He didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t try to brush it off because that would only spread the moss spores to the surrounding trees. He could try to burn it off, but if he damaged this sapling, not only would he not be able to live with himself, but he would be arrested and faced with the strictest sentence: A forced removal of his pact and placement in a confinement dome. He shivered at the thought. He had to do something. Ouzin instinctively reached for his auto-comm, which of course, wasn’t there. 

“I am a fool! A complete fool!” he yelled and stood up.

 He ran around the perimeter of the clearing, quickly checking to see if any other world-trees had been infected. Thankfully the rest were safe. He returned to the sapling and stretched his hands in front of him. Immediately he felt his powers respond in a way that had already become familiar. He motioned his hands upwards, and a large shield formed around the sapling. He wanted to make sure that a gust of wind or an animal didn’t track the moss onto the other trees. Now he just hopped the shield would hold up as he moved farther away. 

Ouzin closed his eyes and focused on the mana surrounding his body. He hadn’t tried it before, but he needed to float himself upwards and into the canopies. He didn’t know where he would land, but he needed to get to a comm line. His body started moving upwards, but the pace was slow. Ouzin tried to enforce more control over the mana, but he felt his psycor trembling and stopped. A sharp pain ran down the back of his skull. This was his limit. 

At the pace he was rising, it would take him hours, if not days, to get to an inhabited branch. He focused on his powers again. A steady pain began to grow in his head, and his gut clenched, but he continued. Two spheres of light appeared in his hands. He faced his hands down and triggered the spheres to explode. The force pushed him up significantly. 

“Ok, good. That works.” He repeated the process again, and before long, he was making steady progress toward the sky. By the time he entered the lower rungs of branches that made up the canopy, the sky had deepened to indigo, and he was panting uncontrollably.

Finally, he started seeing spots of light in the distance. A few more minutes passed before he was able to land on one of the branches. He had no idea where he was, but most branches were structured in a similar way. The closer to the edge of the branch one was, the less civilization there was, and it was easy to find the center. All you had to do was walk toward the central trunk. He ran as fast as he could, pulling as much power as possible from his pact and the mana around him. Several minutes passed before he spotted houses in the distance. Most of the area seemed to have been allocated for farming, so there were large empty fields with small homes at the center. 

Ouzin ran towards the first one he saw. He was breathing hard as he arrived at the gate. He quickly pressed the doorbell and waited for a response. It was very late, so he hoped they would be awake. Thankfully an answer came immediately. A small cone of light shone from the doorbell, and he knew the owners would see a holographic projection of him. He tried to smooth his hair down, but after crossing the Kroshta desert, and then rolling through the underbelly of the forest, he knew nothing would help make him look decent. 

“Hello?” A man’s voice asked uncertainly.

“Hello, my name is Ouzin he…” he hesitated for a second. Officially his name was still Ouzin Hes Laboneir, but since he’d formed a pact, it would be changed to Ouzin Het Laboneir. 

“My name is Ouzin Het Laboneir.” If the man had a pact of his own, he would most likely notice one in Ouzin as well, and he didn’t want to seem suspicious by not using the correct naming title. “I would like to borrow a comm line, please.”

“You don’t have an auto-comm?” Suspicion was clear in his voice.

“As you can see, I’m a bit roughed up. I lost it during my Trigalan.”

“Oh, I see.” The man’s voice brightened slightly. “This is pretty far from the Kroshta, though. How’d you make it all the way here… I’m pretty sure there are emergency comm stations right on the forest’s edge too.”  

Ouzin groaned. “Right, you’re right. Look, my situation is a bit complicated, but that’s not important right now. I need to report a filen outbr….”

“Filen?! You’ve spotted filen? Where?” he heard the man yelling curses, then the line dropped.

Soon he saw a man running towards the gate. He was tall and at least twice Ouzin’s size in pure muscle. His fur was a bright yellow and slightly curly. He yanked the gate open. Ouzin took a startled step back.

“Where is the fil… oh great Sigark, you stink!” The man reared back, and Ouzin felt a sting from the insult. The fact that it was true, and the man wasn’t just being mean, did not lessen the hurt.

