“Wake up...” I cried softly between sobs down on my knees, wishing I could wake up myself and find out this was just a dream, some weird nightmare. Sadly, just my wishful thinking. Never have I had such a vivid and long-lasting dream. So as hard as it was for me to swallow, I had to accept the truth. The life I was struggling through here was no fucking nightmare I could wake up from.

Instead, I was falling asleep, overcome with fatigue weighing on my senses after failing my task. The seedling of the World Tree has not awakened. In fact, it didn’t respond to my heartfelt outpouring at all, just like any other tree would.

I failed. There was no reason for me to resist that faint nudge to fall asleep any longer. It was much easier not to bother resisting at all and give in to a well-deserved nap. I couldn’t even find the strength to glance at Esu and tell him my apology.

He deserved one. He gave me a chance, trusted me, and I let him down.

“S-sorr..” I squeaked while I still had the faintest bit of lucidity in me, only to stop short as the presence of the tree changed. At first, I thought it was the fatigue in the presence that had given way further as I was still touching the massive tree trunk and thus shielded from its full force.I couldn't have been more wrong.

‘Shit. Oh, Shit!’ Only as my own weariness wore off and I became a little more focused did I realize the true nature of the shift, and it wasn’t good. The presence of the seedling had weakened.

Did I kill the tree? Was my suffering too much for it to bear? That was a massive fuck-up!

“Esu?” I looked up in a panic at the ancient beast seeking advice to stop the tree from withering and hoping not to find him pissed off about what I did. He wasn’t. To my utter bafflement, Esu stared at the World Tree in bewilderment I had never seen in him before.

“You did good, little pup,” he growled, proud of me so much it made me speechless. Perhaps it was the lingering fatigue bogging down my brain, but I had no idea how I earned his pride. The seedling was dying, and I was the cause. So what the hell did I do?

I opened my mouth to ask and yawned instead as a ripple swept through the fading presence. “I-Isn’t the tree dying?”

How stupid that question and notion was only dawned on me the moment I let it out of my mouth. If the seedling was withering, I’d know it. I mean, Esu would have reacted quite differently, not with wonder and delight. Hell, Zeew would already be demanding my death. Instead, she was uncharacteristically quiet. She didn’t even interrupt my wailing to the tree earlier and just listened. Odd.

Even stranger, I found Esu’s sincere laughter. Coming from such a massive beast, it sounded like a pile of rocks rolling down a hill. “Dying? Pup, wrong. Tree gathers strength, to wake up.”

Did it really? I gave the seedling a look, felt its presence, and fell short. There was nothing to show the tree was awakening. Instead, because of the weakening presence, worries were welling up in my heart.

“Too alarmed,” grumbled Esu, seeing me struggling with doubts. “Not necessary. Tree awakens.”

All I could do was take Esu’s word for it. After all, who was I to say otherwise? A mere human woman who has spent little more than a year in this world, a fact he recognized the moment he first laid eyes on me. Even Zeew couldn’t see that I was from another world, just like the seedling he spent decades with. If anyone here was an expert on World Trees, it was Esu, a massive ancient beast that took me for its pup.

Wiping the tears that, for some reason, kept streaming down my cheeks, I hit my mind with [Indomitable Will] and put my wits back together. I did my part, and although better than anyone expected, this was no longer the place for me.

“Stay,” Esu grunted the moment I stirred to get up. “Do not leave tree now.”

Honestly, it was still hard for me to believe that I was the cause, and I would rather chalk it up to a fucking coincidence. After all, I didn’t do anything special other than tell the tree my story and how I felt while I let my emotions run wild.

It would be a hell of a coincidence, though.

Who knows how many such nights Esu tried to wake the seedling to no avail, and now here I was, pouring my heart out, and it happens? No, even though I didn’t want to, I had to face up to my part in it.

And believe me, I really didn’t want to be involved any more than I already was. My life was a mess as it was, and this was putting me in the middle of even more craziness than I had ever been in before. But that was it. The shit I was talking about earlier. I promised the seedling that when it woke up, I would share with it my story, my suffering, my joy, and that meant the mess and madness my life had turned into. To leave now would be to break that promise.

So I stayed. Actually, I dared to lean on the World Tree.

“Wake up,” I whispered, looking through the treetop at the wisps of the night sky amongst the foliage. It was a beautiful night, clear with two moons of Eleaden shining above and, in spite of everyone present, quite peaceful at the moment.

The only flaw was the nagging feeling of dread coming over my heart, with the tree’s presence weakening rapidly. I couldn’t help worrying when I didn’t quite understand what was going on.

Although I said rapidly, it still took a while. The tree’s presence was not like mine. It was vast. There was so much of it. If I had to compare its fading to anything, it would be to draining a bathtub full of water. Even that took a while, as opposed to pouring out a glass of water, which my presence in comparison was.

