I woke up after what felt like no time at all. I was still in this new body, but much of it was singed, and past the blackened bits was translucent. I could feel that these new hands were still there, but no longer real. I could feel my little bit of Qi I had available draining into them, making them whole again.

  After inspecting myself, I found I was in a new place, but it felt like home, and in front of me was my tree, also still showing the signs of being burnt, but Qi wasn’t flowing into it like is was with my translucent bits. I could feel a tether of sorts, linking this body and the tree body. It was so good to see it again, and I reached to enter it again, and this time it worked without hesitation.

  I felt my leaves, my roots, my branches, my trunk, and with it came the pain of the burns, but muted, healing naturally, but aching in a deep way that was hard to explain. I could feel the fire Qi slowly fading away, I could not tell why it was so disastrous for me. The Qi from that fire was the antithesis of what made up my body, living wood. I knew my body would be fine now, but I could feel my thoughts already starting to slow, I could feel my new sense of self slowly fading back to the old way I was before.

  I new this would truly cause me to die, this place wasn’t enough for my tree. It could sustain it, but no new energy was coming in, I could actively feel the density of Qi lowering in the surrounding, the ground becoming dry, the air stilling. With a sense of purpose, I shifted back to my new mobile form of tree. I looked down and saw my limbs were not healed but growing anew. I may have been in my tree longer than I had though. I looked around the area for anything that would revitalize the space, but it wasn’t very large. A small clearing with little but new body sitting on a flat stone facing my tree. There was a bit of the good light coming from behind, but that was also fading. I needed to fill this place with life, to make it more real to support my tree, else I would die without it, I could feel that was true.

  This new body at least wasn’t entirely crippled anymore, but I didn’t know if the new legs would support me, I could tell that the explosion must have been far more devastating than I had expected. Or maybe it had done nothing and the beast had ravaged me after knocking me unconscious. I needed to leave this place, whatever it was, and get back to the real. I looked around and saw no way to leave. Sitting there, I meditated on the feeling of Qi in the space, looking past all that was visible and felt the slightest hint at Qi, not my own, slowly being pulled in from somewhere. I tried to send my self into that trickle, and lost myself again.

  I slowly came to my senses, and found myself at the bottom of a hole, where my grove used to be. The hole was taller that I was, with blasted out sides that made it look like getting out wouldn’t be too hard. I inspected my body again, and saw that I had heal in the way that dream had show, one hand was still gone, but I had twigs growing in to fill in was was lost. The other hand had what small branches growing to fit the shape of the hand used to have, but there were only three fingers so far. My leg were just two spindly vines that likely wouldn’t be much help getting out of this hole. I tested the mobility of all of my limbs, and found the legs could go any direction I intended them to, but they were far from being strong enough to hold my body upright.

  My single hand was able to dig into the ground, but wasn’t quite strong enough to crush a large dirt clod that had come loose. My other arm might be able to at least stabilize myself, but it didn’t have any kind of useful range to assist with pulling myself up. I got myself into a seated position, and sent my legs forward almost like they were arms themselves. Then I flopped myself forwards onto my chest, I stretched my one good arm out as far as it would go and pulled with just it, I slowly slid across the ground. Getting to as far as my arm could pull, I sat back up.

  I didn’t know if my tree would last long enough for me to make my way out of this hole. So sitting there, I planted my ‘feet’ as deep as they could go into the ground. And tried to pull in Qi from the surroundings. Qi is present everywhere, not that all things are made of Qi, but it flows in what lives, and settles in the unmoving. Its nature is then changed by its surroundings, it was also able to be changed by influencing it with your will, but was slower than finding the appropriate Qi to begin with, or at least a more closely aligned Qi. My makeshift roots found little life Qi in the hole, and the wind was hard to reach. There was an abundance of fire Qi likely from the beast, meaning I had likely destroyed it entirely.

  I pulled in what was available, my body’s antithesis, feeling its heat in my flow within me, and pulled it closer to where my core would have been, and found something odd. This body had no storage, no reservoir of strength, it had a passage, and I followed it. I found myself back in that dream space, sitting looking at my tree. I had pulled along that feeling of the Qi around me, and I could feel I could continue to pull it in while staying here. This energy I was pulling in wasn’t useful till I changed it, told it what I wanted it to be. With a hint of inspiration, I told it I wanted to to become the light of this place. The light that was almost gone entirely. Slowly, and with great struggle, the Qi bent to my will, and the land began to lighten. This was an exhausting process, but I could feel it revitalizing the leaves of my tree.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  I then tried to convince the QI to become the water energy of this place, but it would not budge against my will. It was too apposed to it to begin with, so I instead tried to take away its fire aspect, and return it to base Qi, neutral. This worked, but as I went on, I could feel my body getting warmer and warmer. This was Qi that refused my orders, that was content being of fire. I tried to get it to be the light, and still it refused. I could expel it, but if I did that for too long, it would build up at the bottom of this hole I was in and likely burn me to a crisp. I needed to do something with it. My tree had no fruit I could put it in, but I needed something, I had bought a bit of time, but with the neutral Qi slowly finding its own place in the space, I wasn’t sure what would kill me first, the Qi starvation of my tree, or the fire Qi in my body.

