Ni'Bish, the newly ascended god of the Treants and Dryads, stared down from the top of the waterfall. The land where he was standing was calling to him. The last time he felt mana flow like this to nourish the growth of plants was at his friend's private farm. Max had spent years perfecting the scripts used to move mana around perfectly.

Here, however, the world was flowing in a more natural way that was no less amazing. In just a few short months, this waterfall and the area around it were turned from just a mana spring to a gardener's delight. The trees were pulling what they needed to thrive, which in and of itself, wasn't odd. However, the way that the growth stakes aided and expanded what the trees could do was a masterful touch.

Ni'Bish took a deep breath through his canopy and let it out, rustling his branches like wooden chimes. "Even knowing that it's here the aura of misdirection was confounding."

He set his feet roots into the ground and spread out his senses. All around, he felt the thrum of mana and the workings Arn had left behind. Then he expanded his powers and felt even more magic controlling the area around him. He felt the vines, the wall they built, and the trees that could now shoot rocks.

He pushed out more, and then he nodded. The goblins and orcs were moving about beyond the vines. They treated the forest like a natural magical barrier sending their low-level ones to test it. They were not treating it like the bastion of a hostile force that it truly was.

Except for the trees, nothing in the area had passed level thirty. The orcs were all in their twenties, and the goblins were even lower, except for one that was level twenty-five. That one might bear watching as he supervised the area and looked for ways to help from the background.

Then he gave a slight grin. "What did he end up building down below?"

Ni'Bish sent several root-like fingers into the ground. Then he stepped off the edge of the cliff. The root fingers that made up his right hand kept him in place as he sent more roots down the eighty feet to the next landing. Once they reached the ground, he slowly lowered himself down.

As he slowly drifted down, his bark-like skin broke into a smile. "He did far better for my race than I thought could be done. I should have had more faith."

As he landed, he stuck his hand deep into the rich black soil of the landing. It was just a moment before his roots brushed against a large mass of roots. The god gave a laugh that shook the small branches that made up his hair. Anyone who heard it would have thought it was a sinister laugh. However, that was far from the case.

No Ni'Bish was happy because the seeds he thought would take hundreds of years to form more of his race were almost ready. As he pulled his hand out, he looked around. This place would do for a single tribe, a few hundred at best.

His smile broke across his face again, and the god moved to the water. "So that's how he moved down river so easily. He made himself a boat for the crossing. Now do I head down to see the new trees or stay here for a while?"

As he thought, he stretched out his roots. His mind slowed down to process better what he wanted to do. He had come to this place to help out. The Thicket was important as it would be a great aid in the coming days. However, there were so many other things he could help with as well—more than that; his people were about to return.

A dawn, perhaps the fifth since he started to think, came and went. Then it made sense as to what he could do. This place was growing his people quickly. The Thicket at the top of the waterfall would soon have a dozen of his kind helping care for it. Not that the trees needed the care. They were linked in the oddest of ways to a dungeon.

No, he would take the rest of his seeds and head down to the other place that was changed. He could plant his people down there, and perhaps they would gain some new powers from the forest that was calling to him now. It wanted to show him something and let him see something.

With his mind made up, the god jumped into the quickly-moving lake and rushed downriver. He shaped his body as he went into a boat and picked up speed. It was a few scant moments before he plunged over the dam and crashed below.

A day's travel later, the god of the trees stepped out of the river. Standing not far away was a massive several hundred-foot tree surrounded by a wall of bodies that reached up its mighty trunk.

Ni'Bish felt the draw the tree was putting out and how it was part of a grove not too far away. This was the first however, the mother of its kind. A tree with living enchantments. He pushed his way through the bones and other compost until he finally gazed at the runes.

The god laid his rooty hand on them and smiled. "I wonder if he could do something like this to me or if I would have to have a core as well."

