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The groups are led to Dover Air Force Base, to a fairly nondescript building that appears to serve as offices of some sort. There they are brought through a gate and into the Hedge. The other group is with them--but in the background, preparing themselves for their own mission.
The Hedge is alive here. It's thriving--no sign of the blight. The Hollow is a clearing filled with covered pavilions made naturally grown wood and vine, grown in beautiful designs. Wooden bridges and walkways weave around and over trickling streams, and it only takes them a moment to realize that these aren't just pathways--they're enormous roots. Which grow outwards from two of the largest trees any of them have ever seen. They appear to grow up and up into the sky, it's branches fanning outwards to block out the Hedge's sky, creating a huge domed ceiling. One tree is a little smaller than the other, but they stand so close together that their roots and branches intermingle, tangling and twisting together. Lanterns are hung everywhere, casting the area in an ethereal glow. It's beautiful, and feels safe.
In one of the pavilions closest to the tree trunk, three Changelings are laid out on cots. They are being tended to by a Spring, carefully fed bits of water and food, but they look sickly and… unwell. It’s within this pavilion that more cots are laid out, ready for the teams to lay down and sleep, to let their minds merge with the tree’s.
King Jacob Fireheart is there to lead them into the Hollow. The Hollow otherwise is, perhaps surprisingly, empty. His body is made of burning embers, eyes glowing and currently filled with calm worry--one of his legs is a prosthetic, but he moves well enough one can barely notice.
“Thank you all for volunteering,” Jacob says once past the gate, leading the way to the prepared pavilion. “I hope today will mark the beginning of the end of this conflict. That you are risking yourselves to help us… speaks greater than I can find words for.”
It is also assumed that before heading out they'd each been given a hedgefruit by Spicy. They look sort of like... a beet?? Some sort of twisted root-like fruit that Spicy claims will help them get safely "inside" the tree, as well as help fortify their minds.
Jack's shown up in the kind of clothes he might wear on any old day - tight jean shorts, an IATSE t shirt under an open short sleeved buttondown, and his ever present docs. Because armor doesn't matter in dreams, right?
"I hope the same," he says to Jacob with a slightly nervous smile. "It's only right, that we should help one another through times like this. And we want to avoid a full-on war as much as you do." He drops down onto one of the cots, looking around at the four other Shackamaxon Lost.
"Ready? For...whatever this's gonna be?"
Dressed in a dark pair of jeans and a floral shirt--an oddly feminine one given her usual hyperpractical style--Lif has a sketchbook with her, and flips to a drawing of a woman. She stands on a floating island of plants, lily pads, her dark skin made of bark, hair untamed but beautiful for it, filled with flowers and leaves and vines. Her eyes are pained, her posture uncertain. She has her arms wrapped loosely around herself.
"Folx, this is Meriday Cypress. She is compassionate and she is kind and she is amazing, and she is suffering. She told me she's in the grove, that that's where we need to go to find her."
Annie nods to Jack. "As I will ever be," she says, perching on one of the cots herself. The Nymph's dressed rather more casually than the last time she was in Dover: jean cutoffs and a light blue tanktop are the order of the day, apparently.
Adela is there, dressed in legging and a tank top, hair tightly pulled back in a bun that still manages to have a few strands loose and waving in a breeze that doesn't seem to affect anyone else. She shrugs, seemingly unconcerned. "Sooner we start, the sooner we can help." The staccato flickering of the light under her skin betrays her actual nervousness.
She crosses towards one of the cots and sits down on the edge. "Or at least try to help." This is said quietly, more to herself than anyone else.
Outloud, Alain says little, but in her way, she communicates a good deal; her groomed-within-a-millimeter-of-their-lives eyebrows arch in a faint curve at the emptiness of the Hollow. She turns towards the drawing Lif shows the rest of them, and studies it with the critical eye of a curator, as if looking for details, flaws, more than absorbing the image of the woman. "Then we should go."
Lif tucks the sketchbook under the cot she's chosen, pulling out Spicy's beet and chomping on it. "Other things to remember: she's very tied up with the history of Baltimore, with the Underground Railroad and the Freehold's involvement with it. She gave herself to the Wyrd to ensure that others could escape. She doesn't deserve the blame for what the tree is doing. This is very much a rescue mission."