No, I take that back.. That wasn’t right. Mine was more like a small cup of strong coffee. Powerful, but very little of it.

“Come on, wake up,” I said gently, remembering the time when I was a little girl. My mom, when she went to wake me up, would sit by me, prodding me to get up, until I climbed into her arms. Those were good times when she was still healthy, long before I had to watch her strength wither away right in front of my eyes.

And that’s why I watched the crown with growing concern. Esu could have been wrong, so I searched the branches for a trace of withering. Hoping, of course, that I won’t find anything of the sort.

Then, as the presence receded completely, a strange emptiness fell over the expanse. Ever since I came here, perhaps even before I stepped into this place, my senses have been under constant pressure, no matter what it was carrying, be it playfulness or fatigue. That pressure was gone now, and it was simply liberating. Seriously, I felt so light and free.

Don’t get me wrong, though. I was tired. Who wouldn’t be well past midnight and after a few hours of brutal training? But that was my fatigue, one that I earned on my own and one that my body could handle, not the ever-present one that weighed down the body and mind with every breath taken.

As it is with good things, the emptiness didn’t last long.

Tension, expectation, anxiety, a mix of many emotions swept over the expanse around the tree. Everyone, whether human, mossbear, or eagle, added something to the mix, drowning in their own bubble of emotions, and I was no exception.

For a moment there, I wondered if my heart had done its queer trick with the perception of my time, which seemed to have stalled in the expanse. No one dared to speak, let alone move. Some even seemed to be holding their breath in anticipation of what came to pass. And everyone, truly everyone, had their eyes glued to the seedling.

“Don’t fear life and open your...eyes,” I said, pausing there to find the right words just to give up. The words didn’t matter so much as the meaning behind them. “Wake up and see the world.”

Esu hummed with excitement first. Then I heard Zeew hold her breath and similar reactions from others followed as a single flower sprang up on this massive tree. It took me a while to find it, but I couldn’t take my eyes away when I did. There, quite far from the trunk on the lower branches looming over the expanse, a small purple flower bloomed.

“Come on, don’t give up,” I said when the seedling seemed to be struggling to push further, not sure whether my encouragement was helpful or not. Esu didn’t stop me, though. “Wake up, so I can tell you more.”

Soon the second flower bloomed, then the third and fourth, followed by many more. The flowers spread along the tree’s lower branches like a ripple among the leaves, turning the dull green of the sky that was the canopy above me to a vivid purple. Little did I know it was just the beginning.

At first, they were single flowers peeking out here and there. Before I knew it, however, more started to pop up at the root of the stem of each flower already in bloom. It didn’t take too long before they turned into clumps as they grew in number and extended further into streaming clusters dangling down from the branches like grapes.

The sight of it was simply beautiful.

Then, just as I thought it was over, the whole tree shook, reaching out with its branches like it was stretching before I was hit by its might, a kind of morning growl by which it was letting the world know of its was awakening.

If I were standing, the shock-wave that came out of the seedling’s core would have brought me to my knees. You’d be wrong to think it had that kind of power. The wind at its heels wasn’t strong enough to blow me away, just to ruffle my hair. But my mind took such a strong blow that even with [Indomitable Will] among my skills, I blanked out for a second or two.

And I wasn’t the only one surprised by this mental shock-wave. It brought a number of soldiers to their knees and even more muttered curses after their minds were struck by it. With mental defenses less than the soldiers, mossbears fared far worse. All young individuals blanked out just like I did, and pretty much every adult hadn’t been able to handle the pressure on their mind without their legs buckling.

Of course, there were those who made it through without any issues, both among beasts and men. I could imagine that Esu didn’t even flinch.

Anyway, using [Indomitable Will] again, I gathered my wits and checked the tree as quickly as possible. To my relief, the seedling was still standing and lush with foliage. In fact, it appeared to be even more vibrant than before. However, the sight of the expanse under the dangling, streaming clusters of flowers was what took my breath away. In the gloom of a night illuminated by a full blue moon, they glowed faintly like thousands of lanterns hanging from the branches.

The sight of it was...otherworldly, magical,...simply breathtaking. There were no other words for it.

Yet, despite the beauty of it all, it seemed that I was the only one who found it so and could not take my eyes off the flowers. Beasts I could understand, but humans? How could they not marvel at something like they had above their heads? Was this a common sight for them? It damn well looked like it. Or perhaps Wagonbrei, as the capital of the Sahal Empire and the place where most of them came from, was much more beautiful than I thought compared to the neglected Castiana, where it was hard to find a flower, either wild or in a pot outside the window. Still, I kind of doubted that they had anything like this tree there...there simply couldn’t...be...anything like...the seedling!

At that moment, it hit me, and I turned back to the tree, looking for signs of its awakening.

“No panic needed, pup,” Esu grumbled, seeing me frantically checking out the tree. There was pure joy and delight behind his words. “Tree awakened. You done great.”

