On Cosmic Tides

"This place is creepy," Rex said.

"What?" Rebecca's head whipped around so fast her braid ended up wrapped around her neck. "This place is amazing! The plants are already going to make our gardens like a thousand times better."

"Yeah, about that," Gabrielle said, ducking under a low-hanging branch, "we're sure we can take the seedlings?"

"It should be fine. They're mostly just regular plants, but a bit tweaked. It's the really strong stuff we can't just take."

"Why can't we just take it, isn't that why you came here in the first place?" Rebecca was really starting to get annoyed at Rex. If he was going to ruin the moment, why did he even come in the first place?

Sticking to his brother's side, Hector snatched his hand back from a hunk of glowing moss at Cooper's explanation.

"Well for one thing," she began, "it's already helping our cultivation. I've never felt mana like this before but it's practically begging to be used. And we might take some things. But we'll need to pay for them, the same as you would anywhere else."

"You're going to pay a tree for taking some seeds?"

Everyone except Rex froze for a moment, looking around. Rebecca half expected some sort of monster to drop in front of them at the blatant disrespect, all the stories of previous trips to Forest Monarchs swirling like a soup in her head. But nothing happened. They started up again, moving even more cautiously so as to avoid tempting fate.

"We will," Cooper finally said.

They passed by wonders that day. Plants brimming in life mana, so much they glowed with it, surrounding a pool of water black as death. A spider-web that spanned the entire gap between a circle of trees, almost invisible until the sun hit the strands just right, to reveal the world within. Cooper spent half an hour just staring at the deadly trap before the rest of them broke his trance and urged him onward. A red-capped mushroom the size of a small house, on which they had to prevent Leander from organizing a preemptive assault.

When they made camp in the evening, she could barely remain standing. They had done nothing more than explore all day, but her eyelids still threatened to droop close before dinner was even made. Cooper was the same, bumbling through the camp until Gabrielle forced him to sit and took over organizing their small party. It was the mana. So rich, and so perfectly attuned, she had gone through the equivalent of an entire day of focused cultivation. The wild cultivator stayed upright just long enough to choke down some food and crawl into her bedroll, then she was dead to the world until the following day.

**********

Silence woke Cooper the following morning. No birds chirped, no insects buzzed, no rodents rustled the underbrush. The forest held its breath, which could only mean trouble for their team. Slowly, to avoid drawing attention from whatever lurked nearby, Cooper raised his head. And came face to face with a wolf, sitting on its haunches a meter away.

His body spasmed as he fought free of the bedroll, caution forgotten. Then he saw the rest of them. It wasn't one wolf, it was a pack, calmly surrounding the group. Including where Hector had apparently fallen asleep while keeping watch. Based on their experiences yesterday, Cooper chose to believe that was due to magic and not carelessness.

"Everyone wake up." His voice was as flat as he could make it, to avoid surprising the wolves into action. He was rather proud that any tremble was almost undetectable.

Leander was up like a shot, leaping to his feet and taking a defensive stance. No one else heard him. Cooper made his way around their makeshift camp, nudging first Rebecca and then Gabrielle into wakefulness. It took a moment but the girls shook off the remnants of sleep when the issue became clear, joking Leander in preparing to fight. They would have to edit all the delays out when they told this story back at the sect.

Some deeply buried instinct for propriety had him hesitating to wake people who were, in some sense, his guests. He shook off that feeling and nudged first Hector then Rex awake.

"Wha? By the stars above!" The latter shouted when his eyes cleared.

Cooper held a finger to his lips for silence. To his eyes, the wolves hadn't moved an inch beyond resettling their weight. Now he was at something of a loss. Limited as his experience may have been, he was confident wild animals did not wait around for their prey to have a sporting chance the way human hunters might.

Taking a shot in the dark, he spoke to the wolves directly. "Can we help you?" He didn't bother to turn, but that didn't keep him from feeling Gabrielle's glare digging into the back of his head while she silently berated him as an idiot.

But to his and everyone else's surprise, it worked. The wolf nearest Cooper approached. Every muscle in his body was clenched to avoid flinching when it ducked behind him and gently pushed his hip with its head.

