I back up to take in the full span of the Guardian Tree.

“Alright,” I murmur. “Where do you start, vine?”

The rainstorm half-melted the thick layer of snow that had blanketed the forest. Good news for me. That should make it easier to find what I’m looking for.

I lap the Guardian Tree, aiming the flashlight at the ground just ahead of my feet. I tread over the blanket of pine needles, pale brown grass, and frozen moss, following the curve of the choking vine until I find the place where it disappears into the forest floor.

I drop to my knees and take a closer look.

I don’t often kill choking vines out in the wild. I know how to, but I won’t do it unless I can concretely identify the vine as an invasive species. I let them be, even though what they do to the trees makes me sad.

Vines like this one drain all of the water and nutrients from the soil, leaving the tree to starve. At the same time, they use the tree as a fast lane up to the forest canopy, where they spread their own leaves above the leaves of the tree. The vine steals the sunlight, smothering its host.

Encasing the tree tightly enough that it chokes and suffocates.

Eventually the tree can’t breathe, can’t grow. Can’t be nourished by the earth around its roots. It dies, toppled and overwhelmed by the weight of the choking vine.

Yeah, this is not my favorite kind of plant. Still, it’s a part of nature, and it deserves respect. The forest knows more about its own inner workings than humans do. Generally speaking, it’s better not to interfere with that. The vines play a role in the ecosystem, even if they have to kill trees to survive.

But there are some trees far too precious to let fall.

I don’t care what kind of vine this is, and I’m not bothering to identify it. I’m only doing a thorough examination so I can figure out the best and fastest way to get this thing the fuck off of Aiden’s Tree.

This is a woody vine, and it’s already climbed high into the Tree, wrapped around the branches. But despite its speedy growth, it's still adolescent, and its wood is soft.

Wood nonetheless, though. This is a job for a machete or a handsaw, and all I have is a pair of secateurs.

Balanced on one knee, I stick the flashlight in my mouth, open my secateurs as wide as they go. I grip the vine with one hand, holding it still. With the other, I use one blade of my secateurs like a knife and cut a slice into the wood. Then another, in the exact same spot, deepening the first cut.

I fall into a rhythm, doing this over and over again.

I make slice after painstaking slice. Wood cuttings drift down from the place where I’m working, forming a small pile on the forest floor. It's slow, strength-devouring work. My wrists and fingers eventually start to go numb, but -

I think I’ve got the vine thin enough.

I fit the jaws of my secateurs around the deep slice I cut into the vine. I close both hands around the grips, and press them together.

The blades sink into the wood, but not through it.

This would work better if I could put my secateurs on the frozen ground and put my heel on the grips, sink my weight into them. I am cutting right at the base of the vine, near the forest floor, but the angle is wrong. I have to do this with my hands.

I squeeze the grips as hard as I can, and the steel blades bite deeper into the vine, but don’t cut through. I shake out my fingers, pull a reinforcing breath into my lungs, and try again.

A stab of pain in my hands makes me look down at them, releasing the secateurs. Red indentations mark my palms, imprints of the grips. I don’t have my gloves to add a layer of protective padding.

I draw back, take the flashlight from between my teeth, and close my eyes, trying to drive my remaining energy into my hands. Thank god Aiden gave me all of his, or I never would have made it to the mountain, much less the woods, much less the Tree…

Aiden found the strength to give it to me, so I could get here. So I could do this.

I think of him, lost in his fear and running on empty. Even like that, he found a way. Found it within himself.

Determination explodes within me like dynamite. I close my hands around the secateurs again and crush the grips together as hard as I possibly can. Every tiny bone in my hands screams in protest. I concentrate everything I have into my fingers, give it all I have left, and -

Feel the wood give, first slowly, then all at once.

I throw myself backwards just in time as the choking vine splits from its stem. Suddenly cut from its anchor, it whips out in a swift, sharp arc. Jagged wood lacerates the air, exactly where my face was two seconds ago.

I’ve fallen back on my elbows, panting. My hands feel like I just stuck all of my fingers into a light socket.

I scramble to my feet, struggling to get my breath back. I recover my flashlight and point it at what’s left of the stem. I cut it high up enough that a few inches still remain visible, rising up from the rich organic blanket of the forest floor. I should be able to find it again, come back later to deal with it. A little bit of diluted, localized herbicide should take care of it.

I turn to Aiden’s Tree. The choking vine, cut away from its roots, is officially dead. But it's still twisted tightly around the trunk, the branches. Still strangling the Tree.