If it wasn’t Esu who said it, I wouldn’t believe it. After all, how the hell? Because I’m an otherworlder. That couldn’t be it, right?

“Ask tree,” Esu suggested, seeing that I still had a hard time believing it.

Giving the seedling a look, I found it exactly the same, except for the lush foliage and magical flowers. “Are you sure it is awake?”

“Talk, like before.”

To pour my heart out again? ‘No, thank you. Why don’t you talk to it yourself?’ That remark I had on the tip of my tongue never left my mouth. He meant well, excited as he was. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to give a little talk a try.

“Um...” I cleared my throat, wondering how to start. What the hell do you say to the World Tree when it gains consciousness? It was quite a significant moment I didn’t want to ruin by saying something wrong. Sadly, they didn’t teach me that in school.

In the end, I opted to keep it simple and just said: “Good morning.”

I know it was still the middle of the night, very early morning at best. Yet the most appropriate greeting I could come up with. No answer, though.

“I hope you had a pleasant awakening.”

Still nothing, not even a rustle of leaves.

“You don’t have to be afraid of me,” I said, putting my hand on the trunk. “It’s me, Korra. The one who cried her heart out at your roots.”

This time, my ears picked up the rustle of leaves high above me. However, I attributed it to the night breeze after waiting a bit for a more clear response. Seriously though. How did the World Trees actually communicate? What was I looking for? No one told me.

“Do you want me to tell you my story again?”

Nothing.

“Or how I escaped from slavery?”

Total silence.

“Or the way I met my mentor? It was actually here in these woods. That’s when you noticed me for the first time.”

Okay, it was getting awkward. I was talking to the tree like a crazy woman. Even weirder was how no one questioned my sanity. They just listened, waiting anxiously to see if anything would happen.

“You might be interested in a secret I have with a little squirrel. She’s quite a rascal...” I yelped when I heard a giggle right behind me, but when I turned around, there was no one there.

Was it the seedling? Nobody seemed to hear a thing. Did I imagine that? Perhaps the exhaustion was actually getting to me.

Then, as I was resolved to chalk it up to fatigue, my ears twitched upon hearing the playful giggle to my right. I sure as hell heard that. Not in my mind, like Deckard through the union rings, but with my ears.

Yet again, there was no one there when I looked. Seriously, there was no one there! If I didn’t know better, I’d think I was truly going crazy, and the air was making fun of me, as I hadn’t noticed anyone or anything in my domain either.

“Is that you?” I growled my question softly at the seedling, looking around.

“Pup?” Esu grunted in puzzlement when he saw my antics.

“I...” I tried to explain to him what was going on, only to be interrupted by another giggle, this time to my left at hand’s reach. For the first time, I ignored Esu and turned around after the voice, finding nothing but empty air again.

“You rascal. I’m sure it’s you.”

Don’t worry. I didn’t forget that what I was dealing with was a mighty tree. It was just hard to take it seriously when it teased me like that. “Where are you hiding....?”

Another giggle came from behind the tree itself.

“You want me to chase you?” I asked playfully, and the tree, or whatever it was, giggled, confirming my hunch. So, without regard to all the onlookers, I gave chase.

A giggle here and a giggle there. I was running around the tree like a loon. Or a kid playing around. Even Deckard found it strange, and his concerns echoed in my mind. However, I ignored him just like I did Esu.

“Oh, that’s not fair,” I said when a giggle came from the branches of the seedling. “I can’t fly...or climb trees.” I mean, trees whose trunks were as bare as this one. If the branches had been lower, I was sure I would have quickly remembered my climbing skills from my youth, and with the help of the ones I had acquired here, I would have been up in the treetop in no time. But with a seedling, I would have to climb over ten meters up the bare trunk to the lowest branch, and that was beyond me.

I should have tried, though. I really should, as no more giggles played with my ears.

‘Shit!’ I swore to myself, looking around frantically, knowing I’d fucked up. Then, just as I was about to blurt out an apology in a last-ditch effort, something grabbed my hands and started twirling me around.

At first, I didn’t see anything, just felt the grip of warm hands on mine. I don’t have to tell you how bizarre that was, but strangely enough, I didn’t feel any panic or fear. Instead, I was overwhelmed with joy and playfulness, and before I knew it, I was giggling, too.

All it took was one blink and in the midst of this strange, seemingly lonesome dance, the strangest creature I’ve ever seen appeared in front of me.

Was it even a creature at all?

It looked more like a ghost, a specter made of mist through that I could see, glowing with the same faint violet light as the dangling, streaming clusters of flowers above me. I knew better than to think anything other than that what I was frolicking with among the roots was the spirit of the World Tree itself.

She, actually. The spirit had the upper body of a woman, but that wasn’t all. She had the lower body and legs of a mossbear, wings of an eagle, and a tail...I would say, of a squirrel. As I said, the strangest creature I’ve ever seen.

Apart from myself, of course.