The headbutt became insistent when he didn't move, forcing him to stumble a step forward or fall. When he stopped after just a single step, it started herding him again.

"Okay, we'll follow."

"What the fuck are you talking about Cooper? We aren't following them." Gabrielle's hiss was sharp enough to cut and angry enough to burn.

"I don't think we have much choice", he whispered back. Not that he was under the misapprehension that the animals couldn't hear. He was holding out hope they didn't truly understand, and it was perhaps the alien intellect of the Forest Monarch directing things.

"Of course we do. Wild animals don't behave this way, they're probably rabid. It would be a mercy to put them down."

A sharp yip cut into the hushed conversation. So much for not understanding.

"Do you think we'll make it out if the Monarch wants us to follow?"

"Fine. But if we die to a bunch of wolves I'm haunting your ass forever."

"Deal." Cooper replied. Then he stepped forward, the others forming up behind him.

Leander shoved up to the front next to Cooper, after herding Hector and Flint into the middle of their formation.

The hike started off easy but didn't stay that way for long. Their original route had swung them to the south of the domain before entering, and for good reason. The further north they walked, the harder the terrain. And the more insistent their guides. Lunch was a handful of trail rations eaten on the move while wolves quite literally nipped at their heels.

They scrambled down rocky slopes into hidden gulleys, and climbed back up over uneven tumbles of stone and exposed roots. Vegetation too thick to push through frequently barred their path, something the wolves didn't seem to care about in their urging.

Caught between annoyance and a burning curiosity, all Cooper could do was continue forward, dragging the rest of the group in his wake.

The sun had moved well towards the horizon when a sharp bark brought them up short. With a start, Cooper realized the trees thinned ahead. They had walked across the entire domain.

"That's it? We're just getting kicked out?" He only realized he was yelling when a growl from the pack cut him off.

The lead wolf stepped forward, pushing him off to the side, alone this time. Still willing to play along in the hope of something incredible, Cooper went.

At the edge of the trees he paused and took a full minute to make sense of what greeted him there. Either the Forest Monarch had driven them all insane yesterday, or nature was at war with itself.

Sound hit him first, some magic of the trees having blocked it out during their trek. Rumblings, snarls, and the unpleasant scraping of stone against stone.

Trees were half-petrified where they stood apart from the forest itself. Mostly saplings whose seeds had fallen away from the protective canopy. At the same time, near where the trees thickened, piles of sand were sitting in the open. As though a boulder had fallen there and been ground down to dust.

Betwixt it all, forces did battle unlike any Cooper had ever seen. Forest predators, and what appeared to be the occasional walking tree, scratched and bit and flailed as they attacked piles of ambulatory rocks. They had no faces or anything he could see to allow them to move, yet move they did, flowing over the ground to weather the onslaught. As he watched, a black bear ran head first through a small golem, smashing it into pieces, which remained inert. Just after, another rock slammed into the offending bear, forcing it away with a whimper and limp.

That was enough. He went to rejoin the others.

"I think I know why we're here. The Forest wants to conquer the rocks nearby."

"Great!" Gabrielle replied. "Now tell us for real."

"For real. There are forest creatures fighting rocks over there," he pointed. "I assume we are here to help the Forest."

Cooper realized then that only a single wolf reminds. It barked once before loping off towards the fight.

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"They're gone," Gabrielle said. "We can go back now."

Cooper took a moment to survey the group before responding. Rebecca and Leander looked curious, Rex was confused, and Hector, who seemed more understanding than his big brother, looked terrified.

"If we go back, we have to leave right away. I don't think they'll force us to help, but I can't imagine our host would appreciate us just standing by to watch."

"Which means we leave with nothing," Rebecca said, catching on.

"Right."

Gabrielle started cursing like an angry sailor, but she didn't say no, which from her was as good as a promise. There was no question as to whether Leander would help them, which just left their new friends.

"Umm…" Rex trailed off, not knowing how to react to the news of imminent battle.

"You don't have to." Cooper said.

From the corner of his eye he noticed Leander twitch at the implication, but now wasn't the time.

"No, uh, we'll help."

Whatever color remained in Hector's face drained at his brother's pronouncement.