I shake out my throbbing hands, grab my secateurs, and move up close to the Tree.

I make more cuts higher up on the vine, in its thinnest places. The looser pieces of it go tumbling to the ground. I hope that Aiden is getting a breath of air with each one that falls away.

When the loose pieces are gone, I stop, push my hair out of my face with the back of my wrist, and take a second to steady my shaking, worn-out hands. The parts of the vine that have secured themselves tightly to the Tree need to be handled with extreme care.

I don’t want to hurt Aiden. That's the last thing I want in the world.

I’m exhausted to the point that I barely feel coherent, but I begin removing the vine from the Tree with more care, precision, and delicacy than I’ve ever treated any plant with in my life. All the parts of it that I can reach. The vines up in the higher branches will fall down on their own, eventually, now that I’ve cut them from their roots. But I want to take as much weight off of Aiden as possible.

Time and cold and the jarring sounds of the windy forest all fade away. I slip into a deep reverie, all of my focus on my work.

I talk softly to Aiden the whole time. I'm barely aware of what I’m saying, of my own voice. My words are flowing with no breaks in between them.

“Shit, did that hurt? I’m so sorry, babe, I’m being as gentle as I can - hang in there, it’s going to be fine, just breathe, please keep breathing, just give me a little more time, I’ll get this thing off of you…”

I know that Aiden can't hear me, but that doesn't slow me down at all.

I stop for a second to catch my breath, and realize I've cut away every part of the vine that I can reach. I stand back, gazing up at the liberated Guardian Tree.

Then I startle violently as Kasey suddenly appears by my side.

“Jamie,” she gasps, her dark eyes glowing with excitement - “Something happened! Aiden just took a bunch of huge, deep breaths! He didn’t wake up, but - he's breathing so much better!”

And now it’s me who’s too tired to cry. The secateurs and the flashlight go falling from my fingers. I drop my face into my hands, let my heartbeat stabilize for a second before I answer.

“Thank god,” I breathe, my voice thin enough to break. “Okay, I - I’m gonna stay here until he wakes up. I need to wait, in case he needs me to try and get more of the vine off of his Tree.”

Kasey stares at me, wide-eyed.

“You’re gonna stay out here in the woods, Jamie? Alone? In the dark…? You hated doing that even in a tent.”

“I need to stay,” I insist, my voice shaking. “Just in case.”

Kasey bites her lip, then opens her arms. I give her the best approximation of a hug I can give a ghost, and she gives me the best approximation of a kiss on the forehead that she can give a human.

“I’ll come check on you, okay?” she says softly.

I shake my head no. "Stay with him. Please."

I swipe my hand under my nose and step back. Kasey hesitates for one more moment, then disappears.

I turn to face the Guardian Tree, then collapse forward against it, beyond grateful for its continued existence. I wrap my arms around it, then press a few little kisses onto the silvery bark.

This is not an extension of my tree-hugger tendencies. The kisses are for Aiden.

He felt it when I brushed my fingers against the bark the first time we came here together. I hope he feels the kisses I’m sending him now, even though he’s asleep.

Words drift unbidden through my mind, and I let out a sound that’s half a laugh, half a dry sob.

