particularly good with bugs when I was a human. I guess this one thing that followed me. I immediately freaked out and yelled “Kill them. Kill them all.”

The ants seemed to get what I was talking about and moved towards the nearest bugs. It looked like it was a group of earwigs. I shuddered inside.

The ants began to bite the earwigs and the earwigs bit back. My ants started to take damage. I pushed mana at the ants again and it seemed to heal them.

Text floated above my head [Skill learned. Healing unlocked.] My leaves quivered in pleasure.

“Alright.” I thought to myself. “I can do this.” I kept healing my ants and they defeated the first pair of earwigs. I decided to name my ants Bitey and Pinchy. Bitey and Pinchy were great at their jobs. I finished healing them and sent them off towards another group of bugs.

I found more ants crawling about my leaves. I tried to tame them like I did Bitey and Pinchy. I tried thinking of cool names for my new pets but my creativity was already exhausted. Ant3 and Ant4 were sent to back up Bitey and Pinchy.

“Good news, guys.” I thought at the original pair. “I got you reinforcements.” Bitey clacked his mandibles at me. I looked more closely. Bitey was a her. I should have known that. They were all girls.

I sent the group of ants off to patrol my branches. I needed, no I wanted to get rid of the bugs I could feel crawling over me.

I went back to focusing on drinking water and basking in the sun. I can’t describe how good it felt to be soaking up sunshine.

I kept a portion of my attention on my ants. I kept topping them up with health after every fight. As the day went along the ants cleared most of my branches. They seemed to be getting bigger as the day wore on. I couldn’t be sure because I didn’t have a reference to compare them to. They seemed to be getting better at fighting. I needed to heal them less and less as the day went on.

I realized as the day was about over I needed to make a nest for the ants. I created a hollow beneath at the base of my trunk where the ants could fit inside. I gave them directions to them to dig out an area to their satisfaction but to stay away from roots. I didn’t want them burrowing into me.

That’s how I spent another day. When the sun went down my energy fell again and I fell asleep.