Later that afternoon, when Veish was properly awake and they both had gotten their fill at The Belly Filler, the duo of wizard and witch, accompanied by disguised skeleton, wandered off to The City Forest once more.

“This is far too fast.” Rum commented, as his trio and the trio of The Florists stood next to what up until recently had been a sappling, but was now turning into a tree proper. He threw his morning bucket’s contents over the tree’s roots.

“Indeed” said sub-committee leader Sovaduna Bikbik. “We been looking all over for enough rich soil to feed the greed of this tree. But it’s unyielding in its appetite.”

“You tell me!” Rum shook his head. “Try creating magic fertilizer for this thing, all on your own! My body can’t handle all this rear stress.” The mage bent over, actually just to lean on his knees and shake his head, but from context it also had the effect of highlighting to everyone the stressed rear in question.

“What do you want to do?” Sovaduna Bikbik asked solemnly.

“For the nutrients? Let the tree starve on its own greed for a while. Can’t your woodspeak magic keep it from killing the other greenery?”

The elf pondered the question for a moment, looking at the tree, dead plants spread around it in a long radius. “Yes, I believe we can manage as much.”

“Then the problem is really with the magic fertilizer.” Rum straightened his back up again, and stroked his beard in slow long strokes. He turned around. “Veish. Do you see what we’re dealing with here? Can’t you just please help me out, just a little?” Rum’s face took on a begging expression. “If you could just go over there” he gestured at the tree, “squat over the roots, and give it some of your magic fertilizer?”

“No” the witch plainly and calmly refused, before giving a little eyeroll.

“You know what this tree is for, don’t you? It’s for you. I’m growing it for you. Come on, just a little squat! We can all walk away while you do it!”

“NO!” The witch half-shouted. “Won’t happen! I won’t! That’s too embarrassing.”

Rum sighed deeply. “Heeeeh. Okay then. There’s only one option left. I thought at first it would be a little drastic, but the potential of this tree must be saved.” Rum stepped over to the tree, being careful not to stand where the bucket contents were currently enjoying themselves.

He sighed once more. “Sovaduna Bikbik. You Florists carry knives, don’t you? For treating and dealing with the plantlife?”

“Yes” the sub-committee leader replied, curiosity coming alive on her face. The elf woman, without much thought, put a hand down a robe pocket, fishing out a small knife with a thick handle, the blade covered by a leather scabbard. Eyes wondering, she stepped over to him and displayed it in her hand.

“Precisely” he commented, grabbing it.

“What are you going to use it for?” She quickly asked.

“Blood is the most mana dense part of the body. What I’m going to do, is give this tree a lot of mana.” He drew the knife from the scabbard, leaned down close to the tree, and then placed the small blade at his wrist.

“No.” Sovaduna Bikbik said more in surprise than rejection. “Really? But how do you intend to stop the bleeding? Won’t you need A LOT of blood? And doesn’t that mean–”

“–the artery, yes.” Rum finished her sentence.

“But that’s dangerous! You can die! Come one Rum – Great Mage, as my comrades call you – this is just a tree. No reason to risk your life over it! Even us elves, or–” she corrected herself, “–most of us elves, would never sacrifice our lives to a simple tree you’ve only known for a few days. This is rash.” Her words despite, the sub-committee leader didn’t look in any hurry to actually stop Rum. She was just warning him.

“I can deal with the consequences. But” he breathed in and out deeply, suddenly nervous, “please tell me if you think I have given it too much blood. If my wound is to be closed, I will have to be the one doing it. So... it would be pretty terrible if I fainted or something.” The wizard smiled, and then laughing out with an obvious little fright.

The elf woman, and her colleagues in the back, all just stared at him. The half-crazy wizard though just smiled even more in return, before laying his eyes back on the tree. He breathed in deeply again, and then exhaled, long and steady.

SLASH! The sound wasn’t really as much from breaking his skin. In fact, if any sound came at all it was actually from the blood pouring out and dripping all over the trees roots. Rum leaned in to let the tree drink more properly, and to try not to spill anything on the surrounding soil where the tree would have to work to get it.

“Wow, such dedication.” Said the other female member of The Florists. “Sova, we shouldn’t ask him to join us? This Great Mage is surely a Florist at heart! Who else do you know who would nourish a tree with such passion!?”

Rum, despite being physically able to hear them, kinda zoned out of all conversations around him as he tried to focus on the gushing stream of blood running from his palm and onto the tree.