After a few more minutes of strategizing they were ready. Only after reaching the fringes did the noise of the battle assault them. It was much as Cooper had left it, for all that the entire battlefield had changed. Spikes of rocks were forming a slow fence on the other side of the field, and the few trees still standing were anchored to the earth not in a single trunk, but by a bevy of mutated branches as well.

And all throughout, the rocks continued to fight the forest creatures.

"The plan is …" Cooper trailed off when the most unlikely members of their group broke cover and bolted forward.

Leading the charge was Flint. Chittering in his imitation of a battle cry, he tackled a knee-high golem and started ripping off rocks and flinging them away. Hector followed the lemur, screaming in an altogether less-intimidating charge.

Whether from nerves or foolishness, any chance of a plan was smashed to pieces. Rebecca and Leander both followed with their own shouts, leaving the rest of them to scramble to keep up or be left behind.

There was no more time to observe, and Cooper gladly joined the fray for his friends, and his hopefully soon-to-be patron. They were just rocks anyway.

His first assault taught him two things. First, the rock golems were not all that sturdy, he was able to smash one apart with his own momentum and a few well aimed blows. The second thing was that he was also not all that sturdy, sharp aches from the newly bruised skin accompanied scrapes on his fists and knees.

That was about all he could contribute, his cultivation too dangerous to use so close to his friends and allied creatures. Not that it was a small contribution. Almost five years was a long time to learn combat skills, especially when one's teachers were fans of practical experience above all else.

It was a slaughter, if the rock golems even counted as being alive. Cultivator stamina and the thorough training of the sect members meant a horde of small creatures that weren't very smart was not too much of a challenge.

Cooper wasn't the only one finding themselves reduced to mortal combat. Gabrielle tried to launch some fireballs. But when fire hit rock it just made hot rocks. There was some damage but not enough to counteract the fact that she was making them more dangerous.

The true standout was Rebecca. With so much nature mana saturating the air, she was a force to be reckoned with. Vines grew in an instant, lashing down the golems for Rebecca to beat apart with her staff, or for Flint to tear into when he rejoined his bondmate.

After a few minutes Cooper had a thought that almost cost him a broken wrist. It was a chore to fight these golems. Not really dangerous or interesting or even exciting. Just something that had to be done. He was so surprised he stumbled, leaving himself wide open for the larger pile of rocks he was facing off against to launch a projectile straight at him. Cooper fling his hand up, knowing he couldn't dodge in time.

That was until Leander appeared beside him in a blast of wind that knocked the mini-boulder off course. He nodded and raced away again, to do the same for first Hector, and then Flint.

Cooper forced his attention back to the battle, but it was clear the Forest had won the day. The flood of rock creatures slowed to a drip, and then stopped entirely.

At some unseen signal, the creatures around them leaned back and roared. Flint and Rebecca joined in on the cathartic release, Cooper realizing he himself was not capable of such a reaction but happy for his friends.

The humans gathered at the side, Flint reluctantly joining them instead of the revel now taking place in the clearing.

"Anyone hurt?" Cooper asked. He was already feeling better from circulating his mana, though nothing but rest and time would reach the point of true healing.

The others reported the same, banged up but ultimately fine. That was except for the brothers, Rex had a finger that needed splinting and Hector had a broken nose. For better or worse the sect members were well-versed in first aid from their own adventures, and the young men were cleaned up with minimal fuss.

A complicated look passed over Leanders face when he helped tie Rex's bandages, but he otherwise made no comment.

Prickling on the back of his neck had Cooper spinning around, where he saw the same wolf that had led him around all day. It was covered in its own scrapes, but he recognized the white markings in the soft brown fur he had stared at for the better part of a day.

With far less caution than it had that morning, the beast sauntered straight into the group of cultivators. Apparently beasts could feel a post-battle high the same way humans could. It didn't bother with gentleness either when it grabbed Cooper's sleeve in its mouth and yanked him forward.

"We need rest," Cooper said.

The wolf looked over its shoulder at him and kept walking. Cooper sighed and followed, with the rest of the cultivators traipsing along behind and muttering complaints about wolves that thought too highly of themselves.