A couple of days passed as he talked with the tree. He learned of the fights, what was done to her, and the great joy of others being added to the grove. Though they were so far away. Lastly, the desire and request for her seeds to grow the grove toward the others.

Ni'Bish smiled as he had thought the same thing. He planted one of his seed and tied it to the Tree of Peaceful Rest. Then he gathered many of her seeds and started to head downriver slowly. Planting and tending dozens of seeds, each one of hers he planted he helped to grow. Once the tree was a few years in size, he added one of his family.

On he went, never tiring in his work as a gardener. The god moved through the day and night, slowly moving through the fields of weak undead creatures. None of them were even remotely smart or coming close to reaching the levels of power needed to slow him down. They were but fertilizer for his family and the forest he was helping to grow.

As he approached the river's edge, he slowed down and paused momentarily. He walked over to a spot that he couldn't quite see. The god tree slowed down even further as he studied the area's mana. For several hours he just looked and became one with the land.

Then, once again, he chuckled in a way that rattled his canopy-like hair. "He has far out done himself with how he hid the cave."

Then the god walked over to a single tree, bent down, and rested his hand on a growth stake. "These mark his passage through this area."

For the next few days, he planted new seeds of his people and the Tree of Peaceful Rest. He even pondered as he went if he was spreading his people down here because he wanted to or if it was for her sake. It wasn't until he finished connecting the grove with the mother tree that he was sure.

He shook his head as he stood from the ground. "If you weren't related to me I would crush you for what you did. A suggestion so strong that you took me away from what I was doing."

The trees around him bent and swayed, almost like they were waving to him. Then he felt a knock on his mind. The god sent his roots into the ground and touched his roots to those of the grove. Then he opened the door.

The grove spoke to him. "Thank you our god for care. We know you and ask to join you."

Ni'Bish thought briefly, which for him was several hours. "Isn't this forest claimed and those who speak to me created by the one who claimed it?"

Time passed before they answered. "We are young but are you not the god of our kin. The dryads?"

Ni'Bish nodded and thought to them. "Yes. I am the god of the dryads. Yet you are not them nor are you treants."

The trees swayed and answered through the sound of their branches. "Yet we are both we are trees with spirit. We have no body's but our own but think and move."

Through his roots, he asked them. "What do we call you then?"

An hour passed before they answered. "We are the Young."

Ni'Bish shook his head with merriment. "Yes you are the Young. Yet others will have a hard time knowing who you are…"

The trees answered, "We are Old."

Once more Ni'Bish laughed and nodded. "Young and old. New and inexperienced. Let us give you the name of Tree-Folk or Galadahos in the old language."

The grove swayed once more, the branches rustled, and a flower out of season fell before Ni'Bish. "We know the one who brought us into being. This land which we live in cries out as his. So too we who are part of the land serve him. Yet, you Ni'Bish have named us and we the Galadahos ask to be of your domain. Let us join with your people as your people have joined with the one to gave us power."

Ni'Bish smiled as he felt his power move up as the Galadahos entered into his care. "I will have my people carry your seeds in them as he carries one of ours in him. I will care for you and guide you and work to raise you up. Now, I must depart and head back to where I am expected to be."

The grove of Peaceful Rest made up of the Galadahos, waved their branches in farewell. Then Ni'bish headed back north to the waterfall and the Thicket there he was to be watching.

A few days later, when he arrived, he felt the woods had changed. Fewer goblins were trying to sneak past the vines. He sensed a new predator had shown up while he was gone. Something that, while not powerful enough to cause him harm, would be able to lay to waste much, if not everything, in the valley.

As he crossed the river above the falls to enter the thicket area, he found webbing between most trees. With a chuckle, he reached out and pulled some of it. The vibration shot through the web, and a horse-sized spider soon appeared.

Ni'Bish waved. "Hello Clickic, why are you here?"

The darkweaver clicked her mandibles and tapped her foot a few times. Then Ni'Bish nodded. "So Sam's been in the dark this whole time. That might complicate things."

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