“Calm down, Trix,” Ash soothed. “We can rest and regroup somewhere, then gather up what we can sell back the guild, and try for the puma again tomorrow.” The healer was almost in tears that things were not going according to her plan.

Noir poked at Tom’s shoulder. He didn’t care about books about theory and group fighting; he was more interested in getting the job done. “You got a sniffer, right? Can’t you find the puma just by sniffing it out?”

Tom glared at the bigger man looming over him. “I’m not a bloodhound. My skill doesn’t work like that.”

“Guys, I can’t hold the shield much longer,” Trixie warned as she rubbed her ams. “Can’t we find a safe space to wait?”

“I could take them-“

“No!”

Noir deflated at the four simultaneous rejections.

“When we get back, I demand he have a three hour review of the safety manual,” Trixie grumbled. “And he needs to review the standard plays for confronting multiple enemies!”

Ash patted her on the shoulder and nodded. “It doesn’t help,” he informed her stoically. “Believe me. I’ve tried.”

“There was a field down that way,” Tom said, pointing down a deer trail. He slid his shield onto his back but kept his sword out as he eyed the lingering cats. Yellow eyes stared at them from just outside the shield, tails swaying and ears twitching as the cats just sat there and watched, licking their lips, as if waiting for the shield’s duration to end. “I think it was blessed recently, so the monsters should stay out. Not even the cats will follow us if it was blessed. We can regroup there and take some potions.”

Four of the five agreed, so the group made their way down the narrow trail between the trees to the clearing. The grass rose up to their hips, and Noir made sure to scout the area for field slimes and snakes before letting his brother relax. “You’re going to get fleas,” Noir complained as Ash laid down on the ground.

“Right now I don’t care,” Ash complained. “My hands hurt.”

Trixie sat next to him and did a simple healing spell to ease the ache. “What’s so important about leveling up that you have to break the rules and completely screw up our formation?” she asked Noir as she pulled Ash’s head into her lap.

“Formations get broken all the time. Ten, twenty minutes more and we could have drawn out the puma. I wanted to fight that puma so I could level. I need to be a tree again,” Noir said with a straight face and a matter-of-fact tone, “so I need to grow as quickly as possible.”

“Um, is he being real right now, or is this the crazy?” Trixie leaned down to ask Ash in a very quiet voice so Noir wouldn’t hear her. “He knows trees are just trees, right? Like, humans aren’t trees?”

“He’s ‘being real’,” Ash said just as quietly. “Like I said: Dad’s companion snake used to think he was a tree in a previous life and we’ve both been hearing stories about that snake for forever. And then Dad joked one time and told Noir he could evolve if he reached level 100.”

“There is no level 100.”

“I know,” Ash grumbled. “Try telling him that.”

“What’s so great about being a tree? I mean - just - why?” Tom asked.

“Don’t even ask!” Ash hissed, sitting up fast and then wincing as he smacked his forehead against Trixie’s chin. “Oops. Sorry.”

“We should be discussing how we’re going to finish the last of the mountain cats, and find that puma,” Penelope sighed as she sat down, took off a shoe, and started inspecting the inside for a rock. “It’s not safe for us to just charge in there like that again. If Noir hadn’t been right in the middle I could have wiped out ten of those things with a wind cutter.”

“Hey!” Noir complained. “Don’t blame me for that! How am I supposed to swing my thorn if I’m not right up next to the things?”

“Thorn?” Tom asked. “You are crazy, aren’t you?”

Noir grit his teeth for a moment, and then sat down and put his palm on the ground. On the back of his hand were clear claw marks from one of the mountain cats, dripping blood and starting to look puffy red. “Roots,” Noir said, in the tone that indicated he was activating a skill.

A blue glow came out of his palm and spread out through the dirt in thin threads. The wound bled a bit heavier until the blood started to seep into the ground.

Then the cuts started stitching themselves back up.