It was a reverse of the morning, with the hike getting easier the further they went. Which was a lucky thing as the sun fully set with no sign of their guide calling a halt. Peering through the darkness, it didn't actually look like the landscape was easier to traverse, but somehow their feet were being guided to the solid patches of ground. Avoiding roots that would have otherwise tripped them, or dips in the ground begging to snap their ankles.

Moonlight filtered down through gaps in the canopy, lining the shadows in a silver radiance that urged Cooper onward, and warned him away from straying into the darkest parts of the wood.

"Cooper, can we please stop for a bit?" Hector's shaking voice broke Cooper out of the trance he had fallen into.

He looked over his shoulder at the rest of the group. His sectmates were holding up, though he could see the day getting to them. Rex was valiantly persevering as well, but he looked miserable. Poor Hector though, he was panting and shivering as he stumbled to a stop.

Before he could reply, the wolf, who had been calmly leading up to this point, appeared next to Hector. The lad jumped and let out a little shriek when he realized. Not reacting at all, the wolf dropped what it was carrying in its mouth next to the skittish cultivator.

It was a fruit of some sort. The moonlight washed away all colors, but it reminded Cooper of a persimmon, soft and bursting with juice.

When Hector made no move towards the object the wolf nosed it even closer.

"Eat it," Gabrielle said. Maybe a bit harsher than was necessary, but Cooper knew she wasn't the biggest fan of camping out, and wandering through the darkness after a fight was adding a layer to her annoyance.

"I, uh, okay?"

Under Gabrielle's baleful glare, and the expectant gaze of the wolf, Hector bit into the fruit. Juice dripped down his hand and chin as his eyes widened. Then he transformed into a beast Cooper recognized from his own teenage years. Nothing else existed but the food in his hand, and devouring it as quickly as possible. Less than a minute later, he looked back up, dazed, but no longer as though he was about to fall over.

"All good?" Cooper asked.

"Yeah. Feel great. Really hit the spot."

He swore the wolf looked satisfied as it trotted back towards Cooper and continued into the dark, a small yip imploring the group to continue. They didn't really have a choice.

***********

It was almost dawn and Leander was lost. A day and a night of fighting through a thick forest had left him turned around to the point where he couldn't say exactly how to get home, unless he pulled out his beacon stone. The simple effect was dampened by the nature mana, but it was still enough to produce a faint arrow, pointing the way home.

He didn't like the feeling. Laurel had promised him it would happen but it had been so subtle at first he hadn't noticed. Air was all connected in some form or another. The better he got at cultivating, the better he could tell, instinctively, which direction the sect was in.

Not here. The Forest was heavy, laying on top of his senses and dampening his connection to the air. It sucked. After his friends got what they needed, he was never coming back here. Not until he was strong enough to cut down any trees that got in his way and fly off if he needed to.

His attention had wavered, and he had to dodge to the side to avoid walking straight into Rebecca's back. Then he pushed his way forward to see why they had stopped. Another clearing, great.

Leander tried to push his mana out to get a better picture and was rewarded with a splitting headache for his trouble. He rubbed his eyes to relieve some of the pressure, keeping his senses pulled in to the area just around his body.

"I think we're here," Cooper whispered.

The rest of the group shuffled forward to get a better look, Leander included, this time with his eyes and not his spiritual sense.

Peachy light was just beginning to fall on the clearing. It illuminated the biggest tree Leander had ever seen. It was tall, way too tall. How had they not seen it from the edge of the forest? The bark was like a painting, with different colors and textures blending together, from the lightest grays to rich browns, to more exotic lavenders and flashes of orange. The leaves were their own rainbow, reflecting the light in a thousand different metallics.

This was something grand enough to rule a forest.

"What now?" Gabrielle asked. Her normal volume shattered the moment somehow, turning his reverence to a more general appreciation for something pretty.

Leander did not appreciate how the tree kept messing with them. Teaching it respect went on his list of to-dos for when he was as strong as Laurel.

Cooper cleared his throat and stepped forward. "Greetings to the Monarch of the Northern Forests."

Nothing happened except wind ruffling the leaves at the very top of the tree. Cooper kept going anyway.

"We have come to seek your wisdom as we walk down our own paths."