When they bite into the beet-like fruits, they drip a clear slightly saltish liquid that reminds one of tears. It makes them feel melancholy, but also strangely sleepy.
Jacob takes a moment to talk to the other group and get them settled, before turning back to the others. He looks to Lif and smiles appreciatively, but worriedly. "Good luck."
Sketched lines around Jack flicker and scatter as he moves, and he eyes the drawing closely, before nodding. The hedgefruit that Spicy's provided sits in one of his hands, and when he's done studying the image, he studies it instead, turning it in his hands before taking a bite.
"Rescue, and healing. We'll do our damndest..." He leans back to get comfortable on his cot with a sigh.
Adela lets out a small sigh and arranges herself on the cot with all the fiddlyness of a performer getting ready for a major performance. It helps with the nerves. Or something.
Before she fully lies back she bites into her hedgefruit and gives a sardonic smile at the taste. "Sorrow through and through. Really hope this isn't a portent"
"As we always do," Annie agrees with Jack, biting down on her own fruit before lying back herself, extending a hand to each side, so that she can be in contact with two of those she's going into the dream with. And then starts monologuing to herself, because that's a requirement for Mastermind's Gambit. Apparently most of her fears revolve around failing to save people. Who'd have guessed, considering her choice of studies and job Faeside?
Lif gives Jacob a smile of her own. "Thank you. We'll do what we can for you and your Freehold. And for Meriday, as well."
"Lily and I will be watching over your bodies. We'll do our best to help you if we notice any sign of distress or injury," he says with a nod. "But I'm unsure what you will find in there. Please... be careful."
As the group drifts off to sleep beside each other, they feel their minds pulled away, tethered to some power greater than themselves. They are pulled through the Gate of Ivory, not just as their dreamself--but as… more. It makes one wonder if their very soul had been ripped from their body and placed… somewhere else.
As they settle into this new place, their minds wrestle with themselves. Are they really here? Is this a dream? Is this the Hedge? Perhaps it’s somewhere in between. A world where the Wyrd is stronger than even in Dreams. Whatever this is, they come to one disturbing realization: Their flesh feels solid.
Looking around, the scene around them is majestic and beautiful. They stand within a massive forest with towering trees all around. There’s a primordial quality to the forest, untouched by man and civilization. Birds and insects flit around, not seeming to pay the group much mind. There’s colorful flowers that dot the forest floor, all beautiful, all blooming lushly.
It's a beautiful scene, Adela has to admit. But that doesn't mean it's not dangerous. Probably the exact opposite in fact. She frowns as she looks around. "I know we knew this wasn't going to be normal oneiromancy, but I can't say I like how solid I feel right now..." she says. "Are we... sure we're in the right place?"
The first time Alain's sphinx-like expression betrays her is when the nausea hits, the weightiness of being both bound and unbound, which is good cover for the thorough discomfort of something akin to the ghost being ripped out of her and put in a box. Eyes like pale ice flutter open at the lush forest that stares back and down at them.
"I do not prefer surprises," she muses lowly, under her breath and mostly to herself.
Curious, Lif glances around, curious if the plants are familiar to them or if they're more archetypes of plants, drawn from fantasy, from memory, from stories of 'the woods are lovely, dark and deep'.
Jack takes a few seconds to steady himself in this unfamiliar landscape, his mien flickering and jumping, only the most basic of his features visible as the gesture sketches shudder and move.
"Only one way to find out, yeah? If we find Queen Meriday, we know we're here..." Jack opens and closes his hands, feeling how real it all feels as he looks around.
"I think we probably are," Annie says quietly, gazing around in awe. "A grove implies the existence of tree around it, after all. We just need to work out where that grove is." Beat. "Any ideas, Lif? You are the one studying botany, after all."
For the most part... it seems more whimsical and fantastical, than real plants. It all feels very other worldly and fae. Perhaps this is similar to what Cypress' durance may have been like? Or how Cypress' connection to the Wyrd manifests? Her in pure essence. Lif can't say for sure, but those are possible options.