“You can heal?” Trixie groaned, letting her head fall into her hands. “Why didn’t you say so? I didn’t have to spend half my energy trying to protect you if you could use a skill like that.”

“Because it’s not a healing skill,” Noir said bluntly. “I told you: I’m a tree.”

“Start at the beginning,” Ash complained at his brother. “Tom, sit down. This is going to take awhile. If we’re going to do this might as well do it properly.”

“I started as a tiny sapling-“

“Not there,” Ash scolded. He laid back down, resting his head on Trixie’s thigh again. “Start with the snake bit. We don’t have time to hear about 100 years as a tree.”

“273,” Noir corrected, “but fine. In my second life I was a snake. A tiny little pinecone of a thing, all black and scaled. I opened my eyes one day and knew the body I was in was not one I knew. It was that moment that I realized: 20 hours ago, I died…”

“This sounds made up,” Penelope complained. “If you were a snake, and you just woke up, how did you know how many hours ago you died? That just sounds fake.”

“I’m hungry,” Tom added. “Does anyone have any jerky left? I’ll pay you back after we get back to the guild.”

Noir had a moment where he just stared at the group, mouth wide open, completely baffled that they were not all completely enthralled and entranced by his story. It was a wonderful story - a story of danger and tragedy and magic and death -

This story deserved their attention and he was miffed he didn’t have it.

“I am a magnificent tree who can use the ‘Roots’ skill, as I just displayed,” Noir interrupted. “After I was a tree, I was a snake. Dying as a snake taught me that I am cursed by the God of Death. If you don’t want to be similarly cursed by a god, I suggest you put forth all your best efforts into evolving as well.” The warning drew their attention again. Penelope looked at Noir like he was a silly child, and Trixie couldn’t actually look Noir in the eyes anymore. Tom’s gaze was somewhere out beyond the field, a piece of jerky sticking out of his mouth and swaying as he chewed.

Ash looked like he was halfway to falling asleep.

“Look, we’ll listen, okay,” Tom said after a moment. “We’re all taking a break, what’s the harm in listening to a story?”

“Don’t encourage him,” Trixie hissed. “Haven’t you read about mental illness? You’re not supposed to encourage delusions! We’re supposed to get him safely to a priest to check for curses, possession, and demonic energy!”

“You’re also not supposed to have blue hair, but you managed,” Tom countered.

Trixie winced. It was a low blow. She’d dyed her hair when she was little to impress someone without realizing the change would be permanent.

“Does healing always make you tired?” Penelope asked Ash. She was honestly curious, and honestly didn’t much care about Trixie’s hair color. The petite woman’s hair had been blue so long Penelope couldn’t remember the original shade. The reaction to healing was interesting though. “What if that happens in the middle of a fight?”

“It’s not the healing that made me tired,” Ash said. “I took a gathering job yesterday and it took longer than I thought.”

Noir’s nose twitched. “We’re low on gold?” He hated money with a passion disproportionate to the challenges. Noir and Ash never struggled with coin, and any lack in funds was quickly resolved with a guild task.

“No, I was just bored,” Ash was quick to deflect. Too quick.

Trixie tilted her head curiously at the response, but Noir accepted it without challenge. “Fine then,” he said. “It is time you all hear about the exceptional time I spent learning the ropes of leveling in my past life as a snake. Before I realized what I was, I lived in a hole under an apple tree with a larger snake. It is my suspicion that I was hatched from her egg. That larger snake fed me and kept other monsters away for twenty hours. I know because it was from midday one day until dawn the next,” he said with emphasis, looking directly at Penelope.

She narrowed her eyes at him. “I still don’t believe it, but go on.”

He huffed a bit, tossing his sword point-first into the dirt and then leaning against it as he recited his tale. “Sometime around dawn a human fighter came and the larger snake was cut down. It was at this point I realized I had died before opening my eyes. I was a snake. Before I was a tree. Death was the only explanation.”