Do they shower down on you in your bed, do you smile in your sleep when they find you…

~~~~

I’m glad that I wore one of Aiden’s warm, cozy sweaters, but I’m still freezing. It’s the dead of night in the middle of a forest in the middle of winter. I’m tucked up against the Guardian Tree with my knees pulled up to my chest, trying to conserve my warmth.

I’m also trying not to fall asleep, because I need to be up and ready if Kasey appears to tell me that Aiden is getting worse again.

He's breathing normally, and I couldn’t be more grateful for that. But the tight, frightened feeling in my heart won’t go away until I hear that he’s awake.

I started out with my gaze roaming all around me, my leg doing a constant, anxious, speedy bounce. Now I’m so tired and cold that I’m staring blankly out at the bottomless darkness of the forest.

Actually - is it starting to get brighter? Dawn can't be about to break already, can it?

I look up overhead and discover that it's the storm clouds that have broken. The stars are out.

I’m struck with a memory as I gaze up at them. All the broken pieces of glass floating through the air at the Ghost Office, pushed out of gravity’s grasp by Aiden’s happiness. The way they caught the light, sparkled and shone. It’s like that, only this is all starshine.

The sweet memory of that night warms me up a little. Still, I need to move around, get my circulation back up.

I get to my feet and do a slow lap of the Guardian Tree, my breath puffing around my face. I reach up to trail my fingers over the lowest of the multicolored leaves, all their different shades of green. I gently press my palms to the silver bark, then stop and lean my forehead against it.

This exhaustion in me runs deep. I’ve never been this tired, never. I have reached beyond what I thought the limitations of my mind and body were, gathered up every atom of strength I found in that previously unknown reserve, and used those up, too. I know that I’ve more than burned through my own energy, that I’m existing on the last traces of Aiden’s.

I rest against the Tree, breathing against the bark.

Then I open my eyes, blinking hard and fast.

I could swear that the Tree is starting to feel warm against my hands. My frozen fingers are unthawing against it.

Does that mean it’s beginning to heal, to go back to normal? But it doesn't normally produce heat, does it? I would remember that, from the first time we came here.

Yet heat is seeping through it, warming me up.

My heart begins to race. Suddenly I’m wide awake again.

“Aiden?” I whisper. “Are you-?”

I gasp and whip around as Kasey materializes next to me, grinning from ear to ear.

“Come on home, babe,” she says.

I stare at her, my brain processing everything in slow motion. “Is he-?”

“Yep.” Kasey beams at me. “He woke up. Only for a few seconds, and then he fell asleep again, but. He’s okay.”

“He’s okay,” I repeat, and Kasey nods, her smile shining through her eyes.

I sag back against the Tree, then slide down it all the way to the ground. I land hard on the forest floor.

“Jamie?” Kasey is kneeling in front of me, but I can only see in blurs. “Oh my god, are you-?”

“I’m fine,” I hear myself answer. “I just - need to... to close my eyes for a second...”

I can distantly hear Kasey saying something, but I have no idea what. To my exhausted body, the frozen earth somehow feels incredibly soft, lined with velvet. I may as well be on a cloud.

“You said he’s okay, right?” I mumble, my own voice sounding very far away. “Aiden is okay?”

I hear the word yes in Kasey’s response, and with that, the last ember of my energy burns out.

I let out a relieved, happy little sigh, and everything goes dark.

~~~~

The soft chirping and twittering of birds draws me out of my sleep.

I stir against the forest floor. My face is resting against something that feels like grass, and there’s a bright, sweet scent in my nose.

I blink my eyes open, then sit up slowly, staring around in confusion.

The forest is dripping with brand new, early morning sunlight. The dewfall has turned to frost, icy droplets frozen on every pine needle, every branch. The sunshine refracts off of it, turning it into a dazzling, glittering spectacle. 

The leaves of the Guardian Tree dance gently in the cold breeze above me, speckling me with pale sunlight. All around me, everything speaks of winter.

But I’ve woken up feeling cozy warm, nestled in a soft bed of wildflowers.

It doesn’t extend in a sweeping circle around the Guardian Tree. It doesn't extend anywhere else, actually. It’s only around me.

The Heliomancer found a way to keep me warm, through his Tree. So warm that sleeping life woke up and blossomed all around me.

I let out a gasping laugh, stagger to my feet, and go flying through the forest, running back to my Companion Plant.

~~~~

I stand beside my bed for a long time, just looking at him.

He no longer looks like a man knocked unconscious. He’s breathing slowly and deeply, snuggled up beneath the blankets. A sheaf of glossy chestnut hair spills down over his eyes, but I can see those dark eyelashes resting peacefully against his cheekbones, see that there’s color back in his face. The sunshine from the open window dusts his bronze skin with golden light, but he has a healthy glow even without it.

He lets out a soft sigh in his sleep.

The love in my heart burns hotter than a lake of lava.

I’m still fully dressed, even wearing my mud-caked shoes. The closest thing I’ve had to a shower in days was getting drenched in yesterday’s downpour. The blondish-red stubble on my face is starting to grow thick. I have earth and mud marking my face and hands and clothes. Dew and stray leaves clinging to me.

I don’t care. I drop to my knees on the mattress and go crawling to Aiden.

Without waking up, he moves to wrap his arms around me. He gently pulls me closer until I’m up against his body, gathering me into his warm, protective embrace. He had my flannel balled up in one massive hand, but he lets it go to give me a tender little cuddle. The heat of his fingers seeps through my jacket to my back.

I press my face into the warm muscle of his chest. I listen to his calm, steady heartbeat.

The joy in me is something else. Elemental. Cosmic.

I fall asleep in a matter of seconds. Back where I belong, held in Aiden’s arms.