"Understanding botany won't help here. These are the sort of woods Little Red Riding Hood walked through, the Sherwood Forest that the Merry Men lived in with Robin Hood. The Forest of Arden. The woods aren't so much being a place, as they're being a setting for whatever happens next." Lif puts her hand against the trunk of a tree, peering around at the rest of the woods. "It's very much of-Meriday, too, though. It is a symbol that holds meaning to her."
"So..." Adela says slowly, as if feeling out the words as she says them. "If it's a storybook forest, then we need to think in storybook logic? Maybe?" She chews at her bottom lip as she thinks. "Maybe there's like a central grandfather tree in the middle. Or, grandmother in this case."
Alain purses her lips carefully as she surveys the surroundings, bobbing her chin in one, singular nod at Lif's annotation. "I don't want to get too attached to the idea of logic applying, in general," she murmurs.
Jack casts his gaze around the trees, and starts to hum absently as he does. It's a melody, certainly, one anyone who knows musicals might recognize. "If there's a way to see if there's a right way to go, we should take that route, otherwise...I'd say pick a direction and start walking."
Lif gives Jack a sidelong glance when they catch what he's humming, then chuckles, singing along in a deep, resonant voice that sounds like it's coming from the bottom of a well. Which really doesn't consider the part they're taking on.
"Into the woods
It's time to go
I hate to leave
I have to go
Into the woods
It's time, and so
I must begin my journey..."
Its hard, at first, to see any path that leads through the forest. Everything is wild and untamed, unblemished--but as Jack starts looking around, pulling back brush and branches, he spots something weird among the flowers--there's a couple trees where flowers are growing... out of them? There's little streaks where life just grows, as if someone had passed by and brushed their fingers along the trunks, sprouting new life.
As Lif sings, the flowers bloom wider, and a few similar flowers pop up in the distance through trees, creating a trail.
Annie pretty clearly doesn't recognise the tune, but the effect of Lif's singing is fairly obvious anyway. "I guess we go that way?"
"Well it seems like a place to start at the very least," Adela comments, though she's thoughtful. "I wonder if this place responds to all music or just excessively appropriate songs." She gives a slight huff of laughter. "Not that I'm a singer by any stretch of the imagination."
Jack gestures at the flowers - and starts to sing too. His voice a little higher than Lif's, softer. He's aiming to harmonize, and gives Lif a sidelong grin as he does.
"The way is clear
The light is good
I have no fear
Nor no one should
The woods are just trees
The trees are just wood..."
It's clear he's aware of the irony of those particular lyrics in this context as he goes. He starts toward the path of flowers, keeping close to his comrades.
Alain's eyes follow the painted-there bloom of flowers, springing awake - no, alive - under the sonorousness. "I don't see any alternative," she supposes, falling in step to follow the verdant path.
Lif nudges Jack's shoulder, falling into harmony with him easily, and delighted to have someone join her. She begins to walk down the marked trail at an almost skipping pace, clearly at ease for the moment.
"I'll watch our back" Adela says to no one in particular as she brings up the rear of the group
As they sing of the woods, the flower trail grows before them, stretching outwards. More streaks across trunks, and patches along the ground that look like blooms are sprouting in some invisible person's footsteps.
The forest grows thicker around them, until it reaches the point that they start having to push their way through bushes and climb over moss covered boulders and logs. The trees start to grow taller, older, more ancient. There's more of a presence to the forest, as if the trees were watching them. It's not an easy hike, but somehow they never find themselves out of breath or tired. The fresh air seems to exhilarate them, if anything.
Eventually, the lush undergrowth suddenly stops, and they come onto the edge of a large clearing, surrounded by tall trees. Growing in a perfect circle around the edge is a large ring of mushrooms and vines--tall enough they could step over if they wish, but creating a clear boundary of some sort.
In the center of the grove, there is another tree. Sitting on it's roots, leaned against the trunk, is a woman cloaked in vine and leaves. Her hair is wild, untamed, her skin made of knotted bark, but her beauty is unmistakable. Lif recognizes her. Her eyes are closed, but as the group approaches the grove her eyes slowly open, head lifting towards them. But her gaze looks distant, disorientated, like she can't quite make them out.
Jack's singing trails off as they get to the clearing. He doesn't make a move to step into the place, especially not into the ring.
"'S a fairy ring if I've ever seen one..." He gestures to the mushrooms and vines, his voice a low murmur. "Think we can get her attention from here?"