More rustling but nothing else. In all the lectures, Cooper had said the trees could communicate, but maybe they weren't doing it right. Or maybe the tree just wanted them to look at it. Rude, considering they had fought rock monsters on the tree's side.

Rebecca drifted up by Cooper, who was still speaking to the tree like a noble at court. Leander took the time to look around. Their wolf guide – the coolest part of the adventure so far – was gone. But they were far from alone. Dozens of ravens lined nearby branches. Squirrels peeked out from their tree hollows. A single owl was staring straight at him, sending shudders down his spine and bringing up memories of his first true battle as a cultivator. Hundreds, maybe thousands of eyes, all locked on to his group. Their beaks and talons glinting in the dawn rays with a promise for what will happen if Cooper had gotten anything wrong.

Leander planted himself facing the flock and away from the tree. If they went for the others, he would be ready.

***********

Cooper ended his pronouncement with a deep bow, which he held for five full seconds. The length was debated in the accounts he had read, but erring on the more respectful side seemed like the best option.

For a long moment nothing happened. Long enough for Cooper to run through everything he had just said and question if he had chosen the right phrasings.

Then he felt something press against his mana. It was entirely alien, pressing down on him with the inevitability of a glacier, uncaring about his short speck of a life but recognizing a favor owed.

Forcing down his natural instincts, he let the presence in. Like a dam removed from a stream, it flooded through him before he had time to react. Every thought he'd ever had, every small whorl of mana in his body was taken over by the Forest Monarch.

Just as quickly as it had come, it was gone. He found himself on all fours, panting as the tidal wave of nature mana retreated, Rebecca sprawled next to him. His friends were looming overhead, keeping them safe, but he couldn't open his mouth to thank them. It wasn't over yet.

The dirt below him twisted and shifted, until a root pushed out, thick around as his wrist. Balanced atop was a single fang. As long as his thumb, he could feel a deadly venom that had seeped into the bone. Times like this threatened the peace he had found with his cultivation. He knew what he had to do. Giving himself no time to hesitate, Cooper plucked the fang from the root, and stabbed it into his arm, dirt and all.

As the poison seared through his blood, so too did the mana press into his meridians. It wasn't the first time he'd injected himself with something deadly, and it wouldn't be the last. But it was the strongest he had ever attempted. The pain never got easier.

Distantly he felt his body spasming as it dealt with the poison, while he wrestled with his mana. Exerting his will over that of the long dead spirit beast, he forced the foreign mana to obey. Instead of rampaging through his mana channels, it was carefully pulled along, slowly assimilating until it was indistinguishable from his own.

**********

Rebecca looked at the pod that had been presented to her. The many, many lectures courtesy of Cooper had made it clear what she had to do, but she still hesitated. Just because she cultivated an aspect of nature didn't mean she was okay eating dirt.

Forcing herself not to think about it, she popped the seed into her mouth and swallowed. Thankfully the pod dissolved before she had to push it down her throat, mana rushing through her body instead. In a place that was not quite real, right behind her heart, the seed took root. Vines grew throughout her spirit, entwined with her meridians both physical and not. It hurt almost as much as that first time. Instead of fire carving channels through her soul, vines burrowed, forcing space where none was meant to be.

She forced herself to breathe. Just breathe. It would be over soon.

**********

The birds had flown off, some towards the Forest Monarch but most back into the regular trees. There was not an animal to be seen as Cooper, Rebecca, and Hector thrashed on the ground behind him. Not that Leander let his guard down for a moment while the others were dealing with whatever the tree had done.

It was Hector who woke up first. Unfortunately. Not that he wanted anything bad to happen but stupid Rex could deal with his brother, who was babbling about being a tree person in a vision.

For his friends, it was only another few minutes before they sat up, gasping for breath.

He looked them both over, but neither seemed worse for wear, even though Cooper had stabbed himself before keeling over.

"It worked," Cooper answered his unspoken question.

"Great." Gabrielle said. She had spent the last hour pacing back and forth, quietly cursing everything from the angle of the sun, to the dirt. Everything except the Forest Monarch, which he was sure they would hear about as soon as they got home. "Now let's get the fuck out of here."