Chapter 732 (2/2)

After getting Naffur to laugh once, the treant produced three stones from its foliage and began to juggle. Its eyes curved into crescents, and its delight in life was wonderful. As it began to dance while juggling, Naffur found himself giggling and clapping.

Clap. Clap.

When he clapped, it seemed like the world clapped with him. Some part of Naffur seemed to detect something strange was going on, but he was savoring the release of this moment to such an extent that it didn’t matter. The world around him flickered until Naffur was standing in a dark room, in front of a huge towering tree.

Its bark was ash and its leaves were one million small torches and it was dancing. Around Naffur, hundreds of people were standing with him, clapping and swaying to the strange music of this tree. The air was hot and heady. It was easy to lose oneself in the deep rhythm of this space.

Clap. Clap.

CLAP.

This time, when Naffur clapped, the ground seemed to rumble with it. Such was the volume that it woke Naffur from whatever strange vision he had just been experiencing. Abruptly Naffur was back to himself, and he belatedly realized that he had dropped all of the flowers as he had been enjoying the treant’s strange dance.

He was obviously suspicious of what just happened but for the first time in weeks… Naffur felt at peace. Whatever had changed had been good for him. So he was willing to overlook a little strangeness.

Bending over, Naffur began to pick up the flowers while the treant awkwardly watched from the side. As he was finishing up his task, Naffur looked up at the treant with a serious expression. “You know, it’s not your fault, right? That you… are on fire on the inside. It’s… it’s like okay, to just be you.”

Immediately after he said something, Naffur flushed. It… wasn’t like him to try and comfort people. Besides, he was talking to an intelligent tree. There was just… something childlike in his mannerisms that really reminded Naffur of some of the smaller kids he had given food to occasionally.

But just like the kids, the treant seemed to hunch over and to be strangely happy at the same time. Mareen-

Naffur winced but followed the thought.

When Naffur had mentioned this strange phenomenon to Mareen once, she had laughed at him and said, “Obviously. Because part of the pleasure is about attention. Everyone has someone that they want to pay attention to them. Just like you do. Just like I do…”

There did seem to be something lonely about the strange treant. So Naffur continued to speak. “I get it. I’m… I’m not who I want to be either. I’m sorta… uh, scared sometimes. But I know that I can change. Obviously, I won’t just change, but… if I act differently… and try my best… someday…”

Strangely, the treant’s face turned serious it nodded. Then it bent down and gently plucked one of the pink roses they had found in the old greenhouse. To Naffur’s surprise, the treant squished the flower between its hands, crushing the stem and petals together in a pile. Then, with exaggerated slowness, it opened its hands.

There was smoke and a flash of light. A fire was ignited. It was brief and hot and then was gone.

But Naffur had also put a lot of Stat points into Perception. So when he watched the fire, he noticed how strangely it burned. It seemed to explode in a flash of light, but then… but then for a split second, it looked like-

The fire gracefully arched upward, like a swan’s neck. More flames ran upwards along the path and slowly gathered at the top end, pooling at the tip like raindrops on the edge of a wide-brimmed hat. When the gathered fire reached a certain point, that fire exploded-

No, it bloomed. Petals of fire opened and light was released that seemed to warm the soul-

Then the light was snuffed out, and there was only ash.

The treant looked at Naffur. Naffur looked at the Treant.

“Holy shit!” Naffur said, “That was so cool! Can you do it again?!?”

The treant beamed at him.