“Yes, sorry…”

“Ahh… yeh… Sorry, the stink isn’t what’s important here. You’ve spotted filen?”

“Yes, but not here, down below. I just need to call the Forest Division and report it.”

The man’s demeanor seemed to both relax and stiffen up at the same time. “Down below?”

Ouzin gulped. “Yes, below, like all the way below. Look, I know I’m not convincing with how I look right now, but please, it’s imperative that I report this as soon as possible. Please just let me borrow your comm.”

“This…umm…” the man folded his arms and stared at Ouzin for a bit. “Fine, but if I find out this is some kind of prank or you’re planning something, you can believe I’ll make you regret it. Understand?”

Ouzin nodded quickly and laid his ears and tail down to emphasize his acquiescence. 

“Let me hear you say it.” The man pushed.

“I understand!” Ouzin replied hair raised slightly with irritation.

The man scoffed and pulled his comm from his pocket. Ouzin took it from him, and the blue light projected the number pad. He hesitated for a second. He had two options. He could either make a regular report and have the local branch of the division come, or he could call his mother directly. Either way, she would end up finding him, based on the report. 

“Are you going to call or not?” the man asked impatiently. His voice was muffled as he had pulled his shirt up to cover his nose.

“I am.” Ouzin mumbled.

He flicked his hands over the keys. The call rang a few times, and he worried she wouldn’t answer a communication from an unknown comm ID. Just as he contemplated ending the call and just going through the regular process, the call connected. Both holo feeds were automatically set to ‘on,’ and so as her face projected in the small holo-beam of the auto-comm, he knew she would be seeing his as well.

He watched her golden eyes widen as she realized it was him.

“Ouzin.” Her voice was the same as ever. Lilting, and not as deep as you’d expect, but empty of all emotional inflection. 

“Hello, mother.” He tried to smile, but it was a futile attempt.

“Where are you? And don’t bother lying. I will have the location of the comm tracked within minutes.” 

She was angry. Even though she sounded normal, Ouzin could tell instantly. He gulped.

“To be honest, mother, I don’t know where I am.” He glanced at the man, who was watching the interaction with interest. “Where is this?” Ouzin asked.

The man shook his head and muttered something about stray kids before answering. “Root tree Rakstin-Himpar. Branch 25. 203 Rimwal acreage.”

Ouzin repeated it to her. She nodded as if confirming something she already knew, and he could see her walking somewhere. “I’ll be there in two hours. Stay put.” She looked like she was about to end the call.

“Wait! I called for a reason… I found a world-tree sapling infected with filen. I’ve contained it in a shield, so the filen doesn’t spread, but the tree needs to be treated.”

Her eyes narrowed slightly. “That’s why you called?”

Ouzin’s eyes widened. The uncharacteristic inflection in her voice made it clear that she was hurt that he’d called not because he wanted to return home but because he wanted to report an incident.

“I…” his voice broke.

“Well, that’s fine in any case,” she interrupted, but she wasn’t looking at him anymore. Her eyes were downcast, and he could tell much more from her voice. “Well done. I’m alerting the division manager of that branch as we speak. They will arrive in ten minutes. Lead them to the site, and wait for me there.” 

The call ended, and Ouzin stared at the dead auto-comm until the man, whose name he still did not know, reached over and snatched it from him. The man made sure to wipe the comm off on his pants before putting it back in his pocket. Ouzin didn’t really care about the man anymore at this point. In just a couple hours, he would have to face his mother, and he still hadn’t sorted out his feelings. He knew that running away had been an impulsive decision, there was no real logic behind it, but the days he’d spent in the forest had meant something. 

He didn’t feel like a new person or anything fundamental like that, but he felt more comfortable with himself. He felt worthy. Yes, he’d made a dumb choice, but instead of giving up, he stuck with it. He’d learned to survive and how to use his powers. He’d seen a sapling world-tree. He’d discovered the beauty of the bioluminescent life in the underbelly of the forest, as well as its dangers. He hadn’t run away from the difficulties. He’d proved his own worth to himself, and that was what really mattered, but now he had to deal with the consequences of the way in which he’d gone about it.