"Worth a shot," Annie nods, also stopping short of the mushroom ring. "Meriday Cypress?" She tries, calling to the woman cloaked in vine and leaves.
Alain instinctively takes a step nearer towards the beautiful woman, quiet and alert, but she also stops just short, falling in step alongside Annie.
"If someone has to step into the ring to get her attention, I'll go. I've spoken to her before, that may help some." Lif squares her shoulders.
The woman stares distractedly at the group, blinking too-dark eyes slowly. "Who are you...?" she asks, her voice sleepy and listless.
"Lif, you may wanna do most of the talking. She knows you, at least. Not gonna let you go in the ring alone, though." On that, Jack seems certain, even as bits of charcoal fly away from his body to dissolve in the air around him.
Alain gives a sidelong look of encouragement at Lif, and a short nod. "I have faith in you."
Annie nods to Jack. "We are in this together, after all. Sacrificing any of us seems like a bad plan to me."
“This feels too easy,” Adela mutters under her breath. Easy is, of course relative, and they’ve not really accomplished much yet, but still. She keeps expecting terrible monsters to come jumping out at any moment.
"...If we break the circle somehow, before stepping in..." He frowns. "Think that'll make shit worse or better?"
"Meriday, we're friends who've been sent to find you and help you. The Tree at the Crossroads is ill, and we're here to make sure that the meaning of your sacrifice is not lost because of it. My name is Lif Loracks, of the Shackamaxon Freehold." They don't cross the line of mushrooms yet, trying to do what they can with words alone.
She doesn't appear to recognize Lif, currently. She continues to just stare, and after a moment turns back to look at the tree. Her fingers lift to brush along the bark there, and from the distance they can just barely make out what appears to be some sort of carvings. Letters? Initials?
"What do you know of sacrifice?" comes her distant reply.
"We have all sacrificed," Annie says quietly. "None of us have gone without loss."
Her head tilts back to stare at Annie for a second, then her hand stretches out, beckoning. "Show me."
And Annie takes her hand.
The moment that Annie steps over the faerie ring to try to reach Cypress' hand, she immediately collapses and falls into the grass, looking like she has fallen into a deep, content sleep.
Jack reaches out for Annie, trying to get her to wait, but...then pulls his hand back. "Well...we know what happens when we step inside, I guess...think we should try to break the ring?"
"I'm not sure that Annie's hurt. She looks like she's just asleep. A dream within a dream. Is that even possible?" Lif crosses her arms over her chest and looks at Meriday. "What have you done to her?"
Cypress doesn't reply. She just stares distantly at where Annie is laying.
“It might not be her fault. Just because this is her dreamscape - I hope - doesn’t mean she knowingly controls everything here. “ Adela hums to herself as she thinks. Then she looks at Meriday and tries for a friendly smile. “Does this help her show you her sacrifices? Or would you like us to just tell you about ours?”
She looks back up at Adela, slowly, like she's staring through her. She lifts her hand again, towards her. "Show me."
"We know you sacrificed everything you had, to keep your people safe. To help them escape. They need your help again. Patriarch Tree needs your help." It comes out a little pleading, as Jack tries to bargain with Cypress.
Adela starts to reach for the offered hand, but she hesitates looking around at the others. “I’m no expert in any of this, but maybe this is what needs doing. Crossing the threshold and all that mythic story stuff.”
Lif offers her hand to Meriday, her expression cool. "I will show you, what it is I know about sacrifice."
"I am helping them," Cypress replies softly to Jack, her hand still outstretched towards the group.
Lif stepping over the ring?
Like Annie, the moment Lif steps past the ring, she also collapses to the ground beside Annie.
Alain watches Annie, then Lif slip bonelessly to the ground into her slumber and furrows her brow, visibly displeased on the point of being vexed, and circles closer towards Meriday with a wary expression, pale eyes narrowed, without breaching the ring.
"Oh Jesus..." Jack mutters, his silhouette barely visible now that Lif has entered the ring. "I don't think she's gonna do anything 'les we show her what we've sacrificed, but...fuck." He shakes his head.
“We’re trying to help you” Adela says to Meriday, her tone that of a teacher
"I don't need help," Cypress replies to Adela, a dazed smile spreading over her face.