  This place is strange, I can feel everything like it is a part of me, but not physically, something more, more than even Qi. My tree is here, I can feel it hurting, growing and trying to fix all that was the fire ate. This place isn’t enough for it, I need to make it better. I can tell, somehow, that should I wish it, the earth beneath my feet would fade to nothing, or I could make the good light vanish. None of that is what my tree needed, it needs water and more Qi than just what was loosely available. Before that I needed a place that could hold fire. There was little but the stone I sat on. So I removed a hollow from the center, and the stone Qi settled into the surroundings. Holding onto some of what I took, I made a lid to hold in the fiery energy.

  Pulling the energy from my inner self’s body, I put the fire Qi into that hollow, which began to warm the stone. This freed up my energy channels to pull in more from the outside, and continued the process, slowly filling the space with energy. Grasses slowly started to sprout, the ground becoming fertile. My sense time was nonexistent in this state, pulling in, converting, pushing, containing. As time passed, my limbs filled out more, but were still far from whole. The area finally seemed to feel alive, giving my tree time to heal, and time for me to move to safety.

  I looked for that gate again, and found it a bit bigger than before, but was able to pass through it, back into the real. I again tested my limbs, finding they were mostly whole, but smaller than before. I slowly got to my feet, standing shakily, feeling that my legs could barely hold the rest of my body. There was little light left in the sky, but just enough to see by. I got down on my hands and bent my legs for greater stability and slowly made my way out of the hole. What I found hurt on a level the fire never could, most of the other trees had been damaged beyond repair. Leaves missing, singed bark, branches and even trunks, ripped and torn away from their rightful place. I knew there was no saving most of them, the explosion must have truly been devastating. I looked for any of my friends that could be saved with help, and many had already lost their spirituality.

  They were gone, the only beings I had ever known, and I was the one that gave the order. I had no idea this would happen, so I searched. I came across what my instincts informed me was a beast core, filled with a fiery energy energy. I wanted to toss it far away from here for causing all of this. My instincts whispered that it was a item that help no will, only power. So I opened a hole in the branches of my chest and set it inside, and continued to search. I came across some that would be fine, further from the blast, others had been hit by flying objects and received enough damage to kill the tree. Until I found that little plum.

  She was small, new, maybe a few decades old. Half of her was now missing and the others wouldn’t be around to help support her regrowth. So I began to dig, I dug till the sun returned, slowly, meticulously making sure her roots where save. Till I had her free, with the sun beating down on my bark, it almost felt like the fire was burning me again. I began to slowly carry her away, it was a grueling process. I feared I would do more damage than I would help heal. Then I wondered, could I put her in that space with my tree, it would surely make transportation easier. So I tried to pull in the tree, I didn’t feel like it was resisting, but more it had a weight that was its own, and my tree had non, because it was me. I connected a root, to try to communicate with it, but it was far too young for any semblance of though, but I sent at it anyways.

  “Come, I am trying to help, to get healing for others.”

  I couldn’t tell if it was even ready to understand, but I began to give another pull at it, trying to bring it in. I felt it connect, giving a very slight sense of acceptance and then it’s spirit was gone. It died in my arm, right there. I could feel the tree still lived, and I saw, miraculously the tree, began to heal some. The faintest hit of spirit had pushed itself to heal maybe misunderstanding, maybe knowing it was it’s only chance. It had given it’s all for the tree, over the spirit. And with another tug, the tree, almost effortlessly entered the other space and I followed.

  The tree was still weak, so I put it close to my tree, but off to the side, and sent a command for my roots to help it heal, exchange energy and nutrients. The ground came up effortlessly, with little but thought, and the tree was nestled in place quickly. I soon felt the energy in my tree leaving to nurture this new addition to my grove. I then pulled out the beast core and put it in crook of branches in hoped the tree would be able to pull in energy from it. Seeing that the tree would do well, with time, I left the space to look for more. Another day passed, and I found none that could be saved, but there were also plenty of others in the area that could help the more distant trees that received damage. One thing was assured to me though, my grove was gone.

  what do i need to work on first?