“I’m sure the Great Mage has his own things to attend to.” Sovaduna replied. “A Florist at heart or not, I don’t think he wants to join in our meetings, or walk around in the City Forest with us on observations and inspections.”

Rum moaned as he started feeling the drain on his body.

“I think he only really cares about this tree.” The Florists observed Rum’s slowly but increasingly bleak face with awe and fascination.

“Aside” someone else mumbled. Gently pushing the committee leader aside, Veish suddenly stepped forward and over to Rum. Close, she squatted next to him and the tree, before grabbing the knife out of the wizard’s weakening hand. “You said you can stop the blood flow, right?” Rum nodded weakly. Veish put her wrist forward. She breathed inwards, pausing for just a second, and then SLASH!, another artery burst out blood onto the ground, before being more closely aimed at the tree.

The weakened Rum smiled the biggest smile he could. “You helped” he said.

“You’re helping me right?” Veish asked, eyes pointing at the tree. “Well. This I can do. What you asked of before. THAT – I cannot do.”

Rum’s smile continued. “So it won’t just be my blood then. Instead, this’ll be a tree of Rum and Veish, a tree of 2 mages. The Rum-Veish Tree.”

Veish nodded weakly, but otherwise chose not to comment on Rum’s naming, which some might’ve called emotionally touching.

“Or...” Even in his weakened state, and even with increasingly strained leg muscles that forced him to go down into a proper kneel now, the wizard still prioritized putting a hand to his beard, stroking it for thought. “The Ruish Tree?” He glanced at Veish’s face, which frowned. “No!” The wizard looked away and into the blue, unbelievably excited for the weakened state he was in. “The Vum Tree! Get it? V for Veish, um for Rum?” Veish didn’t frown exactly, but she put up 2 eyebrows, as if to say seriously?

“I like it” The female elf sub-committee member said.

“The Vum Tree. Hmm, kinda sounds like a real species of tree, doesn’t it?” The elf’s male colleague added.

“It is kind-of a good name for a tree, I would say.” Sovaduva Bikbik concluded.

Rum nodded to them. “Seems like democracy is converging on an option then. So, if nobody will object vehemently, I name this: The Vum Tree.” All the elves smiled, nodded and even gave small claps as if this was some great naming ceremony.

“Watch it!” Sovaduna Bikbik suddenly burst out from clapping. “Rum, you’re giving too much blood, you look woozy!”

Indeed, Rum had started to feel a little unsteady as the clapping started, his mind starting to slowly fade.

“Hey!” Veish clapped Rum hard on the shoulder. “You can’t faint! I need you to stop my bleeding!”

“Oh-oh” Rum picked himself back together, “yeah-eh, I mustn’t forget that, of course.” It was all mumbling. But the wizard managed to take his other hand and place it gently on his leaking wrist, weakly announcing the spell: “Trinity of Healing”. As dramatic as it might’ve felt to the people near him, Rum’s spell was fast and effective. The wizard fell a bit backwards down on his butt. There, his hands splayed on the ground of dirt and dead grass, keeping him from falling further backwards and down on his back. “Ooooh” his eyes were only half-open, and he looked to be resting, an expression of fatigue emanating from his entire body. Veish glanced over at him to make sure he was okay, and when he looked to be doing nothing but rest, she went back and focused on her own opened wrist, her composure becoming more tired.

“I feel suddenly ready for bed.” Rum half-mumbled, eyes going closed in his sitting position.

“Well, you can’t! Not before my wound his closed.” Veish said, herself starting to look a little paler, the blood drain apparent on her face.

Almost a minute passed, before Veish decided she too was finished, and she nudged Rum’s leg with a finger. “Heal me” she said weakly.

Rum did so, and with this important fertilization done, the 2 mages managed to crawl away from the blood and defacations of the tree, to a spot where the trees roots were yet to kill the greenery, and the smell of the air was fresh and beautiful. They spread out on grass and flowers, falling almost asleep, while the Florists started the initial process of keeping the surrounding vegetation safer with woodspeak magic.

When they left together with White Rose, Rum put a lazy finger up in the air. “Now, we head to The Iron City.”

“What for?” A still weakened Veish said behind him.

“Your bed. We can’t go to bed at Amez’ place before you have one.”

“They sell beds for tall people in Iron City?”

“The most affordable.” Rum replied.

“Where?”

“At Gnomiture.”