"We need your help," Alain suddenly shifts tactics. "I know you want us to earn it, to prove we're worthy of it. Is that why you want to know our sacrifice?" she wonders.
She turns her attention towards Alain, smiling dimming into a look of concern. "I can help you. I can guide you to freedom. Freedom beyond body, beyond pain." Her frown deepens. "You have... so much pain..."
"We...aren't looking for that," Jack frowns and glances at Alain. "But we still do need your help. What...is the exchange, for showing you what we've sacrificed?"
“If I wanted a life without pain, I wouldn’t have become a dancer,” Adela says with a bitter smile. But her tone turns firmer as she continues. “You may not need help, but the tree does. And you are connected to the tree.”
She frowns at Jack, looking disappointed. "Exchange. Payment. Such selfishnesses are beyond me." She looks back to where Lif and Annie are laying, and her frown deepens. Her brows crease, as if troubled by something. "I am... helping..." Her voice sounds more distant and lost.
Alain exhales a faintly audible breath, long. "How?" she asks. "Meriday? You're not wrong," she coaxes. "How do you help?"
"I protect them. I watch over them. They are me, and I am them. Soon we will be together, truly, as one. Soon they will be safe. They will grow so... so beautifully..."
"Have they told you this? Is that what they want for themselves?" Jack's voice is gentle.
"They do not know any better," she says softly. "They have not seen what I have seen."
Alain casts a mildly concerned look at Adela and Jack, which on the features of a Snowskin screams red alert! "You're protecting them. Of course you are," Alain soothes. "Meriday, would you come here?" she chances it, gesturing to where she's standing outside the ring.
Adela’s eyes go wide as a thought occurs to her. “They, we, are not replacements for you. Or the tree. We need you to help the tree.”
Jack's expression is barely visible, the charcoal shuddering and flickering away from his silhouette rather than sliding around him to give him form. "She is the tree," he murmurs to Adela. "Isn't she...?"
"I can't. I can't leave. This is where I belong. This is what I am. I am not me. I am not a being. I am a tree." Her breathing is starting to come quicker as she stares at Lif and Annie's sleeping bodies. Her brows knit with confusion, then growing panic. Her hands lift to curl over her face as she curls upon herself. "I am helping. I am saving them." But she sounds increasingly less certain of herself.
"You want to," Alain goes on. "I know that you do. But what you're doing isn't helping. Your sacrifice will be worth nothing if the tree is destroyed. Not just everything you gave up, but everything you did it for. That's all you have left, after it's done, right? What you did it for?"
"We're here to help you save them, without hurting them," Jack adds. "They know what you sacrificed, how hard you have been working to keep them safe."
"You are the tree," Adela affirms. "And the tree is... hurting. I think you're hurting too. Please. Let us help you."
Cypress starts to breathe harder, gripping tighter to her face, her shoulders hunching. All around, the ground starts to shake beneath their feet, the branches of the forest swaying, wood groaning and popping here and there.
"This isn't right," she mutters, her voice desperate and panicked now. "I just wanted them to be free. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
Lif and Annie wake up abruptly. Lif does not feel sick. Annie finds she is able to speak.
As the two of them wake up, Jack rushes forward - into the circle - towards them. Making sure they're okay, even as the forest starts to bend around them.
Lif wakes up with a gasp and her hand moves to her throat, as she's expecting to feel violently ill. But when the sensation doesn't come as expected, she looks around with confusion, touching the water dribbling out of the crack and looking at her fingers, confused.
Nothing happens as Jack steps through the circle, now.
Alain does not step through the circle, as she is apparently still taking no motherfuckin' chances.
Annie opens her eyes slowly, looking up at Jack. "What happened?" And then clear relief crosses her face, as she is capable of actually speaking, not just merely inarticulate croaks.
Since Jack is taking care of the two waking up, Adela crosses over to Cypress and crouches down next to her. "It's okay, it's okay," she says soothingly. She looks for a moment like she wants to touch Cypress's shoulder or something similar, but she doesn't quite. "Like we said, we want to help you."
"You fell asleep - just fuckin collapsed - I think...I think we've shown her that she's not saving anyone, anymore..." If Lif and Annie do look (relatively) unharmed, Jack will make his way over to Cypress. Telegraphing his motion so she can see, he goes to place a gentle hand on her shoulder.
Perfunctorily, Alain passes her attention over Meriday again before she looks at Annie and Lif. "Did you see anything? Learn anything?" she asks them.
Lif climbs to their feet slowly, catching their breath still. "That was...very much very not nice. I thought...nevermind. Yes, the tree. It plans to grow forever. To take over anything that is unneeded. The tree needs to be stopped."
The ground continues to shake underneath them, to the point that they're wobbling and having to keep from getting knocked to their feet. Leaves fall down all around, shaken from their branches. One or two trees start to crack and topple nearby. It seems that Cypress' mind--whatever remains of her mind--is literally starting to crumble around them.
"How? How can you help me? What do I do?" she says, starting to sob. "How do I stop the pain I am causing?"
"Okay. That is good," Annie says in response to Jack, sitting up before turning her attention to Alain. "I... endless ocean, with not even a gull to break it up." She's about to follow Lif in standing when the ground's shaking intensifies underneath her. "Let us help you, Meriday. Cease being this tree, and become a fresh one, with new branches."
Likely far from the most adroit in the group, the wobbling pitches Alain forward into that bedeviled fairy ring whether she likes it or not, and she stagger steps closer to Meriday. "Meaning," she grunts, nearly crashing into her. "You can give your sacrifice meaning," she says, steadying herself. "What's the tree's weakness?"
"We have a new tree ready, to be your home. The sapling, the one I was growing when you visited my dreams. We need you to leave this tree behind. So that this one...this one needs to be stopped, and your Freehold, which has sworn to protect your tree needs to know that it can, that it is permitted to stop this one."
Lif gestures as they speak. "They love you so much, your people. They remember all you have done for them."
Adela nods in agreement. "You are your Freehold's tree. But the old physical one is becoming a danger. Like a house that's falling apart." She smiles, and it's a genuine bright one - literally as her inner lights start flickering in an almost theatrical way. "Basically, we're here to help you move"
"And to keep your home from falling down on the people it was built to protect." Jack lets himself smile just a little here.
She looks up woefully at the group as they comfort and encourage her, and there's a glimmer of inspiration that lights up in her eyes. A spark of purpose and sanity.
"Weakness..." she echoes, thoughtful. "The tree will die without my connection. Yes. I..." Her eyes close, and she smiles past a soft sob. "I can feel it. The new tree. It feels so pure..."
More trees topple around them, one rolling dangerously close. Her eyes open again, looking around, then she pushes up to her feet, her hand lifting. As her hand waves the toppling trees is swept aside to reveal a clear path--light visible shining through the trees.
"Go." She smiles wider, serenely. "And thank you. I'll take care of the rest."
Lif gives Meriday a lingering look, trying to be sure she's up for what's to come. And like when she tried to read the tree before, she can't see a damned thing.
It's... not like brushing up against the mind of a person. This feels bigger. It's something their minds can't quite comprehend fully. There's no true bounds of Clarity to her, making it hard to really... read in terms Jack is used to. Doing this in her previous state may have had some..... ill effects, but now they only feel an overwhelming, powerful sense of purpose and love, which only grows even stronger as Alain's Contract sets in.
Jack grips Meriday's shoulder gently, and nods. "I...hope you know what you're doing, Meriday, 'cause I don't think any of us could stop you, anymore..."
"We'll make sure your new tree is safe and grows well." Adela says, standing up. She smiles again. "Hopefully we'll be able to visit again"
"Everything will be alright now," she says softly. "Hurry now. Before you are trapped here."
Lif nods, and moves to follow the path out that Meriday had opened. "Let's go, then. They may need more help outside the tree, now."
Annie nods in turn, standing and following Lif. "Let us hope it is help we can provide."
Jack stands upright, and gives Meriday one last nod before he goes to follow Lif. "Into the woods, then out of the woods, and home before dark..." he murmurs as he goes, only half-singing the end of the song.
It's a short run down the path, which remains safe and mostly stable as the world falls down around them. Moments later they pass through light and... out.
They awake inside their own bodies with an uncomfortable jolt. It takes a bit for them to realize they're not dreaming anymore--that this is real. That they are real. But the transition from this place to another leaves their minds shaken, as they wonder if they may have left pieces of themself behind? Is part of themselves still running through the woods?
Again, Lif touches the crack at their neck, checking the water leaking from their throat to see if they're polluted.
Annie hums to herself quietly, glancing around as she sits up. "Everyone okay?"
Alain doesn't need to be told twice and is down that path with a final look at Meriday before she goes. When she wakes up, the nausea hits again and she sags her head back on her shoulders, grimacing.
The water appears to be as clear as when she fell asleep.
Jack takes a few shuddering breaths before he dares sit up. "Yeah..." his voice is a little rough, and he rubs his face with his hands, staring at them to make sure he's really awake as he sits, looking around at the other four.
There's a definite sigh of relief. "Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you."
Adela jerks slightly as she wakes up, and as she sits up she seems to be shivering slightly. At least she's rubbing at her arms like she's cold. "Yea. We did it, right?"
"I think so?" Annie says quietly, looking at a point just slightly to the left of Adela, as if she's having trouble focusing on the other woman.
The other team is awake, looking like they just woke up moments before--the three Lost that they went in to save are also waking up, though they look disorientated and weak. Jacob smiles at the group, relieved and hopeful. But his attention is soon caught up as the ground underneath them starts to shake powerfully. Above, the branches of the giant tree shake. He looks upwards, mouth hanging open in shock as he watches...
Budding flowers break out all over the older tree's branches. Massive ones, growing out from the knotted wood and within seconds starting to bloom. The flowers open, releasing a strange... dust, pollen? Light? It glows faintly--more with power than true light. It drifts and flows around the twin trees, catching onto the leaves of the younger. As this happens, the youngest tree is growing larger, as if fuelled by this, it's branches and roots coiling more and more around the older one in a tighter embrace. Growing so much that it's trunk starts to grow around the old one, until it reaches the point that it's hard to tell which tree is which anymore.
The growth, and the shaking ground, lasts no more than a couple of minutes. By the time it's through, the new tree has completely overtaken the old, this one even taller and larger than the last. It's branches grow out, leaves and flowers sprouting, like a tree at the height of verdant Spring. The ground stops shaking, and the Hedge around them settles.
"...That a good thing, d'you think?" Jack whispers once the shaking has stopped. "Didn't expect them to...grow together..."
"I think it's a very good thing. A beautiful thing. Ah, my little baby grew all big and tall..."
They lever to their feet, walking over to Jacob. "She is amazing, Meriday. And still willing to sacrifice--this time, the sick tree, to save everyone. I should draw you another picture of her. A better picture, of her with her conviction, as she told us to go, that she would take care of the rest."
"We're... happy to help" Adela says, though there's a note of distraction in her voice. And she's still rubbing at her arms. "Hopefully it will be good for a long time"
Jacob stares up at the tree with tears glimmering in his burning coal eyes, causing traces of steam to wisp around his face. "She's beautiful," he says, then exhales a heavy breath, smiling. "Thank you. Truly... Thank you." He looks down at himself, and--well, he doesn't feel like an Oathbreaker to them. He exhales a sigh of relief, then stands straighter. "I can't linger. I need to organize the Freehold. We'll move out through the Trods and help any we find. There's work to be done, to repair the damage we've caused."
He shakes the hand of each of them though, meeting their eyes and thanking them. He does the same with the other team--with Teagan, Sturm, Line, Vorpal, and Rosalyn. Thanking each of them for bringing his people home safely.
Still with a faint wave of nausea reverberating in her core, Alain watches, her limbs rubbery and her mind slightly hazed, blinking to take in the sight.
Annie just looks up at the new Tree in awe for a long moment as it, before shaking herself when Jacob talks to them. "Let us know if you need help with that?" She offers. "I am trained as a healer, if any of your people are injured."
"She loves all of you," Jack adds to what Lif has said. "So much. Thank you for letting us help, I know trust can be a difficult thing."
"I will. Though you may wish to see to your own Freehold as well. I'm sure there is damage there, as well..." He nods to Annie, and offers a smile to the others. But then the King is quickly off, to organize the renewed Freehold of the Patriarch Tree.
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